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

[BigSteelThrill]

I also just read that the Elder Scrolls Online will be an extra $15 per month for the next gen systems. F that

They plan to do away with the monthly requirement before the end of the first year.

Also you will be able to trade in game stuff for play-time-cards with other players.

*I have a couple accounts in the beta.

So lets hear it. How are you enjoying it so far?

Im pretty jazzed about bit.

Its not like other MMOs, as they keep a ton of Elder Scrolls in it.

Realm vs Realm PvP is sweet. Sieges and mass battles.

Crafting (for those who like it) is terrific and now you have a player base of purchasers.

The NDA is lifted so know you can see videos on youtube (look for ones that are just a week old or newer).

Im also in the Wildstar beta (very complete and well done game) and that got deleted off my system.

 

[Todem]

So curious if anyone has played as a Wood Elf Archer/Thief/Assassin type in Skyrim. I am still on my first character build which is a High Elf Destruction Mage with good one handed weapon skills, good light armor, great alchemy and enchanting. I love this character and I am probably still a good 25-30 hours away from finishing the main game and I have still yet to delve into the DLC which will probably add another 25-30 hours for me easy.

But I am itching to begin a brand new character and want to go in a totally different direction. I find being a warrior boring. I think going the Wood Elf route can be a very nice change of pace and quite the challenge initially (until I level up my archery and sneak).

Also I never triggered the Civil War quest line. Is it cool? And which side have you taken (one or both in different playthroughs) pros and cons of triggering the quest line.

Thoughts on this type of build as well as the Civil War quest?

BTW I play on PS3.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

I dont play many games in general but this one has to be one of the best ever, right?

 

[thecatch]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

The one shot super archer thing does sort of break the game.

The civil war quest line is pretty meh. You can negotiate a cease fire if you advance a little bit in the main quest before joining a side. I thought that wrinkle was more fun than actually fighting the war.

 

[TheAristocrat]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

The one shot super archer thing does sort of break the game.

The civil war quest line is pretty meh. You can negotiate a cease fire if you advance a little bit in the main quest before joining a side. I thought that wrinkle was more fun than actually fighting the war.

I've put over 600 hours into this game and did not know this.

 

[Todem]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

The one shot super archer thing does sort of break the game.

The civil war quest line is pretty meh. You can negotiate a cease fire if you advance a little bit in the main quest before joining a side. I thought that wrinkle was more fun than actually fighting the war.

I already negotiated the cease fire and exchange of territories. So that's that. I will skip the Civil War then. It seemed and felt meh to begin with so I stayed away from it.

Quests I have done:

College of Winterhold - Complete

Thieves Guild - All finished save for turning in the Skeleton Key and finishing up some side jobs (want to find master chest's as I adventure around Skyrim) Love having that thing and don't want to give it up if ever.

Dark Brotherhood - Almost finished and so far my favorite one.

Main Quest - trapped the Dragon at White Run and slowly but surely looking to finish this after the Dark Brotherhood is done.

Daedric Quests - I have done a bunch and enjoy them.

DLC - None even DL yet. Going to do that after I finish the main quest and Dark Brotherhood. All three for 20 bucks on Amazon. Will it bug my game though? I want to make sure nothing breaks when I DL them. The game plays really good for me on PS3 after all those patches. Just don't want anything messed up.

So how was the Bard School and the Werewolf quest line in White Run? Missing out or just save that for a second character play through?

It did not seem to fit with my current character build. I kinda like to stay in character.

 

[Todem]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

The one shot super archer thing does sort of break the game.

The civil war quest line is pretty meh. You can negotiate a cease fire if you advance a little bit in the main quest before joining a side. I thought that wrinkle was more fun than actually fighting the war.

I've put over 600 hours into this game and did not know this.

Holy crap 600 hours!!!

I am at hour 230 and think I am crazy (as does my wife sometimes). Keep in mind I play sports games a ton (The Show, 2K11, Madden and NCAA as well as NHL) so I rotate in Skyrim every few months when I need a break. When it first was released though I sunk over 150 hours into it and played it non-stop. It was Skycrack for a long time. Now I am hooked again.

 

[RC94]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

 

[Todem]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

Our characters are very similar.

