This post is a double hitter. First thing’s first, though. I’m back in the world of Skyrim after just over two years. There’s two reasons why I did. The first one is rather interesting. I was hearing a bird outside my window IRL, which sounded a lot like one of the ambiance birds in Skyrim. Like it was “the call of Skyrim’.
The second reason, I had interest in these two DLCs; ‘Dawnguard’ and ‘Dragonborn’, but was unsure if they were worth the money. Seeing how they’re DLCs, the main questline would be 1/4 shorter than Skyrim’s. Yet I was also reminded via my own blog post about getting Skyrim, that I paid full price for it due to the hype. So, why shouldn’t I do it again for these two DLC’s?
There is a 3rd DLC called ‘Hearthfire’, but it’s a joke (allows you to build a house in specific plots of three locations) and it should be free instead of costing $5.
Anyway, I just wanted to get back into the game, to get a feel for the controls.
I’ve completed my 5th playthrough(since buying this game), and been going to some of the Word Walls. Recently, I’ve discovered more main Companions quests that I didn’t do. These are after becoming a werewolf, and destroying the Silver Hand.
Bad thing was, I couldn’t cure having this form. I read if you get all of these witches heads, that eventually you would get a quest to help cure these two guys, and yourself. But I kept on getting repeat quests of saving a hostage, killing a criminal, and scaring a person.
Fed up, I went to the console and Google to remove it. Finally found what I was looking for, and cured my Lycanthropy. So that’s all good.
I’ve also been to areas I’ve never seen before, like the far west corners of Skyrim, near the Skyrim/Morrowind border. That was quite an adventure.
I’ve also noticed, of completing the main quest, I never once encountered a Blood Dragon. And now I know why. Dragons are based on your level. You don’t see Blood Dragons until you’re Level 25 and up. Same goes for weapons and armor; they’re scaled to your level. It answers why I’ve seen very little in Ebony-based weapons. Though I am now, since I’m leveling up.
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Now, we talk about the DLC ‘Dragonborn’. I question why Bethesda didn’t put in any DLC hints into the game when they made it. Maybe they didn’t have any ideas of DLCs at that time? Don’t know.
Anyway, since I’ve watched a Youtube video walkthrough series of said DLC, I wasn’t really surprised of the outcome of it. But I’m not bothered by spoilers, unlike other people.
I will say this. I’m sure this DLC is confusing for people who never read what this thing is about. When I got the DLCs installed and the game running, I was in my house in Whiterun, preparing to go to Windhelm to get on the boat to Solstheim. No sooner than 5 seconds did I go out the door, I was approached and attacked by the Mirrak cultists. A person who hasn’t seen anything about the DLC, I’m sure will be all “What the hell happened?! Who were those people?? And what did they mean about me being the “false Dragonborn”?
Even while playing, acting like I totally don’t know the main questline and the outcome of it beforehand, I didn’t really know who Mirrak was. Only that he turned against his dragon overlords as one of the Dragon Priests, and they sacked his temple in rage for it. And now somehow he’s alive and not undead like the current priests, and has Dragonborn powers like you do, but more advanced ones.
It makes me scratch my head, as to why wasn’t I given the option to ask the Graybeards about Mirrak? Seeing how they’re all-knowing about The Way of the Voice, perhaps they might’ve known how Mirrak became Dragonborn. Couldn’t even ask Paarthanux, who probably would know due to once being Alduin’s right wing about Mirrak’s betrayal over the dragons.
In any rate, I found out how much of a douche Mirrak really is. He deliberately tries to piss you off, stealing your dragon souls. Not cool bro. From that playthough I watched, he only stole them from a few dragons that you killed, and you were able to get the others. But this asshole showed up every time I killed a dragon! D:< You can't believe how enraged I was when I could finally kick his ass for this.
Also, I thought I could kill him when he was doing his soul steal thing to regen his health. He uses the Become Ethereal shout, where I can't attack him. He just seems to be able to spam shout, just like I can(cheats FTW). But when I got his soul, I got a smirk on my face. No one kill steals my dragon souls and gets away with it.
I mean, screw saving the world. You steal my souls, you die. 😛 And I wonder if this is the way Bethesda wanted the player to feel. Thankfully, I noticed that you get all the souls he stole from you. So, sweet justice.
Moving on, the best thing EVER is now possible! Odahviing tries to come to your aid when you use Call Dragon, right? So I thought, what if I was to combine this with Bend Will and actually fly on him? And it’s possible to do so! But, I’ve also learned what people hate about the feature. You can’t actually control the dragon.
I’ve also learned why the feature wasn’t in the dragon riding mechanic. They(Bethesda) based this off of if you had a crappy computer, they don’t want to hear you whine about you crashing if you do this. Yet this also ‘punished’ people with good computers who could had taken the abuse and smiled.
Fortunately, this is why we have a modding community. And I found two things that give this feature for people that want it. The main thing is this, called “Command Dragon – Ultimate Dragon Riding”. Now, it’s not perfect, but it finally gives you control over the dragon. Key features is flying, turning, grabbing a target off the ground, and landing on a structure.
One issue I’ve seen, you can’t control the dragon’s altitude. It seems to like flying low to the ground. Perhaps this is normal (or I’m basing this too much from WoW’s flying mounts). Also, controls are a bit of a mess. I’ll be all “Ok, go forward. .. Going a bit to the left, turn right.. NO! RIGHT, DAMNIT! I didn’t say divebomb/turn left!” Also, since Odahviing is still coded to assist the Dragonborn, he will randomly attack a target while trying to control him, even when you don’t tell him to attack.
The second thing is a much, much wanted “fix” to the turning thing of you wanting the dragon to fly to a certain point(and will stop Odahviing’s auto-assist coding), without you doing it. It’s not a mod. It’s a command that you can put into your Skyrim.ini. What it does, is custom waypoints you place, can now be fast traveled to, but only when on a dragon.
The thing is, it uses the coding of the above mod so when you fast travel, the dragon doesn’t teleport, but will actually fly you there! 😀 Holy crap on a cracker, this is what everyone wanted! Now the DLC is worth the $20, just for that thing to work.
Although, this awesome epic thing does take the fun out of walking. And what’s a bit worse (for me anyway), is when you get the house in Solstheim’s Raven Rock (the ‘Severin Manor’ house), there really is no point of going back to Skyrim.
Though that house is too much like a hole in the ground for me. The way Dremmers live is… well, I want something that looks more like a home, and give me a reason to go back to Skyrim. Live like the true owners of the land; the Nords.