Daggerfall:Traveling
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This page contains lots of hints and tips related to anything related to moving or travelling in the game (such as fast-travelling, running, levitating, etc...). This includes various loopholes related to travelling and lots of various statistics.
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[edit] Sky Writing
The simplest method of sky-writing in the game is accomplished through "laying eggs" by levitating your character and dropping items to leave little floating treasure piles. By laying lots of treasure piles, you can have your character write messages, draw pictures, etc. Unfortunately, when you leave a town or dungeon that you have sky written in, the location resets. When you return, your writing is gone...
But, if you own a ship, the whole grid/square location your ship rests on acts like a house and saves any item you drop in or around your ship, for as long as you own your ship. So, by skywriting at your ship location, what is written is much more permanent.
[edit] Fast-Travel Loophole
I have found an interesting loophole (or Bug if you like) involving fast travel in the game Daggerfall. There are two methods for fast travel : reckless and cautious. If you choose reckless, it will take less time, but when you arrive at the destination, your health points, fatigue and magicka will be the same as what you have when you left. If cautious is chosen, it may take twice as long to travel, and you always have your health, fatigue and magicka fully charged. Also, if you are not a vampire, you will always arrive during day time. The loophole here is that if you are inside a town, you CAN fast travel to the town you are already in! By choosing cautious, and fast travel to the town you are in right now, you can fully recharge yourself of health, fatigue and magicka. If you fast travel during the daytime, the game clock will advance about one minute; if it is night time, you will arrive the next morning. So, you can have practically unlimited magicka during the daytime outdoors. There is only two drawbacks. First, you always arrive at the edge of the town. So if the town is huge, like the daggerfall city, you need to run around town again. Second, you can not fast travel when there are enemies nearby. However, you can always run to the other end of the town, lose the enemy, and then fast travel to recharge yourself.
This is ideal for training your magic skill. I have seen certain hints saying about custom practice spells. After you used up all spell points to practice the six schools of magic, you rest in a tavern to recharge the magicka. You don't have to! Just make sure it is still day time, fast travel to the same town you are in, choose cautious, and you will arrive fully recharged, ready to practice magic again. If you have a couple of quest pending, and can not waste time staying in tavern, this is the trick. After discovered this trick, I rarely use the inn or the fighter Guild for resting.
When you have high skill levels in the six schools of magic, you REALLY need this trick to get enough spell points to practice spells. If you are the type who swear never to cheat, here is a small variation. Run outside the town toward any direction. You can also view some scenery along the way, right ? Then fast travel back to the town. It will take less than one hour in game clock, and you will never recover the same amount of magicka by resting one hour.
Another use for this trick is for dungeons. If you happen to arrive during the daytime, you can use the trick to strengthen yourself. You can cast all kinds of spells on yourself to fortify the attributes, fast travel to the same dungeon, have magicka fully recharged, cast more spells, repeat until satisfied. If you do it quickly, the spells you just cast will not expire until you are deep in the dungeon. Then, you can rush to the dungeon door, with all kinds of spells active, AND with FULL magicka. My favor spells for this occasion are : Troll's Blood(regenerate health), Orc Strength, Jack of Trades, Shield, Invisibility, etc. Hey, you have "FREE" spells for use, use them all! This will make you very powerful and "brave" during the first few minutes inside the dungeon. I also strongly suggest a custom made health regeneration spell. Long duration is more important than large magnitude, since you can carry it "FREE" into the dungeon. There is only one drawback. Since you must do this outside the dungeon, you better know where the dungeon door is after you fast traveled. Otherwise, all your spells will expire before you step inside the dungeon. It is still a good exercise though.
[edit] Relative Speeds of Travelling Modes
Just a few interesting things I was measuring.
