The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Peregrine]

Yeah I love that site and use it for a lot of ideas - been running the Salamander for a while - really interesting take on a warrior/mage and a lot of fun.

The Salamander

[Dreghorn2]

I suffer greatly from restartitis, mainly because of that damn site.

I keep finding myself trying different characters because of a lot of the unique builds there, and yes that Salamander is a neat idea.

I've found myself geeking out on the lore side of things as well and incorporating it into my play, i must be sick.

[frnk55]

Originally Posted by Dreghorn2

I suffer greatly from restartitis, mainly because of that damn site.

I keep finding myself trying different characters because of a lot of the unique builds there, and yes that Salamander is a neat idea.

I've found myself geeking out on the lore side of things as well and incorporating it into my play, i must be sick.

You're not alone pal. Weird thing is I started Oblivion again because of this damn thread.

[bulletsponge]

sigh* i downloaded the tropical skyrm patches, but they didnt work properly. i have a bunch of blue palm tree like thins and blurry trees.

[Peregrine]

Been trying out some mods that I really like lately.

To boost the number of NPCs around and get more travellers on the roads. I've been using Travellers of Skyrim. It adds a lot of wandering merchants, apothecaries, healers, and others that you will see a lot in the inns and wandering the roads.

Additionally, a mod called Interesting NPCs adds quite a few NPCs around the world, each with very deep dialogue trees and interesting backstories. All the ones I have found are very well voice acted and some have interesting quests - all in all this is a real winner if you want to find more interesting NPCs to chat with. Highly recommended.

Expanded Towns and Cities actually expands the cities of Skyrim, adding new merchants, buildings and other stuff that really helps to "fill out" some of the places like Dawnstar, Dragon Bridge, etc. Very customizable in terms of what features you can install.

Forgotten Magic Redone is an updated version of a mod I used to use - it adds a bunch of new spells which can be randomly discovered in the game - additionally you can find rings that add a bonus to each of the spells. I find the spells quite nice and generally not overpowered, it's very nice to have a lot of new toys to play with as a mage.

[TroyF]

I finally beat this game over the weekend. 173 hours of total playtime. I picked up hearthfire DLC, but I have not grabbed the other two. I'm waiting for the Steam Summer sale and hoping I can get them for half off.

Love this game and will likely try another playthrough at some point.

[Neuqua]

I beat the main quest finally last week. I'm about ~200 hours in. I have it for PS3 & don't have any of the DLC's yet. This is the one game keeping me from splurging on a next-gen system. I still have at least a hundred hours or so left playing.

[Peregrine]

Not sure how I missed this site before -if you get tired of manually trying to match alchemical ingredients - on this site you can just put in all the stuff you have and it will tell you what potions you can make with it.

https://arrington.me/alch/

[The Jackal]

I finally decided on my new PC, downloaded skyrim last night and the 360 controller for windows arrives today. So excited to get back into the game - it's been long enough that there's nothing I wouldn't do over again... plus the unimaginable tons of things I haven't done.

[Peregrine]

360 controller for windows? Wow never tried that in Skyrim. Anyway yes there's so much to do - definitely recommend looking into some mods as there are tons of great ones.

[NobodyHere]

Is there really a separate 360 controller for windows?

[cartman]

It isn't separate, you use the same controller. What they sell is a USB dongle that has drivers that allow you to use the controller with your PC. Or, if you have a 360 controller that isn't wireless, you can just plug it in and start using it.

[NobodyHere]

That makes sense. I thought maybe MS was going for another cheap cash-in

[The Jackal]

Yeah when I upgraded to the Xbox One I got rid of my 360 and all the controllers, so just needed a new one to pair with this. Going to use it for things like Portal and such too.

[MizzouRah]

Yep, I use mine plugged into the USB port, been playing Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning as of late.

[Peregrine]

I am dealing with a really annoying bug in Hearthfire now that I am building my house. I bought a carriage but for some reason it doesn't work - he takes 50 gold but it doesn't actually go anywhere. I have all the unofficial patches and I checked the load order - not sure what's going on but feel like I wasted 1000 gold.

[sabotai]

That's odd. I've been playing again recently and my carriage is working fine. Doesn't take 50 gold from me either for rides.

