General Malaise "vs." reading comprehension ; also some talk of skyim and the elder scrolls (1 Viewer)

[Bigboy10182000]

I'm searching for this game on Xbox and I'm a little pissed that I passed on a Black Friday sale to get this game for $25...anyway, what's the difference, in play (or anything) from the full game downloads and the actual game on the disc?

 

[GregR]

DLCs are new areas essentially, that might add 10-20 hours of play time. Considering you can easily get 300 hours of play out of a single character without even touching the DLCs, they aren't all that important. They sometimes add some new stuff, like crossbows are in Dawnguard apparently.

 

[GregR]

So with some actual free time again I've been digging into the Creation Kit deeper.

Figured out how to edit randomized lists of the items for sale by merchants. I'm thinking of making a big mod now to enhance the gameplay so I'll want to play characters longer.

I think my base philosophy is... it's too easy to get hold of powerful magic items and weapon/armor types through purchasing, smithing, and enchanting. Because of this, the item you get at the end of a quest or by killing a boss-level character are seldom worth using. Which means there is little reward for doing quests beyond just doing them to say you did them, or to advance a storyline (to another quest which likely also has a meaningless reward).

I want it so the best way to get the best gear is to go out and kill someone for it, or otherwise earn it. The stuff in shops or made with smithing will supplement and fill gaps, as will enchanting. But I want there to be that continual drive to go out and do quests to improve.

So I think I'm heading towards making it like this.

Magic weapons/armor/clothing/jewelry will be very rare to find in shops. Maybe around a 3% chance of them having a single such item. I might need to throw in a quest item or two for some of the rarer enchantment types, like Fortify Carry Weight, Banish, Absorb Health, etc, so it's still possible to get them. Potions unchanged.

Shopkeepers will have much fewer high quality weapons and armor. The majority of what you'll find for sale even at higher levels will be iron and steel. Maybe they'll have 2-3 pieces of higher quality weapons/armor, with Dwarven and Elven more common than Glass and Ebony even at high levels.

Do something to limit how easy it would be for a high level Smith to just crank out high quality armor/weapons. I'm thinking make it so it will be rare you can buy a high quality ingot... having instead to go mine them yourself. In addition, I can include some in the quest rewards and on boss and creature inventories, so completing quests and clearing dungeons helps give you materials to make and upgrade nicer items. Also imagine I can edit how many ingots/leather it takes to make an item so it requires more gathering.

Enchanting... oof. Need to figure out how to lessen the strength of the enchantment that you can make. If I could make it level dependent that would be good, so that you're able to make useful items, but the quest items you'll get would be more powerful than what you can make. So Enchanting becomes a way to fill gaps in your gear, but it's not the way to put together the best equipment set. At least not until really high levels.

Not sure yet how the Smithing and Enchanting work. I suspect strongly they are scripts... essentially little programs that are attached to the enchanting altar and forge/grinding wheel/workbench that run when you activate the object. Have done a tiny amount of script editing in the past, like making it so you could pick up a book without reading it by clicking on it, or could shift-click it if you wanted to read it. Probably going to have to learn a lot more for these kind of edits though.

It's going to be an ambitious project though. There's 100 merchant chests in the game. Each has a LeveledItem on it which is a list of what it can contain. Each of those pulls in items from other such sublists where I might be able to just edit all the sublists and it would touch all the merchants in the game, but knowing what all a change is affecting is going to require a lot of proofing. There's no reason those same lists can't be used to decide what to equip a bandit with, or to help determine a quest reward, so need to be careful I only affect the merchants.

 

[GregR]

So had figured out how to change the randomized lists of what merchants have. Each merchant has a hidden container object (generally named Merchant<City><Store> like MerchantWhiteRunWarMaidens> and the inventory is a LeveledItem list (found in Items-> LeveledItems which is what is used to randomly select the inventory. You just edit the items contained in the list to what you want in the inventory. In some cases the Leveled list itself contains lists. Like the general Blacksmith one contains one list that produces most mundane items, plus about 10 other lists that create magic items and a few lists that create ingots and ores. (There's a flag that you hit that says either return me the results of everything in my list, or choose just 1 and return it.) So I just need to switch most of the items to hide/leather/studded/iron/steel, and then remove most of those other magic item ones and instead add a single check for a magic item (you can give a % chance of whether it is included or not), and maybe a check for 1 or 2 items of better quality (elven, etc), while right now the better quality are included with the other mundane weapons and armor. I am considering possibly making one or two additional classes of metal armor, like Fine Steel or the like, and slot it between Steel and Elven. It looks like all merchants of the same types share the same General lists, so I probably only need to change a couple, the Blacksmith and whatever the one is called that would control places like the Pawned Prawn and Belethor's shop, for example.

