General Malaise "vs." reading comprehension ; also some talk of skyim and the elder scrolls (2 Viewers)

[dharmapunk]

To the soul of the stupid orc currently stuck in my black soul gem,

When you watch a Thieve's Guild member with glowing daggers walk up to three imperial guards, tell them off, then summon a Dremora and with it and his bodyguard, slice and dice those guards dead within two seconds, it's best not to get sassy with the guy when he says, "Hi."

Yours,

DP

PS - thanks for the weapons recharge!

 

[dharmapunk]

I got into a drinking contest that ended with me blacking out, waking up in a city halfway across Skyrim, a whole lot of people pissed off at me, and rumors that I got married somewhere along the way. I still haven't met my wife. But when I return home and find a notice from the Jarl saying my house no longer belongs to me, I'll know she found me.

So much for escapism.

ETA: seriously, if a guy in a tavern challenges you to a drinking contest, DO IT. The resulting chaos is long and confusing, but it's well worth it in the end.

 

[jwb]

I like the fact that if you kill someone out in the wilderness you don't get a bounty if there are no witnesses. I had just come out of a dungeon and there was an Imperial Courier smack dab in front of me. I chased him down and charred him with a gout of flame. As we were running we caught the attention of a wolf, after I killed the courier and dispatched the wolf a message came up saying that the bounty on me had been eliminated because there were no longer any witnesses.

NICE!!This was one thing that always bugged me in previous ES games. Happy to see they fixed it.

The wolf counted as a witness? That is awesome and at the same time.Guess Timmy better get comfortable down in that well because Lassie ain't going for help.

I hear ya, but in relation to the ESP guards of games past, I'll take wolves as witnesses

 

[Drifter]

I got into a drinking contest that ended with me blacking out, waking up in a city halfway across Skyrim, a whole lot of people pissed off at me, and rumors that I got married somewhere along the way. I still haven't met my wife. But when I return home and find a notice from the Jarl saying my house no longer belongs to me, I'll know she found me.

So much for escapism.

ETA: seriously, if a guy in a tavern challenges you to a drinking contest, DO IT. The resulting chaos is long and confusing, but it's well worth it in the end.

It's also a good way to discover the city at the opposite corner of the map from you if you haven't gone there already.

 

[dharmapunk]

I've also started limiting my map jumps. Today I had a quest in Riften, so I walked there from Whiterun. Along the way I

- killed three bears

- cleaned out a Stormcloak fort that recently been taken over by mages practicing human sacrifice

- set a Stormcloak prisoner free via wiping out his three guards

- and wasted one really dumb toughguy orc.

I also saw a lot of awesome waterfalls, natural springs, and foliage. Walking/riding may be more time consuming, but it's way more fun.

 

[AcerFC]

Had my first random dragon encounter. I battled with Lydia (who I hate) and my conjures. Couldn't beat him. Then he just flew away. Was able to find another dragon word so now I need to kill the next one to absorb.

Man this game is addicting.

 

[bmarks6161]

I've also started limiting my map jumps. Today I had a quest in Riften, so I walked there from Whiterun. Along the way I

- killed three bears

- cleaned out a Stormcloak fort that recently been taken over by mages practicing human sacrifice

- set a Stormcloak prisoner free via wiping out his three guards

- and wasted one really dumb toughguy orc.

I also saw a lot of awesome waterfalls, natural springs, and foliage. Walking/riding may be more time consuming, but it's way more fun.

I've run into a few of these. Giving Orcs a bad name imoBut I agree that traveling on foot to destinations is incredibly fun and I always encounter something along the way

Anyone else run into that crazy Jester yet?

 

[dharmapunk]

Had my first random dragon encounter. I battled with Lydia (who I hate) and my conjures. Couldn't beat him. Then he just flew away. Was able to find another dragon word so now I need to kill the next one to absorb. Man this game is addicting.

