SKYRIM: Let's kill some Dragons!

[Stofsk]

It sounds to me like this game will need something like what Oscuro did for Oblivion.

[charlemagne]

At least it's not as stupid as Oblivion's scaling was.

IMO what the game needs first and most is good menus. The longer I play the more annoyed I am by them. There's no way to see active effects without going Tab -> Magic menu -> Scroll scroll scroll -> Active effects. Most of the screen isn't even used and inventory has to be scrolled down because for some stupid reason the top of the list is in the middle of the screen. There's not even a useful way to see your equip and stats without going into the inventory.

Oh, and the "journal" is everything but a journal, if you decide to follow up on a quest you accepted days ago - good luck actually knowing what is going on there, just follow the quest marker. I don't mind the quest marker itself, but I don't like how it reduces everything to "follow the arrow" even more than Oblivion already did.

The perks screen is the most horrible thing ever, there's no useful way to use it. There's no overview over perks you already have and it's terrible to navigate.

And lastly, the map - it does look ok, but a "normal" parchment-style map would fit a lot better IMO.


I've looked around the mods forum on the Beth forums and lots of people have good ideas. I really hope that modders will be able to tackle that and build something useful there.

[Serafina]

Discovered my first notable bug. When you marry your female co-student from the Winterhold Academy she just vanishes afterwards. I tried asking her to be my follower first (so that she'd stick around), but that didn't work either.
Good thing i saved the game first and that there is more than one Dunmer-woman around you can marry (the only Altmer-woman around you can marry is an insufferable bitch).

And yes, i tried waiting (because NPCs generally need longer for traveling than you) and looking for her in both my houses and the academy. My second spouse showed up at the tavern i found her in about 6 hours after me and at my house in Solitude about 12 hours after me after i asked her to move in with me, so it's clearly that one NPC who is bugged.

[White Haven]

You have to run from ordinary bandit chiefs? What are you, all crafting, no combat or some such? Just seems odd, I never ran into any scaling issues along those lines; things got tougher, but not catastrophically so.

[charlemagne]

When I was level 8 or 9 I still had to run from bandit chiefs too, and I'm in heavy armor.

This is not a scaling issue, because those bandits don't scale. And as you get higher level things will only get easier, not harder. Skyrim hasn't the same scaling mechanic as Oblivion, where everything scaled to your level, always.

[Serafina]

Heck, after a while (i think around level 15) i almost completely focused on crafting, which gave me plenty of levels (and therefore tougher enemies) - and i was still quite capable of beating them.

Also, scaling is really much better done this time around. So far i have not witnessed any type of enemy vanishing from the world - i still run into ordinary bandits and Draugrs, i still encounter packs of wolves and occasionally even normal dragons. But i also run into enemies that can actually challenge me (somewhat) - Bandit Chiefs, Draugr Deathlords, Snow Sabretooth Tigers and Ancient Dragons.
And i DID run into enemies that were too tough early on, most notably into a snow troll at level 6 when i tried to take a shortcut to the Greybeards.

Dragons scale about every ten levels according to the Wiki, but you can encounter both higher- and lower-level versions. Dragon->Blood Dragon->Frost Dragon->Elder Dragon->Ancient Dragon. All come in a fire- and a frost-based variant, except the Frost Dragon. An Ancient Dragon has about three times the health of a basic Dragon (but also more armor) and does MUCH more damage.
Which is pretty okay when you consider how much various enemies (such as undead or humanoids) scale as well.

Also, NPCs stick to reasonable equipment - higher-level bandits still run around in leather and fur. That actually makes crafting much more valuable - you don't run into enemies that wear full sets of high-level armor, you only find such items occasionally in dungeons.


Also, since i decided to marry a kick-ass Dunmer mercenary, i decided to take her with me on my travels. Turns out she can still run a shop and cook meals for me when we are in the middle of the wilderness .
Also, having followers really pays off. If you are a crafter (and lack combat skills due to that), hiring a follower and equipping him/her with better armor and weapons might be a good idea.
Also, followers are NOT immortal, but when they are heavily wounded they'll drop to their knees and take quite a while to recover their health - during that time enemies will ignore them (kinda makes sense considering you are still around fighting them), but a stray shot could still kill them (happened to me once so far). Feels much better than Oblivions system, even tough it's almost the same in practice.

[Eulogy]

Are there any followers who can summon? Having more minions is always good, and unlike real followers you won't care if the summons kick the bucket.

[Mr Bean]

Are there any followers who can summon? Having more minions is always good, and unlike real followers you won't care if the summons kick the bucket.

You can raise the dead bodies of your enemies who will last 1 to 10 minutes depending on talent and spell choice. You can also summon skeletons, ghost wolves and Storm/Fire/Frost creatures, I believe there is also daedra you can summon no idea which. You can also charm things to your side.

