I played a bit more in some random dungeon this morning. They say they have about 200 random dungeons that get populated with stuff that is a challenge to you, and with a boss that will drop something that would be useful or valuable to someone at your level. If so then that is pretty neat! I wandered about a catacomb this morning throwing fireballs and occasionally swording things, and have picked up a bunch of semi-valuable stuff. It was entertaining, surely. It felt kind of like a better-looking Morrowind dungeon with physics-based traps added (I won't spoil what the traps were, use your imagination or wait until you experience one, they are kind of cool) and that it generally a fairly good thing.
One thing that I am finding useful is hitting things with arrows to knock them off ledges and so forth so that I can get them. I'm pretty sure that this will be un-necessary once I find someone to teach me a decent telekinesis spell, but until then the arrowing thing is kind of fun. Realistic? Not so much! But fun, definitely. I think that if I want more realism in archery I'll have to try to make a mod that adds a certain amount of randomness to where the arrow goes dependent upon your Marksmanship, instead of it only affecting the damage your arrow does (I think).
So far the weapons I've been picking up from fallen mobs have been ok for my level. That's not saying all that much though, as I'm level 1. I remember Morrowind being awesome for the first dozen levels too. I'm hoping that I can control myself a bit better with this one and not cheat at all. A little creative dodginess here and there when it comes to stealing is all in good fun, but straight out cheating is out this time round (hopefully).
I've been thinking about what character class was suggested to me when I first started the game. When it comes time to select a class the dude you're talking to says "from what I've seen, you're a fairly capable X". My "X" was "Bard". I kind of said "screw that" and went all-out Mage, but I do find myself doing a lot of swording and arrowing, with a bit of magic thrown in also. Perhaps a Bard may have been worthwhile, I don't know. I may have to go back and restart as a Bard to see what's up.
Oh, and one last thing: I really hope that they improve on the "AA and HDR don't mix" situation via a patch by the time I get a decent enough card to handle it. I would love to see this game in gorgeous 1600x1200 HDR-lit, FSAA splendour. Even without all that the graphics are very decent. If I could run everything at full-tilt I'd be rather happy.
