Game: Skyrim

[Ryllharu]

Yeah, steam auto-updated for me too before I had a chance to turn off the updates.

I didn't encounter any game-breaking issues, but magic resistance is definitely screwed up. I'm doing way too much damage, and taking just as much. A dragon easily killed me with frost-breath, but luckily, I was in the mage college so there were plenty of pillars to hide behind the second time around. I was also able to stagger it with dual-casted firebolts, something I've never been able to do before.

[Buffalobiian]

Skyrim's awesome and all.. but we haven't played it in Japanese yet..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1adLrHvALg&feature=player_embedded

Now that would be epic.

[TwisT]

The paintings and symbols you find on the walls are not unrelated. Usually they tell you the right combination. I only found 1 door so far that didn't even have symbols anywhere. And it took me some time to figure out that it was the claw instead (actually i looked it up after being stumped for so long).

[Animeniax]

Skyrim's awesome and all.. but we haven't played it in Japanese yet..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1adLrHvALg&feature=player_embedded

Now that would be epic.

Dude that's awesome, thanks for posting it. Somehow Japanese language and demeanor just goes well with medieval times and fantasy worlds. Now someone needs to make skins to make Nords look Japanese. All swords would need to be skinned to samurai and ninja swords, and armor should be samurai armor.

[Kraco]

The paintings and symbols you find on the walls are not unrelated. Usually they tell you the right combination.

No, they don't. Unless you need to use higher level decrypting to turn the wall carvings into the correct combination (actually elimination would have been really nice since oft it was a hallway with opposing pairs of carvings, and three choices at total). I think I did encounter one instance where using the order of the carvings directly worked as the combination. Must have been a pure coincidence.

Needless to say, I liked a lot more the other puzzles where the plates with the animal symbols seemed to combine perfectly with the rotating pillars and such.


Skyrim's awesome and all.. but we haven't played it in Japanese yet.

Yeah, it sounded good, but in my opinion there's nothing wrong with the English version either. Perhaps it's because I heard it first and English is as well a foreign language for me.

Edit: Now I finally googled it, and it's indeed Claudia Christian who's also in the English cast. I use Whiterun's smithy all the time and every time the voice of the blacksmith kept bothering me by sounding so familiar. And then I happened upon the Lexicon quest from Riften and one of the thieves sounded exactly like Susan Ivanova.

[NeoCybercoin]

Lv 33 Nord now. Why can't I stop playing this game?

[Ryllharu]

So despite the hilariously broken player character magic resistance thanks to the patch, I opted to make a pure mage character. Breton, about Level 26 right now.

Conjuration/Destruction/Speech/Enchantment.

I do not carry a physical weapon, I conjure up Bound ones if I'm about to run out of magicka. The only smithing I do is jewelry, which is then promptly enchanted and resold.

Speech makes a hell of a difference once you get the "Sell anything, anywhere" and "Persuade actually works now" perks. I'll admit that I used minor exploits to up it quickly (dialogue loops, selling dozens and dozens of arrows one single arrow at a time), because honestly it is impossible to improve otherwise.

In addition, I installed a mod that replaces the female Archmage Robe meshes and textures with Nocturnal's robes, colored white. The robes still look normal on a male character, and I did have to go through the entire Mage College quest line to get them.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9453/screenshot9oa.th.jpg (http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9453/screenshot9oa.jpg)

Zombies and Revenants are awesome. Frost Atronachs are great tanks, but the zombies hold their own a great deal more, especially if you find the right ones, like an archer, bandit leader, or a druagr wight.

I do have to watch it with Chain Lightning and Fireball. I've killed Lydia (behind me in the screenshot) at least 6 times so far, and have had to reload.

[Splash!]

So despite the hilariously broken player character magic resistance thanks to the patch, I opted to make a pure mage character.

Magic resistance isn't just broken for player characters. It seems to be broken for everything. You can apparently make quick work of Flame Atronachs with FIRE spells! I have stopped playing the game for the time being since all my Dragon's are pretty glitched. The poor things want to attack me so bad, but no matter how hard they try they just keep on getting further and further away.

Good news is that Bethesda is expected to release a fix for 1.2 to resolve at least these 2 issues early next week

[Kraco]

Good news is that Bethesda is expected to release a fix for 1.2 to resolve at least these 2 issues early next week

Saying that's good news is a questionable remark. These very bugs were only introduced by the so called patch so taking a week to fix them shows distinct lack of interest, not decent customer service. Especially considering the PC version, which is, according to Bethesda's own words, completely under their control, not under MS or Sony control.

That being said, I also haven't played the game ever since I realised how bad the patch was.

[Ryllharu]

One week is pretty good.

Obsidian took a couple months at a time to fix the bugs they introduced while developing New Vegas (you know, the bugs that Bethesda patched out over nearly a year ago), and months again every time their patches introduced new quirks. Modders fixed individual issues within days, but they had the g.e.c.k. at the time.

I haven't experienced any game-breaking bugs from the 1.2 patch, so I'm just kind of enjoying the challenge presented by Novice mages that can kill me with two lightning bolts.

Magic resistance isn't just broken for player characters. It seems to be broken for everything. You can apparently make quick work of Flame Atronachs with FIRE spells!It's definitely not all characters. I seem to die universally from any mage (or dragon priest for that matter) in two hits that has chain lightning or ice spikes. Remember that I'm a Breton mage. I decide to return the favor with firebolt (which I specialize in) and it takes me up to 8 dual-casted, staggering shots.

Hilariously, Fire Atronachs indeed die from a couple fire spells, but trolls, who are supposed to be weak to fire, still take a good number of hits.

[Kraco]

Hilariously, Fire Atronachs indeed die from a couple fire spells, but trolls, who are supposed to be weak to fire, still take a good number of hits.

Fire atronachs are weak anyway, but trolls are supposed to have quite a bunch of HP. Furthermore, maybe the bug didn't only remove positive resistance but removed the weakness to fire as well. That would mean trolls can eat more fire than they should. Without the bonuses, negative or posite, it's all up to the absolute HP and all manner of beasts and tougher NPCs beat the human player at that.

Btw, has anybody paid attention to what degree general magic resistance can compete with elemental resistance? If it can, does it also protect from dragons' breath attacks (or shouts in general)? In Oblivion elemental resistance protected from that particular elemental attack and also raised the general AC, whereas magic resistance protected from all elemental and other hostile magic but didn't affect the AC. I'm pretty sure in Skyrim elemental resistance does nothing to the AC, though, which naturally would weaken it compared to magic resistance if the latter is still universal.

[Buffalobiian]

What's AC?

It seems Ryll nearly always makes character builds that I would like/intend to make, one step ahead of me. Grrrr!

[Kraco]

What's AC?

Armor Class. I couldn't immediately recall what manner of word Elder Scrolls use for how good your armor is, so I used the D&D word.

[Ryllharu]

Buff, just be glad TES doesn't use Thac0. :p

[Xelbair]

Indeed, be glad... i hated that rule in dnd Ryll.

[Animeniax]

I haven't experienced any problems with the 1.2 patch either. Level 55 and going through the Brotherhood quests now. Can't wait until I complete them so I can kill everyone in the group.

[Buffalobiian]

I haven't experienced any problems with the 1.2 patch either. Level 55 and going through the Brotherhood quests now. Can't wait until I complete them so I can kill everyone in the group.

lol.. (just had to do it. :P )

Who do you want to kill most?

[Animeniax]

lol.. (just had to do it. :P )

Who do you want to kill most?

All of them. They're so full of themselves. Though I do appreciate Astrid's shapeliness in her brotherhood garments.

[Buffalobiian]

All of them. They're so full of themselves. Though I do appreciate Astrid's shapeliness in her brotherhood garments.

Tell me how you feel about it all once you've completed the quest. ;)

[Animeniax]

Tell me how you feel about it all once you've completed the quest. ;)

Spoilerish:

Yeah I got the main objective of the Brotherhood quest and it's pretty mind-blowing, but I haven't completed it yet. I already joined the Stormcloaks so it makes sense. I imagine if I had joined the Imperials my target would be Ulfric instead.

[Buffalobiian]

Spoilerish:

Yeah I got the main objective of the Brotherhood quest and it's pretty mind-blowing, but I haven't completed it yet. I already joined the Stormcloaks so it makes sense. I imagine if I had joined the Imperials my target would be Ulfric instead.