I like Lydia when I'm walking between cities. If I enter a dungeon though, she stays at the entrance. There are other henchies though. Everyone knows about the hunter form Riverwood. If you want to know about a couple others, bounce me a PM.

 

[dharmapunk]

I've also started limiting my map jumps. Today I had a quest in Riften, so I walked there from Whiterun. Along the way I

- killed three bears

- cleaned out a Stormcloak fort that recently been taken over by mages practicing human sacrifice

- set a Stormcloak prisoner free via wiping out his three guards

- and wasted one really dumb toughguy orc.

I also saw a lot of awesome waterfalls, natural springs, and foliage. Walking/riding may be more time consuming, but it's way more fun.

I've run into a few of these. Giving Orcs a bad name imoBut I agree that traveling on foot to destinations is incredibly fun and I always encounter something along the way

Anyone else run into that crazy Jester yet?

No, but I'm looking forward to it.

 

[WalrusMan]

I met M'Aiq the liar. Always loved that guy.

 

[EYLive]

Read in here that you could east things to understand their properties or something, stop for whatever reason while I was heading through a dungeon was going through my stuff and noticed a laundry list of plant mushroom bugs etc etc. I decide now (while I was of low health she on hostile ) is the moment to learn. I proceed to eat my entire inventory and for good measure washed it down with about six ales. I'm sure I had a lot of cool effects on me, but I'm not sure as to what exactly. I imagined him pounding huge amounts of shrooms and chugging booze in some random fit of hysteria, the effects were predictable, I bled from the eyes, was resistant to frost, farted a lightning bolt, then was immediately one hit killed.

 

[EYLive]

I like the fact that if you kill someone out in the wilderness you don't get a bounty if there are no witnesses. I had just come out of a dungeon and there was an Imperial Courier smack dab in front of me. I chased him down and charred him with a gout of flame. As we were running we caught the attention of a wolf, after I killed the courier and dispatched the wolf a message came up saying that the bounty on me had been eliminated because there were no longer any witnesses.

Similar story here. I stumbled upon a fight between imperial soldiers and bandits outside a camp. I tried to help the imperials, but ended up hitting them with friendly fire, which turned them hostile so I had to kill them. Upon killing the last guy, I was told that my bounty was gone.Lesson: Don't leave witnesses. Words to live by.

And another similar one:

Spoiler

I went on the cannibal quest with that chick (don't remember the name) from the halls of the dead. Had to kill her fire aranach (sp) because it suprised me and I hit it by accident and it wouldn't stop attacking me. Then I accidently hit her in the middle of a melee and she wouldn't stop so I had to kill her also. At the end under the quest log it showed a big X and said anything I could have gotten from her wasn't available because I had killed her.

In Oblivion, if you accidently hit an ally, was it possible to calm them down by blocking their attacks until they forgive you? Or am I thinking about a different game?

 

[rail]

The little details make this game great. I dumped a bunch of armor on the ground in a city, some dude came running up to me asking if I was just throwing it out and if he could have it.

I tossed some weapons in the jarls castle and was yelled at because weapons are dangerous

I did the same thing and picked up a $10 bounty when I told the guard to shove off.

Hit the wrong button and did a dragon-shout in Riverwood while chopping wood. Guard comes by a little later and tells me that I'd better knock off the shouting. Nice touch.And btw - I'm calling bs on getting 5000 gold in about 45 mins chopping wood. This dude is the slowest wood chopper of all time. Step-step-reach, pick up wood. Step-step, set down wood. Step, step, step, lift axe. Chop. About 30 seconds just to get 6 pieces.

 

[Ignoramus]

Just had a pretty epic battle. I see a dragon circling so go in to investigate and by the time I get there he's fighting a giant. In charge me and Sterno (my flame atronach) and start wailing on the dragon. Dragon drops and the giant turns on us. Then the giant's mammoth charges in. Lots of running around like a skinny little elf and summoning but we finally took all three down.

I'd still like to take a dragon without any additional "help" though.

