TheRPGSite

Shall we start the discussion?

I'm not going to do a full all encompassing Review of the game. It's huge, my time is limited and there are already many good reviews out there. So instead I'll just keep updating this thread with my observations and interesting experiences as I go along.

I've started my journey into Skyrim (360 version). Unfortunately I've only had a chance to play for about an hour which was enough time to make a character get out of the intro area and do a little exploring.

Comments so far:
Graphically it's a definite improvement from Oblivion. Everything has more detail to it. The level designs feel more organic in every way. Ruins are crumbling, bricks are missing, stuff is scattered around a tunnel will change dimensions as you walk through it. Oblivion did this pretty well, but Skyrim just does it much better.
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Now here is the biggest change (at least in my opinion) 3rd person. The game is fully playable in 3rd person. So far I've flipped between 1st and 3rd and I actually find that not only is 3rd person playable I prefer it to 1st person. Running around in 3rd person shows off your character and his armour. Not to mention a better sense of your surroundings. Combat in 3rd person also is completely possible and fun as is general interaction in the world. So 3rd person fans rejoice. Skyrim will work well for you.

You can read the rest of my comments here (http://www.accidentalsurvivors.com/wwforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2246)

*Is installing Skyrim now* :)

Oh, hey, I'm a "Senior Member". *Grasps an imaginary cane* "When nine hundred years old you are, look this good, you will not."

Can't stand third person but I understand the want/need with the inferior first-person controls you get on a console.  I've been playing it off and on all day and am enjoying the hell out of it.

I just beat the living crap out of a bard with my bare hands.   He was harassing a local merchant (who was also a widow) and she paid me 250gp!

I guess money's not as tight in Skyrim as it was in Cyrodiil or Morrowind.

First person works well on the console 3rd person is just a preference.  I find myself more connected to my character when I can see them.  Regardless of the which format is better battle.  The game rocks.

First person on a console always feels like I'm playing through the wrong end of a telescope.  I'm glad to hear the third person support exists and is playable.

Apropos of nothing, one of the hardest core gamers I know cannot stop raving about, of all things, Spyro's Skylanders.

Quote from: kryyst;489300First person works well on the console 3rd person is just a preference.  I find myself more connected to my character when I can see them.  Regardless of the which format is better battle.  The game rocks.

Huh, with me, I connect more with my character in first-person than third-person. Possibly because it feels more "doing", less "watching".

Also, Dragons! :)

Tis big and lovely, but i haven't installed due to some weird bug with textures not loading (console version).

I have the PC version, and I've already cleared four big dungeons and am a member of the Companions. I'm having a blast.

The game is buggy, though. I've had it quit and drop to desktop five or six times now.


Save early, save often.

I hate you all (not really), because I am poor and cannot afford it.

Quote from: Silverlion;489354I hate you all (not really), because I am poor and cannot afford it.

On the upside it's on Steam, so look for it around the holidays; it may hit the $30 mark PDQ.

Haven't bought it yet (although it is inevitable), I have two friends playing it now on the PC who say the interface and controls are obviously console-ported and so are awkward compared to what you would get on a true pc-designed title, but they also say after a while you get used to it so it's not a deal-breaker.

I've been playing the heck out of the PC version.

- Turning controls are really awkward with a mouse.
- Occasionally I get dropped to desktop for no apparent reason.
- The game is beautiful and a lot of fun.
- Leveling is much better now, as skills only go up with use. You can choose skill bonuses when you level to specialize.
- You can die very easily in combat.
- SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN. I'm kind of annoyed a regular auto-save isn't implemented.
- Some quests are confusing and not well explained. And going into the quest log does not help, as you just see the objective, but not the text from the quest-giver.
- You can set steam to run in offline mode, which I do.
- What happens if steam goes bankrupt tomorrow and shuts down?

A good hotkey for PC explanation. Read the comments for various known bugs you may find:  http://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/m8tnk/guide_how_to_use_18_hotkeys_for_items_and_spells/

I'm a werewolf treasure-hunting alchemist who screams people off of cliffs. In human form, I look like an ex-marine turned thrill-killer, with a white handprint across my face, bloodshot eyes and a receding hairline. I've killed three dragons, cleared a bunch of dungeons (over a dozen by now), and am debating going into politics.

Boss fights are a drastic improvement over Oblivion. Each of the four dragons I've faced acted differently - one didn't even come down to engage me, it just circled overhead menacingly before soaring off. The undead bosses in the barrows have been interesting as well. Leveling is slower, and the power seems flatter than Oblivion. It has actually made melee combat interesting (especially once you start unlocking moves) and useful (invest in a few of the low level perks and upgrade your sword to sky-forged with a superior edge). God-tier builds are less obvious (it is almost impossible to not beat Oblivion handily as a Breton sorcerer with conj-resto), though Breton resto-warrior is working well for me.

I find the game easy, but I'm coming off of Dark Souls, so my perception may be skewed. I've only died a handful of times, and those are mostly at the same spots multiple times (the robbers at Nifheim, the Silver Hand leader) until I figure out the optimal strat. Alchemy is still the way to beat the game's economy, which I'm still fine with (currently sitting on around five and a half thousand gold just from random grabs as I journey around). The game's compass icons are totally incoherent, with many of them making little sense. Two similar things may have totally different icons, while two extremely different things may have the same icons.

I am attempting to be less obsessive about Bethesda games, so I have vowed not to engage in a gridded search involving opening every door and container in the game (which I did in Fallout 3, no hyperbole), but I am enjoying exploring a new world, always the most fun part of the game for me.

Quote from: danbuter;489515I've been playing the heck out of the PC version.

- Turning controls are really awkward with a mouse.
- Occasionally I get dropped to desktop for no apparent reason.
- The game is beautiful and a lot of fun.
- Leveling is much better now, as skills only go up with use. You can choose skill bonuses when you level to specialize.
- You can die very easily in combat.
- SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN. I'm kind of annoyed a regular auto-save isn't implemented.
- Some quests are confusing and not well explained. And going into the quest log does not help, as you just see the objective, but not the text from the quest-giver.
- You can set steam to run in offline mode, which I do.
- What happens if steam goes bankrupt tomorrow and shuts down?

"...That looks familiar. *Checks* Huh, yep. Same person."

I agree about the uninformative quest log. A real surprise.

Also there are some horrible difficulty spikes with encounters that just seem completely out of whack. These are not telegraphed as the game doesn't offer any explanation or warning of what to expect from a given area, so you don't know if you've moved into a new and much more difficult area than you can currently handle.

For 2-handers, what would you recommend?

Sword (Crit)
Axe (Bleed)
Hammer (Armor Penetration)

Quote from: danbuter;489628For 2-handers, what would you recommend?

Sword (Crit)
Axe (Bleed)
Hammer (Armor Penetration)

Hammers seem to be able to knock away shields better, and really, that's the part that matters.

With a sword+shield, you can generally afford to wait for a good hit; an axe is gonna be slower, so can't wait as well and it won't have the "knock aside shield" factor of the hammer, so for two-handed, hammer sounds good to me (for effectiveness. For style, greatsword or greataxe).

That's just based on what I've seen - The toughest fights with sword+shield have been the hammer guys.

Thanks! Only bad part is that the Companions don't make skyforged hammers, only axes and swords.

Quote from: danbuter;489642Thanks! Only bad part is that the Companions don't make skyforged hammers, only axes and swords.

Hmm...Might be possible to make your own.

Course, it was only released a couple days ago, so not like anyone can give veteran advice. :D

Is there an in game means to locate particular alchemy ingredients, or am i going to have to start taking notes?

You can literally wander the land with your HUD pointed at the ground clicking every second or so and gather more than enough stuff.

For the most part, trying to create specific potions is usually a sucker's game unless you luck out. What you want to do is grab everything you can, mix it up, and sell whatever the results are for cold hard cash that you can then buy the potions you need with.

Is werewolf form more controllable. I'm doing the camp quest just following getting it and turned into a werewolf after I was hit a couple times. I really don't want to turn into a werewolf every combat. I wouldn't mind, but I can't pick up anything while in werewolf form.

I've reached a point where there are some foresworn dudes one of whom is a female ice mage. The rest of them are fairly easy, a couple of arrows and they die. She, on the other hand, kills me in a single shot of her frost magic. One shot ffs! She takes next to no damage (whether her frost sheild is active or not) from any attack and even if i block with a shield i still die. The game does this all the time; mobs are either relatively easy to fight or they are unstoppable. I don't understand how I'm meant to play like this?

Quote from: danbuter;489677Is werewolf form more controllable. I'm doing the camp quest just following getting it and turned into a werewolf after I was hit a couple times. I really don't want to turn into a werewolf every combat. I wouldn't mind, but I can't pick up anything while in werewolf form.

You only turn into a werewolf when you want to once you complete the quest where you get it.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;489717I've reached a point where there are some foresworn dudes one of whom is a female ice mage. The rest of them are fairly easy, a couple of arrows and they die. She, on the other hand, kills me in a single shot of her frost magic. One shot ffs! She takes next to no damage (whether her frost sheild is active or not) from any attack and even if i block with a shield i still die. The game does this all the time; mobs are either relatively easy to fight or they are unstoppable. I don't understand how I'm meant to play like this?

You should upgrade your magic protection and HP. There are a variety of low level spells that will absorb magic damage, or you can create magic items that will grant it to you.

Personally, when fighting mages I try to slap them with Sparks while I move in with my sword. Sparks drains magicka, and you can very quickly exhaust a caster with it.

I killed my second dragon last night...was hoping it would activate my second shout power (scares things away), but no dice. Finally made it to the top of the mountain to talk to the old-dudes, hopefully they'll have some answers.

I'm glad they flattened the power level out, I'm level 10 and by no means in position to destroy everything casually. Vampires and dragons and trolls require a bit of effort to kill. Still not quite getting the magic system, though, I prefer smashing things with a mace anyway.

I'm kind of disappointed in the house I bought, there doesn't seem to be a way to install an enchanting table. I'll presume I can get better houses later, but it's still a drag.

Anyone else have the huscarl girl following you around? She's been a great pack-mule, but it's weird nobody else has mentioned her, seems like she's an unavoidable consequence of the first quest.

Quote from: Doom;489745I killed my second dragon last night...was hoping it would activate my second shout power (scares things away), but no dice. Finally made it to the top of the mountain to talk to the old-dudes, hopefully they'll have some answers.

I'm glad they flattened the power level out, I'm level 10 and by no means in position to destroy everything casually. Vampires and dragons and trolls require a bit of effort to kill. Still not quite getting the magic system, though, I prefer smashing things with a mace anyway.

I'm kind of disappointed in the house I bought, there doesn't seem to be a way to install an enchanting table. I'll presume I can get better houses later, but it's still a drag.

Anyone else have the huscarl girl following you around? She's been a great pack-mule, but it's weird nobody else has mentioned her, seems like she's an unavoidable consequence of the first quest.

You can just tell her not to follow you.

And yes, the shout thing is confusing. I have two powers - frost breath and fire breath - that aren't activated at all despite killing five dragons. I'm going to retrieve the horn of Jurgen Windcaller tonight to see if that opens it up. It's the only thing holding me back from knocking over every barrow in the province.

My one complaint is that the game occasionally tells you that it's autosaving when, so far as I can tell, it is not. Certainly, if you die, you don't go back to the "autosave" point, you go back to the entrance or exit of the last building you entered / exited. This has made the journey to Riften a bit frustrating, as I like to zig-zag from compass icon to compass icon as I go, and I keep on getting killed and having to repeat the whole thing over.

I find the difficulty spikes just make the game impossible.
Trying to fight dragons is way too hard. I must have a build that the game wasn't optimised for. Archery is shit, just shit. Takes forever to switch back to your bow (and the menus system is fucking poor), trying to shoot them is next to impossible in the sky. When they land, whever you are and however you move, their firebreath tracks perfectly - even with that whirlwind sprint. So you cannot avoid getting immolated. I've tried stocking up on resist fire potions, but there aren't any and even the few in stock are not powerful enough. Switching between magic and bows to heal myself is again not quick enough.
It just feels there is soemthing that isn't quite right in the game; you just come across mobs that are really overpowered. I have no idea what level you are meant to be to take down mobs or what perks you need because the game gives no clue as to how to build a character or what level you need to be for a given quest or task. Frankly it's just frustrating.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;489751My one complaint is that the game occasionally tells you that it's autosaving when, so far as I can tell, it is not. Certainly, if you die, you don't go back to the "autosave" point, you go back to the entrance or exit of the last building you entered / exited. This has made the journey to Riften a bit frustrating, as I like to zig-zag from compass icon to compass icon as I go, and I keep on getting killed and having to repeat the whole thing over.

It auto-saves when you enter/exit buildings. Never seen it mention auto-saving elsewise, outside of the prologue.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;489757I find the difficulty spikes just make the game impossible.
Trying to fight dragons is way too hard. I must have a build that the game wasn't optimised for. Archery is shit, just shit. Takes forever to switch back to your bow (and the menus system is fucking poor), trying to shoot them is next to impossible in the sky. When they land, whever you are and however you move, their firebreath tracks perfectly - even with that whirlwind sprint. So you cannot avoid getting immolated. I've tried stocking up on resist fire potions, but there aren't any and even the few in stock are not powerful enough. Switching between magic and bows to heal myself is again not quick enough.
It just feels there is soemthing that isn't quite right in the game; you just come across mobs that are really overpowered. I have no idea what level you are meant to be to take down mobs or what perks you need because the game gives no clue as to how to build a character or what level you need to be for a given quest or task. Frankly it's just frustrating.

