Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim [post-launch thread]

[Dark_Avenger]

Im having a blast with this game so far. A few things that irk me a bit though. You can't block unless you have an empty left hand, or you have a shield. So no weapon/spell with the ability to block. Also is there a disarm perk for some melee weapon?

Does anyone know how the companion system works? Does it generate random dudes that might come with you with due to the "Radiant-Story" or is there a set list of companion characters?

[Rincewind]

Arkandras, as an innkeeper about rumours until he tells you about someone trying to summon the Dark Brotherhood.

[darkelf]

So, I managed to lose a dragon corpse. . . How?!? I hear you ask, let me tell you. It is not a good idea to use Ice Spikes too fast in succession when a dragon is at low health, the last one might just send it flying over the cliff edge.

I've been having a great time, suddenly it was 8 AM

Btw, anyone else been into Shimmer-something cave, just north east of Whiterun? I'm having some serious issues with the first pair of enemies just after the big dwarven doors.


edit: I find it quite funny when some of the people ask me to find something and I just go "oh, you mean this old thing?" and hand it in straight away thanks to some early exploring

[Akagi_Ryu]

QUESTION!

From all the things I've read about character creation, you just pick a race and the game starts with a preset set of skills that levelup along as you play? So you don't pick a favoured set of skills like in TES 3 and 4? ANd what about star signs, did they get rid of those too?

It's not really that much of an issue, but I'd just want a confirmation ^^

[Shuma]

Like in Oblivion, certain races start with certain stats higher than others, i believe high elves start with a lot of magic for example, skills level up as you use them, if you use two handed weapons the more you use them the more the skill's level will go up, you need to have a certain level in a skill to get perks on that skill, for example you need to have two handed weapons at say 30 to get a perk that lets you decapitate people with two handed weapons, star signs are in but not in the same way as in Oblivion, when you finish the "tutorial" someone takes you to 3 stones, the wizard, the thief and the warrior, the warrior makes it so that combat skills level up faster, the wizard so that magic skills, etc, there are other stones for constelations in the world, i've seen the tower, the snake, the lady, the shadow and the ritual at least.

[Tregelen]

This game is a blast, just fought my first dragon who could breathe ice, zerker rage+dual axe whirlwind of death soon put a stop to those shenanigans, the heavy armor looks awesome, running around in Dwarven armour being a big gold juggernaut is great.

Also, Pock, there's a smithing trainer at the skyforge up the hill behind the companion building in whiterun.

[Trizzdog]

So here's something interesting. When I first got to Whiterun or whatever shithole, I stole lots of things. All the things. Did the story quest in that town. Left town to continue story, when suddenly, I am approached and waylaid by hired thugs. Killed them all with burnination and punching, found a contract. They were hired by none other than... that pure-springs bitch from the temple! Apparently she magically knew I was the one who stole all their worthless shit. Fucking wizzard priests. Now, this would be cool if I could confront her about this. But nope, can't do that. Random events like this would be cool if you could conclude them. Oh well. Shouted at her, then punched her square in the face and used my status to get away with it.

[Ammon Ra]

Giant + bear (or you) = win.

I want this game SO BAD. >:#

[Rincewind]

Has anyone found the super soul gem yet?

[Brenil]

This game is pure Elder Scrolls lore sex. So many references to the extended lore that isn't in the actual previous games. So many rumor drops and NPC stories...

Oh and I was visited by the Psijiic Order...

I feel so special.

P.S.

I have a sneaking suspicion that my Housecarl Lydia has it in for me. Being the pimpin' Telvanni-wannabe mage that I am, I have started bringing retainers with me during my journeys. Lydia is so far the most... hmm.... active, let's say. I've brought her with me through 2-3 dungeons and a dragon fight. She's brave, nubile, and occasionally chatty. But sometimes I start to wonder on her loyalty as I brave dungeon traps only to have them to go off and narrowly miss me with mystery. Lydia shrugs and thanks Talos that I'm as blessed as I am, though I do hear occasional muted grumbles from behind me at times. It is somewhat curious that more often than not traps I deftly avoid seeming go off right as I am in the danger zone. I spring out of the way or take a grazed pass and as I look back Lydia just has a dumbfounded expression on her face.