Enchantment base magnitude is controlled in objects found in the object window under Magic->Enchanting, with names like "EnchWeaponShockDamageBase". There are also EnchWeaponShockDamage01 through 05. The first is used by player enchanted items, the latter are what appear on items the game created on its own like in a chest or on an NPC. So I was able to change just the Base one and it made enchantments for that type less powerful, without affecting the items you find.

And I tracked down Smithing to the creation kit's object window, Items->Constructible Object. There are recipes in there for making the different weapons, and for smithing to improve them. Still have to play with them yet but I think I can increase the amount of ingots needed. Or I might even just make some new items of my own that you have to include in the crafting. Haven't thought it through, but as an example... I could make a vial of Orc Blood that spawns on any Orc you kill, as well as randomly in some chests and a few that are always there in dungeons, which has to be included to make Orcish armor or weapons. Not sure I want it to actually be that specifically, but the point is I think I should be able to include some other set of items that would require adventuring and/or quests to be able to produce the better weapons rather than just fast traveling to a spot you know there are some ore veins of the appropriate type.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

So the wife got me an xbox and this game. I haven't owned a gaming system in 15-20 years What next? I am hooking it up as we speak.

 

[Hawks64]

So the wife got me an xbox and this game. I haven't owned a gaming system in 15-20 years What next? I am hooking it up as we speak.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time on this game. I am at ~210 hours so far.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Im ready to nerd it up!

Do I need xbox live for this game?

 

[GregR]

Im ready to nerd it up!Do I need xbox live for this game?

You'll want Xbox live so you can get the updates with various bug fixes. You don't need the level that gives you multi-player gaming though as it's single player.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

How much is xbox live?

And are all the updates this slow? Geez this update is taking forever......like 5 whole minutes already. I was all ready for my nerdgasm, now I'm all :

 

[PlasmaDogPlasma]

How much is xbox live?And are all the updates this slow? Geez this update is taking forever......like 5 whole minutes already. I was all ready for my nerdgasm, now I'm all :

Regular, non-gold, is free. That should be all you need.

 

[GregR]

So I've finished the vast majority of the mod.

Made magic much more scarce to find in stores. Instead of the original 4-10 items guaranteed in blacksmith inventories, now there is a 10% chance for each of an enchanted weapon, armor, or jewelry. Regular dungeon chests may have magic items where before they had only a teeny chance. Even regular bandits you might find a magic item on 1 in 10 or so.

I changed the level rate for Alchemy, Enchantment and Smithing so that you reach level 100 just as fast, but the early levels go nearly twice as slow as before, while the late levels go a little quicker.

The magnitude of enchantments is about 25-33% less. And I put level limits on Smithing and Enchanting perks... so you can get +20% Enchantment right away, but can't get +40% until level 10. Smithing, you can't start smithing better armor types until they will appear in game on their own. And I made it fairly rare to find ingots on merchants that are better than steel.

Also cut back on soul gems sold by merchants. Previously for empty soul gems you found more petty than Grand. But for filled gems it was a straight 20% chance for every type. So I switched it up so Petty filled gems are about 24% and Grand are only about 16%. I also made it so instead of 50% of gems sold by merchants are filled, only 25% are now.

And I moved the Extra Pockets lower in the Pickpocket perk list so you can get it without needing to buy the one about stealing from sleeping people first, and I lowered the requirement to a 30 in Pickpocket. Reason being, that one is so useful I figure I'm going to quickly work to get it, and I don't want all those extra Pickpocket levels increasing my character level at the start of the game, so might as well make it available at lower skill levels.

Doing play testing now and liking it so far. I have disenchanted a few items, but haven't actually made any yet. Though I'm to the point I've found a few more magic items with useful enchantments I can disenchant... but the stuff I'm finding is more powerful in general so if I do enchant something I'd probably replace it with anything I find.

I think I want to do something with Fortify <magic school>. It's too big of an abuse that you can Fortify Destruction (or any school) over 100% and cast spells for free then. I think what I'll probably do is I'll make it so you can put the enchantment from the mage robes on more than just robes (the one that gives Fortify Destruction plus Regenerate Magicka). But I'll cut back the magnitude such that if you combine the best mage robes plus the best items you can enchant yourself or find, you'll never get above maybe a 65% or 75% Fortify Destruction. Hmm, though potions might temporarily put you over... may have to hit potion magnitudes for those too.

In any event, the play testing has been much more fun. Last character before I started this project, I was level 10 easily by the time I had my first dragon killed and had a house. This time I was only level 6 or 7 I believe. And that previous character had a full set of magic gear (which I enchanted), while this character only has a ring and a couple of weapons, and then some things like smithing gauntlets and boots of resist shock which aren't worth wearing as normal gear.

 

[GregR]

How much is xbox live?And are all the updates this slow? Geez this update is taking forever......like 5 whole minutes already. I was all ready for my nerdgasm, now I'm all :

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here. Xbox live is free... it's basically a marketplace you can buy things from Micro$oft so they want you on it.Xbox Live Gold is required to actually play multi-player games or maybe do some other things. You don't need Gold for Skyrim, it doesn't make any use of multi-player.So what you need is free. Gold is... not sure, about $5 a month maybe? I think it depends on how many months you buy in advance.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Thx all.

