The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Madame Adequate]

So do you have it? Are you playing it RIGHT NOW? First impressions go!

My first impression is that this looks pretty solid. I'm already confident in saying it's better than Oblivion. Whether I will match Alec Meer's statement on RPS that it's better than Morrowind I don't yet know - but I can at least see it as a feasibility, and that says something in itself.

420 dual wield magic erry day

[Loony BoB]

Going out for drinks after work but will play it after that. Looking forward to it. From what I'm hearing, there are pretty clunky controls and the menus aren't always clickable - what seems to be the influence of being a console port? I'm really hoping, however, that the modding community will fix all these things.

Is it true that the graphics "aren't much better than Oblivion's"? I'm hearing that a lot but going by the gameplay trailers I just can't imagine how that could be possible. Even with OOO and Natural Environments etc, Oblivion didn't look anything remotely close to how good the trailers looked. Is that just them playing on a console or an overpowered PC? Hopefully my PC runs it in high graphics without too much trouble... we'll see when I get home, anyways. :)

[Slothy]

Is it true that the graphics "aren't much better than Oblivion's"? I'm hearing that a lot but going by the gameplay trailers I just can't imagine how that could be possible.

From what I've seen of the trailers, screenshots, and now a stream that I'm watching at the moment, it looks better in terms of character models, textures, shaders, draw distance, and all of the sort of technical jazz. But from those same videos, the animation and physics look as terrible/unnatural as ever, which when you see it in motion makes it look a lot worse than the quality of everything else would indicate. In that sense I'd say it certainly doesn't look any better than Oblivion, but certainly not overall.

[Madame Adequate]

Animations are significantly improved. Still Bethesda, but you can at least stand to watch yourself in 3rd person view for a minute.

Overall the grafics are better than Obv. but not by a tremendous amount.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Buying it on Tuesday, I was going to wait until the DLC comes out & an inevitable game of the year edition but after watching the gameplay trailer I decided screw it I'm buying it now!

[Fuzakeru]

I didn't get it but my boyfriend, friends, and brother are all playing it. I sent this to my boyfriend as he plays this morning -


http://i44.:bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou:/27wwy9e.jpg

[NeoCracker]

Penny Arcade - Their Name Means Big (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/09)

[Paro]

I had to take a break. Been playing for the last 5 hours straight. I was doing the quest to see the Greybeards and almost got to their location when a ****ing Troll killed me. A wee bit discouraging. I'll play later.

[Jiro]

I almost out and bought it but decided I would just have to wait for the GOTY edition.

[Pike]

I'm trying to decide whether or not I should buy this and then hijack my brother's 360 for a while (as I don't have one of my own, and I don't think the PC version would run on my computer).

Cons: Would distract me from NaNo; would also distract me from everything else; would use money I could otherwise put into savings for a visit with Hux

Pros: SKYRIM

I can't decide :(

[Loony BoB]

Played it for some time now and the verdict so far is...

Graphics? Better.
Dialogue? Better.
Dragons? Better than Oblivion Gates.
Scenery? Far, far more varied - and, for me, that means better.
Fighting? Better, marginally.
Things to do? More than in Oblivion - ie, Oblivion + Crafting. No repairing, though, which I actually enjoyed in Oblivion for some reason.
Exploration? Far more interesting.

And now the worse stuff.

Menus/UI? Terrible. For some reason they have thought it best to simply display names and only detail weight/worth/etc. when you hover over them. When picking skills, moving around the constellations is a nightmare.

Dragon battles? Supposedly the enemies of yourself are meant to suddenly become allies when you fight dragons. So far, this has not been the case. While attacking a dragon, I have been obliterated by bears and trolls so far, and a bandit has been shooting at me with his bow. All while a dragon is attacking. Kinda sucks.

System integrity? Okay, this is my first use of Steam in forever and I honestly don't know if it's Steam or the game, but I am consantly being 'pulled out' of the game when it's windowed. On full-screen, it'll crash. I'm unsure if I should lower the settings because it runs smoothly enough and my RAM isn't being overused, nor is my CPU. It's genuinely frustrating. :(

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I'm going to buy it for Christmas. I've been replaying Oblivion (actually transferred my saves from 360 to PC because my 360 is crashing), just got into the Dark Brotherhood quests and they're awesome! I'm really looking forward to diving into Skyrim. I actually can't maintain interest playing Morrowind anymore, and I thought I was done with Oblivion, but I'm still really enjoying it. I always look forward to seeing what Bethesda will do next. It sounds like they're incorporating perks similar to Fallout 3, which should be pretty cool. I also heard that they're using many more voice actors for variety, including Christopher Plummer and Max von Sydow. Just bought an Alienware PC recently but I think I'll buy the PS3 version. Just wondering - which version do you think will be superior? I've found Oblivion on the PC much better than the 360, but you guys are saying the menus and UI are poor. Which version would have better menus?

[Slothy]

System integrity? Okay, this is my first use of Steam in forever and I honestly don't know if it's Steam or the game, but I am consantly being 'pulled out' of the game when it's windowed. On full-screen, it'll crash. I'm unsure if I should lower the settings because it runs smoothly enough and my RAM isn't being overused, nor is my CPU. It's genuinely frustrating. :(

While Steam has certainly had it's share of bugs and other issues over the years, my first instinct when encountering problems with a Bethesda game, especially a few days after release, is to blame Bethesda. Because honestly, they can't program worth a damn and I often wonder if they even employ any QA testers.

That said, you might be better off bringing the issue up on the Steam forums if they're back up now. They should have a Skyrim specific sub-forum that would be better equipped for helping with issues relating to both.

[Loony BoB]

I'm going to buy it for Christmas. I've been replaying Oblivion (actually transferred my saves from 360 to PC because my 360 is crashing), just got into the Dark Brotherhood quests and they're awesome! I'm really looking forward to diving into Skyrim. I actually can't maintain interest playing Morrowind anymore, and I thought I was done with Oblivion, but I'm still really enjoying it. I always look forward to seeing what Bethesda will do next. It sounds like they're incorporating perks similar to Fallout 3, which should be pretty cool. I also heard that they're using many more voice actors for variety, including Christopher Plummer and Max von Sydow. Just bought an Alienware PC recently but I think I'll buy the PS3 version. Just wondering - which version do you think will be superior? I've found Oblivion on the PC much better than the 360, but you guys are saying the menus and UI are poor. Which version would have better menus?
I got it for the PC despite having a 360 & PS3. For me, Elder Scrolls is two thirds about the vanilla game and one third about the mods that the community comes up with.

[Marky Tee]

i am thinking of buying this game kinda soonish
but ass my experience with rpgs is pretty much only final fantasy do you guys think i will enjoy it?

[demondude]

ass a fan of both games, I would say yes.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I'm going to buy it for Christmas. I've been replaying Oblivion (actually transferred my saves from 360 to PC because my 360 is crashing), just got into the Dark Brotherhood quests and they're awesome! I'm really looking forward to diving into Skyrim. I actually can't maintain interest playing Morrowind anymore, and I thought I was done with Oblivion, but I'm still really enjoying it. I always look forward to seeing what Bethesda will do next. It sounds like they're incorporating perks similar to Fallout 3, which should be pretty cool. I also heard that they're using many more voice actors for variety, including Christopher Plummer and Max von Sydow. Just bought an Alienware PC recently but I think I'll buy the PS3 version. Just wondering - which version do you think will be superior? I've found Oblivion on the PC much better than the 360, but you guys are saying the menus and UI are poor. Which version would have better menus?
I got it for the PC despite having a 360 & PS3. For me, Elder Scrolls is two thirds about the vanilla game and one third about the mods that the community comes up with.

That's an excellent point. I went through a phase where I downloaded a lot of mods for Morrowind but since so many conflicted with each other and created glitches I gave up on them. But I'm probably missing out on a lot of free content, so maybe I should try it out again. My new PC can handle Skyrim, so maybe I should get the PC version.


i am thinking of buying this game kinda soonish
but ass my experience with rpgs is pretty much only final fantasy do you guys think i will enjoy it?

Well it really depends - Final Fantasy and the Elder Scrolls are wildly different games. For example the battle system is real-time rather than turn-based, and you level based on actually doing things rather than experience points. Compared to a more structured storyline in an FF game, an Elder Scrolls game is a much more open-ended experience, allowing you to complete hundreds of quests without even touching the main storyline. You can play for hundreds of hours and still have content to experience, and as Loony Bob points out, mods add even more. And in Skyrim there apparently are infinite quests, though I have yet to see how that works. If you're not a fan of open-world games, you may be a bit lost. You'll have to try it out and see what you think.

When I tried Morrowind the first time I was completely lost, and I promptly sold my original copy, but this is when I was much younger and my tastes in games hadn't matured. People without experience in the series can wander around without knowing what to do, and might find the lack of structure daunting.

Give it a go, and see what you think! :)

[CimminyCricket]

Tl;dr

Have you tried riding a horse yet??

[Flying Arrow]

I've only played it for two hours so far, so I'm probably pretty pre-mature in stating that it seems like a significant jump from Oblivion. I mean, there are tons of lists people make about what's been changed, what's been improved, etc. Those aren't all necessarily wrong, but more a very clinical look at the game. Just experiencing it in action it just feels better than Oblivion, for whatever that is worth. Again, I've only had two hours worth of time with it (my girlfriend just had her first, 'it's only been an hour... wait, it's been three?' moment) but as far as the minute-to-minute experience with, it seems like Bethesda have really brought it.

My perspective: I quite enjoy both Morrowind and Oblivion. They've got their obnoxious issues, yeah, but they still nail their number one goal: letting you play around in a chillin' fantasy world. I was a bit less hot on Fallout 3, which I felt was probably tighter as a game system, but more problematic with bugs that mucked up or even canceled out quests - which are generally meatier than the average ES quest, making the bugs that much more devastating to actually enjoying the game. I booted it up a new file a month or so ago to give Bethesda's last generation of games a spin one more time, and the Sheriff Simms/Mr. Byrne thing went haywire almost immediately.


i am thinking of buying this game kinda soonish
but ass my experience with rpgs is pretty much only final fantasy do you guys think i will enjoy it?

People throw the 'RPG' phrase around too willy-nilly. It's not a catch-all term the way a lot of people think. FF and ES are vastly different types of games, the commonality being the presence of visible statistics and numbers for the player to muck around with (the 'RPG' part of most are referring to). My advice is to check out some clips on Youtube to see if you'd be into it at all.

[Madame Adequate]

Ahahahahahaha

>alt-tabbing a Steam game

Yeah that one's Gaben's fault.

[Skyblade]

There was a lot of hype about this game before it came out, but the more I listen to people who have played it, the happier I get that I cancelled my preorder. Not that it is necessarily a bad game, but it does seem as though it isn't living up to the hype. Nor has it bypassed the traditional Bethesda bug-fest.

[Laddy]

I actually think it's an excellent game.

The games looks incredible, imo. If not by realism, certainly by design. Which is why I adored Morrowind.

This game feels even moreso. Never before have I felt a world be so free, so alive, so colorful. The world is alive and you actually get immersed into a culture and a way of living. Watching wolves chase rabbits, walking in on a spouse argument, requesting songs from local bards, the game brings so many little things in that just makes it feel real. You feel less like a player and more like a tourist. Every inch of the world feels like it was crafted customly as opposed to the rather thrown-together Oblivion world.

The game is certainly not without its faults, primarily the god-awful interface. But it does one thing that I truly cannot put into words any other. With Skyrim, you need not to suspend disbelief; the game does it for you.

[Madame Adequate]

There was a lot of hype about this game before it came out, but the more I listen to people who have played it, the happier I get that I cancelled my preorder. Not that it is necessarily a bad game, but it does seem as though it isn't living up to the hype. Nor has it bypassed the traditional Bethesda bug-fest.

Er what? I've not seen a single person who has played it give it anything but the most glowing review. This is probably the only time I've seen simplification done properly, in that you don't miss what's gone because you're too busy with the great stuff that is there, just going out and having adventures and getting into wacky trouble and holy shit giants hit hard. I don't know what you've been reading but "The equal of Morrowind", "GOTY", and "This game is awesome" are at the lower end of the praise it's getting.

[Loony BoB]

The more I play the game, the more I like it. Although I'm getting towards the point that I have to start leveling in order to complete some quests, so I guess the proof will be in the next few hours of playing. I've reached nearly every town, now, too. I think I have one more to go. Still undecided about whether I'll go for Imperial Army or Stormcloaks... both have good arguments behind their side and I like to go for the side I feel has the most justification, at least in my first playthrough.

Just starting to fight vampires. I hate vampires. I wish I was fighting dragons instead. I've not had many of them... maybe I need to advance the storyline a bit. I've seen three and beaten two - one flew off into the distance after I heard it. The third I found near an Imperial camp, so had help to beat it. I'm wondering if I can beat one on my own just yet... only one way to find out!

[Tigmafuzz]

I'm alomst 60 hours in, have all enchanted Daedric and Dragonplate armor, and a Daedric sword and bow, with Incinerate and Thunderbolt magic. I somehow got the ability to turn into a werewolf, and have killed four dragons. I can't play for longer than three or fours hours at a time without getting bored with it or annoyed, but for the most part I love it. It's the best modern game I've played for quite a while, even though it feels more sandbox than Oblivion did.

[Meat Puppet]

200k+ players on Steam on the first day means, "PC gamers love console ports!"

Redeeming features:
1) Nice map
2) Possibility of a mod that makes children murderable

[NeoCracker]

First Elder Scrolls I've enjoyed. :p

I like there Perk Systerm (Probably inspired by Fallout, though very different in it's set up and Execution), going to Fall Out's superior Lock Picking system, the people look a lot more like people now, and the very first character you meet in the game is awesome.

I'm playing only so often since I don't actually own it, it's my buddies, but I am pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable it is.

Though in a few days it still takes a back seat to Saints Row. :p

[Necronopticous]

Have you tried riding a horse yet??
Horses seem even more broken than they were in Oblivion. You can literally climb 89 degree angle slopes. It's hilarious.

[Marky Tee]

I'm alomst 60 hours in, have all enchanted Daedric and Dragonplate armor, and a Daedric sword and bow, with Incinerate and Thunderbolt magic. I somehow got the ability to turn into a werewolf, and have killed four dragons. I can't play for longer than three or fours hours at a time without getting bored with it or annoyed, but for the most part I love it. It's the best modern game I've played for quite a while, even though it feels more sandbox than Oblivion did.

