[Gaming] Elder Scrolls 5 - Dawnguard is HERE!

Okay the random vampire attacks are really annoying.

You walk into town to watch civilians getting slaugtered by vampires and death dogs. Riften lost half it's population in one attack before I even realized what was happening.
 
So, I haven't played Skyrim since I got my new PC parts and changed shitty harddrives and as such, all my save games are gone. How do you know when and where Dawnguard starts, I'm level 5, people know I'm Dovahkin, where do I go to start the DG stuff?
 
So, I haven't played Skyrim since I got my new PC parts and changed shitty harddrives and as such, all my save games are gone. How do you know when and where Dawnguard starts, I'm level 5, people know I'm Dovahkin, where do I go to start the DG stuff?
Well I got on a level 17 character of mine, and the quest started when I walked by a guard in Whiterun and they said something like "Oh man these vampire attacks are getting worst, we need the Dawnguard." and then the text appeared on screen and the quest in my log.

P.S. If anyone is thinking of starting a new character for Dawnguard, I highly recommend Alternate Start - Live Another Life.

Instead of starting the normal way, it starts you in a random room with a statue. The statue lets you choose either the original opening or a large amount of new starts. Some examples I have tried...

A soldier in the army - you get to choose either Stormcloak or Empire, and it will load you directly into the factions main city next to the commanders.

A new member of a faction - puts you right into the faction of choice open to the starting quests, Companions, College, Thieves, or Brotherhood were the main options.

An owner of property in the holds - lets you choose any of the player houses or a random farm, so you start with the house of your choice and can adventure from there. Choosing the farm does not displace the people living there, but you can sleep there anytime and the farmer even gives you money from his profits.

A vampire hiding in his lair - starts you as a vampire waking in a small vampire hideout as the sun is going down outside.

A few other options are simple ones, like you just landed on one of the city docks to start a new life, were camping out near Helgen when Alduin attacks it, or are just a random guy traveling from tavern to tavern. You could be a guy in a shipwreck, a guy left for dead after a giant attack, etc... I even noticed a special one if you play an orc, that allows you to start as a member of one of the orc strongholds.

They also have some for special factions, like new Stendarr recruit, a Necromancer, or even a outlaw at a bandit camp that has decided your group is not getting you enough money. All of them tie into Helgen and have you go there, which allows you to start the main questline anytime. It's really well done.
 
You have to be level 10 for it to start as I learned. And yeah, live another life is rad. Just don't couple it with Skyrim Monster Mod or you will never make it to Helgen on anything but the easiest setting.
 
So, playing Skyrim again has made me come to a realization I can't believe it took so long to come to. Dragons in Skyrim are a mixture of the tedium of closing Oblivion gates (especially when they do everything possible to avoid fighting you....which is still fucking aggravating) in Oblivion and the irritating random attack from aboveness of the cliff racers from Morrowind. It's like they combined the worst features of the last two games into one irritating package.
 
The difference is that you only -needed- to close a few Oblivion gates in Oblivion. It was perfectly possible to avoid most of them and you really only needed to do it if you wanted those awesome enchanting stones. Dragons, on the other hand, could show up in a major town and basically force you to fight them, lest you risk losing quest giving NPCs/Shopkeepers in the assault.

Basically, a dragon can force you to fight them just by virtue of being there and there can be consequences for not doing it in certain situations. Oblivion Gates can not.
 
I like the dragon attacks as an exciting surprise, but I won't deny that playing the game without starting the main quest is less stressful. I don't know how a giant flying fire-breathing lizard can sneak up on me without a sound until it actually crashes two feet behind me... but they can do it.
 
Like I said, mixture of Oblivion gates and the fucking cliff racers. You just described their awful cliff racer tendencies.
 
Played Skyrim for the first time since June. Didn't mean to play for six hours... what's funny is how little I get done. I just love wandering this world too much. I completely quests only incidentally. There were no goals. The only rule was that if I stumbled into a troll lair, I had to go werewolf and flop them around with my big sweaty paws.

Only saw one dragon. He ran away. He fears my wolfy sweat.
 
I used mods, I either had them appear with a long in-game time interval or I simply just turned them into sweet rolls.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
The last time I played Skyrim, I had an irritating problem with just about every single dragon just circling me a few times then flying away, while I stood there on the ground with sword and shield yelling OH COME ONNNNN! MAAAAAAANN.....
 
So, playing Skyrim again has made me come to a realization I can't believe it took so long to come to. Dragons in Skyrim are a mixture of the tedium of closing Oblivion gates (especially when they do everything possible to avoid fighting you....which is still fucking aggravating) in Oblivion and the irritating random attack from aboveness of the cliff racers from Morrowind. It's like they combined the worst features of the last two games into one irritating package.
My memory is a bit foggy on Morrowwind, but didn't pretty much everything in that game sneak attack you?
 
The problem with Cliff racers was that...

1.) They were EVERYWHERE.

2.) The fighting system in Morrowind was skill based, so you could miss something you should have hit.

3.) Even if you attacked where they WERE, Cliff Racers had odd hit boxes so it was actually pretty easy to miss them.

4.) It was never just ONE Cliff Racer, it was usually 2 or 3.
 
Oof, new realization. The Soul Cairne is the Fade of Skyrim. That place suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.
 
The last time I played Skyrim, I had an irritating problem with just about every single dragon just circling me a few times then flying away, while I stood there on the ground with sword and shield yelling OH COME ONNNNN! MAAAAAAANN.....
Should've tried "come at me, bro". Dragons can't resist.
 
I just use a shout at them if they are circling. I don't always hit, but it works better than archery. Man, I hate trying to hit a moving target in this game. Dragons are bad, but casters are worse. Last night I took a shot at a Vampire while I was hidden. When the arrow was halfway there, he jumped to his right about 40 feet.
 
Man, I forgot how much I love Skyrim. I haven't even gotten to the dawnguard content yet (new character) and I'm already enamored again.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Man, I hate trying to hit a moving target in this game. Dragons are bad, but casters are worse. Last night I took a shot at a Vampire while I was hidden. When the arrow was halfway there, he jumped to his right about 40 feet.
Heh, at least that's somewhat true to life... it's hard to hit a moving target even with a gun, much less a bow. I'll take preternatural arrow dodging over headshots that go "THWOCK! - What was that noise? Oh, guess it was nothing" any day.
 
Heh, at least that's somewhat true to life... it's hard to hit a moving target even with a gun, much less a bow. I'll take preternatural arrow dodging over headshots that go "THWOCK! - What was that noise? Oh, guess it was nothing" any day.
Leading my shots as a sniper in borderlands has made me much better at shooting running elk with a bow in skyrim
 
Top