Nerdgasm still waiting on this frackin download.

 

[GregR]

By the way, if anyone playing this on PC would like a copy of the mod I'm doing, let me know and I'll get you a copy. Pretty much in beta except for the stuff I'd like to do with mage robes.

 

[GregR]

And also for my PC brethren... tried two new mods over the last few days.

Ultimate Follower Overhaul (UFO) is now a must-have for me. You can have up to 15 people following you at once, though really more than 1 is more than I want. But you can just tell people to wait in one of your homes and they'll stay there, still following you and not blocking you from getting another follower. And it has options like having them forget all the spells they know and then learning from spell books you give them. Or having them show you what their stats are. Or having them turn any of those default objects that don't show in their inventory into regular objects that you can remove. Also can set them as almost Unkillable (where they drop out of a fight) or Mortal in game. And it has support for followers having their own horses though I haven't played with that yet, I pretty much never use horses.

Ultimate Follower Overhaul

The other mod that I'm stoked over... ok, this is me nerding out... but I've become a big Game of Thrones/Song of Fire and Ice fan. And somebody made a mod that has a bunch of celebrities in it, including Russell Crowe from Gladiator, Thor, Olivia Wilde (well done), work in progress of Kate Beckinsale (not well done)... and the best... a Daenerys and Khal Drogo who look freaking amazing. Here's the links to it. You can get most of the character as standalone mods that then don't require any other mods to be loaded to get them to work, which is what I recommend. He doesn't have Beckinsale as stand alone, but she's not worth it yet, doesn't look enough like her.

Famous Followers

Picture of Khal Drogo and Daenerys

Daenerys looks that good when you play the game. Drogo looks better than the picture, it didn't capture some of his face detail well.

 

[Todem]

I am ready to get back into Skyrim this weekend (after taking a long needed hiatus for the last 4-5 months) as I am thristing for some adventuring. Going to the Hobbit tomorrow with my son coupled with playing Lego LOTR has me in the mood big time (yeah geeking up big time LOL).

I have 200 plus hours into the game and I am not done with the main story nor have I started the Dark Brotherhood quest line. I did finish The Winterhold questline as I am a destruction mage and I have the Skeleton Key as I just about finished the Thieves Guild (except turning in that key I want to hold on to it for a while for obvious reasons).

I have not done the Questline in Whitewater (should I?) nor the Bards College. I was thinking on my next character (second playthrough one of these days) I will go and do those for a different experience.

So a few questions.

1) I am a PS3 player - What DLC is available and should I finish up the Dark Brotherhood and main quest before doing any DLC

2) Would you do all the different faction questlines on the first playthrough or leave a couple for a different character build.

My character is A High Elf named Jorel who is a master of destruction and strong in Illusion, and potion making as well as Enchanting.

Looking forward to diving back in this weekend!

 

[EYLive]

My level 24 dark elf doesn't really need money anymore. He just buys spells and has some extra coin in case his horse dies and needs a new one.

I wonder if being a one-dimentional destruction specialist slows leveling. Destruction skill is around 63, sneak is 53, and just about everything else is rather low. I'm afraid I'll finish this game before I get the really cool perks.

 

[Hawks64]

My level 24 dark elf doesn't really need money anymore. He just buys spells and has some extra coin in case his horse dies and needs a new one. I wonder if being a one-dimentional destruction specialist slows leveling. Destruction skill is around 63, sneak is 53, and just about everything else is rather low. I'm afraid I'll finish this game before I get the really cool perks.

Are you doing any of the side quests? I think I was mid 20s level long before I was even 25% done with the main quest.

 

[GregR]

My level 24 dark elf doesn't really need money anymore. He just buys spells and has some extra coin in case his horse dies and needs a new one. I wonder if being a one-dimentional destruction specialist slows leveling. Destruction skill is around 63, sneak is 53, and just about everything else is rather low. I'm afraid I'll finish this game before I get the really cool perks.

Level is dependent on skill increases. So if you're only using a couple of skills that will definitely keep your level down.If you're smithing, pickpocketing, making your own enchanted items, turning ingredients into potions, wearing armor so your armor skills go up as you're hit, using conjuration spells and alteration for armor, etc, you'd go up quicker than if you just sneak and cast destruction, yes.

 

[EYLive]

My level 24 dark elf doesn't really need money anymore. He just buys spells and has some extra coin in case his horse dies and needs a new one. I wonder if being a one-dimentional destruction specialist slows leveling. Destruction skill is around 63, sneak is 53, and just about everything else is rather low. I'm afraid I'll finish this game before I get the really cool perks.