 

[Drifter]

I like the fact that if you kill someone out in the wilderness you don't get a bounty if there are no witnesses. I had just come out of a dungeon and there was an Imperial Courier smack dab in front of me. I chased him down and charred him with a gout of flame. As we were running we caught the attention of a wolf, after I killed the courier and dispatched the wolf a message came up saying that the bounty on me had been eliminated because there were no longer any witnesses.

Similar story here. I stumbled upon a fight between imperial soldiers and bandits outside a camp. I tried to help the imperials, but ended up hitting them with friendly fire, which turned them hostile so I had to kill them. Upon killing the last guy, I was told that my bounty was gone.Lesson: Don't leave witnesses. Words to live by.

And another similar one:

Spoiler

I went on the cannibal quest with that chick (don't remember the name) from the halls of the dead. Had to kill her fire aranach (sp) because it suprised me and I hit it by accident and it wouldn't stop attacking me. Then I accidently hit her in the middle of a melee and she wouldn't stop so I had to kill her also. At the end under the quest log it showed a big X and said anything I could have gotten from her wasn't available because I had killed her.

Spoiler

In Oblivion, if you accidently hit an ally, was it possible to calm them down by blocking their attacks until they forgive you? Or am I thinking about a different game?In that game and this one, you put your weapon away to surrender.

 

[fasteddie_21]

So apparently I'm currently in the longest dungeon in history.

Spoiler

the 2nd companion quest that I was given to get a piece of the axe...Dustman's Cairn dungeon...if you haven't done it yet, don't open the next spoiler:

I got trapped and he turned into a werewolf to help free me

.

Seriously, I've been in it about 3.5-4 hours so far. Granted, I have it on "Expert" difficulty and have died numerous times (doesn't help that my Companion sibling decides to kamikaze into about 6 or 7 human and undead baddies ), along with slinking my way thru, but man, this thing just doesn't end.

I love it though

 

[dharmapunk]

More great times walking between cities.

- I come across a village with a mine. The mine is full of frostspiders, which I promptly clear out. The mine has ebony ore. Nice. I go back to sell some to the blacksmith, and he ends up paying me 1000 gold for clearing out the spiders.

- I take a wrong turn and head up a mountain, thinking it's a pass to where I need to go. The path ends at another mine. Ok, maybe I can kill a few badies and find the moonstone I need. So I leave Lydia behind and head in. It's got a few lame skeletons I one-shot to death. The mine contains iron ore. Meh. I nab some anyway (might as well) and look around. What do I find? A back entrance. Where does it go? To the top of the mountain. What's on the top of the mountain? A former mining shanty turned DRAGON LAIR. After an epic battle with a frost-breathing Blood Dragon, I win and discover in the back of the lair,

1. A treasure chest full of great loot.

2. An inscribed wall with a new shout.

All from just walking between cities.

 

[bmarks6161]

So apparently I'm currently in the longest dungeon in history.

Spoiler

the 2nd companion quest that I was given to get a piece of the axe...Dustman's Cairn dungeon...if you haven't done it yet, don't open the next spoiler:

I got trapped and he turned into a werewolf to help free me

.Seriously, I've been in it about 3.5-4 hours so far. Granted, I have it on "Expert" difficulty and have died numerous times (doesn't help that my Companion sibling decides to kamikaze into about 6 or 7 human and undead baddies ), along with slinking my way thru, but man, this thing just doesn't end.I love it though

They get longer too but yeah that one was fun

 

[The Gator]

n00b question.

This is my first venture into a game like this. Really dig it. Currently level 6 and played 5-6 hours. Is it worth starting over this early now that I have better knowledge of what I'm doing and do things a little slower?

 

[Smoo]

I don't even feel like I'm missing much by not seeing dragons. And I discovered why I'm not seeing them... I've done NONE of the main quest. I went to Whiterun with that opening guy, the Jarl's obnoxious wizard gave me the quest for Bleak-whatever Cave, and I sad "screw that, I'm going exploring". Haven't looked back. No dragons, but no end of fun times.

