Skyrim

[Flip]

Lets get a topic going on this as I'm sure many of us will be playing it soon on 11/11/11, or earlier for you cheaters. I'll be playing the PC version and have not played any other elder scrolls game. Hopefully this wont make a difference in the game play. I was actually turned off by Bethesda games for a lot of years because I didnt think I would like such an open game single player, but I had a blast with Fallout 3 so I'll def be buying Skyrim. Probably pre-order and pre-download whatever i need tonight.

[Oracle]

I'll be playing this one on the 360, mainly because I want to play this lying on a couch, not sitting in a computer chair for 12 hours straight.

Have it preordered. Love that it's coming out on a holiday, wooo!

[Flip]

I cant believe I dont get off work for Veterans Day, but I did for Columbus Day... lame!

[Shrinweck]

Probably pre-order and pre-download whatever i need tonight.

If you get it off Steam like I did you're probably not going to have the option to pre-load anything for a couple more days. At the very least it isn't available now. The fun thing about the Friday release is they're actually unlocking it on Steam around midnight.

Edit: Now that I think about it I think they released Fallout: New Vegas at midnight, too. Bethesda must just be cool like that. Other than the gimmick-y bullshit Friday release.

[Shrinweck]

Skyrim is now available for preload on Steam. Amazing how many hours of gameplay is contained in 5.8gb. Nice to know people can still make games that don't take up 10-20gb of space.

I say this when the game I'm looking forward to the most is SW:TOR and it'll likely be between two and three dozen gb.

[Alec]

SWTOR is taking up 40GB on my HDD right now, after all patches.

[Imakeholesinu]

I was looking around yesterday for places that may have broken the street date on the PC release. There is a K-mart by my house that kind of lacks a gaming and electronics section but I was able to pick up the StarCraft battle chest for $20 there yesterday. That was entertaining.

[Shrinweck]

SWTOR is taking up 40GB on my HDD right now, after all patches. :(

Wow the highest estimate I'd heard was 32-36gb. Color me impressed.

Breaking PC release date doesn't matter because it's a Steamworks game. You can have the full version on your computer all day and not be able to play because it's encrypted with whatever Steam uses and basically impossible to crack.

[Imakeholesinu]

Breaking PC release date doesn't matter because it's a Steamworks game. You can have the full version on your computer all day and not be able to play because it's encrypted with whatever Steam uses and basically impossible to crack.

So you're saying that PC games now come with a day-one release patch that needs to be downloaded in order to play? That sucks big fat donkey balls. I didn't think this game would require an internet connection before playing (a la starcraft).

[Shrinweck]

Steamworks is as basic as DRM gets. Log into Steam once. Log off. Leave Steam running and you can play Skyrim all you want without a connection. It's pretty easy to circumvent with a crack if you go that way, too. With Steam achievements and friends online who cares? If anything I find Steamworks a reason to buy a game.

[Shellie]

I really really want to play Skyrim. I'll play it on PC. I will never finish it and only get to play during nap times, but I still want it lol

[Imakeholesinu]

Yeah, a co-worker of mine has done nothing but talk this game up. And reddit has done its fairshare as well. I might have to pick it up.

[Flip]

Skyrim is now available for preload on Steam. Amazing how many hours of gameplay is contained in 5.8gb. Nice to know people can still make games that don't take up 10-20gb of space.

I say this when the game I'm looking forward to the most is SW:TOR and it'll likely be between two and three dozen gb.

How long did that pre-load take? I didnjt start the DL yesterday, so i need to get home from work at 6, start it, then hopefully i am up and running by 12? Chances of actually playing at 12... probably slim if there is a patch and a zillion people. Sometimes, i just want physical media and no internet connection to have to play a game.

[Shrinweck]

I don't know.. at the point of the release of the preload I was going 500-800kb/s on one of their popular download servers. You shouldn't have an issue unless you're trying at midnight. Steam typically lets me max out my download speed (~2mb/s) but if you go at it at peak times you can't really expect it to rock all that much. Six hours should be more than enough time though. I preloaded MW3 which was 15.4gb at full speed relatively soon after it was available for preload and that was a FAR more anticipated game.

[Flip]

Yeah my connection tops out at 2mbs also, but it looks like Steam is only allowing 300-400kbs... its ok though, estimated time is 4 hours.