Go Here (http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/forum/178-skyrim-cheats-hints-and-spoilers/) and ask for help making your bow dude more optimized. You should be able to get some help. :)

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;489757I find the difficulty spikes just make the game impossible.
Trying to fight dragons is way too hard. I must have a build that the game wasn't optimised for. Archery is shit, just shit. Takes forever to switch back to your bow (and the menus system is fucking poor), trying to shoot them is next to impossible in the sky. When they land, whever you are and however you move, their firebreath tracks perfectly - even with that whirlwind sprint. So you cannot avoid getting immolated. I've tried stocking up on resist fire potions, but there aren't any and even the few in stock are not powerful enough. Switching between magic and bows to heal myself is again not quick enough.
.

Weird, I hit the 'escape' or 'tab' keys, and can instantly do whatever I want. I drink potions mid-combat with no risk, and same for changing weapons. Heck, I've taken to sneaking around in no armor, and slapping on the plate armor instantaneously once melee begins, with no consequence.

I'm also an archer, and hardly optimized (Breton, I've put one skill point into it for some bonus damage). It's weak I guess--I'm not expecting much at low level with no optimization--but you deal double if you're successfully sneaking, that's been enough to take out most things, or at least wound them greatly while they're getting close enough to club. Both dragons I've slain went down eventually with arrows.

The menus system suxxors, and I've only recently figured out how to do things smoothly. "Favorite" the items you intend to use (weapons and spells for me so far, haven't even used a shout in combat). You can activate your favorites menu with "q" (I haven't remapped anything, or, heck, even looked at the rulebook, assuming there is one somewhere in the download), and that saves alot of button-presses.

I *think* I saw a way to get the game to auto-save every half hour or whatever...but I just compulsively hit f5 (quicksave) every minute or three, accepting the risk of messing up a quest or character badly in exchange for never having to redo a quest or whatever.

I play on the 360 and having to constantly pause to change weapons as the situation demands, or assign magic likewise, is a pain. It's just awkward.
wood elves start with an aptitude for sneaking archery and restoration magic and i think destruction. They start with healing and flames, but when you're being immolated by a dragon it's very difficult to know what to do. Swapping between healing and attack is just awkward and slow, and only an optimised healer type can maintain enough magicka to keep up with the dragopn's damage output as it's attack tracks you constantly. I don't know how you can outmanoeuvre them. It just feels like this class is stuck between warrior thief and mage. Archery I feel should have been optimised for thief rather than a straight combat skill.

I just perma-save regularly. It's a habit I got into long ago.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;489757I find the difficulty spikes just make the game impossible.
Trying to fight dragons is way too hard. I must have a build that the game wasn't optimised for. Archery is shit, just shit. Takes forever to switch back to your bow (and the menus system is fucking poor), trying to shoot them is next to impossible in the sky. When they land, whever you are and however you move, their firebreath tracks perfectly - even with that whirlwind sprint. So you cannot avoid getting immolated. I've tried stocking up on resist fire potions, but there aren't any and even the few in stock are not powerful enough. Switching between magic and bows to heal myself is again not quick enough.
It just feels there is soemthing that isn't quite right in the game; you just come across mobs that are really overpowered. I have no idea what level you are meant to be to take down mobs or what perks you need because the game gives no clue as to how to build a character or what level you need to be for a given quest or task. Frankly it's just frustrating.

Dragons stop breathing fire when you charge them and get close. Then they start trying to slap you with their tail and bite you. If you stick on their side, they can't turn as easily to get you , and you can take them out pretty easily with 20-30 strikes. I personally use Unrelenting Force to stagger them while I approach, but the Whirlwind Sprint would be useful to cover the distance instead.

Archery is useful if you build around it. You want light armour and high stamina so you move quickly. You want to max out your sneak and archery trees so that you can attack while hidden, and you want invis potions and spells (Muffle and Invisibility in particular) so you can stay hidden. Arrows go in an arc, and you will have better luck if you set up a shot at distance and aim a little high.

If you want to kill dragons as an archer, what you have to do is pick terrain that will give you the advantage, not them. Specifically, you need a pillar or other central obstruction that you can use for cover from the flame breath that you can kite the dragon around. Those old watchtowers all over the place are ideal for this, though they're usually inhabited. Use your Unrelenting Force shout to plaster the dragon when he lands and starts chasing you.

Today's a bit of a write-off for me playing. I'm playing Swords and Wizardry this evening until around midnight, but I might get some late-night Skyrim in.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;489772It auto-saves when you enter/exit buildings. Never seen it mention auto-saving elsewise, outside of the prologue.

It crops up from time to time when I open my character menu, especially if there's been a status change or quest completion.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;489823It crops up from time to time when I open my character menu, especially if there's been a status change or quest completion.

Fair enough - Nobody can be an expert yet. :)

I've concentrated on Archery. I have the score in the mid 40's at level 14 and all the perks i can afford. But I find there are some situations where some mob will appear that completely outguns you. The foresworn ice mage was one, while trying to find the red eagle sword. The rest of her allies were easy enough, but she could kill me (and did) in one hit! I couldn't do her enough damage at all using anything, and I have fairly decent gear (not enchanted as i don't have any filled soul gems).
It's situations like this that leave me complete scratching my head. I can't find a synergy with any of the things my character can do or starts with, having tried to play to his strengths. Aside from sneak i don't do much with most of the thief skills other than sneak and light armour and, despite it's ineffectiveness, alchemy. I don't really need to upgrade lockpicking, speech is easy enough to increase, and i haven't done much pickpocketing.
With magic i have started increasing restoration but even that will reach a platuea because unless i concentrate on increasing magicka (which means at the expense of stamina) i will only be able to use low level spells. After a while that's going to render them ineffectual as i face more tough mobs.
On the one hand the game gives you the freedom to choose how you play and level up accordingly, but on the other it seems to penalise you for not levelling up differently. You assume that you should focus on a few skills or a certain style, but then something appears that completely mullers you.

Also how do companions work if you ride a horse? Do they manifest one as well?

In my limited experience, the game also provides ways around tough enemies. For example, my character died several times against one particular set of bandits; through some tactics and brute force, I finally managed to kill them...

...Afterwards, I realized two of them had been standing in a pool of cast-off oil from a mammoth corpse and, if I had simply lit it on fire, I'd have only had to face the bandit chef, not his two luetenants as well.

A second time, the game gave me a 75-damage fire burst scroll, just before I encountered a giant spider I would have a deal of difficulty defeating on my own.

Granted, the second may have been random loot. But, if you're having trouble, take a look around; check out what resources/traps are near that might help you.

Yes, the game punishes you for being lazy, stupid and incurious. This is not a problem with the game.

Quote from: DoomAnyone else have the huscarl girl following you around? She's been a great pack-mule, but it's weird nobody else has mentioned her, seems like she's an unavoidable consequence of the first quest.

A troll killed mine. Or I did with that fireball scroll. I'm not entirely sure.

I'm liking this game overall though. I like the alchemy system and all the random trial and error that goes with it.

EDIT:

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;489789I play on the 360 and having to constantly pause to change weapons as the situation demands, or assign magic likewise, is a pain. It's just awkward.
wood elves start with an aptitude for sneaking archery and restoration magic and i think destruction. They start with healing and flames, but when you're being immolated by a dragon it's very difficult to know what to do. Swapping between healing and attack is just awkward and slow, and only an optimised healer type can maintain enough magicka to keep up with the dragopn's damage output as it's attack tracks you constantly. I don't know how you can outmanoeuvre them. It just feels like this class is stuck between warrior thief and mage. Archery I feel should have been optimised for thief rather than a straight combat skill.

Cover can work very very well against dragons. My girlfriend beat a pretty tough fight using cover, a summon (to draw the dragon's attention), and frost magic on the dragon's backside when it landed (slowing the dragon a little so she and the summon could hurt it more). When it flew or she wasn't ready, she'd hide behind the pillar and recover her health and magicka. This with no healing optimization. The pillar didn't block all the flames, but it reduced the damage significantly.

I agree on the pause-fu being a bit tedious. I like big, near-impossible battles to have the strategic component, but I haven't learned the "favorites" system yet. There's actually been fairly little guidance on how to play the game in there. I figured out how to sprint in the start>help menu, for example, and I still don't know how to power attack or why I end up shield bashing sometimes.

The combat in this game hasn't convinced me at all. 1st person melee has never worked and the archery is dire. There's only a few moves anyway;quick attack or slow heavy attack. Stamina regeneration is completely borked as well. There are some cool things in the game, and there are also some immersion breaking misfires.

It's not the game it's just you.  Much like every other game pretty much.  You should probably just quit now and save yourself the money and us having to read of your complaints.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;489926Granted, the second may have been random loot. But, if you're having trouble, take a look around; check out what resources/traps are near that might help you.

Indeed. I just *love* luring monsters into dungeon traps, to the point that I fear I'm losing valuable skill increases just for the pleasure of watching big spiky walls smash bad guys.

My archery is like 30 (just got the eagle eye zoom in skill), and I'm pretty satisfied with it. I've yet to even bother using poison on my weapons (assuming I can), and have one-shotted many a critter with my ancient nord bow (enhanced 1 point). Seems like I found an archery trainer, too, shame I can't recall where.

Am I the only guy who likes heavy armor? It's all I've been wearing, although I don't like how the "heavy armor weighs nothing" skill is buried behind a couple of skills I don't want, wish there was a way to build a branch or two in that tree.

Quote from: Doom;490000Indeed. I just *love* luring monsters into dungeon traps, to the point that I fear I'm losing valuable skill increases just for the pleasure of watching big spiky walls smash bad guys.

I did that last night. Had three big old monsters chasing me through the crypts, and activated a spike wall trap deliberately to get them. Two of them were killed where they stood, and the third ending up flying about 100 feet through the air and right out the door. I laughed for about five minutes over that one.

Last night I had 2 bears chasing me. I saw a giant and ran past him. The giant killed the bears. I thought it was pretty damn funny.

Quote from: danbuter;490052Last night I had 2 bears chasing me. I saw a giant and ran past him. The giant killed the bears. I thought it was pretty damn funny.

I've been staying *Away!* from the giants.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;489961The combat in this game hasn't convinced me at all. 1st person melee has never worked and the archery is dire. There's only a few moves anyway;quick attack or slow heavy attack. Stamina regeneration is completely borked as well. There are some cool things in the game, and there are also some immersion breaking misfires.

I am morbidly curious. Are there actually any games that you think are well done?

Quote from: DominikSchwager;490069I am morbidly curious. Are there actually any games that you think are well done?

For me, at least, the combat is often too easy.

I have a house, a dog, I cook and...

wait a second

Quote from: DominikSchwager;490069I am morbidly curious. Are there actually any games that you think are well done?

No you aren't, but yes there are.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;490109For me, at least, the combat is often too easy.

The problem is how they've handled archery.

Useful tweaks for PC users:

Forcing either v-sync, mouse acceleration, or both to "off" may help if you feel your mouse is sluggish, laggy, or just "weird."  I turned both off, upped the in-game sensitivity, and barring occasions when the frame-rate drops a bit (probably because, like many console-to-PC games, input feels linked to FPS), it feels much tighter and responsive.

Also, no ability scores.  Woot!  Seriously, some CRPGs carry over way too many sacred cows from tabletop than is necessary.

Quote from: Peregrin;490167Useful tweaks for PC users:

Forcing either v-sync, mouse acceleration, or both to "off" may help if you feel your mouse is sluggish, laggy, or just "weird."  I turned both off, upped the in-game sensitivity, and barring occasions when the frame-rate drops a bit (probably because, like many console-to-PC games, input feels linked to FPS), it feels much tighter and responsive.

Also, no ability scores.  Woot!  Seriously, some CRPGs carry over way too many sacred cows from tabletop than is necessary.

I liked the numeric scores in Oblivion (and Morrowind) but I don't miss them here.  It's like I'm playing OD&D with some crazy, by-the-seat-of-pants DM who keeps my character on a 3x5 card and says "You're better at attacking now.  Don't worry about the numbers, worry about that mammoth cheese you're trying to steal."

Quote from: thedungeondelver;490181I liked the numeric scores in Oblivion (and Morrowind) but I don't miss them here.  It's like I'm playing OD&D with some crazy, by-the-seat-of-pants DM who keeps my character on a 3x5 card and says "You're better at attacking now.  Don't worry about the numbers, worry about that mammoth cheese you're trying to steal."

Welcome to the Elder Scrolls games. :)

There are mobs that are easy enough to fight (not to tough, not to easy), then there are a few, sprinkled here and there with no warning, that are so overpowered it's like playing a different game. I don't understand this at all. Everytime I think i'm getting a groove with htis game, something like this pops up.
Horses - what a waste of time. Seriously, if you're going to include mounts then at least make them quick enough to be worthwhile and have them so they don't stand there trying to fight the bear that's just appeared and dying horribly. Just make them invincible and unobtrusive. Do what WoW does and have them summon from inventory and disappear back when you dismount.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;490216Welcome to the Elder Scrolls games. :)

Oh, I've been "there" since Morrowind (and have gone back and dallied with the others via dosbox and so on); I just think it's most acute in Skyrim.

"Hey, what do I need to roll to hit this guy?  Have I leveled?"
"Yeah, you leveled.  Just roll dice, I'll tell you if you hit."

person to person that would get frustrating (and it has; I've played with game masters who were all about hiding the numbers - all numbers - from the players) but in a CRPG, not so much.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;490233Oh, I've been "there" since Morrowind (and have gone back and dallied with the others via dosbox and so on); I just think it's most acute in Skyrim.

"Hey, what do I need to roll to hit this guy?  Have I leveled?"
"Yeah, you leveled.  Just roll dice, I'll tell you if you hit."

person to person that would get frustrating (and it has; I've played with game masters who were all about hiding the numbers - all numbers - from the players) but in a CRPG, not so much.

