Rastas - Now a Vampire Lord

Hunting down some vampires on the Dawnguard questline I found myself in a situation where I was offered a chance to become a Vampire Lord. I didn't like the idea of this, but the situation where you get the offer could have meant that I was destroyed by multiple foes. I didn't have the guts to reject the offer and now here's the result.

Yep, that's Rastas. Not happy about the transformation at all. Hoping it can get reversed somehow. Obviously, the people that may know how to do this are the Dawnguard, yet I don't really want to turn up to them like this they'll hunt me down.

Hmmmm....

Rastas - Level 60 Permadeath

Had a fight with an Old Orc and tanked him for quite some time to get my blocking skill up high enough to hit level 60.

Check out this awesome screen shot of Rastas. I've been enjoying the roaming camera quite a bit.

Level 58 - Master Assassin

Another productive session on last night.

Took out a dog fighting ring near Riften and also cleared out Honeyside for the thieves guild. Additionally, found and joined the Dawnguard and have my first mission with them.

I got interested in taking some nice screen shots as well and discovered that you can essentially unlock the camera view using the console.

Basically you open the console by using the ~ key.

You then type

tfc 1

This turns on the roaming camera. The game pauses and lets you roam around using the ASDF keys and you can position the camera to get the perfect shot. I was surprised just at how detailed things could get doing this.

Opening the console once more and typing

tfc 0

Will turn the feature off again and revert the game back to having locked to your character.

Apparently the command tm will remove the HUD and give you a nice clean clutter free camera shot. I haven't tried this as yet.

I bound these commands to my MMORPG Razer Naga mouse to the side buttons using the macro feature. I can now see something and quickly get the camera feature activated, take a good picture, and then turn the feature back off and snap back into the game.

I noted that this command can be used as a cheat as you can use the free camera roaming ability to look around corners, and scope out a place before you actually go there. I certainly will not be doing anything like that. I am simply using the feature to get screen good screen shots. If anything, the distraction could end up fatal if I stupidly try and look for that perfect opportunity to take a snap shot rather than my health getting damaged.

Here's three samples of what I captured last night.

Picture 1 shows Rastas drawing back the bow and aiming it down a road. I like this as the level of detail is simply amazing. You can see the bow string, the position of the fingers drawing the bow back, even the position of his eye.

Picture 2 shows Rastas in his full glass armour inside the Dawnguard citadel. I'll look to get a better pic of this with the HUD off perhaps at a more scenic location.

 

Picture 3 shows Rastas assassinating some poor bandit in a cut scene death. Note the blistered skin on the face of the bandit. This comes form a mod called "Burn Freeze Shock Effects v3.3" A very nice mod which obviously does what it says on bodies. The flame burning this poor man has made him nice and crispy. Note also the blood spray out. Cut scenes deteriorate the high definition graphics due to the way the work. Using the roaming camera here with my macro'ed mouse buttons simply pauses the game. I can't reposition the camera. I'll try and get a cleaner shot of this type of cut scene where I remove the shield and it can get in the way of a good pic.

Level 57

Reading books is good. Rastas had stockpiled a great many to use later to help level skills later when they really counted for more rather than earlier when they were easier to gain.

Now was the time to use them. It's slow going levelling, but with the amount of books, and some training, level 57 has been reached. Furthermore, level 58 is really not that far away either due to the over supply.

The skill point went into Speechcraft. I can now pay 500 gold to a vendor and they end up getting more money to use each day. This pays back almost instantly. One of the problems that Rastas has, is selling off loot. He simply has accumulated too many things and it's difficult to cart them around to sell off.

Additionally, I've gone now for an all light armour build. My heavy chest armour was sold off for 12,000+ gold which was good as it helped level Speechcraft further. While light armour is not worth anywhere near as much financially, it's still pretty awesome and has the same bonus's.

Apparently the armour cap is 567 rating. Anything over this is a waste. With shield on, I go over, with shield off, I go under. Next level I might spend one more point in light armour to get the 25% bonus for having a set of glass armour and that should put me over, even with a bow, without a shield.

All physical damage will be reduced by 80% which is very handy.

Permadeath is still good.

It's been a long, long time since I posted an updated on my permadeath experience with Skyrim.

A number of things had happened in real life which put it down the priority list. Work, a major expansion release in LOTRO and some significant hardware upgrades on my PC along with some OS rebuilding meant that it took a back seat to all the other things happening in my life.

I'm pleased to say though, I'm ready once more to continue, this time on a far more powerful gaming system. I'm playing on Ultra settings, with a 4gb graphics card (2 x 2gb in Crossfire configuration), plus I have a new on board PCI-E SDD drive which is simply lightening quick.

As Skyrim is a Steam game, I had to figure out how to link the folder on my old style mechanical drive, to the new SSD drive and make Steam unaware that the physical files weren't in the location that it thought they were in. Mklink was my friend :)

Additionally, with some recent Steam sales I picked up Dawnguard and the other minor expansion for house building on PC so I now have new content to explore which I know nothing of.

First logon to the game in many months was successful. Hardware upgrade, Steam reinstallation, reinstallation of all the mods etc, is completed without issues....yay!!!

It took some time to reacquaint myself with the controls. Running around on top of some battlements I was practicing jump and jumped over a big hole which would have been the death of me if I'd botched it. I only just made it over too....and I kind of had a reality check.....this is permadeath, don't be an arse and do stuff like that! You'll blow 56 levels of careful work.

