SKYRIM!!!

[El Barto]

Just started playing this thing last night, with no experience whatsoever with any of the ES games. As a person who likes to be good at everything, I'm not liking the need to be so specialized in this. Seems like if you wanted to focus on both combat and magic, you'd wind up being merely half-assed at both. That about the gist of it, or is it possible to be particularly well rounded?

It is possible, as your skill in each area increases the more you use it.  The effectiveness of a skill can be improved with skill points, which are limited and prevent you from gaining every skill.  If you're on PC, there are mods to remove that cap and become GOD.  But even if you don't spend a skill point, the effectiveness does increase slightly with each level.

The game encourages branching out, as this is the first in the series to allow you to equip to each hand separately, like a sword in one hand and a magic spell in the other.

Yeah, that makes sense. I was looking at it from the standpoint of perks, which seem to steer you towards a specialization.

[Fiery Winds]

In a way, yes, but it was also designed to be very open to various play styles.  Rather than picking specializations during character creation, you can decide what you want to do as you go along.  That was really convenient for me, as I wanted to be a mage early on, but decided I enjoyed sneak and archery more.  Rather than have to start a new character, I just played how I wanted to play.

When it comes to perks, yeah, unless you use a mod, you're not going to be able to do everything.  But you won't be penalized for spreading things around either.  Having versatility in combat can be beneficial.

[Chino]

In a way, yes, but it was also designed to be very open to various play styles.  Rather than picking specializations during character creation, you can decide what you want to do as you go along. 

Wait.... so if I picked wood elf because they are good at archery, that doesn't by default increase all my archery gains as I level up?

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

So i fixed my problem:



I placed the fucker at a good location, atleast now he won't bother anyone....

Btw the firebolt is awesome, everything in the patch of the fireball will blow away. I blew the dragon away with one ball followed by a bear and a deer that was caught by the force and they fukin flew! 

[Fiery Winds]

In a way, yes, but it was also designed to be very open to various play styles.  Rather than picking specializations during character creation, you can decide what you want to do as you go along. 

Wait.... so if I picked wood elf because they are good at archery, that doesn't by default increase all my archery gains as I level up?

Picking your race gives you special race abilities, and starts your skill points at different levels.  So you start your Archery level at 25 instead of 15.  But that doesn't lock you in to anything.

[El Barto]

So here are my two biggest issues. For one thing, if you're using an Xbox controller it disables the keyboard and mouse. That's uncool. Since I grew up on 1PS's, all of this mucking around with menus to change weapons, spells, use health, etc. really screws up the flow of he game, IMO. You need to be able to favorite all of them 1-0 for quick, 1 button access. Same with quicksave (which I haven't even been able to locate anywhere).

The other problem is that out in the real world, I have no idea if anybody's good or bad until they take a shot at me. I kind of assume that you're not supposed to just fireball everybody on sight. If you're close enough they're red on your radar-thingy, but by then you're close enough for them to get in a few nasty shots. Am I missing something here?

[Nick]

Well basically if you're in ruins/caves/most marked non-city areas on maps 99% of what's inside is your enemy. On the other hand everything in cities is usually friendly.

[Perpetual Change]

So here are my two biggest issues. For one thing, if you're using an Xbox controller it disables the keyboard and mouse. That's uncool. Since I grew up on 1PS's, all of this mucking around with menus to change weapons, spells, use health, etc. really screws up the flow of he game, IMO. You need to be able to favorite all of them 1-0 for quick, 1 button access. Same with quicksave (which I haven't even been able to locate anywhere).

You can hotkey items, I think by hitting "f" when you hover over them in your inventory. Then you can pull up a favorites menu somehow (I forget), which is a lot less cumbersome than going through those main menus every time.

The other problem is that out in the real world, I have no idea if anybody's good or bad until they take a shot at me. I kind of assume that you're not supposed to just fireball everybody on sight. If you're close enough they're red on your radar-thingy, but by then you're close enough for them to get in a few nasty shots. Am I missing something here?