I too am High Elf Destruction Mage (master in destruction) with a high proficiency in one handed weapons, Light Armor, Alchemy, Enchanting, Illusion (65) and Restoration (89) and I am fast building my archery and sneak abilities as well (once I started The Thieves Guild quest line and Dark Brotherhood quest line. Depending on my surroundings etc I could wear my enchanted glass armor set, or my bad ### destruction mage robe with my Morkei mask. He is a very diverse character whom is the best I have ever had in any role playing game. I really have been taking my time with this game and exploring everywhere and just adventuring and taking it all in. I can definitely focus on archery more going forward as I am really digging the bow's, and poisons I am creating. My characters level is 50 so I still have plenty of room to keep leveling up.

What is the highest level you can achieve out of curiosity? And has anyone found all of the masks in the game (I still only have 2) Morkei (regenerate magicka 100% faster) and Volsung (increase carrying capacity and breath underwater)

I guess the true beauty of this game is it can go on for hundreds upon hundreds of hours with the same character build. So maybe that will be my direction. Branch out my Destruction Mage to a cunning and deadly archer and assassin to add to his resume.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

This was on sale for < $10 on live so seeing as I already own all the DLC from a previous sale I thought I should repurchase it.

The load times are what kill it for me. I just fall asleep. Happened again last night.

 

[GregR]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

One of my favorite mods last I played was someone or other's Lockpick Pro, which highlights the area that will unlock it so you can just unlock things quickly and move on. The mini-game was fun at first, but after the 5000th time I can do without it. The Skeleton Key makes the mini-game a waste of time anyway. So with the mod you can get rid of the Skeleton Key without having to go back to doing the full mini-game every time.

 

[GregR]

What is the highest level you can achieve out of curiosity? And has anyone found all of the masks in the game (I still only have 2) Morkei (regenerate magicka 100% faster) and Volsung (increase carrying capacity and breath underwater)

It used to be that max level was level 81, because at that point you have 100s in all of your abilities. There was a patch though with "Legendary skills" that lets you reset the skill back down to starting, so you can keep gaining XP. So technically there isn't a level limit now.

I have never taken the time to get all of the masks. Matter of fact, I probably have played about 5-6 different characters, and only on the last one did I actually find the spot where you're supposed to take all the masks to.

 

[RC94]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

One of my favorite mods last I played was someone or other's Lockpick Pro, which highlights the area that will unlock it so you can just unlock things quickly and move on. The mini-game was fun at first, but after the 5000th time I can do without it. The Skeleton Key makes the mini-game a waste of time anyway. So with the mod you can get rid of the Skeleton Key without having to go back to doing the full mini-game every time.

Interesting. I have never used a mod. How do I download that or do what I need to do to get it?

 

[RC94]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

Our characters are very similar.

I too am High Elf Destruction Mage (master in destruction) with a high proficiency in one handed weapons, Light Armor, Alchemy, Enchanting, Illusion (65) and Restoration (89) and I am fast building my archery and sneak abilities as well (once I started The Thieves Guild quest line and Dark Brotherhood quest line. Depending on my surroundings etc I could wear my enchanted glass armor set, or my bad ### destruction mage robe with my Morkei mask. He is a very diverse character whom is the best I have ever had in any role playing game. I really have been taking my time with this game and exploring everywhere and just adventuring and taking it all in. I can definitely focus on archery more going forward as I am really digging the bow's, and poisons I am creating. My characters level is 50 so I still have plenty of room to keep leveling up.

What is the highest level you can achieve out of curiosity? And has anyone found all of the masks in the game (I still only have 2) Morkei (regenerate magicka 100% faster) and Volsung (increase carrying capacity and breath underwater)

I guess the true beauty of this game is it can go on for hundreds upon hundreds of hours with the same character build. So maybe that will be my direction. Branch out my Destruction Mage to a cunning and deadly archer and assassin to add to his resume.

I am level 68 and might try to get him to level 80 so he can fight the Ebony Warrior.

I have all of the masks and have been using Nahkriin's mask as my helmet for a long time now. Check this out if you want more about the dragon priests and getting the masks: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrimragon_Priest

 

[EYLive]

I have a nice kajit dual dagger assassin that I'm trying to get nightingale armor for but keeping track of the thief guild jobs (changing ledgers, stealing items etc. from major cities) is a PITA.