[Shellie]

Preloading on Steam now!

[Shrinweck]

Unlocked! If it still only has a pre-load button try restarting Steam. I'm going to be a bit busy.. when it's done decrypting.

[Oracle]

Got mine for the 360 at the midnight release.

Got out of the starter area and into the first town. Game is gorgeous, time for bed :p

[Shellie]

Only got to play about an hour. Game is very pretty, even on Low on my computer. Menu controls are kinda funny..I keep forgetting to hit TAB to exit menus and not escape. So far though it seems like Fallout 3 with an Elder Scrolls mod heh

[Shrinweck]

Having a difficult time with the difficulty. I feel like I'm cutting things down way too easily or they're cutting me down way too easily. Some of the quest markers are difficult when they want you to go up a mountain to find something and there's basically only one route up the mountain, it does not give you a marker that helps you get up said mountain. Possible I missed a hint, though.

Scrapped my first stealthy stabby thief character because I accidentally happened on a second dragon and had to switch it to easy since my last save was really far back. Lost interest because the character seemed silly at that point. Also with slim pickings for stealth gear in the beginning it was hard to play stealthy.

Made a two handed weapons red guard that I'm enjoying now. It's crazy how many things he was one hitting in the beginning but it's evening out now. There's definitely more gear in the beginning to make a rewarding armored bad ass. For kicks, other than two handers and heavy armor, I've been working on stealth, lockpicks, and archery.

To be completely honest I couldn't help but be disappointed by what people described as not so much a skill tree as a skill forest. It's true there's a lot of stuff in there but each skill only has something like 7-10 perks in it. Still can't wait to explore the possibilities, though.

And yeah they certainly don't put any effort into making the games seem like they're running on different engines. Not that I care. Exploring in this engine is something I can easily lose dozens of hours with.

[Flip]

I fell asleep on the couch at 11pm and woke back up at 2:20... at that point i just dragged myself to bed. So, I havent played one minute and now I'm at work. Arg. Epic sessions tonight and this weekend though. I think I want to make an archer, but I honestly havent even looked up the different type of classes you can make yet. I'd like to make something where I can blast a few long distance shots then clean up with a sword, but I'm not sure how ideal that can be.

[Shrinweck]

Plenty. It's a very intelligent tactic especially when used in conjunction with sneak. It just doesn't help with trolls. I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to carry around a weapon of every elemental type to handle every situation by late in the game. At the very least I'm keeping my two handed fire axe to handle trolls. Had two very embarrassing insta-deaths and one drawn out death at the end of an ice troll before I gave up and used some of the charges on my fire axe. According to a book I found on the subject, fire works on all trolls, not just the asshole I found high on this mountain.

Apparently fighting trolls is even easier if you're willing to sword and board it up. Parrying didn't do much at all for me.

I like how the lockpick minigame is basically the exact same thing as Fallout 3/New Vegas haha. They've required a tad more finesse to pick the lock and your pick doesn't magically heal after a successful attempt. They've balanced this out by putting a TON of lockpicks into the game.

Oh also, some of the rewards are randomized it would seem. I got some fire resistance boots right before the first dragon this time, which made things much easier than the vendor trash I got for the same quest first time round. Got to see an awesome slow motion bit of my character jumping onto the dragons head and crushing its skull, kinda like the stuff in Dragon Age. Much more satisfying than last time when I ran away to pull out my bow and the AI finished it off.

I miss V.A.T.S.

[Flip]

I used VATS very rarely in Fallout 3, but it did come in helpful in particular situations... The ones where you couldnt just easily gun everything down and actually had to apply strategics. I guess they cant make these games EXACTLY the same with just medieval graphics, although no one would complain.

[Blotus]

It's Remembrance Day here in Canada and everything is closed and my comp isn't qualified to handle Skyrim blarghblargblarrghll.

[Shrinweck]

Well considering that V.A.T.S. was a function of the PIP Boy they'd have to do some crazy maneuvering to have it in Skyrim. Also it was more useful when streamlined in New Vegas. Still, if you want to shoot four things in the head instantly, there's no beating it.

[Zeus]

It's Remembrance Day here in Canada and everything is closed and my comp isn't qualified to handle Skyrim blarghblargblarrghll.

