What are you playing now?

[IndiraLightfoot]

Drudanae: True! I just stopped playing my second long play thru because I did screw the game up by crafting. So, I did the DLC Dragonborn, and then I ruled the world, oneshotting everything.

[Fighter]

Some of the side quests are better and longer than the main story in Skyrim. Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood especially. I would recommend looking up how to joint the Dark Brotherhood as it's easy to never get and is (imo) the best story in the game.

 

It always disappoints me how so much quality in other areas is wasted on shallow and bland writing in the game.

[Keyrock]

Usually once I tire of killing enemies(which happens rather quickly since, let's face it, Elder Scrolls combat is not exactly thrilling to begin with) and run out of quests to do I usually turn to rooftop jumping and attempting to climb to places which I'm probably not supposed to be able to get to for my kicks.

[Gfted1]

Well Im only four hours in but Skyrim has been a good time so far. Just killed my first dragon and powered up my Shout. Tried playing around with two hand casting but switched back to one hand casting / one hand weapon. Still cant figure out how to assign potions to the 1-8 keys. The manual says press "F" to bring up an inventory then hover over an object while holding the 1-8 key for one second, but the "F" key only cycles me from first person view to third person view so I don't know what the hell is up. For now I just tag potions as "favorite". So crafting is OP? Good to know. *rubs hands together*

[marelooke]

Some of the side quests are better and longer than the main story in Skyrim. Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood especially. I would recommend looking up how to joint the Dark Brotherhood as it's easy to never get and is (imo) the best story in the game.

Easy to miss the Dark Brotherhood questchain? The only way it could've been made more obvious is if they stopped you and handed you a flyer... How obvious it is to find and join all the secret-y organizations is one of the things I found rather irritating in Skyrim. It seemed a lot harder to pull of in Oblivion at least...

 

Personally started playing XCOM Enemy Unknown for the first time now (without the expansion). Looking like good fun so far.

 

Oh, and I also don't own Dark Souls. Game doesn't quite appeal to me (hack-and-slashy lootfest that's hard for the sake of being hard; at least that's what I gathered from what I read about it anyway), it apparently being a terrible console port that needs lots of fixing to be playable doesn't exactly help convince me it's worth my time, let alone my money.

[Fighter]

 

Easy to miss the Dark Brotherhood questchain? The only way it could've been made more obvious is if they stopped you and handed you a flyer... How obvious it is to find and join all the secret-y organizations is one of the things I found rather irritating in Skyrim. It seemed a lot harder to pull of in Oblivion at least...

 

Personally started playing XCOM Enemy Unknown for the first time now (without the expansion). Looking like good fun so far.

 

Oh, and I also don't own Dark Souls. Game doesn't quite appeal to me (hack-and-slashy lootfest that's hard for the sake of being hard; at least that's what I gathered from what I read about it anyway), it apparently being a terrible console port that needs lots of fixing to be playable doesn't exactly help convince me it's worth my time, let alone my money.

 

 

I know of only one way.

 

 

You have to accept killing a teacher for a kid in Windhelm who is trying to summon DB or something

 

 

To me that did not seem like an obvious path to get there.

[BruceVC]

Or perhaps do , but no further than getting to a certain step-spiralled peak.

 

In my first play through I played with no mods whatsoever. And that was alright (apart from game-breaking quest bugs I had to correct with the console). But with several mods, expect even more bugs, so try out your mod set-up awhile first. Obviously, Skyrim with mods that you like are much better than with no mods at all. Also, don't forget to pick the mod which show you which books you haven't read. Very neat, indeed.

 

For everything else, see Keyrock's advice. Just go crazy or sneak around like you are a fugitive. Most stuff works.

 

 

Yeah, the game is definitely more fun if you don't release the Kraken dragons.  It's not a big deal if you do, they're not that much of a nuisance.  Like any Bethesda game, the story is completely throw away, so no hurry to complete it.  Bethesda's strength has never been writing or quest design.  Their strength is making big, lovely sandboxes to **** around in.  Also, making buggy game engines, I guess.

