Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Lakov_Sanite]

I understand them not wanting to reveal dwemer secrets and all but every dwemer ruin felt like one giant cocktease. Oh another ruin where I will uncover exactly jack shit about the dwarves? Awesome!

[Soulflame]

The dwemer delved too greedily and too deep.

[Ingmar]

They're my least favorite dungeon type, but I put up with them because they feed my soul gem addiction.

[Stormwaltz]

Got a weird request for you guys. Anyone know of a mod that diversifies the faces of children?

I find it super goddamn creepy the way every single child, regardless of location or gender, uses the same face.

[Tebonas]

Seems like Hearthfire is quite buggy. Every time I see my wife or she begins to talk to me in my house (with all my hard earned loot), there is a CTD. I'm only fine if it is night and she is asleep. So I have to sneak in, take my stuff and run like hell before she awakes. I begin to wonder if one of the programmers is in a bad relationship.

[Xuri]

Move your wife to a different house, keep stash in old one. Problem solved ;)

[Tebonas]

I want somebody to sell stuff to at home, I want that 500000 gold barrier breached! 

But yes, it might come to that if I ever manage to talk to her without getting dumped to the Desktop.

[Fabricated]

I understand them not wanting to reveal dwemer secrets and all but every dwemer ruin felt like one giant cocktease. Oh another ruin where I will uncover exactly jack shit about the dwarves? Awesome!

Morrowind kinda explains more honestly. The dwarves attempted to ascend to godhood using the heart, magically they all vanished. My guess is they succeeded and will be back with a vengeance for some future game.

[DraconianOne]

Got a weird request for you guys. Anyone know of a mod that diversifies the faces of children?

I find it super goddamn creepy the way every single child, regardless of location or gender, uses the same face.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't one - I know I read of a forthcoming mod that added children of other species too. I'll see if I can find the link.

[Khaldun]

I understand them not wanting to reveal dwemer secrets and all but every dwemer ruin felt like one giant cocktease. Oh another ruin where I will uncover exactly jack shit about the dwarves? Awesome!

Morrowind kinda explains more honestly. The dwarves attempted to ascend to godhood using the heart, magically they all vanished. My guess is they succeeded and will be back with a vengeance for some future game.

Yeah, I was thinking that they might well be the "dragons" of a future game for this exact reason.

[Nayr]

Got a weird request for you guys. Anyone know of a mod that diversifies the faces of children?

I find it super goddamn creepy the way every single child, regardless of location or gender, uses the same face.

Funny, I never noticed that actually. lol

Also one strange thing with Elder Scrolls is how Dwarves and Orcs are apparently elves. That is twisted. In a lot of fantasies, Dwarves and elves are mortal enemies.

[koro]

I loved the design of the Dwemer themselves from back in Redguard and Morrowind, with the heavy ancient Persian influence and the strange names for Dwemer ruins that are influenced by a language I can't quite remember offhand

[Sir T]

In Morrowind you could find some Dwemer wandering the halls of their dungeons as apparitions. Which in skyrim ties into that guy vanishing when he used Keening on the soul Gem and could be a summoned as a specter.

I found the Spooky dungeons in Oblivion much more atmospheric than the Skyrim ones.

[Teleku]

I feel like doing another play through of this game, since I enjoyed it the first time and want try the other story/quest lines I missed the first time around (and I never did any of the DLC).  Whats a fun character type to play?  I did a stealthy archer last time around, which was great fun (though after I maxed enchanting and smiting, I could sneak attack dragons and one hit them for the last quarter of the game....).  Magic seems a bit messed up, and I'm not really a fan of the interface.  Is duel wield fun/viable?  Give me some advice on a fun non broken type of character to play.

[Merusk]

Unarmed fighter!
http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-way-of-the-fist-playing-hand-to-hand-in-skyrim

[Fabricated]

Unarmed fighter!
http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-way-of-the-fist-playing-hand-to-hand-in-skyrim

The weirdo Swedish vblogger Robbaz (who has since mellowed out) did a fairly amusing guide to unarmed combat in Skyrim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw

Note: nsfw language, 'ironic' use of the word rape, goofy accent, etc intended for your average youtube audience.

[Soulflame]

I did a stealth 2H focusing on daggers.  15x damage sneak attacks are just too amusing to pass on.

I really wish magic was viable though.

[UnSub]

Unarmed fighter!
http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-way-of-the-fist-playing-hand-to-hand-in-skyrim

Unless they've changed things, the biggest problem with unarmed fighting in Skyrim is that it caps out a lot lower than using weapons.

[Ingmar]

I did a stealth 2H focusing on daggers. 

wat

[koro]

I assume he meant dual-wield.

[Soulflame]

Yeah.  Dual wield.

 

[Lantyssa]

It was a really big dagger.

[Teleku]

Dagger thief sounds tempting, but its a bit too close to what I did last time.  Maybe I'll try big huge barbarian wielding a giant 2H hammer.  Just straight forward bash my way through the game, and make all the same conversation choices a barbarian would.  Never really tried an TES game like that before.

Unarmed would be sort of fun, but it sounds pretty broken and I don't really want to deal with that headache (plus it would hurt not being able to use any of the awesome weapons I find).

