Maybe a detail, but it’s the first time I see that in an Elder Scroll game. The game reacted to something I did. I showed a tendency to shorten the life of people who are displaying too strong a support for the empire. Not that often, I offed maybe 5-10 citizens for this reason. However, the last time, a NPC insisted on me leaving the murder scene (a tavern) even though I wasn’t spotted, I couldn’t reenter it, and I got a concratulation message for the killing. Maybe I inadvertandly stumbled on a plot?
Now, if you know what happened/what I’m refering to, don’t spoil me by explaining it. Still, you can tell me there’s a reason and that, disapointedly, it’s not the game reacting to what I do, something I would certainly enjoy.
As for the Empire being law, after completing the game as a Breton mage siding Imperial I’ve restarted with a Nord warrior, pure melee, intending to side with the Stormcloaks. And I noticed during the intro that Legate Rikke’s assistant pointedly told her that my name wasn’t on the list. Rikke doesn’t care, however. To the block!
There are bastards on both sides. That’s not Legate Rikke btw, just a nameless “Imperial Captain”. Plus, give up a god or give up the Empire? At least they can have a reprieve. If they had rejected White-Gold there would be nothing left, the legions already exhausted.
The Empire doesn’t like the treaty any more than Skyrim. They didn’t have a choice, and fully intend to wage war on the Aldmeri Dominion. Remember that at the conclusion of the war, the Empire had been nearly driven from Cyrodil, and the Thalmor couldn’t even conquer a small section of Hammerfell than revolted against the anti-Talos treaty provision. Note, too, that the Empire didn’t even try to stop them, indicating that it was either too weak or too sympathetic, and probably the latter since they’re putting up a damn good fight in Skyrim, where the spark of the war the murder of the High King.
There’s the problem: while the Stormcloaks sound good and all, and are indeed quite in line with Nord tradition of killing first and thinking later, they’re basically puppets in evil causes.
Receive orders that you are to take out the sentry on top of the cliff.
Analyze the situation, realize that you will never make it close enough to get him before the alarm is raised, and come up with plan B.
Ready Whirlwind sprint shout, aim at sentry and plan on getting close enough to kill him fast enough he can’t say a word.
Mis-estimate your whirlwind sprint distance.
Blast right past the Sentry,off the cliff, and land in the middle of the encampment in mid Dragon shout.
Fight entire camp with no support at all while your companion goes the long way around the cliff, and the NPC army slowly sneaks to silence the confused sentry.
Great tip on the health potions. I’d been casting Healing Hands to keep Sven in the fight. Now I can give him a bunch of “Stimpacks” and do my own thing.
The two swinging blade traps I’ve made it through had a “stop” lever/pull chain on the other side to allow my follower through unharmed. I’ve also found other ways to defeat dungeons’ glowing runes booby traps (on the floor) besides sending Sven in to trip it.
Torches:
IMO, torches are a better option that increasing the game’s brightness or casting illumination spells every 60 seconds. The problem is they’re kinda rare and burn out after three minutes or so. Here’s some tips if anyone else likes torches.
[ul]Free, respawning torches can be found in the Dragonsreach sewer. Go into the prison to the left of the Jarl’s throne. Inside the first cell on the right there’s a grate you can drop through into the sewer. You can take about 8 torches off the walls. Your follower won’t jump down with you and the sewer exit puts you outside the castle, but if you re-enter Dragonsreach and they’ll run up to you. Immediately repeat ad infinitum for more torches. 10-20 torches should be enough for several days of exploring.[/ul]
[ul]My follower sometimes equips a torch when I do. This is nice for the added light, and is a handy way to keep him in sight outside. Torches carried by your follower don’t burn up with use, like yours will.[/ul]
Another odd thing about Lydia is that she seems to prefer Dwarven armor over Orcish, at least when it comes to helmets. She just does not ever want to take off one particular Dwarven helmet I had her wearing for awhile with a small archery enhancement on it. An additional 20% archery damage didn’t even change her mind. She doesn’t seem to have the problem with armor proper. Maybe she just doesn’t like being too matchy-matchy.
I lost Lydia when I did one of the Companions quests, and somehow ended up lucking into picking up the Khajiit as my new companion. He’s pretty nifty. I’ve kitted him out with one of my awesome bows after I decided to ditch archery in favour of destruction magic. Now I use him to pull aggro, occasionally buff him up with healing hands and SET THE BASTARDS ON FIRE while he plinks at them with my magicka-draining bow
Oh I know where she is I just like my new pet better
Speaking of Pets, I’ve also taken to using my horse as a secondary agro-pulling pet He’s very useful for keeping a bear’s attention while I set its ass on fire.
I got stomped by a mammoth the other day, while I was just minding my own business.
Then his giant came up and WHOMP! Hit me out of the park. I did a team rocket into the sun, more or less. I haven’t messed with a giant or a mammoth since.
You have to feel a little sorry for Alduin… he probably would have gotten away with it if he’d been 30 seconds later at the start of the game.
I have to say I really haven’t noticed there’s a civil war in-game at all. Haven’t run into skirmishing troops, experienced gameplay consequences for supporting one side over the other, seen any actual effects of said war on the landscape or game world, or been given any particular reason to care about which of the parties involved wins.
All of which is in direct contrast to Fallout: New Vegas, where the conflict between the NCR and the Legion felt like a very real, tangible thing in-game, because you did run into opposing patrols fighting each other and people with affiliations to one side or the other would try and get you involved in their machinations while you were doing other things, and helping one side meant you pissed off the other, with in-game effects. Basically, couldn’t ignore the conflict as you went around the Mojave looting abandoned Vaults and using raiders for target practice.
I found myself both bemused and uninformed during an important Main Quest Event in Skrim because I was trying to broker a truce in a conflict I didn’t really know was going on* and negotiating territorial concessions with no idea of their strategic significance.
I’m enjoying Skyrim, no question- but I just can’t help but feel the implementation of a few things wasn’t thought through completely.
*I know there’s a war going on because some of the game’s characters have mentioned it, but the Empire and Stormcloaks seem to be engaged in a Sitzkrieg with each other unless you choose to follow the Civil War questline. Which I hadn’t.
I’ve seen five or six skirmishes as I’ve been playing. And there are military encampments, so there’s at least some parts of the world that are related to the war, and you come across bodies every so often.
I think the main difference between Skyrim and FO3 was that in FO, the main quest was more wrapped up in the war, so it was harder to ignore. At least so far as I’ve gotten in Skyrim, the war is basically a side-quest.
NPC’s will revert to deault armor when not in your party. They still have it, and if you open their inventory and do anything at all they’ll equip their best stuff.
Ed: This means they do funny stuff with helmets, but will switch to the best armored one once you do the above.
She’s never not been in my party since we met. And I promise she will not take that one Dwarven helmet off that I upgraded and enchanted for her, no matter what, unless I take it away from her.
Her default armor seems to be Steel, if memory serves.
I just like my new pet better