Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Lakov_Sanite]

Anyone who doesn't follow at least one combat tree in games like this gets what they deserve.

[Phred]

Anyone who doesn't follow at least one combat tree in games like this gets what they deserve.

Conversely I guess anyone who maxes out a trade skill early on gets what they deserve too.

[Bunk]

Anyone who doesn't follow at least one combat tree in games like this gets what they deserve.

Going the thief route, the sneak tree is essentially your combat tree. My current character is 21st level, no magic at all other than alchemy, and I've spent a total of three perks in one-handed just to get the upgrade on dual weapons. I don't use a companion either.

I kill Dragons with my bow and everything else with 30x backstabs, using duel weild to finish off anything that notices me. Actually provided quite a fun playthrough so far.

[murdoc]

Anyone who doesn't follow at least one combat tree in games like this gets what they deserve.

Going the thief route, the sneak tree is essentially your combat tree. My current character is 21st level, no magic at all other than alchemy, and I've spent a total of three perks in one-handed just to get the upgrade on dual weapons. I don't use a companion either.

I kill Dragons with my bow and everything else with 30x backstabs, using duel weild to finish off anything that notices me. Actually provided quite a fun playthrough so far.

I'm seriously considering starting over and doing exactly this.

[Evildrider]

I've mainly invested in Sneak and Archery and it's kind of easy mode :O

[Miasma]

I like easy mode, sneak and archery were great.  With smith/enchant your bow quickly becomes a one shot killing machine and the idea of actually sneaking up to people for a backstab just seems like a lot of unnecessary walking :) .

[Evildrider]

Even if you don't one shot them you can fire off like 4-5 shots before they even find you. 

[ShenMolo]

Is it safe to update the game via Steam yet? I have been playing in offline mode for a few weeks, and am spooked by recent reports of buggy patches.

[Reg]

I finally let Steam update me yesterday and everything seems fine.

[Ingmar]

Another great thing is once you get your sneak up high enough, you can shoot an arrow off to the side and instead of zeroing in on you, they'll go over and stand staring at where you shot the arrow, which is a great way to get patrollers to stand still for a bit so you can snipe them.

[K9]

How do I get Lydia to equip a shield? She's stubbornly rejecting every shield I have offered her so far...

[Ingmar]

Take away any two handed weapons you might have given her.

[Murgos]

I've mainly invested in Sneak and Archery and it's kind of easy mode :O

Yeah, except for when you kill something and 5 of it's buddies come barreling around the corner.  It's easy mode as long as you're patient, scout out what you're actually facing and can execute effectively.  That said, I've taken to doing more backstabbing just because it's a little more of a challenge (until I get sneak maxed out I guess).

[Bunk]

Take away any two handed weapons you might have given her.

And if you mean she's using her default shield instead, its because her default shield is actually quite decent. She won't override it until you get to Dwarven or Elven I found.

[CmdrSlack]

Take away any two handed weapons you might have given her.

And if you mean she's using her default shield instead, its because her default shield is actually quite decent. She won't override it until you get to Dwarven or Elven I found.

I ended up with the Solitude shield early on. She will use that, but will generally swap to Dwarven if you give her one.

[lamaros]

I've mainly invested in Sneak and Archery and it's kind of easy mode :O

Yeah, except for when you kill something and 5 of it's buddies come barreling around the corner.  It's easy mode as long as you're patient, scout out what you're actually facing and can execute effectively.  That said, I've taken to doing more backstabbing just because it's a little more of a challenge (until I get sneak maxed out I guess).

Just getting sneak above 50 makes most backstab kills easy. With 100 sneak you can sleepwalk through stuff.

[Tannhauser]

According to Steam I have now played Skyrim 99 hours, the same time I played Fallout:  New Vegas.  I did one play through and 1/4 in FNV.   In Skyrim I haven't finished the game once and still have a long, long way to go.

In short, Skyrim is frickin' huge.

[Ingmar]

I'm in a similar boat but I kind of feel like I have spent way more time dicking around in Skyrim not really doing important stuff. Hopping around from town to town buying out all their leather and stuff like that.

[Sheepherder]

Is it safe to update the game via Steam yet? I have been playing in offline mode for a few weeks, and am spooked by recent reports of buggy patches.

Bethesda seems to have stopped shoveling out bullshit patches, now is probably a good time to update.