I haven't joined sides, but my target was the same as yours. (PS: What I meant was to see if you felt like killing everybody once it's all over. ;) )

[Animeniax]

I see what you mean now. I just spent almost $20k to fix up the new headquarters... but they'll all die anyway. After you complete the Brotherhood and thieves guild missions, do you continue to do quests for them to make money? Or does it culminate in some larger quest or purpose? If it's just money, I'm going to slaughter both groups soon.

Also, here's my housecarl/soon to be wife in HD glory (some mods applied):

1096

[Buffalobiian]

Nazir's quests will run out. The Night Mother will keep giving you quests indefinitely without benefit other than the pay.

The Thieve's Guild ones.. now they're a bit different. I don't know if it's just with Delvin's jobs or if they apply to Vex as well, but every 5 jobs you'll get a special one that has an impact on improving the guild. In one of them, you'll gain an extra fence.

[Animeniax]

Some tips if you get married:

-You have to wait a day after the day the wedding is arranged to show up at the temple of Mara in Riften.
-Once you get married, immediately speak to your wife while still inside the temple or she will disappear and you won't get to set where you will live together.
-It may take a day or two before she appears at your agreed upon home.
-If you have a housecarl at that house, hilarity may ensue between the housecarl and your wife.
-In general it seems wives will not wear other outfits without some console commands to alter that behavior.

[Xelbair]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o30HGMuz5U0#!

[Animeniax]

What's amazing about that cover is that she doesn't actually speaky any english.

This are my housecarl/sword maiden in her enhanced Nightingale outfit and me with my Bustersword and dragonscale armor redone as nightingale armor:

1098

[Buffalobiian]

You can enchant already enchanted items?

Or is there a perk that lets you diseenchant things without breaking them?

[Animeniax]

You can enchant already enchanted items?

Or is there a perk that lets you diseenchant things without breaking them?

What exactly gave you that idea?

No, as far as I know, you can't enchant something that is already enchanted, even to add a second enchantment if you have that perk. The dragonscale is modded to look like nightingale and the bustersword is an add-on so you can smith your own. Only bad thing is that it weighs 30 lbs and is a two-handed weapon. The enhanced nightingale is only visual, no extra enchantments from the stock.

[Dark Dragon]

You can enchant already enchanted items?

Or is there a perk that lets you diseenchant things without breaking them?

He said Enhanced not Enchanted, he's using the HQ texture mod for the nightingale armor.

[Buffalobiian]

Ah, I see.. yeah, I misread enhanced for enchanted.

[Kraco]

The game certainly got easier again with the 1.3 patch. Now, provided you have got the appropriate resistance gear equipped, a dragon or a hostile mage won't reduce health to zero in seconds. I can't really say I'd have noticed too many other changes, apart from dragon not flying backwards anymore. I see keep losing them, though, because they are so hard to hit in the air and they never seem to be hostile unless you hit them once. Unless they are attacking some town or other target that isn't the player.

[Animeniax]

I think 1.3 is causing other issues. Now I seem impervious to frost breath when I only have 40% resistance. I got a "map updated" message for a mission, but I can't find the location on the map.

I'm trying to complete a bounty quest to complete a thane quest for Falkreath. It requires me to kill a giant at Secunda's Shelf, but there is no such location in Skyrim. There's a Secunda's Kiss near Whiterun and there is a giant there, but killing him does not advance the quest. Any ideas? Seems like a bug.

[Splash!]

I think 1.3 is causing other issues. Now I seem impervious to frost breath when I only have 40% resistance. I got a "map updated" message for a mission, but I can't find the location on the map.


Is the location directly relevant to the next step in the quest? If so, what happens when you press 'Show on Map' for that step? Is it disabled, or does it simply not work?

Been a while since I played (waiting for 1.3 on Xbox) but I remember doing that Giant mission before patch 1.2. For me, there was a quest marker on the giant. There was a single giant at Secunda's Kiss and another one just a little distance from the camp. You are supposed to kill the latter one.

[Animeniax]

Is the location directly relevant to the next step in the quest? If so, what happens when you press 'Show on Map' for that step? Is it disabled, or does it simply not work?

Been a while since I played (waiting for 1.3 on Xbox) but I remember doing that Giant mission before patch 1.2. For me, there was a quest marker on the giant. There was a single giant at Secunda's Kiss and another one just a little distance from the camp. You are supposed to kill the latter one.

It's a bounty which I hope will help me complete the "help 3 people of Falkreath" quest to become thane of Falkreath. The "show on map" is grayed out for the mission. I killed the giant at Secunda's Kiss and then walked around the area for an hour trying to locate Secunda's Shelf or another giant to kill. That first giant didn't have an arrow marker.

Next I'll wait in the game for 24 hours to see if the giant spawns. Thanks for the tips.

[Sapphire]

Skyrim actually totally reminds me of that game that Ender plays in Ender's Game.

You can do ANYTHING, kill ANYONE, basically become anything. Whatever comes next is definitely the game Ender plays.

[Buffalobiian]

I always found people who you couldn't kill to be.. annoying. It seems like you're wasting your effort trying to kill them (but you have to cuz they won't leave you alone), and if seen you sometimes get a bounty on your head.

Ra'Jee or something from Solitude is one such character. Not that I care about my bounty there though. It's well over 17K.


But the other day I just casually talked to the barman after visiting my fence there, and it turns out this Ra Jee has a job on offer. Funny how NPCs will suddenly become less hostile like that. I completed his quest, and he became disposable.. so you know what I did.

I wouldn't say I regret doing that, but now Solitude is just that little bit more lonely. I miss stabbing saying Hi to a familiar face when I go there...



And just finished The Hangover (http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=the%20hangover%20movie&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CD0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt1119646% 2F&ei=aXHhTqWMKY6UiQewnvG2BQ&usg=AFQjCNFON0Rn-XwUVNfoy3Opp5R-7GywWA&cad=rja) quest. That was pretty funny. Too bad the daedric prince sent me away before I had a chance to try an attack on him. (On a related task, I went mammoth hunting again to collect a tusk for this girl. Bandits seem to scale up with you, but mammoths don't. Their attacks aren't as damaging on me anymore.. and they get wasted by me)

[Animeniax]

Is the location directly relevant to the next step in the quest? If so, what happens when you press 'Show on Map' for that step? Is it disabled, or does it simply not work?

Been a while since I played (waiting for 1.3 on Xbox) but I remember doing that Giant mission before patch 1.2. For me, there was a quest marker on the giant. There was a single giant at Secunda's Kiss and another one just a little distance from the camp. You are supposed to kill the latter one.

Well, that giant didn't respawn so I guess I ruined that quest because I killed that giant earlier on (I cleared Secunda's kiss a while ago). Weird that the bounty lists "secunda's shelf" but there is no such place. Typo by the game makers I guess.

Has anyone found any of the treasures shown on a treasure map? I found one and it was rather disappointing.

[Kraco]

And just finished The Hangover (http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=the%20hangover%20movie&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CD0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt1119646% 2F&ei=aXHhTqWMKY6UiQewnvG2BQ&usg=AFQjCNFON0Rn-XwUVNfoy3Opp5R-7GywWA&cad=rja) quest. That was pretty funny. Too bad the daedric prince sent me away before I had a chance to try an attack on him.

That was definitely one of the better daedric quests. You'd have liked to attack a daedric prince? I don't think that would have resulted in a certain khajiit's victory, but too bad you couldn't try.

I played through Sheogorath's quest and somehow I got a warm feeling inside me when it was hinted he was in fact the player character of Oblivion (Shivering Isles) turned into a real (I guess) daedric prince. A good culmination to that game, revealed in the next. It always bothered me that despite the closest subjects calling you Sheogorath in Oblivion, all you could really do was order them around a little and change the weather for a while. I guess the Golden Saints and Dark Seducers already knew beforehand how it would turn out in the future...


Has anyone found any of the treasures shown on a treasure map? I found one and it was rather disappointing.

I've found a bunch of them. None has been anything to tell a bartender about. But I guess they contributed to my bloating hoard of jewelry. The real point of them must be to recognize the place, not gain any wealth or nice items.

[Buffalobiian]

Treasure map? Damn.. where do I get one of those?

I can torture people in the Dark Brotherhood's torture chamber into telling me where they're hiding their goods, but they only give a short description without anything being shown on the map. I couldn't find them, so I loaded the save back.

They moaned a lot less after I got the info out of them (or so I perceived anyway). Their pained moaning plus Cicero's merry commentary make for a great duet.

I'm lvl40 at the moment. Strongest armour set that I've got is actually a mismatch of:

Volsung mask
Thieve's Guild Master Armour
Ancient Shrouded gloves
Ancient Shrouded boots
Ring that gives me +22 light armour skill

Total light armour rating: 305.