- Running Speed = 19 m/h
- Walking Speed = 10 m/h
- Sneaking Speed = 4 m/h
- Running Horse Speed = 20 m/h
- Running Cart Speed = 15 m/h
- Levitate Up/Down Speed = 2 m/h
- Levitate Up While Jumping Speed = 4 m/h
- Speed Cheat Running Speed = 120 m/h
- Speed Cheat Walking Speed = 72 m/h
- Speed Cheat Sneaking Speed = 36 m/h
Please note that these are the lower speed limits as I calculated them and are approximate only. For example, the speed cheat running speed could be as high as 160 m/h (faster than a speeding arrow, able to jump city walls in one bound)!
On a realistic note, the running/walking speeds are a bit on the high side. A world-class 100m sprinter might reach as high as 25 m/h. A usual walking speed is more around 2-4 m/h. Try sneaking around a town and see how long it would take to get around... certainly not plausible in the game.
PS: This was measured with a speed of 100 and a running/stealth skill of 100%.
[edit] Getting Directions
Need to map out a town? Easy. Pick on someone, and if they say "go east", for example, then keep on asking them. Eventually they *will* mark it on your map. If they say "I don't know", they really don't know. This way, I have completely mapped all locations in a provincial capital (Glenumbra I think) after asking just 3 people.
[edit] Travelling Guide
Travelling throughout Daggerfall (and there are oodles of miles of it) can be a tedious task for any impatient adventurer, ready to slay a dragon. Hold on, young one. First you have to get there. While we can't provide you with precise directions, we can show you how to get there more quickly:
When I first came to Daggerfall, I was amazed by the size of the city. Unfortunately, I had only my walking shoes to get me from point A to point B. Murphy's Law usually dictates that the Mages Guild that you wanted to visit is way over on the other side of the city near the West gate and you entered from the East gate.
However, don't simply walk over there if you can't afford a decent horse...
Run and Jump to your nearest destination in the city. The citizens don't seem to mind and you will increase your skill levels as an added bonus. You might as well start building your skills to increase your levels.
A Cart costs 150 gp base cost that can fluctuate with Mercantile skill and the type of store you enter. This type of transportation also includes a horse, but it rides more like a mule. Still, it seems faster than walking and it costs very little Stamina. An added bonus is you can now store all your precious belongings in a much bigger space.
A Horse costs 1000 gp base cost that can fluctuate with Mercantile skill and the type of store you enter. In my opinion, a horse is much faster than a cart when you want to flee the city guards over slight misunderstandings (I've had plenty of them). Plus, little cost to your Stamina levels. Unfortunately, a horse is much noiser sound-wise than a Cart. You may be a bit annoyed at the clip-clop-clip-clop of the hooves.
A Ship can't really take you anywhere in the City, but!... you can go to your ship, rest in it to recharge your batteries, then click on "Ship" again and you are back in the City. Thus, you can still stay in the city and rest without getting arrested for Vagrancy. An added bonus is you can store your precious inventory here without taking up space in your Cart. A Ship can be bought through a bank for 100,000gp or 200,000gp in any port city [near a body of water]. "Sentinel" the capital city, is a good example.
All these Modes of Transportation can be access by simply pressing "T" on the keyboard. "Foot" requires more specific definitions: "J" for Jump, "P" for Run If you dislike any of these keyboard commands, customize your own through clicking CONTROLS on the Save/Load game box [press ESC to bring this window up].
[edit] Void Ranger Techniques
I'm sure most of us have experienced the nasty sensation of falling through the floors/walls in a dungeon, ending up in a black expanse named the void. Hopefully the below tips will help you on getting into and out of this void with ease.
[edit] Getting In
The easiest way into the void is to cast levitate, and then levitate up to either a corner where two types of dungeon connect, or a sloped passage. The slopes are usually easier. Use "d" to duck down, then go as high as you can. Next, turn around, so your back is to the wall, and go up again if you can. Then, back into it and stop just as you touch it. Then hit "d" again and stand up. Usually you stand right through the ceiling/wall. I have more luck on the slopes personally.