[Peregrine]

Further details on this carriage issue - apparently it does work (but still takes money) to the main holds but doesn't work to go to smaller towns and villages - in other words all the places you'd need the carriage for.

[Buccaneer]

I'm getting close to starting up my annual 200+ hours gameplay again. I have not followed Nexus at all this year and I am wondering if there is anything new and dramatic (mod-wise) that I should be aware of?

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Been trying out some mods that I really like lately.

To boost the number of NPCs around and get more travellers on the roads. I've been using Travellers of Skyrim. It adds a lot of wandering merchants, apothecaries, healers, and others that you will see a lot in the inns and wandering the roads.

Additionally, a mod called Interesting NPCs adds quite a few NPCs around the world, each with very deep dialogue trees and interesting backstories. All the ones I have found are very well voice acted and some have interesting quests - all in all this is a real winner if you want to find more interesting NPCs to chat with. Highly recommended.

Expanded Towns and Cities actually expands the cities of Skyrim, adding new merchants, buildings and other stuff that really helps to "fill out" some of the places like Dawnstar, Dragon Bridge, etc. Very customizable in terms of what features you can install.

Forgotten Magic Redone is an updated version of a mod I used to use - it adds a bunch of new spells which can be randomly discovered in the game - additionally you can find rings that add a bonus to each of the spells. I find the spells quite nice and generally not overpowered, it's very nice to have a lot of new toys to play with as a mage.

I will still recommend these mods - especially Interesting NPCs is really great. Not sure how many of them are new per se - not really playing Skyrim since I started Elder Scrolls Online.

[Buccaneer]

I will check those out, thanks. I will want to play with Tropical Skyrim again so I'll have to keep compatibility in mind.

[Buccaneer]

I've been working on a new set of mods and getting close to start again. But I need to have something clarified. The first time I played, I did a destruction mage; the second time a sneak archer. This time I want to combine the two and play an arcane archer (archery and enchantments). I've read differing opinions on the value of destruction perks for this type of build. Does firing arrows enchanted with fire (for example) count as a fire spell? In other words, does the destruction perks like augmented and intense flames make fire archery more powerful?

[Buccaneer]

This is why I think Skyrim is the greatest game ever made. 130 hours on my current character and I haven't done much of anything yet - which is completely the opposite of the first time I played where I "finished" the game (main questline) at level 18 or so. Last week I was at level 30 and had only completed 9 misc. quests. Now I'm at level 45 with a Legendary Dragonbone bow and I still had not even begun the main quest (i.e., no dragons yet), let alone anything else besides the College.

My goal this time was more geographic - to visit every place on the map, hold by hold. I have printed out a map showing every location and even playing 350 hours previously, there's still a lot of places I had missed or not known about, and that does not include the DLCs locations. Most of the time I find a place and decide to go in and clear it out for the fun of it. Rinse, Repeat.

The set of mods I've chosen this time is great and a lot of fun, along with focusing on an Arcane Archer plus Destruction to mix it up.

[bhlloy]

I quit my third play through because some of the graphical mods I downloaded made the game crash, but I have a new computer now and now you have made me want to download it again. Thanks for nothing!

[Peregrine]

I have to say I have temporarily abandoned this game for Dragon Age: Inquisition but am sure I will be back soon.

[Neuqua]

Being a PS3 player, I've put in about 250+ hours just on the Skyrim standalone game. Tonight I saw that Amazon has the Legendary version for PS3 including the 3 DLC's for <$20 and I had to go and order it. No other game has immersed me like this one and I'm looking forward to going back.

Quick question, anyone know if I am going to have to start my game over completely or will I be able to continue from my saved game? I'm ok with either, just want to prepare.

Btw, for those interested:
Amazon.com: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition: Xbox 360: Video Games

Edit: Looks like the price jumped back up.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Being a PS3 player, I've put in about 250+ hours just on the Skyrim standalone game. Tonight I saw that Amazon has the Legendary version for PS3 including the 3 DLC's for <$20 and I had to go and order it. No other game has immersed me like this one and I'm looking forward to going back.