I think I'm nearing the climax of the Thieve's Guild thread. Things are awesome.

 

[AhrnCityPahnder]

anyone far enough in yet to report on guild conflicts?

 

[Card Trader]

So apparently I'm currently in the longest dungeon in history.

Spoiler

the 2nd companion quest that I was given to get a piece of the axe...Dustman's Cairn dungeon...if you haven't done it yet, don't open the next spoiler:

I got trapped and he turned into a werewolf to help free me

.Seriously, I've been in it about 3.5-4 hours so far. Granted, I have it on "Expert" difficulty and have died numerous times (doesn't help that my Companion sibling decides to kamikaze into about 6 or 7 human and undead baddies ), along with slinking my way thru, but man, this thing just doesn't end.I love it though

The end of that one is epic IMO

 

[The Flying Elvis]

n00b question.This is my first venture into a game like this. Really dig it. Currently level 6 and played 5-6 hours. Is it worth starting over this early now that I have better knowledge of what I'm doing and do things a little slower?

Yah, it's not big deal. It's a game you will be playing for 50+ hours so if you feel like you can make a better character that your more happy with etc, than it's worth it to chalk the first 5 hours up as a learning experience.

 

[AhrnCityPahnder]

n00b question.This is my first venture into a game like this. Really dig it. Currently level 6 and played 5-6 hours. Is it worth starting over this early now that I have better knowledge of what I'm doing and do things a little slower?

Yah, it's not big deal. It's a game you will be playing for 50+ hours so if you feel like you can make a better character that your more happy with etc, than it's worth it to chalk the first 5 hours up as a learning experience.

 

[fasteddie_21]

So apparently I'm currently in the longest dungeon in history.

Spoiler

the 2nd companion quest that I was given to get a piece of the axe...Dustman's Cairn dungeon...if you haven't done it yet, don't open the next spoiler:

I got trapped and he turned into a werewolf to help free me

.Seriously, I've been in it about 3.5-4 hours so far. Granted, I have it on "Expert" difficulty and have died numerous times (doesn't help that my Companion sibling decides to kamikaze into about 6 or 7 human and undead baddies ), along with slinking my way thru, but man, this thing just doesn't end.I love it though

The end of that one is epic IMOYeah it was.

 

[Sand]

So I'm on a small quest from Whiterun way up in the mountains. I'm expecting some real baddie, and sure enough there is a frost dragon up there. Kills Lydia, but I manage to kill it.

And then I wander a little further and find that wasn't the baddie after all. Just your random encounter to soften you up before you happen to get to the really, really bad guy.

So horrific you have to laugh.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

I don't even feel like I'm missing much by not seeing dragons. And I discovered why I'm not seeing them... I've done NONE of the main quest. I went to Whiterun with that opening guy, the Jarl's obnoxious wizard gave me the quest for Bleak-whatever Cave, and I sad "screw that, I'm going exploring". Haven't looked back. No dragons, but no end of fun times.I think I'm nearing the climax of the Thieve's Guild thread. Things are awesome.

Pretty much me too, although Ive been rolling through missions.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

So apparently I'm currently in the longest dungeon in history.

Spoiler

the 2nd companion quest that I was given to get a piece of the axe...Dustman's Cairn dungeon...if you haven't done it yet, don't open the next spoiler:

I got trapped and he turned into a werewolf to help free me

.Seriously, I've been in it about 3.5-4 hours so far. Granted, I have it on "Expert" difficulty and have died numerous times (doesn't help that my Companion sibling decides to kamikaze into about 6 or 7 human and undead baddies ), along with slinking my way thru, but man, this thing just doesn't end.I love it though

The end of that one is epic IMOYeah it was.