Red blips signify that someone is attacking you. If you see a guy, and they're not a red blip, they aren't currently acting hostile toward you. Usually people in cities won't turn red on you until you steal their crap or accidentally fireball 'em.

[El Barto]

I've got about 8 things favorited, and scrolling through them is certainly less cumbersome than going through the menu, but it's still nowhere near the same as just being able to hit 1 for fire, 2 for sword, 3 for shield, etc. I might consider just switching back to the mouse/key controls, but when I started with that the game was incredibly choppy (although that's often the case anyway; not the best optimization in the world).

That's another thing that's been annoying me. When my character is moving forward, sometimes it's smooth and fluid, but it's often times jumpy as hell and I don't know if it's by design or a FPS issue. My computer more than meets the requirements for ultra settings, and even scaled way down it still does it.  Only moving forward. If I spin around it's smooth as can be. Is there some kind of game mechanic that causes him to move awkwardly if he's tired or walking on uneven ground, or burdened with 19 different iron swords?

[Perpetual Change]

I've got about 8 things favorited, and scrolling through them is certainly less cumbersome than going through the menu, but it's still nowhere near the same as just being able to hit 1 for fire, 2 for sword, 3 for shield, etc. I might consider just switching back to the mouse/key controls, but when I started with that the game was incredibly choppy (although that's often the case anyway; not the best optimization in the world).

Yeah, I know what you mean. If you go back to the mouse and keyboard, turn the controller setting off in the menu, too. That’s supposed to help.

That's another thing that's been annoying me. When my character is moving forward, sometimes it's smooth and fluid, but it's often times jumpy as hell and I don't know if it's by design or a FPS issue. My computer more than meets the requirements for ultra settings, and even scaled way down it still does it.  Only moving forward. If I spin around it's smooth as can be. Is there some kind of game mechanic that causes him to move awkwardly if he's tired or walking on uneven ground, or burdened with 19 different iron swords?

Well, you have a weight limit you can carry, but if you go over that, you just slow down.

[El Barto]

Two things have improved the game immeasurably for me. There's a mod that activates hotkeys while the 360 controller is in use. Easy access to 8 items streamlines the game greatly. The other thing was that I have a tendency to mash the L/R sticks when things get hectic, so in battle I'm constantly ducking/standing and moving in and out of 3rd person POV. I remapped those to the bumpers and my combat improved dramatically. That toggle POV thing was driving me to give up the game entirely. Between those two things, I'm able to fight in a much more fluid manner and it's tons less frustrating.

Still having a bitch of a time discerning good guys and bad guys. I started assuming that anybody I came across in small forts outside of towns were bad guys and ambushed a group of guards with tragic results. Those guys don't fuck around. 

[Dimitrius]

"You have committed crimes against Skyrim and its people!"

[Perpetual Change]

With some of those guys in the forts, they don't turn hostile unless you hang around outside long enough. Same with some guards, and Thalmor (Imperial Elves who walk around like they own the place). If you listen closely, you can hear some of them warning you to back off before they come at you.

[El Barto]

With some of those guys in the forts, they don't turn hostile unless you hang around outside long enough. Same with some guards, and Thalmor (Imperial Elves who walk around like they own the place). If you listen closely, you can hear some of them warning you to back off before they come at you.

It seems a steel arrow to the face invalidates that theory. 

And yeah, I just came across some of those Thalmor guys and they do seem like dicks.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Found this last night! 

[soundgarden]

With some of those guys in the forts, they don't turn hostile unless you hang around outside long enough. Same with some guards, and Thalmor (Imperial Elves who walk around like they own the place). If you listen closely, you can hear some of them warning you to back off before they come at you.

It seems a steel arrow to the face invalidates that theory. 

And yeah, I just came across some of those Thalmor guys and they do seem like dicks.

Are you paying attention to the Lore? If not, I don't blame you: its overwhelming in scope.  The Thalmor are the race-purist Nazi's of Skyrim.  I make it a point to kill them whenever I see them not in Town; those racist bastards.