[edit] To Get Out
First and foremost is the trusty Anchor and Teleport method. Do not cast Recall when falling as you will die when you appear. I cast levitate first which seems to avoid this nasty consequence. Second, if you can find a sloped passage, use it to wedge yourself back into the dungeon. Duck down, walk up it, and then stand back up. You can also do this by levitating. Duck, float up to a floor. Stand upright through the panel and float up into the room. It usually works best on edges of Dungeon and slopes, and works exactly the reverse of getting in. I.E. ease up to it, wiggle through, etc.
ALWAYS SAVE FIRST!! I can't stress that enough. Camping in the void is safe, but it's hard to get away from the monsters, and sometimes hard to find all of them in your area. I have never saved in the void, personally, so I don't know if this is safe. Someone else might want to elaborate on that.
[edit] Dechipering the Overhead Map
The dots of dungeons in the overhead map changes to a darker color when you visit it. Tombs are a red color, new Dungeon locations are orange, and visited dungeons are a lighter red. Also, you can zoom in on the map by right-clicking the desired area.
[edit] Dungeon Exploration Method
I spent a little time (about a week) just running through the wilds of the A'kir (think that's right) desert south of Sentinel...other than a large number of scorpions and (ready for this?) vampires, I didn't manage to run into anything all that spectacular...did manage to filch a pair of daedric gauntlets from a corpse though...:)
In dungeons (I noticed that people were talking about some different dungeon-delving methods) I find that with ye-olde basic dungeon, the following rules work well.
- Try to map the area around the exit thoroughly, because I've found what I'm looking for in the dungeon fairly close to the exit on a disgustingly high number of occasions... a perfect example is Shedungent in the Wrothgarian Mountains...just hit the first door you come to (literally) with a powerful enough open spell, and voila, there's the target.
- If you find yourself getting deeper into a dungeon (especially the bigger ones) try to map everything on the current floor first. By this I mean don't go up or down anything, and check behind every door.
- A method used by some is upon entering a dungeon, start following a passage wall to either the left or right side. Go through all doors, use all elevators and teleporters, but keep following that wall until you either find the quest object or get back to the entrance. If you get back to the entrance, save the game, and then follow the other wall (the one across from the entrance). If you get back to the entrance again, save the game and start following passages that you didn't take the first two times. The method works . It's not very thorough, but it will get you to the quest object eventually.
- Another method is searching a dungeon by sections. If you look at your map, you will see that your arrow is on a particular type of flooring. The section method requires that you explore ONLY the areas with that kind of flooring until you have cleared out all of that section. Then you move on to another section and clear it. And so forth until you reach the quest object. It is a very thorough method of exploration, but time-consuming. This is not a bad thing if you have a lot of time on your hands, but it is not designed to get you to your destination quickly.
- I've never found anything underwater...granted I've heard stories of people finding their target underwater, but as a whole, nothing is down there except the occasional dreugh and the odd zombie.
- Finally, if you're REALLY having problems finding what you're looking for, it's a good bet that there's a tunnel leading directly up from somewhere that you've missed...I don't know how many times a simple levitation spell to get me through a hole in the celing has popped me out close to my target.
Granted, there are going to be exceptions to these rules, but for the most part they work well (don't ask me for help on those funky red brick doors though...haven't found a good way to work with them yet...just keep wandering).
There will be times in almost any dungeon where you will encounter a locked door, red brick door, teleporter (can be a floating skull or other item), trapdoor (usually with teleporters), water, traps, and magically locked doors.
- For locked doors and magically locked doors, there are a few solutions; try picking the lock, cast an 'open' spell (home-made or standard both work), cast a spell like fireball, or just use your hands/feet to bash the door open. If you use the last, use either a low material item (like iron or steel) or your hands and feet. Using a weapon wears it down fast.
- Water can be overcome with a water walking/breathing spell, or, in some cases, completely avoided if the quest location is not past the water.
