Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Riggswolfe]

Are you sure you have the proper ingredients? I can smith steel just fine, and it's better than the stuff the Jarl gave me after I put it on the workbench. Finding a smelter was annoying, since there's not one in the first village (it's in the first town the story takes you to).

I don 't even see the option for steel. I see only hide, leather, iron, and jewelry. The steel recipes don't show up despite my point to unlock steel smithing.

[caladein]

That's really strange, you should see it down the list when you open up an anvil or forge.  The later Smithing perks work the same way: learn Elven Smithing and you can make Elven stuff instantly.

Edit: Sure you're not at a Workbench?  (I can't remember if that one lists things by type as well at the moment so sorry if that mix up isn't even possible.)

[tmp]

On the plus side, the favorites list is fantastic as long as you keep it short.

Even better, you can hit 1-8 keys when you have the item highlighted in the favourites window, to assign them to that key. Then you can swap without even having to open it. Though i guess that's just equivalent of what they call 'a toolbar' in the PC land.

[Ruvaldt]

Yeah, I have a Razer Naga mouse with 1-12 buttons on the thumb.  Switching weapons/spells is a dream now that I found out about the favorites thing.

[caladein]

On the plus side, the favorites list is fantastic as long as you keep it short.

Even better, you can hit 1-8 keys when you have the item highlighted in the favourites window, to assign them to that key. Then you can swap without even having to open it. Though i guess that's just equivalent of what they call 'a toolbar' in the PC land.

That's pretty cool.  How does that work with choosing what goes in what hand?  (Even if it's kind of dumb about it, hotkeys would still useful for stuff that only goes in one place or none at all like potions.)

[Sky]

A bit frustrated trying to melee in a crowd of npcs. Troll followed me up the mountain (holy leash batman), so I turned to face him before the npc hamlet...and the npcs rush out. Knowing I'm going to inadvertantly slice one with my axe, I just shield bash carefully and try to tank the troll...but of course after he goes down they all turn on me. Goddammit. I WAS SAVING YOUR HAMLET, DAMMIT!

SLI also allowed me to max all settings at 1080p and still run smooth. Very happy with the performance.

[Rendakor]

Hotkeys use potions automatically, they don't equip them. Also the hotkeying thing is funky (read: it doesn't work at all) if you're trying to dual wield two of the same weapon.

Navigating the menus and such wouldn't be so bad for me if the UI would indicate the current (rebound) hotkey instead of displaying the default; another option would be allowing you to customize (or not) the menu controls separate from the combat controls instead of having the two linked. It took me forever to figure out how to upgrade weapons because I had somehow rebound the default key to Ctrl.   The perk selection UI is pretty horrible too; just give me a goddamn list or normal skill trees and let me mouseover them.

That said, these are sharp knees complaints and I love this fucking game.

[Sky]

That said, these are sharp knees complaints and I love this fucking game.

This, too.


Aaaand there's my first crash to desktop. Initiating a conversation on the 7000 steps.

[tmp]

That's pretty cool.  How does that work with choosing what goes in what hand?

Think it goes into whatever hand is marked as active for the item in the Favourites window, but not sure. Only dabbled with it briefly and it seemed like hitting shift+shortcut may put the item in the off-hand... but that was with spell and these are confusing.

on unrelated note, getting a bounty for scaring off a chicken with the Nord scream seems excessive

[ShenMolo]

Loving this game!

Started with a hack & slash 2 handed warrior type for a few hours, now trying a stealther instead.

Got fed up with perk indecision so I made a lvl 50 Spec and started building towards it.

Archery 6
1Hand 8
Alchemy 7
LightArm 10
Lockpick 8
Sneak 11

Started with 1 each in 1H, LA, Sneak, Archery...those bonuses make a difference early.

[Rendakor]

Found a pretty amusing quest in Whiterun.

[Khaldun]

Love the game, but I think I've got a pretty bad bug. I've never been able to drop anything (PC version) using R (and you can't as far as I can tell remap drop to another key)--to get rid of something without selling it, I have to kill something and then store what I'm getting rid of on the corpse. But ok. Now there's a far worse issue--I cannot equip anything to my right hand. I can equip two-hand items and I can equip weapons to the left hand. I was fine until I decided to sell the sword I'd been using early on, which I'd been wielding as a one-hand right-hand, with shield in left. Then after that nothing would equip to the right hand any more.

[Fraeg]

I'm guessing this is your first Elder Scrolls game, Fraeg?

It's an FPS. It's not Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age; you have to actually go over to look at something. Pure WASD or gamepad stuff. Been this way for ages.

yea first Elder Scrolls game, that and a couple of glasses of wine went into my post.

Yeah I guess I have been living in the MMO environment *too* long.  Everything about movement and UI feels *wrong* to me. 

[Engels]

Yep, you're actually going to have to aim.