Level is dependent on skill increases. So if you're only using a couple of skills that will definitely keep your level down.If you're smithing, pickpocketing, making your own enchanted items, turning ingredients into potions, wearing armor so your armor skills go up as you're hit, using conjuration spells and alteration for armor, etc, you'd go up quicker than if you just sneak and cast destruction, yes.

Hmmm, that's what I figured. He does heal a lot since he doesn't wear much armor, so restoration is at a respectable level. And I suppose he could cast more conjuration spells, and stay "in character"Does attacking with a conjured bound axe/sword count toward the One-handed skill?

 

[GregR]

My level 24 dark elf doesn't really need money anymore. He just buys spells and has some extra coin in case his horse dies and needs a new one. I wonder if being a one-dimentional destruction specialist slows leveling. Destruction skill is around 63, sneak is 53, and just about everything else is rather low. I'm afraid I'll finish this game before I get the really cool perks.

Level is dependent on skill increases. So if you're only using a couple of skills that will definitely keep your level down.If you're smithing, pickpocketing, making your own enchanted items, turning ingredients into potions, wearing armor so your armor skills go up as you're hit, using conjuration spells and alteration for armor, etc, you'd go up quicker than if you just sneak and cast destruction, yes.

Hmmm, that's what I figured. He does heal a lot since he doesn't wear much armor, so restoration is at a respectable level. And I suppose he could cast more conjuration spells, and stay "in character"Does attacking with a conjured bound axe/sword count toward the One-handed skill?

Pretty sure it would, yes. A conjured weapon is a normal weapon with a script attached to it to make it disappear after awhile, as far as the game's code is concerned.Also, things like summoning a creature or conjuring a sword only raise your skill level if done while in a combat situation. If you summoned a sword before the opponent knew you were there, it wouldn't increase your Conjuration. Same with casting Alteration spells like Oakflesh.

 

[EYLive]

My level 24 dark elf doesn't really need money anymore. He just buys spells and has some extra coin in case his horse dies and needs a new one. I wonder if being a one-dimentional destruction specialist slows leveling. Destruction skill is around 63, sneak is 53, and just about everything else is rather low. I'm afraid I'll finish this game before I get the really cool perks.

Level is dependent on skill increases. So if you're only using a couple of skills that will definitely keep your level down.If you're smithing, pickpocketing, making your own enchanted items, turning ingredients into potions, wearing armor so your armor skills go up as you're hit, using conjuration spells and alteration for armor, etc, you'd go up quicker than if you just sneak and cast destruction, yes.

Hmmm, that's what I figured. He does heal a lot since he doesn't wear much armor, so restoration is at a respectable level. And I suppose he could cast more conjuration spells, and stay "in character"Does attacking with a conjured bound axe/sword count toward the One-handed skill?

Pretty sure it would, yes. A conjured weapon is a normal weapon with a script attached to it to make it disappear after awhile, as far as the game's code is concerned.Also, things like summoning a creature or conjuring a sword only raise your skill level if done while in a combat situation. If you summoned a sword before the opponent knew you were there, it wouldn't increase your Conjuration. Same with casting Alteration spells like Oakflesh.

Can I drown myself and cast heal?

 

[GregR]

My level 24 dark elf doesn't really need money anymore. He just buys spells and has some extra coin in case his horse dies and needs a new one. I wonder if being a one-dimentional destruction specialist slows leveling. Destruction skill is around 63, sneak is 53, and just about everything else is rather low. I'm afraid I'll finish this game before I get the really cool perks.

Level is dependent on skill increases. So if you're only using a couple of skills that will definitely keep your level down.If you're smithing, pickpocketing, making your own enchanted items, turning ingredients into potions, wearing armor so your armor skills go up as you're hit, using conjuration spells and alteration for armor, etc, you'd go up quicker than if you just sneak and cast destruction, yes.

Hmmm, that's what I figured. He does heal a lot since he doesn't wear much armor, so restoration is at a respectable level. And I suppose he could cast more conjuration spells, and stay "in character"Does attacking with a conjured bound axe/sword count toward the One-handed skill?

Pretty sure it would, yes. A conjured weapon is a normal weapon with a script attached to it to make it disappear after awhile, as far as the game's code is concerned.Also, things like summoning a creature or conjuring a sword only raise your skill level if done while in a combat situation. If you summoned a sword before the opponent knew you were there, it wouldn't increase your Conjuration. Same with casting Alteration spells like Oakflesh.

Can I drown myself and cast heal?

I imagine so. Long as you are damaged you'll get Restoration XP for the amount you heal yourself. Can also find somewhere you can jump off a small height repeatedly that won't kill you. Or find a trap in a dungeon.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

PSA for all my friends: I tried to set a live chicken on fire in Riverwood. The entire town ran out of their houses and killed me in about 4 seconds. RESOLVED: THEY LOVE THEIR CHICKENS IN RIVERWOOD

lmao. awesome.

I went and did this. Awesomeness!

 

[GregR]

Latest changes...

