Skyrim

[Blotus]

Think I'll have to up the difficulty unless the AI gets rough real soon. I'm at level 37 and the dragon fights are a joke. I just get 'em to land and hit them about six times and that's it. I also don't have to use a shield anymore as I just tear through everything I come across with double swords.

Still love the game, but feeling way overpowered playing on Adept.

I was trying to see if there was a way to destroy the thieves guild without just outright killing them, but I haven't found a way to do so. From what I've heard, it's an awesome questline so that's what I'll do next even though my beefy Nord can't sneak worth shit without the aid of potions, armor bonuses, or buckets.

[Flip]

Im only lvl 21 currently and I dont slice through everything. Thats probably due to me playing stealthily and using bows and arrows a lot. I also beefed up one handed (dual wield maces at the moment) but I dont actually use it all that often... Dungeons take me forever as I sneak around and head shot people, when I probably could grab a companion and simply dual power strike my way through pretty easily.

[Blotus]

Followers can help a lot, though not sure how they affect your sneaking (probably negatively if anything).

I've used four before with little difference in their strategies (Ulgerth(?), Lydia, Faedel, some merc). They'd shoot at a distance and melee up close... which was unfortunate for them because they often got in the way of my attacks. There's a mage you can get from doing a Daedric quest (shrine of Azura) who is an awesome, kill stealing bitch, especially when I give her rad staffs.

One of the coolest moments I've had so far was at the expense of a follower (Faendel). Don't remember the quest, but he was following in a fight against a boss wraith. When I had the wraith down to a final blow, the game went to the slow-mo kill cam of me skewering Faendel. I was convinced it had been an illusion and that I was being forced to kill Faendel, but a reload and a command to tell him to wait outside the door remedied his death.

[Shrinweck]

Not counting the three followers during the thieves guild questline, they all very negatively effect sneaking. As in make it basically impossible. Best case scenario they tip them off the second you're in killing range (rare). Typically they're just going to start attacking the second they slightly tip off an enemy that you're nearby, which makes even raising your sneak almost impossible. So far I haven't played with a follower unless forced to for a quest.

[Flip]

Very rare that i get a follower, too. They get in my way when melee'ing, tip me off when sneaking, and generally are a PITA to babysit.

[Shrinweck]

What the fuck? Steam patches Skyrim today to 'secure' the .exe and now the fucking game constantly crashes? FUCK YOU

This is apparently now a very common problem. They decided to fuck over everyone with a legitimate copy. Thanks, guys! Great job! What kind of assholes put MORE DRM into a game a week after it has been released?

The only bright side for me in this patch is that it only actually crashes to the desktop. Other people are having to perform hard resets. Now I'm too scared to even start the freaking game.

[Shrinweck]

Okay, fear kind of subsides when I read most people having huge desktop resetting problems have heavily modded skyrim .exe's so I'm not too afraid to play any more. Still, the patched exe really fucked with what was a 100% stable game for me, so, still, great job with that, devs.

Latest 'game breaker' skill is pickpocketing, which is crazy easy to raise and has a 100 carrying cap increase perk, so I'm all over it. Stealing valuables from NPCs is also a good way to fill out your potential enchants on a new character. Riften merchants tend to carry around 800 gold a pop, so that's pretty cool too. Very easy to raise and with quicksave it has basically no drawback other than time lost. Even at 52 or so skill, pickpocketing a high value item with a 52% chance still raises the ability ~2 points so yeesh, taking a break from that now that I have the carrying cap increase.

[kali o.]

Pickpocket is largely useless -- though it is fun. At least until you realize leaving an entire town naked automatically resets the moment you hit a load screen. Magery (mainly destruction) is also useless (and dumbed down), thank god for mods. Unarmed is completely gimped as it caps out at around 60 damage tops.

There is actually quite a bit I am disliking about this game...I was pretty enamored with it initially but now that I've spent some time with it, I'd say it's pretty mediocre as an actual GAME. I can't help but feel a LOT of content was stripped out of this big sandbox for later DLC.

And I won't even get started on the abrupt 'ending'.

[Oracle]

Is having more than one follower limited to the PC release? Any time I try to pick up another follower when I already have one, the new guy says "You already have someone with you".

The only time I've had more than 1 follower is in a quest where they are required, or when I had a follower plus Shadowmare following me around (and the spectral assassin summon). But still, not more than 1 NPC that I can actually recruit by talking to them.

I find destruction to be far fronm useless. It is very dumbed down, I will agree with that. But the damage spells at 75 destruction seem to be doing fine for me, although it IS tough to use the expert level spells since they suck up so much magicka, even after the Expert Perk.

