The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim post-release thread

The Game Room
861

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH

This is the Skyrim Thieves’ Guild song!
We don’t steal things, 'cause that’d be wrong!
We don’t kill people, that’s wrong too!
What’s that you ask? What DO we do?

We put stuff in people’s houses,
Go to breweries, kill their mouses,
Burn up beehives, do some bribing,
Sit around our bar imbibing,
Break some vases, hunt down traitors,
Make transcriptions for translators,
Beat up bandits, disarm traps,
Some kind of weird seance crap

Really, friend, you’ll find us game
For anything you’d care to name.
(That’s if, of course, it’s not a crime
and doesn’t pay, and wastes our time.)

Well, one guy does that stuff, I think;
The rest of us just sleep and drink
And mind our most important rule:
In the Skyrim Thieves Guild…
Stealing Just Ain’t Cool!
Seriously, Brynjolf? Dude? Buddy? I know I’m new to guild and all, and I don’t have a full grasp of the history or local politics, but…I know we’re going through hard times right now, and forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn, but I think I might have an idea for what we could do about it. See, we’re the Thieves’ Guild, and we’ve got all these, well, thieves, who are good at, like, picking locks and sneaking around and taking stuff without being noticed and all that…so I was thinking that maybe, like, it would be a good idea if we were to, you know, GO STEAL SOME SHIT.

Anyway, just a thought. Guess I’ll go find that magic key for the ancient secret society or whatever. Later!

862

Whelp, tested it and it works pretty well. Two things:

  • upon further inspection, the fort/cave is actually due north of Whiterun. You might run into a sabercat or two along the way, but nothing too horrible as long as you stay away from giants
  • the bandit leader in the main cave can be a PITA as much as he is a boon. He does come with a full set of steel armour, which at level 5ish can be a boon if you didn’t go the Stormcloak route or don’t fancy wearing Imperial duds. That said, there are a few helpful ways around him: there are two underlings in the room ripe for Fury spells, and the floor is covered in oil for some quick fireworks. Mostly though, if you’ve done the barrow next to Riverwood and gotten some magical weapon for it (or even just a two-hander, they rock the early game) he’s toast. Bask in the glory of 150+ septims per iron nugget you find, even if you can’t be arsed enchanting them.
    A word of warning though: be aware, the spell only transmutes ore, **not **ingots.
863

Yay. I was feeling guilty about not paying attention about where I picked up that handy little spell.

864

So I just spent the last several hours running my PC’s arse around Skyrim doing sidequests. On the plus side he’s turning into a fairly regular badass, but on the bad side I realized that I’m level 20, starting to find dwarven and glass gear, and I haven’t gotten started on any of the faction questlines. Am I over-leveled, or does Skyrim just have more levels to make up for it? Because if I’m getting near maxxing encounters and equipment out already, I’d almost rather start a new character and focus more on the faction quests.

865

yeah, but its OK, I took myself off to White run and the quest line picked itself up nicely.

866

I’m level 45 and I haven’t done any of the faction stuff. Still neutral to both Empire and Stormcloaks. To me (JMHO here), the game isn’t about leveling…it’s about experiencing the world here. I don’t even bother to look at my level anymore, to be honest. I do quests because they seem interesting, or because I love to see bad guys fly back from my awesome bow of doom, or just love sneaking about and sniping people. I have a quest right now where I have to basically go forth and kill all types of elves (plus some of those twisted elves in the underground who’s name currently escapes me…Falmer? something like that) and I’m stoked to see if I can do it without taking any faction hits.

As for maxing encounters, I’m already there. Mostly now even for the boss mobs, if I’m able to see them from stealth they they are usually dead before they ever see me. I’ve actually one shotted some of the final bosses on quests lately, and even if the first shot doesn’t get them, I usually hit them again before they even see me. My current bow does over 200 points of damage if I’m using the good stuff (ebony or daedric arrows), and from stealth that’s going to be times 3. About the only mobs that I can’t kill in one or two shots now are the elder dragons. But this is the case with my guy in Fallout as well. You basically get to the point where your gear is so powerful that the mobs don’t have a chance, especially if you are speced like me (stealth maxed, bow maxed). If I REALLY wanted a challenge I suppose I could wander about naked using one of the cheap early bows and iron arrows, or get a dull butter knife and give that a shot (or not go into stealth to give the mobs at least a fighting chance), but I’m not into that sort of challenge, personally. If you think you are getting over powered and it bothers you, just gear down…don’t worry about your level.

-XT

867

The last new gear doesn’t stop appearing until somewhere about 47, and then you’d have to do several adventurs before you found everything you might want. And even then, it doesn’t really change things.

I think at 51 or so the levelling system doesn’t increase your enemies power anymore, partly because there’s really no difference in your ability to kick ass between 51 and 81.

868

Been playing since release, but only up to lvl 30 on my first character. But you know what, this is the first video game I’ve found myself actually roleplaying. I started out doing whatever quest came along, then I met Ja-Ree. When I found out our little escapade resulted in…

the deaths of all the ships crew, and Ja-Ree and his sister betraying meI decided to avoid any of the more unsavory questlines.