Spoiler

I accidentally used the wold power on a later quest with mixed results. I destroyed everything, but I couldn't pick anything up and it knocked one (might have been) important person 3/4 underground and upside down. Anybody else use it, know what the deal is with the power? quest conflicts? ( I mean from game experience, not from a wiki)

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

So does anybody know how stat strapped we are yet?

What I mean is how diverse your build can be. I have been mostly bumping up my health because I couldn't decide if I was going to lean to magic or stamina. Im not going stamina and health to compliment my build and just leave magic alone for this build. I'll build a all health/magic mage next time.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

Just in case anybody else has missed this... (XBOX360)In 3rd person mode:If you depress the right thumbstick and then move the left thumbstick up/down it zooms in/out.I actually play zoomed out quite a bit, switching to first person when sneaking around. Looks PHENOMENAL.

I'm not trying to be pushy here, but if any of you didn't already figure this out, you really need to. I was online talking to two LIVE friends and showed them and they both creamed in their pants. It's the only way to explore and I can't wait to play a tank/barb later and play strictly in this mode.

 

[WalrusMan]

I don't even feel like I'm missing much by not seeing dragons. And I discovered why I'm not seeing them... I've done NONE of the main quest. I went to Whiterun with that opening guy, the Jarl's obnoxious wizard gave me the quest for Bleak-whatever Cave, and I sad "screw that, I'm going exploring". Haven't looked back. No dragons, but no end of fun times.I think I'm nearing the climax of the Thieve's Guild thread. Things are awesome.

You're missing out on all the shouts though. They're fun.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

So does anybody know how stat strapped we are yet?What I mean is how diverse your build can be. I have been mostly bumping up my health because I couldn't decide if I was going to lean to magic or stamina. Im not going stamina and health to compliment my build and just leave magic alone for this build. I'll build a all health/magic mage next time.

I've been going about 75% magicka and 25% health, with no stamina increases (level 16). Seems to be working for my stealth/sniper build.

 

[AcerFC]

n00b question.This is my first venture into a game like this. Really dig it. Currently level 6 and played 5-6 hours. Is it worth starting over this early now that I have better knowledge of what I'm doing and do things a little slower?

I did and I thought it was better. I think its probably a personal thing though. Took me 4 hours to get back where I was but happy I did it

 

[dharmapunk]

So does anybody know how stat strapped we are yet?What I mean is how diverse your build can be. I have been mostly bumping up my health because I couldn't decide if I was going to lean to magic or stamina. Im not going stamina and health to compliment my build and just leave magic alone for this build. I'll build a all health/magic mage next time.

I've been going about 75% magicka and 25% health, with no stamina increases (level 16). Seems to be working for my stealth/sniper build.

Really? Wow. I'm playing a stealth/sniper guy and I've gone mostly health with stamina second and magicka maybe once or twice. The only thing I use magic for is to summon a dummy distraction or (more frequently) illusion magic to enhance my sneaking. I can do any of that with 130 magicka.

 

[dharmapunk]

I don't even feel like I'm missing much by not seeing dragons. And I discovered why I'm not seeing them... I've done NONE of the main quest. I went to Whiterun with that opening guy, the Jarl's obnoxious wizard gave me the quest for Bleak-whatever Cave, and I sad "screw that, I'm going exploring". Haven't looked back. No dragons, but no end of fun times.I think I'm nearing the climax of the Thieve's Guild thread. Things are awesome.

You're missing out on all the shouts though. They're fun.

This. Also, the dragon battles are some of the best fun in the game.

 

[Buddy Ball 2K3]

So does anybody know how stat strapped we are yet?What I mean is how diverse your build can be. I have been mostly bumping up my health because I couldn't decide if I was going to lean to magic or stamina. Im not going stamina and health to compliment my build and just leave magic alone for this build. I'll build a all health/magic mage next time.

I've been going about 75% magicka and 25% health, with no stamina increases (level 16). Seems to be working for my stealth/sniper build.