 

[GregR]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

One of my favorite mods last I played was someone or other's Lockpick Pro, which highlights the area that will unlock it so you can just unlock things quickly and move on. The mini-game was fun at first, but after the 5000th time I can do without it. The Skeleton Key makes the mini-game a waste of time anyway. So with the mod you can get rid of the Skeleton Key without having to go back to doing the full mini-game every time.

Interesting. I have never used a mod. How do I download that or do what I need to do to get it?

You can only use them on PC. They are generally easier to use now as there are tools that do the installations and manage a lot of the dependencies for you.

First I would grab the Nexus Mod Manager to handle that stuff for you. It's at http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/modmanager/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/? is the site where you search for mods then.

The one I was talking about is KenMOD's Lockpick Pro. You would go to that page and click on Files (the one halfway down the screen, not the one on top which refers to all the mods on the site). In there it'll show the different versions available. For the most recent one you'd click on Download With Manager, and it'll pretty much do the rest. In the Manager you can just click to enable or disable mods. You want to only add 1 at a time, play with it for awhile and make sure it didn't change your stability, before adding any new ones. Sometimes mods will clash with each other and cause problems including crashes, but plenty of people run with 100 mods. I don't know my exact count but it's several dozen at least.

The site has a "Top Files" section which has a lot of people's favorite ones. First I'd grab the Unofficial Skyrim Patch which fixes a ton of bugs that the game maker never bothered to fix.

 

[thecatch]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

Our characters are very similar.I too am High Elf Destruction Mage (master in destruction) with a high proficiency in one handed weapons, Light Armor, Alchemy, Enchanting, Illusion (65) and Restoration (89) and I am fast building my archery and sneak abilities as well (once I started The Thieves Guild quest line and Dark Brotherhood quest line. Depending on my surroundings etc I could wear my enchanted glass armor set, or my bad ### destruction mage robe with my Morkei mask. He is a very diverse character whom is the best I have ever had in any role playing game. I really have been taking my time with this game and exploring everywhere and just adventuring and taking it all in. I can definitely focus on archery more going forward as I am really digging the bow's, and poisons I am creating. My characters level is 50 so I still have plenty of room to keep leveling up.

What is the highest level you can achieve out of curiosity? And has anyone found all of the masks in the game (I still only have 2) Morkei (regenerate magicka 100% faster) and Volsung (increase carrying capacity and breath underwater)

I guess the true beauty of this game is it can go on for hundreds upon hundreds of hours with the same character build. So maybe that will be my direction. Branch out my Destruction Mage to a cunning and deadly archer and assassin to add to his resume.

I am level 68 and might try to get him to level 80 so he can fight the Ebony Warrior.I have all of the masks and have been using Nahkriin's mask as my helmet for a long time now. Check this out if you want more about the dragon priests and getting the masks: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrimragon_Priest

My guy is lvl 61 and I can't imagine what a grind it would be to get to 80.

 

[GregR]

Of the top mods...

• Unofficial Skyrim Patch is a must. If you have any DLCs, get the Unofficial patches for them too.
• SkyUI is quite nice. Adds things like a value/weight ratio column. I don't use everything in it, but use quite a bit.
• A Quality World Map with Roads is wonderful and a simple add.
• UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul is a must get. A lot more control of followers, plus you can have more.

I would be careful about loading up a ton of mods at once, like I said, add one and play for a bit and make sure it's stable. If you really notice things like visual quality you might like the high resolution mods. I stay away from them normally because I'd rather have more detail of important features (like that castle in the distance) and so I'll trade off how realistic the leaves on the trees look. I'm playing on Eyefinity with 3 screens, so I can't push resolutions as far as others since it is a bigger graphics load.

 

[GregR]

Actually, here is my mod list from last time I played. A lot of the appearance ones were prequisites for having Daenarys and Khal Drogo as potential followers. They looked too bad ### to pass up.