Cool. :)

Perhaps because in a CRPG, at least if there's numbers being fudged, it's consistently and probably because you set a difficulty level.

If I were to take a drunken* swipe at classifying the three ES games I have played to the conclusion of the main quest by D&D systems I have played I'd go:

Morrowind: some crazy 2e plot-heavy shit going on there with great houses and dabbling in the affairs of gods and meeting vivec and all that jazz, plus the cross-rip of Asian, European, and middle-eastern fantasy styles in a sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland that reminds me faintly of Dark Sun (when you get around Red Mountain).  Note this is a positive rather than negative view.

Oblivion: AD&D 1e, because holy cow you've gotta stop this guy from summoning the devil so you go to hell to fight his minions oh yeah and there's dungeons!  Of course it all looks like Excalibur because that movie is bad ass except some dudes called...the blades, yeah!  They have Katanas because again, bad-ass (again, positive rather than negative)

Thus far, Skyrim: OD&D, the DM may or may not have his own skill system (he's not telling) going on behind the screen.  Elves are bright and terrible, and Everything Out In The Wild Can Kill You.  Pure northern European fantasy. (again, so far)

(EDIT: *=I am not drunk.)

Quote from: thedungeondelver;490328If I were to take a drunken* swipe at classifying the three ES games I have played to the conclusion of the main quest by D&D systems I have played I'd go:

Morrowind: some crazy 2e plot-heavy shit going on there with great houses and dabbling in the affairs of gods and meeting vivec and all that jazz, plus the cross-rip of Asian, European, and middle-eastern fantasy styles in a sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland that reminds me faintly of Dark Sun (when you get around Red Mountain).  Note this is a positive rather than negative view.

Oblivion: AD&D 1e, because holy cow you've gotta stop this guy from summoning the devil so you go to hell to fight his minions oh yeah and there's dungeons!  Of course it all looks like Excalibur because that movie is bad ass except some dudes called...the blades, yeah!  They have Katanas because again, bad-ass (again, positive rather than negative)

Thus far, Skyrim: OD&D, the DM may or may not have his own skill system (he's not telling) going on behind the screen.  Elves are bright and terrible, and Everything Out In The Wild Can Kill You.  Pure northern European fantasy. (again, so far)

How would you classify Daggerfall and Arena?

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;490330How would you classify Daggerfall and Arena?

Dude TBH I did not play them extensively at all.  It wouldn't be fair of me to judge them.  Mechanically they (and Morrowind and Oblivion) remind me more of Rolemaster than any D&D.  I'm just going by feel of campaign, and I didn't get far enough into those two to give a clear answer.

(Also, back to Skyrim: getting jumped by four bow-using bandits on a mountainside...and Dragon Fury shouting them all to their deaths 18000 feet below and days later finding their broken bodies lying in the valley floor below is hilarious.)

One more Skyrim hilarity:

I have now had two attempts made on my life.  Not in the "here I am in a dungeon, come at me bro." sense but in the walking down the road to the next map marker...suddenly, bandits!  Kick the shit out of them, loot them...aha, what's this?  A "contract"?

"SIR WILLIAM* MUST DIE!  Signed, (some lady I shoplifted from, and insulted)."

uh...damn.  Okay.  Well, ha, I put paid to that notion - the thugs sent to do me in are all dead!

Days later, all the way across the province...jumped again by a bandit!  But this one is wielding a poison blade and arrayed all in black leather and cloth armor!  BDSM fetishist or Dark Brotherhood assassin! Only a looting of the corpse will tell!  One microwave session later, I loot his body and...another contract taken on me!

SHE MAD?  AWW YEAH.  SHE MAD.

*=my character's name.  Not the "Sir" part, though.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;490338One more Skyrim hilarity:

I have now had two attempts made on my life.  Not in the "here I am in a dungeon, come at me bro." sense but in the walking down the road to the next map marker...suddenly, bandits!  Kick the shit out of them, loot them...aha, what's this?  A "contract"?

"SIR WILLIAM* MUST DIE!  Signed, (some lady I shoplifted from, and insulted)."

uh...damn.  Okay.  Well, ha, I put paid to that notion - the thugs sent to do me in are all dead!

Days later, all the way across the province...jumped again by a bandit!  But this one is wielding a poison blade and arrayed all in black leather and cloth armor!  BDSM fetishist or Dark Brotherhood assassin! Only a looting of the corpse will tell!  One microwave session later, I loot his body and...another contract taken on me!

SHE MAD?  AWW YEAH.  SHE MAD.

*=my character's name.  Not the "Sir" part, though.

This is all the reason anyone could need to play this game.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;490330How would you classify Daggerfall and Arena?

I'd classify Daggerfall as hilariously broken nonsense.  Pointless skills.  Tons of glitches.  Almost mandatory munchkining.  It's the computer game equivalent of Palladium Fantasy.  

God, I love Daggerfall.

Quote from: Imperator;490345This is all the reason anyone could need to play this game.

I know, right?!

I just murdered my way through a dungeon (and god, the Dungeons in this are gorgeous...they make most Oblivion dungeons look like storage closets by comparison) full of necromancers, got to the "boss lair" and decided to quit hauling a "scroll of blizzard" (x2) around with me and use the fargin thing rather than deal with getting tazed by these jerkwads in bathrobes while I try to perforate their livers in the name of {$MISSION}.

Fire one!

They're howling maledictions and threats, all the while staggering towards me through an insanely persistent ice storm spell.  Fire two!  Now two of the three are dead and that third one is cowering in a corner begging me to stop.



Nope.  You put on the robes, you started peeling children as a hobby, you get to taste burny justice, sister.

I love this damn game.

Quote from: Dixon Hill;490348I'd classify Daggerfall as hilariously broken nonsense.  Pointless skills.  Tons of glitches.  Almost mandatory munchkining.  It's the computer game equivalent of Palladium Fantasy.  

God, I love Daggerfall.

If I can grit my teeth and put up with the graphics I may have to give that sumbitch another go.

A long, long time from now, however...

I figured out what was going on with the shouts. I don't have the first words of the shouts, which is what you need to activate them. I have a bunch of second and third words.

Luckily, my Unrelenting Force blast is now powerful enough that I can blow Draugr Overlords around like the autumn wind. I looted the guy in Solitude who's being executed right as you enter and took his talisman of Talos for a 20% reduction in the time between shouts, and I am now a bellowing Bretonic bastard. Even dragons stagger under it (I killed two or three more today).

Working on:

Geirmund's Epitaph questline
Companion questline
High Hrothgar / Courier missions to find Words of Power
Bounties (I've done one bounty on a giant, and one on a dragon so far, plus innumerable bandits)

I'm level 27, wearing all Dwarven Armour (superior), and using the same Skyforged Steel Sword I got somewhere around level 4 (I upgraded it to Superior quality around level 10ish).

I'm amazed at how much stuff I've done, and I haven't even been to Dawnstar, Winterhold, Rorikstead, Falkreath or Markath yet. I've only been to Solitude long enough to claim it as a destination on the map and loot the Talos amulet. I haven't been back to Helgen since the game's opening, though it's next on my sweep and clear list. Right now, Riften aka fetch quest central is sucking me in, even though I decided not to join the Thieves' Guild. Still haven't done any political stuff.

I'm actually surprised at how difficult it is to choose factions from the politics. On the one hand, Ulfric is a murderous, self-serving loudmouth advocating Nordic revanchism, and I'm not a Nord. On the other hand, every time I see the Imperials in action they are cutting people's heads off. Plus, they caved to the Thalmor, who seem to be (I'm guessing here) the big bads, and banned the worship of Talos.

Right now, I'm waiting until I start my sweep and clear of Solitude before I decide. If Tullius apologises for trying to cut off my head, I'll give the Empire a chance. On the other hand, if he's a dick, I'm going to join the Stormcloaks, Blade membership or no Blade membership, and kill the fuck out of the Imperials.

Edit: And of course, all of this is just to build up levels to finally beat the boss of Voluunrad, who I spent two hours on last night trying various strats and getting my ass kicked over and over again.

The most bizarre thing ive seen (SPOILER) is the quest for the kid who thinks he's summoned you as a Dark Brotherhood assassin.

You turn up at the orphanage ostensibly to kill the headmistress whom he thinks is an evil old cow, and you assume that there's going to be a choice - kill her or persuade her to be nice (something like that).

In fact she really is an evil old cow, stood there berating and threatening 5 kids who, when you kill her, all cheer at her murder. Yet the authorities only intervene when i took 4gold's worth of knick knack from her table (which wasn't highlighted as theft). In so doing, they step over the corpse, ignore the cheering kids, and haul me off to pokey.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;490338One more Skyrim hilarity:

I have now had two attempts made on my life.  Not in the "here I am in a dungeon, come at me bro." sense but in the walking down the road to the next map marker...suddenly, bandits!  Kick the shit out of them, loot them...aha, what's this?  A "contract"?

"SIR WILLIAM* MUST DIE!  Signed, (some lady I shoplifted from, and insulted)."

That's nothing. The Winterrun guards paid a few thugs to beat me up dead or alive. The guards. Whose job is exactly to take care of thieves like me themselves. And it was a class action contract, too, signed collectively "The Winterrun Guards".

I still can't get over how really gorgeous the area graphics for this game are.  The character models all look pretty good, but still move unnaturally when you are doing anything more then moving in a straight line.  Batman movement this is not.

But the landscapes, the buildings the dungeons are amazing.  Everything just looks and flows so organically.  They way water breaks over rocks, salmon jumping up stream, insects buzzing around, fallen trees and scrub everywhere.  The world design they accomplished is astounding.

Now here's to hoping they finally fix the character movement/interaction in the next one.  It's not currently game breaking by any means.  But I can only imagine at how much more amazing it would be if characters moved like they did in a much more action oriented game like Batman or Assassins Creed.

Quote from: Premier;490366That's nothing. The Winterrun guards paid a few thugs to beat me up dead or alive. The guards. Whose job is exactly to take care of thieves like me themselves. And it was a class action contract, too, signed collectively "The Winterrun Guards".

I literally laughed out loud when I read this.  Holy shit, dude, the ill-paid defenders of a city took up a collection to have your ass beat.  That is hilarious.

Again, I love this game.

When I saw it I thought "Okay it's leaps and bounds above Oblivion, graphically, but I could go back to Oblivion to finish out my second run through; the graphics in Oblivion aren't that dated."

But no.  No, I'd be missing out on gaming in an actual living world that moved on irrespective of what I did, people with their own agendas doing things not based on me doing things, but on them just up and doing it.

I just learned how to mine. Here comes the money!

Quote from: thedungeondelver;490349Nope.  You put on the robes, you started peeling children as a hobby, you get to taste burny justice, sister.

I love this damn game.

FUCK YES.

Quote from: Premier;490366That's nothing. The Winterrun guards paid a few thugs to beat me up dead or alive. The guards. Whose job is exactly to take care of thieves like me themselves. And it was a class action contract, too, signed collectively "The Winterrun Guards".

Awesome. Simply awesome.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;490351I'm actually surprised at how difficult it is to choose factions from the politics. On the one hand, Ulfric is a murderous, self-serving loudmouth advocating Nordic revanchism, and I'm not a Nord. On the other hand, every time I see the Imperials in action they are cutting people's heads off. Plus, they caved to the Thalmor, who seem to be (I'm guessing here) the big bads, and banned the worship of Talos.

Right now, I'm waiting until I start my sweep and clear of Solitude before I decide. If Tullius apologises for trying to cut off my head, I'll give the Empire a chance. On the other hand, if he's a dick, I'm going to join the Stormcloaks, Blade membership or no Blade membership, and kill the fuck out of the Imperials.

Edit: And of course, all of this is just to build up levels to finally beat the boss of Voluunrad, who I spent two hours on last night trying various strats and getting my ass kicked over and over again.

*Major Spoiler Warning*


The situation as I understand it: The High Elves (Altmer) got taken over by a cult that hated that Talos (who's not an Aedra) got included in the list of Divines in the Imperial Cult (all the others are Aedra, which is Altmer for "Our Ancestors" - They participated in making the world). So, this cult takes over Summerset Isle, land ot the Altmer and renames it something not Imperial, then takes over a couple provinces with magic trickery (they may or may not have made the moons disappear for two years).

A few things also happen at this point: Vivec, being dead, can no longer cast continual Slowfall on a giant asteroid above Vivec city and the thing crashes at its full, original speed, which triggers Red Mountain, a truly enormous volcano (think about 500+ miles across), which wipes out Morrowind, province of the Dunmer. The Bretons (IIRC) also suffered some sort of catastrophe.

So, the Thalmor and their converts revolt and attack the empire while it's weak. They grab southern Hammerfell and make a probing attack on Cyrodil, which goes so well they take the Imperial capital and force the Emperor to flee. IIRC, the Argonians, never fond of "Soft-skin dominence" and never really conquered, revolt successfully.

The Emperor rallies his troops and manages to push the Thalmor back a bit and then hold, but the war as a whole is a major defeat for the Empire. So he signs a peace treaty outlawing the worship of Talos (who is sorta, in a mythological way, the person who first started the 3rd-Era Empire (Oblivion marked the end of the 3rd-Era). This treaty also stated that the Empire couldn't give any aid to Hammerfell.

At some point, the Thalmor leaned on the Empire to have their agents shut down Talos worship. The Empire, reduced to about three provinces, can't really say no.

Then the Thalmor pretended to loose in Hammerfell.

Tryin' not to read Narf's post...but I just wanted to pop in and say that I will never ever again have a problem with the Dark Brotherhood.

Mainly because it doesn't exist any more.

Muahahahaha.