Everything was open here

[Blotus]

Heard someone mention in the line this morning that it was just NS and Quebec. Got it now, can't play til later tonight... ANTICIPATION RAGING.

[Flip]

So far though it seems like Fallout 3 with an Elder Scrolls mod heh

I find it a more simplified version of FO3 in some ways like you dont have to repair your gear, but yet at the same time they do not give you weapon speeds or DPS stats, so it is sort of hard to figure out what is a better weapon. Ive put in about 7 hours and am loving it. It is so smooth gameplay wise and graphically, even better than my experience with FO3.

[Shrinweck]

They've had years with basically the same engine as Fallout 3. If it was worse than they'd look like fools heh

[Flip]

I dont like the weapon/magic system. There needs to be a quicker way to change between things. I'm not hardly even using magic due to it and I feel like thats a waste. Mayve another playthrough with a pure magic user is needed...

[Shrinweck]

Not really the magic type personally. I gave a new stabby stealth character a go today and actually had the privilege of stabbing a dragon in the back (!). It was very satisfying. It unlocked a kill word shout, which debuffs armor and slaps on a DoT and I love it. The word is "KREE!" which as a Stargate fan I love, since the first villains shout this a lot and it's their basic command word for commencing with orders, which are typically involving murder.

[Flip]

Thanks to Manshoon (one of our long lost members, but i know he lurks sometimes) he showed me a way to quick switch weapons on the PC that makes my bow/dual one handed wielding character MUCH more enjoyable to play. Once you assign favorites to your weapons, you can further assign them hotkeys in the favorites menu. Good stuff. In addition i've been ranking up (just by coincidence) my lock picking and stealth skills. My play is typically to creep around and one shot people with my bow until the boss, who can soak in a few arrows and needs to be finished off with a punishing dual one handed power attack. I'm having a blast. The bow can be sick with the skills upped, some good archery gear, and an enchanted bow.

Speaking of which, enchanting took me forever to figure out, but now I have some pretty good enchants i can tack onto my gear if i want to.

I did a lot of the quests in Whiterun and finally moved on to the thief guild water town, Riften I think it is called. I'm not enjoying this part of the game, though, as much. They pretty much force you to do the thief quests or ignore them. You cant be a good guy and go against the thives guild, from what I've seen so far. I dont like being a total douchebag to the townsfolk. Hopefully I can get passed this area fast.

The only other grudge I have is that I still do not know how to use magic or anything, it isnt itntuitive at all. I'm ignore the spells, which is fine since I'm not a caster, but supposedly my character also has the ability to tame wild animals to make allies, but I do not know how to do it. The sill is there under magic, but you cant really equip it.... I have no clue. I also cant figure out how to turn into the wearwolf.

Anyways, there is so much to do in this game. You can travel anywhere without getting side and side side tracked along the way. I like that you can run around this world easier than in say Fallout 3. In FO, I was constantly getting killed by the mutants, but there isnt anything real scary in the wild in this game. Maybe the bears or dragons, but you can run away pretty easily.

How are your characters doing?

EDIT: One more annoyance is that you cant tell if people are friendly or not until it is too late. The sight distance is wayyy shorter than Fallout 3. For example, I'll randomly find a stronghold or camp with a guy standing around. No red dot. If i knew he was a bandit, I could easily pick him off with an arrow to the face before he knows Im there, but sometimes I think he might be a nice guy so I walk up and then he aggro's and attacks me... If i shoot first and ask questions later, he could be a NPC and then the whole town is after me. Lame.

[Blotus]

I've been at it for around 20 hours and just now went to see the greybeards. My dude is an old, bearded Nord, mostly melee, little magic.

Gonna dump the rest in a spoiler tag.

Spoiler: show

Dragons killed: 6. Fought two in Whiterun so far. Finding the dragons fights really easy. I'm playing on normal.

This is the first ES game I've played for more than an hour. I've been wondering if the main questline is actually going to take me to all these cities across the map, because I've been doing non-story missions all over the place. It can get kind of disorienting. I think I've got ten main quests on the go an at least twenty in the Misc. section.

Using Uthgerd as a follower primarily. I haven't noticed too much difference in the three followers I've had so far (her, Lydia, and Faendel). I had a dog from Marketh as well but it died somewhere.