• A Quality World Map
• Amazing Smooth Females Complete - 2 Ultra Smooth Females Deluxe V4
• Apachii SkyHair
• Categorized Favorites Menu
• Circlet Helms and Dragon Priests Circlets. I used this to make some helmets that are Circlets as I like seeing the character's face when going about town, but hate taking the time to put a helmet on and off. So this has some circlets that give the protection of a helmet. They are also craftable items.
• Coverwomen - coverwomen look-1
• DIMONIZED UNP female body Main body V1dot2 - a better looking frame for women, necessary for the Daenarys mod
• Famous Followers - Daenerys Standalone
• Famous Followers - Khal Drogo standalone
• Glowing Ore Veins 300. this one is great, it gives ore veins luminous veins that run through them so they stand out from rock. It does create a small amount of instability, and at times it quits working and you have to quit and relaunch to fix it. But worth it.
• Gregs Solitude House edits - I made this one, not available on the site. I put more lighting and an altar into the Solitude house.
• Guard Dialogue Overhaul
• High Res Face Maps for Men by Geonox
• Improved Skill Books. great mod, puts the skill name in the title of all the skill books. Also you can loot them without reading the book yet.
• Jarls of Skyrim - Elsif the Fair
• KenMod Lockpick Pro
• Lovely Jessica Redux - UNP version. gives you an authentic looking Jessica Alba as a follower. I edit it to turn her into a useful mage.
• Lovely Jessica Redux - No Tattoos Overwrite for UNP version
• Madd Haven - Lets you choose other appearances for armor than the default ones, but takes a bit of effort to go through all the steps necessary. I'd stay away from it until you have a good feel for mods.
• Marriage Dynamic Outfits. Gives you some options for controlling your spouses appearance and behavior
• MISER. This is my homemade overhaul of the economy, magic item availability, redo of the perk system, etc. Not available on the site thought I've thought about uploading it someday.
• Move it Dammit for NPC Companions and Followers -Less Wait Time and Follow me closer - supposed to make your followers get out of the way quicker when they are blocking a doorway or the like, but I didn't find it accomplished much.
• No More Blocky Faces
• OneTweak. skip this one, use it to play in a borderless window to try to deal with a stuttering bug that I hit in certain situations
• SkyUI. major improvements to the UI, well worth it
• The Eyes of Beauty. better looking eyes
• UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul. A definite must have.
• Unofficial Skyrim Patch. Must have.
• UNP Armor Replacer Package - armor to fit the UNP body style
• UNP Clothing Replacer Package
• UNP Texture Replacer Package
• Valdacils Item Sorting - gives items names so they'll group nicely in a list. Like "Iron Arrows" becomes "Arrows: Iron" so all the arrows will appear together when sorted by name. There's a ton of changes in his mod, I pick and choose some and don't use others. I use Ammo, Clutter, Food, Potions, Smithing Smelter Categories, and Soul Gems. And I think I manually edit his potions to make them weigh less or something like that.
• Weightless Ingredients. Because butterfly wings shouldn't weigh a tenth of a stone!

 

[RC94]

My character is very high level and multi-talented including sneak and archery. He's a high elf and is not a super-archer. My main default use tends to be one-handed weapon in one hand and magic with the other (mainly conjuration, destruction and restoration). However, my archery skills is at 90 and sneak is at 100 so I have developed them with that character and I find using those skills to be a lot of fun. You don't have to start a new character to become very proficient in archery and sneak, although if you want him to be a super-archer you should probably concentrate on it starting at a lower level than I did.

I found the civil war storyline and quests to be my least favorite of the storylines and questlines in the game. I would still do it, though.

ETA - I will probably never finish the thieves guild quests because I don't want to give up the skeleton key.

Our characters are very similar.I too am High Elf Destruction Mage (master in destruction) with a high proficiency in one handed weapons, Light Armor, Alchemy, Enchanting, Illusion (65) and Restoration (89) and I am fast building my archery and sneak abilities as well (once I started The Thieves Guild quest line and Dark Brotherhood quest line. Depending on my surroundings etc I could wear my enchanted glass armor set, or my bad ### destruction mage robe with my Morkei mask. He is a very diverse character whom is the best I have ever had in any role playing game. I really have been taking my time with this game and exploring everywhere and just adventuring and taking it all in. I can definitely focus on archery more going forward as I am really digging the bow's, and poisons I am creating. My characters level is 50 so I still have plenty of room to keep leveling up.

What is the highest level you can achieve out of curiosity? And has anyone found all of the masks in the game (I still only have 2) Morkei (regenerate magicka 100% faster) and Volsung (increase carrying capacity and breath underwater)

I guess the true beauty of this game is it can go on for hundreds upon hundreds of hours with the same character build. So maybe that will be my direction. Branch out my Destruction Mage to a cunning and deadly archer and assassin to add to his resume.