As for offense, I haven't encountered anything stronger (that is not enchanted) than a pair of refined Ebony daggers. Daedric is the only step up.

[Kraco]

Treasure map? Damn.. where do I get one of those?

Random bandits and such can rarely carry them.

My character somehow stopped to be a dragonborn. I can't absorb dragon souls anymore. At least the last three dragons I've slain have just remained dead on the ground, not granting me a soul. I don't think I should have hit any critical point in the story either. I don't know what's going on. I guess I need to see if there's a console command to get souls when I run out of my buffer of three souls. Assuming I find any interesting shouts anywhere.

It's funny how fate seems to sometimes play a role in this game. I happened upon a book of Boethia and thus triggered the quest. I had actually stumbled on her shrine earlier but without the quest it was deserted. As I was wandering the wilds in those parts anyway, looking for ancient burial sites sporting Shouts, I visited the shrine and was told I'd need to bring a friend with me to the place to be offered as a sacrifice to Boethia. As I have few friends in Skyrim, I left and kept wandering. Later I entered an ominous looking old tower and there met a witch who was having second thoughts about sacrificing some innocent person for her mom to become a hagraven. She asked for my help to stop the witches and hags. Now, in my twisted mind I immediately thought the irony would be delicious if, provided she survives the fight against her mom, I took this woman to the shrine of Boethia to be sacrificed for my sake. If that doesn't satisfy Boethia, I don't what will.

[Animeniax]

Did you not train your light armor? My dragonscale armor with bonuses has my armor rating at 1030.

I just found the joy of dual-wielding daggers. I need to find those daedric daggers!

Yes there are random treasure maps I've found in chests (of corpses as well as wooden *cackle*). They lead to some pretty crappy gold/jewel treasures that had to be more about location finding like Kraco said. They really are a pitiful haul.

I did the hangover quest, it was a lot of fun, but true to form I defied the prince at the end. He sends two daedric warriors to teach you a lesson but they were easy enough to kill. I think I missed out on a daedric dagger or sword by not agreeing to be his minion.

[Buffalobiian]

My character somehow stopped to be a dragonborn. I can't absorb dragon souls anymore. At least the last three dragons I've slain have just remained dead on the ground, not granting me a soul. I don't think I should have hit any critical point in the story either. I don't know what's going on. I guess I need to see if there's a console command to get souls when I run out of my buffer of three souls. Assuming I find any interesting shouts anywhere.

Hmm, that sucks. Wonder if it's a bug. I don't know how often this happens, but lately I've seen a lot of my dragons perform what would best be described as a crash-landing. It's particularly true for Elder Dragons.

I wouldn't mind too much for me to stop being a dragonborn though as long as I can still shout. Got a buffer of 19 souls to chew through anyway.


Did you not train your light armor? My dragonscale armor with bonuses has my armor rating at 1030.

I do. I've got 87 in Light Armour, 5/5 Agile Defender and Custom Fit. The only perk left that actually gives you increased armour is Matching Set. That 305 rating is also from wearing this +22 L.Armour skill ring (making it effectively 109). Without it my armour rating drops to something like 270-280s.

I've finally managed to sneak-attack some dragons again today. Shadow Warrior Sneak Attacks don't seem to work reliably when you have allies (horse) nearby. That particular manoeuvre only seems to work on the neck of a dragon too. Normal pre-emptive sneak attacks work as they should.

[Animeniax]

That seems low for an armor rating. Like I said, mine is 1030 but I'm level 59. It was in the 700s for armor rating throughout my 40s and 50s.

@Kraco: how many souls do you have saved up? I'll encounter a dragon now and then that won't give me his soul. I think it might be a bug from the latest patch. I'm on 1.3.70.

[Kraco]

I only have three spare souls saved. I had five at one point, but when the dragons stopped granting souls, I thought maybe the game has some sort of upper limit to how many you can store, and it's only five. It made no difference, though. Also, I killed one dragon four times (or five, but one doesn't count since the wyrm fell through the mountain to oblivion), but it again made no difference. It never granted the soul. After that the next ones were as stingy. If I still lose one more soul, I'll deem this condition permanent and start to look for a console command. I guess there needs to be one. Not that I'd have at the moment any shouts I'd consider worth unlocking - as long as the dragon souls seem this hard to gather.

[Animeniax]

If there is a limit to how many souls you can store, it's not 5. I have 15 stored right now. Are you on the 1.3.70 patch?

I've been walking around the map trying to find new locations to explore and after hours (real time) of wandering out in the open I haven't encountered any dragons. Not sure if this is a glitch.

[Buffalobiian]

I've encountered dragons most often right after fast-travelling.

[Kraco]

I've encountered dragons most often right after fast-travelling.

Yeah, that seems to be the case. Anyway, I got a dragon soul now, after the previous failures. I guess there's simply a certain chance it won't happen and my luck was faring poorly. The game version I'm running should be the latest since I haven't turned off the Steam auto-update.

My new problem is the follower, who got stuck after a fight with a giant. The woman wanted to leave the witches' coven to do some good, yet she attacks absolutely any creature in sight that isn't townsfolk, guard or such. She annihilates random goats and whatnot. I guess she was a proper witch after all... So, when a dragon was fighting a giant, this woman obviously attacked the giant as well. After I killed the dragon, the giant hammered the follower down, and although she didn't die permanently (or fly to the orbit), she now simply stands there in an eternal combat pose without following or interacting. Perhaps the resetai console command will do the trick. I'll have to see. I still need her, after all...

I got my armor rating to around 750 with the dragon scale, after finally reaching 100 in Smithing and creating a few enchanted smithing aids. I'm stuck with glass sword and bow, though, since I don't have any of the heavy armor side perks (that culminate in ebony/daedric). My level is 46, if I recall correctly, and I'd like to dedicate some perks to combat againt instead of smithing/enchanting. Getting to ebony/daedric would mean going through the useless Dwarven and Orcish. Every other tougher draugr is carrying ebony but I haven't seen any daedric weapons in loot. Ebony remains lower than glass without the perk.

[Ryllharu]

I've encountered dragons most often right after fast-travelling.

I've fought five inside my mage college. Usually just from walking out a door. At least all the columns made it really easy when resistances were still bugged and dragons breathed death.

My Conjurer has about 12 souls stocked up. My huntress...about 3.

Armor? Who needs armor when you get triple powered Ironflesh because you only wear clothing.

[Animeniax]

So what's your effective armor rating with the 3x ironflesh?

I'm surprised at how often I take damage even with the 1000+ armor rating. Sucks since I don't use a shield while I'm working on improving two-handed skill.

[Ryllharu]

Well...0 (from clothing) plus 3 times Ironflesh is all of 240. But there's Ebonyflesh later on, which would give me 300. It'd be higher if I had the Alteration dual cast perk.

But again, Conjurer/Destruction, so I don't even get attacked in the first place. There are encounters where I don't even get to do anything. My summoned Storm Atronach or dremora lord (because Storm Atronach's don't fit in dungeons) and Lydia do pretty much everything. But sometimes I like to run in with dual conjured swords, and the Ironflesh keeps me safe when I'm shooting conjured arrows.

Nothing lives long enough when in the presence of the Archmage.

...and nothing lives to see my Huntress strike.
(edit: Her armor rating is 88 btw.)

[Buffalobiian]

@Kraco: There's a heavy armour perk that affects weapons? I'm assuming you're talking about having good Glass smithing so your glass weapons are improved heaps?

@Ani: It may be because I have not improved any of my armour at a forge at all. Might actually give that a go.. though I've essentially got no smithing abilities. I always assumed that in this game there are always at least two ways around obtaining something:

1) Find it.
2) Make it.
3) Buy it.

I finally found out why my Shadow Warrior attacks don't always get the sneak bonus when I've got allies nearby..


the key to a successful sneak attack actually is if your target is OUT of combat, so even if you are invisible for a brief time you will not back-stab targets that are let's say in combat with a companion or another NPC. It took me some time to figure out but yeah, if you want to be a stealth user, you have to play solo!

[Animeniax]

Yeah you definitely want to smith your armor to improve it. You can improve your smithing by making leather bracers or iron daggers (the two cheapest items to smith). Then get blacksmith potions (elixirs are best) and use them when creating your own equipment and when upgrading them using the smithing bench.

[Ryllharu]

I finally found out why my Shadow Warrior attacks don't always get the sneak bonus when I've got allies nearby..