60 hours? it has only been out a few days lol

[Madame Adequate]

Ahahahahahahahaha I wandered into a Giant camp by accident and Lydia got hit so hard she went sailing into the air and I'm pretty sure she landed somewhere in High Hrothgar

Also holy fuck if you forego fast travel this game is huge.

[NeoCracker]

Easist dragon Soul ever. A giant killed the dragon before I realized it was there, it then got stuck in a spot, and I just used my Flame Archon (I forget the spelling) TO slowly kill it.

[TrollHunter]

...I want this game now. So bad. I'm hearing so much good things about it. May try to get it for pc come christmas time.

[Tigmafuzz]

I'm almost 60 hours in, have all enchanted Daedric and Dragonplate armor, and a Daedric sword and bow, with Incinerate and Thunderbolt magic. I somehow got the ability to turn into a werewolf, and have killed four dragons. I can't play for longer than three or fours hours at a time without getting bored with it or annoyed, but for the most part I love it. It's the best modern game I've played for quite a while, even though it feels more sandbox than Oblivion did.

60 hours? it has only been out a few days lol
It was leaked like 12 days ago.

[Loony BoB]

The leaked game must be a pretty different game, or you must be playing the game very differently to me. I've killed about six or seven dragons already and am still plodding along with Dwarven armour I recently made (because enchanted armour is still iron/steel at the moment for me).

[Flying Arrow]

Getting bored after going at it for four straight hours? If that's all I can say about it after putting 60 hours in, I'd say the game is a damn good one. I hope I feel the same way at that point.

Right now I took a break from the main quest and took a carriage up to Solitude. Really nice views!

[Loony BoB]

I have to say, the scenery is stunning. Just wandering around is something I quite enjoy doing... watching the clouds mix in with the trees on a distant mountainside, riding the river currents (just watch out for that big waterfall... turns out you can't drop that far!), exploring the heights of the mountains and the depths of the lakelands. I just love exploring in this game and it's often rewarding. =]

As for how many hours I play, I have this habit with the game - after a couple of hours of playing, I think "Okay, that's me done for a while. Save... quit... okay, let's surf the 'net or something." <five minutes pass> "I think I'll play Skyrim for a bit." <two hours later> "Okay, that's me done for a while. Save..."

[NeoCracker]

Alright, I'm a lucky bastard. Second time I got a Dragon killed by a Giant, this time I got to watch it though, and my god was it embarrassing. XD

I did kill two blood dragons alone though. One of them was on top of an Ice Mountain where there was also a Dragon Word, the Fear one. That guy was a fucking bastard.

Right now I'm working on my favorite quest in the game. The events following a drinking contest at a bar. Hilarity ensues.

[Necronopticous]

My favorite quest so far was helping the goddess Meridia at her temple, west of Solitude.

I bought my first house and decked it out. No time to settle in, though. Now I've got to transfer all of my crap from the abandoned shack I was formerly squatting in. Nice to finally be able to sleep in a place free of a rotting sabertooth corpse on the floor.

[Ultima Shadow]

Just bought me a house for 5000 hard-earned gold. Been playing for about 18 hours total so far, killed 3 dragons and 1 giant. I took the giant down at level 7, by using the basic fire and frost spells plus a bow, while rushing away from the giant's attacks whenever it got close. Took a veeeery long time to get it down.

Two things that really, REALLY has been improved are the ways spells work and the difficulty levels.

If you increased the difficulty a bit in Oblivion, enemies just suddenly took 20 times as long to kill. It didn't make the game more challenging the way it should, it just made every single battle incredibly boring.
Now, I can play on Expert, and everything still feels "natural". Enemies are tougher and do more damage, but they can still be killed easily enough.

As for magic... the very first destruction spell - flames - is more interesting/works better than any spell in Oblivion, pretty much. There are less spells, but each is unique and useful, unlike Oblivion where there was like 400+ spells, out of which 97% were useless copies of another spell.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Just started the PC version - don't have my new PC yet so it barely runs on the lowest graphical setting on my old one, but at least I can try it out. Bought the PS3 version but I'm saving it for Christmas. Created a Khajiit called Gaunt One. I see what people mean about the menus, they're very counter-intuitive. As far as graphics go I've noticed a pretty big improvement over Oblivion. Haven't escaped from the chopping block yet, had to stop for supper. So excited!

[escobert]

Got it on release, only about 8 hours in.
Already have a house in Windhelm.

Games fun so far wish I could play more, I like it better than Oblivion.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Just started playing, immediately it feels like a cross between Oblivion & Fallout 3, which I like :D

[Shattered Dreamer]

Having played on a bit, I'm level 10 but starting to feel underleveled for even some of the miscellaneous quest. Haven't done too much of the main story. I've killed 3 dragons, one of which took 45 mins he attacked me around Drelas Cottage, another one took me about 30 seconds, it got itself trapped in a forest & I kicked it's ass! Tip your weapons & arrows with Frostbite venom (you get it from spiders) and it makes fighting the dragons alot easier!
I've avoided about 2 more. Getting bitched slapped by a Giant made me laugh pretty hard I have to say. And whatever the hell those tree people monsters are I fucken hate them

[Loony BoB]

I've only been in one scuffle with a giant, and it wasn't really even a scuffle - basically, I didn't notice where I was, he turned up, stood on me and I lost about 90% of my health and gained a level in heavy armour instantly. Then I ran. xD

Dragons I find kind of easy, really. Most of them have a certain rock formation or sheltered area that you can hide in when they are doing their sweeps, and when they hover you can attack them with magic/arrows.

As for spriggans (tree-people), they aren't too hard once you have some good fire magic / fire breath on you. They're not tree people, they're kindling. >=]

[Shattered Dreamer]

I can't wait to massacre me some Spriggans I need to take revenge after I hate to run like hell from 8 of them at once when I was getting the sap from the Eldergleam

[Loony BoB]

I hate to be the one to tell you, but you could have avoided being attacked by Spriggans altogether in that quest, saving the lives of the people below as well. =x There's someone who is interested in travelling with you when you get that part of the quest, and if you take him with you, he will offer an alternative storyline for that quest once you are at the tree - if you talk to him before getting the sap.

On a sidenote, isn't that place one of the most beautiful spots in the game? Gorgeous!

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Wow you guys are pretty far along, I just escaped from the Imperial prison and I'm heading to join the resistance. Haven't even seen a giant or Spriggan yet, and I don't fully understand the leveling system yet, or how speechcraft works. Maybe I'm not far along enough yet. Just found the obelisks with the bonus to warrior, mage and thief skills and I don't even remember what I picked (it was a close call between warrior and thief).

Anyways my PC is rather shit for this game but it's really awesome so far. I still need to get my better PC from my Dad's house, until then I'll have to wait for Christmas for the PS3 version and see if the menus are any better, because God knows the PC UI is shit.

[Ultima Shadow]

Most epic thing to happen so far: I have a wild battle against a gang of bandits. After killing most of the gang with arrows and magic, I have a melee-showdown with the bandit leader... who was hitting hard as crap. We are both at very low health, the next hit will kill - me or him. That's when I notice a MUDCRAB aproaching the bandit leader from behind. And right before the bandit leader is about to attack, it kills him.

...and I go: "ok, I took down the whole gang, so I'll just kill this little crab in one hit and..." the crab takes one hit, survives it, hit me back and kills me.

Beastly mudcrab. Takes down a bandit leader and the dragon born with two pimp-pinches.

[Shattered Dreamer]

I hate to be the one to tell you, but you could have avoided being attacked by Spriggans altogether in that quest, saving the lives of the people below as well. =x There's someone who is interested in travelling with you when you get that part of the quest, and if you take him with you, he will offer an alternative storyline for that quest once you are at the tree - if you talk to him before getting the sap.

On a sidenote, isn't that place one of the most beautiful spots in the game? Gorgeous!

Ah I probably should've talked to the guy, I brought him with me but the poor sod got slaughter by spriggans lol


I just lose my companion, I told her to wait in the Companion base while I did the last part of Proving Honor. When I returned she was gone & to boot I had her carrying some rather handy weapons :/

[blackmage_nuke]

Ive killed 4 dragons and I havent even leveled up. (to be fair im only playing on adept and constantly use my companions for dragon fodder)

[Loony BoB]

I've not used companions at all unless they were part of a quest, so far. I think that's why I level up so much. I'm currently level 21, I think, and have most of my leveling done on One Handed Weapons (~60), Heavy Armour (~60), Smithing (~55), Destruction (~35), Restoration (~35) and Security/Lockpicking (~30). Archery, Block and Alchemy are possibly 30+ too, but I forget how high.

Killed about ten dragons so far, I think...

[Shattered Dreamer]

I've not used companions at all unless they were part of a quest, so far. I think that's why I level up so much. I'm currently level 21, I think, and have most of my leveling done on One Handed Weapons (~60), Heavy Armour (~60), Smithing (~55), Destruction (~35), Restoration (~35) and Security/Lockpicking (~30). Archery, Block and Alchemy are possibly 30+ too, but I forget how high.

Killed about ten dragons so far, I think...

Yeah I've noticed since she's gone I'm leveling up much faster, went up 2 levels in space of 2 very short side quests. I used the blacksmith skill to make a superior version of a sword I have & that extra damage boost has made a huge difference against some of the nastier wild animals living in the wilds of Skyrim.

You couldn't of been more right about the fire breath either Loony BoB, in the short time I've had it it's been a god sent. Last 2 dragons I killed had ice breath instead of fire, they were much easier to take down given I'm a Nord & have natural Frost resistance. I could literally take the ice breath head on no need to block & damage was minimal.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

It seems like people are having a rip-roaring time with Skyrim, I'm going to have to dive deeper into this game soon! The dragons, giants and Spriggans sound really cool. And I'm really excited to see how the new quests, leveling system and speechcraft systems work.

[Necronopticous]

I wanted to make some awesome gear so I leveled smithing up to 100 and filled out the perk tree. My dragon scale suit and daedric bow were nice, but I wanted them to have powerful enchantments so I leveled up enchanting to 100 and filled out that perk tree, too. By this point I had figured out that there were potions and gear that could actually enhance my enchanting and smithing abilities beyond their cap, so I leveled up alchemy to 100 and got the perks I needed to create the strongest versions of them. Now I'd realized that there were enchantments I could put on my gear to boost my alchemy to create even more powerful potions, so I used my potions of fortify enchantment to create a set. Now I was able to brew more powerful potions of fortify enchantment than I'd used before, which meant I could remake the same set I'd made to further boost my alchemy even further. Eventually this capped out and I was able to brew the most powerful potions possible, so I made a batch of godly elixirs of fortify enchantment and fortify smithing which allowed me to create what I believe to be the most poweful weapons and armor craftable in all of Skyrim. Then a guard cracked a baby joke about me as I walked by.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I wanted to make some awesome gear so I leveled smithing up to 100 and filled out the perk tree. My dragon scale suit and daedric bow were nice, but I wanted them to have powerful enchantments so I leveled up enchanting to 100 and filled out that perk tree, too. By this point I had figured out that there were potions and gear that could actually enhance my enchanting and smithing abilities beyond their cap, so I leveled up alchemy to 100 and got the perks I needed to create the strongest versions of them. Now I'd realized that there were enchantments I could put on my gear to boost my alchemy to create even more powerful potions, so I used my potions of fortify enchantment to create a set. Now I was able to brew more powerful potions of fortify enchantment than I'd used before, which meant I could remake the same set I'd made to further boost my alchemy even further. Eventually this capped out and I was able to brew the most powerful potions possible, so I made a batch of godly elixirs of fortify enchantment and fortify smithing which allowed me to create what I believe to be the most poweful weapons and armor craftable in all of Skyrim. Then a guard cracked a baby joke about me as I walked by.

Haha, that was epic. :hahaha:

[Shattered Dreamer]

I wanted to make some awesome gear so I leveled smithing up to 100 and filled out the perk tree. My dragon scale suit and daedric bow were nice, but I wanted them to have powerful enchantments so I leveled up enchanting to 100 and filled out that perk tree, too. By this point I had figured out that there were potions and gear that could actually enhance my enchanting and smithing abilities beyond their cap, so I leveled up alchemy to 100 and got the perks I needed to create the strongest versions of them. Now I'd realized that there were enchantments I could put on my gear to boost my alchemy to create even more powerful potions, so I used my potions of fortify enchantment to create a set. Now I was able to brew more powerful potions of fortify enchantment than I'd used before, which meant I could remake the same set I'd made to further boost my alchemy even further. Eventually this capped out and I was able to brew the most powerful potions possible, so I made a batch of godly elixirs of fortify enchantment and fortify smithing which allowed me to create what I believe to be the most poweful weapons and armor craftable in all of Skyrim. Then a guard cracked a baby joke about me as I walked by.

Nice to see there are people who're playing more Skyrim then me, makes me feel better :lol:

[Madame Adequate]

Well I met a Hagraven

The experience was... less than pleasant

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, one of them decimated me in a quest that I had to put off for a half dozen levels. :(

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Hagraven? What's that?

[Shattered Dreamer]

Well I met a Hagraven

The experience was... less than pleasant

Really? Did you meet it during a quest? If it's the one of thinking of I bitchslapped the crap out of it!

A Hargraven is best described as a witch

[Madame Adequate]

I did, and I beat the crap out of her the second time around!

Destruction is ungodly slow to level up :cry: This is a problem for a Destro mage! If I didn't have Lydia to hide behind, I don't even want to think about how boned I would be.

One day though, one day I will have enchants and perks and Expert Destruction spells and you better BELIEVE shit is going to get real at this point.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I did, and I beat the crap out of her the second time around!

Destruction is ungodly slow to level up :cry: This is a problem for a Destro mage! If I didn't have Lydia to hide behind, I don't even want to think about how boned I would be.

One day though, one day I will have enchants and perks and Expert Destruction spells and you better BELIEVE shit is going to get real at this point.

Sucks about Destruction, those spells are almost as handy as Restoration magic. Good luck with your Expert destruction dream! ;P

[Shattered Dreamer]

I did, and I beat the crap out of her the second time around!

Destruction is ungodly slow to level up :cry: This is a problem for a Destro mage! If I didn't have Lydia to hide behind, I don't even want to think about how boned I would be.