[Riggswolfe]

That's really strange, you should see it down the list when you open up an anvil or forge.  The later Smithing perks work the same way: learn Elven Smithing and you can make Elven stuff instantly.

Edit: Sure you're not at a Workbench?  (I can't remember if that one lists things by type as well at the moment so sorry if that mix up isn't even possible.)

It's a forge. I'm making iron swords and such but have no options for steel at all. I expect them to be there but greyed out if I don't have the materials but they're not there at all.

Edit: It was an ID10T error. I thought I had bought it but hadn't. Color me hugely embarassed. That's what happens when you play into the wee hours.

[Rendakor]

Love the game, but I think I've got a pretty bad bug. I've never been able to drop anything (PC version) using R (and you can't as far as I can tell remap drop to another key)--to get rid of something without selling it, I have to kill something and then store what I'm getting rid of on the corpse. But ok. Now there's a far worse issue--I cannot equip anything to my right hand. I can equip two-hand items and I can equip weapons to the left hand. I was fine until I decided to sell the sword I'd been using early on, which I'd been wielding as a one-hand right-hand, with shield in left. Then after that nothing would equip to the right hand any more.

You can in fact rebind drop to something else, if you rebound whatever was default R to something else (can't remember but I know I had this same problem). I think mine ended up being Ctrl. Seriously just try pressing every button on the keyboard.

As for equipping items, right clicking and left clicking should equip items to the respective hands. Does that not work for you?

[Tannhauser]

Love the game, but I think I've got a pretty bad bug. I've never been able to drop anything (PC version) using R (and you can't as far as I can tell remap drop to another key)--to get rid of something without selling it, I have to kill something and then store what I'm getting rid of on the corpse. But ok. Now there's a far worse issue--I cannot equip anything to my right hand. I can equip two-hand items and I can equip weapons to the left hand. I was fine until I decided to sell the sword I'd been using early on, which I'd been wielding as a one-hand right-hand, with shield in left. Then after that nothing would equip to the right hand any more.

I had a similar problem.  I set the keyboard commands back to default and I could use the R key again. 

Mages Guild quest bug

[MisterNoisy]

My game so far:

It's mostly:


...with the occasional:

[yoh]

I still can not believe that this was made by Bethesda. So far I had zero technical difficulties, no troubleshooting on some weird forum, no game breaking bugs and pretty good performance on a three year old rig.

[koro]

The more I play the more I hate this new magic system and how much it relies on filling up the Favorites list with a bazillion spells.

And in grand Elder Scrolls tradition, playing a pure mage is a complete pain in the ass. Spells cost an atrocious amount of mana, and any that you can manage to cast without devouring your bar are pitifully weak.

[Riggswolfe]

The more I play the more I hate this new magic system and how much it relies on filling up the Favorites list with a bazillion spells.

And in grand Elder Scrolls tradition, playing a pure mage is a complete pain in the ass. Spells cost an atrocious amount of mana, and any that you can manage to cast without devouring your bar are pitifully weak.

One thing I noticed is that it is helpful to hold the magic cast button down so you continously cast the spell rather than clicking it repeatedly. You seem to do more damage/healing that way.

[tgr]

Hrm. That's funny. For some reason, Sabjorn apparently took out a contract on me, yet I weren't able to confront him with it. And shooting him in the face with an arrow did nothing, because he's an essential person.

I wonder what it was I did.

[Bunk]

The more I play the more I hate this new magic system and how much it relies on filling up the Favorites list with a bazillion spells.

And in grand Elder Scrolls tradition, playing a pure mage is a complete pain in the ass. Spells cost an atrocious amount of mana, and any that you can manage to cast without devouring your bar are pitifully weak.

10th level mage here and not finding that at all. I'm going pure mage mind you. 75% mana regen robe, +60 magika in items, raised Magika 8 of ten times when leveling. And the cast spells of that level at half cost perks are absolutely vital for whatever schools you use most. Basically, they made it so you had to go pure mage to be a really good mage. Also, raising the guys you kill as zombies is awesome.

I've found keeping my Housecarl standing in front of me all the time makes being a mage easier as well.

[Khaldun]

Now I'm getting a completely variable weird graphics issue--I'm about in between the minimum and recommended settings. It's not even the same issue each load, but there's always something weird and off--and the game looked beautiful right up to that point on medium. Sigh.

[koro]

The more I play the more I hate this new magic system and how much it relies on filling up the Favorites list with a bazillion spells.

And in grand Elder Scrolls tradition, playing a pure mage is a complete pain in the ass. Spells cost an atrocious amount of mana, and any that you can manage to cast without devouring your bar are pitifully weak.

10th level mage here and not finding that at all. I'm going pure mage mind you. 75% mana regen robe, +60 magika in items, raised Magika 8 of ten times when leveling. And the cast spells of that level at half cost perks are absolutely vital for whatever schools you use most. Basically, they made it so you had to go pure mage to be a really good mage. Also, raising the guys you kill as zombies is awesome.