"the key to a successful sneak attack actually is if your target is OUT of combat, so even if you are invisible for a brief time you will not back-stab targets that are let's say in combat with a companion or another NPC. It took me some time to figure out but yeah, if you want to be a stealth user, you have to play solo!"

That quote is absolutely not true. It's certainly easier to get sneak attacks when you are solo, but as long as they have never spotted you, it's a backstab. You're hidden until they've seen you, not anyone allied with you. Shadow Warrior doesn't set you to [Hidden], they simply lose you for a second, making it easier to hide. Same as if you ran around a corner. It takes the "white" out of the eye, but it is still a discovered state.

I've had Lydia, Aela, Farkas, or Uthgerd the Unbroken be engaged in combat and I've performed a throat-slice execution while the enemy was blocking. More than once.

[Buffalobiian]

That quote is absolutely not true. It's certainly easier to get sneak attacks when you are solo, but as long as they have never spotted you, it's a backstab. You're hidden until they've seen you, not anyone allied with you. Shadow Warrior doesn't set you to [Hidden], they simply lose you for a second, making it easier to hide. Same as if you ran around a corner. It takes the "white" out of the eye, but it is still a discovered state.

I've had Lydia, Aela, Farkas, or Uthgerd the Unbroken be engaged in combat and I've performed a throat-slice execution while the enemy was blocking. More than once.

I'm guessing you've never played Shadow Warrior like I have.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N92_zBILno

Success ver.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuo71xYxTmw

[Kraco]

@Kraco: There's a heavy armour perk that affects weapons? I'm assuming you're talking about having good Glass smithing so your glass weapons are improved heaps?

The Smithing perk tree is divided in two: light and heavy armor. They connect at the dragon armor. I have only the perks following the light armor "route", up to the dragon armor. However, the only weapon materials on the light armor route are elven and glass. Glass is close to ebony but a little weaker, my intuition tells me. You can improve all manner of materials when your smithing is high enough but to get the best out of any particular material, you need the exact perk. And it matters a lot. Armor or weapon improved to the Legendary status compared to the basic status, where the items always are when you buy or loot them, is incomparable. Fully improved steel sword probably beats an unimproved ebony sword...

Anyway, since I don't have the ebony (or daedric) perk, I can only improve those weapons halfway. That's not enough by far to beat fully improved glass.

I finally initiated Boethia's quest. Actually I felt a bit bad about slaying Illia (I wouldn't have been able to sacrifice her at all if the name had been just a bit different, haha). It's not really fair she had to turn against her group and mother to avoid sacrificing innocents, but was instead sacrificed by the person who helped her stop the deranged coven's fell deeds.

[Buffalobiian]

Hmm... looks like I might have to invest in smithing after all.. as much as I would prefer not to. (unless I can actually find merchants to say "smith this for me")

General question before I actually do so - can items be only improved once?

Not in the sense that I can keep multiplying the benefits, but in the sense that I can improve a piece of equipment slightly while I'm at a low level - and then improve the same item again when I'm at a higher level to have it match my current skill.

[Kraco]

General question before I actually do so - can items be only improved once?

Not in the sense that I can keep multiplying the benefits, but in the sense that I can improve a piece of equipment slightly while I'm at a low level - and then improve the same item again when I'm at a higher level to have it match my current skill.

No and yes. You can keep improving them as many times as you'd like, and normally you should improve them whenever you have raised the skill a bunch or especially when you unlock the perk for the particular material. The one and only drawback of improving a single item multiple times and not only once is that every time a unit of the core material for the weapon/armor is being spent. So, in terms of economy it would be better to improve only every now and then and all your gear at once, after drinking a smithing potion and equipping your smithing boosting items. Although on the other hand if you have plenty of the material, you do gain smithing experience with every action. Some of the better materials require you to have considerable smithing skills to be able to be improved, though. So, don't expect to improve your ebony daggers right off the bat...

Like Ani said, iron daggers and leather bracers are your friends for practice. Iron is everywhere and dirt cheap, and leather, of course, keeps wandering all around the wilds in great numbers.

[Animeniax]

To add to what Kraco said, you also need to improve your enchanting skills both so you can create smithing gear (4 pieces with a max 28% improvement to smithing) and when you enchant your final use equipment. You wear those 4 items and quaff an smithing elixir to get the best upgrading for your final use equipment.

I followed the same smithing perk path as Kraco, which sucks since you can't upgrade the heavy armors as much, but I'd hate to spend many more perk points on smithing.

[Buffalobiian]

Okay.. final question I guess..

Drinking 2 blacksmith potions won't stack will it?

[Animeniax]

No, one supersedes the other. I tried :p. I think max you can improve smithing with eq/potions is 162%. Add in smithing skill bonuses for best effect.

So I just read that once you join the Dark Brotherhood, you can't leave and kill all the remaining members. That sucks.
I imagine it's the same with the thieves guild. I really want to kill them all.

[Buffalobiian]

Hmm, can't kill as in they're immortal? Or just that you can't leave them and activate a Destroy questline?

[Penner]

Not being able to properly quick-swap between an identical pair of upgraded weapons is something i find INCREDIBLY annoying.

Let's say i'm dual-wielding two upgraded "Steel War Axe (Superior)", and i then set them to key 1 in the favourites menu, and lets say Healing on key 2.. now when i equip healing it switches my left axe to healing, which is all well and good, but its when trying to re-equip the two axes it all goes down the crapper, pressing 1 to equip them again fucks shit up and it de-equips healinh but doesn't equip the second axe, instead it actually removes the axe from favourites entirely and i now have only one axe there.

And this shit only happens with Upgraded weapons, if you use the base ones it works flawlessly... god damnit >_>

[Animeniax]

Hmm, can't kill as in they're immortal? Or just that you can't leave them and activate a Destroy questline?

Can't kill as in they are classified by the game as "essential" so you can't kill them because of the possibility of messing up quest lines. Even after you've finished the main quest line involving them, they are still labelled "essential". In the case of the Brotherhood and thieves guild, I guess it's because you have missions through both groups ad infinitum.

@Penner: that's a pretty minor annoyance considering some of the bugs this game has.

[Archangel]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

[Kraco]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

Yes. All the guards in Skyrim are former adventurers who got an arrow to the knee.

It seems like I get the soul maybe from half of the dragons. It would be nice to know if there's something systematic about this bug, thus allowing avoiding needless, unrewarding fights.

[Animeniax]

You can always gain exp for using spells/skills in a fight.

After you complete the main story, I think you don't get to fight dragons anymore. Does anyone know if this is true?

Has anyone found all 24 of the Barenziah stones? I'm at 21. Not sure if it's worth it to keep searching for them, as some as in dark dank caves and not in castles.

[Splash!]

After you complete the main story, I think you don't get to fight dragons anymore. Does anyone know if this is true?

No it isn't. They continue to spawn.

[Buffalobiian]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

I used to ask questions like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee...
.
.
.

[Splash!]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

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

Oddly enough, just like it in this video, I haven't actually been able to get an arrow stuck in the knee. It will pretty much get jammed anywhere else though. There was this one time I had a gigantic ice crystal protruding from my ass that just wouldn't go away. I had to turn into a werewolf to fix the glitch.

[Animeniax]

I used to answer this question, but then I took an arrow to the knee...

Did you settle into a cushy town guard job afterwards?

As I asked early, has anyone found all 24 of the Barenziah stones? I'm at 21. Not sure if it's worth it to keep searching for them, as some as in dark dank caves and not in castles.

[Buffalobiian]

As I asked early, has anyone found all 24 of the Barenziah stones? I'm at 21. Not sure if it's worth it to keep searching for them, as some as in dark dank caves and not in castles.

Nah, I've only got 8 of them or so. I see that it's lumped together with the "become a full member of the Thieve's Guild" quest. Do you know if that means you have to collect all the stones to become such a member? Seems like nonsense since you're already Guildmaster and everybody-but-Vex all praise you like anything.

[Splash!]

As I asked early, has anyone found all 24 of the Barenziah stones? I'm at 21. Not sure if it's worth it to keep searching for them, as some as in dark dank caves and not in castles.

You get a perk where the likelihood of finding jewels in random loot increases. Not really useful.

[Animeniax]

Well that sux. Like Buff said, it's attached to the quest to become a full member of the thieves guild and I'm trying to clear out my quest list. I won't bother looking for them, since the last one I found was during a companions quest. I wonder if they randomly appear on missions or if they are in fixed locations.

[Buffalobiian]

Well that sux. Like Buff said, it's attached to the quest to become a full member of the thieves guild and I'm trying to clear out my quest list. I won't bother looking for them, since the last one I found was during a companions quest. I wonder if they randomly appear on missions or if they are in fixed locations.