Changed Nightingale Blade and Bow from being considered Daedric weapons as far as improving them with Smithing... created a new Perk called "Covert Item Smithing" that lets you improve twice as much Nightingale, Shrouded (Dark Brotherhood), Thieves Guild, and Thieves Guildmaster items.

Currently looking at the smithing perk for Orcish items. Orcish weapons start at level 6 while the armor is like level 26. Dwarven meanwhile is level 12 for both weapon and armor.

So I would like it so you can improve Orcish weapons twice as much at lower levels, but not be able to make Orcish armor yet. Found out once you have a perk with the "ArmorOrcish" keyword on it, you can then create any type of Orcish item. But I can make a separate perk with "WeapMaterialOrcish" keyword which gives you the extra benefits for smithing weapons, but won't allow creation of either Orcish weapons or armor until you get the existing perk. So looking at doing that... Elven and Glass items have the same issue of level differences between weapons and armor, trying to work out how to make the perk work best with them, then.

 

[Instinctive]

I like reading the changes you're making. They all sound pretty good to me.

 

[flysack]

This is still the only video game I play, besides an old Madden franchise (Madden is how I repair the psychological scarring of being a Bills fan. In Madden, the Bills are a three time Superbowl champion and sport Aaron Rodgers under center, *sigh*)

I've played 4 characters to level 35+ -

1. A sniper/assassin

2. A two-handed warhammer berserker (known in this thread as "Big Gay Orc")

3. An archemage

4. A sneaky poison & illusion specialist.

I only play on Master difficulty now, and the Archemage is the most powerful character build. He has 100 Destruction, Conjuration and Alteration with master level perk trees in all three, and 600 magicka to work with. Nothing can hurt him. Not Ancient Dragons, not swarms of Deathlords - nothing. He rolls with two Storm Atronach Thralls to tank for him, uses Dragonhide armor in case something gets through, and unloads Lightening Storm on everything in sight. The guy is a Skyrim God.

The illusionist is a lot of fun to play though. If you haven't built one, do it. There's just something amusing about casting Frenzy on a crowd of bad guys and watching them tear each other apart. Another tactic is to cast Calm on an enemy, then sneak behind him and unload a dual dagger backstab attack for X30 damage (X15 with the Sneak perk, double backstab damage with Dark Brotherhood hand wraps). His poison makes up for a weak One-handed skill. The daggers do 20 X2 = 40, add 10 fire damage from each = 60, the poison adds another 57 damage to each dagger = 174, then multiple this by 30 = 5220 damage. As long as he can Calm or sneak up close, nothing can survive. The one glaring weakness of this build is it's useless against dragons. They can't be calmed and can't be sneaked on. My character is level 39 and has maybe 4 dragon souls - all from city encounters where the guards did most of the dirty work killing the dragon.

 

[TxBuckeye]

I've played 4 characters to level 35+ -1. A sniper/assassin2. A two-handed warhammer berserker (known in this thread as "Big Gay Orc")3. An archemage4. A sneaky poison & illusion specialist.

Serious question, how do you not get bored to tears? I played one character and was pretty much tired of it after that, about 157 hours total. That was months and months and months ago, when the game first came out. I never went back to it and finally traded it in for something new. I just can't imagine running through it four times. Yes, the characters are new, but the stories aren't. By now, you have to have every quest memorized. How does it still stay entertaining doing the same quests over and over?

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

I'm running it again, but staying away from the main plot line and the Mage's Guild plot (which I've already done). Was a sneaky archer type the first time all the way through but am doing a sword and board warrior now. I'm also running it on master difficulty with no spellcasting, no enchantment, no alchemy and no sneaking, and no grinding on the smithing except with materials I obtain myself. I'm reliant on the Food for healing and what I can purchase or acquire for magic.So it's a totally different experience and very challenging -- especially at the start every battle took planning and had to use whatever resources were available. Even at level 28 now and lots of things are still off-limits. Deathlords are really hard, Bandit Chiefs basically require chain bashing to get through. Can barely protect against elemental damage (finally got the shield perk which helps), so most dragons are off limits and high-level mages are close to impossible. Still a ton of fun to go through a different way.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

I've played 4 characters to level 35+ -1. A sniper/assassin2. A two-handed warhammer berserker (known in this thread as "Big Gay Orc")3. An archemage4. A sneaky poison & illusion specialist.

Serious question, how do you not get bored to tears? I played one character and was pretty much tired of it after that, about 157 hours total. That was months and months and months ago, when the game first came out. I never went back to it and finally traded it in for something new. I just can't imagine running through it four times. Yes, the characters are new, but the stories aren't. By now, you have to have every quest memorized. How does it still stay entertaining doing the same quests over and over?

FWIW, I have two guys that are both over level 40. I kept it interesting by keeping guys in character as much as possibleFirst guy was a dual welding one-handed, heavy armor type. I didn't do or touch anything magic related, or the theives guild. Just the Companions. Second was an illusion/ archer hybrid. Stayed with light armour, did the theives guild, DB and college.