Really? Wow. I'm playing a stealth/sniper guy and I've gone mostly health with stamina second and magicka maybe once or twice. The only thing I use magic for is to summon a dummy distraction or (more frequently) illusion magic to enhance my sneaking. I can do any of that with 130 magicka.

I assume by sniper he means archer if so, his char is gimped. You need the stamina for when you do the slow motion attacks with your bow. These help greatly and with out a fair amount of stamina you get many shots off either. Oh and stamina helps you carry more crap. I am up to 400 lbs of books and skulls.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

So does anybody know how stat strapped we are yet?What I mean is how diverse your build can be. I have been mostly bumping up my health because I couldn't decide if I was going to lean to magic or stamina. Im not going stamina and health to compliment my build and just leave magic alone for this build. I'll build a all health/magic mage next time.

I've been going about 75% magicka and 25% health, with no stamina increases (level 16). Seems to be working for my stealth/sniper build.

Really? Wow. I'm playing a stealth/sniper guy and I've gone mostly health with stamina second and magicka maybe once or twice. The only thing I use magic for is to summon a dummy distraction or (more frequently) illusion magic to enhance my sneaking. I can do any of that with 130 magicka.

When I get into combat -- which I try to avoid -- I fall back on Destruction, so I want that extra magicka. That's just me though. I really don't like melee combat in Bethesda games, so I tend to ignore that sort of build. Having said that, I've gotten my magicka up to 200 now, and I think I'm probably going to leave it there for the time being and build up my health more. But lets be honest -- whether you add to magicka, health, or stamina probably doesn't matter that much. I have enough potions of Restore Magicka, Restore Healh, and Restore Stamina to stock a small army, and that's despite hardly even touching an alchemy set (I think I've only used one once). If you need more of STAT X in the middle of battle, you can always toss back a few and you're good to go. IMO, the only thing that really differentiates builds much in this game are the perks.Edit: BB2K3 is right that extra stamina would be nice for the carrying capacity, but that's not one that I worry about a lot. One thing I've always found in these games (Oblivion, Fallout) is that after the first dozen hours or so, you have more gold that you know what to do with. I've maxed out my house in Whiterun, bought every spell I wanted from the court wizard, and still have about 3K in gold in my pocket. I don't need to scavange every single suit of armor I run across. Again though, that's just me.

 

[dharmapunk]

How about a stat capture?

(just copy and paste mine and fill in your numbers)

Skills-

Level: 25

Magicka: 140

Health: 250

Stamina: 150

Highest Three Skills: Sneak (70), Archery (50), Smithing (46)

General Stats-

Locations discovered: 70

Dungeons cleared: 11

Days passed: 63

Most gold carried: 5679

Quests completed: 19

People killed: 129

Animals killed: 103

Creatures killed: 6

Undead killed: 79

Daedra killed: 4

Automatons killed: 0

Favorite weapons: Elven dagger

Favorite spell: Healing

Words of Power learned: 7

Shouts learned: 4

Times shouted: 64

Favorite shout: Whirlwind Sprint

Souls trapped: 25

Weapons made: 30

Armor made: 19

Total lifetime bounty: 1125

Largest bounty: 1040

Items pickpocketed: 0

Items stolen: 141

Assaults: 15

Murders: 5

Horses stolen: 1

 

[dharmapunk]

So does anybody know how stat strapped we are yet?

What I mean is how diverse your build can be. I have been mostly bumping up my health because I couldn't decide if I was going to lean to magic or stamina. Im not going stamina and health to compliment my build and just leave magic alone for this build. I'll build a all health/magic mage next time.

I've been going about 75% magicka and 25% health, with no stamina increases (level 16). Seems to be working for my stealth/sniper build.

Really? Wow. I'm playing a stealth/sniper guy and I've gone mostly health with stamina second and magicka maybe once or twice. The only thing I use magic for is to summon a dummy distraction or (more frequently) illusion magic to enhance my sneaking. I can do any of that with 130 magicka.