 

 Like any Bethesda game, I highly recommend mods that change character models/textures.  Not necessarily the ones that turn all female characters into sex bombs and/or nudie mods, though, if that's your thing, then go hog wild, but something to make Bethesda's notoriously ugly faces a little easier to stomach. As Indira mentioned, adding mods will make Bethesda's already buggy game even more buggy, so don't get too carried away.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys  I have experience with Morrowind and Oblivion so I am kind of familiar with Bethesda games. My high-level  strategy for Skyrim is as follows

 

• I'll start the main quest and then deviate to start exploring anything I want. I don't want to finish the main quest until much later
• I'll use mods. But only if they enhance the experience like better weather, insects, advanced Ai, more and different Monsters, harder and more dragons etc.
• I'll used Adult Mods for various reasons. If my character can kill whole villages and slay foul dragons surly he can be rewarded with decent sex scenes, full nudity and advanced aesthetics for the various NPC's in the game?
• I also find in Bethesda games I tend to become too powerful and there are no more challengers in combat, so I want to see if there is a Mod that can balance but I doubt it
• I'll also be playing the DLC's during this play through, so that should be exciting

[Keyrock]

Sound strategy, Bruce.

[BruceVC]

Sound strategy, Bruce.

 

Thanks

[Fighter]

I would recommend installing UI mods that let you switch weapons/spells/equipment instantaneously without using the menus.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Yup! May I add, refrain from crafting, and add a mod that sorts your invo. You won't regret it.

[BruceVC]

Yup! May I add, refrain from crafting, and add a mod that sorts your invo. You won't regret it.

 

Why should I avoid crafting? Does it make you too powerful...also when you say "invo" what exactly do you mean?

[IndiraLightfoot]

Yes, and then the fun soon fades.

And invo is my lingo for inventory.

[BruceVC]

Yes, and then the fun soon fades.

.

 

Thanks that's exactly what I want to avoid

[IndiraLightfoot]

I do envy you, you know. That virgin journey into Skyrim was special, and in the Steam thread you mentioned you had a nice rig, so you'll get a nice graphical experience as well, especially if you turn on Bethesda's HD pack. I think it will outdo Far Cry 3 easily. I fear we might lose you for a while here at the forums. My first playthrough went on for something like 133 hours!

[Keyrock]

I like crafting up God armor and weapons.  I never considered combat to be particularly fun in Elder Scrolls games, my approach to it has always been "Okay, let's just get this crap over with", so I'm in favor of making stuff that lets me get through the tedium of combat faster so it interrupts my exploring, jumping on rooftops, and just generally ****ing around, for a shorter period of time.  

 

I wholeheartedly support modding the piss poor UI and inventory.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Keyrock

[HoonDing]

Playing as pure mage is always most fun.

[AGX-17]

Some of the side quests are better and longer than the main story in Skyrim. Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood especially.

 

[...]

 

It always disappoints me how so much quality in other areas is wasted on shallow and bland writing in the game.

You mean shallow and bland writing like the Thieves' Guild questline, right? Not to mention the terrible narrative and game design with a single railroaded linear "BUT THOU MUST!!" structure, with no roleplaying allowed and vital decisions made for the player by NPCs (aka bad writers/designers) without the PC's input.

 

At least with the Dark Brotherhood you were allowed the option to righteously deliver a heaping plate of well-deserved retribution as a hero of justice, but everyone involved with the TG is permanently immortal so as to preserve the shining example of bad design and writing in Skyrim.

 

I do envy you, you know. That virgin journey into Skyrim was special, and in the Steam thread you mentioned you had a nice rig, so you'll get a nice graphical experience as well, especially if you turn on Bethesda's HD pack. I think it will outdo Far Cry 3 easily.