 

[AcerFC]

I like reading the changes you're making. They all sound pretty good to me.

Like?Just remember I bought Oblivion right before skyrim and never played it. Might give it a whirl this weekend

 

[EYLive]

What level are your characters (on average) when you beat the game?

 

[Chaka]

I've played 4 characters to level 35+ -1. A sniper/assassin2. A two-handed warhammer berserker (known in this thread as "Big Gay Orc")3. An archemage4. A sneaky poison & illusion specialist.

Serious question, how do you not get bored to tears? I played one character and was pretty much tired of it after that, about 157 hours total. That was months and months and months ago, when the game first came out. I never went back to it and finally traded it in for something new. I just can't imagine running through it four times. Yes, the characters are new, but the stories aren't. By now, you have to have every quest memorized. How does it still stay entertaining doing the same quests over and over?

FWIW, I have two guys that are both over level 40. I kept it interesting by keeping guys in character as much as possibleFirst guy was a dual welding one-handed, heavy armor type. I didn't do or touch anything magic related, or the theives guild. Just the Companions. Second was an illusion/ archer hybrid. Stayed with light armour, did the theives guild, DB and college.

Agreed. Staying in character is key. It's been awhile since I picked it up but have played, I think, four builds each one sticking with their specific questlines (I combined the thief with the assassin) and whatever side quests they pick up on the way. I still haven't done the main quest beyond A Blade in the Dark or the Fighter's Guild and I have over 200 hours invested. I have taken several months off for other games (COD & Borderlands) but I will pick it back up eventually and finish the last two quest lines with new characters.

 

[EYLive]

Can you still level up sneak by putting a rubberband around the controller while crouched near an NPC?

 

[GregR]

Agree with those saying you get a lot out of the game by not trying to do every single quest with a single character. There's so much to do you can play 3 or 4 characters through and maybe only hit the same quest twice with them, other than the main ones.As for what level when you "beat the game"... well, it depends what you mean by "beat the game". There's a main quest line but it isn't the end of the game when you finish it. You can still go continue playing, using the powers you acquired from the main quest line.In general though I hold off on completing the main quest until I feel I'm reaching the end of a character and wanting to start a new one.

 

[GregR]

Hmm, undecided how to handle the Fortify Destruction type effects letting you go near or over 100% so your spell casting is essentially for free.Currently you can have robes, ring, necklace and helm that fortify a mage school. Robes have a max value of +22%. The other three you can find/buy items that are +25%, and enchant yourself items up to +29%. For a total of 97% off magicka costs, to outright free if you used your own enchanted items.If I change enchanting base from 8 to 5, that 29% drops to 18% and (without changing robes), you could have 22+18+18+18 = 76%, which I could live with.However, I'll have to actually change all the stock items too or you could just use stock items and have 97%. I'd like stock items to potentially still be better than what you can make yourself, so you have incentive to go out and find them yourself.So which do you think would be better? Giving you stock items that are also at most 18% but that also have fortify magicka or fortify magicka regen? Or lowering self-enchanted items even lower (so maybe they only go up to 15%) and lowering stock items just to 18%?Or any other ideas you guys have in that area. You could still probably make a better item yourself when you get the dual enchantment perk, but I'm ok with that, that would be at very high levels since I have level limits on perks. I think right now I don't let you get that perk until level 40 or higher.

 

[TxBuckeye]

Agree with those saying you get a lot out of the game by not trying to do every single quest with a single character. There's so much to do you can play 3 or 4 characters through and maybe only hit the same quest twice with them, other than the main ones.

Yea, that's a decision you have to make off the bat I guess. I did most all of them with my original character. Oddly enough, the only thing I didn't do with my sneak/sniper character was the assassin's guild. But by doing them all the first run through, there was just nothing to motivate me for a second one.

 

[flysack]

I've played 4 characters to level 35+ -1. A sniper/assassin2. A two-handed warhammer berserker (known in this thread as "Big Gay Orc")3. An archemage4. A sneaky poison & illusion specialist.

Serious question, how do you not get bored to tears? I played one character and was pretty much tired of it after that, about 157 hours total. That was months and months and months ago, when the game first came out. I never went back to it and finally traded it in for something new. I just can't imagine running through it four times. Yes, the characters are new, but the stories aren't. By now, you have to have every quest memorized. How does it still stay entertaining doing the same quests over and over?

FWIW, I have two guys that are both over level 40. I kept it interesting by keeping guys in character as much as possibleFirst guy was a dual welding one-handed, heavy armor type. I didn't do or touch anything magic related, or the theives guild. Just the Companions. Second was an illusion/ archer hybrid. Stayed with light armour, did the theives guild, DB and college.