[koro]

Dual dagger thieves are super fun, up until you actually need to fight something in a stand-up brawl, in which case the dual daggers become worthless due to the massive penalty to dual-attack speed and the fact that they don't work with most of the dual wield perks. You'll need a sword for backup in those cases.

[Ingmar]

I was actually wondering if there was some weird bug with 2H perks affecting daggers or something - there are some strange things like that, like the Ebony Blade using 2h skill for damage calculations but benefiting from 1h perks.

[Soulflame]

I've had a bit of trouble with straight up fights with tougher mobs using dual wield daggers, but generally it seems to work.  The ability to one-shot essentially anything you can sneak up on makes it all worthwhile though.

Although apparently cats in the wild can detect me through stealth at a radius of approximately infinity.

[Xuri]

Maybe you need to bathe more regularly.

[Merusk]

Yeah, Stealth Archer and Stealth Daggers are pretty much the same game.  My 1h skill is only 45, but with Sneak at 100, I still get the 15x attack on my Blade of Woe (legendary).  Good for those times where there's 3-4 mobs standing near each other.  Bow kills alert them, slitting throats doesn't.   When I have to actually melee something, I just let the companion take the brunt.. which means I'm almost always using Lydia since she's heavy armor & 1h.

If I ever want to start another, the next character will be a 2h sonofabitch without sneak.  Just maul people and laugh.

I, too, wish magic were more viable for PCs.  It seems NPCs can kick my ass with it but due to the aiming and cast times it doesn't work for me.

[Sir T]

I was actually wondering if there was some weird bug with 2H perks affecting daggers or something - there are some strange things like that, like the Ebony Blade using 2h skill for damage calculations but benefiting from 1h perks.

The ebony Blade is a bit weird. Its a 2h but the game thinks its 1h.

Its how it slowly drives you MAAAAAaaaaAAAAAaaaAAAAAAD!!!

[Teleku]

Yeah, Stealth Archer and Stealth Daggers are pretty much the same game.  My 1h skill is only 45, but with Sneak at 100, I still get the 15x attack on my Blade of Woe (legendary).  Good for those times where there's 3-4 mobs standing near each other.  Bow kills alert them, slitting throats doesn't.   When I have to actually melee something, I just let the companion take the brunt.. which means I'm almost always using Lydia since she's heavy armor & 1h.

If I ever want to start another, the next character will be a 2h sonofabitch without sneak.  Just maul people and laugh.

I, too, wish magic were more viable for PCs.  It seems NPCs can kick my ass with it but due to the aiming and cast times it doesn't work for me.

Well, glad to hear my thoughts are shared with others.  2H wielding dumb smasher it is!   

Before I start though, are there any good mods I should try out for this run?   I've heard there are a number of decent mods, but haven't researched them at all.

[Xuri]

SkyUI.

[Segoris]

Yeah, SkyUI is a must.

The ones which I really liked when I started were
Quality World Map w/ Roads
Any one of the item meltdown/smelting mods
Known Spells
Mark books as read
Unread books glow
Winter is Coming and/or Cloaks of Skyrim
Favoredsoul's Evenstar Necklace Added a download link for this since it's a dead mod (supposedly making a comeback when Favoredsoul adds more LOTR items like the great rings), but possibly the best item I saw when looking.
GEMS mod site for a listing of more down to earth mods, which are generally pretty good and have good enough descriptions to know if it would interest you.

[Soulflame]

I'm thinking of doing another play through, but I can't decide if I want to do something like 2h/heavy/smith/block or 1h/block/smith/heavy.  Or cheese it up and do 1h/block/smith/alch/ench.

[Stormwaltz]

Last time someone asked, I tried to provide links and explanation of what each mod did... so I never got it done. Here's a simple list from my Nexus Mod Manager:

Realistic Colors and Real Nights
Build Your Own Home
Birds of Skyrim
SkyTEST Realistic Animals and Predators
Immersive Armors
Immersive Armors for NPCs
Visible Windows
Immersive Patrols
Birds and Flocks
Lush Trees
Morning Fogs
Moss Rocks
Real Ice
WATER - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux
Dynamic Torches
Change Skyrim Time Scale
Run For Your Lives
Ponytail Hairstyles
Bring Out Your Dead
Light Up the Night - People Have Torches
Enhanced Lights and FX
Fires Hurt
Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival
Immersive Content - Exterior Lighting Enhancement
Immersive Skyrim Thunder
Disable Ranged and Magic Kill Cams
Open Faced Guard Helmets
Real Effect Candle
Realistic Crime Radius
Shooting Stars
skyBirds - Airborne Perching Birds
Wet and Cold
Unique Booze Bottles HD
Detailed Faces
Detailed Lips
Distant Decal Fix
Skyrim Flora Overhaul
Enhanced Night Skyrim
High Quality Eyes
Snow HQ Texture
No More Blocky Faces
Proper Length Arrows
A Quality World Map
Immersive HUD - iHUD
QD Inventory
KenMOD - Time on Loading Screen
Better Dynamic Snow
Burn Freeze Shock Effects
Fix That Wood HD DLC Texture Fix
Footprints
Realistic Smoke and Embers

[PalmTrees]

Yeesh, all I used was a nude mod and the nif editor so my sorceress could have a see-through dress. Oh, and a mod that made the horse a non-combatant.