Is it possible to join the dark brotherhood? If someone is hired to kill me then, am I notified? I must know.

Quote from: beejazz;490483Is it possible to join the dark brotherhood? If someone is hired to kill me then, am I notified? I must know.

Yes, it is possible.

Once you're hired, I'm not entirely sure that they will take a contract to kill you.  However,

*SPOILER*



once I'd become embroiled with the Dark Brotherhood a loading screen did one of those pop-up factoids that said "Long ago the dark brotherhood held strictly to five tenets, but that is no longer the case" or something like that.  Basically, IIRC from Oblivion one of the tenets was "don't kill other DB members".  If they're not adhering to the old rules, then it may be that someone can hire the DB to kill you even if you're already a member.


*MORE SERIOUS SPOILERS*:














You get hired by taking a freelance murder job given to you (no shit) by an orphan.  He thinks that you are a DB assassin (he performed the Dark Ritual, the little scamp!) and compels you to murder the headmistress of a    an orphanage (who is a real superbitch anyway).  After you do this, a courier gives you a note with a black handprint on it and the words "WE KNOW".

The next time you sleep, just like ol' Lucien LaChance did in Oblivion, the Listener for the DB shows up, except she's dragged you to her hideout.  She has three people bound and gagged in the room and tells that the kid's Ritual had already been answered, but the Hand hadn't gotten to him to take the contract yet.  She tells you to make good on the problem you caused the DB, and orders you to murder one of her captives, and become a member of the DB.  

She's not marked as "essential", so you can instead kill her (which I did - I'm not down with playing an assassin).  This "Fails" the Join the Dark Brotherhood quest but initiates a "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood" quest wherein when you follow the directions (report what you've done to a guard) you're started on a very brief two-waypoint/one-mission quest line to kill everyone in the DB sanctuary.

Which I did.

The net result is fame (not in the same sense that you have a numeric score that increases like Oblivion had, just that a lot of people now know you and congratulate or thank you for wiping out the DB), and 3000 GP plus all the loot you pull out of the DB sanctuary...

@beejazz - I haven't played, I'm just repeating what I heard at the smoke pit today:  Yes, you can join, there's a kid somewhere who starts the questline which, I believe, leads to the aforementioned orphanage stuff.

I seriously think 60% of the people at the military base where I work are playing Skyrim every waking non-work moment and talking about Skyrim (and dreaming about it, and pining for it) throughout the workday.

It's stunning, really.  And depressing that my household is on a 'no new games' moratorium while we save up for a new (big) TV.   Christmas can't come fast enough.

Quote from: VectorSigma;490486@beejazz - I haven't played, I'm just repeating what I heard at the smoke pit today:  Yes, you can join, there's a kid somewhere who starts the questline which, I believe, leads to the aforementioned orphanage stuff.

I seriously think 60% of the people at the military base where I work are playing Skyrim every waking non-work moment and talking about Skyrim (and dreaming about it, and pining for it) throughout the workday.

It's stunning, really.  And depressing that my household is on a 'no new games' moratorium while we save up for a new (big) TV.   Christmas can't come fast enough.

What's the point of having a big tv if you don't have Skyrim to play on it.

Recently, I was wanted for stealing books from the Bard College. A dragon attacked while I was in Morthal. I was fighting the dragon, and so were the guards. Suddenly, a group of the guards turned from fighting the dragon and attacked me for being a thief. The dragon then killed us all.

Spoilers


for Dark Brotherhood






After killing the evil woman who ran the orphanage (quest gained in Winterhold from a boy everyone is talking about who is trying to summon the DB), the next time I slept in a bed, I woke up in an abandoned shack. A Dark Brotherhood assassin greeted me. She had 3 victims tied and bound. I was to figure out which one was the real target and kill them. I was told I could not leave the cabin until someone was dead.

You can kill any of the three, it doesn't matter which. Or you can kill all 3. In any case, you get to join the Dark Brotherhood.

I killed the assassin. By doing so, I could never join the Brotherhood, no matter what. I did open a quest line to wipe them out, though.

Quote from: danbuter;490529Spoilers


for Dark Brotherhood






After killing the evil woman who ran the orphanage (quest gained in Winterhold from a boy everyone is talking about who is trying to summon the DB), the next time I slept in a bed, I woke up in an abandoned shack. A Dark Brotherhood assassin greeted me. She had 3 victims tied and bound. I was to figure out which one was the real target and kill them. I was told I could not leave the cabin until someone was dead.

You can kill any of the three, it doesn't matter which. Or you can kill all 3. In any case, you get to join the Dark Brotherhood.

I killed the assassin. By doing so, I could never join the Brotherhood, no matter what. I did open a quest line to wipe them out, though.

That is the best quest.  Fuck the Dark Brotherhood.*



*=on this playthrough :)

Silly cultist assassins. You're stabable too. :)

Last day on the job + employees that love me = GameStop gift card.

Just picked up Skyrim. :D

Quote from: vectorsigma;490586last day on the job + employees that love me = gamestop gift card.

Just picked up skyrim. :d

one of us!  One of us!

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;490541Silly cultist assassins. You're stabable too. :)

When I enstabulate cultists, they stay enstabulated.

Playing a High Elf caster-type. Destruction is my highest skill so far, but I want to level up my Conjuration and Restoration more. I have not had too much trouble with most of the monsters. Most die fairly quickly due to dual spells, although some can still be tough.

I found it funny when I made a zombie of a bandit I had just killed and he turned around and attacked me.

Just a mere 12k away from training up to 70 in heavy armor...my dreams of a being a heavy armored stealth assassin get ever closer to realization!

I've lost a few quest goals under miscellaneous. Anyone else having problems like this?

Quote from: beejazz;490625I've lost a few quest goals under miscellaneous. Anyone else having problems like this?

They might have been completed. There's a few "Meet this person" ones, at least in the beginning.

Ok ok, Im interested.
 
Do you guys recomend the PC or Xbox 360 version?

PC. You will have access to all the fan-made mods. You will need a good graphics card (at least 500 MB).

PS3 has some major bugs right now, from what has been posted on Skyrim forums.

Haven't heard of any major problems on the XBox.

The fan mods make the game, IMO. In six months, they will have added a ton of new options that will never be available to consoles.

Quote from: Malleus Arianorum;490632Ok ok, Im interested.
 
Do you guys recomend the PC or Xbox 360 version?

PC.  PC PC PC.  Mods, bugfixes, console commands.  Go PC all the way.

Skyrim is a good game, but mainly because it's a big game. Alchemy is pretty pants and the mobs that level scale are way overpowered.

360 has an issue where running off hd install can cause textures to not load properly making the game not look hidef.

Definitely the PC version (spoken by someone who knows nothing of any other version).

So I finally get my l33t heavy armor no longer slows me down skill, and the very next ritual stone I find is is the Steed....armor no longer slows me down, anyway.

Hrm, gonna have to go get the strategy guide to avoid this sort of nonsense.

Level 36 wearing all ebony. You can level up pretty quickly from alchemy and smithing, which has the side effect of keeping you flush with cash, and well-equipped with swank gear. Just keeping on making potions of restore stamina and iron daggers and selling them.

I got sidetracked while doing the Gauldur quests into doing the College of Winterhold quests, since you need to do the first one to get into Saarthal. It turns out that as soon as you finish one batch of fetch quests another set pops up, but I'm a packrat anyhow. I also did the Hangover-inspired quest line, which was hilarious. The Tongue remains unslain - controller started to run out of batt, so I shut it off for the night before getting to him. I still haven't done any politics stuff or advanced the main quest very far.

In Oblivion, the Ayleid ruins & the related collector quests were the best part of the game, but there's not a clear successor in this game, both for good and for ill. The base level of quality in a dungeon is higher than Oblivion, but it loses the peaks of dungeon design that game had. I keep on knocking over barrows and Dwemer ruins and mysterious bandit caves anyhow. At a rough estimate, I believe I've discovered about two thirds of the locations (including cities) in the game right now, and cleared between a quarter and a third of them.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Labyrinthian, reforging the Gauldur amulet, advancing the main quest, climbing to Volskygge summit, and finally getting around to killing the Tongue. Probably.

Edit: Today I spent 13,000 gp on various expenses.

Something tells me those 'expenses' are training, I know I'm blowing close to 9k a level (and rising) to get my smithing up.

You make daggers? Have you found the spell that turns iron into silver/gold (transmutation, I think the name is)? I find that's a pretty good money maker, turning the latter into jewelry.

Quote from: Doom;490733Definitely the PC version (spoken by someone who knows nothing of any other version).

So I finally get my l33t heavy armor no longer slows me down skill, and the very next ritual stone I find is is the Steed....armor no longer slows me down, anyway.

Hrm, gonna have to go get the strategy guide to avoid this sort of nonsense.

I'd rather have that Heavy Armour perk and the Warrior stone, than that perk and the Steed stone.

Is warrior the one that gives 20% bonus EP?

That's nice, I admit, but in a game where everything auto-levels with you, getting experience faster isn't all that useful. The Steed also gives a bonus to carrying stuff (do you know if the speed bonuses stack? I'd really like to know).

I'm basically Tenser when it comes to loot, so carrying extra is still worth something. The other stones I've found haven't offered much, although I'll switch over to something that gives me better prices, perhaps.

I think im gonna pick a copy up on friday when i get paid since everyone i know of is currently addicted to skyrim like it's a new form of crack or meth :)

Quote from: Doom;490790Something tells me those 'expenses' are training, I know I'm blowing close to 9k a level (and rising) to get my smithing up.

You make daggers? Have you found the spell that turns iron into silver/gold (transmutation, I think the name is)? I find that's a pretty good money maker, turning the latter into jewelry.

I blow it on all sorts of things, training, potions (I carry around between 40 and 60 pounds of healing, stamina and magicka potions most of the time), mats, paying off bounties, NPC quest expenses, etc. I wobble between 6K and 25K on any given day. I have so much money that it doesn't really matter any more. In Oblivion, I used to use it to bribe everyone into loving me, but you can't do that in Skyrim, so it mostly just sits around.

I make daggers because daggers are cheap to make, requiring only a single iron ingot and two leather strips, but give the same advance to smithing as more complex stuff. Other than leveling, I mainly use smithing to make and upgrade my own gear. I have the transmute spell, but I don't need it and rarely use it.

I'm halfway through level 41 as of time of posting. Killed the Tongue, finished the Winterhold mainline quests and am just finishing up the fetch quests. Didn't get to Gauldur reforging. Started knocking over Dwemer ruins earlier today. My favourite so far is the trash disposal one that drops you into the centre of the earth, but I'm still waiting for a questline to take me to Alftand. Also, I'm trying to find who has the key to the shrine of Mehrunes Dagon. Killed a dragon priest while knocking over the biggest barrow in the game and now I wear his mask, which gives me +100% magicka regen.

I think I overestimated my number of locations discovered. Based on some work today, I've discovered only a little over half the locations in the game. I'm clearing out the major mountain ranges dividing Solitude / Dawnstar / Winterhold from the rest of the province, and doing a final sweep around Riften to get mountain summits, barrows etc. Basically I'm trying to clear the eastern side of the map and then sweep over to the west in an arc through Dawnstar, Morthal and Solitude.

The Winterhold quests are the buggiest I've encountered so far. The perils of chronic exploration is that I've already picked up a couple of the items they want me to fetch, so triggers are not going off when they should. Nor can I dump the items because they register as quest items.

My build is still mainly a melee monster with a splash of archery and magic. Still using the same Skyforged sword (upgraded to Epic), which is pretty cool. I think of it as "my" sword, and fantasise about adventurers someday following my char's path, which leads me to seed dungeons with cool gear I have no use for. I dumped a glass warhammer I found earlier today in a chest in the heart of a barrow and imagined this band of future adventurers fighting their way through the ruin to find and recover the "Lost Warhammer of Rev".

Still having problems getting the shouts to activate. I have all of the freeze-solid shout's words, but still can't use it. I'm going to High Hrothgar to argue this out with the monks and see if they can help.

Also, I spent some time playing with the Atronach Forge and the Daedric Hand and couldn't get either to do anything interesting. Walkthroughs have nothing on either. :(

This is my current character, Martine. She is a Redguard mage in the Skyrim game. She's modeled on being a voodoo priestess.

She uses the Topless Forsworn Armor mod (skimpy instead of topless variant - there are 2 mods in it). I'm enchanting the armor for magicka, magicka regen, and destruction buffs. She's a heck of a lot of fun.

(http://home.comcast.net/~danbuter/MartineInWhiterun.jpg)

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;490846I think im gonna pick a copy up on friday when i get paid since everyone i know of is currently addicted to skyrim like it's a new form of crack or meth :)

That's not true.

I can quit whenever I want.

I've found a quest that, disappointingly, seems to be bugged. Head to Solitude Court sends me to the steward therein, but nothing happens when I talk to him. The dialog options (of which there are 2) change nothing, neither does talking to anyone else present including the Jarl.

I know it's a complex game, and the quest may lead nowhere, but come on Bethesda; enough of this shit.

It's possible you may have to talk to somebody else either beforehand or afterwards, its also possible youve done something outside of the quest thats caused it to not flag properly...maybe go check the wiki(im sure there is one) or flick through a guide in the local Game next time your near one and see if you missed something instead of calling it bugged.

Maybe, but there are a lot of little bugs floating around. Bethesda should have worked on the game for another few weeks before sending it out. First patch is next week, though. Hopefully, that will fix a lot of things.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;490923It's possible you may have to talk to somebody else either beforehand or afterwards, its also possible youve done something outside of the quest thats caused it to not flag properly...maybe go check the wiki(im sure there is one) or flick through a guide in the local Game next time your near one and see if you missed something instead of calling it bugged.

Um, no.