I've started a second character now to side with the rebels, working on crafting to because I'm aiming to join the DB/Thieves guild with this charater, my other was Companions/Mages Guild.

[Sriad]

My first MAJOR bug was returning to Whiterun after a kill-the-bandits commission. I walked into the hall and was KOS to everyone...

Very fortunately it turns out there's a work-around; get arrested for some trivial crime, pay the fine, and they're cool with you again.

I agree that the PC menus are the biggest problem and a non-informative HUD is the 2nd. The simplicity and open screen help a lot with immersion, but it would be nice if there were some subtle mouse-over icons in the corners to pull up buffs, numbers, etc...

I'll need to start a third character to explore the Imperial side; none of my concepts so far would be cool with backing Nazi Elves.

[The Vortex Empire]

So most major glitch I've found is a pretty fucking major one. If you do the quest where you bust the Forsworn leader out of prison, from that point on the guards in the Markarth region will never stop trying to arrest you. If you want to do anything in the city after that, you have to kill every single guard. Looking it up online shows that tons of other people have the same problem. How the fuck did they not catch that?

[Themightytom]

I'm trying to get over the trauma of spending most of a day falling off the map in the level with the miasma and the big skull thing. What the hell man, I can't walk into corners??

I feel like a major improvement to the menus would be flipping the magic and the items options around since the resulting sub menus are constantly on the wrong side of the screen. I also don't know why we're stuck with that stupid ass map. Who the hell tries to navigate with Google Earth???

I have a question for the group. Is Lydia immortal or not. She single handedly killed a dragon wielding a dagger and no armor. (heh heh I am funny) but got nuked by a novice firemage, what is the formula here

[Mr Bean]

So most major glitch I've found is a pretty fucking major one. If you do the quest where you bust the Forsworn leader out of prison, from that point on the guards in the Markarth region will never stop trying to arrest you. If you want to do anything in the city after that, you have to kill every single guard. Looking it up online shows that tons of other people have the same problem. How the fuck did they not catch that?

The bug only happens if you get involved in their fight. You can just stand back let both sides kill each other (As lets be honest both are murderous assholes) loot the bodies and be just fine.

[xthetenth]

I must say that I approve of the way they handled the civil war, since you can put some serious thought into it and come out with either side. Haven's running with the stormcloaks because the imperials tried to kill him, while I'm running the Imperials because Ulric couldn't stop trying to score cheap political points during the peace conference. There's a lot of room for reasons as well as the screw these guys option, rather than congratulations this is the good guys option.

[Eulogy]

You can raise the dead bodies of your enemies who will last 1 to 10 minutes depending on talent and spell choice. You can also summon skeletons, ghost wolves and Storm/Fire/Frost creatures, I believe there is also daedra you can summon no idea which. You can also charm things to your side.

You misunderstand. I am perfectly aware that you can summon. I am asking if there are any followers who can ALSO summon more creatures to add to your own summons.

[Themightytom]

You can raise the dead bodies of your enemies who will last 1 to 10 minutes depending on talent and spell choice. You can also summon skeletons, ghost wolves and Storm/Fire/Frost creatures, I believe there is also daedra you can summon no idea which. You can also charm things to your side.

You misunderstand. I am perfectly aware that you can summon. I am asking if there are any followers who can ALSO summon more creatures to add to your own summons.

I don't recall his name but the wizard at the keep who stole the book you need from the college summons flame Atronachs, and once I equipped my companion with a zombie staff, we had all kinds of minions running around.

[Executor32]

So most major glitch I've found is a pretty fucking major one. If you do the quest where you bust the Forsworn leader out of prison, from that point on the guards in the Markarth region will never stop trying to arrest you. If you want to do anything in the city after that, you have to kill every single guard. Looking it up online shows that tons of other people have the same problem. How the fuck did they not catch that?

The bug only happens if you get involved in their fight. You can just stand back let both sides kill each other (As lets be honest both are murderous assholes) loot the bodies and be just fine.

If you go back into the Temple of Talos, are the corrupt guards still there. After the antics I mentioned earlier, I just tried going back again, and the corrupt guards that I killed last time have respawned and continue trying to put me in the mines.

[charlemagne]

I feel like a major improvement to the menus would be flipping the magic and the items options around since the resulting sub menus are constantly on the wrong side of the screen. I also don't know why we're stuck with that stupid ass map. Who the hell tries to navigate with Google Earth???

On PC you can remove the clouds and blur on the map by adding the following to Skyrim.ini (the one in the user data folder, not the Skyrimprefs.ini in the game folder):

Code: Select all

[MapMenu]
sMapCloudNIF=0
bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1
fWorldMapNearDepthBlurScale=0
fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0
fWorldMapMaximumDepthBlur=0

The map gets semi-usable now, you can spot ways over mountains etc.