One day though, one day I will have enchants and perks and Expert Destruction spells and you better BELIEVE tit is going to get real at this point.

You should try using higher level spells, I found they level you up a little quicker.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I did, and I beat the crap out of her the second time around!

Destruction is ungodly slow to level up :cry: This is a problem for a Destro mage! If I didn't have Lydia to hide behind, I don't even want to think about how boned I would be.

One day though, one day I will have enchants and perks and Expert Destruction spells and you better BELIEVE tit is going to get real at this point.

You should try using higher level spells, I found they level you up a little quicker.

Good to know.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Just met Falmers, they are just nasty!


Just met Falmers, they are just nasty!

Falmer Gloomlurker especially!

Double posting, bad! - J

[Madame Adequate]

Actually I think the bigger problem is that I levelled the crap out of smithing and alchemy because that's how I roll, but they only indirectly help combat whilst fighting level 15 enemies with level 5 magic abilities just doesn't work. Especially as you a) can't poison your spells and b) I'm not wearing armor and c) I'm supposed to use magic not fancy forged swords! :monster: Dug myself into a hole. I'll probably leave Skyrim be for awhile now that SRTT is out and I suspect I might reroll and approach it with more discipline after that.

God damn the boys at Beth learned their lessons from Oblivion, I can't get over how great this game is. :jess: This is how games are meant to be done. Just walking from A to B you get mega distracted by "oooh that looks interesting" or "Oh hey a cave" or some random dude walks up to you and tells you to hold on to something for him. I walked all the way from Whiterun to High Hrothgar and it was SO GREAT and then I walked to Windhelm and from there to Winterhold and I got lost but that didn't matter, then I got smashed and woke up in freaking Markrath so I walked up to Dragon's Bridge and from there to Solitude which is the best city EVER.

[blackmage_nuke]

My first public youtube video ever! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9c1MQ3rMnU&feature=youtu.be)

Spread the word[/not spam]

[Vincent, Thunder God]

My first public youtube video ever! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9c1MQ3rMnU&feature=youtu.be)

Spread the word[/not spam]

Wow, that's a lucky find. I'm going to have to try that one myself!

[Shattered Dreamer]

That's handy cheers :D

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Actually I think the bigger problem is that I levelled the crap out of smithing and alchemy because that's how I roll, but they only indirectly help combat whilst fighting level 15 enemies with level 5 magic abilities just doesn't work. Especially as you a) can't poison your spells and b) I'm not wearing armor and c) I'm supposed to use magic not fancy forged swords! :monster: Dug myself into a hole. I'll probably leave Skyrim be for awhile now that SRTT is out and I suspect I might reroll and approach it with more discipline after that.

God damn the boys at Beth learned their lessons from Oblivion, I can't get over how great this game is. :jess: This is how games are meant to be done. Just walking from A to B you get mega distracted by "oooh that looks interesting" or "Oh hey a cave" or some random dude walks up to you and tells you to hold on to something for him. I walked all the way from Whiterun to High Hrothgar and it was SO GREAT and then I walked to Windhelm and from there to Winterhold and I got lost but that didn't matter, then I got smashed and woke up in freaking Markrath so I walked up to Dragon's Bridge and from there to Solitude which is the best city EVER.

Sounds exciting, I've got to start playing this game for good - but I'm completely addicted to Eoff. :(

[Necronopticous]

I highly recommend the following mods for anyone playing on PC:

FINALLY actual fixed female face normal maps at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim Mods and community (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=136)
No Dirty Bodies - Caucasian Female Races at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim Mods and community (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18)

These made my character look a million times better. I really struggled to create an attractive looking character and basically gave up after a point, but it ended up working out once I put these mods into place. If you want to go a step further there is already a full nude mod.

Also, this one is just awesome:

Enhanced Night Skyrim at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim Mods and community (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=85)

[Shattered Dreamer]

I have the PS3 version so no modding for me! Whatever about being "attractive" my character is a muscle bound Nord with warpaint & a mohawk. I think he looks pretty badass if I do say so myself :D

[Araciel]

Picked it up launch day... Only JUST hit level 11... I need more time to stay up and play instead of working. I'm on a mission right now to find dragons and words of power - my character was a fugitive Nord Swordhand (dual wield) and I've been maxing out my stamina - the idea is to power attack the shit out of everything before they have a chance to hit me. Once he found out about shouts he decided to get all the power he could as his failing grasp on heal and flames were the only magic he could learn.

Also he's obsessed with alchemy but only for the monetary gain possible from making effective potions.

[Flying Arrow]

I'm staying the fuck out of this thread to avoid spoilers, but I just stopped by to say that I love, love this game. I haven't been so pleasantly surprised from my low(ish) expectations since FFXII.

[Chris]

I know nothing about this game and I haven't tried it myself. But, I saw my brother battling a Giant and he went flying? Is this normal? It looked disturbingly funny. Like I said, I know nothing about Skyrim, so I have no idea if it is "normal" to blast off like that every time.

[Ultima Shadow]

If you want to go a step further there is already a full nude mod.
...time to get a better computer and the PC version! =D


@ Chris; it's pretty much only Giants that can make you go flying like that.

[Shattered Dreamer]

I know nothing about this game and I haven't tried it myself. But, I saw my brother battling a Giant and he went flying? Is this normal? It looked disturbingly funny. Like I said, I know nothing about Skyrim, so I have no idea if it is "normal" to blast off like that every time.

Getting bitch slapped by a Giant is sort of a right of passage in this game, I laughed so hard when it happened me first! Just killed a dragon then WHAM right in kisser :lol:

[Araciel]

I was level seven when I fought and killed my first giant... I had to use about six potions of healing... but I never got tossed.

[Shattered Dreamer]

I was level seven when I fought and killed my first giant... I had to use about six potions of healing... but I never got tossed.

I was about level 3 or 4 when it kicked my ass. I'm level 19 now I'm sure I could probably take one down if I tried!

[Loony BoB]

Currently level 32, and have got Smithing to 100 so I could make proper use of my dragon scales/bones and now have dragon armor, boots and gauntlets (still using my weird enchanted mask helmet hood thing... I forget the name). Got to the point that I could have Heavy Armour not weigh anything when I'm wearing it, and am pretty happy with that. Have killed a giant, although it's still a tough fight with a lot of running and healing. It was for a bounty, so I'm not sure if he was leveled more than the standard giants or if he was a standard giant. Either way, felt good to finally down one! Have killed roughly 17-20 dragons and have got a lot of shouts, but am eager to collect more.

Finished the Companions questline some time ago and have now started on the Magic College questline while still chipping away at the main story. Have joined the Thieves Guild, too, but not actually done much since. Will do that later, I guess.

Haven't figured out Enchanting yet, it seems different to what it used to be. Do I have to buy enchantment items or something? I should probably look into it a bit more, I've not really browsed the internet just yet and have been happily kicking butt regardless. Can only imagine how much better it will be when I can enchant a bow so that it paralyses enemies... I wonder if that will work with a flying dragon? >=]

Still love the game, but am eager for story now, so hopefully the rest of it will be good. I think after playing this I'll focus a lot more on a story-based RPG. All this sandbox-ness is making me crave a good group of characters.

[Ultima Shadow]

Actually just got Smithing to 100 myself, and found out that the Daedric Heavy Armour is actually better than the Dragon Armour - except it weights more. I don't mind though, since I think the Daedric armour look better anyway.

Haven't figured out Enchanting yet, it seems different to what it used to be. Do I have to buy enchantment items or something? I should probably look into it a bit more, I've not really browsed the internet just yet and have been happily kicking butt regardless. Can only imagine how much better it will be when I can enchant a bow so that it paralyses enemies... I wonder if that will work with a flying dragon? >=]You learn enchantments by "disenchanting/destroying an enchanted piece of equipment in your inventory. For example... if you have a shield with 20% fire resistance, you can destroy that shield at the "enchanting altar" in order to learn the "fire resistance" effect. Once you've learned the effect, it can be applied to any other non-enchanted shield you posses. Your enchantment skill and the size of the soul used (petty/common/grand etc) will determine the power of your enchantments.
At early levels, and when using a petty soul gem, the fire resistance effect you put on a new shield will probably be like 1-2%, and totally useless. But at high levels and with Grand souls, you can get over 50% resistance bonus etc. Some effects can be applied to many different kinds of equipments ( like fortify magicka ), while other effects can only be applied to specific kinds.

As for the paralyze thing, I've actually tried that. But the dragons seem to be immune to paralyze, as they have managed to resist it every single time so far. Paralyze is awesome against other things though, and selling iron daggers with paralyze is a good way to earn money (even when petty souls are used, Iron Daggers with paralyze are worth like 300-400 gold).


I also just encountered my first Elder Dragon. It beat the crap out of a Giant, then killed two Ice Trolls. And after all that, about half its health remained, and I still had some trouble taking it down since it would two-hit me with pretty much anything it could do. It was awesome.

[Loony BoB]

Money's no real concern for me now that I have 100 Smithing... Legendary Dragon Armour sells very well. I can only imagine how well it'll sell when enchanted! But yeah, I will definitely make use of that info, cheers. I loved my enchanted gear in Oblivion and I hope to come up with yet another fire+ice+shock damage with fire+ice+shock weakness with soul trap. That little equation was brilliant. If I can add another Azura's Star (or whatever) and paralyse to that? Unstoppable me~

[Madame Adequate]

If you want to make bank, enchant your shit with Banish.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Any tips on levelling up my smithing skill or do I literally just have to keep making the crappy armour & level up slowly?

[Madame Adequate]

Make iron daggers. What you make doesn't matter, an orcskin condom gives the same skillup as a diamond-encrusted buttplug, and iron daggers are just 1 leather + 1 iron ingot. Run around buying up ores, ingots, leather, and hide, and you'll race through the levels.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Make iron daggers. What you make doesn't matter, an orcskin condom gives the same skillup as a diamond-encrusted buttplug, and iron daggers are just 1 leather + 1 iron ingot. Run around buying up ores, ingots, leather, and hide, and you'll race through the levels.

Plenty of daggers got it! Diamond-encrusted buttplug, you'd need the a$$hole of an Argonian for that :lol:

[Madame Adequate]

Hey it's not for me to judge if you like The Lusty Argonian Maid

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Hey it's not for me to judge if you like The Lusty Argonian Maid

Haha, I remember reading that in Oblivion and laughing out loud, so good.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Killed a dragon near Mistwatch & for some reason didn't get it's soul?

[Araciel]

Just started smithing... I now need to scour the lands for Dwemer ruins as my character has found some dwarven items and is obsessed!

[Necronopticous]

Killed a dragon near Mistwatch & for some reason didn't get it's soul?This happened to me once, too...Or maybe I did get its soul, but it was still a dragon corpse and not a dragon skeleton...I don't really remember, I've got a surplus of dragon souls anyway. How can you have a surplus of dragon souls?

[Hollycat]

I havent played since last wednesday when I got the third to last trophy

[Shattered Dreamer]

Killed a dragon near Mistwatch & for some reason didn't get it's soul?This happened to me once, too...Or maybe I did get its soul, but it was still a dragon corpse and not a dragon skeleton...I don't really remember, I've got a surplus of dragon souls anyway. How can you have a surplus of dragon souls?

I googled my problem & a number of website said some of the dragons respawn & if you killed them already you don't get another soul. I've killed 3 dragons (2 of them Blood Dragons, a bit nastier than the average but fairly killable at level 20 plus) since & got souls for each of these & the dragon near Mistwatch respawned in that area again so they're probably right.

I killed my first Giant, they still cause me a tonne of damage but I kept using Unrelenting Force with all 3 words to knock it to the floor then stabbed the crap out of it :lol:

[Ultima Shadow]

If you want to make bank, enchant your tit with Banish.Just got the Banish effect, and hell yeah! I thought Paralyze would be the most expensive enchantment, but the Banish effect is almost twice that. =O

I really need to get back to the main quest now. I'm level 34, has full Daedric and the black Azura's Star. Yet, I'm like... right after the second story dragon in the main quest. Too much sandboxing.

[Loony BoB]

If you want to make bank, enchant your tit with Banish.Just got the Banish effect, and hell yeah! I thought Paralyze would be the most expensive enchantment, but the Banish effect is almost twice that. =O

I really need to get back to the main quest now. I'm level 34, has full Daedric and the black Azura's Star. Yet, I'm like... right after the second story dragon in the main quest. Too much sandboxing.
I tried to get the black Azura's Star and got obliterated in less than a minute. xD I don't have any Daedric stuff, but I have dragon armour and orcish weapons. Haven't come across Banish stuff yet, I don't think, although what I really want is the Wabberjack or whatever. Turning enemies into sweet rolls? Yes please. :D Still haven't bothered enchanting anything yet, although I've disenchanted loads. I've been working on my pickpocket which is a bit of a bitch skill to level up, especially at the beginning, and especially if you don't want to get caught, ever. Lots of saving and loading. I'm at around 40 now, I think, but really want to get it to 100. Sneak, on the flipside, is the easiest thing to level in the game. Go into a guard tower at night and sneak around sleeping guards, get another Sneak level every 20 seconds or so. Crazy.

As for the dragons, I came across an odd situation yesterday... a dragon. Dead. On the ground. I didn't kill it, nobody was around, but it was lying there dead. Couldn't get it's soul, but yeah, weird. I'm guessing some roving NPC(s) killed it somehow, but it's strange that it can happen when you're not there. But kinda cool, I guess.

If you're looking for Dwarven stuff and have a decent enough skill level, head to Markarth and start the quests there. There's some old Dwarven city there that has more than enough Dwarven metal to get you up 20 or so levels... and I've only done quarter of the journal-retrieval-quest related to that area, so I can only imagine there's buttloads more!

I think I've unlocked about 12-14 different shouts now, and am Arch-Mage and leader of the Companions. Thinking I'll work on the main story for a bit before continuing with the Thieves Guild and maybe the Bard College. Saving Dark Brotherhood for last, as always.