Also, I had that daedric priestess of Azure as my follower. Then, I noticed that she wasn't around anymore. Sure as shit, I backtracked a bit and found her dead body (thankfully, since she had a dragon priest mask equipped). I then went and got the caster from the mage's college, and he is absolutely aweful. Haven't had a follower since, especially since I'm doing the tail end of the Dark Brotherhood quest line.

[Flip]

Did anyone say anything about multiple companions? I have the PC version and you cannot get more than one at a time, except for a few quests like you mentioned.

Im kind of pissed ill miss the entire magic college quests. I dont even have enough magic to summon the atronach thing for them to let me in. I guess i need gear to five me more magic to be able to do it.

The dog is one of the most annoying companions, lol. When you stand still for a second, he comes right up to you and starts nudging you around. He almost pushed me off a cliff once when i wasnt paying attention. Fucking dog!

[kali o.]

I find destruction to be far fronm useless. It is very dumbed down, I will agree with that. But the damage spells at 75 destruction seem to be doing fine for me

I am guessing you are still relatively lower level then and probably playing on the default difficulty. The destruction spells do not scale in damage either. Unless you take enchantment and gear out for near 100% mana reduction, you will find your blue bar tested heavily in every trash fight later in game.

A destruction mage is going to take 500% longer to kill stuff, compared to melee (and forget about a pimped out sneak/dagger build).

If your secondary is conjuration, you may be OK. Your summons will eventually be pretty solid, as they do scale.

[Eric]

I have no idea how to get into this game, I'm super lost, have no idea where to go, the openness confuses me, halp!

[Shrinweck]

The joy of the game is exploration and deciding to do something because you want to do it once you've found it. Admittedly it's a fairly shitty game if you can't get that drive up on your own.

[Flip]

I have no idea how to get into this game, I'm super lost, have no idea where to go, the openness confuses me, halp!

The most important thing to learn as a newbie (which i also had to ask someone when first playing Fallout 3) is to use the compass on the top. If you open your journal that lists all your available quests and click on one, the compass in the game screen will now have a black arrow leading you to where to go to complete that quest. It would be impossible to find who to talk to and where to go for quests otherwise. In the Miscellaneous quests in your journal, you need to click on Misc and then click on a quest, but the main story quests you dont need the secondary click. Anyways, its best to have only one quest objective selected at a time so you dont get confused with too many black arrows on the compass. Then knowck them out 1 by 1.

[Eric]

Thanks Flip.

*Slaps Shrinweck* TRY HARDER DARN YOU.

[Oracle]

I find destruction to be far fronm useless. It is very dumbed down, I will agree with that. But the damage spells at 75 destruction seem to be doing fine for me

I am guessing you are still relatively lower level then and probably playing on the default difficulty. The destruction spells do not scale in damage either. Unless you take enchantment and gear out for near 100% mana reduction, you will find your blue bar tested heavily in every trash fight later in game.

A destruction mage is going to take 500% longer to kill stuff, compared to melee (and forget about a pimped out sneak/dagger build).

If your secondary is conjuration, you may be OK. Your summons will eventually be pretty solid, as they do scale.

I'm playing on Adept, and I think I'm level 44?

I find there are some enemies where magic just doesn't cut it, but I also find that situation (much less frequently, however) for melee. I have around 200% magicka regen rate, and I think my magicka itself is at around 720. My "secondary" would be conjuration and restoration, I suppose, although I haven't spent any perks in conjuration, and only a few in restoration (but I have the first magicka regen perk). I honestly rarely use summons, except for the assassin you get with the Dark Brotherhood quest.

I'm currently wearing a full set of dragonscale, all crafted and upgraded with 100% bonus (4 items x 25% smith bonus). I also have the 5 perks put in for 100% enchantment bonuses and the rest up to getting the double enchantment ability at 100 enchantment. I have not yet done crafting with potions giving +X% to smithing and enchantment, mostly because I haven't found the recipes yet and I hate alchemy.

Chest - +68 magicka regen, and destruction spells cost 25% less magicka.
hands - +40% bonus to one handed damage, +68 magicka
Boots - +40% bonus to one handed damage, +68 stamina.
Helmet - +68% magicka regen, +68 magicka
Ring - +68% magicka regen, +68 magicka
Necklace - +68 magicka, +68 health

[kali o.]

