/vr/ - Retro Games

>>4432512
Daggerfall's dungeon map is definitely usable and I've found it quite invaluable. Just keep it in top-down mode and get used to the controls, especially right clicking stuff to hide them and left clicking to write notes. Webm related shows the system I used to keep track of the areas I've explored and the location of the entrance, which makes it impossible to get lost or looped around and a breeze to get back even if you can't cast Recall. The best part is that it's not just parts of the floor that you can attach notes to: literally every 3D object can be annotated, so you can even match up individual levers with the gates they toggle (it will be obvious since objects that can move like gates will update their position on the map automatically), which was a very useful tool in the Sentinel Palace dungeon with all those blue bars to get to the lich.

>>4123501
If you're not a filthy mage who recalls out of everything in the most lazy way possible, get used to the map controls. Once you have a good grasp of the map and especially the custom note system, it becomes impossible to get lost except in the case of a few rare traps that teleport you. Even then if you have your wits about you you'll still be fine if you start heading to whatever appears to be the nearest location you've already explored so you can map the path between the teleporter and its destination.

>>3295306
honestly?
Daggerfall

navigating those dungeons and learning to use the map effectively is great for spacial awareness.

>>3149124
The simple answer would be to cheat. Enable cheatmode in z.cfg and use the [] square bracket keys to cycle through all possible locations a quest item could spawn. Then you can try to navigate back to the start from there if you still want to dungeon crawl a bit, or you can just use ctrl+f11 or a Recall spell to get back to the entrance.

The longer answer would be to git gud and learn how they work. There's a few tricks you can use to more efficiently search them for quest objects. Explore one block at a time, skip border blocks, and try to memorize the locations you find quest objects in, because that will be one of the likely places it will spawn the next time you encounter this block in another dungeon. Learn to read the map and keep notes at intersections so you don't get lost.

Finally, to avoid them all together, just refuse dungeon quests from faction quest-givers. They can never run out of quests to give you and you can refuse as much as you want with no penalty. It's only a matter of time before you get one of the easier quests. You're dealing with a faction quest-giver if, when interacting with them, there is a "Get Quest" button. If an NPC is offering you a quest as soon as you talk to them without clicking that button, then it's not a faction quest. In that situation it will either be a merchant quest, noble quest, or a main quest, so make sure you're not refusing anything important.

Some factions have more dungeon quests than others. The Thieves Guild has none whatsoever. If you're not a member, the mercenary quests for the Fighters Guild all take place in the same town you accept them in. Knightly Orders ONLY have dungeon quests, except when you're not a member there is a single possible quest (out of four, thus 25% chance) which takes place in town. Every other faction has a decent mix of dungeon and overworld quests.

>>2986429
I personally don't and I've never encountered a dungeon in my several hundreds of hours where the quest object was not reachable legitimately. I find it fun to navigate them and systematically crawl them for my objective, but there's no denying it can get tedious and the dungeons as a whole get very repetitive, so there's really no shame in using the cheats if you've stopped having fun in one. It's a single-player game so don't let anyone tell you how to play. The "experience" is what you make of it.

>>2986458
You might like it. Daggerfall's gameplay has more in common with dungeon crawlers than it does with story-driven CRPGs, and NPC dialogue is only ever really used to find places and people in towns. The dungeons are not procedurally generated on the fly like in a roguelike, but there's thousands of them and only a handful of ones used in the main quest were handcrafted, so they may as well be. Character creation and customization is a big focus of the game. Combat is real-time first-person with stats in the background determining accuracy and damage.

>>2807290
Compared to the other elder scroll games the dungeons in Daggerfall are mostly labyrinthine, crypts are alright imo and as for the recall spell its really useful if you want to get out of any dungeon if you finished the objective however its not really required it is however highly recommended for beginners. Aslo you can make note on the map, watch the webm.

the map tool is incredibly helpful once you can wrap your mind around how it functions

>>2649272
Yeah, shit get's confusing. To be honest the medium sized dungeons are the most enjoyable ones. With the large dungeons it's a given that you shouldn't explore and loot the whole thing. Just get in and try to find the objective without getting raped.