[Ultima Shadow]

I tried to get the black Azura's Star and got obliterated in less than a minute. xD I don't have any Daedric stuff, but I have dragon armour and orcish weapons. Haven't come across Banish stuff yet, I don't think, although what I really want is the Wabberjack or whatever. Turning enemies into sweet rolls? Yes please. :D Still haven't bothered enchanting anything yet, although I've disenchanted loads. I've been working on my pickpocket which is a bit of a bitch skill to level up, especially at the beginning, and especially if you don't want to get caught, ever. Lots of saving and loading. I'm at around 40 now, I think, but really want to get it to 100. Sneak, on the flipside, is the easiest thing to level in the game. Go into a guard tower at night and sneak around sleeping guards, get another Sneak level every 20 seconds or so. Crazy.
Yeah, that guy you fight inside the star is the toughest mage I've faced so far. Luckily, I had a wand of paralyze which paralyzes for 10 seconds, which I could use to lock down those annoying daedras for a while. And lots of healing potions were used. Playing on Expert, and having no natural magic or fire resistance, I'd die to two or three of their fireballs. And that was a real pain, since all 3 of those daedras seemed to love their fireballs. Not to mention the actual boss-guy, who was even tougher.

It was totally worth getting the black star though, since it can steal any kind of soul ( save for dragon souls, obviously ). And all human souls are Grand souls, even those of the weakest bandits. Since I now have 100 in enchanting, I also created a daedric sword with a powerful "absorb health" effect, as well as "soul trap for 1 second". With both the soul trap and the black star, it might as well have been like the sword had an infinite amount of charge. I get the soul from anything I kill, and can recharge the blade with it. =D

...not to mention it makes me feel like Nightmare from Soul Calibur. I walk around in a black badass armour, and whenever I kill something with my two-handed life-stealing blade, I get that "Soul Captured" comment. =D

And yes, pickpocketing is a pain. You basically have to steal lots of totally useless things that have high success rate, just to get the levels up. I personally gave up entierly on pickpocketing. Well, I do it from time to time maybe, but I don't put any focus on it.

[NeoCracker]

So, level 40 and in full Dragon Scale, I'm fought an Elder Dragon who could barely damage me. I fought a giant who could barely damage me. I fight a random, no name archerer on a log being used as a bridge to cross a river, and he nearly kills me....

[Hollycat]

So, level 40 and in full Dragon Scale, I'm fought an Elder Dragon who could barely damage me. I fought a giant who could barely damage me. I fight a random, no name archerer on a log being used as a bridge to cross a river, and he nearly kills me....

i remeber that place, I just shouted him off the bridge. wheeeeee!

[NeoCracker]

I thought about it, but I killed that fucker fairly on principle.

[Shattered Dreamer]

So, level 40 and in full Dragon Scale, I'm fought an Elder Dragon who could barely damage me. I fought a giant who could barely damage me. I fight a random, no name archerer on a log being used as a bridge to cross a river, and he nearly kills me....

Yeah this is something that annoys me about Skyrim! You'll fight dragons, powerful mages, Giants who will give you one hell of a fight & when you win it's awesome. Then along come a group of 5 or 6 bandits you kill all bar 1 who walks up & kills you in one hit!?!? This didn't bother me until I got to level 20, now it's just total BS!?!?

One instance of this happened when I had to kill an Argonian bandit who double crosses you as part of a quest, he was easy but this one guy, Captain something or other, was overwhelmingly strong compared to the other bandits. After about 4 or 5 attempts I got angry at it, kept shouting his a$$ into the water & throwing lighting bolts at him. Mind you given that this & the games random buginess are the only 2 things that bother me shows just how awesome this game is :bigsmile:

[Loony BoB]

I killed that guy on the log pretty quickly. Mostly because I met him early in the game and a lot of enemies you meet in the game are leveled to give you a tough fight. =] I have, however, suddenly been attacked by a mage called 'Challenger' who killed me swiftly. I should really invest in enchantments... I relied on them so much in Oblivion and I just always get sidetracked by other things in Skyrim. xD

I've found out that it's only possible to unlock around 80 of the 250 skill perks on any one character. I consider this a really tit game design decision, personally. I love collecting these perks and I can't remove them or anything, so I'm stuck with old decisions which - upon finding out about this - I am regretting now. :(

[Hollycat]

Has anyone else run into the draugr death overlord? bitch took 50 hits and didnt lose a pixel of health.

[Loony BoB]

Only the Drauger Deathlords. Not Draugr Death Overlords... I don't think so, anyway. Sounds like the next level up. My recent "Crap, that was bloody tough" fight was against the boss within the Red Eagle sword quest. The one after you fight the sword and put it into the stone. There was also the boss in Labyrinthiam or whatever, he was a bitch, but not as much as the other guy. The Labyrinthiam guy was just a lot of hiding and regenerating of shouts/mana, while the other guy was a case of attack like nuts, Ice Form him, run, recouperate, return and repeat. I really don't like using potions for some reason, which I actually have buttloads of (because I don't use them), but yeah, still fun to figure out tactics for such fights even if they involve running. When facing tough opponents, I really like that different types of enemies require different tactics, particularly in the case of Shouts. I've used Fire/Frost Breath for damage, Ice Form for emergency getaways, Whirlwind Spirit for when I've been slowed/burdened somehow, and I'm sure I'll use Slow Time, Become Ethereal and others when I find a useful time for them. I look forward to getting the ability to call a dragon and throw my voice... these kind of things sound like they could come up with some good results. Tried Animal Allegiance but there are never enough animals around when you're fighting for it to be genuinely useful... but really want to try it out on a giant surrounded by mammoths. >=]

[Hollycat]

nope here is the order
draugr
restless
wight
overlord
deathlord
scourge
???????
draugr preist
????
?????
?????
death overlord


there is only one, i came across it at level 23, I even tried dropping the difficulty to novice, and I couldnt even hurt it.

[Loony BoB]

Wow. I'm amazed you could even get to it if that's the case!

Also, if that's the order, it seems wrong. Scourges are a piece of cake, but Deathlords are tricky. Haven't faced a priest yet. Don't think I've faced an Overlord either.

[Hollycat]

the death overlord is an unleveled enemy so it stays the same strength the whole game, equate it to the legendary deathclaw in fallout.

[Ultima Shadow]

So, level 40 and in full Dragon Scale, I'm fought an Elder Dragon who could barely damage me.I'm now level 39, have full legendary Daedric, and Elder Dragons still kill me in 4 hits. =O

Has anyone else run into the draugr death overlord? bitch took 50 hits and didnt lose a pixel of health.Never seen that guy. Where can I find him?

[Hollycat]

just keep asking about new words and you will run into him, right outside the door he guards is a masked preist

[Shattered Dreamer]

The Dark Brotherhood quest arc is even better then it was in Oblivion I will say no more :bigsmile:

[Hollycat]

i disagree and agree. also, started playing again, this weird purple door appeard after I fast traveled, so like a good boy, I went in. guess what was inside. nothing. a completely blank area, I think I accidently opened the testing ground. on a ps3? anyone else ran into the purple door?



long live cicero

[Shattered Dreamer]

My PS3 is lagging while playing Skyrim in some places surely that shouldn't happen?

[Ultima Shadow]

My PS3 is lagging while playing Skyrim in some places surely that shouldn't happen?Happens to me as well. I hope this is fixed in some patch, since it can be quite annoying at times.

After creating my super-awesome mega-powerful sword of freaking doom, I had to switch to master, or everything would be too easy. I can 2-hit a giant on expert with that thing. Gha... it does kinda ruin the fun to be this powerful sometimes. I like things to be challenging, yet I also love to make insanely powerful equipments. What a dilema.

[Shattered Dreamer]

My PS3 is lagging while playing Skyrim in some places surely that shouldn't happen?Happens to me as well. I hope this is fixed in some patch, since it can be quite annoying at times.

During one of the Thieves Guild missions it became almost unbearable! It proves we're playing an unfinished game

[Hollycat]

True

[Loony BoB]

My PS3 is lagging while playing Skyrim in some places surely that shouldn't happen?Happens to me as well. I hope this is fixed in some patch, since it can be quite annoying at times.

During one of the Thieves Guild missions it became almost unbearable! It proves we're playing an unfinished game
Unfinished game? Really? Skyrim? Pshaw.

[Marky Tee]

ok so i just bought skyrim today...but have no elder scrolls knowledge...
what is the best race to play as for a newbie like me? i tend to prefer physical attacking to magic and would like to dual wield as often as possible


i've started a new game as a khajit ( because it looks the coolest :P) but that's just for a few hours til i get to grips with how this game works

[Shattered Dreamer]

Unfinished game? Really? Skyrim? Pshaw.

Unfinished in that it lags on a console, that just shouldn't happen! Otherwise this game is just amazing :bigsmile:

[Loony BoB]

Unfinished game? Really? Skyrim? Pshaw.

Unfinished in that it lags on a console, that just shouldn't happen! Otherwise this game is just amazing :bigsmile:
It's finished, it's just laggy. I think words such as "broken game" and "unfinished game" get thrown around too easily when dealing with video games. It's broken if it doesn't allow you to do what you should be able to do in a game and it's unfinished if not everything that the developers state should be in the game are in the game. If it's laggy, it's just laggy.

[Ultima Shadow]

what is the best race to play as for a newbie like me?
Whichever one you'd prefere/think looks the best. This really isn't the kind of game where it's worth making a character based on statistic bonuses, if you ask me.

...though I would probably say that the Bretons are the "best" overall, because of their high natural magic resistance, which is VERY useful. But you really don't need any race-specific attributes or abilities to enjoy and make it through this game with whichever kind of playstyle you prefere, so just make a character you like.

[Old Manus]

Unfinished game? Really? Skyrim? Pshaw.

Unfinished in that it lags on a console, that just shouldn't happen! Otherwise this game is just amazing :bigsmile:
It's finished, it's just laggy. I think words such as "broken game" and "unfinished game" get thrown around too easily when dealing with video games. It's broken if it doesn't allow you to do what you should be able to do in a game and it's unfinished if not everything that the developers state should be in the game are in the game. If it's laggy, it's just laggy.It's a Bethesda game, horrible glitches are half the fun.

[TrollHunter]

Unfinished game? Really? Skyrim? Pshaw.

Unfinished in that it lags on a console, that just shouldn't happen! Otherwise this game is just amazing :bigsmile:
It's finished, it's just laggy. I think words such as "broken game" and "unfinished game" get thrown around too easily when dealing with video games. It's broken if it doesn't allow you to do what you should be able to do in a game and it's unfinished if not everything that the developers state should be in the game are in the game. If it's laggy, it's just laggy.It's a Bethesda game, horrible glitches are half the fun.

Exactly. Glitches have the potential to be hilarious too.

[NeoCracker]

Well, I finally made a second character, a heavy armored kitty whose weapon is punching.

At level 7 I punched out the first dragon in under 30 seconds.

[Laddy]

This is so bad.

My sister had played like, forty hours of the game and I've lost a large amount of desire to play Skyrim because she spoiled a lot of it. :/

[Loony BoB]

That's what you get for listening to your sister instead of playing the game!

[Loony BoB]

So I potioned my way through to getting the Black (Azura's) Star. The three guys who fireball you at the start took up over half my potions, but I got rid of them in the end. The final guy? Didn't even need to heal. Killed him in seconds. xD Crazy. Oh, and I fought the Death Overlord and beat him pretty easily, too. It's amazing how we all have such different experiences in this game!

Of course, I am around level 38 or something, so yeah. :p

[Marky Tee]

so if i'm going to be dual wielding 1 handed weapons should i be equipping light or heavy armour?
jus wonderin

[Araciel]

Got Vokun and the wooden mystery mask that takes you to a secret demiplane when you equip it! So awesome! Free storage space you can use anywhere!

[Shattered Dreamer]

Has anyone else run into the draugr death overlord? bitch took 50 hits and didnt lose a pixel of health.

Found this guy in Sliverdrift Lair, he packs a pretty heavy punch but nothing the Dawnbreaker couldn't handle, it's a sword for killing the undead.

[Yeargdribble]

I got Skyrim a little late. Actually, my wife got it for me even though I was gonna try to hold out for a Steam sale.

After about a weak of playing I think I can say without hyperbole that this will be quantitatively the best gaming experience overall that I've ever had. I put 900+ hours into Oblivion across 3 different plays. Modding almost becomes part of the game.

There are so many things already in Skyrim that I went through a lot of trouble to mod into Oblivion (better ambient sounds, lights at night and the such). Most of it is just little stuff, but it makes a big deal for upping the immersion for me.

Even though the construction kit isn't out yet, there are already some great mods that do things like fixing up textures. The game is so beautiful and when I have a computer that can handle it and these people really finish up some of their crazy texture mods, it's going to look unbelievable.

I had planned to play a dual-wielding sneaky type, but somehow ended up playing a heavy armor guy with a shield. I've finished off all of my shield perks and my shield is ridiculously overpowered. The Shield Charge perk is like having a mini Fus-Ro-Dah at will.

I'm also trying to make a point of fast traveling less and every time I force myself to make a long run, it's very rewarding. I run into a new quest from an NPC in the wild, get sidetracked by a cave or something like that. The world just begs to be walked around in.

Considering the amount of extra stuff that got added into Oblivion through mods, I can only imagine what is going to be put into Skyrim by the end (especially considering Bethesda put in topography for Cydrodiil and Vvardenfell). Now doubt I'll eventually have 1000 hours in Skyrim (hell, I've got 64 just from this week with no signs of being near completion of anything).

[Hollycat]

.... I beat.... everything. :( ... (trophy quests and 50 others) way less quests than oblivion. all i have left to do is get married, which is impossible ue to a glitch where at the start of my wedding lydia appears dead at the door and everyone freaks out.

[Loony BoB]

Fought my second Draugr Death Overlord last night, so there's definitely more than one. Have maxed out a few shouts now, still haven't pushed far on the main storyline though.

Love the Northern Lights effect you get on occasion when high in the mountains.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Love the Northern Lights effect you get on occasion when high in the mountains.

I love the way the Northern Lights effect is different colours depending on where you are! It ended up getting me killed once, I got distracted looking at it & a Snow Bear knocked me off the mountain :lol: The last game with scenery this nice for me was Red Dead Redemption.

[Necronopticous]

I've got 100 in every skill except Two-Handed, One-Handed, Archery, and Lockpickking. These four skills are much more difficult to level up than any other in the game. I'm sitting on something like 20 unused perk points as I'm not really sure where I want them yet, and I want to be free to explore entire trees at once and then reload if I don't like them.