I am not surprised you are on Adept (normal difficulty) but I am surprised you are level 44. Some of the deathknights/etc you run across now must be a pain to drop - and that's solely because of the non-improving destruction damage. The legendary gear set you made probably comes close to the 80% DR cap, so that likely mitigates problems most mages have (ie: getting owned in the time it takes to whittle stuff down).

You'll probably create another character after -- once you give those a shot, let me know your thoughts. Sure, a dual dagger sneak x30+ hit is goin to feel overpowered, but even two handers put magery to shame.

[Oracle]

Bottom line is I use magery from a distance. I can stun targets while dual casting, so I can just keep them in place while I'm blowing them up. Also, the splash damage spells are handy with groups of enemies.

When they get in close, then it's time to switch to my legendary daedric sword and "close wounds" on the other hand.

I could NEVER see using ONLY magery throughout the entire game.

Also, yes, I'm level 44, but I am stil lfairly early on in the story. The last story piece I did was talk to the master of the grey beards on top of the mountain, talking about Dragonrend.

I only have the one character so far, and I've passed the 80 hour mark lol. Side quests and crafting eat up all my time.

[Shrinweck]

I still haven't gotten a character past level 38 or so but I just got my third into his mid 30s heh. I'm liking my newest character where I put some perks into archery for the first time. Mixing sneaking with ranged attacks makes for a fun time. Two handed sword to finish things up. Problem is sneaking is hard to raise when you're only rarely in melee distance. With steed ritual stone and the pickpocketing cap increase I have a weight cap of over 500 which is nice. I'm going to have to replicate this on my heavy armor character.

[kali o.]

If you are playing the PC version, I highly recommend a few mods if you want to play a pure mage -- Dynamic Magicka and Improved Destruction. Those two greatly increased my enjoyment.

Also, the setscale command and ability customize houses a bit via the console commands offered additional hours of fun. Really glad I opted for the PC version. When the creation kit is released, I expect I will stop being disappointed in Skyrim.

[Flip]

I have the PC version and love exploits, but i still refuse to use the console, for some reason. I know its a single player game and if you exploit you might as well save time and use the console, but it feels better playing the actual game... accidental oversights included.

Speech exploit

Spoiler: show

I just found a guy in Riften where you can perpetually persuade to get your speech to 100. I dont plan to use any perks in speech, but if nothing else its a few free levels and perks in other categories. I intend to start pickpocketing soon via Shrins advice, too.

[kali o.]

setscale and deleting objects aren't really cheating. Here is a suggestion, when you max pickpocket, find a female bandit somewhere in open territory. Pickpocket her naked. Open the console, highlight the naked bandit and type: setscale 20. Leave sneak mode.

See how far you can run before sucumbing to either death or laughter.

[Blotus]

I bought Oblivion the other day when it was $7 on Steam. Never did get into it, but I'd like to play through the main quest at least. Don't know how it'll hold up to Skyrim, but it still looks nice on max settings.

If there is any discount on Skyrim this week I'm probably going to get the PC version too. I will not be able to hear about the forthcoming mods and not get it at some point.


Finished the Thieves Guild questline and it was great. Still have yet to get the achievement because I guess you need to do Vex and Devin(?)'s errands.

Cannot finish the Companions questline because I hit a pretty common bug where....

Spoiler: show

You return to find Kodlak killed by the Silver Hands and the next quest doesn't trigger. Everyone is just standing around mourning and Ayla and another dude are stuck outside in fighting stances. This also keeps the owner of the general store and the smith's husband in place so their stores are inaccessible aside from breaking in.

And hit another bug last night where....

Spoiler: show

You follow a priest of Mara from Dawnstar up to a temple and he's supposed to reveal a door for you to enter the dungeon. But he's moved on to the end of the dungeon without opening the way for me.

[Oracle]

Blotus: Fuck me, we have the same bugs. EXACT same ones, and I haven't encountered any others.

I just encountered the Dawnstar one last night. Wasted about 20 min fucking around then decided to use Clairvoyance to see if I was just being stupid. Outside the door he enters, the path lead me to the door to go inside. Once I entered, the path lead me outside again. That's when I realized it was bugged to hell and wasn't just me.

Oh, and I after I beat the game on the 360, I'm totally pirating it for PC to play through again. Just hope my 9800GTX+ can handle it ok... I bought that thing for Warhammer a couple years ago, heh.

[Oracle]

Finished the Thieves Guild questline and it was great. Still have yet to get the achievement because I guess you need to do Vex and Devin(?)'s errands.

Any idea how many of Vex and Delvin's quests you have to do? I've done a lot of them and it seems they always have more to do...