Do you use Archery by the way?  One issue I have the game is how much more fluid and fun the game is with Archery as main combat.  Melee is bulky and slow, and a magic school is not strong enough on its own to kill from afar requiring you to double spec in two, such as destruction and alteration.

Archery and sneaking allows for 75% of your combat, rarely needing to switch.  Coupling it with a magic or melee helps for close up battles to finish off a wounded opponent; but you find yourself not needing it often.  I one shot almost everything.  Even giants and the dwarven centurions, I get down in 2-3 shots. 

[Perpetual Change]

With some of those guys in the forts, they don't turn hostile unless you hang around outside long enough. Same with some guards, and Thalmor (Imperial Elves who walk around like they own the place). If you listen closely, you can hear some of them warning you to back off before they come at you.

It seems a steel arrow to the face invalidates that theory. 

And yeah, I just came across some of those Thalmor guys and they do seem like dicks.

Actually, those guys should be validating the theory. Every once in awhile you'll see them walking around with some random dude in tow, and they'll tell you to go away. If you don't, they'll start attacking you.

I'm not sure about the forts, but I could have sworn I circled around a few and got away without fighting after taking the "that's close enough" cue.

[Zook]

Hearthfire is really fun once you get going.

[El Barto]

With some of those guys in the forts, they don't turn hostile unless you hang around outside long enough. Same with some guards, and Thalmor (Imperial Elves who walk around like they own the place). If you listen closely, you can hear some of them warning you to back off before they come at you.

It seems a steel arrow to the face invalidates that theory. 

And yeah, I just came across some of those Thalmor guys and they do seem like dicks.

Are you paying attention to the Lore? If not, I don't blame you: its overwhelming in scope.  The Thalmor are the race-purist Nazi's of Skyrim.  I make it a point to kill them whenever I see them not in Town; those racist bastards.

Do you use Archery by the way?  One issue I have the game is how much more fluid and fun the game is with Archery as main combat.  Melee is bulky and slow, and a magic school is not strong enough on its own to kill from afar requiring you to double spec in two, such as destruction and alteration.

Archery and sneaking allows for 75% of your combat, rarely needing to switch.  Coupling it with a magic or melee helps for close up battles to finish off a wounded opponent; but you find yourself not needing it often.  I one shot almost everything.  Even giants and the dwarven centurions, I get down in 2-3 shots.

Since I have no prior experience with Elder Scrolls, the lore is gibberish to me. Honestly, it kind of makes some of the missions a PITA to keep track of. I've mostly been keeping a pretty simple policy of don't start none/won't be none.

And yeah, I've been using a fair amount of archery. For some reason, my archer skill turned red and dropped to 15. Not sure why. It should be pretty close to 30 now.

[Perpetual Change]

Welcome to the first of the fucking terrible bugs that Bethesda get away with populating their games with every single time.

There's probably stuff about console commands you can look up, which I don't know much about. Try going to bed or waiting with your character. If that doesn't work, try going to a guy that can help you level your archery, or else just see if it goes away when you level up next time.

[Dimitrius]

I would say that maybe you have a disease... but from what I remember none of them affect archery directly.

[Perpetual Change]

No Dimi, it's a well documented bug.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Well i have a annoying bug though. So after completing Dawnguard i had Serena as a follower but after x amount of days i asked her to cure her vamapirism, i can't remember the exact discussion but she left because she had something to do. I finished the other DLC Dragonborn and after a couple of days i decided to search for her and eventually found her at Castle Dawnguard. She told me she was human and had cured her vamapirism......and that's it, i can't do anything...she won't open a dialogue or response to me other than Yes. Apparently it's a bug that at the moment has no fix. 

[Perpetual Change]

Well i have a annoying bug though. So after completing Dawnguard i had Serena as a follower but after x amount of days i asked her to cure her vamapirism, i can't remember the exact discussion but she left because she had something to do. I finished the other DLC Dragonborn and after a couple of days i decided to search for her and eventually found her at Castle Dawnguard. She told me she was human and had cured her vamapirism......and that's it, i can't do anything...she won't open a dialogue or response to me other than Yes. Apparently it's a bug that at the moment has no fix. 

