Completed DFU for first time, my feedback

[BruceVC]

I completed DFU last night, it was an excellent RPG experience with the mods I used and the game scores an 80/100. I will summarize some of the shortfalls around the game at the end. I spent about 260-280 hours to complete it

Firstly I wanted to recognize the incredible work the modding community has done and still do, this is the list of mods I used and they transformed DF from a classic gem to a game that new gamers can really enjoy especially around improved mechanics like the Enchanted Compass, travel options, Penwick Papers and then the aesthetic graphic improvements with the likes of DREAM. My mods were

3d enemies
advanced teleportation
animated people
aquatic spirits
archeologist guild
banditry and merchants
basic magic regen
basic roads
birds of daggerfall
climates and calories
climates travel map
convenient clock
DREAM
DF enemy expansion
DFU Quest pack
DFU Quests Reranked
Diemas Dungeon Replacement
Distant Terrains
Diverse Weapons
DREAM Transparent Windows
Dungeon Loot
Dynamic Skies
Faithful 3d animals
Field Alchemical kit
Finding my religion
Fixed Desert Architecture
Fixed Dungeon Exteriors
Handpainted Models
Harvetable Crops
HD enhanced
Hidden map locations
Hotkey HUD (this apparently clashes with DREAM )
JF Questpack
Jobs of the Thief Guild
Enchanted Compass
Levelling inspiration
Limited Gold Shops
Lively Cities
Locked Loot Containers
Lootmenu main
Lousy Lycons
Love and Lust
Mighty Magic
Nines Cathy
NPC health indicators
Power Struggle
Prostitutes and Lovers Quest pack
Prostitutes and Lovers
Random little quests
Readied hands for spellcasting
Real Grass
Roleplay Realism
SIGIL
Simple 3d trees
Skill Books
Skulduggery
Sneak and Crouch combined
Stealthy Thief Quests
Taverns Redone
Temples cure poison
The Penwick Papers
Town Graveyard Dungeons
Training Service Overhaul
Travelling alchemists
Traveloptions
UncannyUI
Unofficial Block Location
VampiricOptions
Warm Ashes
Weather Items
Wilderness Overhaul
World of Daggerfall


Its the largest RPG I have ever played, I must have completed about 25-30 dungeons outside the main quest dungeons. I joined various guilds that included the fighters, mages, knights of the dragon, dark brotherhood and temple of Kynareth. But I spend most my time doing quests of the Mages Guild and I got to rank 7 and even summoned a Daedra

DFU is the quintessential open world and sandbox RPG, I have never played a game quite like it and I doubt I ever will. I also enjoyed learning about the various factions and history of the Iliac Bay and I ended up deciding to align with the Empire and the Emperor and gave the totem to him (King of Worms actually wanted it, imagine giving such a powerful artifact to a stinking, foul undead ). The Empire has the best overall approach to maintaining peace and stability in Tamriel so I decided to support them

This game requires an understanding of the dungeon design and dungeon clearing strategy, I adopted my own " Dungeoneers Survival Guide " for newbies which include the following

-recall spell cast at the entrance for quick exit and to access my wagon and go back into the dungeon

-extra oil for my lamp

-repair tools for various items like my sword and camping kit

-landmark journal so I can create specific teleport points

-healing and cure potions in case my magic runs out

-locator Device : this can be used when you have explored a certain percentage of the dungeon and it creates a small dot on the HUD which shows you where your target is in a general direction. I have only used them twice and its handy when you very frustrated after seemingly exploring the whole dungeon but still cant find the target...and then it turns out you missed a secret door. Its a good last resort to help you without making it too easy

But the 3D map also helps when you tracking where you have been and where you need to still go. Using the 3D map is essential actually

And then some negatives about the game which dont detract from the overall positive experience but they include

-it has some bugs like invisible walls in main mission dungeons like the Direnni Tower and your quest to find Medora. There is a lever puzzle with 4 x levers and you need to only lower the Direnni levers and then a wall opens and you can proceed but in my game there was still an invisible wall. So I just used Console and the teleport command when this happened. I had to do this maybe 6-7 times in total so its not a big problem but its real

-even with mods there are limited monsters that spawn so you end up facing the same enemies in most dungeons

-the combat becomes very easy, I got to level 11 and I had an enchanted weapon and I was able to kill most enemies in 2-3 swings or kill them with 1-3 fireball or lighting based spells. There are some mods that address this but I dont think they change the fundamental combat design

But in closing, a fantastic RPG and well worth playing. Now I have played ES 2,3 and 4 its time to play Skyrim AE. I have never played Skyrim

[Interkarma]

Hey BruceVC, welcome to the forums!

Congrats on completing the game, it's definitely an achievement in Daggerfall. I'm really happy to hear you had an overall positive experience.

I've heard of the invisible wall problem before, though it's more likely to be caused by a mod than a bug in core game. This post on reddit described something similar and later updated to say it was caused by Magic Compass mod.

When encountering anything like this, the standard advice is to disable mods or keep an unmodded copy of the game for testing. If it doesn't happen in the core game, it's a mod.

Thank you for the post. Best of luck as you move onto Skyrim!

[BruceVC]

I loaded a previous save game and disabled the Compass and it works. So that mod was causing the occasional issue I experienced which also impacted the activation of certain objects.

[Werewolf]

Modded Daggerfall Unity is one of the most grand RPGs in gaming, and it’s totally free. Even vanilla Daggerfall Unity is massive and has countless hours of content