[Ultima Shadow]

I've got 100 in every skill except Two-Handed, One-Handed, Archery, and Lockpickking. These four skills are much more difficult to level up than any other in the game. I'm sitting on something like 20 unused perk points as I'm not really sure where I want them yet, and I want to be free to explore entire trees at once and then reload if I don't like them.What, seriously? Lockpicking isn't all that hard to level up, as long as you just got a whole lot of lockpicks. I always buy them whenever I come across them, and while picking locks you can break picks on purpose to increase the bar bit by bit. I currently have 60 in the lockpick skill, 200 unused lockpicks, and I haven't even really tried to focus on it ( never picked a lockpick perk ).

My two-handed is quite high too - around 80 or so, since I've been playing with two-handed weapons only since the very start. Now, destruction on the other hand... is something that I find to be one hell of a pain to level. Do you have any good trick for that? I've been using destruction a lot, yet I only have 57 in it. =O

[Hollycat]

My computer is busted so .... yeah.

I shot at a mammoth and it disapeared then the heavens opened up and down decsended the LAG and a whole bunch of mammoth clones arranged in rows appeared about 50 feet up in the sky and fell slowly. I left before my ps3 exploded and now dead horses keep randomly falling from the sky. I will restart my ps3 and see if that helps.

[Shattered Dreamer]

My PS3 scratched my copy & I had to get it replaced, thank god for knowing my statutory rights :bigsmile:

[Shattered Dreamer]

Also the update is out, the game is playing much much smoother on PS3 now

[Necronopticous]

What, seriously? Lockpicking isn't all that hard to level up, as long as you just got a whole lot of lockpicks. I always buy them whenever I come across them, and while picking locks you can break picks on purpose to increase the bar bit by bit.
Lockpicking is tough because as far as I know there is no way to continually use the skill since you have to seek out new things to unlock. I'm at 93, but even master locks at this point only seem to raise me an eighth of a bar or so. One-handed, two-handed, and archery are tough because it just takes so many uses to increase. My archery is almost there since I've been using it the entire game, but the other two are definitely lagging behind.

Last night I tried to get the rest of the daedric artifacts but got too sleepy to finish. Three more to go. After that I think I'll finally finish the main quest.

[NeoCracker]

You know, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Skyrim, but this game get's way to much wrong in terms of plot.

Most of my issues though involve spoiling important bits of the main plot.


My first problem involves why the dragons are here.

The moment you start looking into it during the story, it does good at setting up the different groups involved thinking it's the other, blame being cast towards Ulfric, and them doing a pretty good job at building suspense.

And then next mission you find out, 'Oh, it was some dude back in the day sending him here unintentionally.' making the previous bit of intrigue build up pointless. Sure, it helps to set up the Thalmor as conniving douches, but they are largely irrelevant to the Dragons anyway.

And on a not of things being irrelevant, the entirle Skyrim Civil war going on is just a side plot. Hell, the only relevance to the dragons it has is you have to say 'hay guys, can you stop being dicks for a second while I take care of the dragons', 'Oh sure, but first we need to trade fortresses for our unrelated conflict, is that fine' 'oh whatever, Imma catch a dragon now, bye.'

Another thing that the ball was dropped on huge was the SHouts themselves. I'm paraphrasing, but 'To learn a thu'um is to take it into yourself, it's very meaning becomes part of you. We Dragons are incapable of learning Dragonrend due to it's meaning being an intense hatred of Dragons'. Amazing concept, however you learn Dragon Rend and effectively nothing happens outside of being able to ground dragons.

The entire bad ass concept of the Shouts is lost entirely due to there lack of effect on your character.

And worse off I beat Alduin and they just kind of leave it at that. Beating the smurfing world eater left no satisfaction what so ever.

Needless to say, I'm happy I didn't pay for this.

[Necronopticous]

You know, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Skyrim, but this game get's way to much wrong in terms of plot.
The main story is a poor basis of judgement on a Bethesda game, but even still--what we have here is loads better than closing ten bazillion Oblivion gates in the last installment.

Anyway, last night I finished getting all of the daedric artifacts and dragon priest masks. I think the Dark Brotherhood is up next.

[NeoCracker]

You know, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Skyrim, but this game get's way to much wrong in terms of plot.
The main story is a poor basis of judgement on a Bethesda game, but even still--what we have here is loads better than closing ten bazillion Oblivion gates in the last installment.

Anyway, last night I finished getting all of the daedric artifacts and dragon priest masks. I think the Dark Brotherhood is up next.

Considering main plot is always a big factor for me, that is the reason I dislike Elder Scrolls games so much. Which is sad, because New Vegas show's they are capable of a great main plot.

[Necronopticous]

New Vegas was Obsidian; not Bethesda.

[Araciel]

In other news... PATCH!

[NeoCracker]

New Vegas was Obsidian; not Bethesda.

Oh, well shit.

I guess I don't have to keep being disappointing in Bethesda's more negative qualities then. I can sleep peacefully once again.

[Del Murder]

What is the draw of this game? This series never really interested me because I prefer more traditional RPGs and I'm not a big fan of first-person view games. But I am intrigued at the popularity of this game.

[NeoCracker]

What is the draw of this game? This series never really interested me because I prefer more traditional RPGs and I'm not a big fan of first-person view games. But I am intrigued at the popularity of this game.

1) Every little thing in the world is wrendered. See the Penny Arcade Broom strip for details on that.

2) The shear level of shit you can do is insane. You're pretty much garunteed to find new shit no matter how many times you play.

3) There are a ton of different ways to play the game, so there is a lot of replay value.

Those seem like the biggest reasons, though bigger fans can probably give you more then I can.

[Yeargdribble]

@Del

It's almost ironic that you say you prefer traditional RPGs. I'm guessing you're referring to FF style games. When I think of traditional RPGs I think of stuff like D&D where you actually played a role. There have been CRPGs that let you do that a lot more. JRPGs are the antithesis of this and the only place to find it has been in WRPGs, though obviously limited.


I'm a pretty big fan of TES games (though I suspect MILF has me beaten by a long shot). I used to not really like the idea of a FPRPG but there is definitely a different type of immersion you get from it. You also can play mostly how you want. You get to play the role. You can be a beefy knight or a sneaky thief or an evil asshole wizard that kills everything. To a large extent, the world responds to you. Things you do and people you kill have an effect on the game world. The main storyline is largely irrelevant and you can do what you like.


For me a huge part of the draw (which makes me overlook lots of imperfections in the game) is mods. The modding community lets you really do what you want. They make the game prettier, they fix bugs that the devs didn't, the adjust the way certain mechanics work, they improve the way combat happens, they make the world bigger and add more quests... the list goes on. They make you really able to cut out exactly the experience you want. If you want real hunger, thirst, sleepiness in the game, you can have it. The mods make the game for me and when I'm playing the base game I'm constantly aware of what could be improved to my liking and I know that once the modders get cracking, it will be as I wish.


I also enjoy the deep lore and the tons of books around that go deep into it. A lot of people don't love that type of thing, but with an interactive world, it's really amazing to check out the ultra rich backstory. Also, the more familiar you become with the lore and the previous games, the more fulfilling it all is because there are constant references to that stuff in subtle and less subtle ways.

[Necronopticous]

What is the draw of this game? This series never really interested me because I prefer more traditional RPGs and I'm not a big fan of first-person view games. But I am intrigued at the popularity of this game.
You can punch a dragon in the face. Pretty much the same pull as, say, Vagrant Story if you look at it from that angle.

[Hollycat]

Yearg, you and I are of a similar mind. I made a mod for oblivion that gives the player a spell that makes everyone in the area drop their equipment, and one that makes whomever it hits is replaced by a goblin named maurice. also the mods that add cities or pegusus and the bow that shoots one arrow that splits into more depending on how long you pull it back.

[Del Murder]

Yeah, I meant traditional as in traditional console RPG games more like FF. I don't have the imagination for D&D. I wish playing it was like on TV where the characters are magically transported to the game world. But no, you're still just sitting there in a basement rolling dice. I digress.

It sounds like I could easily drop 60 hours into this game and then look back and wonder what the smurf I spent my time on. Kind of like how I look back on all the non-storyline related things I did in FFXI. I think I'll spare myself the potential lost hours and pass on this one.


You can punch a dragon in the face. Pretty much the same pull as, say, Vagrant Story if you look at it from that angle.
Yes, I understand why people like games. I meant this game in particular! It seems like it was the most anticipated game of the holiday season and is getting GotY mentions. I am wondering why there is a 4 page thread on this game rather than on, say, Skyward Sword.

[Ultima Shadow]

You know, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Skyrim, but this game get's way to much wrong in terms of plot.
Well, there is more than one reason I could play for nearly 40 hours before I continued on the main quest after doing the first couple of missions. And it was just like that in both Morrowind and Oblivion too. The storylines in these games rarely gets you hooked.

Though I guess I'm less bothered by this than you are. To me, even the main quests are all about exploring new places, fighting new foes and plundering graves for ancient artifacts etc. When I first saw the trailer for Skyrim, my thoughts weren't really:

"omg! A main story with dragons!"

...but rather:

"omg! A huge world to explore, with dragons!"


So while I do agree the story isn't worth paying for, I certainly don't regret paying for the game itself. :p




Edit:

Also, both the Enchanting and Smithing skills are so broken. Especially Enchanting though. And that's WITHOUT using the loop-thing Necro mentioned. Not only does the enchantments you can make with 100 enchanting skill make all the expensive amulets and unique artifacts look bad, but it's the best money-making skill in the game as well. =O

And Destruction could really use some balancing. One second it's totally awesome, then it's "okay" and then it kinda sucks compared to pretty much everything else. I mean... why even bother placing a Fire Trap if it's only going to chip away 2% of the enemy's healthbar?

The Destruction skill really should have increased the damage rather than decreasing the casting cost of the spells. I'm getting the PC version when there's a mod that fixes this. Because even the Expert and Master spells can't keep up at all when playing at the difficulties above Adept and at higher levels. How could they not realise something so obvious such as "set damage vs level-scaling" not working? =O

[Yeargdribble]

It sounds like I could easily drop 60 hours into this game and then look back and wonder what the smurf I spent my time on. Kind of like how I look back on all the non-storyline related things I did in FFXI. I think I'll spare myself the potential lost hours and pass on this one.

I know exactly what you mean. My experience with MMOs made me knee jerk against things that took lots of time and I started playing games to finish. I still do to some extent, but FFXI in particular soured me to wasting my gaming time.

But, I think I went to far just out of some reactionary sense. Since taking a good bit of time off and playing lots of single player experiences I found that I was often pushing myself to finish things I didn't enjoy much and it was essentially the same thing as FFXI.

I've now learned to just enjoy the journey rather than the conclusion. That's what TES games are for me. Ultima put it great. The main story is not the point. It's just a great open world that I have fun having fun in. I don't care what I've accomplished at the end of the day but rather that I had a good time accomplishing it (or not accomplishing anything).

This is how I managed to put nearly 1000 hours into Oblivion all told (in little bursts over the last several years) and don't feel like I wasted my time. I've played games with 12 hour single player campaigns where I feel like my time was more wasted and I certainly have finally grown weary of JRPGs. I once loved that it took me 80 hours, but I realized in retrospect that most of that was grinding so that I could feel accomplished and be awesome. I don't have the time or desire for that any more.


I now can look back fondly on FFXI and though it was a huge waste of time and life, I realize that in large part I was enjoying much of the experience even if it had no ultimate goal. TES games allow me a lot of that but with the ability to pause and walk away if I need to.


If it's not for you, that's fine. But if you think you can enjoy a game where the gameplay is the reward rather than the ending, you might like it. But hey, you might just not like the FPRPG thing. I never could get into FO3 because I wasn't a huge fan of the setting even if I liked the gameplay and writing. Different strokes I suppose.

That said, I've had good experiences trying games that were out of my comfort zone that I didn't really "get" but were popular. GTA IV was an example and it blew my mind how much I ended up loving it after having wrong impressions of it from the outside looking in.

[Necronopticous]

Yes, I understand why people like games. I meant this game in particular! It seems like it was the most anticipated game of the holiday season and is getting GotY mentions. I am wondering why there is a 4 page thread on this game rather than on, say, Skyward Sword.
In all seriousness, I think the primary appeal of these games is exploration. You are essentially dropped into a giant meticulously crafted world with no real spoonfed goal and the ability to do a large number of things. It is a overflowing barrel of content with at least something for basically everyone.

You mention Final Fantasy XI, and you can certainly draw some parallels between MMORPGs and these games, but I think the difference you will find here is that your actions in the game actually affect the world of the game which highly bolsters the feeling of progression.

[Madame Adequate]

Probably because we've played Zelda a dozen times before whereas a new, interesting Bethesda world to explore is pretty awesome and, well, new :monster:

Also I dunno about the Skyrim plot 'cause fuck the main plot in a game like this, but if you think Bethesda can't write plot you've clearly not played enough Morrowind.

[Jiro]

Having a lot of fun being a Bosmer chick and shooting the fuck out of folks with arrows.

[Madame Adequate]

Bosmer.

Filthy N'wah

[NeoCracker]

You know, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Skyrim, but this game get's way to much wrong in terms of plot.
Well, there is more than one reason I could play for nearly 40 hours before I continued on the main quest after doing the first couple of missions. And it was just like that in both Morrowind and Oblivion too. The storylines in these games rarely gets you hooked.

Though I guess I'm less bothered by this than you are. To me, even the main quests are all about exploring new places, fighting new foes and plundering graves for ancient artifacts etc. When I first saw the trailer for Skyrim, my thoughts weren't really:

"omg! A main story with dragons!"

...but rather:

"omg! A huge world to explore, with dragons!"


So while I do agree the story isn't worth paying for, I certainly don't regret paying for the game itself. :p




Edit:

Also, both the Enchanting and Smithing skills are so broken. Especially Enchanting though. And that's WITHOUT using the loop-thing Necro mentioned. Not only does the enchantments you can make with 100 enchanting skill make all the expensive amulets and unique artifacts look bad, but it's the best money-making skill in the game as well. =O

And Destruction could really use some balancing. One second it's totally awesome, then it's "okay" and then it kinda sucks compared to pretty much everything else. I mean... why even bother placing a Fire Trap if it's only going to chip away 2% of the enemy's healthbar?

