The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by TroyF

This. I'm dreading the thieves guild quests. I don't want to hurt the innocents. I'm REALLY dreading the Dark Brotherhood strand. I'm a good guy, damnit.

I felt bad after one of the first few quests. In one part of a quest you have the option of smashing someone's prized possession in order to convince them to pay up. Trying to have my character be a soulless badass, but was still difficult. Not that way in every game, in Saints Row 3 I've had no problem beating random people on the street to death with giant sex toys, but it hit me in Skyrim.

At least there's enough where if you don't want to do the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests you'll still have plenty to do.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Is there a way to post a screenshot of your character facing forward? It might be cool to start posting shots of our characters, maybe armed their fiercest.

Here's mine! Thieves guild armor, elven axe and spell ready for combat.

Originally Posted by Grover

I can only seem to get them facing forward when the weapon is sheathed.

You can do it by opening the console with ~ and typing "TFC" (w/o quotes) for free camera. You can also turn off the compass and other HUD elements with "TM", though it will hide any menus including the console. You'll still be able to access the console, so you can hit ~ and enter TM even though you can't see it.

[DaddyTorgo]

Waiting for Skyrim...

[Grover]

Here's mine! Full orc armor, Shield of Ysgramor and the Mace of Molag Bal.

[Big Fo]

Does your character only get better at certain things if you choose one of the perks in that category? Or will you do more damage at 40 archery than 20 archery even if you have no archery perks?

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Does your character only get better at certain things if you choose one of the perks in that category? Or will you do more damage at 40 archery than 20 archery even if you have no archery perks?

I'm fairly certain its the latter - for example, when you put on a pendant that improves your speech, you get better prices, even without perks. I think of perks as a short-cut.

[thesloppy]

I think in the case of combat perks, that they have kind of a symbiotic relationship with your skill levels....i.e. the combat perks usually increase your skills by a certain percentage of their current value (and never above 100%, except for criticals/sneak-attacks), so high skills will always trump perks in terms of base damage.

[thesloppy]

Is it just me, or does your 'block' skill raise at a ludicrously slow rate? My smithing is at 75+ from just carelessly making daggers and helmets for a few seconds, every time I happen to pass through Whiterun, meanwhile my block skill has been stuck at 30-something practically the entire game (and I'm 37th level), even though I constantly seek out combat, have put a handful of perks into the block tree, and always use a shield. Same with armor skills, to a lesser degree. If I was balancing the skill progression towards my druthers, smithing and enchanting would switch progress-speeds with blocking and armoring.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Is it just me, or does your 'block' skill raise at a ludicrously slow rate? My smithing is at 75+ from just carelessly making daggers and helmets for a few seconds, every time I happen to pass through Whiterun, meanwhile my block skill has been stuck at 30-something practically the entire game (and I'm 37th level), even though I constantly seek out combat, have put a handful of perks into the block tree, and always use a shield. Same with armor skills, to a lesser degree. If I was balancing the skill progression towards my druthers, smithing and enchanting would switch progress-speeds with blocking and armoring.

Do you actually put your shield up to block attacks? It won't raise otherwise. I'm level 24 and my block is around 60.

[JPhillips]

I haven't had that problem with block.

I do think skills need some balancing.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Grover

Do you actually put your shield up to block attacks? It won't raise otherwise. I'm level 24 and my block is around 60.

I do...maybe I'm just really bad at it. In actuality, I may just abuse my bow to the point where I'm not getting as much practice as I think I am.

Just fought my first elder dragon, then when I went to pick up his bones, a master conjurer popped up. Sheesh. More to the point, I rifled through my inventory a bunch of times during that extended skirmish, but never once pulled out my shield (staffs have save my ass repeatedly in these later(?) stages)....so maybe it's just a case of selective memory.

[Qrusher14242]

Here's mine:



Ebony Armor, Elven Sword of Ice and the Mask of Krosis. I also have the Hide boots of Strength. Kind of a Jack of all trades character, he's real good at One-handed and Magic, but not much else.