I have followed the quest precisely. it's bugged.

Ah fair enough as danbuter said the first patch should be out next week so hopefully that will fix a bunch of quests and not just that random glitch with the graphics that only affects certain console installs.

Game is getting pretty crash-a-rific for me now. I save every 60 seconds, give or take.

Any other game crashed this often (not even counting the bugged quests), I'd have given up a long time ago, but there sure is much fun here. I can't decide if I should finish the game, or just start over (I used the cheeseball iron knife-making trick to level my smithing way too easily, next character will not be so exploity, admittedly tough in this series of games).

You're the first report I've heard anywhere of it being THAT crashy.

Sorry, man.  That sucks.

Found my first bugged quest today, ill met by moonlight breaks if you dont kill the elk before it buggers off up the hill and gets jammed into an area you cant reach...hopefully they fix that at some point by changing its route pathing or make it turn around once it gets to the part where you cant go any further, the upside of sorts is that now i have a random lycanthropy curse due to the ring i was given which comes in handy when i change during battles.

Anyone know how i can recharge my magic axe? not sure which type of soul gem it needs or if i need to be a certain skill level or have a certain perk to recharge weapons(its the one you get from the jarl in whiterun)

You just need charged soul gems, any will work.

I recommend starting with petty gems (works well enough on the early/mid weapons). Select your weapon, hit 't', use a down arrow to get to the bottom of your charged gems list. The highlighted gem will put a pale blue line in your weapon's charge-meter, to let you know how much charge you're getting before you use the gem.

Get 'soul trap' as a spell to charge gems, or, far more conveniently, a weapon that automatically casts it when it hits something (switch to this weapon when your enemy is weak, or to pound weak weak enemies).

There is a mod in the works to make magic weapon enchantments permanent, so you don't have to worry about soul gem recharges.  I will be using it, that's for sure. I hate charges on weapons.

I'm sort of on the fence about these charged weapons.

One the one hand, it's part of the whole Elder Scrolls story; I couldn't even begin to count the quests/books/ideas that have come from the whole black/grand/whatever gem concept. It's a hefty hunk of the milieu.

On the other, it's more of a hassle than fun, and getting Azura's item just so I don't have to lug around 5 lbs or more of gems "just in case" I don't accidentally soul trap a lesser soul into a grand gem is annoying...and I end up doing it anyway.

So far this is less buggy than previous efforts by Bethsoft, at least for me.

I've had three or four complete crash-to-desktop issues, and one totally bugged quest chapter (which fixed itself after I went off and did other things...basically during the main quest someone I was supposed to meet started attacking me for no reason rather than continuing the quest with me)

Those and the Lydia as wife bug (which you can fix with a console command) are it thus far.

Skyrim has consumed my nights it seems. I just love faffing about doing anything but the main quest.

If you want a follower thats tough as nails then head to Falkreath and start the daedric quest with the dog barbas, as long as you dont finish the second part of the quest straight away(it's on the other side of the map so a fair old trip) he stays with you and kicks major arse(lil guy killed a dragon solo before i could fire a single shot at it beyond my shout to bring it down) he may get abit less usefull as you get higher levelled though but for low-mid range i'd say he's one of the better followers especially being immortal.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;492515So far this is less buggy than previous efforts by Bethsoft, at least for me.

I've had three or four complete crash-to-desktop issues, and one totally bugged quest chapter (which fixed itself after I went off and did other things...basically during the main quest someone I was supposed to meet started attacking me for no reason rather than continuing the quest with me)

Those and the Lydia as wife bug (which you can fix with a console command) are it thus far.

Man, I envy you, quests are bugging out all over on me anymore. Latest was the red nirnroot quest--the marker would NOT show up on my map. It did for  a while, then vanished. I had to, from memory, mark it, and then run around until I found the farm. My follower simply vanished, so I consoled her back...now I have two followers as the 'old' on reappeared after a few days. I had to console the briar heart quest (and I'm still stuck with quest item briar hearts even after turning the one I needed in).

Still playing, still having fun, but I'm getting quite a collection of console commands that I need for repairing snapped quests....

Losing momentum, as I tend to do in longer RPGs.  Fallout 3 I managed to kill off in a week, but I stuck to the main quest.

Otherwise, Beth games are a weird thing for me.  I'm not sure I'd consider the game part of them very good (certainly not as compelling for me as, say, Borderlands or Mass Effect in terms of moment-to-moment play), but they do build very compelling "experiences" over time.

It's funny, because I've been playing Ultima 1 on my netbook, and graphics and specific mechanics aside, the skeleton of the larger game is fairly similar, which I think is both a blessing and a curse for Beth games.  A blessing because you can give the player a larger sandbox to play in.  A curse because that sandbox, by the nature of CRPG design, is less able to respond to the player in a consistent way, both in game-terms and in in-game terms, especially now that people demand such high-end graphics and technology (compared to say, Dwarf Fortress, which kicks most modern games asses in terms of emergent craziness).

I'll definitely finish the main quest.  And it is fun most of the time.  But I went in saying I was going to do as much as possible since I flew through the Fallout games, but the more I play, the less I feel like I want to do that.

*edit*

Actually, just beat the main quest...level 15, 16 hours played.  Was not expecting it to be over so fast.  I guess they went for breadth, since I remember the main quests in the Fallout games taking at least 20+ hours.

Guess I'll leave it installed for now and come back to it when I get bored of other stuff.  Can't let 300+ hours of game go to waste.

Theres the questlines for the guilds and the civil war stuff aswell(which is sort of the second main questline) so still plenty to deal with if you snoop around the towns and cities.

I'm starting to think the quest stuff is overdone more than a little. I'm level 48ish, still haven't beaten the main quest, and anymore I try to avoid interacting with and talking to people because I'm so overflooded with quests that I have to flip through a list to find the quest I want.

I know, it's an odd complaint...but the end result is still that I'm avoiding interacting with the world. That, and I'm carrying around crap from bugged quests that I can't get rid of.

Hopefully many of the quest bugs will be fixed in January. I have to say BethSoft's turnaround time on bugs kind of sucks. I'd much prefer small bug release patches every week, than one big patch every month, especially if that big patch isn't tested and breaks the game. I think sending out a weekly patch with a few easily tested bug fixes each week would make most customers happier.

Theres another patch next week to fix the dragon bug and a couple other things that should have been fixed last week, but yeah a weekly or semi weekly patch would be a better idea than every month or so especialyl where quests fixes are concerned as im sure alot of people will get sick of not being able to finish those or the glitches with quest items far sooner than monir issues with dragons flying backwards etc.

Modders already found the issue with the Resistances that was bugged by Patch 1.2. Apparently, a dev misspelled resistance (which was name of the object in the code). I have no idea how a simple debugger didn't find that.

Have they removed this patch? I haven't played in a week, too busy training muslim terrorists in Constantinople.

Nah they're gonna patch over it sometime next week to hopefully fix any of the weirder bugs they missed or broke more.

In stranger news i had a random sabretooth cat body fall out of nowhere earlier whilst wandering around the wilderness minding my own business...im guessing that would be the one that fell through the floor the other day, though i did see a mammoth attacking something earlier so maybe that was what it was?

It's a bit hard to take this game seriously when you can, and indeed muist, swim through arctic waters while dressed in heavy armour.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;494250It's a bit hard to take this game seriously when you can, and indeed muist, swim through arctic waters while dressed in heavy armour.

Your character can be an Elf and drink the souls of dragons. Next?

We don't accept every single possible contrafactual element equally. Just because some media assumes the existence of elves, and explains that existence, doesn't mean we are also expected to accept every possible contrafactual circumstance, from aliens to anti-gravity to the spontaneous generation of flying purple elephants.

Skyrim assumes elves and dragon-soul eating in the milieu, and explains them. It does not assume or explain being able to swim in freezing water while carrying hundreds of pounds of equipment and armor. Hence, the entirely understandable strain on one's suspension of disbelief.

You have a weight limit that increases via building stamina so yeah its built into the games fundamental rules that you can do that sorta thing as part of being a big damn dragon soul drinking hero.

Quote from: Kaldric;494324I'm a nerd!

What he actually said. Seriously, if something like that really bothers you...

Just hit level 50. Falkreath, some of Markarth, Bard's College, Thieves, Dark Brotherhood, and main quest still remaining. Haven't finished the Gauldur thing yet (keep on getting distracted), or started the politics.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;494336Just hit level 50. Falkreath, some of Markarth, Bard's College, Thieves, Dark Brotherhood, and main quest still remaining. Haven't finished the Gauldur thing yet (keep on getting distracted), or started the politics.

Damn. You've got days worth of playtime yet.

The only reasons ive been to falreath and markarth is because of getting lost and also that darned dearic quest thats basicalyl the hangover done elder scrolls style. ive managed to mostly avoid the questlines there with the exception of the one that lets you have barbas as a follower and that broken great elk one(that they really should either change the route it run away in or else add a timer before it resets).

Quote from: danbuter;494339Damn. You've got days worth of playtime yet.

I have a personal goal of knocking over every barrow in the game. I currently have four of the dragon priest masks from it (Morokei, Volsung, Rahngot, Otar), and I think I know where at least two others are.

I spend a lot of time basically just wandering around, going from icon on the minimap to minimap. It's pretty fun, though a bit slow.

I just hit 20 the other day. The only quest line I've completed so far has been with the Companions. I decided to cure my lycanthropy, tooled around in some dwemer ruins, got killed by a bunch of giants and I've just now started the Forsworn Conspiracy quest, although I think I mght put that on hold for a bit because I just found out you can get a dog and that sounds really cool.

Quote from: Kaldric;494324Skyrim assumes elves and dragon-soul eating in the milieu, and explains them. It does not assume or explain being able to swim in freezing water while carrying hundreds of pounds of equipment and armor. Hence, the entirely understandable strain on one's suspension of disbelief.

Welcome to the world of modern graphics and AAA game development.  Resources are spent on "teh shiny", and so you get stuff like swimming in heavy armor, or like in Deus Ex, where you're asked to break into a morgue, and once in, none of the police question who you are.  Or you could give it all up and play Dwarf Fortress, which has so many discrete subsystems interacting the emergent complexity and detail is beyond ridiculous and is almost soul-crushing.

But it's a good thing immersion in games isn't completely dependent upon SoD, so it doesn't bother me much.

You have a lower, or simply different, threshold for suspension of disbelief. Nothing wrong with it.

I'm not saying it doesn't kill SoD, I'm saying that immersion in video-games and other media isn't about SoD, it's about flow.  The frame never magically drops away -- that's not the point of it, especially because of all the cues and signs that what you're experiencing is merely media.  There isn't a point where you forget you're just playing a game.

I find Borderlands to be extremely immersive, but it's got meta-game out the whazoo and a very unrealistic presentation.  The whole 'realism' thing in video-games is pretty misguided, and I think swimming in armor is a pretty minor thing given all of the inconsistencies you experience in nearly every RPG, especially since CRPGs cannot respond in a consistent and logical manner to all of your actions, and the point of most RPGs is to have choices with weight to them.

It's all about the play.  If the play is satisfying, then concerns about story or minor inconsistencies in the environment tend to fade away because you're wrapped up in the experience of the game regardless.  Skyrim manages to be a pretty responsive environment even in spite of its technical limitations, and so I'm more willing to forgive arctic diving in heavy metals because the rest of it is just that much fun.

Also, putting in such a limitation on swimming probably wouldn't add much fun to play.  Having to strip/drop most of your inventory every time you encounter water isn't exactly fun.

I'm not sure we're using the same definitions of immersion and suspension of disbelief.

Every game is going to have its quirks and rules changes merely for convenience.

The water thing is odd, but, to be fair, you can play the whole game with only one place where you "need" to go into the water.

They could have just had a "strip for water" toggle, for convenience sake. Seeing as you can't fight under water anyway, the only real gaming advantage is armor, and slaughterfish aren't even a threat to a naked adventurer of any levels.

There are plenty of things that could use improving even in a great game like Skyrim, but the water goofiness is not near the top of that list.

I realise it's a fantasy setting but when i'm at the coldest point on the map and a courier dressed in only a loincloth comes up and hands me a note I just laugh.

The level scaling on the other hand isn't so funny.

Quote from: Kaldric;494407I'm not sure we're using the same definitions of immersion and suspension of disbelief.

I think we are, but I' just from the school of thought that doesn't believe the purpose of media is to foster a suspension of disbelief.

I think i'm done with this game. The ridiculously overpowered mobs that appear just ruin it completely. They take no damage and can kill you in 3 hits, if that. Fucking stupid way to design a game. You think they'd learn after the mess taht was Oblivion.
I got to the Azura star mission where you go inside the artifact and get clobbered by 3 fire wielding demon dudes. Absolutely appalling game design. Yet again though it's 'shiny shiny!' for the masses who will excuse any old crap.

It's "shiny shiny" for the masses because it's too hard?

Uh...ok.

Peregrin, it was more the general sense that we were talking past each other. I get the feeling that what you are calling 'immersion' is the very general kind of semi-hypnotic state that accompanies any task that requires a certain steady amount of concentration. What others might call 'immersion' is a specific type of it, specific to certain ways of experiencing fictions.

The definition of 'immersion' specific to role-playing for many seems to require the assumption that what you're immersed in isn't a only task, but a fictional milieu, and suspension of disbelief is a requirement for that. Can't immerse in a fictional milieu if you're constantly shocked by things that don't seem to fit.

Thus, you can be immersed in Skyrim as a task - a videogame, in the same way you can be immersed in Pac-Man. Or driving, or washing dishes.

Whereas the immersion specific to roleplay, and certain kinds of media, seems to require that you suspend disbelief - because to do otherwise would break the immersion.