The Destruction skill really should have increased the damage rather than decreasing the casting cost of the spells. I'm getting the PC version when there's a mod that fixes this. Because even the Expert and Master spells can't keep up at all when playing at the difficulties above Adept and at higher levels. How could they not realize something so obvious such as "set damage vs level-scaling" not working? =O

Exploration gets boring though. A lot of the ruins just look to much like all of the others in some cases, so exploring them gets dull. The Dragons get boring since they all look so similar. And fuck are there a lot of Necromancers in this world.

And I mean a lot. There is a lot of unnecessary repetition in this world. Same goes with the Drewmer and zombie fish elf looking things, I forget what they were called.

Explore to long you just see the same stuff over and over.

[Yeargdribble]

@Neo
This certainly can be the case, but it applies to almost every game. Skyrim is loads better than Oblivion. Oblivion almost literally did have the same 3 or so types of cave over and over. I've found a good deal of variety with the caves in Skyrim and some of them have really stunning interiors with giant waterfalls or a crack that opens to the sky allowing tall trees to grow in a ray of light.

I find this game very rewarding to just not fast travel around all the time as well. There's stuff happening out on the roads and often quests will find you simply because you're wandering around outside.

I recently decided to make myself walk to a particular unvisited location rather than fast traveling to the nearest point and walking from there. I got so sidetracked by dragons, NPCs that started quests, bandit strong holds that piqued my interest and interesting trails I wondered about. It took forever to get where I was going, but I had so much fun (and finished some extra quests) along the way.

[NeoCracker]

@Neo
This certainly can be the case, but it applies to almost every game. Skyrim is loads better than Oblivion. Oblivion almost literally did have the same 3 or so types of cave over and over. I've found a good deal of variety with the caves in Skyrim and some of them have really stunning interiors with giant waterfalls or a crack that opens to the sky allowing tall trees to grow in a ray of light.

I find this game very rewarding to just not fast travel around all the time as well. There's stuff happening out on the roads and often quests will find you simply because you're wandering around outside.

I recently decided to make myself walk to a particular unvisited location rather than fast traveling to the nearest point and walking from there. I got so sidetracked by dragons, NPCs that started quests, bandit strong holds that piqued my interest and interesting trails I wondered about. It took forever to get where I was going, but I had so much fun (and finished some extra quests) along the way.

I agree it is loads better then Oblivion, I can't stand playing that game. :p

ANd yes, a lot of the areas looked very pretty, Markarth I believe it was, the town built into the Mountain, is easilly my favorite town in the game. Very fun design, and a lot of fun quests. I had more fun there the any where else in the game.

And I can't really agree with you that the repetitive nature applies to almost every game. Again going back to New Vegas, the many different Vaults you could delve into felt a lot more unique then the natural caves of Skyrim, which is kind of strange given Vaults are basically man made human storage areas.

As far as enemies though, it does tend to suffer from a similar problem as Skyrim. I'm coming to except that is just something that is going to happen in this style of game. I'm not to fond of it, but I can give it a bit of lenience given the area being constrained to just the country.

There are also a lot of times where you can't do things make no sense you can't do. For example, involving the Markarth abandoned house.

You go in, and dude you are with is driven crazy and wants you dead because of the Deadra Lord, I believe it was Malag Baal, but I mess up their names a lot. He lets you go and wants you to bring him a priest guy under pretense of cleansing the shrine. Why can't yo help him cleanse the Shrine? Why are the only options 'Ignore Quest' or 'Beat the old man to submission as he is trapped in spikey cage?

I also don't entirely realize why Random Tomfoolery is such a big reason to get this game. Don't get me wrong, the insane amount of side stuff is awesome, but I am out to do battle with The smurfing World eater, a Dragon strong enough the only way the Anctient Nords won was by perverting the Power of Shouts into Dragonrend and aid of a smurfING ELDER SCROLL! and I'm suppose to find more satisfaction in punching a bunch of savages in the nuts and rifling through there tit? It just feels like the guys who made this game chose shenanigans over plot, yet anywhere you go in the world is trying to make this whole dragon thing out as a big deal.

Which is in and of itself hard to take seriously when I'm rather confident I found multiple randon bands of nameless dick bags who could probably solve this problem without my assistance. The Soul absorbing this does make you necessary to get rid of the Dragons, true, but it's something no one in this world seems to know, outside a select few, yet still the world seems to think it needs you?

And this last one is just a minor annoyance, but still story related. :p

Really, I'm just stuck with a twenty smurfing pound Elder Scroll I'll use once? So by doing the main plot I effectively LOSE twenty pounds of space in my Inventory? smurf yo Bethesda.

[Loony BoB]

I enjoy the game for the exploration aspect alone. Not that I don't enjoy other things about the game, but I would play this game without those things just so I could walk around and explore the overworld and the dungeons. They're stunningly beautiful. I really do love how this game rewards exploration. My favourite things are the little ones - Meeko's Shack, for example. Awwww.

[Dignified Pauper]

Question, why do all the NPC Vendors only ever have 700 gold on them! I need them to have more money so I can finish furnishing my home in Solitude.

Yeah... I bought the biggest house in the game. uJellies?

[Quindiana Jones]

I was excited for this game, I bought this game, I enjoy this game. Though I'm still "This is awesome! *fapfapfapfapfap*", I can't help but notice it's exactly the bloody same as the other two.

Not in that way, no. I mean that it hasn't done anything out of the ordinary. Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim: graphics are some of the best around. M.O.S: huge world. M.O.S: great voice acting, but repetitive. The list goes on. It's a really weird complaint to have, if it even is a complaint. But when I am playing Skyrim, I lose a lot of hours. It's brilliant and fun and amazing. But as soon as I leave I don't have the hunger pangs that I used to get with Morrowind and Oblivion. I honestly don't know if I'll even play this more than once. Although everything is new, nothing has changed: it's the same kind of new.

Smithing and Enchanting are hilarious, though. Ground those mothersmurfers straight up to 100. Did someone say free Master Destruction spells? Oh, and how much damage does your bow do? Holy crap.

EDIT: Also, where the bloody hell is Spellmaking? Easily the funnest part of Oblivion was making your own ridiculous spells. They've improved the gameplay only to reduce the fun!

[Loony BoB]

I honestly don't know if I'll even play this more than once.
The mods will come and you will have your new content/gameplay. *nod*

EDIT: Also, where the bloody hell is Spellmaking? Easily the funnest part of Oblivion was making your own ridiculous spells. They've improved the gameplay only to reduce the fun!
I never got the full effect of this in Oblivion, I guess. I mean, you can only change the time/intensity of existing spells. What's so ridiculous about that? When I heard about spellmaking in Oblivion I got all sorts of insane ideas but then I found out it's not spellmaking, it's simply spelladjusting.

[Yeargdribble]

@Neo

The fact that there is no urgency is just one of the conceits I'm willing to deal with to enjoy a game with so much side stuff. This is hardly a new thing. You can spend forever d**king around in Zelda games while you're supposed to be saving a princess or something else important.

I think there would be value in some urgency, but I think that has explicitly become a non-aim of TES games because, in general, it's what players want.

@Sir Hatt

I do get the pangs for Skyrim. Actually playing any of TES games gives me pangs for all of them. It just makes me want to jump in and go back over some lore stuff. I never made a point of grinding my skills up. I mean... first grinding isn't fun and from what I hear, once you have highly level smithing or enchanting, the game ceases to be fun because you're an almighty god that can smite anything with a cough. To each their own, but it takes a lot of fun out of it for me. I might as well just put it on easy and then use console hacks to give me all of the best gear in the game.

I've heard of other people missing spellmaking too, but I haven't. I like that the system makes sense and scales based on skill rather than you having 12 iterations of the same spell. Not to mention how difficult it was to manage spells in Oblivion once you have 12 iterations of 20 spells. It seems that most people who miss spellmaking miss the min-maxing which, like the above, kills a lot of the fun for me.

In regards to spellmaking, I'm also glad enchanting works as it does. It's more rewarding to get enchants from armor your disenchant for me personally.

[Shattered Dreamer]

from what I hear, once you have highly level smithing or enchanting, the game ceases to be fun because you're an almighty god that can smite anything with a cough. To each their own, but it takes a lot of fun out of it for me. I might as well just put it on easy and then use console hacks to give me all of the best gear in the game.

I totally agree with Yeargdribble on this point. I'm at level 33 at the moment & I enjoy that the game is still a challenge in certain places. I admit there is nothing quite like 1 hit killing all the enemies in a dungeon then 4 or 5 hit killing the boss at the end but if that happened in every situation I would get very bored very quickly.

My smithing & enchanting both sit at about 50 each & this has happened at a natural pace as I have played through the game. I almost have a full suit of Ebony armour which I have smithed to superior & enchanted with various perks I've picked up along the way, 4 daedric artefacts (a helmet, a mace, the wabbajack & Mehrunes razor), & various weapons with different enchantments for different enemy types. I also have more than half of the games Shout's & a restoration skill of 60 plus & destruction of about 45. I'm a werewolf! I'm close to mastering my first skill with One handed sitting at 97. What is so great about all this? It happened without have to grind for a single second!

I have never understood grinding in RPG's for the sole purpose of making your character into a God & then laying waste to game. The only time I grind is when I'm to weak to complete a quest or defeat a boss. I enjoy RPG's for the "journey" or "struggle" & the story & by over grinding I think some gamers are missing half the fun of most RPG's.

[Yeargdribble]

I used to be a grinder in turn based RPGs. It really took playing Oblivion for the first time on a reasonable difficulty to make me realize how much fun it can be not just raping everything.

In Skyrim, I managed to get my block to 100 naturally without spending undue time grinding it up and it was extremely rewarding. Every time I got access to a new perk I loved the anticipation of working toward the next one. I can absolutely own people with my shield now, but without working my way there I really don't think I would've appreciated the skills that 100 block gives me or learned how to work them into the combat system efficiently.

[Necronopticous]

I finished the main quest last night. I usually don't care for achievements in games, but I realized there are only 10 I don't yet have and at least 8 of those are easy and straightforward things I just haven't gotten around to yet, so I will probably fill out the achievements list in a game for the first and only time since Viva Pinata. After that I think I can retire from Skyrim and concentrate on NetHack until Diablo 3 comes out.

P.S. I actually literally fell asleep during the conference for peace in High Hrothgar.

[Yeargdribble]

I've been waiting for this... Yahtzee gave Skyrim and absolutely glowing review.

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5020-The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim)

[Quindiana Jones]

I honestly don't know if I'll even play this more than once.
The mods will come and you will have your new content/gameplay. *nod*

EDIT: Also, where the bloody hell is Spellmaking? Easily the funnest part of Oblivion was making your own ridiculous spells. They've improved the gameplay only to reduce the fun!
I never got the full effect of this in Oblivion, I guess. I mean, you can only change the time/intensity of existing spells. What's so ridiculous about that? When I heard about spellmaking in Oblivion I got all sorts of insane ideas but then I found out it's not spellmaking, it's simply spelladjusting.

One day I shall show you my PC, and we will both have a good laugh at the idea of it ever being able to play anything xD.

Spellmaking was awesome. It gave non-PC owners the ability to do what they want with the game. My first spell would always be a ridiculous Fortify Speed, Fortify Athletics one, and you'd be zip-zipping around the countryside like nobody's business. Now we're stuck to a slow speed and crappy jump height. Keeping some of the "pointless" abilities would have freed up the LB button for something good like Headbutting or Pimpsmack. Although Skyrim spells are cool, and I think the different varieties of delivery is fantastic, it wouldn't have been hard to have that and Spellmaking. You'd just have other options of "Spray, Rune, AoE" etc. The groovy glitches you could take advantage of were some of the best parts about Oblivion (for other playthroughs, of course), and it's unfortunate to see the Elder Scrolls series heading towards that bizarre version of realism game developers love.

Once again though, excellent game, love it, good job Bethesda, but looking forward to the next one on next gen consoles which will hopefully have more freedom with regards to the player and dicking about in the amazing worlds.

[Kokichi]

Marked for Death with three words is OP.

Followers be OP.

DLC please. :c

[Shattered Dreamer]

Marked for Death with three words is OP.

Followers be OP.

DLC please. :c

Considering it sucks at 1 word, I have 2 words but haven't used it, I'm happy to hear it becomes useful with 3 words. I can't wait to get 3 words for Dismay I've made quite good use of this as a method of crowd control.

[Shattered Dreamer]

I've been waiting for this... Yahtzee gave Skyrim and absolutely glowing review.

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5020-The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim)

That review is hilarious I laughed until it hurt :lol:

[Ultima Shadow]

I don't "hardcore grind" skills in these games, but when I find something easily exploitable, I have a hard time not exploiting it simply because "it's there, right in front of my eyes". Like... when you realise you can skyrocket the smithing skill with nothing but iron ingots and leather stripes, it's hard to not simply buy all those iron ingots and leather stripes whenever you see them for sale. It's especially hard when you reeeaaaally want that sexy, badass-looking Ebony Armour too. And once you have the Ebony set, you are only 10 levels away from Daedric - THE most badass armour in the game.

And enchanting actually levels up very fast if you use it often (without actually grinding). It only requires more "hard to get" material than any other skill to level up.

It's a lot more fun when you have to run like hell from those giants, than when you can simply walk straight up to one and smack it down in two hits with your enchanted Daedric Warhammer. But at the same time... who would use less powerful weapons and less powerful armour "just because"? I think pretty much everyone equips the most powerful things they come across, since they don't want to intentionally nerf their character ( unless you're doing some kind of challenge and set up rules for yourself that involves doing just that ).

This is the problem with smithing and enchanting - they are too easy to access, too easy to level up quickly and too easy to abuse once you figure out how.

In short: it's fun to make/find insanely powerful weapons, but it sucks to actually be a god. And yet, striving to become that "god" character is part of the fun of leveling up/searching for more powerful equipments etc.


Personally, my biggest issue with Skyrim (beside not being able to kill children) is that it's poorly balanced in too many aspects. Even if you don't abuse/power-level smithing and enchanting, you "will" become more overpowered than anything else could possibly make you once you do get them to 100 - whenever that may happen. If it never does, then fine. And in the same way smithing/enchanting is ridicolously OP, there are other skills that are very, very weak. I mean... why would you actually bother putting perks in Lockpicking for example? Hardly anything in the entire skilltree is worth the effort.

The x15 sneak-damage multiplier skill is also a bit too powerful too. At least when you equip those things that doubles it, meaning you get x30 damage from sneak-attacks.