I have no idea. I've always found mine while I'm doing some random quest and kill a boss or something.. then search around a little for loot only to find the stone.

I wonder what happens if the stone appeared (as in it appears on screen) but you didn't take it (either intentionally or because YOU didn't see it). If there's only 24 of them.. you can't just have them spawning all over the place. I guess you can palm it off as saying bandits are stealing it from each other and seemingly keep dropping it places you happen to visit..

[Ryllharu]

Has anyone else encountered an inconsistency in the dragon types you fight? I can't remember the last time I fought a fire one. I've killed like 25 across 3 characters, and only two besides the first introductory one for each character was a fire one. I'm getting really tired of fighting frost ones.

[Buffalobiian]

My character's fought an even mix of both frost and fire breathing dragons. I've fought around 26 all together.

I have yet to see a backwards flying dragon.. but today I encountered a dragon that refused to take damage.. or perhaps it was I who was unable to deal any damage...

In any case, I reloaded, but have not visited the location again to try.

I don't mind Frost dragons now since they can barely hurt me. Nightingale armour plus necklace gives me 100% reduction in frost damage. It's actually the fire ones that are more of a problem now since I only have 15% resistance to that via another necklace. Fire's more visually stunning though, so I still like them more.

[Kraco]

I don't encounter an even distribution, more like 35-40% frost and the majority fire. It doesn't really make such a big difference. I carry three pairs of boots: Frost, fire, and shock resistance and three necklaces for the same purposes. It's 65-90% resistance for me when equipped properly for any element. There's some damage taken but not enough that I'd usually need to heal during the combat. In fact most of the damage is usually taken if I guess incorrectly the element before the first attack.

Also, my AC's around 850, not 750 like I earlier incorrectly remembered. My smithing wasn't even fully boosted when I improved the armour pieces. I didn't bother back then because my enchanting still has room to improve and all the armour pieces are enchanted, so I'll eventually need to make new ones. Light armour skill as well has room to rise, making the armour better in practice.

[animus]

Final part of the Dark Brotherhood questline was so underwhelming.

[Animeniax]

I'd think fighting more of one type of dragon would be beneficial since you can wear armor resistant to that type of attack and not have to swap armor. I don't even bother switching to fire proof armor since my normal armor rating is so high.

[Kraco]

When you get high enough weapon skills and perks and a weapon improved enough to deliver significant damage (so that the enemy can still boast most of its health but will die due to a critical hit), you can get pretty funny last words out of bandits. Like one man I had already skewered and who was doubling around my blade uttered: "Is this the best you can do?" or one man whose head had already separated from his neck said something along the lines of: "This is nothing"...

Anyway, there are a few named characters in small rooms when you enter the Riften sewers. I haven't joined the thieves guild, but I entered the sewers when a quest suddenly required I take some necromancer's laboratory notes to a man living down there. I entered the sewers, and those named characters bid me welcome with their blades and bows. I had to slaughter them to reach the man in need of the grisly books.

[Kraco]

Maybe the best Skyrim bug video that I've seen.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93W6mB0ZqCM

[animus]

I bought a completely new rig with new case, cpu, motherboard, gpu, ram, psu, etc. All except my hard drive which I reused. I didn't know this, but Steam saves games under your user settings in C: (or whatever your system drive is). I had the hard drive partitioned in 2 (with Steam installed on the other Partition drive D:\) and when I upgraded my rig I formatted C: and put a 64bit Windows 7 on there.

To my horror I learned that my 70 hour Skyrim save game is gone. Too bad there wasn't any Steam Cloud support either. Oh well.

[Animeniax]

Are you going to start a new character?

I'm at about 115 hrs with my level 60. I've been exploring to find new locations and found a joint one with a "find the source of power" quest. As I cleared it out, it took all of my resolve and will to not just stop and say "funk this" and quit. Instead I just tore through the dungeon and skipped most of the treasures and any hidden areas. I plan to uninstall the game this weekend.

[Kraco]

Ever since Morrowind, the first Elder Scrolls I played, I have had the bad habit of strolling around the countryside developing the character with minor quests or no quests at all, just hacking'n'slashing, exploring, and developing skills. So, before long, the game starts to get kind of repetitive and old. I don't honestly know why I have such an aversion to sticking to the main story for any amount of time, despite the fact it would be hugely more interesting. Skyrim made it even worse with the added value of checking every bloody cave and mountain slope for the next shout.

But I won't be uninstalling this game, likely not ever. I'll need to concentrate on the quests next and then put this on ice until nice mods appear - or even the inevitable major expansion by Bethesda. Who knows, I might try to build an adventure by myself.

[Animeniax]

Actually you're right, I will keep it installed for when the DLC and mods arrive. I have Solitude modded with HD textures and it's quite beautiful.

[Buffalobiian]

My sneak, smithing and pickpocketing are now at 100, with lockpicking, one-hand and light armour in the 90s. Enchanting is in the 70s.

I went the Heavy Armour route for smithing since I wanted the ebony and daedric weapon perks (and really, dragon armour is all that I wanted for armour upgrades as long as I can enchant them). So my armour increased only from 305 to around 372, but my Ebony Dagger (Fine) increased from 31 to 58 when it reached legendary status (without using potions etc).

Ancient dragons die with one (sneak) hit. This rocks.

[animus]

Are you going to start a new character?

I'm at about 115 hrs with my level 60. I've been exploring to find new locations and found a joint one with a "find the source of power" quest. As I cleared it out, it took all of my resolve and will to not just stop and say "funk this" and quit. Instead I just tore through the dungeon and skipped most of the treasures and any hidden areas. I plan to uninstall the game this weekend.


I might eventually. Might make a full on mage with dual casting magic as a main point. My last character I maxed smithing, and enchanting and had a full dragonscale set and legendary Ebonscale Sword with Fire/Frost enchant and the game was just too easy, even on the highest difficulty. Only reason I'm not so torn up about losing my save game was probably cause I was losing interest in destroying the game already for myself, heh.

[Kraco]

Yeah. I have enchanting, smithing, and sneak at 100, one-handed, archery, lock picking, and light armour very near it. While I still tend to sneak around, but even when I don't, I can already muscle myself through any opposition easily. In the beginning I thought it's not possible to develop such a demi-god character in this game as it was in Oblivion/Morrowind if you optimized every single levelling to get max bonuses. While that's still not possible, you do get pretty tough in Skyrim as well, even if it takes twice the number of levels.

I see now why going the heavy armour route is indeed wiser if you do it all afterwards, all at once. But if you do it gradually during the longer gameplay, it would suck to use whatever light armour in whatever condition before you reach the dragon armours.

[Buffalobiian]

I see now why going the heavy armour route is indeed wiser if you do it all afterwards, all at once. But if you do it gradually during the longer gameplay, it would suck to use whatever light armour in whatever condition before you reach the dragon armours.

If you were a warrior type, then yeah.. since you'll actually need armour perks. Sneak types can pretty much live without it (like I did).

Decided to craft some Daedric daggers at near-full-potential today (mix of potions and enchanted armours that gave me +99% improvement). They each had 93 damage.. so that's a maximum sneak attack damage of 5580pts. The game caps damage absorption from armour to 80%, so under normal circumstances I can expect to deal a minimum of 1116pts of actual reduction to someone's HP.

.. not much can survive that..

I then tried to raise Enchantment too, but finding and filling gems are hard. I even went down to Blackreach and mined every vein I could find, but I'm still at lvl88 or so in enchantments. Current strategy is just to keep recharging my Soul-trap dagger whenever I trap someone into my re-usable black gem. It's slow.. but it'll get there eventually.

I wouldn't actually have enough spare upgrades to obtain all the useful enchantment perks just by upping that to 100 though, so I farmed speech, block and heavy armour to 100 in the meanwhile:

-Attack random stormcloak camp
-Leave one survivor
-Leave combat
-Sneak back and pickpocket all of his weapons
-Taunt him
-Equip shield
-Equip heavy armour, rings and necklaces enchanted with Fortify Healing Rate
-Bind "Left Hand" to <Num Pad 0>
-Place stapler on keyboard, holding down NP0 key
-Catch up on anime that were missed in the past month due to skyrim

That guy has been punching me for a week now (skyrim time).


I tried joining the Imperials, but even though the General-something's guards at the door didn't attack me (Solitude guards will), the actual general himself and his lackeys in the meeting room will. The 34K+ bounty from my Dark Brotherhood run-in still bother them I guess....