Maybe I'm just paranoid or paying attention to signs that aren't there. The explosions as I pass by the lanterns, the swinging doors as I slip by the ground triggers, the horrible falling rocks that I jump back and forth to avoid. No, it must be something else... something not her. I've even specifically told Lydia where to step so as to keep danger away from both of us. Yet, this continues to confound me. Perhaps Fate is sharpening my senses. A continual barrage of ingenious traps definitely keeps you on the edge, after all.

Yes, she's loyal to the end. That's what I've decided. The coughing while sneaking, the grunts while edging close to hostile creatures. The constant tripping over any and all traps, even ones I specifically point out for her to avoid. She's a Nord, damnit! Loyalty is in her blood... right? RIGHT?! She's not trying to kill me... I'm a good Thane, Master, and Telvanni-in-training slave driver. She respects this and would never knowingly throw me into danger. Now only to find a dragon to slay to stave off these bad thoughts. Oh.. another damnable trap. I'll just step to the side.... Now Lydia dear, do be----

*explosions and a singular scream*

*a female voice says... somewhat late* "I have a bad feeling about this..."

[Pocktio]

I've got a greater soul gem from dismantling a colossus, thing was murder but had no defence against ranged attacks

Ps Dwemer ruins = phat lewtz.

[Misiok]

I was with Lydia in those ruins Pockito. I thinki I've wasted over an hour exploring them. The second we leave them she herp-derps and says 'Ooooh, look, Dwarf ruins!' like it's the first one's she ever saw.


And if by Super Soul Gem you mean the one that's reusable then yeah, I found it. It's called Azura's Star. It has a nice quest line as well. I like to think those Soul Gems are like Eldar's Spirit Stones :P

[Rincewind]

By re-usable you mean you only need to fill it once, right? Because every soul gem is "reusable" in Skyrim in the sense that they do not shatter after you enchant from them.

[Shuma]

@Misiok:

Well... They are aren't they? M'aiq says he was in one once and that it wasn't pleasant. Are you calling M'aiq a liar? Shame on you.

[Akranadas]

Duel Wield, is it cool all what. I've got one axe that makes people flee in fear. They run screaming "I yield! I yield!" but I just go "Nope" can chase them down. Muhahhaa

[Malachi]

The games we normally call open worlds – the locked off cities and level-restricted grinding grounds – don’t compare to this. While everyone else is faffing around with how to control and restrict the player, Bethesda just put a fucking country in a box.

Damn you, UPS. I so want to play this already.

[Pocktio]

Dual wielding is for cowardly mages and weaklings. Talos granted you two hands, so dedicate both to your weapon.

I got a free horse :-D Wonderibg how they work, he is apparently of excellent stock but if there is faster I shall have one!

Furnished my house in Whiterun, now I want somethibg moar fine. Ideally a house with an armoury so I can show off my wargear. Having one two slot weapon rack is the suckage. I need display cases! Armour stands! And my own smithy. May buff my mercantile skill so I get a tidy profit from my dwemer loot. Need conundrum ore to upgrade the armour....wheres I gets it ?

Oh and stay away from giant v troll v dragon fights....ouch

[konfeta]

So, what exactly triggers the allowability of spell skill ups? Destruction seems fairly simple, just burst stuff. Conjuration was tricky at first, but then I found that I could just go back to the locations I purged and make zombies out of the still remaining corpses and attack them - when they go hostile you gain about a bar full of Conjuration.

Now, Restoration so far is painfully slow, Alteration seems to improve massively upon casting that treeskin spell or whatever but it doesn't work almost all the time, and Illusion doesn't improve anywhere near proportionally like Alteration when casting the Fury spell on enemy targets. Any way to speed all three of those up?

P.S. I love the flexibility. Despite planning on mostly a mage, there are obviously very cheap and easy access quality-of-life Perks in Pickpocketing and Speech. And those skills are remarkably easy to level up (especially because you can just fast-travel and switch to Thief stone when going shopping/stealing). Also, given the ridiculous availability of lockpicks, is there are point to the lockpicking skill tree beyond the "lockpick in plain sight" perk?

[Rincewind]

Konfeta, you're better off training those from a trainer. Making money is ridiculously easy once you have a decent skill in Enchanting.

[konfeta]

Hm. Any hint as to where those trainers are? Winterhold seems very far away.