Quest definitely worth doing that I missed for a while: the one with Sam in Whiterun. You drink with this guy and when wake up having apparently had a crazy night you can't remember. Culminates in getting a really rad staff that summons a sanguine demon. I put it on Uthgerd so it stays charged and she routinely adds a third fighter to our party.

The House of Horrors quest in Marketh is also AWESOME.

I did a quest with the girl in Marketh's hall of the dead and now I can... SPOILER?

*
*
*
***Eat the dead.
*
*
*





I could be a warewolf at this point as well, but I was uncertain of the negative affects and decided to hold off for a bit. The leaded of The Companions (secret warewolves) wants to cure himself of the ailment, so not sure which side to take.

Overall, I'm finding there's not a lot of ramification to the decisions I've made and I like that. No good/evil meter to exclude you from quest or dialog options.

Well that was a mess of a post.

[Flip]

Yeah i havent been to the greybeards either and I'm around level 17, i think. A co worker of mine is passed that area and is only level 6, lol. I've been spending a lot of time being random!

Spoiler: show

Thats weird, I ran into Sam and the drinking contest in Riften. I guess since when you wake up you end up in some who the fuck knows place, the quest can begin anywhere. Good call on giving the staff to your follower, I didnt think of that but will now do the same! What sucks though, is unlike FO3, kills by your followers dont seem to benefit you at all. In FO3, the sniper would headshot things all over the place while you could take a nap and be magically raised a few levels.

[Shrinweck]

Followers are annoying and only good for tripping traps on top of you and screwing up sneak attempts. In a game where you level by using your own skills, getting levels for an NPC with you is just silly.

As for Companions, you can

Spoiler: show

get rid of the werewolf curse about two hours after receiving it, if you want. The only thing it does if you get rid of it that quickly is make it impossible (maybe it's just difficult) to get the Well Rested buff from sleeping until it's cured. Pro tip: take two witch heads during the slaughter the coven quest.

Yeah once you're above level 12 or so, dragon fights are generally pretty easy. I fought one on easy around that level but that's because the dragon decided to attack me at the same time as a bear.. which hardly seemed fair.

I recommend the thieves guild quest line. Very long and rewarding. And fuck those villagers in the beginning of it.

As for running into something scary, just wait until you run into a dragon fight with a god damned dragon prince helping him out.

My two handed warrior is 30, I believe. My thief is 31. You should at least meat the greybeards and get some free shouts. I backstabbed a dragon on my thief and nearly one hitted it (two dagger attacks afterwards killed it) one time, but since then, it hasn't come as close... One hitting a dragon would just seem unfair. There are only a few enemies that I've found a backstab not to instantly kill it. I've managed a few backstabs on my two handed warrior, too. It doesn't do what a dagger backstab does, but backstabbing someone with a two handed sword is SO satisfying.

[Shrinweck]

I started the dark brotherhood quest line tonight but your recruiter makes it pretty obvious that membership in the thieves guild will help things out, so I suppose I'll be hopping back onto my thief character to complete the brotherhood, at least for the first time. Membership in the thieves guild lets you bribe guards to zero out your bounty, which is useful when you're carrying several thousand gold worth of stolen loot the guards would have taken from you.

[Blotus]

I really liked smithing. I thought I was doing a smart, honest job of it.

Then I learned how easy it is to exploit and jump up to lvl 100 in a very short time. I was up to about 70, then started buying up everyone's iron ingots, leather, and leather straps. About an hour of fast travelling around making iron daggers and leather bracers, I got a set of dragonplate.

[Shrinweck]

I've lost a lot of motivation for upping smithing since I did some quests and unlocked some crazy light armor for my thief that give insane benefits, namely double backstab damage gauntlets, muffling boots, and a mask from the dragon priest Krosis that gives me 20 points in archery, alchemy, and lockpicking. I'll get it to 100 sooner or later just to get my gear upgraded to "epic"

I did get my way to 100 smithing on my two handed warrior, but cheated my way to daedra armor, which funnily enough has 1 armor point (fully upgraded) more than a fully upgraded dragon plate. This is probably as it should be, since it was a bitch and a half to get ANY daedra hearts, let alone enough for a full suit of armor and a weapon, so I used the console. Armor looks pretty bad ass, but I'll probably use something else when it comes along since I feel like a cheater using it. Keeping the daedric two hander though - there's ONE heart I acquired by legal means. The only other way to get enough daedra hearts was to grind what's basically an exploit in the game any way, so yeah, fuck it.

