Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Sky]

Are you using the beta drivers from last week? For some reason I'm not seeing them on nvidia's site right now. They included the SLI profile for Skyrim, not sure what other fixes might be in there. Though I also have shadow oddness at times. Hardly worth mentioning, it's pretty rare except for the fire pit in my Whiterun house that casts zebra stripe shadows.

[Morfiend]

Ill try the beta drivers, and also some of those ini fixes. I found a video of what it looks like. Also, seems I have the same GPU as the guy with this issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVm7ELS7ldM

[Wasted]

Also, I think Lydia may be my favourite companion from any of Bethsoft's games. For a long time I thought her silent presence was judging me for all the terrible things I have done (murders, thefts, betrayals etc). Now I have decided that she just doesn't give a toss.

The quiet aplomb with which she accepted my lycanthropy made me forgive all the "I'm sworn to carry your burdens".

Game is far better than Oblivion, and I think its only nostalgia so far that is stopping me from saying its better than Morrowind.

[Murgos]

I find it odd they found it unplayable at ultra/1080p on an i7/GTX 580...maybe the beta drivers are that good?

Keep on mind thanks to the intrawebs hyperbole effect "unplayable" can vary from person to person so much it's quite meaningless -- it can well include "i'm getting less than 60fps" or "there's few miliseconds of delay between my input and the reaction in game".

I have an E8400 and a GTX460.  The game autodetected and set me to 'low' I said screw that and set it to high and turned shadows to low and it runs fine.  No lag or anything or at least all well within my tolerance levels.

I've seen people post side by side screen shots of things and proclaim how much better the graphics are with option x or feature y or ini settings from somewhere and usually I can't see a thing different, like maybe a tree in the far distance has some jaggies or a rock is a slightly different shade of grey.

[Cheddar]

You people are evil.

I have been pining for Daggerfall for a loooong time.  Sounds like this is in that vein.

[lamaros]

Once a few mods/dlc come out to fix glaring issues and etc this will very likely be the best RPG ever for me.

[MuffinMan]

These CTD's are getting pretty annoying. Good thing it loads the game and saves quickly.

[rk47]

You people are evil.

I have been pining for Daggerfall for a loooong time.  Sounds like this is in that vein.

There's a nice layer of frosting, but beneath it all, there's hardly much variety. I get the feeling quantity is over quality for this one. There's just a lack of rationale in form of quest placements. In second town alone, you'd be bombarded by mundane tasks and quests from at least 4 sources the moment you step into the market and start a conversation. It makes it comical when I missed it the first time and approaching a vendor, I had the opportunity to ask about the event I witnessed at least weeks ago.

But it's a major improvement from Oblivion for sure, but too much available self-help is pissing me off at the moment. Shops can't enchant items etc....but nothing major. This game is worth the money on PC due to the plethora of mods to fix minor and major things.

[Sky]

Just stumbled upon my first dwarven ruin tonight, nice section inhabited by the vaguely githyanki type crab dudes. I was on my way to something else, and blam, there goes a wonderful hour of dungeon delving.

The thing about the constantly stunning graphics is, to me, that we're finally there graphically (especially without even using newer shader tricks!). I'm very excited for the near future of gaming, this game on ultra is what I've been waiting to see in an rpg since I was standing at the end of a road in front of a brick building in 1975.

[rk47]

I see you''ve found the elevator to the basement.

I remember my merc companion saying "Wow." Yeah...that's it. Wow. Same here. Too bad the loot wasn't great, but the journey through that place was interesting.

[stray]

Just stumbled upon my first dwarven ruin tonight, nice section inhabited by the vaguely githyanki type crab dudes. I was on my way to something else, and blam, there goes a wonderful hour of dungeon delving.

The thing about the constantly stunning graphics is, to me, that we're finally there graphically (especially without even using newer shader tricks!). I'm very excited for the near future of gaming, this game on ultra is what I've been waiting to see in an rpg since I was standing at the end of a road in front of a brick building in 1975.

The environment's nice.. the faces could use work. Maybe a lot of work.

Not that everything needs to be airbrushed anime kids, but... damn.

It's almost seems like it's done out of spite. Like some RPG developers want people to be ugly, out of rebellion against the trend towards "prettiness". Not even considering the option that you could simply make "normal" looking people. No, it's like they HAVE to swing in the other extreme and make characters look ugly as fuck.

[Ingmar]

The faces are pretty good imo. I think you need to go play Morrowind a bit and refresh your memory of what could be.