Thus: You can be immersed in a film without suspending disbelief. Perhaps you're immersed in an impromptu analysis of the mise en scene, lighting technique, whatever. This type of immersion is not the type of immersion sought by most filmmakers, I would argue.

You can be immersed in a game without being immersed in the fiction of the game. If you're immersed in Skyrim as a videogame, swimming across a freezing lake in heavy armor won't break that immersion. If you're immersed in Skyrim the fictional milieu, it might.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;494465I think i'm done with this game. The ridiculously overpowered mobs that appear just ruin it completely. They take no damage and can kill you in 3 hits, if that. Fucking stupid way to design a game. You think they'd learn after the mess taht was Oblivion.
I got to the Azura star mission where you go inside the artifact and get clobbered by 3 fire wielding demon dudes. Absolutely appalling game design. Yet again though it's 'shiny shiny!' for the masses who will excuse any old crap.

I agree the auto-leveling stuff, while improved from Oblivion, still has a ways to go. Now that I'm level 51, I'm mostly just victory lapping through a few hundred side quests before deciding whether or not to start over.

I hope there's a mod that slows the leveling down to a crawl, I can't control it in this game like in Oblivion.

QuotePeregrin, it was more the general sense that we were talking past each other. I get the feeling that what you are calling 'immersion' is the very general kind of semi-hypnotic state that accompanies any task that requires a certain steady amount of concentration. What others might call 'immersion' is a specific type of it, specific to certain ways of experiencing fictions.

No, I get that.  But I also don't believe in immersion the way most describe it for role-playing, either -- I think the SoD definition of immersion is a bad one.  It's an oversimplification of how people relate to media of any kind, including fiction.  Western art has generally moved away from classical immersive ideals.  The reason people "get into" movies isn't because they're attempting to eliminate the frame that separates the real-world from the fiction, or references to it, but how the space between frames, between our world and the imaginary world, interact.  SoD pre-supposes that people in the state are unaware of the frame, when in fact we're always aware of it.

Alright then. What I call things that "break suspension of disbelief" aren't actually doing that. They're just so glaringly inconsistent with the expected, or previously established, experience, that they shock me out of any semblance of immersion. Like cutting yourself on a hidden knife in a sink of dishes.

Or, perhaps, the "uncanny valley" phenomenon. Skyrim attempts to create a virtual reality. The closer we come to things that look and act 'real', the larger and more glaring the discrepancies become.

Quote from: Kaldric;494500Alright then. What I call things that "break suspension of disbelief" aren't actually doing that. They're just so glaringly inconsistent with the expected, or previously established, experience, that they shock me out of any semblance of immersion. Like cutting yourself on a hidden knife in a sink of dishes.

I'll agree it can be annoying if it clashes with your expectations.

QuoteOr, perhaps, the "uncanny valley" phenomenon. Skyrim attempts to create a virtual reality. The closer we come to things that look and act 'real', the larger and more glaring the discrepancies become.

That I can agree with as well.  It ties into 'hypermediacy,' which is one of the limitations of digital media.  Those discrepancies are present in almost all media, but combined with the fact that digital media is constantly changing and being replaced by new technology, it makes us always aware that what we're experiencing is artificial.

Although it doesn't help that the expectations of the industry have shifted towards making art more important instead of the gameplay experience, so you get less development time spent on emergent systems in games like Skyrim, or boring railroads like in RAGE.

I think there's an interesting discussion here, especially as it pertains to suspension of disbelief/immersion in tabletop roleplaying games. Probably not super relevant to this thread, though.

Quote from: Peregrin;494470It's "shiny shiny" for the masses because it's too hard?

Uh...ok.

No, because it's the latest 'must have' game. People like it because the gaming media tells them to. Same with all the top AAA titles, no matter what their flaws are or how shit they might be.

The game isn't difficult, but the level scaling breaks the game where it's used. Some mobs are just broken, plain and simple. There was a kahijit bandit leader in a mine that wielded a big warhammer. I could barely tickle him with ANY offensive move/power, yet he needed only to land 2 hits and i was killed - and we aren't talking less than a level 20 character either (can't remember exactly). I was only able to beat him because he glitched and got stuck so i could hit him with arrows (many, many, arrows).

It would also help if the zoom aim perk (archery) worked properly. As it stands it slows you down, as you notch and raise your bow to fire, as well, so there isn't much gain. The whole point is to make you fire quicker, but you don't. I've also had enemies dodge arrows mid flight like jedi.

Quote from: Doom;494493I agree the auto-leveling stuff, while improved from Oblivion, still has a ways to go. Now that I'm level 51, I'm mostly just victory lapping through a few hundred side quests before deciding whether or not to start over.

I hope there's a mod that slows the leveling down to a crawl, I can't control it in this game like in Oblivion.

If there is, it won't be for the 360 version.

It's a shame because the rest of the game is pretty good. It's too big a setting with too much to be perfect, but the level scaling just stands out because the rest of it is so good, and it spoils it.
It's also one of those games where certain builds just fare markedly better than others. Low level arhcery, for example, is hopeless. Similarly a mage, until he can improve his magicka/regen enough, is screwed. I learned this fighting dragons because you have to rely on healing magic as well as your offensive magic. When they attack (which is anytime and always when they land right up until they launch into the air again) the only thing you can do is dual wield heal. It's also difficult to see where you are while the dragon is trying to burn your face off because the effect blurs the screen around you. I find that really annoying.

Quote from: Kaldric;494550I think there's an interesting discussion here, especially as it pertains to suspension of disbelief/immersion in tabletop roleplaying games. Probably not super relevant to this thread, though.

I've hashed it out here before on the TT forum, but I can't for the life of me remember the specific threads -- I'd have to poke around the search function.  Although my own ideas may have changed slightly since then.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;494558No, because it's the latest 'must have' game. People like it because the gaming media tells them to. Same with all the top AAA titles, no matter what their flaws are or how shit they might be.

Actually, I hated Oblivion quite a bit, and grew bored of Beth's take on Fallout after finishing the main quest in each despite lots of unplayed quests -- I went into Skyrim with extreme skepticism.  The fact that I'm still enjoying the game past completing the main quest is a surprise to me.

*edit*

Also, no one likes RAGE, far as I can tell, despite it being by id and making appearances in other pop-media before its launch (like in the show Breaking Bad).

And what Ramrod says is true.  Two-handed is mad DPS, as some MMO players would say.  Your best bet is something that stacks extra damage, especially if it adds ongoing effects.  A normal sword can be weak against tougher opponents, but adding a 20/30 Fire Damage + Ongoing will soften them up nicely.  If your blocking skill is too low to do any real good against their attacks, then dual-wielding enchanted blades might help.

Oh, and anything to soften them up before you get in melee range.  Scrolls are great for this if your magic skills aren't that high.  Dropping a fireball or shock attack on a mob before engaging always helps.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;494558The game isn't difficult, but the level scaling breaks the game where it's used. Some mobs are just broken, plain and simple. There was a kahijit bandit leader in a mine that wielded a big warhammer. I could barely tickle him with ANY offensive move/power, yet he needed only to land 2 hits and i was killed - and we aren't talking less than a level 20 character either (can't remember exactly). I was only able to beat him because he glitched and got stuck so i could hit him with arrows (many, many, arrows).

Dude, anyone wielding a two-handed weapon will wreck your shit no matter how big of a badass you are. I'm on my way to level 58, and playing on Master I still get trounced if anyone with a big-ass sword manages to catch me off guard.

QuoteIt would also help if the zoom aim perk (archery) worked properly. As it stands it slows you down, as you notch and raise your bow to fire, as well, so there isn't much gain. The whole point is to make you fire quicker, but you don't. I've also had enemies dodge arrows mid flight like jedi.

Actually, the point of the timeslow perk is to make it easier to hit targets that are either really fucking far away or moving - try hitting one of those Dwemer spiders without it. Jesus.

It's not the weapon that decides the outcome with these kinds of mobs. He just happened to be wielding a two handed weapon. It could just as easily be magic.

And if it was the weapon, that would suggest an even greater level of unbalance.

Bahahaha what game are you people playing?  "Mobs"?  You mean...like...3 enemies coming at you?  You don't have reservoirs of healing potions bound to the "1" key (whatever for the console players)?  You're not summoning your own shit to fight with?  You're not adventuring with a companion or two?

Psh.  I hear madden 2012 is pretty good, why don't you go give that a try.

"Mobs" stands for "mobiles", not actual mobs as in large groups.

That said, I kinda wish they'd tone down the graphics a bit just so there COULD be a few fights with actual swarms of monsters. I often miss those days of DOOM where there could easily be a dozen monsters attacking you.

Have you played any of the civil war missions?  I've easily had 10-15 Stormcloaks on screen and 5-6 of those rushing me at once.

All that plus my own allies.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;494465I think i'm done with this game.

Well thank Christ. Maybe now we don't have to listen to you whine about the game being too hard when it's your tactics (or lack there of) that really are the let down.

Quote from: IMLegend;494736Well thank Christ. Maybe now we don't have to listen to you whine about the game being too hard when it's your tactics (or lack there of) that really are the let down.

I wasn't aware that you had to read anything I wrote.

Though it's clear that you haven't as it's nothing to do with tactics.

Quote from: Peregrin;494705Have you played any of the civil war missions?  I've easily had 10-15 Stormcloaks on screen and 5-6 of those rushing me at once.

All that plus my own allies.

I did they invasion of whiterun mission and there was some random named citizen stuck in the ground calm as you like. It was like he was buried up to his waste.

Quote from: Peregrin;494705Have you played any of the civil war missions?  I've easily had 10-15 Stormcloaks on screen and 5-6 of those rushing me at once.

All that plus my own allies.

There may be some fight, somewhere, where there is a mob, but the vast majority of the game is nowhere near that. I mean, c'mon, why not have half a dozen rats at some point? I think the most I've seen at once is 3, with another nearby, and my character is like 58th level.

I'm replaying now as a mage...man, it's amazing how magic has sucked so hard over every game in the series. I find my new character slowly evolving into my old character (stealth/archery...old character started as 1H melee, but archery is just too necessary, and I don't have the discipline not to abuse stealth), even as I piss away more and more points into trying to be a semi-capable mage.

OK, I really like Skyrim. The wife got it for me for the holiday.

Killed one Bloody Dragon, now every time I meet one, I start wounding them, and they fly off... Archery ftw!

The Dragon I killed... It killed two town guards under mysterious circumstances. They were left toguard the remains after it was stripped to bones. They died, then the dragon bones at the Western tower of Whitehall vanished (unlike the other beast and people corpses that litter the landscape).

Had some troubles with the ice troll on the mountain pass to High Hrothgar as well. Being fifth level, I couldn't killed it, and it would kill me with like two hits even though I had a companion with me (Lydia). Eventually ran past it to get up to the Grey Beards, and then on the way back as well. When I was 6th level I returned and killed it... finally!

Bloody Dragons! Quit flying away and well... fight!

There is a shout you can learn that forces dragons to land. You'll find it as you progress through the main quest.

Ive taken to tracking dragons to the dragon perches of late, word seems to have gotten around the dragon community that this new dovahkiin isnt to be messed with so i rarely see them whilst exploring and they seem to have given up on the towns, the upside to this is you get extra loot from the chest thats normally somewhere near the shout wall.

So, how difficult is this game for you guys? I do a lot of backpetaling, saving, and dying. I'm level 11 with level 40 destruction and conjuration, and ok restoration. Most of my other stuff is crappy.

I found bits to be a bit over the top, but I simply started taking a companion along for the stuff I found difficult and it all got better. Once I cracked 20, everything started working out. Getting the Lord Stone "blessing"  (+50 Armor and +25% magic resist) helped me out in the early stages.

Quote from: Cranewings;498717So, how difficult is this game for you guys? I do a lot of backpetaling, saving, and dying. I'm level 11 with level 40 destruction and conjuration, and ok restoration. Most of my other stuff is crappy.

Magic is extraordinarily feeble in this game (as it is in all Elder Scrolls games). Magic is great for supplementing stabbing things in the face, but, by itself, isn't so good.

You need all your magic just for the killing, which means you've no magic left over for all the great ways magic supplements everything else. I'm on my second time through with a destruction mage--you need the perk that stuns (you can get it at skill 40), and that will help MUCH. You're still going to need a bow, until you can finally stack enough reduced casting cost items together that you can seriously start to kill things just with spells.

If you are going to be a mage, use one of the many Destruction mods to make it worthwhile.

Quote from: Cranewings;498717So, how difficult is this game for you guys? I do a lot of backpetaling, saving, and dying. I'm level 11 with level 40 destruction and conjuration, and ok restoration. Most of my other stuff is crappy.

Not too difficult here... of course I have it set on Adept difficulty level. Level 9 now. I take it easy and mostly clear out an area as I get to it. Managed to kill two more Dragons, but one had so many HP it took like four or five tries before I got it right. There was some cool death scenes with that. My boy was watching once when the dragon nearly swallowed me whole. The Dragon then shook me like a rag doll, and spit me out onto the snow. I was dead of course...

Going to a distant unknown AREA or dungeon seems like a high risk proposition, so slowly working out from the main quest areas has worked well... with few mishaps.

Currently I can't kill Ice Wraiths yet. Two tries left me dead there, and in one, I hadn't saved the game for an hour or so... And the Giants are around, But I haven't seen one yet.

If I had to guess at the main quest line, I would say right now that the Imperials are the Dragons, or can shapechange into dragons, But I haven't made it to Winterhold yet, I'm currently in Dawnstar, on my way to the mages college in Winterhold, then South to Windhelm to chat with Ulric Stormcloak who undoubtedly knows a few shouts of his own he might be willing to share.