Also, is anyone finding any heavy armor artifacts/sets questlines that get you a full suit? I've gotten three fairly amazing suits of light armor from various guild quests, but no heavy armor in any of them, even the companions.

Edit: Looked up my question on heavy armor..

Spoiler: show

The answer is no - there's nothing special out there, unlike light armor. Lame.

[Flip]

Ive recently figured out the OP'ness of enchanting and lately i've been reading the GameFAQs boards for fun and I see people talking about how ridic the smithing is, too. I never would have thought. You get the same skill increase for making leather hats and daggers as you do any other piece of equipment. Yikes. Ive been so busy beefing up one handed and archery perks that i dont think i've even bothered with the smithing. In fact, i may still ignore smithing and just crush the enchanting tree, archery, one handed, and some sneak stuff. Thats the build ive been playing and its lots of fun.

Does each set of metal have light armor and heavy armor? Meaning, can i get a dragon light armor OR a dragon plate mail? Ebony light and heavy? etc.

[Blotus]

No to the armor question. I know Steel and Dragon both have plate (heavy) and scale (light), but generally everything to the left of the smithing tree is light, and the right is heavy.

[Oracle]

I'm a high elf magic user. Around level 37 at the moment.

I'm pretty mad right now, however, as my Companion's Quest Line (i.e. Skyrim fighter's guild) is bugged and I cannot proceed. This is due to the fact that I cleared out the dungeon area for this step already, so the new step will not trigger..... I've done extensive research on this, and as far as I can tell I'm fucked since I'm on the 360, not the PC, and do not have console access to reset the quest....

I got my smithing up to 100 yesterday, doing the iron dagger/leather bracers method (I found it out myself, haven't really been reading strategy on the game). I have my enchanting up to around 87 now. Need to get it to 100 to put 2 enchantments on stuff.

I'm using robes with 15% casting cost reduction 100% magicka regen and +50 magicka, Morekei's mask (100% magicka regen), and the light dragon armor for hands (+39 magicka) and feet (+28% one handed damage), and gave my lacky a full set up upgraded LEgendary Dragonplate armor, too. I have ring, necklace, chest piece and gloves that all give me +23% to smithing improvements, so my upgraded light dragon armor chest piece is at like 90 for defense. My Daedric sword is at 70 for attack (currently have the 40% damage perk plus 28% from boots).

I generally run around dual casting the same spell (normally firebolt, apprentice level magic) just for the fact that with the destruction perk, I momentarily stun people when I hit them with a dual cast, which makes taking enemies down 1 on 1 very easy, including dragons. I've killed around 10-15 dragons, somewhere in there. First one, very hard. Once I got dual casting stun perk, very easy

Lately I've been running around with my sword and soul trap and have been farming soul stones, which I then use to enchant my bajillion iron daggers/leather bracers, then sell back for a tidy profit. This is mainly how I've got enchanting to 87.

Other than dual casting, I'll also run around with my daedric sword out and fast healing with the other hand. I also like lobbing fireballs, chain lightening, and frost storm, but those only work in large areas, otherwise I will more than likely kill my lacky in dungeon areas. For that, I'll just dual cast fire bolt, go sword and fast healing, or use healing hands on the lacky and just keep them up if the space is so confined that I can't cast without blowing the lacky up.

My destruction skill is at 72 right now, smithing 100, enchanting 82, one-handed 55, restoration 40, conjuration 50 (solely from soul farming with soul trap), 34 heavy armor (which I will never use again), 30ish light armor, 60 lock picking.... that's all I can remember right now.

I haven't put any perks into Conjuration, Heavy armor, light armor, or lock picking. Smithing is full, have 7 points into enchanting, 2 into one-handed, 4 into restoration, a whole crapload into destruction.... all I Can remember again off top of my head.

Right now I'm doing the thieves guild quests, just started them last night. I've finished everything with the mage guild and am now the Arch-Mage. As far as the story line goes, I need to meet some chick from the blades after killing a dragon with her, which is still fairly early on in the story line.