[sinij]

I am now on 11.11c and patched the game and I _STILL_ occasionally experience texture flickering and random transparencies. Someone please tell me, should I rage at AMD or Bethisda?

[Engels]

Probably your vid card. It may be dying.

[Ingmar]

Blackreach is 

[koro]

Something fun to do in Blackreach:

[Ginaz]

I'm STILL getting random CTD.   Sometimes it takes an hour or two other times it happens every 15-20 mins.  This has been going on since the game came out.  I love Skyrim and its quickly becoming one my all time favourites but the crashes are making not want to play.   Thank God it auto saves frequently.

[sinij]

Probably your vid card. It may be dying.

It isn't dying anywhere but Skyrim.

[K9]

Take away any two handed weapons you might have given her.

And if you mean she's using her default shield instead, its because her default shield is actually quite decent. She won't override it until you get to Dwarven or Elven I found.

Right, that's the one. She's rejected unimproved elven so far, so I'll try and find something with a higher AC. Cheers.

[Tannhauser]

I have her in almost full dwarven and she takes it quickly.  She's quite a tank when properly equipped.

Someone mentioned the blade "Chillrend" earlier.  Get it!  Has a 2sec stun that is deadly.  Currently using it and my Nightingale blade and I'm pwning faces off of dwarven guardians.  Archery and Dual Wield are tons of fun.

Oh and I love, love Dwemer ruins.  Soo much loot.

[lamaros]

Childrend is great. Pity glass swords look stupid.

[Miasma]

Right, that's the one. She's rejected unimproved elven so far, so I'll try and find something with a higher AC. Cheers.

I didn't really use her but my whiterun house was where I stored everything because it was easy to get to and imo has the best vendors so I would see her all the time.  I got tired of her wandering around in that ratty looking steel/fur thing so I cranked out a set of legendary double enchanted ebony.  She put it on when I gave it to her but after I told her to leave me the next time I came in the house she was back in that steel fur shit.  Maybe they reset to their original armor if not your active companion.

[Murgos]

I am now on 11.11c and patched the game and I _STILL_ occasionally experience texture flickering and random transparencies. Someone please tell me, should I rage at AMD or Bethisda?

I stopped buying AMD/ATI cards years ago specifically because of the texture flickering issues that they never seem to be able to figure out.  I would blame ATI since it's a problem that spans years.

[Tannhauser]

Right, that's the one. She's rejected unimproved elven so far, so I'll try and find something with a higher AC. Cheers.

I didn't really use her but my whiterun house was where I stored everything because it was easy to get to and imo has the best vendors so I would see her all the time.  I got tired of her wandering around in that ratty looking steel/fur thing so I cranked out a set of legendary double enchanted ebony.  She put it on when I gave it to her but after I told her to leave me the next time I came in the house she was back in that steel fur shit.  Maybe they reset to their original armor if not your active companion.

I think that's correct.  I lost Volstagg(sp) and he reset to his inn.  I went there and he had his old armor on.  I hired him and he then re-equipped the dwarven stuff he was wearing when we parted.

[lesion]

Childrend is great. Pity glass swords look stupid.

Jarl Elisif has a quest that should reward an ebony sword with the same 2 sec stun. Looks better!

[Ingmar]

I think the level of that reward is dependent on when you do the quest possibly.

[rattran]

Flickering textures are an AMD issue. Just swapped out my 6950 for a 570, no flickers anymore. As for crashing, if I run it with the 4gb launcher from skyrimnexus, no crashes at all. Launch through steam, crashes on zoning every 20 mins or so. I've been using AMD pretty happily for the last few generations of cards, but they seem to have gone to shit again recently.

Oh, and best weapon is the Ebony Blade (with the mod to fix it's fucked up handedness) Free Health, and something to do with all the spare companions! Hey, Cicero, come here!

[sinij]

I am playing new character and I must say Skyrim melee combat system is LOUSY. When dealing with 2-handed opponents game thinks its OK to execute my character from over half health forcing countless random reloads. Plus, blocking is extremely badly implemented, I cannot for example go into block if I initiated attack, often I can't even move out of the way because it committed me to a swing. Decreasing difficulty makes combat simply boring, but annoyingly does not eliminate random deaths. I over-reacted to this with my last character, so full plate, extra heavy into health, and all +health gear made combat so trivial that I had to re-roll due to boredom.

Are there any mods out there that a) disable NPCs critical strikes b) speed up blocking A LOT ?