Every time I kill a dragon, I find some kind of Imperial armor???... And the Wizard of Whiterun, I don't trust him a bit... he seems very dragonlike. Giving the Dragonstone to him was a bad idea...

Anyone else notice the meteor shower that rained destruction from the heavens when the big black dragon attacked in the opening sequence? I'm working at making fire resist potions.

Alright, I'm glad I went wizard. I'm level 20 and have maybe three skill points not in conjuration, destruction, or restoration. I'm level 55 or so in the two attacking schools of magic.

Just a few minutes ago I obliterated a dragon. During the fight a random sabertooth jumped on me which I oneshotted with a two hand chain lightning. He then became my minion along with a fire spirit and familiar. While they kept the dragon busy I chain lightninged the shit out of it.

It was amazing.

I just found some rails and it pisses me off. I'm the god damned archmage. I go to a town run by a thieves guild. I get in with them enough to be let into their layer. Then, when we are done talking, I decided the archmage doesn't take jobs from thieves, so I attack them. I crush their entire group with twin cast lightning cloak and a couple dozen fireballs, but guess what: they can't die. If you get them to zero life, they just sit there for a minute, act hurt, and then get back up with full health.

I love killing assholes in this game, so why are these assholes safe on the train? I wouldn't mind so much if a screen popped up and said, "Gee, don't kill these guys. We need them later." Instead, they just become magically deathless, which takes me 10 minutes to figure out.

Whatever.

I couldn't do any of the Thieves Guild quests, the whole thing with Brynjolf getting you to frame that dark elf was bugged to fuck.

I really don't understand how people continue to heap praise on games that have huge glaring problems like this.

Skyrim is big, ergo it must be great.

I'm level 21. My biggest skills are Archery(53), Sneaking(52), Enchantment(55), Destruction(45). I typically wear Elven armor(helm, armor, bracers, boots) all enchanted. I tend to enchant everything that I end up wearing. For example my Elven Helm has Fortify Archery on it and I have 2 Elven Bracers, one Enchanted for Archery, the other one to increase my Magic. My Elven boots are enchanted to increase my Carry. Plus I have several other items(necklaces, amulets, rings) enchanted to do different things(sneak, carry, magic increase, etc.) that I switch out depending on what I'm doing. I haven't gotten too far on the main quest but I've done the primary Mage Guild quest and several side missions. I think I've cleared about 20 dungeons.

I use my bow for when targets are distant(duh) and switch to magic at close up, except for fighting Dragon Priests. I've fought 2 Dragon Priests, right before a fight with them(usually after I've died the first go around with them), I use my magic to buff myself up, i.e. increase my Magic and Health for 60 seconds and then I switch to using dual staffs. My favorite staffs for this are a Staff of Fireballs and another named Staff(can't remember the name) that does 25 Health and twice amount of to target's Magic). That usually takes them down.

I kept dying a lot until I started getting into the habit of watching my Health and when it gets low I go into my Items and eat a bunch of Food or drink Potions. I've learned to keep lots of food and to look for potions to pick up everywhere. So, now I don't die as much, unless something hits me with a big Health attack, like a Giant or something.

For Magic, I bought every spell that the Wizard in Whiterun has and I have several shouts now. I need to finish a couple of side quests and then get back onto the main plot quest, last thing I did for that was to go visit the Greybeards.

I only own one house but after I finish a couple of quests and go on the next part of the main plot then I'm going to go work on a couple of Jarl quests so I can buy another couple of houses.

Overall, I like it, probably the best Computer RPG I've played in a long time simply because of the open ended play style. You can go on quests or you can even just wander around finding things. I've found several things that aren't on any of the maps in the game and that don't show up as side quests(at least not so far) so there seems to be a lot to do. I haven't done the Thieves Guild yet but I watched my son go through part of it on his profile and want to go through it on my own, I'll just have to remember to leave Lydia behind for that one.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;499390I couldn't do any of the Thieves Guild quests, the whole thing with Brynjolf getting you to frame that dark elf was bugged to fuck.

I really don't understand how people continue to heap praise on games that have huge glaring problems like this.

Skyrim is big, ergo it must be great.

I haven't run into any bugs like that. Do you play on PC or a console? I play it on the xBox 360 and have loaded all the current patches so it runs good. There are still a couple of cheesy exploits(Dawnstar Invisible Chest and the respawning Oblivion book thingy) but they aren't bugs that stop game play. From what I've read on the Net, the people that complain mostly about Bugs are on PC.

the thieves guild quest isnt bugged you can fail it and still get into the guild, if the quest guy isnt moving to the pub thats a glitch but even thats workable with abit of faffing about(check the elder scrolls wiki it will tell you how), yeah theres a few minor bugs in certain quests but alot can actually be worked around.

Eh, I'm done with Skyrim. I can't stand how enemies scale. All of the sudden the game decided that rogues and guards can live through my fireball. What's the point of even working to unlock this and that if the game is just going to add hp to my enemies. Back to MW3 I guess.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;499531the thieves guild quest isnt bugged you can fail it and still get into the guild, if the quest guy isnt moving to the pub thats a glitch but even thats workable with abit of faffing about(check the elder scrolls wiki it will tell you how), yeah theres a few minor bugs in certain quests but alot can actually be worked around.

Oh it is bugged. Very bugged. Day or night, Brynjolf and the rest of the traders are stood around as per his accusing the dark elf of treachery.
The fix seems to involve attacking Bryn and then yielding. I tried that, it didn't work. In fact he just kept attacking me and then the dark elf joins in and starts attacking him! I've tried healing him and nothing. If he's killed he just respawns in the same bugged position. This ain't no minor bug. It's like a waxwork museum of fail. This is on the console so there's no getting into the game to tweak the script or whatever. It's a lost cause.

Never buy a Bethesda game on console. I thought this was common knowledge.

Must not be. I personally know of a couple of dozen people here in town that are playing Skyrim on xBox 360 and having fun with it and it is working just fine...

It's a random bug then coz i didnt have that issue, heck i havent even had the other supposedly bigger issue either in the Blood on the ice quest in Windhelm (which is supposed to be massively broken) so i guess these bugs arent in every console version(im playing on xbox 360 aswell) i do however do have the broken quest Ill met by moonlight(the great elk has run into an area i cant reach) but since its a deadric artifact quest im not that fussed at the moment as i have enough junk to carry around as it is without some light armour i'll never use.

Bugs by their nature are random and unpredictable, surely?

I think on balance DA2 was better. I liked the way it handled resource gathering and the fact you could choose what time of day you travelled/arrived at. Something that would make TES much better. Alchemy in Skyrim is too random to be of any use.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;499760Bugs by their nature are random and unpredictable, surely?

Well, some what. Typically for a "Bug" it is repeatable to some degree. I'm not saying that others aren't experiencing Bugs but there are many different factors involved. Some could be having a problem with their xBoxes, depending on what xBox they own. Could be a problem between the xBox O/S and the software. Who knows without having someone troubleshoot the code. All I know is that my son and I play it and several of his friends have been playing it. Now, most of the people that I know didn't start playing it when it first came out and from what I've read that when it first came out there were worse things that were happening that have since been fixed by patches and I know when we started a couple of weeks ago the first thing that happened was a pretty big patch/update download so I'm assuming most of those issues have been fixed. Now, I have seen several glitches, water effects that disappear and other graphics that look weird but that's not a game breaker for me as long as I can play it...

Bethesda has at least partially fixed all the game-stoppers as far as memory issues. The PS3 still has major problems for large saves, though. Compared to the problems at release, the game is much more stable now.

Over the next few weeks, Bethesda should release a patch addressing quest bugs. How successful they will be is anyone's guess.

Regarding PC's, modders will fix all the bugs that Bethesda doesn't bother to fix. These mod patches will not be imported into the main game. There are two huge bug-fix patches made by modders for Oblivion that have never been put into the game for console users, even though the fixes are done and wouldn't cost Bethesda very much to review and use.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;499760Bugs by their nature are random and unpredictable, surely?

I think on balance DA2 was better. I liked the way it handled resource gathering and the fact you could choose what time of day you travelled/arrived at. Something that would make TES much better. Alchemy in Skyrim is too random to be of any use.

Hrrrmm??? Alchemy is not random at all. Each time you start a game however, I believe the ingredients required to make a potion changes... so any attempt to catalog the potions for future games is destined to fail.

To find out one aspect of an ingredient, you taste it. Careful though, you can easily get hurt. Then to make a potion, mix two (or more) ingredients  with the same properties in the alchemy shop. The more ingredients you add (to a maximum of four) the more powerful the potion effect.

It's actually very nice, and learning to mix up a few potions especially healing and stamina have been a real benefit. The resist fire potion has also proved most useful when facing those nasty Dragons, who seem to like to spit fire often.

I'm pretty sure the properties are fixed from game to game, at least on the PC...I'm on my third character.

Alchemy is mostly income for me, and it's hardly random. The game keeps track of what what you've tried to mix with what, so you can systematically figure everything out in time. Granted, "trial and error" is expensive for vampire dust and void salts and such, but you can get plenty of awesome potions without those, and can often guess a few (I mean, c'mon, take a guess at what fire salts might be able to do...).

Alchemy recipes don't change (at least the base stuff). You can add in extra effects sometimes, but the base components remain the same. Also, only 3 ingredients per potion.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Potion/Poison_Recipe

http://www.seasonedgamers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=79045

Yep, I've found Cure Disease is a must have. I always carry 1. I tend to pick up as many ingredients that I find laying around and then store then whenever I'm at a house or other place that you can safely store things for later use...

Alchemy doesn't work because it's overcompllicated: lots of ingredients each with 4 potential (often contradictory) uses. That's why i say it's random.
For it to work you need to consistently and reliably source ingredients for the potions you want to build, eg health potions. That is a huge chore: the shops have piss all reagents (as well as potions themselves which, given how much money you end up with, are easier to buy than build otherwise), and tramping around the countryside for one spawn of nordic barnacles each time they appear is just not fun.
Far better is the way Dragon Age 2 did things.
But that's the problem Skyrim has. They over egged the pudding.
But the biggest problem the game has, beyond the superficial and highly repetitive gameplay, is the scaling. It's just ridiculous.

I used my alchemy to make a legendary bow. Mist of the time I just drink potions out of combat or sell them for nothing. It's just avdun little mini game with some benefits, but for fucks sake, it isn't a botany game. You don't need 100 skill ranks in alchemy.

Since you guys seem to be experienced Elder Scrolls players - I actually have the "Oblivion Game of the Year" edition for PC, and I've tried to play it a couple of times but for some reason it just dosn't grab me. This coming from a guy who will play Lord of the Rings online for hours...

Is it worth giving another shot? If so, any hints or suggestions? I know it's right up my alley with the whole sandbox thing, and I'm a huge exploration junkie, but... I just dunno. Maybe I'm broke in the head. :)

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;500202Alchemy doesn't work because it's overcompllicated: lots of ingredients each with 4 potential (often contradictory) uses. That's why i say it's random.
For it to work you need to consistently and reliably source ingredients for the potions you want to build, eg health potions. That is a huge chore: the shops have piss all reagents (as well as potions themselves which, given how much money you end up with, are easier to buy than build otherwise), and tramping around the countryside for one spawn of nordic barnacles each time they appear is just not fun.
Far better is the way Dragon Age 2 did things.
But that's the problem Skyrim has. They over egged the pudding.
But the biggest problem the game has, beyond the superficial and highly repetitive gameplay, is the scaling. It's just ridiculous.

If you pay attention to where ingredients grow you can cut out travel times significantly by only looking in those areas, as fr the 4 effects its generally 2 beneficial and 2 negative effects for each item and you gain 1 by eating the ingredient and the rest from mixing with other stuff its not exactly rocket science but its far from random...also check the elder scrolls wiki they have a recipe list and even hints on where certain alchemy items can be found.

Alchemy is easy, find ingredients make potions learn new effects make more potions profit.  The only random is in the initial testing phase, but that can be reduced if you want by looking up potions on line.

Quote from: kryyst;500371Alchemy is easy, find ingredients make potions learn new effects make more potions profit.  The only random is in the initial testing phase, but that can be reduced if you want by looking up potions on line.

Exactly! though im guessing ghosty isnt interested in solutions just in confirmation that he's a whiney git whittering on about a game being broken or somehow badly made for reasons that are more his own fault than the game designers yet again :)

Yeah, I just don't get it. I find alchemy/potions too easily abuseable and, except for healing/magic/stam, nearly worthless (that is to say, I'd rather sell them than use them, almost always).

But my third character is simply not using alchemy (each iteration I play with one less abuse, this time around it's without smithing, enchanting, or alchemy).

That's key to the game: if you don't like something, you can easily just not use it.

I've never had a problem finding ingredients but then again, I tend to not Fast Travel and collect everything that I pass by. If you Fast Travel, you rarely find stuff. Also, when I'm in a Dungeon, I collect everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, at least I try. I end up having to leave Iron or Steel weapons/armor. When I get overloaded, I go through my inventory and drop the things that have the lowest value/weight and I end up keeping all the ingredients that I find. The only time I Fast Travel is after I'm done with a Dungeon and I'm at the max weight that I can run at. By the time I get back to a owned House, I have a very long list of ingredients to store. I stock pile them until I need them.

Eh, I stuck to it. It really is a fun game. Level 34 with level 75 destruction. I do a lot of fireballin.

I feel like the hardest chore is filling up soul stones. I'm level 60 enchantment, 82 blacksmith. I'm dreaming of one day having dragon scale that has the effects of my archmage robes.

Okay, 15th level now... Have nine or ten dragons kills, with one giant kill... and killed by a giant once as well, with an epic death scene being clubbed hundreds of feet into the air while running away at full speed. On that one I decided to ambush the Giant, only to have a second come running to the aid of the one that I ambushed in a WTF "Oh Noes!" BBQ moment. Didn't last long there.