EDIT: I definitely don't think "Ugly as fuck" applies. There is plenty of variety.

[stray]

The faces are pretty good imo. I think you need to go play Morrowind a bit and refresh your memory of what could be.

EDIT: I definitely don't think "Ugly as fuck" applies. There is plenty of variety.

OK yeah, it's not as bad.

Not as bad as Oblivion or Fallout either.

Here, it also depends more on the race. It took me quite awhile to make a decent Nord male. A female would have been a cinch.

Elves are pretty weird looking. At least dark elves are. They almost look.. umm.. like related to insects.

[Ingmar]

I really don't know what you're talking about re: the Nord male. Like literally 50% of them look exactly like Boromir, which is a perfectly good face for a viking.

[stray]

I really don't know what you're talking about re: the Nord male. Like literally 50% of them look exactly like Boromir, which is a perfectly good face for a viking.

They look like that with facial hair. In a way, it seems like it was intended for them to have facial hair. Without it, something's off. Their lips look too big (possibly because it needs to appear differently with a beard), and their chins abnormally long. The noses are neanderthal-like. You need to really scale them down to nothing to get an average sized nose.

[Ingmar]

Why are you making a Nord with no facial hair! 

[stray]

Why are you making a Nord with no facial hair! 

Me? I'm not. lol.. Although I kind of wanted to at first. Like a young guy, maybe like Thor.

Also, this goes without mentioning the general "tired", weathered look of male Nords. It's one of the things you can't adjust, no matter what.

[NiX]

Your issue seems to be a matter of personal preference rather than any issue with Bethesda's system or their design. Despite my dislike for half the races look, I did come to realize they suited the race as they're portrayed in TES and really impressed the kind of people they are in the world. Nords looking tired and gritty just about sums up what each Nord actually is in the game. Even the classiest of them has a moment of brutishness.

[stray]

Your issue seems to be a matter of personal preference rather than any issue with Bethesda's system or their design. Despite my dislike for half the races look, I did come to realize they suited the race as they're portrayed in TES and really impressed the kind of people they are in the world. Nords looking tired and gritty just about sums up what each Nord actually is in the game. Even the classiest of them has a moment of brutishness.

I just want choice.

My dude's moderately scruffy, I guess. Maybe like David Duchovny. Someone like that. The face paint gives him some edge. lol

Also, if Nord women can look young, then there's no reason the males shouldn't.

[Morfiend]

So the post about the sun helped part of my issue with the jittery graphics, but not the crappy edges. That was the view distance. I found the fix HERE. Seems that you can only choose shadow distance OR quality. Stupid.

[Tebonas]

Luckily both the GUI and the faces can be fixed, making the game even better.

I can't wait for the MOD community to get rolling on this and having hell of a blast in the meantime.

[Ingmar]

Your issue seems to be a matter of personal preference rather than any issue with Bethesda's system or their design. Despite my dislike for half the races look, I did come to realize they suited the race as they're portrayed in TES and really impressed the kind of people they are in the world. Nords looking tired and gritty just about sums up what each Nord actually is in the game. Even the classiest of them has a moment of brutishness.

I just want choice.

My dude's moderately scruffy, I guess. Maybe like David Duchovny. Someone like that. The face paint gives him some edge. lol

Also, if Nord women can look young, then there's no reason the males shouldn't.

Again, if you turn the complexion and dirt all the way down they can look plenty young to me. What you can't do is have clean-looking hair, but that doesn't bother me, considering the era they're trying to look like.

[koro]

Elves are pretty weird looking. At least dark elves are. They almost look.. umm.. like related to insects.

Aside from Oblivion's World of Doughfaces, Elves in TES have had a kind of sharp, angular, almost waspish appearance since at least Daggerfall. It's less pronounced there, but you can see the beginnings of it.

I happen to like it, Romulan ridges and all.

[lamaros]

If all the random thief quests were proper 'thief' style missions instead: with bonuses for doing it wo being seen, killing anyone, stealing x gold, etc, the thieves guild stuff would be awesome. I assume the engine could handle it? Though maybe you'd need to code in a blackjack and knocked out state, as well as some more complicated scripting flags.

Some skills and perks need to be fiddled with a bit too. Crafting higher level stuff should increase your skill more than lower level things. And I have no idea how anyone will ever get to 100 lock picking at the moment, or want to put any points into the perks. Though I haven't played as a caster yet it sounds like there is room for some improvement there too.