I assume by sniper he means archer if so, his char is gimped. You need the stamina for when you do the slow motion attacks with your bow. These help greatly and with out a fair amount of stamina you get many shots off either. Oh and stamina helps you carry more crap. I am up to 400 lbs of books and skulls.

 

[Drifter]

I don't even feel like I'm missing much by not seeing dragons. And I discovered why I'm not seeing them... I've done NONE of the main quest. I went to Whiterun with that opening guy, the Jarl's obnoxious wizard gave me the quest for Bleak-whatever Cave, and I sad "screw that, I'm going exploring". Haven't looked back. No dragons, but no end of fun times.I think I'm nearing the climax of the Thieve's Guild thread. Things are awesome.

Level 15 and I haven't done anything more than meet the rebel's sister on the main quest

 

[thecatch]

Companions apparently have unlimited carry capacity if you command them to pick things up directly rather than going through the dialogue options.

 

[AcerFC]

How about a stat capture?

(just copy and paste mine and fill in your numbers)

so much for being worried about playing on the PS3 and sharing the TV huh

 

[dharmapunk]

How about a stat capture?

(just copy and paste mine and fill in your numbers)

so much for being worried about playing on the PS3 and sharing the TV huh

Yea. I've just hogged it lately. The initial rush is wearing off though and my family is feeling neglected, so my gaming time is coming back down to reasonable levels again.

 

[TxBuckeye]

I haven't actually started this yet although I had preordered it and picked it up right away. Sort of want to finish Demon's Souls first. But I have been following this thread loosely (to many spoiler type comments to read it to thoroughly) and remember someone (Smoo?) mentioning save file sizes. I just read this on an Amazon review and wonder if anyone can comment. Has anyone moved far enough along to have this big of a save file?

Just a heads up if you got multiple consoles don't buy this for PS3. After your save file gets to 12mb the game is borderline unplayable due to lag and frame rate issues. It gets progressively worse the further you get until the game is a slide show. Shame on Bethesda for releasing a broken product.

 

[AcerFC]

I haven't actually started this yet although I had preordered it and picked it up right away. Sort of want to finish Demon's Souls first. But I have been following this thread loosely (to many spoiler type comments to read it to thoroughly) and remember someone (Smoo?) mentioning save file sizes. I just read this on an Amazon review and wonder if anyone can comment. Has anyone moved far enough along to have this big of a save file?

Just a heads up if you got multiple consoles don't buy this for PS3. After your save file gets to 12mb the game is borderline unplayable due to lag and frame rate issues. It gets progressively worse the further you get until the game is a slide show. Shame on Bethesda for releasing a broken product.

Great

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I haven't actually started this yet although I had preordered it and picked it up right away. Sort of want to finish Demon's Souls first. But I have been following this thread loosely (to many spoiler type comments to read it to thoroughly) and remember someone (Smoo?) mentioning save file sizes. I just read this on an Amazon review and wonder if anyone can comment. Has anyone moved far enough along to have this big of a save file?

Just a heads up if you got multiple consoles don't buy this for PS3. After your save file gets to 12mb the game is borderline unplayable due to lag and frame rate issues. It gets progressively worse the further you get until the game is a slide show. Shame on Bethesda for releasing a broken product.

I've seen quite a few threads devoted to this topic on other forumsm and it has definitely been a problem with other Bethesda games in the past. Fallout 3 ran poorly on the PS3, especially the DLC. Fallout: New Vegas was complete technical mess that contstantly felt like it was about to freeze. I'd guess that F3 locked up on me probably 6-10 times -- these were all "hard" freezes that wouldn't let me back to the XMB and forced me to turn off the PS3. F:NV froze quite a bit more often than that. Having finished both of those games, I can say that Skyrim is leaps and bounds better than either. I'm 20 hours in and haven't had a single freeze yet. My save file is "only" 6MB, but literally the only issued I've encountered is a little framerate stuttering in towns. Lots of people in the threads I alluded to have saves way bigger than mine and report the same thing. Some people have mentioned that they experience slow-downs when they've been playing for 5-6+ hours, and that things go back to normal if they shut down the PS3 for a few minutes and take a break. I never play that long at a time so I can't comment, but I do know that over-heating can be an issue so that could explain some of the problems people have run into. But it's still early. Most people haven't played this anywhere near enough to be able to establish whether the save file sizes will be a problem or not. My guess is that two weeks from now this issue will be settled once more people are deeper in to the game.