I had no idea she could cure. Maybe she can, but it was too buggy so they took it out? And you're just getting the remnants?

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Well i have a annoying bug though. So after completing Dawnguard i had Serena as a follower but after x amount of days i asked her to cure her vamapirism, i can't remember the exact discussion but she left because she had something to do. I finished the other DLC Dragonborn and after a couple of days i decided to search for her and eventually found her at Castle Dawnguard. She told me she was human and had cured her vamapirism......and that's it, i can't do anything...she won't open a dialogue or response to me other than Yes. Apparently it's a bug that at the moment has no fix. 

I had no idea she could cure. Maybe she can, but it was too buggy so they took it out? And you're just getting the remnants?

Sorry didn't mean to spoil but yea she can. She told me she had cured her self and she now was human but i have no idea what triggered the bug in making her not interact with me anymore other than that little dialogue we had.

When you convince Serana to get cured of her vampirism and meet you back at Fort Dawnguard, after the short talk about being cured, she may only reply to dialogue options with "What do you need?" and "Yes?", making it impossible to take her as a follower again.

[El Barto]

No Dimi, it's a well documented bug.

Once I leveled archery I was back to normal.

[Perpetual Change]

No Dimi, it's a well documented bug.

Once I leveled archery I was back to normal.

Yeah, waiting/sleeping/leveling is the best "natural" bug cure I know of, without getting into console commands.

[TheVoxyn]

I got this game today, enjoying it a lot so far (not saying much, played 1.5 hours).

[DebraKadabra]

It seems a steel arrow to the face invalidates that theory. 

Yep, that usually does the trick.

[El Barto]

So are guards unkillable? I got into a tussle with one for poaching a chicken and put him down like five times, but he kept getting back up fully healthy.

Is there any way to remove arrows from you? I walked around with one sticking out of my hand for a few hours yesterday, then found it replaced by one in my shoulder. The one in the hand was pretty damned distracting.

[snapple]

So are guards unkillable? I got into a tussle with one for poaching a chicken and put him down like five times, but he kept getting back up fully healthy.

Is there any way to remove arrows from you? I walked around with one sticking out of my hand for a few hours yesterday, then found it replaced by one in my shoulder. The one in the hand was pretty damned distracting.

Guards are not unkillable.

[Onno]

So are guards unkillable? I got into a tussle with one for poaching a chicken and put him down like five times, but he kept getting back up fully healthy.

Is there any way to remove arrows from you? I walked around with one sticking out of my hand for a few hours yesterday, then found it replaced by one in my shoulder. The one in the hand was pretty damned distracting.

Normal guards are killable, but you've probably encountered a named guard (such as Commander Caius in Whiterun) and some of those may be essential and thus unkillable.
I don't really know how to remove arrows, but maybe waiting for a few hours helps?

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I used to not wonder about that but then i took an arrow in the knee.

[El Barto]

So are guards unkillable? I got into a tussle with one for poaching a chicken and put him down like five times, but he kept getting back up fully healthy.

Is there any way to remove arrows from you? I walked around with one sticking out of my hand for a few hours yesterday, then found it replaced by one in my shoulder. The one in the hand was pretty damned distracting.

Normal guards are killable, but you've probably encountered a named guard (such as Commander Caius in Whiterun) and some of those may be essential and thus unkillable.

He was walking a beat on the road North of Whiterun. Right by that fruity Jester and his dead mother.

[Perpetual Change]

So are guards unkillable? I got into a tussle with one for poaching a chicken and put him down like five times, but he kept getting back up fully healthy.

Is there any way to remove arrows from you? I walked around with one sticking out of my hand for a few hours yesterday, then found it replaced by one in my shoulder. The one in the hand was pretty damned distracting.

Normal guards are killable, but you've probably encountered a named guard (such as Commander Caius in Whiterun) and some of those may be essential and thus unkillable.

He was walking a beat on the road North of Whiterun. Right by that fruity Jester and his dead mother.

I think I know who you're talking about, and IIRC, killing him is an objective of a quest at some point, so he's probably unkillable unless that quest is activated.