If the goal with skills is to have them be around 100 if you use them alot then sneak is about the best. I've got mine to 85 at level 32, without any 'grinding'. One handed and light armor are also ok it seems, judging as i am from a character who one shots everything without being seen.

Skill trainers need to be much cheaper at higher levels too. What's the point of blowing 15000 gold for five skill levels: it won't get you anywhere.

[Murgos]

If I whack something real hard and it sort of bends over and kneels down is it giving up or is that a stun animation?  Cause, I've been assuming it was a stun and finishing them off.

If they are giving up, does that get me anything over finishing them off?  Because getting jumped by four bandits in the middle of nowhere doesn't usually leave me feeling merciful.

[Murgos]

The thing about the constantly stunning graphics is, to me, that we're finally there graphically (especially without even using newer shader tricks!). I'm very excited for the near future of gaming, this game on ultra is what I've been waiting to see in an rpg since I was standing at the end of a road in front of a brick building in 1975.

I realized last night that the graphics aren't really trying for realism, it's much more akin to a high-end, glossy, late 90's-00's graphic novel.  The shading and coloring are all very much in that style, a little washed out for somethings, a little over saturated for others and very stark reliefs.

BTW, was there a mailbox in front of the building?  I bet there was a mailbox there.

[NowhereMan]

If I whack something real hard and it sort of bends over and kneels down is it giving up or is that a stun animation?  Cause, I've been assuming it was a stun and finishing them off.

If they are giving up, does that get me anything over finishing them off?  Because getting jumped by four bandits in the middle of nowhere doesn't usually leave me feeling merciful.

As far as I'm aware they are giving up and begging for mercy. However if you grant them mercy they'll wait till they've healed a bit and then come after you.

[Rendakor]

Ok, having spent a couple hours last night doing the Thieves Guild side missions, I can firmly say fuck this shit. Abandoning and re-accepting quests over and over again waiting for the RNG to be kind to me is fuckstupid, I hated it with the random guild quests back in EQ2, and I hate it now. I managed to complete the quests for one whole city because it took more time to "get quest-wait for quest to appear in journal-check if it's the right city-nope, abandon-repeat" than to actually complete the stupid fucking quests.

If they wanted to make this shit suck less, there should be a Thieves Guild contact in each of these cities that you talk to for that city's side missions, rather than hope the stars align and you get two quests for the same city that you actually need. Hell, I'd settle for the cities you complete/don't need yet dropping out of the rotation, so that at least the shit would get easier as you grind them. But no, I kept getting Whiterun (the one complete city) from Delvin over and over. 

[Yoru]

If I whack something real hard and it sort of bends over and kneels down is it giving up or is that a stun animation?  Cause, I've been assuming it was a stun and finishing them off.

If they are giving up, does that get me anything over finishing them off?  Because getting jumped by four bandits in the middle of nowhere doesn't usually leave me feeling merciful.

As far as I'm aware they are giving up and begging for mercy. However if you grant them mercy they'll wait till they've healed a bit and then come after you.

Given the above, it's pretty much an opportunity to cast soul trap and then finish them off.

[NiX]

Inventory mod!

[Lantyssa]

Visit your local tavern a few times and the game will take care of that.

It's silly, but I consider this encounter the best thing in the game.

[schild]

Inventory mod!

God I fucking hate that font. What's wrong with Helvetica or Arial. Unf.

[tmp]

As far as I'm aware they are giving up and begging for mercy. However if you grant them mercy they'll wait till they've healed a bit and then come after you.

Yeah, after a few cases of sheathing my weapon when it happens only to get stabbed in the gut as thanks, i stopped trying.

[tmp]

God I fucking hate that font. What's wrong with Helvetica or Arial. Unf.

Says the mod will use whatever font you have set, so you probably can have your arial, too.

[Miasma]

I don't get the "I give up/mercy/the battle is yours" mechanic either.  At first it shocked me but then I found out they just get back up and attack me.  It doesn't really give you a chance to soultrap either since the people who do it are humanoid and there aren't that many black soul gems.

I don't like the reports of increasing crashes as the game goes on, makes me worry there is one bugged quest that if I pick it up I'll start getting the same thing, maybe I'll go back to the main questline and finish that before it happens...

Stayed up far too late last night grinding my smithing to 100 to make the dragon armor and use my two daedra hearts on a new bow and mace.  The dragon armor honestly doesn't look as good as I thought it would, I was hoping for "cooler than daedric" but perhaps that was asking too much.