 

[Buddy Ball 2K3]

So does anybody know how stat strapped we are yet?What I mean is how diverse your build can be. I have been mostly bumping up my health because I couldn't decide if I was going to lean to magic or stamina. Im not going stamina and health to compliment my build and just leave magic alone for this build. I'll build a all health/magic mage next time.

I've been going about 75% magicka and 25% health, with no stamina increases (level 16). Seems to be working for my stealth/sniper build.

Really? Wow. I'm playing a stealth/sniper guy and I've gone mostly health with stamina second and magicka maybe once or twice. The only thing I use magic for is to summon a dummy distraction or (more frequently) illusion magic to enhance my sneaking. I can do any of that with 130 magicka.

When I get into combat -- which I try to avoid -- I fall back on Destruction, so I want that extra magicka. That's just me though. I really don't like melee combat in Bethesda games, so I tend to ignore that sort of build. Having said that, I've gotten my magicka up to 200 now, and I think I'm probably going to leave it there for the time being and build up my health more. But lets be honest -- whether you add to magicka, health, or stamina probably doesn't matter that much. I have enough potions of Restore Magicka, Restore Healh, and Restore Stamina to stock a small army, and that's despite hardly even touching an alchemy set (I think I've only used one once). If you need more of STAT X in the middle of battle, you can always toss back a few and you're good to go. IMO, the only thing that really differentiates builds much in this game are the perks.Edit: BB2K3 is right that extra stamina would be nice for the carrying capacity, but that's not one that I worry about a lot. One thing I've always found in these games (Oblivion, Fallout) is that after the first dozen hours or so, you have more gold that you know what to do with. I've maxed out my house in Whiterun, bought every spell I wanted from the court wizard, and still have about 3K in gold in my pocket. I don't need to scavange every single suit of armor I run across. Again though, that's just me.

Once your sneak gets higher you wont have to worry about anyone getting close to you. I am able to hide and take out trolls before they know whats going on.

 

[AcerFC]

So what do we do when it becomes unplayable on the PS3? I want to at least finish the main quest. Will I be able to do that before it gets too large

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Once your sneak gets higher you wont have to worry about anyone getting close to you. I am able to hide and take out trolls before they know whats going on.

I'm finding that this is the case more and more. My bow can one-shot most run-of-the-mill enemies, and the ones I don't kill instantly can no long find me now that my Sneak is up into the 60s. Add to that the x30 damage you can get by backstabbing with daggars, and I can avoid direct combat most of the time. I think I'm going to take your advice and focus more on health/stamina from here on.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

So what do we do when it becomes unplayable on the PS3? I want to at least finish the main quest. Will I be able to do that before it gets too large

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about this (yet). My baseline here is Fallout 3. That game was way buggier and freezier than this one, but it was just annoying, not unplayable. Save frequently so you don't lose much if you encounter a freeze. Make sure your PS3 is in a well-ventilated area so it isn't overheating. This is just common sense. Based on my experience so far, I'd be surprised if the save file thing was really that bad -- it didn't break F3, so it seems hard to believe it would be game-breaking in Skyrim. That said, you need to keep in mind that Bethesda has an abysmal track record in developing for the PS3. For this game, they at least managed to get the PS3 graphics on par with the 360 version, which I think is a step up from previous efforts. But this company has a long history of releasing bug- and glitch-riddled games, especially on the PS3 side. So far, Skyrim has exceeded my (low) technical expectations by quite a bit, so I'm cautiously optimistic on this one.