I am level 68 and might try to get him to level 80 so he can fight the Ebony Warrior.I have all of the masks and have been using Nahkriin's mask as my helmet for a long time now. Check this out if you want more about the dragon priests and getting the masks: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrimragon_Priest

My guy is lvl 61 and I can't imagine what a grind it would be to get to 80.

Yeah, as much as I would like to do that fight, it's highly doubtful I will get to level 80.

 

[RC94]

Mods seem to add some interesting dimensions but I only play on PS3. Too bad it doesn't work there...

 

[Rev. Jim]

I've jumped back on Skyrim after several months off and created another character. One of the reasons I did so was because the game started locking up on me quite a bit (running on an XBox 360 with the Dragonborn DLC installed). I attributed it to having such a large savefile that I figured starting from scratch would be best.

But I kinda miss my original character and want to keep playing with him. Anyone else have issues with the game freezing up on you like this? If so, any suggestions?

 

[RC94]

I've jumped back on Skyrim after several months off and created another character. One of the reasons I did so was because the game started locking up on me quite a bit (running on an XBox 360 with the Dragonborn DLC installed). I attributed it to having such a large savefile that I figured starting from scratch would be best.

But I kinda miss my original character and want to keep playing with him. Anyone else have issues with the game freezing up on you like this? If so, any suggestions?

I use a PS3 and it's been an increasingly frequent problem as my character advances.

 

[Rev. Jim]

I've jumped back on Skyrim after several months off and created another character. One of the reasons I did so was because the game started locking up on me quite a bit (running on an XBox 360 with the Dragonborn DLC installed). I attributed it to having such a large savefile that I figured starting from scratch would be best.

But I kinda miss my original character and want to keep playing with him. Anyone else have issues with the game freezing up on you like this? If so, any suggestions?

I use a PS3 and it's been an increasingly frequent problem as my character advances.

Bummer.

 

[RC94]

I've jumped back on Skyrim after several months off and created another character. One of the reasons I did so was because the game started locking up on me quite a bit (running on an XBox 360 with the Dragonborn DLC installed). I attributed it to having such a large savefile that I figured starting from scratch would be best.

But I kinda miss my original character and want to keep playing with him. Anyone else have issues with the game freezing up on you like this? If so, any suggestions?

I use a PS3 and it's been an increasingly frequent problem as my character advances.

Bummer.

Agree. It's gotten to the point now where most of the time when I turn the game off it's not because I have had my fill for the night or I have something else to do, it's because the game becomes glitchy and I get annoyed.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

I've jumped back on Skyrim after several months off and created another character. One of the reasons I did so was because the game started locking up on me quite a bit (running on an XBox 360 with the Dragonborn DLC installed). I attributed it to having such a large savefile that I figured starting from scratch would be best.

But I kinda miss my original character and want to keep playing with him. Anyone else have issues with the game freezing up on you like this? If so, any suggestions?

I use a PS3 and it's been an increasingly frequent problem as my character advances.

I had it on PS3 and was at like level 55 and my PS broke. I went and got it cheap for the 360 and IMO it runs WAY better on the 360 then the PS3 and I'm at level 56 but I didnt get any of the DLC's

 

[Todem]

I play on PS3 and my game is running like butter for the most part. One thing I did was turn off all auto saving. a PITA sometimes but I only keep 2 save files now max. That has a lot to do with the game getting buggy and having frame rate issues etc. I always save before I go into a cave/dungeon etc, I always save once I reach my destination. If I am on a long journey I make sure I just randomly save as I travel (just overwrite my working save file) and my back up save file before my playing session is just that. Just in case something really bad happens I can always start again from my start point of that particular play session.

But turning off auto save and carrying 2 save files max on your HDD (I have others on my flash drive) is the key. I have not DL any DLC yet but will this upcoming weekend.

 

[RC94]

Good idea about turning off auto-saving. I am going to try that.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

Good idea about turning off auto-saving. I am going to try that.

That helped me a lot on PS3. I do what Todem mentioned above and only keep a couple save points

 

[TheAristocrat]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

The one shot super archer thing does sort of break the game.