Also, I am pleasantly surprised than an RPG for once didn't do the hideously moronic "freeze deaths = no loot" mechanism, but I am highly suspicious at the Lightning Disintegration perk. Does it leave behind lootable ash?

[Rincewind]

I think a full list was linked earlier in the thread. Here is a not-full list but should cover every skill.

I think enchanting is one of the best professions in the game, even more so than Smithing. I saw a picture of a nice item - a skill 100 enchanter with 5/5 improved enchants perk, +25% to fortifying main stats perk and the two enchants on one item perk can create, for example, a ring that gives you 62 health and 62 stamina. You can make them by just murdering a random brigand, holding his soul in the Black Star, and buying a 50 gold basic silver ring. Oh, and they sell for over 1k each. I think I'm gonna start training enchanting at every level.

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Okay tested it out, I can take a 30g ring and turn it into a 800g ring with a Grand soul from the Black Star and my enchanting skill of 50. It's pretty awesome way of making money - craft shit from smithing, kill random brigand or quest humanoid mob (or even a random stranger, if you are evil) and enchant the crap you make, then sell it. Use the money to buy ingots and ores and keep going.

[DeafMute]

I've placed my Orc Warrior on the backbench atm in favor of testing out the game itself. So I know which direction to take myself in with him.

So ive gone with a Nord female Mage/Archer type.
Took quiet abit of time to get were my Orc got to so doing the same again didnt sit well so afew cheat codes later and heres afew things you can gain by going mage.

Edit--
Seems imageshack links arnt agreeing with me (I fail at links lol)

So I just placed the images here.

http://imageshack.us/g/822/2011111200001.jpg/
Small enough thumbnail to get an idea.
Only way to see it indetail is to increase the size.
Should avoid massive spoilers.

Personally thinking that fire spirit looks sweet.

[FriendlyFire]

My sole question is: for somebody who found Oblivion and Fallout 3 bland, boring and uninspiring, how does Skyrim fare?

Reading this thread makes me want to give the game a shot, but then again people raved about those two games too.

[DeafMute]

I saw that Fallout3 was an empty shell from day 1.
Still is even with Mods.

New Vegas is superior to F3 as Skyrim is to oblivion.
Skyrims uptodate. Tons of lore. Animations feel much better and overall. Id say its GOTY.

[Ewokz]

@DeafMute You can get that fire spirit spell from the entrance of the college of magic, carts make it easy as hell to get. Its given out as part of the quest which allows you to enter the college.

[DeafMute]

Since I went the warrior route with my orc and this nord chick was just to cheat/test things out I didnt know =P
but now I do. thanks.

I really got to get into enchanting.
how does it work? Cant seem to wrap my head around it.

[Shuma]

My sole question is: for somebody who found Oblivion and Fallout 3 bland, boring and uninspiring, how does Skyrim fare?

Eh, to me it feels about the same as Oblivion, sure it's better but i don't think it's a drastic improvement, i wouldn't say it's as drastic as New Vegas was to Fallout 3. It's definitively much better than Fallout 3 though.

[Nanaki]

I found out that you can go back to the beginner dungeon in the burned down imperial town, so anyone looking for early-game storage can go there.

[Rincewind]

@ Deafmute: Enchanting works like this - you need 3 things: first, an item to be enchanted, second you need to know an enchantment to cast on the item and third you will need a filled soul gem.

1) This can be anything worn or wielded by your character, but the hidden "item level" determines what kind of enchants it can take. Don't expect a random Hide hat to take the same kind of enchantment as a Daedric helm.
2) You need to learn enchantments by finding magical items and then destroying them at an Arcane Enchanter. The level of the enchant on the item is irrelevant, only the effect, so for example if you find a dagger that has a "absorb 1 health" effect on it, you can later with the correct soul gem make a dagger or mace or bow that absorbs 20 health.
3) Soul gems are containers that have the soul of someone or something in them. To capture a soul, you need some way of casting "Soul Trap" on the target, either the actual spell or using an weapon enchanted with Soul Trap to land the killing blow, and of course an empty soul gem. Souls range from Petty souls of foxes and wolves all the way to Grand for the strongest monsters. An exception to the rule is if the creature is sentient it will always have a Black soul, regardless of how powerful it is, in that case you can only store the soul in a Black soul gem. Black and Grand soul gem shatters after you use them, the others do not, but otherwise Black souls are functionally identical to Grand souls. Creatures with Grand souls are extremely rare, but you can get Black souls off any bandit or beggar, which brings us to...