I have all the DLCs for Xbox 360, as well as the digital base game that game with my slim 360, but the textures look like ASS on the downloaded version. I saw that Best Buy had the game for $7.99 on Black Friday and figured that was cheap enough to acquire a disc copy (which I know looks better because less compression), and wound up with the Legendary edition for that $7.99 price after they threw all of their copies of Skyrim in whatever flavor on the cart. Woo!

Quick question, anyone know if I am going to have to start my game over completely or will I be able to continue from my saved game? I'm ok with either, just want to prepare.

You're good. It will be just the same as if you had downloaded the DLCs on top of your base game, either digital base or optical base.

[Buccaneer]

I've been back in Skyrim for my fourth experience and finally found a way to combine my two favorite games (Assassin's Creed Black Flag and Skyrim). Playing in Tropical Skyrim, as usual, along with 50+ mods (and some house rules), I wanted to do the actions that I loved from Black Flag. That means full-on sneak assassin in the same manner that Edward Kenway would sneak up behind someone and stab them. It also means making good use of berserk darts (and berserk grenades from Rogue) for those clusters of hostiles.

I started off as a member of the Dark Brotherhood (Alternate Start) but I had to level up as a usual Sneak Archer until I got enough perks in Sneak and Illusion plus some One-Handed to play Black Flag-like. Now (at level 30) I can sneak in front of or back of mid-level enemies and do a 1-2 strike kill with my Ebony Dagger. If they become alert, that's where the Calm spell comes in. If there is a room full of enemies or I'm facing an outside ruin full of Forsworns (for example), Fury or Frenzy would get them going berserk (fighting each other). I, however, have to stop the habit of looking for bushes to hide in (at least not until I get the last perk in Sneak).

Just wanted to share my experience of combining my two favorite games.

[dubb93]

This is the game that won't die. Finally got the Legendary Edition as a gift so I went looking for a new game. Modded the hell out of it this time. Finally decided to install ENB as well to open up the vault for tons of graphical mods. Think I have something like 120 something mods installed. Went with this character. I'm a sucker for RP in this game.

Character Build: The Lion - The Tamriel Vault

[JPhillips]

Has anybody tried the Enderal mod?

[Buccaneer]

Thanks for the post about Enderal, looks amazing. Just in time, too, for my annual long play.

[JPhillips]

Post impressions, if you would. I don't have time for it now, but would love to know if it's worth loading.

[Edward64]

Enderal reviews are out. For the most part, pretty positive.

Enderal: The Shards of Order — Skyrim mod review | PC Gamer

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Post impressions, if you would. I don't have time for it now, but would love to know if it's worth loading.

I wanted to try something different first (mostly Perkus Maximus and the large Gray Cowl quest) in a modded game - after getting to level 20, not sure how I felt about Perkus: it forces you to spread skills instead of doing a sink, so it did make it more challenging.

Will start up Enderal this weekend.

[korme]

Broke down and bought it.

[cthomer5000]

It's still crazy to me that they've probably only just started production on the next Elder Scrolls game this year. What's our best case scenario for release - some time in 2018?

Pretty nuts to go 7 years without a sequel given how universally acclaimed the last one was.

Regarding the re-release: I just can't risk spending another 100+ hours on the game. Absolutely loved Skyrim but need to avoid relapsing like an addict.

[JPhillips]

That's not quite true as they did Tamriel on-line, it just wasn't nearly as popular.

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

It's still crazy to me that they've probably only just started production on the next Elder Scrolls game this year. What's our best case scenario for release - some time in 2018?

Pretty nuts to go 7 years without a sequel given how universally acclaimed the last one was.

Regarding the re-release: I just can't risk spending another 100+ hours on the game. Absolutely loved Skyrim but need to avoid relapsing like an addict.

Totally agree - it's taken ages to work on the next game and here they are wasting time doing a re-hash of the last one.

[RainMaker]

Is there anything new in the re-release? Or just updated graphics?

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Totally agree - it's taken ages to work on the next game and here they are wasting time doing a re-hash of the last one.

Developing the new 64-bit version is probably a significant step toward producing the next one.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Is there anything new in the re-release? Or just updated graphics?

Just updated graphics. A warning I read was the current mods may not all work with the updated graphics.