I have, however, finished all of the 'static' kills in the Dark Brotherhood. Now I just always have the ones from the Night Mother. I assume those don't end, since I've been sent to the same contact twice out of the 8 or so I've done for her.

[Oracle]

By the way: It's awesome to have such a huge, expansive game that a bunch of people are playing like this. Threads like this kinda remind me of the old days of the shrine, since not EVERYTHING is in an FAQ (at least not s soon after release) for a game this big.

How many hours, across all characters, has everyone put into this game? I only have the one character, and I'm approaching the 90 hour mark.

[Shrinweck]

Three characters I've put effort into over what Steam says is 81 hours.

Yeah you should stop doing Dark Brotherhood quests. Night Mother kills are meaningless other than the monetary benefit.

[Oracle]

Yea, I'm not doing the Night Mother stuff actively, just doing the kills if I'm in the area for another quest.

[Blotus]

Blotus: Fuck me, we have the same bugs. EXACT same ones, and I haven't encountered any others.

Are you playing with it installed or not? I'm playing off the disc because of the texture BS.

I have a save around that area (Companions) I may revisit to get the achievement. But one thing that bothers be about this idea is that if there's a Shout or dragon prince mask associated with the rest of that questline, I won't be able to get all of those two things in my current game.

My clock is over 100 hours now, though I'd say maybe 10 of those are idling. At level 44 or 45, don't remember right now. The race to 50 is on!


As far as Vex and Delvin, I don't know. I cancelled one of Delvin's optionals that I took and it's in my completed quest bank as failed, so hopefully I get the chance to pick it up again or I'll have to get their achievement on my next play.

[Oracle]

I am playing with it installed on the 360. Texture BS? Can you explain?

Also, if you are on the 360 playing off the disc, how are load times? They are horrible enough with the game installed.

[Flip]

I have one character and 42 hours so far. For the thieves quests,

Spoiler: show

i think there is an underlying 'quest' of sorts where you need to do like 5 quests in each of the 4 other major cities besides Riften they send you out to... For some reason this spreads fame for the guild and thats what triggers the end of that tangent. Im at the same point in that quest line and also trying to finish it up to be their leader.

Luckily i save a crap ton, so if i hit a bug i should be able to back out of it. I crash every so often, but nothing major has ruined a few hours for me yet, knock on wood.

[Oracle]

I was not able to back out of the bug with the companions because I cleared the dungeon on my own by just randomly happening upon it. For whatever reason, it won't reset like other dungeons, therefore the quest won't trigger.

I think I found one of the mysterious stones (no stone unturned quest) in that dungeon, and people have mentioned they believe removing that item from the dungeon before the companion quest is obtained triggers the bug.

The time between me clearing the dungeon and getting to that point in the quest line was like 20 hours.

[Blotus]

I am playing with it installed on the 360. Texture BS? Can you explain?

When I first played the game after installing it, I was looking at a wall and thought "this wall look like shit!"

Read about installing vs not, and apparently when installing the game some of the textures don't scale correctly or something so the game looks worse.

So I uninstalled it an it looks better. The load times vary between 5 seconds and 30+. I will always get two text messages (blurbs) on the loading screen when fast travelling.


For Flip or Kali, does the Companion quest line lead to a Dragon Priest Mask?

[Blotus]

I was not able to back out of the bug with the companions because I cleared the dungeon on my own by just randomly happening upon it. For whatever reason, it won't reset like other dungeons, therefore the quest won't trigger.

This is my problem too, I think. Oh well, I'll need something to do in my subsequent Mage or Thief or Magethief playthrough.

[kali o.]

I honestly can't remember. If there was a priest in that line, I don't recall it being Companian specific -- so you could kill it anyway. The only priest I remember specifically locked off in a guild quest line was the mage college.

[Flip]

Im not sure either, I have killed two dragon priests so far and i simply wandered upon both. I got most of the way through the Companion quests, but not all the way through to be sure or not.

[Blotus]

My armor rating is now 945. I sicken myself with how much time I've put into this and will continue to do so.

[kali o.]

My armor rating is now 945. I sicken myself with how much time I've put into this and will continue to do so.

Not to be a buzzkill, but armour rating benefit caps out at ~567. Everything after is just bragging rights. Yes, I add this to my ever increasing list of complaints about this game.

[Oracle]

I broke down last night and started leveling alchemy, have it to around 35. Can only make 50% smithy potions right now, but it's better than what I had before. Without any perks spent on light armor I'm around 400 armor rating. This time, instead of magicka and magicka regen, I put 25% reduced casting cost for destruction and restoration on 4 pieces for completely free casting in those two lines. Now I wish I didn't put any level ups into magicka....