[thealmighty]

When you level up, what do you choose to raise? I've chosen to raise health every level so far (only lvl 6 though). At what point do you need more stamina or is health more important? Don't do much with magic at this point.

[thealmighty]

dola...

Did you buy the first house you were offered or are there better ones and worse ones in certain towns?

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Is it just me, or does your 'block' skill raise at a ludicrously slow rate? My smithing is at 75+ from just carelessly making daggers and helmets for a few seconds, every time I happen to pass through Whiterun, meanwhile my block skill has been stuck at 30-something practically the entire game (and I'm 37th level), even though I constantly seek out combat, have put a handful of perks into the block tree, and always use a shield. Same with armor skills, to a lesser degree. If I was balancing the skill progression towards my druthers, smithing and enchanting would switch progress-speeds with blocking and armoring.

I've noticed most of my block growth hasn't come from the physical act of blocking, but from countering. Like, the attack comes, I block it, and counter while the opponent is staggered. Doing that, my block skill has grown fairly regularly. I think at level 17 I'm in the high 40s/low 50s with block.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

When you level up, what do you choose to raise? I've chosen to raise health every level so far (only lvl 6 though). At what point do you need more stamina or is health more important? Don't do much with magic at this point.

Originally Posted by thealmighty

dola...

Did you buy the first house you were offered or are there better ones and worse ones in certain towns?

I tend to go 2 health for every 1 stamina, but I adjust that sometimes if I badly need the carrying capacity. I'll throw magic in there occasionally since I use the odd destruction and restoration spell.

There may well be better houses later on, but the dragon bones are so heavy that I bought the first house I could just to have a place to stash my dragon offal. I could sell the stuff, I guess, but I don't know how frequently vendor gold refreshes, which would limit my ability to sell things like jewelry/other spoils of war.

[GrantDawg]

I think I am going to regret not going sword and board. I'm at level 12, and am taking way too much damage when forced into hth trying to go with two weapons. I might just try switching now. Also, I am beginning to believe things are scaled for you to have a companion. I think I might just break down and try using one more.

[thesloppy]

I've gone with a heavy stamina build. It affects carrying capacity, and weapon/bow damage, and I get the feeling it effects speed as well. Are there secondary effects to raising your health?

[CrimsonFox]

What? No mage pictures?

[Crapshoot]

Any tips? am I just too low here? Never had any issues with bandits before.

Spoiler

Jesus. I'm level 10, and just getting destroyed every time I walk into the pit at the Halted Stream Mine - no matter what, the bandit leader is like a shot killer of me. I think I ended up a generalist, but whoa - my shout, my magic, seems utterly useless.

[EagleFan]

Armor and level have changed since that shot but I liked it with the river and cascading waterfall in the background.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Any tips? am I just too low here? Never had any issues with bandits before.

FWIW, that was one of the ones I mentioned that pushed me to my absolute limit of ability and I was somewhere around level 18 at the time. (The one I had to completely abandon was just southwest of there IIRC, an interior stone structure rather than a camp)

[Peregrine]

Here's my main guy in full steel plate armor and an elven greatsword - enchanted with fire which you can kind of see with the big weapons.

[thesloppy]

Finally finished the Thieves Guild questline, after many tease endings. Woot! There's lots of great loot from that questline, and thankfully it matched up great with my character build (light armor/bow/single-handed).

[DougW]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Any tips? am I just too low here? Never had any issues with bandits before.

Spoiler

Jesus. I'm level 10, and just getting destroyed every time I walk into the pit at the Halted Stream Mine - no matter what, the bandit leader is like a shot killer of me. I think I ended up a generalist, but whoa - my shout, my magic, seems utterly useless.

Hmm. I had no problem in there. Are you alone ? I don't remember if I brought Lydia or the Elf, but we went through there rather easily.