Finally, my last issue is the magic skills:

Destruction: is awesome early, but all the cool spells get too weak almost right away. I love the idea of the magic traps, but they stop being useful just a few levels after you get them - and they never get better. Fireballs, icestorm and the elemental cloaks cost too much magicka at low levels but their damage becomes almost irrelevant when you are strong enough to cast them frequently. As a pure mage who relies on Destruction to kill foes, you will have to make sure you never get your levels too high, or the fun will be ruined since all the unique spells will become useless. And the magicka cost of the Expert and Master spells won't be worth the damage either, unless you once again abuse enchanting to reduce the casting cost to practically "nothing".

Really... they should have reduced the base casting costs and base damage for certain spells, then added individual multipliers for the spells "per point above 20 in the destruction skill" or something like that. For example; fireballs and such could have used a +1% or +2% multiplier per increase, while traps and cloaks could have used a +3% multiplier. Since opponents generally have higher HP but less attack power/defense than the player, spell damage is already dangerous for the player as it currently is though, so reduce enemy spells from being too overpowered, the enemies could have "half damage" penalty for spells.


Illusion: the spells - at every single level - do pretty much the same thing, save "Invisibility" and "Muffle". The lack of varity makes the skill pretty boring and it's hard to be motivated to put valuable perks in the skilltree. Illusion feels, to me, very much like the usual "same spell, but more powerful" thing that Oblivion had so much of. The master spells might be a bit more fun though, since they affect everyone around you. But it's still the very same effects.

Alteration: The passive effects in the skilltree are good and Paralyze + Master spells are very powerful and awesome. No problem there. But the first two entire levels - Novice and Apprentice - only contains 4 spells out of which 2 are basically "see better in the dark" and the other two "better defense rating for pure mages who wear no armour at all". So the only reason to ever get the "cast Novice and Apprentice for less magicka" perks, is to get access to the "cast Expert and Master for less magicka" perks. Really... more low-level spells needed!



My first spell would always be a ridiculous Fortify Speed, Fortify Athletics one, and you'd be zip-zipping around the countryside like nobody's business. Now we're stuck to a slow speed and crappy jump height.

...speaking of Athletics and Acrobatics, I think magic that increases running speed and such would have been a perfect addition to the Alteration set of low-level spells.


...both Conjuration and Restoration are perfectly fine and pretty well balanced though.


/end of rant.

Those are pretty much my only issues with the game ( plus the lag that occurs on the PS3 version ). Also, despite "being unable to resist making a very good enchanted daedric armour", I still have trouble with Ancient Dragons and some other foes (like the Dragon Priests) on Master difficulty. So even with "god mode activated", you are not completely invincible.

[Madame Adequate]

Destruction gets a smurf of a lot better once you get Impact and a couple of spell cost reduction items to help. Mostly Impact though.

Also Illusion might not have many spells but when one of those spells is Fury I don't really care, because it's funny as hell. Silent casting > Sneak > Fury a Bandit, someone gets killed > Conjure the corpse, the games begin anew!

I do miss Spellmaking though, I really loved it in Morrowind and it was okay in Oblivion. It'd be nice if for no other reason than just being able to make something tailored to your current level rather than the big jump between like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning right here.

I do wish there was still Acrobatics and Athletics. They could have folded them into a single skill that did things like more efficient stamina use, better carry weight, etc. on top of the obvious run faster and jump higher.

[Ultima Shadow]

Destruction gets a smurf of a lot better once you get Impact and a couple of spell cost reduction items to help. Mostly Impact though.I have impact. But the 1-second stun or so you can get out of it still doesn't make the traps useful. And especially not the cloak spells since impact doesn't seem to have any effect on them. The stun is nice, but... when the damage output of - for example - traps is as low as it is on higher levels, it just never feels worth the effort of placing the trap.

I mean, sure... casting Incinerate and master spells for a very reduced casting cost can still be useful damage-wise. But the most entertaining and unique spells ( like the traps and cloaks ) remain incapable of doing any noteworthy damage at all. And yeah, this is the reason spellmaking would be awesome - or even is "needed" in this game. What I enjoyed when I first got the fire trap was how I could make use of a wide variety of destruction spells rather than just spamming the same over and over. But now, I can only make use of the "best" spell I have, and even then I can still do more damage with a completely unenchanted and non-legendary daedric greatsword. Perhaps, to a certain degree, it's just as much the weapons being too good as the spells being too weak. But I just don't like the idea of a single powerattack with a sword doing as much damage as a master-level archmage's most destructive spell, which unlike the sword-swing takes some time to cast and cost lots of magicka.

I can't even imagine being able to take down an Ancient Dragon with destruction spells, unless I can cast Lightning Storm for free. Last time I hit one with a dual-casted fireball, you could hardly see the damage to the lifebar. =O

[Renmiri]

Question, why do all the NPC Vendors only ever have 700 gold on them! I need them to have more money so I can finish furnishing my home in Solitude.

Yeah... I bought the biggest house in the game. uJellies?
Get to 80+ speech and they will all have 1,000 gold. A bit before you can get select vendors to have 1,500 if you invest on them.

PS: The guy on Riverwood (first village you meet in the game) always has 10,000 gold or more.

Marked for Death with three words is OP.

Followers be OP.

DLC please. :c
Oh so you joined the Dark Brotherhood as well :p

Read somewhere that the most op trinket comes from the Bohetian quest. Means you have to lure a companion to his / her death. I passed on that one.

Still deciding if I'm going to kill the emperor or not. Kinda weird being an assassin and the Dragonborn at the same time :p

[Araciel]

Spell making has been lame since Oblivion too... I miss levitate dammit!

[Shattered Dreamer]

If you want to talk about useful daedric artefacts you'll want to lay your hands on Mace of Molag Bal, Mehrunes' Razor, Sanguine Rose & most of all Spellbreaker. While you can probably make better equipment later on these have proven invaluable to me.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Just killed an Elder Dragon, after everything I've heard about them I was rather disappointed how easily I killed it :/

[Renmiri]

The Bohetian quest gives you Ebon Mail armor, a sneak + "poison cloak" to melee enemies when in combat. Makes the game way too easy. Bandits go "You shouldn't have come her... Aaagh" before you even swing your sword :p

[Shattered Dreamer]

The Bohetian quest gives you Ebon Mail armor, a sneak + "poison cloak" to melee enemies when in combat. Makes the game way too easy. Bandits go "You shouldn't have come her... Aaagh" before you even swing your sword :p

I got it shortly after you mentioned it yesterday, it's awesome :bigsmile:

Quick question, which is better, a suit of Dragon plate armour (I made one looks amazing!) or a suit of Daedric armour with both smithed to Legendary status?

[NeoCracker]

So hanging out with my buddy while playing it, on two separate occasions he received an Elven Blade as a reward from ULFRIC STOMCLOAK.

We were wondering if he should feel insulted by this.

[Necronopticous]

Quick question, which is better, a suit of Dragon plate armour (I made one looks amazing!) or a suit of Daedric armour with both smithed to Legendary status?
Daedric armor is the best armor in the game defense-wise.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Quick question, which is better, a suit of Dragon plate armour (I made one looks amazing!) or a suit of Daedric armour with both smithed to Legendary status?
Daedric armor is the best armor in the game defense-wise.

Great I have about half the suit smithed, I'm collecting daedric hearts inbetween quests.

[Yar]

I can't stop playing this game. :|

[Renmiri]

I can't stop playing this game. :|
Me too! O.o

[Araciel]

Me either!

[Yar]

My pickpocketing is maxed out! Now, I just really need to do things that don't involve stealing from these poor people. :p

[Shattered Dreamer]

Just fought 2 Frost dragons at once at Dead Men's Respite, has this happened anybody else? It was by far the most epic dragon fight I've had in Skyrim so far :bigsmile:

[drotato]

Umm, I read somewhere that most of the dragons were random? Like they come out anywhere.
Is that true?

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, you can be walking around down a road and a dragon will be visible in the distance and start coming towards you. Sometimes they just stay where they are. When you're near certain locations, it's more likely you'll get one - the mage's college and the various military camps are good examples of this.


Just killed an Elder Dragon, after everything I've heard about them I was rather disappointed how easily I killed it :/
So long as you have a system, dragons will always be 'easy' if you follow that system. But I have to concede that the the first time I fought an Ancient Dragon and a Blood Dragon simultaneously, I was basically constantly in hiding and waiting for them to land/hover in the right spot so I could pop them down with my bow. Also, if you have the shout 'Dragonrend', it's kind of a piece of cake to beat any dragon. I'm glad I did my quests in the order I did them in, saving that kind of stuff for when I had already finished most of the game.

Speaking of which, I strongly suggest doing the main quest before doing the surprisingly boring civil war quests (I went for the legion but may check out the other one later - I opted for the Legion because Ulfric is one hell of a wanker). The reason I say this is that it is awesome to be able to call upon a dragon while fighting so many people at once. Totally made the civil war quests worthwhile. xD

Have just the dark brotherhood quests to do now, but will do them tomorrow probably.

And now, funniest things you've heard in the game so far? After killing a dragon in a small town (Riverwood, I think it was) and then going into a house and then out again, a guard walked along the path where the dragon's bones lay, looked down at the skeleton and said "You shouldn't leave things lying around for people to trip over." I laughed. Almost as good was immediately after the first Dark Brotherhood quest kill, a girl at the orphanage (where all the kids were cheering the death of a rather nasty old lady who beat them) said "Kill one person and you can solve so many problems. I wonder at the possibilities..." xD Creepy kid.

Have to say, I actually really enjoyed the main questline, or at least I enjoyed it about ten times more than the Oblivion one. I felt the other questlines were crap, but the main questline was pretty epic. After I beat the game at the throat of the world, I walked to High Hrothgar and upon getting out, noticed my horse had gone AWOL. I didn't really feel like fast-traveling, though... I actually felt like it was fitting that, upon saving the world, my character would then walk all the way down the 7,000 steps (following the path) and then around the mountain, still sticking to the path, to Whiterun. I was disappointed to find that the Jarl had little (I think nothing, can't remember for cetain) new to say, so then - despite finding my horse outside in the stable - decided to continue on foot through to the Sky Ruler Temple. Upon this travel - which was longer than the normal "Oh, I'll just foot it" journeys I've had - I still, after many dozens of hours spent playing, managed to come across about five "random events" I'd not seen in my travels. I know there are a lot of random events catalogued throughout the internet that I still haven't experienced myself. It's amazing how massive this game is, really incredible.

Also, my favourite location in Skyrim (of the ones you can revisit) is definitely Blackreach. Wow. Wow. I spent so long there. Also, almost at the end of the main storyline, Sovngard was stunningly beautiful. Especially when the mist was heavy.

EDIT: Steam's achievement system is complete arse. It says I've finished the final story quest but it has other earlier story quests not listed... such as getting to High Hrothgar etc. at the start of the game. :p Other things like an achievement for doing one of cooking food (done), mining ore (done) or chopping wood (done again) are listed as not done, too. Stupid Steam. =| I think there are 6-10 that I'm missing that I shouldn't be missing.

[Shattered Dreamer]

First meeting with Alduin, nasty business that. Beat him on the second try but the first was just plain disheartening. Level 43, daedric armour smithed to legendary, 1 hand weapon rating 100, Heavy Armour 94 so his physical attacks did little or nothing but his fire breath, HOLY CRAP, an almost 1 hit kill & Spellbreaker (flawless) couldn't even block it :O 2nd time I tried using Greater Ward & much to my delight his breath couldn't break through it so then he got Daedric Axe to the face :bigsmile: Epic fight all round I look forward to facing him again!

Dragonrend is awesome but it's going to make killing every dragon type I've encountered thus far much too easy.

[NeoCracker]

I had Full Draconic Armor, 100 in both Smithing and Enchanting, 100 Conjuration, and around a 70 one Handed Skill, plus I was a Brenton with an Item that boosted my Magic Resistance even more.

Yeah, he was barely able to hurt me with any attacks on either fight with him. :p

[Necronopticous]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip7QZPw04Ks

[drotato]

Necro, that video is freaking hilarious.

[Loony BoB]

First meeting with Alduin, nasty business that. Beat him on the second try but the first was just plain disheartening. Level 43, daedric armour smithed to legendary, 1 hand weapon rating 100, Heavy Armour 94 so his physical attacks did little or nothing but his fire breath, HOLY CRAP, an almost 1 hit kill & Spellbreaker (flawless) couldn't even block it :O 2nd time I tried using Greater Ward & much to my delight his breath couldn't break through it so then he got Daedric Axe to the face :bigsmile: Epic fight all round I look forward to facing him again!

Dragonrend is awesome but it's going to make killing every dragon type I've encountered thus far much too easy.
How much health do you have?

I found Alduin pretty easy, personally. He didn't get his fire onto me that much, though. Once I could get him on the ground, I just did what I do with most dragons - hide around to their side and attack their hind legs. It should also be noted that if he breathes fire, just use Dragonrend and he'll stop immediately - I don't remember if it stops movement, too, but I know it stops their attacks and stuns them a little so I imagine it would stop them turning to have a shot at you (if you are attacking their hind legs).

[Shattered Dreamer]

First meeting with Alduin, nasty business that. Beat him on the second try but the first was just plain disheartening. Level 43, daedric armour smithed to legendary, 1 hand weapon rating 100, Heavy Armour 94 so his physical attacks did little or nothing but his fire breath, HOLY CRAP, an almost 1 hit kill & Spellbreaker (flawless) couldn't even block it :O 2nd time I tried using Greater Ward & much to my delight his breath couldn't break through it so then he got Daedric Axe to the face :bigsmile: Epic fight all round I look forward to facing him again!

Dragonrend is awesome but it's going to make killing every dragon type I've encountered thus far much too easy.
How much health do you have?

I found Alduin pretty easy, personally. He didn't get his fire onto me that much, though. Once I could get him on the ground, I just did what I do with most dragons - hide around to their side and attack their hind legs. It should also be noted that if he breathes fire, just use Dragonrend and he'll stop immediately - I don't remember if it stops movement, too, but I know it stops their attacks and stuns them a little so I imagine it would stop them turning to have a shot at you (if you are attacking their hind legs).

I have 290 HP, my MP & Stamina are 290 also. The time Alduin killed me I used Dragonrend on him but he was still able to turn his head & BBQ me!