I paid it off at half price with the Thieve's Guild's influence though, since I wanted to join the Imperials. There's always been something about the word "Empire" that I've liked. Plus, these guys seek to unify and don't really care about races, so that's cool by me. Too bad so many of them are assholes.

The battle at Whiterun was pretty fun for me.. being able to ninja-killing them all. Only one of my allied soldiers died.. and that was because I missed, haha. (though it seems like the game's designed so no allies die anyway, since they kneel when they're low on health which cancels the enemy's offensive nature).

[Kraco]

Great places for finding soul gems are the old Dwemer cities. The spiders, spheres, and centurions carry one or two of them almost always. Plus there's usually extra lying around here and there.

I decided to use my accumulated four perks to unlock the heavy armour route. So, now I have a daedric sword and bow, both doing measly ~10 points more damage than the glass weapons I had previously. In battle there's no practical difference after applying the bonuses from my Gauntlets of Battle and Ring of Conflict, both fortifying one-hand and archery as much as enchanting with full skill and perks plus an elixir allows.

So, in the end, the only real plus is that they look more badass than glass weapons. Dunno if that was worth four perks. I guess I'll open "Dovahkiin's Legendary Weapons And Armour" smithy after retiring from adventuring...

[Ryllharu]

I then tried to raise Enchantment too, but finding and filling gems are hard. I even went down to Blackreach and mined every vein I could find, but I'm still at lvl88 or so in enchantments. Current strategy is just to keep recharging my Soul-trap dagger whenever I trap someone into my re-usable black gem. It's slow.. but it'll get there eventually.
Filling them is a piece of cake with Conjuration and Bound Weapons. Just buy dozens and dozens of petty, lesser, and common gems. Save Black Gems for your own Enchanting (since humanoids are always Grand Souls). Grab every iron dagger you find on enemies, because Banish enchantment sells the best, which makes it easy to buy more empty gems. It quickly starts paying for itself. Use Absorb Health/Stamina if you don't have Banish yet.

Bound Weapons do a lot less damage than properly smithed weapons, but situationally, they are far more powerful:

- Soul Stealer is awesome. Every hit recasts Soul Trap, and the duration is long, because it is the spell version, not the enchantment version. Find some wolves, find some Horkers, undead, whatever.

- But the real strength in Bound Weapons is the Oblivion Binding perk, taken right after Soul Stealer. It is the strongest anti-summon weapon in the game. One glancing hit. Even a misfired arrow. The spell Expel Daedra doesn't work on anything comparatively. The spell won't even banish a frost atronach. You do need to be careful, because it will banish anything you summoned too, like with a stray arrow (happened so many times...).

You're better off using Command Daedra on enemy summons. They're always seem so baffled when their Frost Atronach turns on them. :D

But yeah, I've got 100 Enchantment, took the Extra Effect perk, and now all my Archmage's gear is imbued with an insane magicka regen rate, as well as all the other enchantments I used (fire resist, magicka capacity, etc.). I remade new versions of all the clothing except the Archmage's Robes. I also have a ring for every type of combat I might use.

[Kraco]

Grab every iron dagger you find on enemies, because Banish enchantment sells the best, which makes it easy to buy more empty gems.

Actually using Banish for enchant training only results in your containers being filled with piles of daggers you can't sell because any merchant can only buy one or two of those daggers before they run out of money. So, I tended to use a cheaper enchantment simply to get rid of the daggers. I can't see how anybody on the higher levels wouldn't anyway have far more money than they can spend, so making good deals is secondary to making any deals (to boost speech as a side product from enchanting). Blacksmiths only have so much ebony or anything else worth buying to keep them funded for longer.

Weapons with a double enchantment empty quite fast, I noticed. I have shock and fire at full power, and while it's unarguably effective in combat, you need to keep reloading them very frequently. But then again, most enemies go down with one or two hits.

[Ryllharu]

Actually using Banish for enchant training only results in your containers being filled with piles of daggers you can't sell because any merchant can only buy one or two of those daggers before they run out of money. So, I tended to use a cheaper enchantment simply to get rid of the daggers. I can't see how anybody on the higher levels wouldn't anyway have far more money than they can spend, so making good deals is secondary to making any deals (to boost speech as a side product from enchanting). Blacksmiths only have so much ebony or anything else worth buying to keep them funded for longer.

Weapons with a double enchantment empty quite fast, I noticed. I have shock and fire at full power, and while it's unarguably effective in combat, you need to keep reloading them very frequently. But then again, most enemies go down with one or two hits.
That's why I got the Speech perk that lets me sell anything, to anyone (so long as it is not stolen, that's a different one). It's nice to trade a few Banish daggers for multiple Daedra Hearts or spellbooks (which get really expensive at the higher skill ratings).

I don't enchant weapons much, but I recharge staves a lot. Another reason to use Bound Weapons to stockpile soul gems.

[Xelbair]

or use great soul gem to enchant weapon with soul trap... if you set duration to 1s you will have about 1k uses, recharge it with azura's star from time to time.

[Ryllharu]

I'm a summoner (and occasional necromancer). I set things on fire. I use followers. Lots of things kill my foes. 1 second Soul Trap isn't long enough.

[Kraco]

Huh. I simply use the regular soul trap spell in left hand, a sword in the right, when I'm gathering souls. I never liked weapons with soul trap in Elder Scrolls. Seems like a waste of an enchantment on a weapon since it does nothing to wound the enemy. Besides, I've no need to recharge the weapons that often. Of late I've even left loads of empty soul gems back at home because they were just an extra burden with the bunch of filled soul gems I'm already carrying (though I've a good cache of filled ones stored at home as well). Soul gems, empty and filled, just keep coming in through doors and windows much faster than I could reasonably use them.

[Buffalobiian]

or use great soul gem to enchant weapon with soul trap... if you set duration to 1s you will have about 1k uses, recharge it with azura's star from time to time.

That's what I'm doing right now with my daggers. I recharge every time i kill someone. It's just taking forever.

Regarding Kraco's Dwarven city comment: I raided those cities a long time ago and sold all the filled soul gems I had. I wasn't interested in enchanting back then and only saw soul gems as a way to make money.

Ryll: I tried not to buy soul gems.. plus, filling normal soul gems is hard. I have to find animals and stuff.. and when you're at a higher level most of them require bigger gems. The reason why I opted for the Black Star quick-recharge method too is because 90% of the time I'm killing humanoids. When guards were more plentiful, I actually hunted guards at night, ran back to the table to enchant a dagger, and kept hunting. Finding merchants with soul gems also isn't my strong point.

Then again, I haven't raided the College yet.

Finding people with enough money to sell.. now that's nothing to worry about. I have fences in Solitude, Windhelm, Markath, Whiterun and Riften. Each of them have 4K to spend. That's 20K per run, and they refill their cash rather quick too. The biggest benefit besides that is that they'll buy any type of item, so I don't have to visit different merchant types.

edit: forgot, every travelling caravan is also a fence for me.

[Ryllharu]

Ryll: I tried not to buy soul gems.. plus, filling normal soul gems is hard. I have to find animals and stuff.. and when you're at a higher level most of them require bigger gems. The reason why I opted for the Black Star quick-recharge method too is because 90% of the time I'm killing humanoids. When guards were more plentiful, I actually hunted guards at night, ran back to the table to enchant a dagger, and kept hunting. Finding merchants with soul gems also isn't my strong point.Wolves and mudcrabs always fill petty gems, near as I can tell. Foxes and other prey animals do so as well I believe. They're easy to find on the steppe west and south of Whiterun.

Seriously, bound weapons with Soul Stealer make it trivial. Plus they look cool.

Grand/Greater soul gems not accidentally getting filled with petty or lesser souls...that's a problem. When I want to fill them, I go on crypt raids.

Like I said, when you make 20+ Banish Daggers, it's honestly easier to buy Grand Gems than even harvest black ones.

As for Azura's Star, I still haven't finished that quest on my mage. I was trying to get my persuade up to convince Nelacar for the first part of the quest...but even at 70 Speech, a Diebella Amulet, and the Persuade perk, I still wasn't passing the check. WTF.

[Buffalobiian]

As for Azura's Star, I still haven't finished that quest on my mage. I was trying to get my persuade up to convince Nelacar for the first part of the quest...but even at 70 Speech, a Diebella Amulet, and the Persuade perk, I still wasn't passing the check. WTF.

You can finish the Thieve's Guild line and that that Amulet of Akatosh or something that gives you 99.9% persuasion success.

[Kraco]

The Masque of Clavicus Vile also gives a boost of 10 to persuation.