And I tried to level pickpocketing, but since there is no quick save on the 360 it takes quite a while. I get the same load times, or longer, than Blotus does, even with the game installed. I have equipment to get me to 90% pickpocket on less valuable items, but they still catch me eventually. I would pay to raise to skill, but I'm using my 5 skill trains a level on alchemy right now.

Oh, and now that I can just spam double casted thunderbolt.... leveling destruction and killing shit has never been faster. I'm also now dual wielding daedric swords when stuff gets in close, and with my perks and bonuses they each are around 200 damage and stuff goes down fast. Just need a couple more level to get the dual wielding speed perks.

I have to go get the Fiery Soul Trap enchant from a weapon in some dungeon. Put that on a weapon as a primary enchantment with a 1 value for the damage it does, then put a secondary damage enchant on for an INSANE amount of charges on a weapon (think you can get like 3000 charges of 10 storm damage if you wanted to).

[Shrinweck]

The easiest way to level picpocketing with quicksave is to go to towns with Jarls and other important people and pickpocket them. Otherwise I'd only recommend sticking with the 90% stuff. And yeah they catch you a LOT even with the 90% success rate simply because of how much you're doing it. I've been caught SO many times on the first or second item that's 90%, but then I'll have a string of successes with stuff I have no business succeeding with. Luck in this game is so odd.

[Oracle]

We need to talk more about this game's $%^@ing epic music!

Morrowind/Skyrim Medley:



Side note: Fuck me.... I just looked at some of our join dates for the Shrine. As of May 2012, I'll have 15 years of this place behind me. I really don't like any of you, why the hell do I keep posting here?

[kali o.]

Join the thieves guild. 12 gold is all it'll cost getting caught pickpocketing.

[Oracle]

Join the thieves guild. 12 gold is all it'll cost getting caught pickpocketing.

Uhm, Im the thieves guild master. I was pickpocketing in Whiterun and was having to pay ~500gold with the "I'm with the guild" option. And then, if I got caught a second time, I only had the option of paying the fine, not the "I'm with the guild" option.

Can you elaborate?

Also, I know there is a way to nullify your bounties in various towns, but never have. Do you talk to someone in the thieves guild to do this, or perhaps the fences in each town?

[kali o.]

Hmmm, you know I have two guild options in my dialog (one is "look the other way" and one is "is this enough to clear my bounty"). On a pickpocket, the fee is 303 and 12, respectively).

I don't know what activates the second option...I am guild master too. Maybe it has to do with being Thane also, in the town you are in? Or perhaps the second Guild option actually belongs to the Companion Guild (which I also lead). Let me know if you find out.

Still, that said, as long as you are free of stolen items, nearly just as cheap to just pay the regular bounty...probably want to do all your pickpocket levelling near the Jarl entrance, since it will warp you there when caught.

[Shrinweck]

I think the thieves guild bribe only works in the Rift region.

[kali o.]

I think the thieves guild bribe only works in the Rift region.

You are talking about the special "region" option I belive (ie: I'm the thane or I'm with the guild). I'm not, when I tested pickpocket for my reply, I was in Solitude (and it has worked everywhere else).

[Shrinweck]

You're right, whoops

[Imakeholesinu]

Alright, picked the game up on Wednesday and I'm about 23 hours into it. Level 15 Redguard Warrior. Anyone else get through Volunruud yet? The end boss there keeps fucking me up royally and Lydia is pretty useless since this douche dual wields for the win. I just backed out of the quest and am hitting any other dungeon around to level up a little more so I can sustain the massive shit storm this guy unleashes.

[Shrinweck]

I got through it and wrecked the dude but I was higher than 15. Undead bosses are a bit of a no-no that early unless you've gotten your levels through mostly combat. Honestly I would just set it to novice or apprentice and wreck the guy. It may feel like cheating, but there's so much in this game that basically skipping one encounter that doesn't really matter isn't going to make you feel like any less of a gamer.

Barring that, I'd recommend bringing a potion that gives you a bonus to your armor and another one for your weapon damage. I thought I remembered the encounter and then looked it up and I don't. It sounds like he uses frost magic, so bring some frost resist potions, too. It does sound like a mid-20s encounter though.

[Imakeholesinu]

Yeah, I just hit 51 with one handed and 47 with block, so I'll see what I can do. Raising Archery and sneak when I get time. Probably going to drop into a few dungeons I haven't cleared yet tonight and level up. Goal for tonight is to hit 20.