#4

4) There is a really quick and easy way to get a unique artifact, Azura's Star, which is arguably the most powerful item in the game which will let you ignore the whole Soul gem system. Basically, it is a re-usable Soul Gem that can hold either a Grand or Black soul in it (you need to choose when you get the item, and the choice is permanent). Since Black souls are all over the place, you should choose this option. To get it, simply talk to a bartender until you get a rumour about the Shrine of Azura. Go there, talk to the chick, she sends you to talk to the elf in Winterhold, go to the dungeon he tells you about, get the Star and then return to the elf. He does some magic, you defeat the boss and you will have the best item in the game. Your enchants will now be extremely powerful.

@Nanaki: unless you store items in a container within a house that you own, stuff will randomly disappear every time you zone in or out. I recommend doing the main quest until the point (very early on) where you can buy property in Whiterun.

[Nanaki]

@Nanaki: unless you store items in a container within a house that you own, stuff will randomly disappear every time you zone in or out. I recommend doing the main quest until the point (very early on) where you can buy property in Whiterun.

Well, technically, this only becomes a problem in one of two situations:

1: You dump stuff in a regenerating chest, and the chest regenerates while you are gone (you lose everything)
2: You dump stuff with NPCs nearby, and the NPCs decide to help themselves (this is probably the reason why random stuff is randomly dissapearing)

There is very likely at least one non-regenerating chest in Helgen (I am guessing the Warden's Chest, at the entrance), and Helgen is also a ghost town, not a living soul there, so you have no worries about NPCs looting your stuff.

[Rincewind]

It's got nothing to do with NPCs looting it, it's just a piece of code that randomly makes stuff disappear unless it is in a house you own.

In other news, I'm at level 21 now with craptastic combat skills but enchanting 80 and smithing 60. If I could just find some ore I'd be a happy man. Gonna try to get my enchanting to 100 before level 30.

[Starblade]

Rince with number 4 there, why would you NOT choose the black option? Isn't black greater than grand?

[Rincewind]

Black & Grand are identical, except you can only get Grand from animals and Black from sentients. I specifically worded it in a way that you get the Black option since it is so much better.

[Kien]

Yay finally got to play the game. The landscape is very good looking and the water too. At first the graphics felt mediocre but it depends a lot on the lighting. As soon as you get out in sunlight so you can see the specular and normal maps it looks much better. Still surprised it doesn't have screen space ambient occlusion. :/ The the parallax mapped cobblestone walls in the village looks very nice. No shiny weapons with reflection maps so far.

There are big spiders in caves, and of course giant rats. I found some texture errors in a tower near the big city, the wooden floor with snow on it looked not good. I use the ancient nord great sword thing that I found from nord zombies as main weapon.

But most important of all, I found a mammoth skeleton! There are mammoths in the game!



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Btw does anyone get the feeling that they reused the texture for stone and gravel from Fallout3? Look at stony cliffs with gravel stuff and imagine a brown filter over it, it's fallout3! :P

[Rincewind]

Warning: enchanting turns the game into Pokemon, where you try to get all the possible spell effects. I finally found a "+ bow damage" ring for 3k gold, had to buy it, now I'm looking to make a suit of armour with just + bow damage and stamina for Dragon hunting.

[konfeta]

So, what is it with random people who show up and want to kill me in the middle of nowhere. Also, +40% pickpocketing from items. I am robbing guards blind everywhere.

[Pocktio]

I think I'm gonna have to sink the rest of my SP into enchanting...

I can assign 20hp buffs to each piece of armour without perks. Improving that is going to be insanely awesome.

Ooooo you could make a set of heavy armour that gives hefty magic bonuses so your warrior character has a battlemage kit....exciting...

[Misiok]

@Konfeta - try looting them. I had 2 random guys wanting to kill me and it turns out it's the Dark Brotherhood.


Also, I found one, literally life-ending bug. It occurs each time so it's easy to reproduce. Everytime you turn the game on you can't do anything. You can't even exit the game, you have to play it until it, unlikely in my case, crashes on you. This is bad, we must mail Bethesda!