Spoiler

Well worth it too, I believe that's where I picked up a transmute spell, which turns iron ore into gold. Meaning, with little effort - 1 iron ore pile = 200g

[spleen1015]

So, that climb to go see the Greybeards.... it sucks.

[DougW]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I've gone with a heavy stamina build. It affects carrying capacity, and weapon/bow damage, and I get the feeling it effects speed as well. Are there secondary effects to raising your health?

As an Archer, stamina is almost useless to me. I guess it would let me sprint longer, but I have a horse. The only time I expend any stamina is when I zoom aim. It doesn't effect speed, nor bow damage (no power moves). Definitely affects carry capacity, and it gives you more weapon damage indirectly (the more stamina, the more often you can use power moves).

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

So, that climb to go see the Greybeards.... it sucks.

Watch out for wolves.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Any tips? am I just too low here? Never had any issues with bandits before.

Spoiler

Jesus. I'm level 10, and just getting destroyed every time I walk into the pit at the Halted Stream Mine - no matter what, the bandit leader is like a shot killer of me. I think I ended up a generalist, but whoa - my shout, my magic, seems utterly useless.

I had the same issues and have since abandoned that one for later (I am also level 10 now) I had Lydia with me and we would get everyone but the leader and he would just walk through everything I threw at him. I will try again in a couple of levels and take a mercenary with me.

The only place that has stymied me so far.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

So, that climb to go see the Greybeards.... it sucks.

The mountains in this game make me miss Daggerfall's climb ability. Level it up enough and you could walk straight up a wall.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Here's mine! Thieves guild armor, elven axe and spell ready for combat.



You can do it by opening the console with ~ and typing "TFC" (w/o quotes) for free camera. You can also turn off the compass and other HUD elements with "TM", though it will hide any menus including the console. You'll still be able to access the console, so you can hit ~ and enter TM even though you can't see it.

Is this instruction for a PC? What exactly do you mean by "opening the console"? You mean the game when it's not loaded up, like a command from outside of the game? Or do you mean when the game is all loaded up?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

So, that climb to go see the Greybeards.... it sucks.

Is this at High Hrothgar? Haven't been there yet myself, but saw a thread in the Skyrim forums about how to get there via a horse climbing up the mountain. This is the link from that thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYjzN...el_video_title

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Is this instruction for a PC? What exactly do you mean by "opening the console"? You mean the game when it's not loaded up, like a command from outside of the game? Or do you mean when the game is all loaded up?

It is for a PC. The developers console is opened while the game is running by hitting ~, here's an explanation and instructions on using it.

The TFC and TM commands are toggles, so after you're done taking a screenshot you just need to type them both into the console again to turn them off. As I mentioned, turning off TM can be a bit tricky (or at least it was for me), because it hides everything on the HUD, all menus, and the console. You won't be able to see the console, but you can still turn if off by hitting ~, typing TM, and hitting enter.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Grover

Here's mine! Full orc armor, Shield of Ysgramor and the Mace of Molag Bal.

Nice. I've found a few awesome shield like that that I've sadly had to sell because my character had no use for them. Maybe I'll see if I can find a way to display the next one I find in my house.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by DougW

As an Archer, stamina is almost useless to me. I guess it would let me sprint longer, but I have a horse. The only time I expend any stamina is when I zoom aim. It doesn't effect speed, nor bow damage (no power moves). Definitely affects carry capacity, and it gives you more weapon damage indirectly (the more stamina, the more often you can use power moves).

Interesting. I reasoned the exact opposite....since I'm using a bow and stealth, nobody should regularly make it near enough to me to even test my health, making it less useful to me than even stamina's secondary effect of increased carrying capacity.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I had the same issues and have since abandoned that one for later (I am also level 10 now) I had Lydia with me and we would get everyone but the leader and he would just walk through everything I threw at him. I will try again in a couple of levels and take a mercenary with me.

The only place that has stymied me so far.