So with the re-install, and a patch that had since come out while from my last post I was pleased to get a letter from the Jarl in Falkreath. I'd been doing a lot of work there, in the hope I'd be a Thane, but something had happened which stopped the Jarl from talking to me. Obviously, something in the new patch, or perhaps the expansions has realigned the Jarl and he felt it his duty to write me a letter and welcome me back. I of course, made my way straight there.

He mentioned some problem with some bandits. I needed to kill them off. I'd done this on other play throughs but had never become a Thane in this hold. I accepted and set off to kill his enemies.

The controls and feel of the game seemed strange to me after being so long away from it. I wasn't able to travel to the location directly so went to the nearest ruin. Once arrived, I was immediately set upon by foresworn. Great....not willing to take any risk here with being overrun while struggling to get my rhythm back, I potted and invisibility potion and backed away.

I stumbled across a wood elf, very suspicious.....I did a test shot nearby and he instantly turned hostile and started looking around for the person who shot the arrow. Not wasting my advantage, I plugged away at him, but he kept advancing.....hmmm....I thought I had god mode by now....

He started using magic, looked like some protection or healing spell. I rained arrows into him and eventually had him begging for mercy. Beg all you want Wood Elf, but today you die. I shot him in the neck and that was the end of him.

Not sure what his story was, maybe he would have tried to rob me if I got near enough. Oh well, he clearly was not friendly.

I moved on further up the valley and encountered a bear which I one shotted. Now that's more like it. Btw, the time was 2am so perfect for some sniping.

Finally, I've come upon the bandit outpost. I've got into a nice position in a very dark shadow and taken out the lone guard that was keeping watch. Beautiful shot through the night, poor guy didn't know what hit him.

Working my way up onto some rocks overlooking the wall I spotted another victim. Two arrows to dispatch him, and this time his friend was alerted. He gave up looking for me, turned around, and whack, an arrow hit him in the chest and finished him off too.

The bandit camp was now empty. One doorway to a mine was the only other place the bandit leader could be hiding. I've snuck in and could immediately hear the guy talking about how he was thinking about getting into town and paying off his bounty so he could live a free man. The fool, he has crossed forces he could never even comprehend. The mine had some beautiful shadows where I was able to carefully take my aim and shoot into him.

Twas a beautiful shot, with a cut scene and everything. The arrow went through a gap in his heavy steel armour and almost went right through him. The flame damage from the bow lit him up from the inside out and he crumpled to the ground dead in one deadly shot.

That was it for the first session since a large break. It was quick, but it was a lot of fun. I think next session I'll spend my time doing easy quests and getting the feeling back. Then it will be time to take on some of the more risky stuff again. I hear Dawnstar is about Vampires….shudder…those guys are very tough.

Level 56 - God Mode.

The balance of the game has been skewed to the point where it really does feel that I simply can not die. I know better though. The game can quickly turn and within a few seconds, I'll be dead, probably with that surprised look on my face as I topple over.

I feel that this over confidence is going to be my downfall.

The tactic that Rastas is using is either a stealth bow shot, or a sneak up and critical strike with 30 x backstab damage. Not many things withstand the first hit.

There was one recent point where it was touch and go. Roaming around the wilderness I spotted a battle tacking place in the middle of the night between some sort of wizard and a bear. It didn't last long, but I had positioned myself in the shadows of an overhang and waited. Sure enough, the wizard walked towards me. I had my dagger ready for a nice backstab. This is the ideal way to kill magic users, don't even give them a chance to fire off their magic.

As the wizard walked closer, the eye indicator for stealth opened right up and before I knew it I'd been spotted. It was night, I was in shadows, I have muffle spell on my boots, I have a stealth rating of 100. How? Well, it turned out what I was waiting for was actually a Volkihar Master Vampire.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Volkihar_Master_Vampire

My health evaporated under some blistering spells. It was all I could do to keep my health high enough and not get taken out. I thought about engaging, but I was burning through health and stamina potions like mad. I ended up doing the sensible thing and just running for it. This thing seems to have infinite mana. It was destroying me. I ran down a rocky hill in the middle of the night and was lucky not to have fallen to my death. I finally got rid of it.

During my most recent session I completed the quest Waking Nightmare. I must say, the Daedric whispering orders into my ear has a high appeal. I know what they want is wrong, but still, acting out what they want feels good. That Erandur was deceitful and had it coming in my opinion.

Level 51 - 100 ranking in Alchemy

Things are shaping up well, levelling has slowed considerably though, and I need those skill points badly.

I'm way to craft heavy.

Alchemy now has 100 skill point ranking, and I've invested in 5/5 to make the most powerful potions.

My time is now spent trying to sell off the massive stockpile of potions I've made, and then finding/buying components to make potions of enchantment, Daedric weapons, grand soul gems, and enchantments.

I alsmost have a complete set of Alchemy and Smithing clothes that give a 29% boost to their respective skills.

My last potion of blacksmithing potion I made gives a 130% increase to smithing skill which I believe is the highest possible amount.

My gear needs to be upgraded now both with Smithing and Enchantments. Once this is done, I'll be protected well for most situations. I still have a big fear of magic users, one shot traps, and orcs with two handed weapons.