Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[WDeranged]

Last I looked there were quite a few mods that I'd love to try next time around, especially the one that overhauls dragons and gives them more...dragon shouts, strange that Bethesda missed that one

 

The thing I miss from Oblivion isn't necessarily the random conversations but the way NPC's actually travelled from town to town, it was pointless but I liked it.

[Enoch]

Given the propensity of bears and sabrecats to take naps right on the damned road, it's probably a good thing that NPCs don't travel much.

 

I'm beginning to think that I should be investing more perks in the basic weapons and armor trees. I had passed over getting more than one rank of the "X is 20% better" perks, thinking that it was a good idea to save perks for more powerful higher-tier stuff. But as I've examined the perk trees more, apart from the stealth-critical multipliers (which I've already earned), I'm not seeing a whole lot in that looks all that essential. And the difficulties I've had with combat thus far can probably be traced, at least in part, to the fact that the game is spawning enemies based on my character level, but I'm generally running around with 5 or 6 uninvested perks that, for example, could be increasing my bow or 1-handed damage by 80%.

[HoonDing]

Have there been any substantial mods released yet, in terms of character development, gameplay balance or new content?

Yeah, Mjoll Facelift mod

 

[Humanoid]

Yeah the flat bonus perks higher in the tree are barely better than the base level ones - 25% per perk with restrictions or 20% without restrictions tends to be the common setup. Couple things to bear in mind though: armour rating is capped at 80%/567 armour points - beyond that it does nothing for you. Given it's not tricky to reach even with light armour, it's generally not worth maxing out the relevant tree. Second is that I believe there is still a bug with pickpocketing such that increasing pockpocket skill past a certain point actually decreases success rate with high value items so you'd only want to take the minimum possible points affecting success rate to progress up the perk tree.

 

And for more powergamey but mostly obvious perk advice, ignore the worthless Speech and Lockpicking trees, and only choose one side of the smithing tree instead of going up both branches.

[Humanoid]

Have there been any substantial mods released yet, in terms of character development, gameplay balance or new content?

Yeah, Mjoll Facelift mod

 

Now if only there was a quest to help her wipe out the Thieves' Guild - feels like cut content given how it's the first thing you're presented with upon entering Riften. Instead almost all the thieves are marked essential - some for the most trivial reasons - which is particularly jarring given the option exists for the Dark Brotherhood. In the case of the latter, sure it may cut you off from a lot of potential content for a relatively rushed alternative option, but it's a valid option nonetheless.

[Enoch]

Yeah the flat bonus perks higher in the tree are barely better than the base level ones - 25% per perk with restrictions or 20% without restrictions tends to be the common setup. Couple things to bear in mind though: armour rating is capped at 80%/567 armour points - beyond that it does nothing for you. Given it's not tricky to reach even with light armour, it's generally not worth maxing out the relevant tree. Second is that I believe there is still a bug with pickpocketing such that increasing pockpocket skill past a certain point actually decreases success rate with high value items so you'd only want to take the minimum possible points affecting success rate to progress up the perk tree.

 

And for more powergamey but mostly obvious perk advice, ignore the worthless Speech and Lockpicking trees, and only choose one side of the smithing tree instead of going up both branches.

Thanks.

 

I haven't been going out of my way to level Smithing yet. I raise my equipment to "Fine," and I craft the raw gold or silver I find into jewelry to increase resale value, but I haven't gone down the "make a pile of useless stuff and sell it" road. A bit tedious for my taste.

 

By contrast, I've always found the Alchemy skill to be fun in Elder Scrolls games. I guess there's more of an "exploring the unknown" aspect to it, in finding new components and figuring out their effects by trial-and-error or leveling up. I've sunk 2 perks into it already, and I kinda want to get enough to clear out more of those "UNKNOWN" effects.

[HoonDing]

Any self-respecting power gamer actually should at the very minimum double the 567 armour rating, since enemies wielding blunt weapons have the perk that reduces your armour rating by 50%.

[Enoch]

I've been mucking about in Riften, and I renew my comment that the in-town quests, etc., are consistently less fun than the wilderness exploration and dungeon delving elements of the game.

