/games/ - Games

>>30063
Did you get hit by a pang of happiness over your accomplishments but a sudden feeling of sadness knowing you’ve both beat the game and it’s fan made content? I felt that after beating the base game and every dlc of new Vegas, and then completing the bounties mod.

>>30063
can you give a synopsis of the mod from your pov and what you liked about it? i havent touched skyrim in years but im willing to be sold on it

>>30075
>>30066
I felt a pang of both happiness and sadness having finished the mod but more due to the content of the mod, it's story and themes. I've played Skyrim and beat it over and over so many times over the years that i don't think I feel anything much regarding vanilla. Besides im not done yet beating the game on this character/playthrough since before trying Beyond Reach again I'd been playing through Vigilant (for the nth time) and Glenmoril (for the first time) and now will try Unslaad for the first time, all mods that inspire feelings of sadness, loss, melancholy, etc.

>>30075
Beyond Reach is a new lands mod which adds an additional world space to the west of Skyrim in the province of High Rock, specifically it's east which consists of the Kingdom of Evermore which lies across the Western Reach (coressponding to Markarth's eastern Reach) and part of the High Rock lowlands running along the Bjoulsae river. It's large and full of content at a level comparable to base Skyrim though the content quality is certainly above vanilla level.

The world-space is meticulously designed to a very high standard and polished to a good level (maybe short of mods like Beyond Skyrim: Bruma but that's a very high bar), with beautiful and distinct environments, music, NPCs, custom armours and weapons, spells and enchantments, building models and so on.
The mod contains 3 major settlements plus numerous smaller hamlets, dozens of varied dungeons to explore and dozens of quests, alongside a very well-written main questline. The mod is almost full voiced with 80% of the voice acting being of a good quality and the remaining being acceptable. There are some unvoiced character and lines that are still being worked on as I understand but it doesn't affect the enjoyment much for me.
The mod's writing and worldbuilding is excellent and the standout feature of an already very well-rounded project. If you're familiar and interested in elder scrolls lore, it's metaphysics and cosmology then i recommend the mod all the more as it engages with it at length, but while keeping itself grounded to gritty reality throughout. It is for the most part lore-friendly with the exception of some things contradicted by ESO which only came out after the mod so it's understandable.

The story and lore of the mod itself is compelling and written from a marxist perspective, class and class struggle is suffused in the world and the characters, NPCs are not postmodern liberals with liberal ideas common of fantasy rpg character writing, but are generally fully class conscious and aware of their class interests and enemies. The mod deals with themes of the decay of feudalism, dynastic politics, nascent mercantile capitalism, poverty/the underclass, peasant rebellions, class and racial hatred, slavery, genocide and the aftermath of failed revolutions ie. fascism/Salo.

It's themes are dark and it has a melancholy tone of a broken and dying world (which i think is generally the right one for the elder scrolls) choking in it's own filth and corruption. It's pretty explicit, there's a lot of gore and blood, rape and murder. It is full of deranged daedra worshippers, depraved aristocrats, rapacious knights, pedophile priests, vengeful poor, schemeing merchants, weak gods and powerful demons. And throughout a scattering of weary, well-meaning individuals who are nonetheless complicit in upholding an evil status quo. It's a great piece of the game world to get lost in, explore and experience all in all.

So if you do decide get back into Skyrim I certainly recommend it, but be warned the quest initiates at level 5 but I would recommend a more leveled and better equipped character as the difficulty and enemies can be very challenging at low levels. In this playthrough I went in at level 40ish i think and finished reaching level 50. Also especially if you do like Elder Scrolls lore and it's metaphysics also play the VicN trilogy (Vigilant - Glenmoril - Unslaad) if you haven't already, Glenmoril isn't quite finished but I don't regret playing it in it's current state and will definitely play it again once it's completed.
Finally if you want to experiece the feeling of playing Skyrim fresh as if for the first time I strongly encourage anyone to play Enderal, a total conversion mod which effectively replaces Skyrim altogether with a whole new game not set in the elder scrolls world, with design, quests, worldbuilding and plot far above anything Bethesda has ever come up with, and an amount of content befitting an AAA game release. It's available for free on the Steam store if you own Skyrim and one of the best games I've ever played. (Also if you have and love Oblivion like I do, play Nehrim, the previous installment to Enderal which is also very good imo)

>>30085
Seems like the kind of Skyrim mod I would enjoy. I finished Moonpath to Elsweyr and almost completed Project AHO before and kinda want to get started with another mod on the next playthrough and something more grounded and serious like this is a good choice. Any other quest mods you would recommend besides this one and Vicn's trilogy?

>>30471
I haven't played moonpath to elsweyr in years and at the time it seemed fairly bland (though it was an early quest mod) and as far as I know it's now a part of the Legacy of the Dragonborn mod which I haven't played yet though am interested in doing, just not right now as I understand it requires a new save.
Not played Project AHO either so got to put that on my list as it sounds cool.

As for other mods I'd reccomend Beyond Skyrim: Bruma if you haven't tried it before, the intitial offering/teaser of the Beyond Skyrim: Cyrodiil project which is still pretty sizable and fun.
Wheels Of Lull is pretty good though I had some issues with it, but if you like esoteric lore and fighting Thalmor I'd reccomend it.
Grey Cowl of Nocturnal is pretty neat, but wasn't that memorable for me.
The forgotten city is very well reputed although it didn't impress me all that much either.
Finally gotta reiterate that almost nothing beats Enderal, heartily reccomend giving it a try.

>>30473
Moonpath was obviously meant to be beginning of a much bigger mod that would encompass the city of Dune and other parts of Anequina, but.the development died down and so it only got Tenmar,, small bits of desert land and the airship. Sad, but the only working Elsweyr expansion project now is the Elsweyr part of Beyond Skyrim.

AHO is cool as it centers around Telvanni, the Dwemer and the Telvanni's attempts to understand their technology. Not gonna spoil much, but I there is a lot of references to various lore concepts that the modders utilize to build their own thing. The only thing that saddened me is that there is not much stuff to do besides the main batch of side quests and **that you cannot help the slaves in any path you choose.*

Legacy of the Dragonborn is kind of a trophy room/museum mod that grew out into an archaelogy and exploration mod as far as I understand. Not sure what it really entails aside from building item collections, but there seema to be a questing component to it.

Grey Cowl is already on my list as well as Beyond Skyrim, but I did not get to them yet. Got to do them as soon as they become available for my character. Not sure about Forgotten City though.