Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Sir T]

Well yeah but I just wanted to feel like I was progressing... 

Actually i'm already plottng my next run through and I'll probably just stick to the one style in that, but I wanted to see what I liked doing bu trying all styles as well.

[koro]

I'm at level 76 now. Some comments on that...

- the fucking leveling system. I was a guy that limed sneaking around with might armour, an axe in one hand and a lightning bow in the other. Then I maxed those out so I suddenly had to be a guy with heavy armour and a fucking 2 handed something or other. Then No that 2 handed is maxed so I have to use a fucking shield for a while and eventually had to sit there for 30 minutes as a couple of Deathlords took turn hackind at me and FOS DO DAH ing me. to get the block skill up to get a few levels. I mean what the fuck?

Uh, yeah?  If you want to be max level then you have to max every skill.

You do realize that there is no level locking keeping you from experiencing something right?  You don't have to be max level to do everything in the game, level doesn't really mean much.

Though to be fair, there are a lot of quests locked behind level gates and that can get very annoying. Usually the levels aren't too insane, but it can be frustrating when you want to do Unearthed Secrets for the perk while wearing Dwemer armor, yet you can't get the quest until you're probably about to outgrow Orcish.

[Ingmar]

There's nothing anywhere in the neighborhood of level 76 though, and certainly nothing level locked to the point where you'd have to level multiple weapon/armor skills.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure the hardest monsters in the game are around level 40.

[Sir T]

Not entirely. Some of them level with you, like Forsworn Briarhearts (which are pretty horrific to fight at level 76 by the way). But otherwise the toughest ordinary enemies are around the 44-6 mark, Ancient dragons are level 50, and the highest static level after a quick read over of my list here is the Volkihar Master Vampire at level 53.

[PalmTrees]

Geez, after 60 levels as a dual-wielding dagger guy I just found out that daggers don't benefit from the fortify one-handed enchantment. After reading that on the wiki I stole a mace from the blacksmith's table and checked the damage with and without my 90% worth of jewelry and yep, no damage boost on the daggers and the mace went from 27 to 51.  Oh well. I still kill everything with a single 15x sneak attack anyway so I don't need your stupid fortify. Now what to replace f1h on my ring/neck with? Already have resist magic on there. Meh, doesn't really matter, pretty much on god mode already. What I really need to do is check for a mod that stops the suicidal rushes of wovles, sabertooths, etc. So annoying, put a level difference check on the agro already.

[Xuri]

There's an easy fix for that. Just make them level up along with you! :>

[Morat20]

I've been running around in unenchanted armor for awhile, waiting to get my alchemy perks to 5/5 and get the double-enchant perk. So finally got that and burned through 9 Grand Gems -- wasted 3, sadly. :(

Anyways, went out and picked a few fights. Haven't finished enchanting my stuff -- just head, chest, feet, and ring. But the +resist to shock/fire/frost/magic and the massive slashing to destruction (and a bit of conjuration) costs and the huge boost to magic regen....

It was quite a difference. My follower just got a single enchant on her dragon armor -- +fire/frost resist on a necklace. The fight was a cake walk, as was the next random dragon. (Only level 46 right now).

Still gotta add the +one-handed and +light armor enchant to my gloves (I do one-handed sword and magic, no shield). And I think +speech and +lockpick on a necklace.Assuming I can learn +speech.

[Cyrrex]

I just wanted to pop in here and say that this might be the best game I have ever played.  I am "only" 47 hours in (split over two characters each at around level 20), but I have a bajillion hours of potential content left in front of my.  Holy Christ it is huge.

I like to play games like this...organically?  Which is to say that I don't worry overly much about the stats and numbers, particular in terms of finding the perfect combination to min/max myself.  I mean, I will pay attention to relative strength of my weapons and skills, but I basically decide that I want to use destruction magic and then just set everything on fire without worry too much about everything else.  Then I will take up sneaking, using bows, etc., however it comes naturally.  I can only imagine how lost I would get in this game if I bothered to use any alchemy or enchanting of any kind. 

Playing the other day, I was somewhere up in some of the higher peaks somewhere in the north of Skyrim (a bit west of the mage college).  It was dusk, and a snowstorm was howling around me so that I could barely see.  It was one of those moment that felt so damn surreal that I literally pushed my chair back and said "woah...fucking awesome".  Unbelievable atmosphere.  I could spend days just wandering around the mountains and be perfectly happy.

[Morat20]

I only took up enchanting because I wanted to make mine and my followers armor, and I got sick of killing my follower with fire.

Ergo, I needed to enchant it with fire. And because I like to vary my destruction, I needed to enchant it with ice and lightning too. And then I found out if I gave my follower a bunch of staves, he or she would spam spells like there was no tomorrow.

Which led me to needing soul gems, which led me to conjuration (bound weapon perk) which led to me to realizing life was a LOT sweeter when my giant Ice Guy just went in there and pounded people for me.

And then I wanted more potions than I had, but only the sort that I wanted, so I went into alchemy. Because I had all this crap and wanted to make it useful.

I'd be using a different follower and different weapons if I was min-maxing. Instead, it's exactly who I want it to be. Someone with a whole bunch of firey death in one hand, and a giant glowing sword in the other. And a minion to carry my shit for me.

[Lucas]

1.6 will feature mounted combat, baby...Mounted combat (both melee and ranged) 

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1376243-new-beta-update-on-steam-168706/

[Paelos]

I just got a gaming boner.