[sabotai]

And from what I've read, the updated graphics aren't even as good as the graphics you'll find in mods.

Started playing Enderal yesterday. My only two issues for it so far is 1) There are a lot of flowers and vegetation, making it pretty hard to see at any kind of distance which can be collected as food or ingredients and which ones can't, and 2) Using skills does not increase your ability in them. You have to buy upgrades for skills. I can see the reasoning for crafting skills, but I'd prefer combat skills to increase with use.

But overall, I like it so far.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

It's still crazy to me that they've probably only just started production on the next Elder Scrolls game this year. What's our best case scenario for release - some time in 2018?

Pretty nuts to go 7 years without a sequel given how universally acclaimed the last one was.

Regarding the re-release: I just can't risk spending another 100+ hours on the game. Absolutely loved Skyrim but need to avoid relapsing like an addict.

Honestly, Bethesda seems like a badly managed company.

I always read these glowing stories about how they keep their team small, and refuse to rush their products, and only ever work on one game at a time, and don't take any shortcuts like all these other companies. And there's no question that the quality of what they're putting out, between Elder Scrolls and Fallout, is excellent. But at some point, part of putting out a good product is being able to get it out the door.

Sure, good for them for avoiding the temptation to put out crappy products every year or so to capitalize on their brands. But seven years (or more) between flagship products isn't something to be proud of. It's a sign that something somewhere is broken.

[JPhillips]

Didn't Bethesda work on Elder Scrolls on-line? With the subscription and all the expansions that had to make money.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by sabotai

And from what I've read, the updated graphics aren't even as good as the graphics you'll find in mods.

Started playing Enderal yesterday. My only two issues for it so far is 1) There are a lot of flowers and vegetation, making it pretty hard to see at any kind of distance which can be collected as food or ingredients and which ones can't, and 2) Using skills does not increase your ability in them. You have to buy upgrades for skills. I can see the reasoning for crafting skills, but I'd prefer combat skills to increase with use.

But overall, I like it so far.

What mods did you install with Enderal? I think I at least would want SkyUI.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

What mods did you install with Enderal? I think I at least would want SkyUI.

I didn't install any mods, and SkyUI is built into Enderal so you don't have to use it as a mod.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by sabotai

And from what I've read, the updated graphics aren't even as good as the graphics you'll find in mods.

Started playing Enderal yesterday. My only two issues for it so far is 1) There are a lot of flowers and vegetation, making it pretty hard to see at any kind of distance which can be collected as food or ingredients and which ones can't, and 2) Using skills does not increase your ability in them. You have to buy upgrades for skills. I can see the reasoning for crafting skills, but I'd prefer combat skills to increase with use.

But overall, I like it so far.

Several hours into Enderal and still feels like I just started. It is truly amazing, probably better than all of the quest mods put together (apart from finding most of them pretty bad, including Falksaar). And dare I say? Better than either Dragonborn or Dawnguard DLCs.

On your two points. 1) I have been playing with Tropical Skyrim for four years now, so I am quite used to lots of flowers and vegetation. 2) This game feels just like all those years I played Gothic (and Risen) with its traditional way of earning points. It certainly makes the game much more active instead of passive (you actually have to accomplish things to get rewards). It makes for a more challenging game as I still don't feel confident in my abilities yet, even playing at Adept level instead of my usual Master/Legendary level.

It's the classic catch-22: I need to fight in order to get points so I can fight better, but I'm having a tougher time fighting because I don't have the skills to fight better.

One more thing, magic (at least in the early game) is more valuable, useful and almost critical. I am having to fight with magic and a sword at the same time since my archery is not that effective. But I haven't ventured into the cities yet, just slowly trying to get points and gold out in the world.

[sabotai]

Took a few hours of playing it, but I've gotten the hang of it now. I've been itching to play another Skyrim like game, and every time I start Skyrim up again lately, I stopped after an hour or two. I mean, I did have it clocked at about 410 hours.

This mod has gotten me back into it. This really does feel like a totally new Elder Scrolls game and I am loving it now that I got used to the changes.

[Edward64]

Anyone playing Enderal with the new Special Edition graphics upgrade?

[Peregrine]

What is Enderal? Don't think I've heard of it.