Me, too. But I got it done. Pulled, ran out of the zone. When I came back in, the boss and one other was still there. Killed the extra, and ran out. Came back, and got the big guy down. It was a hairy fight.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Me, too. But I got it done. Pulled, ran out of the zone. When I came back in, the boss and one other was still there. Killed the extra, and ran out. Came back, and got the big guy down. It was a hairy fight.

Good tip, will try that

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Any tips? am I just too low here? Never had any issues with bandits before.

Spoiler

Jesus. I'm level 10, and just getting destroyed every time I walk into the pit at the Halted Stream Mine - no matter what, the bandit leader is like a shot killer of me. I think I ended up a generalist, but whoa - my shout, my magic, seems utterly useless.

Leaders are pretty tough on any level. I think in that encounter a couple fireballs and then them running through the flaming mammoth fat on the ground helped me out.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

So, that climb to go see the Greybeards.... it sucks.

Not sure if it really is a spoiler but it does mention some things about the climb.

Spoiler

What level are peoplee trying this at? I'm a level 8 and did the climb. Thee wolves were no problem, one swipe generally sent them packing (or a well placed arrow if I saw them soon enough). The tough part for me was that d*** ice troll. I couldn't go toe to toe with it, tried sniping from a hidden point with arrows but after it couldn't see me it walked out of my line of sight and healed (and I learned that it's a death trap to walk down the path to see if I could get him in my line of sight).

Then I ran back down the steps and ended up getting that lady killed when she tried to attack the troll and he killer her with one swipe (oops- my bad... but I got some decent loot from her). I thought maybe he would then follow me to the hunter but the troll stops chasing well before the hunter. I doubled back after it stopped following me and the SOB wasn't following the path back up and caught me by surprise.

The next attempt I took a route that was off the path and must have snuck by where-ever it ended up going as I got to the top soon after getting past that area.

Was frustrating but quite happy once I finally made it and picked up another shout.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Leaders are pretty tough on any level. I think in that encounter a couple fireballs and then them running through the flaming mammoth fat on the ground helped me out.

There is a good strategy as well. I wonder if some encounters are made tougher because you should do things like that.

[mckerney]

Starting loading some high resolution texture mods last night, the high resolution road signs seems to be the most helpful. There's also a mod to display the time on the loading screens, not sure if that one's a good idea or not.

This looks very interesting also, the land is unaccessable but it looks like all of Tamriel is in Skyrim, though just as a height map with low quality textures and nothing there. That it exists in the game could make for some interesting mods or DLC.

[sabotai]

My latest kill (in the city of Whiterun). Decked out in full Dragonscale Armor

[sabotai]

Same kill, this time without the helmet so you can see my wood elf's face.

[Grover]

Love the look of the dragonscale armor.

[chinaski]

When should I start seeing random dragon encounters? I've only seen the initial one that is part of the story so far, and Im level 11.

[DaddyTorgo]

Want this game...grrr

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by chinaski

When should I start seeing random dragon encounters? I've only seen the initial one that is part of the story so far, and Im level 11.

Around that time. I'm at the same level and just had my second one, just out and about.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Around that time. I'm at the same level and just had my second one, just out and about.

Soon as I went back into the game after posting this, I came across my second one. On the way to Rorikstead a fire dragon came down, sadly it wasn't a challenge at all. Between my horse and Lydia, it was dead after one swing of my axe

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Soon as I went back into the game after posting this, I came across my second one. On the way to Rorikstead a fire dragon came down, sadly it wasn't a challenge at all. Between my horse and Lydia, it was dead after one swing of my axe

Was it wounded? I was attacked by a dragon that had just recently tangled with a giant...it didn't take long to finish the beast off...

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Soon as I went back into the game after posting this, I came across my second one. On the way to Rorikstead a fire dragon came down, sadly it wasn't a challenge at all. Between my horse and Lydia, it was dead after one swing of my axe

Wish I have had that luck. Dragons have kicked my butt, or ran away before I could kill them so far.