Agreed. Staying in character is key. It's been awhile since I picked it up but have played, I think, four builds each one sticking with their specific questlines (I combined the thief with the assassin) and whatever side quests they pick up on the way. I still haven't done the main quest beyond A Blade in the Dark or the Fighter's Guild and I have over 200 hours invested. I have taken several months off for other games (COD & Borderlands) but I will pick it back up eventually and finish the last two quest lines with new characters.

Pretty much this. The only questline I've repeated is the Thieves Guild, and some of the College stuff. I only finished the main quest with my first character. Some of the side quests are repeated but clearing out a Falmer den with a greatsword wielding orc is a lot different than doing it with a destruction/conjuration mage or a sneaking assassin.

 

[flysack]

Agree with those saying you get a lot out of the game by not trying to do every single quest with a single character. There's so much to do you can play 3 or 4 characters through and maybe only hit the same quest twice with them, other than the main ones.

Yea, that's a decision you have to make off the bat I guess. I did most all of them with my original character. Oddly enough, the only thing I didn't do with my sneak/sniper character was the assassin's guild. But by doing them all the first run through, there was just nothing to motivate me for a second one.

My first character is level 56 now, and he still hasn't done every quest in the game. He still has most of Marketh and Falkreth (?) to do, as well as several daedra quests, the Companions, and the College to finish. I can't imagine doing it all with one character. Plus my character builds are different. I just built a second sneaky assassin/thief type, but did it in a completely different way. My first guy focused on Sneaking, Marksmanship, and Smithing. The new one focused on Alchemy & Illusion magic, with Sneaking and One-handed. He makes enemies kill each other with Frenzy spells and/or sneaks up close and executes them with poisoned daggers. The other sneaky guy shoots them with daedric arrows from afar.

 

[GregR]

Learned a couple of new things today.I figured out how to edit the items that show up in a player-bought house when you buy new decorations for it. In the Creation Kit on each object placed in the world is the option to set an Enable object for it. You just choose the appropriate one for the house decoration you want it associated with. So for instance I added an apothecary satchel to the Solitude house, same as Whiterun has on it's alchemy altar. Moved it to place it on the altar, and then set it to be enabled when the alchemy package is bought. Now I have a container right there on the altar to store all my ingredients and gear with Fortify Alchemy. If you actually go to make such an edit, you'll see both sets of objects in the cell... the ones that are there before you buy the upgrade, and the ones that are there after. They just differ by what they have set in that Enable tab.Decided I want to move my base of operations from the Whiterun house up to Solitude, but there aren't enough containers for my liking on the ground floor. So in addition to the alchemy satchel, I removed several of those open boxes that just have things lying in them, and replaced them with actual chests so I have one to hold my potions I'm saving for later use, two by the door to hold my loot I mean to sell but haven't gotten to yet, and another chest to hold my smithing and enchanting supplies next to the enchanting altar.But then I thought, "I don't want to have to walk here from the castle fast travel spot all the time". That's why I used Whiterun all the time, you fast travel in pretty close to the door. So figured out how to add a Map Marker for the Solitude house that you can Fast Travel to and it will drop you right outside the front door. It was really easy, just drag and drop a MapMarker object into the cell, edit it and check a box in the Map Marker tab, and then name it and enable fast traveling.

 

[flysack]

While the Solitude house is nice, I've always liked the Winterhelm one the best. It comes with 3 mannequins, a bunch of display cases and wall mounts, and best of all, a "secret" room with both an alchemist's lab and an enchanter's table. Step out the door and you have a smith, an alchemist shop and a loaded general merchant all a step away. If you really need to unload stuff, you can always swing down to the grey quarter too.The only advantage Whiterun had for me is 3 smiths to buy/sell from. That was great for leveling up your smith skill. But the lack of enchanting table sucks.

 

[Plorfu]

I know this has all likely to have been discussed, but...Took several months off and just fired this back up. Man, I love this game again. Questions:For those that have joined both factions in the civil war, which did you prefer and why?Dawnguard? Dragonborn? Hearthfire? I have completed the Thieves Guild, Winterhold College and Dark Brotherhood quests and have beaten Alduin the first time so I'm inching close on the main. I know I'll need new content soon and would love to hear some FBG reviews of these (or links to posts that have them.)

 

[GregR]

FIX FOR THE STUTTERING BUG

The stuttering bug is the game, well, stuttering, as you move about the world. It turns out it is caused by the game's physics engine not being able to keep up with your computer when your frames per second (FPS) go over 60. It is most easily seen in dungeons or interiors where there isn't as much for the game to render, allowing higher frame rates. I found it would always happen moving through certain areas. Like crossing the library in the mage college I always got it in the same locations.

A solution for it is to use a third party tool that will impose an FPS limit. I gave it it a try with MSI Afterburner and the stuttering completely went away. You can download it at http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Here is a youtube video that shows how to do it though it is missing a step or two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73wmN19MT8M. After install, reboot. Then go to your Start Menu and choose the MSI Afterburner OnScreen Display Console, not the actual MSI Afterburner app. From there you need to hit the Plus button at the bottom and then go select the TESV.exe file from your Skyrim install so it knows to run whenever you play the game. (File will be in Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/common/skyrim most likely.) And then you can select the TESV.exe file from the list and hit the wrench icon and set the FPS limit like in the video. Then either set it to run when Windows launches, or make sure you launch it before playing the game.