[Serafina]

By the way, dragons keep spawning after you finish the main story (and yes, that makes sense in context), so you don't have to worry about loosing an important part of the game afterwards like in Oblivion.


Also, during the course of the storyline you learn how to Spoiler

summon a dragon to fight for you.

That makes any civil war mission where you have to attack a fortress very awesome

[Zixinus]

Does anyone know a sure-fire way to get the Amulet of Talos?

The time when there was the execution, I didn't think to loot the body. I'm looking for alternatives.

Oh, and it turns out that somehow I can't type in zeroes into the console window. Any way around that?

[Chardok]

Okay, this game has done it. It's sucked my whole family in. I've had to start a new character for me, as the first is to be used only when we're all present. Ricky and Amy simply love watching it to much. Ricky will sometimes burst into the theme chant and just idly sing "Dovaking! Dovaking! Dovaking king king king!" I know the words aren't right, and Lord knows I've tried to teach him dragonspeak so he can sing it properly...okay, I cannot continue with that goof, but it is cute, and I cannot bring myself to correct him. Anyhoo, the family character is level 18 or something, and I've convinced them to abandon destruction/conjuration and focus more on archery until I can get them some better spells.

My quest log overfloweth, and I can't seem to focus enough on one quest to completion. I'm always like "okay, guys, today, we're finally going to get that dagger! Then on the way to get the dagger, I run into some fuckin' giant walrus cave of ULLLLLLTIMATE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM and since this character is so gimp, it takes 2 friggin hours to clear it out. Then I ghave to go get lydia to haul our shit back to town to sell it off and on the way back I'm inevitably waylayed by WILD_QUEST_GIVER_213098. So Off I go to the TEMPLE OF AMAZING SHINY DEATH to rescue RANDOM_PERSON and recover the Tome of <THING>. Oh, but of course on the way there, I'm jumped by a dragon, but it's cool, because there's a giant camp nearby, so I just kite it on over there and let the giants go ape on it. Then I loot the dragon and....wait, what was I doing? Guess it wasn't that important. Welp, better get back to town, these dragon bones weigh a TON!

And the cycle continues...



Anyone know if companions level with you or so they start at level shit and raise as they hang out with you. Cause, man, I used lydia for the first time last night and she got one-shotted by a Chaurus.

[Serafina]

I have no idea whether followers level with you or not, but at least the ones i am using are quite useful despite me being level 45 in pretty much the best equipment available without loophole-abusing. Of course i also gave her comparable equipment (two enchanted deadric swords and full enchanted dragonscale armor). At any rate she's quite capable of clearing out a room while i stand around whistling without going to her knees once. On the highest available difficulty, but then again followers are probably not affected by that setting.

Also, i am finally drowning in gold. But that's after i have exhausted all training options for skills i actually use (so the only ones left are very low-level and thus cheap to train) and bought/crafted everything interesting. Until recently i spent my money as quickly as i earned it, mostly for training and before that for leveling smithing and enchanting.

[Chardok]

Oh, dammit - one last "LOOKIE HOW CYOOT MAH KID IS!" thing I forgot to add - The boy has proudly declared he wants a "Dovaking" birthday next year.


Coolest kid evar?

Yes, yes he is. And yeah, I've already started planning his cake w/dragon and small fondant barbarian hacking at it.

[Eleas]

Chardok, this is fucking adorable.

[GuppyShark]

Does anyone know a sure-fire way to get the Amulet of Talos?

The time when there was the execution, I didn't think to loot the body. I'm looking for alternatives.

Oh, and it turns out that somehow I can't type in zeroes into the console window. Any way around that?

Spoiler

In the same city as the execution, there is a high elf in the capital building who asks you to find proof of a Talos worshipper by sneaking into the suspect's home. Said evidence is an Amulet of Talos.

[Rahvin]

Been playing a pure mage, and got Destruction to 100.

The Master-level spells require a quick-and-easy quest chain and a bit of gold...but Lightning Storm is amazing.

It takes a moment to start casting, takes up both hands, and you cant move while casting (just aim, it's like a longer-range version of the entry-level Sparks spell but with way more damage), but I melted an Ancient Dragon in about 7 seconds. Did I mention that it only costs 7 mana/second with moderately-enchanted gear? Why yes, yes it does. Just summon a Dremora Lord or a Storm Atronach to take the dragon's attention during the casting animation, and annihilate it. This works better with the perk that causes Shock spells to disintegrate targets when they hit low health (you get loot from a glowing ash pile).

Blizzard and Fire Storm are also available. Both are pretty cool placer-centered AoEs that don't harm you but hit everything around you really, really hard...and Blizzard sticks around for a while, and looks pretty cool.

Makes me want to hurry and get Conjuration up to 100 to get the Master-level spell from that school.