Yeah, although I can't agree on a number of aspects you feel are better than FC3.

 

Visually/graphically? No. Gameplay? No. Choices/consequences (i.e. "roleplaying") in the main story? No. Varied, sometimes (as opposed to "never" in FC3,) interesting side stuff to do? Absolutely. The joys of exploration? Certainly.

 

Bethesda really needs to prioritize combat design since it's the main aspect of their games, and it typically isn't fun in TES games. The vacillating writing/story/design quality would be a lot easier to overlook if the combat was fun rather than a tedious chore, which was the case for me in F3. It wasn't great as "FPS" mechanics go, but it was still fun.

Edited December 3, 2013 by AGX-17

[HoonDing]

You must be fun at parties.

[AGX-17]

You must be fun at parties.

Just don't bring up Oblivion or Skyrim and you won't set off the powder keg.

 

 

Anyway, Deuce Ecks: HR: DC seems to be doing well enough, because there was a solid stealth/hacking option to deal with the first boss (notoriously not present in the original game,) two turrets provided and one was enough to do the job.

Edited December 3, 2013 by AGX-17

[Malcador]

Finding I am terrible at Raptor, shifting along to Re-Volt and Uplink. Well at least while I am at work. Funny bug in Re-Volt where the language selection does not indicate the currently selected language, so it took some trial and error to figure out how to get English picked, heh.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Malcador

[Deraldin]

It's still better than going through the whole of Blighttown again isn't it? By the you reach bosses, you always have shortcuts open and can usually run past monsters if you don't want to deal with them, since you know where you're going.

 

 

Well since you don't have and intention of PVP ( and GWFL pretty much ruins most of the trying anyway) your DEX/INt build can be a normal DEX build for NG and you only go DEX/INT for NG+ :D.  Also try bleed weapons on bosses like Asylum demon, even a simple dagger works fine.

 

Cestus only seems too masochistic even for me. Especially because you basically must create a what i call a weapon master build ( 40 str/40 dex ) to get full damage from it, even then you don't get more than 336 damage, not to mention you can't 2H it.  But if you're set in that path, you might as well get Dragon Bone Fist made from golem's soul and master that R2 attacks. Also pick up a Dark Hand in New londo, so you have a shield that's not actually a shield.

 

 

I skipped most of Blighttown my first time through the game. I never realized where the path down into Lower Undead Burg was so I went through the back entrance from the Valley of Drakes. Made for minimal frustration finding my way down though having to trudge through the swamp itself without the ring was still a pain in the ass. Even more so when you don't have any purple moss to cure poison status.

 

 

Cestus only has been pretty fun so far actually. It's been doing decent damage though I can see it possibly being an issue later in the game. I suspect I'll be making much more use of weapon enhancements like gold pine resin to boost that damage. I'll likely grab that Dragon Bone Fist at some point, though I recall that the Cestus has better damage than it does anyway. I'm torn on the Dark Hand. Yes, technically I suppose it's a "fist" weapon, but it kinda seems like it would be breaking the spirit of the run if not the actual rules. It's still a ways off so we'll see.

[BruceVC]

 

You must be fun at parties.

Just don't bring up Oblivion or Skyrim and you won't set off the powder keg.

 

 

 

 

Come on Agx that was funny

 

And its true sometimes your opinion on topics is overly jaded and cynical

Edited December 3, 2013 by BruceVC

[Blarghagh]

FTL doesn't seem very balanced. I take my time, gather resources, never have problems with any of the enemies I face... then I get to the final area and I get murdalized by scouts.

 

What gives?

[IndiraLightfoot]

I have tried all kinds of weaponry in Skyrim, and I mostly used archery or fun mage combos, as I found the weapon-play to be severely lacking. It was just lacklustre. And it's not much of a RPG Skyrim, it's more of RPG-esque sandbox dungeon and landscape feature delver, but boy, are Bethesda good at that!