Giant hunting tip #1 - Make sure the giant doesn't have any comrades nearby before you whack em.

Lost exact count on the dragons, but have killed two now at the Wizard's college in Winterhold. With all the mages around, the dragon doesn't last long there, so I have to be quick to get in the killing blow.

I travel the countryside as well, instead of fast traveling whenever possible. This allows me to find areas that have specific types of reagents used for alchemy, so that's not a problem, and many of the accessory potions have been quite useful. I especially like the haggling potion and the smithing potion.

For gear and stuff found in dungeons my trusty companion can carry quite the load. Speaking of companions, I started with Lydia, the war maiden the Yarl of Whiterun had accompany me from after I finished a quest for him. She stepped into about every trap she could in the dungeon, and was a great fighter, sometimes jumping right between me and my foes and finishing them off rather spectacularly, while I was fumbling with a weapon, potion or spell. This proved to be her undoing however. She also messed up my sneaking around, by coughing alot, often at the most inopportune times... but she could carry quite a bit of loot, and I made sure she got all the good bling I found, and she would wear it looking all cool and stuff.

We made it to the Shrine of Azura, and the Dark Elven Priestess there asked me to do a quest to find the Star of Azura, so together me and Lydia tromped off into this new dungeon, partially submerged in a lake. What was there? Undead and Necromancers...

So we get into this partially flooded hold and are attacked in this chamber by three or four skeletons and two Necromancers throwing fire and ice. I ready a shout and nock one of my best arrows, and just when I let fly, she leaps out in between me and the skeletons and necromancer taking the full force of the shout, combined with a perfect head shot with the arrow and goes down...Usually she just lays around for while mewling and whining about "I Yield" and Blah.. Blah... Blah... but not this time.

While I ready another arrow, the necromancer animates her, and she attacks me in yet another another WTF BBQ moment. For thirty seconds, all I could do is stand and stare in surprise while she's really messing me up with that superior battleaxe that I gave her. So... I get out my flaming battleaxe and put her out of her misery... and she turns into a pile of salt... frigging necromancers! I hates them!

Heartbroken, I complete the quest alone... and return the star to the Elven Priestess on the mountainside. The Daedra Azura has me do yet another quest to cleanse the Star of Azura, and I do that alone as well. Returning to the Shrine of Azura, I'm trying to figure out just how I'm going to get another companion. Azura releases the Priestess from service at that time and she volunteers to accompany me, but looks all weak and mysterious and distant. I accept figuring I'll find someone better, A War Maiden with the battle prowess that Lydia had...

Turns out the priestess is an excellent battlemage that can summon Flame Autarchs at will, and has a flame shield that will do all kinds of damage to anything that approaches her (Even me), She shoots fire bolts and ice bolts in great numbers in combat, and she doesn't jump in front of me much in combat preferring to stand it place letting our enemies take damage to close to melee range, but it gets better...

Coming down the mountain, I give her all the bling Lydia had, plus some of the new stuff I found but I can't see any of it, cause it's all wrapped up underneath those dark priestess robes... oh well.

I get into Windhelm, and go to the Inn  there, Candlehearth I think, and she shows up there with all her bling only wearing a thong! Holy Cow! A Hawt Dark Elven Priestess!

Turns out, It she wasn't doing it to show off the bling, she simply disrobes whenever we have to swim across a river...

Went to trade Skyrim in today. No shop has any copies second hand, but that didn't stop them offering me £15 for something they sell on at £35! No wonder the shops in the UK are dying on their arse. All the sales clerk wallah can do is shrug.

Game Daddy, where did you find so many weak dragons by that level? I didn't start stumbling across that many till a little later.

Random dragons are random. It's been suggested that the more you fast travel, the more random dragons you will see.

Quote from: Werekoala;500251Since you guys seem to be experienced Elder Scrolls players - I actually have the "Oblivion Game of the Year" edition for PC, and I've tried to play it a couple of times but for some reason it just dosn't grab me.

If you don't like it, don't waste lots of time playing it. I thought Oblivion was ok, but I love Skyrim. Not exactly sure why.

Quote from: danbuter;500566Random dragons are random. It's been suggested that the more you fast travel, the more random dragons you will see.

That makes sense. Over half of mine have been after fast traveling.

I think a certain amount of time has to go by between dragon spawns... The longer between spawns, the stronger the dragon. Fast traveling just speeds that up. I have noticed when I'm slow traveling I'll get a Dragon icon show up in the compass long before the dragon appears...

Plus stealth is my preferred method of overland travel, Twice I have happened on a dragon engaged in fighting other creatures... once it was attacking frost spiders (but wouldn't attack the Ice Wraiths... Boo!), and once a dragon was attacking Giants (That's where I got my Giant kill... after the Giant(s)killed the Dragon we ambushed the last remaining Giant and finished him off before he recovered from slaying the Dragon).

The Dragons I face have been strong however double damage for stealth does awesome damage, and I can get three or four arrows into em before they actually sight me... Plus If I'm fighting a dragon, I don't just stand there and duke it out with them, I find some broken terrain and move around in it so the dragon is forced to maneuver to find spots to land and attack from... This buys me more time to do damage, and having one or more companions is invaluable. I gave Lydia the best quality arrows I could find and buffed her bow for her as well...

The Dragons don't fly away anymore... They usually notice when I slam them with a few arrows for double damage and spend some time searching the terrain to find me...

I don't look forward to meeting Mannicarthos, the Undead Dragon. The one that attacked in the opening sequence.

Also I noticed there's an achievement for getting married. Has anyone got married yet in Skyrim?

It makes me sad I can't have a companion. They just die so fast and all my attacks do splash damage so they stay dead.

I actually killed a giant when I was only level 9. I found a bow of stamina damage early on, so I could shoot it full of arrows, then walk backwards for 5 minutes crapping on it with my flame spell.

Quote from: GameDaddy;500588I'll get a Dragon icon show up in the compass long before the dragon appears...

That's for dragon walls. Usually located on the top of a mountain. After you kill the first dragon, you will always find a dragon at these locations. If you don't start the main quest, you can collect the shouts from the walls without fighting a dragon. Of course, later on, you will need to find dragons to kill in order to activate all of your shouts.

Quote from: Cranewings;500592It makes me sad I can't have a companion. They just die so fast and all my attacks do splash damage so they stay dead.

I actually killed a giant when I was only level 9. I found a bow of stamina damage early on, so I could shoot it full of arrows, then walk backwards for 5 minutes crapping on it with my flame spell.

If you are on PC, mark them as Essential, and they won't die.

-------------
Get the first name of your companion. For this example, I'm gonna use my companion Aranea Ienith. Simply type the following into the console:

help Aranea 4

Replace Aranea with the name of your companion, like Lydia for instance (help Lydia 4). Once you've typed that, there should be a bunch of stuff that pops up, or a little, depending on the NPC name. The relevant bit is where it says "NPC_: (00028AD0) 'Aranea Ienith'. Once you have this code , simply type

setessential 00028AD0 1

^Do not forget the '1' at the end, and do not forget to use the code for your specific companion instead of 00028AD0.

Nah, X-Box.

Quote from: Cranewings;500505I feel like the hardest chore is filling up soul stones.

A while back I found a sword that filled Soul Gems if the target dies within a certain amount of time after the hit. I disenchanted that and Enchanted a Elven Bow with it. With a high Sneak and the Perk that does 3x Damage if done while Sneaking means that filling Soul Gems is easy with one Hit(my Sneak and Archery are now over 60). I found that even the UnDead have Souls and they are pretty easy to kill with one shot...

Quote from: greylond;500669A while back I found a sword that filled Soul Gems if the target dies within a certain amount of time after the hit. I disenchanted that and Enchanted a Elven Bow with it. With a high Sneak and the Perk that does 3x Damage if done while Sneaking means that filling Soul Gems is easy with one Hit(my Sneak and Archery are now over 60). I found that even the UnDead have Souls and they are pretty easy to kill with one shot...

That's a pretty good trick.

I guess the fortunate thing is that I don't really need magic items. I'm just trying to up my enchantment so I can make some nice dragon plate. I've gotten it up to 60, and blacksmith to 97 now.

Anyone play a rogue? I feel like people never go to sleep in Skyrim.

My Son has his character's smithing up to 100%. Spend about 2 days last weekend working on it. He makes Dragon Armor and enchants it. It is interesting to me to see people's different play styles. He's playing an Orc using Heavy Armor and the biggest Melee weapon he can find. I'm basically a Archer(Thief)/Mage. I've broken into a couple of places to loot the place when the owner is asleep. I got into Warmaiden's in Whiterun one night and found them both asleep and picked their pockets.

Also, my son has pretty much forgotten the main quest and keeps doing "Sweeps" for the Riften Thieves Guild, says he's having a lot of fun just doing that.

I'm currently running only one character, a Breton mage who wears light armor and blasts stuff with dual lightning bolts. Having a blast.

Quote from: danbuter;501012I'm currently running only one character, a Breton mage who wears light armor and blasts stuff with dual lightning bolts. Having a blast.

Yeah, mine is similar. I have both fire and lightning, plus respectable conjuration and restoration. Just got my dragon scale finished, but I don't have the enchantment skill high enough to give up my archmage robes.

I think I spent over half the game doing stuff for and around the Wizard college.

He's ok at archery. I have a few feats in it, but it is mostly just for when I'm out of mana.

I beat it. Level 45.

I made it to 100 ranks of Destruction, Enchantment, and Blacksmithing. 60 or so ranks in Archery, Conjuration, Light Armor, Alchemy, Lock Picking...

The end of the game, and what lead up to it, was one of the most awesome stories I've ever played through. Great stuff.

Now to hand the game back to the owner and stay far away from it sense classes are starting Monday.

I can't stop playing Skyrim in my free time. I am level 74 now and still only done enough of the main quest to got Fus Roh Dah.

Soon .. Soon I shall finish the storyline. Then wait patiently for DLC and interesting mods and replaying as a pugilist (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw) just for the laughs.

I was given Skyrim as a gift from the real estate people who sold me my house.  Before I start, is it actually a game that can be finished or is it like WoW?

Theres an ending to the main storyline(well the 2 main storylines since the civil war storyline is like a second story alongside the whole dragons returning storyline) but getting there is something you can take your time doing whilst exploring the world and doing other side quests and hunting dragons or other creatures to skill up and gain levels.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;501940Theres an ending to the main storyline(well the 2 main storylines since the civil war storyline is like a second story alongside the whole dragons returning storyline) but getting there is something you can take your time doing whilst exploring the world and doing other side quests and hunting dragons or other creatures to skill up and gain levels.

Awesome, i just did not want to start something and not be able to finish it...

It absolutely can be finished but if you are like me I love running around and exploring everything I possibly can and that can take many (for me) fun hours :)

Quote from: tellius;501944It absolutely can be finished but if you are like me I love running around and exploring everything I possibly can and that can take many (for me) fun hours :)

Ohhhhh yeah, I like those kind of games, just not the ones lthat have no end in sight.

Star Ocean and the FInal Fantasy games I prefer...;D

Quote from: tellius;501944It absolutely can be finished but if you are like me I love running around and exploring everything I possibly can and that can take many (for me) fun hours :)

Thats pretty much the way im playing through it at the moment aswell :)

Except the part where Skyrim is on a completely new and separate engine from the last Elder Scrolls and undeniably contains new features not present in the previous installment.

EDIT: Nevermind.

Sounds like bethesda want to ensure everyone plays from the same hym sheet where certain game features are concerned not sure why they did this though as the memory thing is worth its weight in gold from what ive heard(my pc is shit so havent been abe to play the game on pc yet)

And, apparently, I can't spot dates on a web link. :o

Read Pundit's post on Necros. Apparently, only nerds and geeks get worked up over them (I bet this is true, actually).

What were you posting, as I'm interested, and it would be stupid to start a new thread.

Quote from: danbuter;516549What were you posting, as I'm interested, and it would be stupid to start a new thread.

The first patch for the game was poorly received, to say the least. Killed mods and the possibility to use more RAM, among other things.

Yeah, it definitely had it's issues. Things are better now, though the Creation Kit is buggy and really needs patched (mainly for stuff involved NPC actions). There are at least 1,000 mods already on the Nexus. Many are minor, but things are looking up now that the CK is out.

theres a beta patch for the creation kit on steam atm so they're on that.

The mod community for Skyrim is fantastic. I particularly enjoy new non-replacement followers, especially those of the animal variety.

Mmmkayyy... finally found something broken in this game. Maven Blackbrier.

Agent of the Thalmor, Agent of the Imperials. Immortal. Unkillable.

That's completely bogus!

I call foul! I thought the Radiant Quest system prohibited Railroading.

Woo Woo, chugga chugga chugga...

I'm getting off the train right now.

...and right back on. Oh Yeah! Totally going to get this!

Skyrim: Dragonborn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TRmdXDH9b1s)

My GOD, that is gorgeous. Now that I've finally updated my 5-year-old graphics card, Skyrim is soooo much prettier. If my work schedule would just ease up a bit, I might actually have time to play it.

I haven't been able to try out the toolkit at all, sadly.

A year on and I'm still getting tons of fun out of this game.  Thank you so, so much Bethsoft! :)

I'm totally forming a guild for the Elder Scrolls Online. Mostly made up of family members and friends. We plan on taking at least one Castle and holding it, just to get going!

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411 (http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411)

Quote from: GameDaddy;601121I'm totally forming a guild for the Elder Scrolls Online. Mostly made up of family members and friends. We plan on taking at least one Castle and holding it, just to get going!

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411 (http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411)

I hope I'll have a computer to run it.