- You can find traps if your walking along and your vision starts to sway and you don't have any monsters in the passageway/room/etc and either your health or magicka are drained. If you don't have a 'levitate' spell, don't go on.
- Red brick doors have a few possibilities, but before even going NEAR one you should ALWAYS SAVE. They can be in a doorway (where another part would connect) or can be in the middle of a room (these are activated by clicking on them. If you enter, you can be teleported, hurt, or nothing at all will happen.
- Trapdoors usually have a series of teleporters in the dungeon. To get through a trapdoor, go through the teleporters until you see a lever, activate it, and go through the teleporters until your back at the trapdoor. Go down with a levitate spell to avoid having broken legs at the bottom.
After you have played the game for a while, you will start to notice patterns to the dungeons. This is a by-product of the dungeon creation process. Daggerfall dungeons are modular. The Main Quest dungeons were painstakingly constructed by hand, but the random dungeons take pieces of the Main Quest dungeons and sling them together in various forms. This is why players get a strange sense of "deja vu" in the random dungeons. They really have been here before. Once you reach this point, finding quest objects becomes much easier because each module only has one or two object locations. For example, when I find myself with a series of teleporters, I know that there is a quest object location under the trapdoor and the trapdoor is opened by a lever in one of the teleporter locations. So I go through the teleporters until I get to the lever, pull it, and then keep going through teleporters until I appear over the trapdoor (hopefully with an active "Levitate" so I don't break a leg falling down the hole when I appear). Remember where you find quest objects and the next time you wind up in the same module, you'll have a good idea of where to look.
[edit] Levitating Tricks
- Attacking: If your opponent has no ranged attack, just whip out a bow for some target partice.
- Horse Tricks: If you are riding a horse and cast Levitate, the horse flies, and you can go much quicker than if you were levitating without the horse
- Jumping Tricks: If you jump while levitating you can float upwards about twice as fast as normally. You also increase your jumping skill like you wouldn't believe.
- Flying Without Levitation: I was playing v2.13 two nights ago and i found a useful bug. It lets you fly UP ONLY without spells or maigc items etc. It may be fun or useful only for those without the Levitate spell or if you run out of magic.
- Hold JUMP button for duration of fly time
- Equip your Weapon (some work better than others)
- Attack the air as quickly as possible.
- You should now float upwards one jump height at a time. Be careful, there is a height limit (but it is quite high). If you reach it, the game crashes.
[edit] Finding Residences At Night
Since I have a vampire character I hang around at night. You know, finding stores or residences at night is disgusting. You go to a tavern and ask people around which way it is, but you can never have the exact answer. But I found a way. Go to the Mages' Guild (assuming there is one; if there isn't one, this will not work) in the city you are seeking the residence/shop. Visit the teleporter (again, if you have enough rank), select teleport, don't go anywhere and exit. You hear the night's sound in the guild, and it is dark just like you are outside. Ask someone in the guild the location, and they will mark it on your map. Go out, do your quest. So easy!
Another method of finding someone if no one will talk to you (usually your hated or a lycanthrope for a period of time) is going into a store, tavern, or house and asking the occupants there for directions. Once you have the general direction, find another building in that area (most preferably a tavern or store for landmarks) and asking again for the same thing. This can help narrow down where your searching.
[edit] Finding People
Often quests require you to find the location of a paticular person. This can be done by going to the appropiate town and talking to an NPC. There are two methods which can give you information.
- Ask for Where, Location, and General. This will usually give you location of the palace and houses.
- Ask for Where, and People. This will give you locations of where a particular person is, like a tavern, store, house, etc...
If the NPC gives you the location on the map, check it to see where to go. If they don't give it to you, keep asking in different ways and with luck they will mark it. If they say they don't know then they'll never mark it.
[edit] Finding Your House
After buying one's house, to find where it is check the automap, or you may have to ask someone where it is (you must be lost when you have to ask where you live..:).
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