>>2407290
Don't use that version. Use this instead to get a ready-to-play install including a hell of a lot of quest fixes that Bethesda never officially patched.

http://wiwiki.wiwiland.net/?title=Daggerfall_:_DaggerfallSetup_EN

Just download the installer and run it. At the bare minimum, install every Official Component and Fix except for DagSkills.

If you want some extra fan-made quests for more content, get the Unofficial quest packs as well.
If you want your skills and attributes to max out at 200 instead of 100, get DagSkills.
If you want to significantly increase your maximum view distance, get EyeOfArgonia from the Utilities. See below for how to use.

Once it's installed you're already ready to play, but there's three things you can do for an even better experience afterwards:
1. Open up DosBox.conf where you installed and find the line that says "cycles=max" setting in the cpu section. Daggerfall has a lot of trouble with strafing, swimming, climbing, and NPC movement in towns if your cycle count is too high. A much better value for this is "cycles=fixed 48000"
2. If you got EyeOfArgonia, here's how to use it: after you have created your character, save your game before you do anything, and be especially careful not to touch the "SOUND", "MUSIC", or "DETAIL" sliders. Once your game is saved, run EyeOfArgonia.exe to patch it. Afterwards, load your game to verify that the DETAIL slider has gone very high - almost off the screen. Never touch the DETAIL slider again or you won't be able to get it back up, but you are now free to change any other setting you want.
3. Enable "View Mode" and "Fullscreen" in the ingame settings to get a modern mouselook control scheme and better UI. You don't need to actually run the game fullscreen if you don't want to, just make sure the option with that name is enabled anyway.

>>2358736
>barehanded
God damn, anon. That's awesome. I also played through with a no-magic stealthy character, though I used short blades and bows. I didn't need Levitate much since in the areas it's required there's almost always some object to activate that will buff you with it temporarily. I also never used Recall once by any means, instead using notes on the dungeon map like pic related to not get lost.

But the one effect I absolutely could not live without was Free Action. Free Action potions are fairly abundant and cheap at temples, so that + a handful of Levitate and Slowfall potions is how I managed.

>>2253909
>Most dungeon were, sadly, generated and for that reason many error can occur ,such as game breaking bugs or unable to finish a certain quest.
Daggerfall's dungeons are all pretty much bug free. There's a lot of falling through the floor when moving very slowly or climbing, but that's a problem with the game engine itself. The dungeon generator that Bethesda used when they created the dungeons did a flawless job. This is because every handcrafted block follows the simple rule of having doors where they're supposed to. No matter how you combine blocks that follow that rule, it's completely impossible to create an unnavigable dungeon. There was an error with one specific block that was supposed to be an entrance but had no exit, but that was fixed in an official patch.

The problem with Daggerfall and its dungeon crawling is that many of the QUESTS are extremely buggy, and several of those bugs still remain in the fully patched game. And since about half the quests in the game will send you to dungeons, when your quest object fails to spawn or turns invisible (yes, that has happened) you're going to spend a lot of time exploring a way-too-huge dungeon with nothing to find.

>>2258335
Very sound advice. For those who aren't playing a magic-using character and don't have enough magicka or the means to purchase Recall, make use of Daggerfall's dungeon map. It's a very effective tool to navigate those labyrinths. Just always keep it in 2D mode and get the hang of moving it around and working with its awkward render distance. An oft-overlooked feature is the ability to attach notes to sections of the dungeons and any 3D object you've touched. Furthermore, any object that moves will update instantly on the map, so you can check what's changed when you activate a switch. It can be a godsend for navigating, keeping track of teleporters, or solving lever/gate puzzles. See pic related for an example of finding the exit using notes.