I've found keeping my Housecarl standing in front of me all the time makes being a mage easier as well.

I'm level 8 and I just grabbed my first 75% magicka regen robe (a Necromancer's robe, which I'm hoping won't get me into trouble with people) and I've pumped Magicka 7/8 level-ups. I'm sitting at 27 Destruction, 35 Conjuration, 20 Illusion, 23 Restoration, 27 Alteration, and a pitiful 21 Enchanting. I have the Novice/Apprentice perks for Destruction and Conjuration, along with the dual-cast perks for both. I also have the Novice spell cost reduction for Alteration. My main problem comes with the awkwardness of dual-wielding spells combined with how hard it seems to aim projectile spells, the latter of which eat up about 10% of my magicka per cast. I try to keep my Oakskin up as much as possible (even though it doesn't seem to raise my Alteration any?), and when it looks like I'm going to be getting into battle, I quickly summon a flame Atronach and get to casting. My spell damage seems pitifully weak, taking 5-6 seconds of constant casting of a short-range channeled spell to take out normal bandits (unless I dual cast, which butchers my magicka), and I find myself having to use the cumbersome Favorites menu to choose spells a lot, due to how awkward switching spells is through hotkeys.

What am I doing wrong?

[AcidCat]

And in grand Elder Scrolls tradition, playing a pure mage is a complete pain in the ass. Spells cost an atrocious amount of mana, and any that you can manage to cast without devouring your bar are pitifully weak.

I've been splitting my skills between magic and 1-hand and so far it has been working really well. Granted I'm only level 7 but starting with Destruction and finishing dudes off with my weapon has been smooth sailing so far.

Until I ran into that bear. Just harmless wildlife, right? Wrong.

Oh and that weird named witch thing for the quest to revive the tree. Roasted my ass good twice before I realized I'd have to come back later.

I enjoyed getting my ass handed to me today because until those two things nothing had posed a challenge.

[Lum]

The biggest problem I have so far is that a horse you get as a reward for a faction is so stupidly powerful that he literally tanks dragons.

I think this is really the horse's game and I'm just visiting.

[NiX]

Hrm. That's funny. For some reason, Sabjorn apparently took out a contract on me, yet I weren't able to confront him with it. And shooting him in the face with an arrow did nothing, because he's an essential person.

I wonder what it was I did.

Some guy named Dothe took a contract out on me for stealing something. I can't for the life of me think who Dothe is, but shouting his goons off a ledge was mighty fun.

[Ruvaldt]

Yeah, I had a contract out on me as well from some random person.  I've actually been stealing a ton of stuff though so it doesn't surprise me.  My character has been kind of a dick, but he's an orc, so I had to do that.  Also, I ran into my first major bug: during a quest called "The Silver Hand" for the Companions you can become stuck in 3rd person with no obvious way out of it.  I eventually reloaded, played through the quest again, and didn't encounter the problem on the second go around, so who knows what went wrong there.

I'm enjoying playing a heavy fighter, but I have occasionally snuck around, pelting foes with arrows, and, sadly, I'm coming to the conclusion that I might be playing this game with the less fun option.  There really is a lot of game there for people who want to play with a little guile and subterfuge.

[tmp]

The biggest problem I have so far is that a horse you get as a reward for a faction is so stupidly powerful that he literally tanks dragons.

A big mistake by the sound of it. How are they planning to sell horse armour for it when it's so powerful already?

[Rendakor]

For Skyrim, they'll sell horse weapons.

[Flinky]

The first time I used a right-hand dagger power attack while sneaking up behind a group of baddies and silently slit my target's throat was both suprising and magical.

[Kitsune]

Bound weapons are pretty in this one.  Not only does my magic ghost sword slice and dice, it automatically steals souls for my gems.  I'm drowning in full soulgems at this point, throwing enchantments on whatever crappy daggers or other junk I run across just to shoot up my enchanting skill.  It's also really impressive whenever my breton goes berzerk and one-shots someone with it.  Aside from that, I've been sticking mostly with the flamethrower spell and some occasional archery from the shadows.  My biggest problem is having so many perks that I want and not nearly enough points to buy them all.

Oh, quick tip for mages, be sure to train up restoration.  It has perks that boost your magica regen speed, so it's good for people of every school.

[Rendakor]

Anyone else have high Smithing? I'm almost high enough to make Glass stuff, and I'd like to know what the materials are in advance so I can start stocking up from the vendors now.

[tmp]

The first time I used a right-hand dagger power attack while sneaking up behind a group of baddies and silently slit my target's throat was both suprising and magical.

I like the 2hander for its kill animations. Racing down the rope bridge while a bandit shits himself as he keeps hopelessly missing with his bow, then impaling him onto the single swoop that's needed to end his miserable existence. Good times.

Also, the heavy armour skill tree has a perk which adds the equivalent of equipped gauntlet armour value to the melee punches. Might be fun to check it out