 

The direction they've taken the Thieves' Guild in is ... interesting. It doesn't seem to be a "guild" at all-- I don't see any element of promotion of thievery as a trade or attempts to keep all thievery-type-stuff within the population of licensed members. Instead, it's a strong-arm protection racket and political influence dealer. (And it's the least subtle one imaginable. The minute Riften comes up in conversation at any point in the game, the next words out of an NPC's mouth are "Thieves' Guild!")

 

Normally, the role of the Thieves' Guild in ES games is to support players who want to play out some variation of a classic RPG "thief" archetype. They provide a fence for goods; give tips on where to find nice scores; bring the player in on a few entertainingly complicated heists; etc. In Skyrim, it lets me ... work as muscle for their loansharking operation?? I just want someone who will buy my stolen crap!

Edited March 13, 2012 by Enoch

[HoonDing]

Patch 1.5 (beta) is out

 

NEW FEATURES

[*]New cinematic kill cameras for projectile weapons and spells

[*]New kill moves and animations for melee weapons

[*]Shadows on grass available (PC)

[*]Smithing skill increases now factor in the created item

[WDeranged]

"Improved distance LOD transition for snowy landscapes"

 

Just that one alone makes me want to give Bethesda a pat on the head

[Humanoid]

Whereas most other players would care more about "Lydia will now offer marriage option after player purchases Breezehome in Whiterun".

 

 

And that's not the first time they've claimed companion sneaking is fixed. So the question is if it's fixed, or just "fixed."

[HoonDing]

There are now also rumours of a Elder Scrolls MMO

[Humanoid]

Gamebryo MMO.... *explodes*

 

 

 

I kid, maybe it's when they finally leverage their newly acquired tech for a new, new engine for the first time in yonks, which would be good news for the core series fans too.

[Oner]

I can see the slogan already:

A new, persistent beta MMO by Bethesda. Not that you'll care, you never do!

[HoonDing]

At least with an Elder Scrolls MMO it is more believable that it could kill WoW, considering Skyrim's success and the constant clamour for multiplayer on Bethesda forums.

[WDeranged]

I'll reserve judgement, in a way their games really are single player MMOs so it's not exactly a huge leap for them, it might even force them to innovate more...still, I fear for the single player universe that I've enjoyed for years.

 

*edit*

 

Oh, about that patch, someone uploaded some shots of the snow LOD fix, for some reason I couldn't ignore that while playing, more than the broken quests, glad it's gone.

 

http://i.imgur.com/e3lxP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dEJYW.jpg

 

Also, the new

effect is a big improvement. Edited March 17, 2012 by WDeranged

[WDeranged]

A rare bit of roleplay going on at Bethesda's lore forum, why can't they put weird **** like this in their games any more?

[HoonDing]

Found some really cute Skyrim cartoons

 

 

 

 

 

[Drowsy Emperor]

Are you female?

[GhostofAnakin]

Trying to earn the achievement for regaining the thieves guild's power is incredibly tedious. These aren't difficult jobs, but the loading screens every time I have to return to Delvin Mallory are killing me. Does the guy really have to stay within a place that needs TWO loading screens every single time I want to enter and exit?

[Tigranes]

tilde for console, then coc <cellid> = instant teleport to location. Very useful for quick back & forth, though abusing it will suck the verisimilitude out of the game.

 

From memory, Skyrim cellids are all pretty matter of fact, e.g. dancingstallion or whatever. You can find them in the wiki.

 

Edit: also, player.moveto 0001DA41 should take you to Devin Mallory.

[WDeranged]

There's a mod which lets you fast travel to and from the thieves guild hideout, can't quite remember the name.

[HoonDing]

Skyrim Mark and Recall teleport spell

[GhostofAnakin]

I have the XBox360 version.

[GhostofAnakin]

Well, I finished off all the main achievement questlines. Completed the thieves guild and the war one tonight.

 

Only things I have left to do are stuff like reach level 50, pickpocket 50 times, and learn 20 voices. Not sure if I'm going to bother since those will take a lot of grinding, without much actual questing to do.