I believe I'm playing on normal. I still have to beat Dark Souls, and that is hard enough without trying super-duper-difficult mode in Skyrim. I actually want to enjoy this game, and not be frustrated

[Shrinweck]

It isn't worth putting any perks into lockpicking. It's easy enough without them and lockpicks are a dime a dozen in Riften. Sorry to hear about the companions quest.. I did that too but the dungeon reset on its own. My guys are in their mid to late 30s too. I recently started a dual wielding axe guy that I'm having a ton of fun with. I've discovered that I have way more fun with characters 1-30... I may try upping the difficulty past normal on my new axe guy once I get that high to see if that's the thing.

[Flip]

I agree, the mid game usually slows me down, I have a better time building up in the early stages, too. I came to the same conclusion about lockpicking, its a waste to use any skills in it. I still pick anything I can and a master lock isnt all that difficult, or pentiful enough to warrant wasting points. I have 99 lockpicks.

[Shrinweck]

I have something like 300 on my thief heh

Even if you brain fart, master locks at most cost you a dozen picks and they're so damned cheap. If you do the thieves guild quests, there are at least like 60 in the guild alone and each fence has another 25/day. My biggest problem with my latest character is that smithing is so damned easy to raise that I just got three levels smithing and I haven't even killed my first dragon yet. I may have to ditch this character and make another and cool it down with the iron daggers.. at least until I'm late enough in the game to be getting the materials for later smithing. The problem here is my beginning game loop of dungeons and questing nets me ~40 iron ore. Double that if I clear another dungeon slightly NW of Whiterun. This is too much to just run around with and I certainly don't have the 5000 gold for a house.

I was thinking of a mace and shield character with light armor.

[Blotus]

Agreed on lockpicking. Waste of perks. I've got a ring and an amulet that give 25 and 30% towards lockpicking so if I use more than six picks on a master, it's usually my own carelessness.

Awesome quest I did last night (INNOCENCE LOST):

Spoiler: show

The one where Aventus, an escaped child from the orphanage in Riften, asks you to kill Grelod the Kind.



When questioning the kids in the orphanage, I thought their dialog was great and really funny. The boy, Samuel, says: "Sometimes, when she goes to her room to work or sleep, I slip out for a bit. A boy's gotta make a livin', right?"

Now, if you don't have subititles on, that's all you hear. But if you DO have subtitles on...
"Sometimes, when she goes to her room to work or sleep, I slip out for a bit. Noontime, every day, that's when I hit the streets. A boy's gotta make a livin', right?"

[Shrinweck]

I take it back. I couldn't even get through the tutorial on mace and shield out of boredom.

[Flip]

I was about to say, sword and board (or mace in your choice) doesnt sound very exciting. I say you mess around with the magic side if you want a completely different character.

I dont get how some people do sneak builds. Yes, you can 30x backstab ONE guy, but then everyone is on alert and kicks your butt, i would think. Maybe you just stock up on invisibility potions like crazy.

[Blotus]

I've only used one mace: a daedric one that you get as a quest reward from The House of Horrors quest.

My AR is high enough now that I can usually plow through mobs dual-wielding.

[Shrinweck]

I was about to say, sword and board (or mace in your choice) doesnt sound very exciting. I say you mess around with the magic side if you want a completely different character.

I dont get how some people do sneak builds. Yes, you can 30x backstab ONE guy, but then everyone is on alert and kicks your butt, i would think. Maybe you just stock up on invisibility potions like crazy.

That's not how it happens unless you're killing people in front of other people which is just asking to get caught. If their backs are to you and no one is on alert then you can easily kill people one by one. There are situations where this is difficult and that's what health potions are for.

[Flip]

Im almost done with the thieves quests and I have enjoyed this arc. I feel as if the game is doing other styles injustice, though. Do they want your character to be a thief? The Nightingale armor you get sure makes it seem so, it kicks ass for a light armor user like me. I think i'll finish the Companions quests after and clean up some Misc. I'm still not very far in the actual story at all.

I've killed two random dragons now and it was pretty easy. One was outside Riften while the other was IN Riften. I think the NPC's really really help, more than I thought they did. If i come across a dragon in the wild, solo, he kicks my ass.

The best bow I have is currently an Elven Bow that I upgraded to exquisite at the smithy and enchanted with frost damage. I just recently got this one so i'm excited about using it more. After work tonight, for sure.