The civil war quest line is pretty meh. You can negotiate a cease fire if you advance a little bit in the main quest before joining a side. I thought that wrinkle was more fun than actually fighting the war.

I've put over 600 hours into this game and did not know this.

Holy crap 600 hours!!!

I am at hour 230 and think I am crazy (as does my wife sometimes). Keep in mind I play sports games a ton (The Show, 2K11, Madden and NCAA as well as NHL) so I rotate in Skyrim every few months when I need a break. When it first was released though I sunk over 150 hours into it and played it non-stop. It was Skycrack for a long time. Now I am hooked again.

I think that I have brought 4 different character builds to level 81 with 100s across all skills and beaten every single unrepeatable mission in the game with all DLC.

It used to be easier before a couple of patches. For my first two characters, I think I had them leveled to at least 30 within 4-6 hours. There used to be some exploits that if you spent an hour or so, you would get a skill to 100.

The final two were full plays with no exploits (because of the patches...I play on the PC). Those took far longer.

And now, I haven't played Skyrim in six months or so. I think that as summer turns to fall, I'll start another one.

I think I have played Skyrim as much as I have played Fallout 3 and New Vegas combined and I loved those games. Welcome to my life. I'm a bachelor and a dork.

 

[JerseyToughGuys]

does installing the game help with load times?

 

[GregR]

Really I don't mean to

But if you have the option to play on a PC... and you can install it on a solid state hard drive, the load times are pretty much instantaneous. I don't think twice about stepping in and out of doors between zones repeatedly to test something, or just to run down and sell off a single item quick and then come back. The loads are so fast I often can't read what it says on the splash screen before it's gone.

Just sayin'...

 

[Jeff Vader]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

The one shot super archer thing does sort of break the game.

The civil war quest line is pretty meh. You can negotiate a cease fire if you advance a little bit in the main quest before joining a side. I thought that wrinkle was more fun than actually fighting the war.

I've put over 600 hours into this game and did not know this.

You can still restart the civil war after this too. My main character is level 68, beat every other questline, and just now started the civil war.

But the civil war is really boring. Just a warning.

 

[inca911]

One the few quests I have left is collecting all the Dragon Masks. I'm looking forward to closing that out, and then restarting a new character that includes the DLC. I also still have the Crimson Nirnroot quest to close out. I got bored trying to find them all in the underworld, and put the game on hold then. I've got a Destruction 100 Mage decked out with all the Extra Effect homemade goodies I could want (Enchanting 100), plus potent potions to recharge (Alchemy 100). Only trouble I get into is being rushed by a very large group. They generally attack Lydia first, which is their last mistake....

 

[RC94]

I turned off auto-save and played a little last night. It worked much better.

No matter what your character specializes in, I recommend building up your conjuration skills and use some perks on it. I can summon 2 dremora lords (not sure how to spell it off the top of my head) and they are great. Not only are they powerful and can absorb damage and help fight large groups, but they also trash talk a ton. It's hilarious. Plus, the trash talking helps alert you to an enemy you may not have noticed right away, especially if you are walking around outside where enemies can come from any direction.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

I turned off auto-save and played a little last night. It worked much better.

No matter what your character specializes in, I recommend building up your conjuration skills and use some perks on it. I can summon 2 dremora lords (not sure how to spell it off the top of my head) and they are great. Not only are they powerful and can absorb damage and help fight large groups, but they also trash talk a ton. It's hilarious. Plus, the trash talking helps alert you to an enemy you may not have noticed right away, especially if you are walking around outside where enemies can come from any direction.

I did this and then reset the rank since for conjuration because they were to OP. IMO its not fun when you're not fighting, those things kill everything

 

[TheAristocrat]

Really I don't mean to

But if you have the option to play on a PC... and you can install it on a solid state hard drive, the load times are pretty much instantaneous. I don't think twice about stepping in and out of doors between zones repeatedly to test something, or just to run down and sell off a single item quick and then come back. The loads are so fast I often can't read what it says on the splash screen before it's gone.

Just sayin'...

Seconding this.

Much better on ssd than hdd.

 

[Jeff Vader]

Really I don't mean to

But if you have the option to play on a PC... and you can install it on a solid state hard drive, the load times are pretty much instantaneous. I don't think twice about stepping in and out of doors between zones repeatedly to test something, or just to run down and sell off a single item quick and then come back. The loads are so fast I often can't read what it says on the splash screen before it's gone.