Only negative I've noted is a slight, intermittent bit of distortion at the very bottom of the screen. It's pretty rare, and I suspect it's probably only happening when the game would have otherwise stuttered but MSI Afterburner kicked in. The distortion is much preferable to the stuttering, which otherwise has completely disappeared for me.

 

[Plorfu]

FIX FOR THE STUTTERING BUG

The stuttering bug is the game, well, stuttering, as you move about the world. It turns out it is caused by the game's physics engine not being able to keep up with your computer when your frames per second (FPS) go over 60.

Sounds to me like your computer is infected. Please allow me to log on and identify the troubles.

 

[AcerFC]

FIX FOR THE STUTTERING BUG

The stuttering bug is the game, well, stuttering, as you move about the world. It turns out it is caused by the game's physics engine not being able to keep up with your computer when your frames per second (FPS) go over 60.

Sounds to me like your computer is infected. Please allow me to log on and identify the troubles.

 

[Hawks64]

I know this has all likely to have been discussed, but...Took several months off and just fired this back up. Man, I love this game again. Questions:For those that have joined both factions in the civil war, which did you prefer and why?Dawnguard? Dragonborn? Hearthfire? I have completed the Thieves Guild, Winterhold College and Dark Brotherhood quests and have beaten Alduin the first time so I'm inching close on the main. I know I'll need new content soon and would love to hear some FBG reviews of these (or links to posts that have them.)

Hearthfire - let's you build a house. Didn't get it and have zero desire to do so.Dawnguard - it's ok, more like an extension rather than an expansion. Was fairly quick as well.Dragonborn - good to very good. Much more content and you aren't in Skyrim. It feels like an expansion and I really enjoyed it.

 

[Plorfu]

I know this has all likely to have been discussed, but...Took several months off and just fired this back up. Man, I love this game again. Questions:For those that have joined both factions in the civil war, which did you prefer and why?Dawnguard? Dragonborn? Hearthfire? I have completed the Thieves Guild, Winterhold College and Dark Brotherhood quests and have beaten Alduin the first time so I'm inching close on the main. I know I'll need new content soon and would love to hear some FBG reviews of these (or links to posts that have them.)

Hearthfire - let's you build a house. Didn't get it and have zero desire to do so.Dawnguard - it's ok, more like an extension rather than an expansion. Was fairly quick as well.Dragonborn - good to very good. Much more content and you aren't in Skyrim. It feels like an expansion and I really enjoyed it.

Awesome, thanks. Sounds like I'll maybe toss them on and give myself options.

 

[Jason Wood]

I know this has all likely to have been discussed, but...Took several months off and just fired this back up. Man, I love this game again. Questions:For those that have joined both factions in the civil war, which did you prefer and why?Dawnguard? Dragonborn? Hearthfire? I have completed the Thieves Guild, Winterhold College and Dark Brotherhood quests and have beaten Alduin the first time so I'm inching close on the main. I know I'll need new content soon and would love to hear some FBG reviews of these (or links to posts that have them.)

Hearthfire - let's you build a house. Didn't get it and have zero desire to do so.Dawnguard - it's ok, more like an extension rather than an expansion. Was fairly quick as well.Dragonborn - good to very good. Much more content and you aren't in Skyrim. It feels like an expansion and I really enjoyed it.

Awesome, thanks. Sounds like I'll maybe toss them on and give myself options.

I personally think Dragonborn is the only one worth the money, and it's great fun and a nice seamless integration with the core game.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

I know this has all likely to have been discussed, but...Took several months off and just fired this back up. Man, I love this game again. Questions:For those that have joined both factions in the civil war, which did you prefer and why?Dawnguard? Dragonborn? Hearthfire? I have completed the Thieves Guild, Winterhold College and Dark Brotherhood quests and have beaten Alduin the first time so I'm inching close on the main. I know I'll need new content soon and would love to hear some FBG reviews of these (or links to posts that have them.)

Hearthfire - let's you build a house. Didn't get it and have zero desire to do so.Dawnguard - it's ok, more like an extension rather than an expansion. Was fairly quick as well.Dragonborn - good to very good. Much more content and you aren't in Skyrim. It feels like an expansion and I really enjoyed it.

Awesome, thanks. Sounds like I'll maybe toss them on and give myself options.

I personally think Dragonborn is the only one worth the money, and it's great fun and a nice seamless integration with the core game.

Unless you have a damn PS3

 

[AcerFC]

I threw this on last night and just wandered around with nothing on my task bar. It was fun. Came across a few caves and one keep that I died with one frost blow. Didnt try again after that