I always first try to persuade, then, if that fails, to intimidate. So far I have I've got away with those, except with the priest who's the guest of honour at Namira' party. However, since I knew he wouldn't object to reclaiming the bribe later, I ended up bribing him. If Ryll says Nelacar is so resistant to persuation, he must have been weaker to intimidation. I don't remember needing to bribe him.

Azura's Star is one of the nicest daedric artifacts, and the only thing that delayed me in gaining it was the last fight and the fact I didn't have any fire resistant equipment back then.

[Buffalobiian]

Azura's Star is one of the nicest daedric artifacts, and the only thing that delayed me in gaining it was the last fight and the fact I didn't have any fire resistant equipment back then.

They were all 2-hit kills for me by the time I got around to that quest, but I only had 15% fire resistance. Even then, I had a touch of health by the time I left the dimension, so it was still pretty close I guess. I could have gone straight for the summoner, but then I would have missed out on 3 daedric hearts.

[Penner]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyZJ0A441M4

the fuck? lol

[Ryllharu]

If you're playing this game, get the TESV Acceleration Layer now.

Official Forums thread. (http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1324009-tesv-acceleration-layer-thread-5/)
Nexus link (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4387)

I was skeptical, but I installed it anyway. The game is noticeably faster for me, and I wasn't having any problems before. I don't have FRAPS installed or I'd give specifics.

[Penner]

I have no mods at all installed :P

I did disable AA & AF in the Skyrim Launcher settings and enabled them through the Catalyst Control Center instead, and the game runs significantly smoother now, if some of you haven't tried that already you might want to.

I did read that results from doing so apparently varies ALOT from person to person depending on their PC setup.. so it might not make any difference at all, for some it may even have a negative impact..

[Buffalobiian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bifmj1O3D24

YEAH!

[Kraco]

...

Receiving the axe would have been more merciful than getting saved by that dragon.

[Splash!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YEMD28MMtNg

This made me laugh...

[Animeniax]

I don't get it... when has Skyrim ever been multiplayer?

[Kraco]

I thought it was great. From purely dramaturgical point of view, I think this only worked because there were two of them in coop mode, not just a single player character. If it still bothers you, just think of the other person a companion from an uber mod...

[Buffalobiian]

I don't get it... when has Skyrim ever been multiplayer?

There's a mod in progress to get this happening.

I just married Ysolda and moved in with her to Solitude. That house is awesome. Once I set up the weapon racks and the manequins with armour in the basement I'll truly feel like a good-citizen-with-a-hidden-identity character. I went back to her house to see if there was anything she left behind, and found that she was reading A Gentleman's Guide to Whiterun. I took that back with me and put it in front of her - then made her wear some Tavern clothes and open-shoulder maid clothes. :3.

Hopefully now Farkas isn't an Essential character so I can sacrifice him for that Ebony Mail.

[Animeniax]

Is that the trick to make your wife switch outfits? Did you learn about that somewhere?

[Buffalobiian]

Is that the trick to make your wife switch outfits? Did you learn about that somewhere?

I used my level100 pickpocket to take and give her outfits, but still had to use the console to make her wear it instead of just her underwear. I stripped the tavern clothes off the chick in Markath and the maid clothes off some old lady in Whiterun. (If the redguard maid from the Whiterun bar was still around I would have gone for her instead).

[Kraco]

I tried the marriage thing with the assistant from Hag's Cure (in Markath), but after I noticed the only talk options with your wife were to ask for money and order her to the kitchen (and ask what she has got for sale), I thought it's too stupid and loaded a save game from before the whole affair.

Now it's back to hearing only the housecarl ask me if I'm lost when I enter my own home...

While I like the Solitude home otherwise, it has some serious flaws like far too few containers. Also, Solitude in general sucks as a city as it has no smelter. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing some decent home mods.

[Buffalobiian]

I got married, and went to the barrels in whiterun where I left all my ultimate gear planning to migratie it all to my new home and life.

They were gone. All of it. Whoever was clearing it out was kind enough to leave the Blade of Woe, but they took the dragon armour, NightingGale, a pair of 115pts damage daedric daggers .. and all sorts of other goodies.


This is a test of love.

Ysolda. Or my life's works and plunders.







(As in, I have to reload and remarry, but it sounds more dramatic)

[Ryllharu]

I tried the marriage thing with the assistant from Hag's Cure (in Markath), but after I noticed the only talk options with your wife were to ask for money and order her to the kitchen (and ask what she has got for sale), I thought it's too stupid and loaded a save game from before the whole affair.Muiri is sadly, well known for being horribly bugged. Even with the console, it is barely fixable. It is a real shame, because she's one of the best looking in the game!

But yeah, there's not many options even when it is working correctly. Fable was a bit better in this regard.

[Animeniax]

I'd say get married young or not at all. The gold and free healing meal would come in handy early in your quests... later on not so much.

[Buffalobiian]

I'd say get married young or not at all. The gold and free healing meal would come in handy early in your quests... later on not so much.

I'll agree with the getting married young part. 100 gold means nothing when I can buy and outfit the solitude out without so much as a dent in my case reserve. Likewise with going home everyday to get the meal and some.. umm, lover's comfort xD

(The Japanese version should so include a bathroom so they can include that gag..)

It sucks that the whole "see the world before you make your decisions" mentality gets to us while we're gaming, only to find that our character has developed so much during that process that the decisions don't matter anymore.

I went back to check out Muiri (who was walking around at night with no clothes no less), but her face-paint confirms that Ysolda is the choice for me. I think I"ll go home and show her the Foresworn armour I got just for her..

[Animeniax]

I liked the sheerness of the Nightingale armor on female companions, more than the skimpiness of the junglewear or austerity of normal clothing.

[Buffalobiian]

I liked the sheerness of the Nightingale armor on female companions, more than the skimpiness of the junglewear or austerity of normal clothing.

I like the nightingale armour too, but the cape ruins the shapeliness from the back. I may have said this before, but Miner's clothing is is both a casual and revealing fit. It also has the benefit of wearing tight pants instead of a flowing skirt.

[Animeniax]

My wife Sylgja is a miner, so she wears that shirt. I'm not big on the pants but her womanliness is awesomely evident in that shirt.

I feel kind of bad burning myself out on this game too fast. Now while people are still playing it or just getting into it and making mods, I'm not into it as much anymore.

[Penner]

Anyone else still playing this?

I've made tons of characters but never really "clicked" with any of them so i just kept starting over after a while, until this one which i would consider my "main".

Lvl 42 with Heavy Armor, Two-Handed, Archery and Blocking (Only the right side of the tree and Quick Reflexes since they're the only block perks that work with two-handers)

Only 2 points in Smithing to be able to upgrade magical weapons.

Now, i've taken most of the useful stuff in each of those trees and i have like 5 unspent perk points to put somewhere... might put a few in Stealth or Pickpocketing.. hmm

[Buffalobiian]

Anyone else still playing this?

I've made tons of characters but never really "clicked" with any of them so i just kept starting over after a while, until this one which i would consider my "main".

Lvl 42 with Heavy Armor, Two-Handed, Archery and Blocking (Only the right side of the tree and Quick Reflexes since they're the only block perks that work with two-handers)

Only 2 points in Smithing to be able to upgrade magical weapons.

Now, i've taken most of the useful stuff in each of those trees and i have like 5 unspent perk points to put somewhere... might put a few in Stealth or Pickpocketing.. hmm

If you REALLY don't need the extra perks, save them up. I found myself farming useless skills (2Hand, block, heavy armour) later on in the game just so I can unlock more perks for other trees (enchantment and smithing mainly).

The game's on haitus at the moment while I try to get my real life in order first.. (well mainly catching up on anime, sleep and cleaning when I say that, heh)

[Ryllharu]

I beat the game once, and while it is fun...TES universe doesn't grab me the same way the Fallout one does. I'm at 183 hours according to steam, but I don't think I'll make it to 500 like I did with both FO3 and NV each. I'm kinda worn out. On one hand, I really love the natural progression, but after a while, all the characters become good at everything, so it feels a little meaningless.

It would be nice if race or the various guild standings mattered more than a few isolated lines here or there.

I'm just waiting for the Creation Kit mods to start coming out. Then I'll play it casually for a year or so.

[Penner]

You don't get any more perks after level 50 or 51 right? But the actual max level is 81 or something?

[Buffalobiian]

You get perks for each level you gain. Max is level 81. Levelling is harder after lvl50.