[NorthernChaosGod]

Looks like I'll be joining you lot soon. /smug

[drotato]

Looks like I'll be joining you lot soon. /smug
You and your perverse looking smileys.
I know it's supposed to be smug, but it just looks perverted to me. xD

[Madame Adequate]

My funniest moment when I stepped out of the Mage's College to be accosted by some Hired Thugs. This confused me because I hadn't nicked anything to my recollection. So I did them in and found the contract note.

"Blah blah blah Daransa nicked me shit so go break her legs

- Bandit Outlaw"

I then remembered that I had, in sneaking around some fort or other, decided I'd pickpocket a little just to get a couple of cheap skill ups. :kakapo:

[Clo]

VENDORS SHOULD HAVE MORE THAN 600 GOLD.

Other than that, does anyone have any suggestions how I can get my work, family, bills and natural biological need for sleep to all LEAVE ME ALONE so I can play more of this game?

[Shattered Dreamer]

I have 290 HP, my MP & Stamina are 290 also. The time Alduin killed me I used Dragonrend on him but he was still able to turn his head & BBQ me!

Same thing happened again whilst fighting a frost dragon used Dragonrend but the dragon still used breath, not that it mattered against a frost dragon :p

[Loony BoB]

VENDORS SHOULD HAVE MORE THAN 600 GOLD.

Other than that, does anyone have any suggestions how I can get my work,
Use holidays


family,
Close door, turn off phone, and hopefully most of them will be at work anyway

bills
Pay them

and natural biological need for sleep
Ooh, just sleep when your family are around. Two birds, one stone!

[Old Manus]

I'm playing as a Redguard and am disappointed at the lack of racial slurs thrown at me in the street. How am I meant to satiate my need for white guilt?

[Loony BoB]

For racial slurs, become a Thalmor and visit Ulfric or just opt for Khajiit and talk to anyone. Not done it myself, just going by other people's reports...

[Madame Adequate]

I didn't think the Thalmor would let anyone join them tbh. I'll have to look into that.

On a character who hasn't killed dozens of the fuckers, obviously.

[Ultima Shadow]

When I fought Alduin the first time, I had 300 HP and about a total of 40% magical resistance through enchantments. His breath attacks still did about 170% if my max health in damage, so I'd have to use potions that would heal around 100% of my health - in the middle of the attack - just to survive at all.



Looks like I'll be joining you lot soon. /smug
Get the PC version! You can't kill and undress the children without mods! =(

...

...just so you know. :|

[Loony BoB]

Too late, he's already getting the 360 version. :p

I had about 300HP fighting Alduin the first time, but didn't really have a massive problem. Spellbreaker takes care of a lot of that. I also had some amulet that gave +30 to Health, Stamina and Magica. Dragonrend, as mentioned, stopped his flame attacks. Finally, my sword has two enchantments - one being Fiery Soul Trap (best thing ever) and the other being Absorb HP, so fighting him would regenerate my health.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I pretty much don't play PC games. I only have Portal because it was free.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Too late, he's already getting the 360 version. :p

I had about 300HP fighting Alduin the first time, but didn't really have a massive problem. Spellbreaker takes care of a lot of that. I also had some amulet that gave +30 to Health, Stamina and Magica. Dragonrend, as mentioned, stopped his flame attacks. Finally, my sword has two enchantments - one being Fiery Soul Trap (best thing ever) and the other being Absorb HP, so fighting him would regenerate my health.

So you fought him with alot of the same apparel as I did. Those enchantments on your 2 swords sound like a good way to go alright!

[Renmiri]

VENDORS SHOULD HAVE MORE THAN 600 GOLD.

Other than that, does anyone have any suggestions how I can get my work, family, bills and natural biological need for sleep to all LEAVE ME ALONE so I can play more of this game?

Vendor in Riverwood always has 10,000 gold

[Necronopticous]

Vendor in Riverwood always has 10,000 gold
...after you invest in his business.

[~*~Celes~*~]

I find it so hard to sell all the potions I make. I'm getting pretty high up there in alchemy (leveled in the 30s) and that stupid Arcadia chick is too poor half the time for my potions.

[Loony BoB]

I just gave up on selling crap, personally. I just hoard money and make or find everything I need. All my crap? The drawers/cupboards in the Arch-Mage are for, left to right: ingredients, apparel, weapons. The safe is for scrolls, the end-of-bed chest is for potions. Barrel for food, which more often than not I just throw away anyhow. Books go in the chest above the bookcase over at Breezehome in Whiterun. Misc goes into the storage on the left just as you enter that home.

Pickpocketing got me loaded, and at some point you get deep pockets which increases your carrying capacity by 100, which is far better than wasting my points on Stamina upping capacity by a measly 5 at a time. What do you guys buy anyway? I have about 30,000 last I checked and only really spend money on leveling my alchemy or when a horse dies.

[Quindiana Jones]

I'm a pure mage, which is fun. Working towards 100% spell absorption right now. Bit of a shame I wasted some perks in useless things.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Any tips for working on the pickpocket skill, getting caught & having to kill everybody then pay a fine helps nobody :p

[Loony BoB]

Note the % of chance you'll get caught for a start. Practice on people in the middle of nowhere or alternatively, do what I did if you're up for a lot of saving and loading and practice in the Markarth Guard Tower (right at the top). There are often around six guys there sleeping. Pocket them all, dump the stuff on the ground, wait 6-12 hours, pocket the next shift of guards who are having their nap. :) Easily the best spot to level Sneak, too. I started off saving every one item, then as I got on I started saving for every three or four items pocketed. When you're getting higher in level, start wandering castles, palaces and the like (basically wherever a Jarl lives in a major town) and pocket everyone there, you can usually get a good spot to hide for every individual there, and they often sleep in these locations as well.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Note the % of chance you'll get caught for a start. Practice on people in the middle of nowhere or alternatively, do what I did if you're up for a lot of saving and loading and practice in the Markarth Guard Tower (right at the top). There are often around six guys there sleeping. Pocket them all, dump the stuff on the ground, wait 6-12 hours, pocket the next shift of guards who are having their nap. :) Easily the best spot to level Sneak, too. I started off saving every one item, then as I got on I started saving for every three or four items pocketed. When you're getting higher in level, start wandering castles, palaces and the like (basically wherever a Jarl lives in a major town) and pocket everyone there, you can usually get a good spot to hide for every individual there, and they often sleep in these locations as well.

Cheers I'll start leveling up Sneak as well so, I'm at level 44 now & alot of the skills I use constantly have hit 100. I've finished the main companions quest, the dark brotherhood, college of winterhold & I'm nearing the end of the Thieves Guild & Main Story quests. I never thought I'd say it but apart from levelling stats I'm running out of things to do in this game as strange as that might sound :/

[Renmiri]

I just gave up on selling crap, personally. I just hoard money and make or find everything I need. All my crap? The drawers/cupboards in the Arch-Mage are for, left to right: ingredients, apparel, weapons. The safe is for scrolls, the end-of-bed chest is for potions. Barrel for food, which more often than not I just throw away anyhow. Books go in the chest above the bookcase over at Breezehome in Whiterun. Misc goes into the storage on the left just as you enter that home.

Pickpocketing got me loaded, and at some point you get deep pockets which increases your carrying capacity by 100, which is far better than wasting my points on Stamina upping capacity by a measly 5 at a time. What do you guys buy anyway? I have about 30,000 last I checked and only really spend money on leveling my alchemy or when a horse dies.
lol, i use the Archmage quarters as my main house as well ! I also store some stuff on markhan and riften for when i go east or west.

I used a lot of gold to level Blacksmith and buying / decorating houses. Now is usually for alchemy or for collecting "peerless" neck and ring trinkets :p


Any tips for working on the pickpocket skill, getting caught & having to kill everybody then pay a fine helps nobody :p

what Bob said works. I did mine going sneaking (using the muffle spell - helps a lot) at night in Winterun, leveling sneaking, illusion (muffle) and lockpicking at the same time (use lockpicking potions to get inside the houses, pickpocket sleeping folks). got them all to above 60 in no time :D

[Loony BoB]

I just used enchanted muffled boots =x

[Madame Adequate]

Muffle shuffle is great for getting Illusion up anyway, so it's worth doing if you want to get some really cheap skillups.

[Necronopticous]

I just dual shot Courage at a sleeping dude for a half hour to get my Illusion to 100. He had extremely courageous dreams that night.

[Loony BoB]

xD

I've barely touched Illusion at all. Every now and then I conjure a Flame Atronach (they make excellent decoys when you're against tough enemies), but beyond that, nada. I used Detect Life to boost my Alteration, it was needed when fighting the civil war missions (to more easily tell enemies apart) and also was helpful for the thief's guild missions. But post level 50, leveling up for perks is a bitch so I stopped bothering. Everything was easy by then anyway, although I do wish I'd got some things boosted a bit more, such as Archery, Destruction and Restoration.

[Quindiana Jones]

Conjuring things is in the school of Conjuration, BoB. :colbert:

Master level Illusion spells are quite possibly the most hilarious in the game.

[Loony BoB]

I know, I know. I probably should have made a more obvious note that I was talking about Conjuration at that point.

Illusion: Barely touched.
Conjuration: Occasional Flame Atronachs and nothing else.
Alteration: Detect Life.
Destruction/Restoration: Low level spells.

[Quindiana Jones]

Better.

[Necronopticous]

Just finished the Dark Brotherhood quest line. I think that about wraps it up for stuff that I care to do in this game.

[CimminyCricket]

I really liked this Dark Brotherhood quest line. I could have done without Cicero's voice to be honest, though. :\

[Necronopticous]

I don't think Cicero's voice would have been so painfully awkward if he actually had the animation (especially facial animation) to match his eccentricity. But yeah: the Dark Brotherhood was my favorite quest line in the game, easy.

[Aerith's Knight]

Derp AI is funny. When I had the dog follow me, I used the jumping glitch to get up a piece of mountain, and then watched as the dog ran off into the horizon to find a way to me.

After about 15 minutes of hopping up the mountainside, the dog fell past me and did it all over again.

[Flying Mullet]

I just finished leveling up my blacksmithing and enchanting to 100 and can make some killer Legengary Dragonscale armor with two enchantments on them. Now my Adept spells cost nothing to cast, magika regeneration is insanely fast and I have superior thieving skill enhancements.

Playing the equivalent of a battlemage btw.

[NorthernChaosGod]

My copy just came in the mail. :monster:

Any tips for a newbie adventurer?

[Hollycat]

go one handed light armor, keep all stats level, save your skill points till later except for the add damage or armor efficiency.

[Ultima Shadow]

Go two-handed, heavy armor, focus on a single stat, use up your skillpoints immediately.

:greenie:

[NorthernChaosGod]

Go two-handed, heavy armor, focus on a single stat, use up your skillpoints immediately.

:greenie:
:colbert:

[escobert]

I've got my destruction up to 80, smithing at 100. I dual cast lightning orb all the time :D
Level 31 currently I own two houses one in Whiterun and the other in Solitude. I've completed the Dark Brotherhood questline and the Civil War questline. I love the game and wish my gf would let me play more xD

[Jiro]

For a Bosmer Assassin, I am surprisingly hardy in a straight up fight. Magic has been thoroughly neglected so that I can just stab the fuck out of people.

Also I am in love with the Nightingale armour.

[Pike]

I have this game now. I played about two hours of it and it is glorious. I can't wait to play more tomorrow :excited:

I made a Khajit because I wanted to be a tabby cat with a battleaxe.

[Renmiri]

I have this game now. I played about two hours of it and it is glorious. I can't wait to play more tomorrow :excited:

I made a Khajit because I wanted to be a tabby cat with a battleaxe.

Mine is a khajit too, they rock... increased run speed, claws, night vision <3

[Shattered Dreamer]

My 2nd copy broke last weekend :( I'm glad I insured it, the store where I bought it was out of stock last week & couldn't replace it gonna head back tomorrow & see if it's in stock. I'm so close to the end too :/

[Flying Mullet]

Because a thief needs style, I've enchanted fine clothing and gold/gemmed jewelry with a mix of sneak, pickpocket and lockpicking bonuses and give them all a prefix of "Locke's ...".

[CimminyCricket]

Mullet, you're so cute. xD

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Why is it that all the Nords either sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger or the Swedish chef?

[Flying Mullet]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

No, no, I just found it kind of funny. xD

[~*~Celes~*~]

I just gave up on selling crap, personally. I just hoard money and make or find everything I need. All my crap? The drawers/cupboards in the Arch-Mage are for, left to right: ingredients, apparel, weapons. The safe is for scrolls, the end-of-bed chest is for potions. Barrel for food, which more often than not I just throw away anyhow. Books go in the chest above the bookcase over at Breezehome in Whiterun. Misc goes into the storage on the left just as you enter that home.

Pickpocketing got me loaded, and at some point you get deep pockets which increases your carrying capacity by 100, which is far better than wasting my points on Stamina upping capacity by a measly 5 at a time. What do you guys buy anyway? I have about 30,000 last I checked and only really spend money on leveling my alchemy or when a horse dies.

I spend most of my money trying to craft more armor/weaponry, and now, i spend money on stuff for enchantments.

[Necronopticous]

Because a thief needs style, I've enchanted fine clothing and gold/gemmed jewelry with a mix of sneak, pickpocket and lockpicking bonuses and give them all a prefix of "Locke's ...".Call yourself a treasure hunter, or you'll have to rip your own lungs out.

[Madame Adequate]

Why is it that all the Nords either sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger or the Swedish chef?

Because this game is GOTYAY. Seriously every time a guard opens their mouth I'm dying of laughter. Especially when something crazy is happening and I'm killing a giant or something, and then some guard's idly standing around wondering if maybe he's the Dragonborn after all.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Why is it that all the Nords either sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger or the Swedish chef?

Because this game is GOTYAY. Seriously every time a guard opens their mouth I'm dying of laughter. Especially when something crazy is happening and I'm killing a giant or something, and then some guard's idly standing around wondering if maybe he's the Dragonborn after all.

Lol I know eh? It's classic.

[Flying Arrow]

Okay so how's the PS3 patch that just got released? I haven't played the game in weeks and want to get back in. I'm glad that my Nord won't be two-shotted by ice mages but does the new patch add/break anything significant? I've heard some stuff about corrupted auto-saves so what are the PS3 players experiences here?