[PalmTrees]

I just finally got around to finishing the main quest line. I'd been switching up my skills so I'm level 76. Yeah, the big bad was kinda not so bad anymore.  Still finding new little caves and whatnot. Both impressed and exhausted by it. Might continue with civil war, companion, etc. quests. I'd been planning to try a magic focused character, but my started as thief already kinda already did that with 100% mana reduction from enchantments.

Dawnguard dlc looks to be a side with/against vampires. Meh, vampires.

[HaemishM]

I thought the Dawnguard trailer looked fucking awesome.

[RT81]

http://www.bethblog.com/

The mounted combat patch came out today for PC and (I have heard) PS3. Xbox 360 gets it this Friday.

Not having to jump off my horse every time I encounter a stray bear or bandit is just awesome!

[stray]

I'm not impressed with vampires. I'd prefer an expansion that built more upon the themes already in the game (Civil War, dragonborn shit, Blades, etc). I wonder if Beth might take a new direction and actually offer some substantial roleplaying options with the main storyline. Like what happens if I side with the imperials. Do I reinstall the dragonborn emperor mythos? Or what if I side with Cloaks? Can I hang with Ulfric or will he become a bitch and will I get a chance to lead the Nords myself? The last thing I give a shit about is vampires.

[rk47]

I really can't see the motivation to level beyond whatever perk unlock skill level you gotta reach.
Running with High Elf wielding 2 Handed Weapon @ lv 26 most dragons just drops in 10 seconds when they get Dragonrend'ed.
I do enjoy the slight exploration but most of the level advancement is pretty pointless and just makes the game tougher.

So yeah, for most chars, they just need the following:
Primary Weapon Skill for Damage Perk 80 is probably optimal.
Heavy / Light Armor for Damage Reduction.
Last: maybe Smithing if you really want a 10-20% boost in Attack & Defense with appropriate perks.
I did dabble on spellcasting but found the scaled spells available completely stupid and made playing a mage revolves around casting mostly same generic stuff over and over.
Mage Guild vendors selection are scaled to my level. It sucks when you want to try invisibility but not high level enough even to purchase it.

[koro]

The terrible gutted magic system in Skyrim was pretty much my biggest disappointment in the whole game.

[rk47]

Oak Flesh 40 armor buff
Ironflesh 60 armor buff
Ebonyflesh 80 armor
Kevlarvest 100 armor buff

  Yeah, I think fuck my pure mage playthrough. This is boring.

[Amaron]

Yea you don't want to do a full mage playthrough without some magic system mods.   There's some decent ones that just tweak the basic system and other ones that add a whole slew of new spells.

[taolurker]

I thought the Dawnguard trailer looked fucking awesome.

Why u no link it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3PjBSicSVqI

[Mrbloodworth]

Looks like someone is working on a multiplayer mod using steamworks.

http://skyrim-online.com/current.php

[K9]

Oooh, crossbows!

[Phred]

Great reason to replay skyrim right here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4rBkV-vRpY

[HaemishM]

Why would you spend hours working on that mod???   

[Paelos]

Hahaha I'm crying laughing in my office 

[Phred]

Why would you spend hours working on that mod???   

Why would you spend hours working on a story? To provide people with enjoyment? To work on your skills? As a resume item?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

[Wasted]

So Dawnguard is available now on steam.

I thought this was coming to the xbox first, and that the PC and ps3 availability wasn't even confirmed yet.  But here it is.

And Aussies pay $5 more, for something that won't even be in stores.

[Hawkbit]

Jesus $20?  That's a bit much.  Is it worth it?

Also, they utterly failed at marketing for it on PC.  Hell, like 2-3 days ago they said there was no release date yet for it.

[Wasted]

It looks ok, but I'm not buying it.  Not for the $24.99 they expect from me.

[Kail]

I thought this was coming to the xbox first, and that the PC and ps3 availability wasn't even confirmed yet.  But here it is.

As far as I know, it already released on XBox a month ago (June 26, I think).  But yeah, this release kind of came out of nowhere.  Just checked on today's Quake deals to see if there's anything I didn't have and it was listed as part of the Elder Scrolls package.  It's not on the front page and doesn't have a release date as far as I can see, which makes it a bit weird.

As for "is it worth it," I dunno.  It seems to be mostly focused around the new vampire quest, which I'm just getting into, so I can't say for sure how in depth it is.  Their subtlety is as  as usual, I walked into Whiterun and the first guy I see is an orc who initiates conversation and says "you wanna join the DAWNGUARD?"

Other stuff it adds is a werewolf specific skill tree (you level up by "feeding" on human corpses) which I haven't done enough to unlock anything yet (though I somehow got the achievement anyway) and a way to change your appearance in-game.  Otherwise, it's just the vampire stuff, I think.

[Wasted]

Oh I didn't know it was out on xbox already, I haven't heard a peep from anywhere about what it is like.  The recent articles I read about the ps3 and pc releases made it sound like the xbox version wasn't out yet.

[Hawkbit]

I think the first two expansions or DLC packs are required to release on Xbox first.  iirc.

[UnSub]

It's been out on the Xbox for a while. I don't have much interest in Dawnguard - be a vampire or be a vampire killer! - but at some point I'll give it a shot.

[Rendakor]

I've been waiting for this to hit PC for a while now, but now that it's here I'm not actually motivated to go buy it.