[Penner]

Really? I could swear i've read that you kept leveling after 50 but you didnt get any perks from it... if you do keep getting perks thats awesome

[Buffalobiian]

Really? I could swear i've read that you kept leveling after 50 but you didnt get any perks from it... if you do keep getting perks thats awesome

Really. I'm lvl61 or something ;)

[Animeniax]

Yeah you keep getting perks with each level. I'd say leveling is easy until you reach 60, at which point it's excruciatingly slow to level, so save some perks if you don't need them earlier as you may find you want to develop a particular skill during this time.

[Kraco]

I'm nearing 60 and levelling is slow enough already. Although on the other hand I guess I haven't been farming any skills anymore at all. With all the most used skills at 100 or very near it, what's going to level you quickly anyway unless you purposefully train particular skills?

I have played through all the main quests and there are possibly only left some stray town quests that I haven't noticed. I have also scouted the world very thorougly already. It's kind of boring to do anything in Skyrim at this point. Things will change once the creation kit is out and mods start to appear in earnest.

The Smithing perk tree is quite flawed, because, like Bill noted, the heavy armour route is fully perked better for both light and heavy armour users. Both routes give dragon armours but the heavy route gives better weapons. I wasted quite a few points to have Smithing fully perked.

[Penner]

I only got the upgrade magical weapons smithing perk since theres really no need for me to make anything, i just use what i find and buy and upgrade it the best i can without the extra perk bonuses, and the game is still really easy... and i've played on Master Difficulty since char creation screen at the beginning.

I still die on rare occasions when several 'highlevel' mage-type enemies come at once, or when im just not paying enough attention and get sloppy :P

Overall i'm a little disappointed with the difficulty levels, i mean they have 5(?) levels of it, so i expected the highest one to be more challenging.

I imagine if i perk'd up Enchanting and filled out the smithing tree, it would just be ridiculously easy >_>

[Ryllharu]

You want ridiculously easy, play a Conjurer with one Destruction element powered up and dual-cast healing spells. You literally can't be killed by all but the strongest enemies en masse. The only challenge I had was right at the end of the main story, when I got assailed by 12 Dethlords. They kept one-shotting my atronachs. That was...until I started raising the dethlords I had just killed.

Bound weapons will banish anything, and even a powerful mage is easily overcome by dual-cast fireballs. Then resurrected as a Dead Thrall :D

I took nothing in Smithing (though I did abuse enchanting).

[Buffalobiian]

You want ridiculously easy, play a Conjurer with one Destruction element powered up and dual-cast healing spells. You literally can't be killed by all but the strongest enemies en masse. The only challenge I had was right at the end of the main story, when I got assailed by 12 Dethlords. They kept one-shotting my atronachs. That was...until I started raising the dethlords I had just killed.

Bound weapons will banish anything, and even a powerful mage is easily overcome by dual-cast fireballs. Then resurrected as a Dead Thrall :D

I took nothing in Smithing (though I did abuse enchanting).

Is this the part where the dragon escorts you to where Alduin has openned the portal, and there's a bunch of undead everywhere?

I played that part... by running through the entire thing, lol. I really couldn't be bothered killing each and every skeleton unless I had to, even though all my attacks would be instant kill.

The levelling makes sense up until a certain point. As others have pointed out already, Skyrim doesn't FORCE you to play as a combat-orientated character by making it impossibly hard to defeat. The level cap might need some adjusting though so you can't make an omnipotent character as we can now.

I farmed enchantment and smithing for my dragon armour, but Dragon Scale looks so ugly I don't even use it anymore. Weapon-wise I don't even need my Daedric daggers (even though they look cool and still do a shitload of damage) and would happily settle for Ebony or Glass. I also have to keep them unenchanted in order to be able to use Elemental Force when the situation calls for it.

With Enchanting and Smithing maxed out though, I pretty much created an invincible character in its own right:

-Rings and amulets to give high magical/elemental resistance
-Legendary/flawless armours and weapons (even light armours in my case) that gives you 300-500 armour that is plenty sufficient
-Lord stone, to give you even more damage resistance

Add that to one-hit sneak kills with Shadow Warrior.. and nothing will kill you before you can kill them.

[Animeniax]

I think one way to improve the difficulty of the game is to limit your character's abilities like you'd have to in D&D (unless they've changed it since I last played years ago). Mages could only learn one branch of magic... ie a healer couldn't also use destructive magic, mages can't use edged weapons longer than a dagger, or a warrior couldn't use more advanced forms of magic.

Since the game doesn't enforce these restrictions, you as the player would have to role-play and limit your character on your own for the challenge.

[Kraco]

Logically nearing the end the game should be easy. The player character is a fricking dovahkiin, the feller of Alduin, the leader of the Companions, the Archmage, the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, the unifier of Skyrim, the slayer of the Emperor, the bane of Thalmor Justiciars, and Julianos only knows what else. Few should be able to stand against such might.

The beginning is a different thing, and especially the dragons should be far more terrible. Apparently there are mods, which try to correct that, and I'll install one sooner or later.

Maybe it was some mod that caused it, but I remember in Oblivion, when I had used the dull but exhaustive method of levelling up with all five multipliers each and every time and thus having all the attributes well above the norm, the goblin warlords still could fight back, especially if there were a few of them at once. I used to think that the Empire would have only needed to hire a handful of those and the Oblivion crisis would have been quickly over, with the daedra pushed back to where they came from. That didn't feel altogether realistic.

[Animeniax]

Yes you are very powerful near the end, but it's anticlimactic. They should add areas that are a challenge no matter your level or skill set, otherwise you become absolute lord of the land and that leads to corruption and oppression.

Dragons overall should be more difficult, but there should be some that are difficult to best even at higher levels, maybe even requiring multiple attacks and retreats before you can kill it.

[Kraco]

Dragons overall should be more difficult, but there should be some that are difficult to best even at higher levels, maybe even requiring multiple attacks and retreats before you can kill it.

Yeah, I fully agree. Dragons should be the one thing that would remain difficult even at later levels. They should also be immune to uber sneak attack bonuses and other such things that fell men easily. I also wouldn't mind if their breath weapon (shouts) overcame resistances at least partially. Now it's stupid that with the magic resistance and elemental resistance I can just walk straight through an ancient dragon's best flame breath and stick my sword into its nostril. And then to the other nostril and its dead.

[Marik]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=hTR7uyVUR7c

[Buffalobiian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AYOFLqItuW4

[Kraco]

The giant mudcrab would have been quite a spectacle rising from the sea suddenly.

Adoption would have been nice after you offed the tyrannical hag of the orphanage... Although looking at how they handled marriage in the game, I guess it would have been just another disappointment.

[Animeniax]

They also need a serious overhaul of the horse riding mechanics before worrying about fighting from horseback. But it would be cool to see some of these enhancements in a future DLC or just as mods by the community.

I like what this guy was able to do with the Skyrim engine using console commands:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2DshotexMU&feature=related

[Kraco]

Yeah, that was a great video. No wonder why Skyrim Nexus had it on the front page. Although it's not just a console commands but some mods as well. I wonder what kind of a monster of a computer the person had to run that. Fricking hundreds of NPCs running and fighting.

[darkshadow]

You mean like all those other games that have hundreds of npc's on screen for you to fight?

[Kraco]

The vanilla game doesn't really throw that many NPCs at you at the same time, so I wouldn't know how much it burdens the engine. But at the same time it does mean it wasn't likely designed for it. In the end it's a matter of the total poly count and how the AI/physics affecting the NPCs were built. Those games of yours that have by default hundreds of simultaneous NPCs for you to fight were built for that purpose.

[Archangel]

<Arkangel> Which Skyrim class is the most fun to play with?
<Arkangel> Something that makes it fundamentally different from fallout3 and NV
<Arkangel> I'm guessing a magic class would best fit that description?

[Ryllharu]

<Ryllharu> Any with arrows.
<Ryllharu> Since they are nothing like the guns and require leading one's target.
<Ryllharu> Making them more in fact, like real guns.
<Ryllharu> Or weapon/shield.
<Ryllharu> Since even in NV, blocking sucked.
<Ryllharu> Or if you really want different, play as a summoner.

[Buffalobiian]

It's really anything other than 2H weapons and destruction mage, right?

Could you sneak well enough to backstab in FO3?

[Ryllharu]

I was a pro-sniper ranger stealth master in both games. Backstabbing was easier in NV, but why bother when you can snipe (even with the iron sights!) from 100+ meters out?

Backstabbing was easier in the recent Fallouts than it is in Skyrim. Substantially. There was just no point when a headshot via a handgun or Shotgun-to-the-Back-of-'da-Head worked a lot easier (also the Xuanlong, which was the greatest ever).