Just sayin'...

Seconding this.

Much better on ssd than hdd.

I have no idea what a solid state drive is, but can I hook one up to my PS3 and make Skyrim more playable?

 

[Jeff Vader]

I turned off auto-save and played a little last night. It worked much better.

No matter what your character specializes in, I recommend building up your conjuration skills and use some perks on it. I can summon 2 dremora lords (not sure how to spell it off the top of my head) and they are great. Not only are they powerful and can absorb damage and help fight large groups, but they also trash talk a ton. It's hilarious. Plus, the trash talking helps alert you to an enemy you may not have noticed right away, especially if you are walking around outside where enemies can come from any direction.

I honor my lord, BY DESTROYING YOU!#@!#

 

[GregR]

Really I don't mean to

But if you have the option to play on a PC... and you can install it on a solid state hard drive, the load times are pretty much instantaneous. I don't think twice about stepping in and out of doors between zones repeatedly to test something, or just to run down and sell off a single item quick and then come back. The loads are so fast I often can't read what it says on the splash screen before it's gone.

Just sayin'...

Seconding this.

Much better on ssd than hdd.

I have no idea what a solid state drive is, but can I hook one up to my PS3 and make Skyrim more playable?

No clue what the PS3's capabilities are for external drives, or how it would work with Skyrim.

But basically, I'm guessing you know what a hard drive is, and that you know what RAM is. Both are memory, but RAM is much much much faster. A hard drive is a spinning cylinder while RAM is more like a block of matter.

Well, a solid state drive is a hard drive made of RAM, basically. Computers ran everything in RAM because it was so fast, but with a solid state drive, your storage is nearly as fast as the computer's memory. A decade ago the cost would have been prohibitive so you only had a few Gb of RAM. But now you can buy a 100Gb solid state drive for $60.

When you use one to hold your operating system, a laptop that boots in 2 minutes might instead boot in 20 seconds. For playing a game, it only helps if the game does a lot of disk access, which Skyrim does when it loads a different area. It goes and pulls all the game info off of your storage device, only now its nearly as fast as if it was already in the RAM.

They also have what they call hybrid drives. A hybrid drives uses the old slower spinning cylinder, but it has a smaller solid state cache that keeps in the faster type of memory the stuff you use a lot. So it might learn that when you access the Skyrim executable, you tend to use all these other Skyrim files. So when you run the game, the drive is smart enough to load a copy of all the game files from the slow part to the really fast part so they are instantly available.

Edit to add: I am sure I have some nuances wrong that others can correct, but that should give you the gist.

 

[Jeff Vader]

That makes sense. Thanks.

 

[cstu]

I played as a Kajit (SP?) archer stealth type like you're describing. It's really fun. You can pretty much 1 shot everything if you're hidden and have the right percs. Things get dicey if a mob notices you.

That's my character. 30x damage on backstab is pretty awesome.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

I fired up my game for the first time in months and noticed I had like 100000000000000 filled and unfilled soulgems in my inventory...is there ANY way for me to have these in a group instead of having to scroll past all of them to see what else I have??

Being able to re-level a skill when it reaches 100 was a HUGE addition to this game BTW

 

[geewill]

The option to reallocate perk points is great as well.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

.

 

[AcerFC]

I put this in last week and couldnt even remember what I was doing. Almost gave away the skeleton key

Trying to decide if I should but a next gen for elder scrolls online

 

[GregR]

I fired up my game for the first time in months and noticed I had like 100000000000000 filled and unfilled soulgems in my inventory...is there ANY way for me to have these in a group instead of having to scroll past all of them to see what else I have??

Being able to re-level a skill when it reaches 100 was a HUGE addition to this game BTW

I know this is a year late, but easiest way to group the ones that will group is dump them in a container then grab them back again so they stack. Sometimes there are different versions of them though and they won't stack even though they are the same type.

 

[NorvilleBarnes]

Fired this up again and working my way through DB and Winterhold mage college quests for the first time. Disappointed with DB ending.

 

[GregR]

I've got an Oblivion game I was probably about 2/3 of the way through that I put on hold thanks to this Marvel fighting game.