[DeafMute]

Kein.
You will see a bunch of mammoths in the flesh. With Giants close-by too.

Stay clear of both.

So on my 2nd true playthrough and im going sneaky bowazon.
Holding back on lvling up because thats when other enemy lvls right?

So im hunting out as many locations as possible and the special npcs who can grant me 5 lvls of a skill each time I lvl.
Going to be costly gold wise though.
Just spent the last 3 hours running around locking down locations on the south-western part of the map.
This game is pretty big.

[Rincewind]

Heh, I'm using an Ebony dagger, enchanted with +25 frost and +25 shock damage. With the assassin's blade perk, I do... er... oh my, 1020 damage with a backstab from stealth.

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http://www.dorkly.com/comic/27206/ho...agon-in-skyrim

[Shuma]

You will see a bunch of mammoths in the flesh. With Giants close-by too

Don't listen to him, talking to giants is the only way to learn how to fly.

Edit:

Serves that Dragon right, that'll teach him.

[Kien]

Ebony dagger already? How fast do you play!? O.o I just replaced my ancient nord great sword with one of steel. I have to say I love the good work on the dragon. Very detailed and nice model, and it has a skeleton too! (will we see a dracolich? ) I just faced a bandit who sprayed magic fire at me, just before he said he was going to rip my heart out I did a cinematic stab with my great sword on him. I really miss cutting of limbs like in fallout3 when i play this. And there is no extra blood from doing these cinematic kills. The satisfaction is lacking.

Is anyone else bothered by the fact that the water looks so pretty on the surface but when you dive in it it's just boring darker view with limited view distance. I want it to feel like you're underwater. Stuff waveing around and such. :/

[guardsman lover]

Hmm..they use the same font as the Fallout games....heheh.

[Shuma]

I really miss cutting of limbs like in fallout3 when i play this.

I don't know for one handed weapons, but a two handed weapon perk allows you to decapitate people, don't know about cutting limbs though... But i'm sure we'll see a mod that does just that eventually.

[Rincewind]

Kien, according to Steam I've played Skyrim for 28 hours out of the last 36.

[Misiok]

20 here, and it's rising fast!

[Kien]

You will see a bunch of mammoths in the flesh. With Giants close-by too

I found them! At least 2, and a giant walking with one of them. They seem friendly.

Btw there are mudcrabs! Still not as good as in Morrowind.


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Just had a battle with a dangerous fire mage apprentice almost killed me, after some hits I managed to get a critical strike and stab my sword upwards in his chest. >:}

Damn great cats and frost trolls kills me without effort. >:/

I have played 5 hours so far.

[Pocktio]

I need to find a list of the houses, it sucks you have to blindly spend thousands of gold to see if a house is any good

Heh a fellow Skyforge greatsword user. I only just replaced mine with a Elvish battle axe, thing is lethal. Needs an enchantment though.

Oh and how I wish I could have my own evil underground lair staffed by villainous minions. I'd have an enchanting table and a cage. My minions would go out and capture bandits/whoever is nearby and lock them up so I can use my Star of Azura to siphon their soul for my nefarious plans.

[konfeta]

Hm, in retrospect, pickpocketing my way to level 20 wasn't the greatest of ideas. No good combat equipment, realized too late that all the spellcasting trainers are basically in Winterhold, still using apprentice spells. I foresee a lot of fail in upcoming combat. This really is one of those games where hindsight is 20/20. Next time I play a mage I will probably ignore everything and just run straight to Winterhold via the very nice taxi service. Coulda maxed out enchanting by now probably.

[Rincewind]

Pocktion, just wait for the modders to get in gear. There are tons of huge, awesome houses, castles, lairs and crypts for Oblivion and Morrowind. Hell, Morrowind even got a flying castle that could actually move around!

I'm really starting to get annoyed by the lack of ore and raw materials. I could forge Glass armour and weapons now but haven't the things I need for it. Haven't even seen a single deposit anywhere. Also, I just had a hilarious encounter with a Cave Bear just outside of Ilvarstead - thing attacked me on a bridge and I Thu'umd him right off it, into the river and then watched the struggling bear go over the huge waterfall. Fucking awesome game.