For example, I’m not going near the “ask about the thieves guild” options unless I have to. I took the “good” option for Azuras star. I did take the contract from the little kid in Windhelm, to kill his school teacher. Not gonna kill her, but if he thinks I’m on the job he won’t try to get anyone else.

My current character is a Breton mage, mainly conjuration (atronachs) and destruction (fire). Not for any gameplay reason other than the effects. My next playthrough is gonna be a bastard of a Dunmer assassin. Stealth, dual wielding and a touch of necromancy for meat shields. And yes he is gonna take on all the dirty quests I’m passing up this time :eek:

869

Magic: I prefer fire rather than ice and shock. Are you finding the effects of ice and shock to be worth the reduction in damage?

Mercy: Sometimes, enemies low on health will say they give up. Do they ever actually give up and stop fighitng you? Everytime I’ve stopped fighting an enemy because he said he’d had enough and was giving up, he attacked me afterward.

870

If you have Oblivion (it’s 75% off on Steam right now) there’s an absolutely fantastic mod - DLC quality - called Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina, adds the entire province accessible just south of Skingrad, new cities, landscapes, quests, items. There’s also a Valenwood mod and a third mod to merge the two together, although I haven’t tried them.

If the Nerevarine had been even during the Oblivion crisis I’m pretty sure Vivec wouldn’t have been taken, Ald Ruhn wouldn’t have been wiped out and the Ministry of Truth not splatted Vivec City. Nice job breaking it, hero!

A nice detail in Skyrim is that you can actually see the island of Vvardenfell on the map screen and if you’re high enough, looks nice and charred. Perhaps they’re setting up for a DLC set there? Apparently if you fidget around you can also see the Imperial City island (looks a little different from Oblivion - the sacl was evidently a bit more harsh than we thought) and Solstheim from Morrowind’s Bloodmoon expansion:

871

You don’t need to witness this chat. I didn’t even see again the guy in my first game, and his sister still told me to warn the Jarl when I met her. I’m pretty sure that another villager advised me to do the same in my second game. So, I don’t think you can miss this quest without really trying hard.

(as far as I can tell, because it’s possible my character overheard the chat while I wasn’t paying attention to background babble)
By the way, note that generally speaking there are conversations, speeches, etc… you can miss in the game if you don’t follow around such or such guy. I don’t think that it ever matters. It just gives some background, seemingly.

872

I do think that there are some map updates that are triggered by being within earshot of people who feel compelled to share rumors with you. I think they are randomized and repeated throughout the yammerings of all of the various NPCs though, and they can only add locations to the map, not trigger entire quests.

873

Just got my 3* sneak bow damage. Love putting down Draugr before they even get off the shelf

874

It is not the way of the people of Tamriel. Guilds of all kinds are filled with layabouts, and whoever is willing to actually go out and actually do something become guild masters within days, and then are no longer required to do anything else. Nobody would dream of asking. The advantage of this system is that one person can often become the master of every goddamned guild in the region without actually being bogged down in managing any of these guilds.

875

Well, lightning does have the advantage of no travel time, so there’s that. However, I find direct damage magic to be a waste of time in general - 25 points of damage for a third of my magic bar ? Really ? I’ve got a badly enchanted one handed iron axe that does that every darn swing. I can’t even one-shot a bloody elk with the 50 damage fireball. Maybe it gets better with dual cast or something (for double the magicka, weee!), but I don’t even care to find out.
Paralysis and Invisibility can stay on my favorite list though :smiley:

I’m thinking there might be a morale system built in, but clunkily. I just witnessed a member of a 4-man bandit hit squad spend most of the fight squatting in a bush after I set one of his friends on their leader and killed the third. After dispatching the leader and not being shouted at any more, I wondered where he’d gotten stuck in the geometry but there he was, possibly in a puddle of his own waste. Didn’t even raise a hand to defend himself, though he kept begging me to stop hitting.

Besides, there are some morale Restoration spells for your own mooks, stands to reason there’d be a morale somewhere.

That being said, yeah, 99% of the time when someone yields, they’re just about to stand up for another whack at you.

876

HAHA! I do that too. Too much fun.

My bow skill is at 100 now, and I’ve got everything in the bow perk tree. My sneak is up around 96. Unless I’m discovered, fookin’ everything is a one-shot kill. Almost dull. Almost :slight_smile:

877

I don’t know if it’s the same for PCs but NPCs do okay damage with shock. I was getting pretty cocky and distracted since it had been so long since anything really scratched me bad.

The I came across an “Arch Electromancer” I think it was . Dude made me go heavy on potions to survive long enough to reach him and decapitate him.

878

How about 90 points damage plus a stagger effect for 1/20th of your magic bar? I went all-out mage for my first character, never wielded anything besides a soul trap dagger very occasionally, or wore anything besides robes. If you invest in the perks and tailor your gear for it, you’re pretty much untouchable - every shot that hits an enemy has that knockback effect, so enemies can rarely hit back. Except multiple archers can be nasty if you can’t see where they’re shooting from. Multiple melee attackers? Just shoot fireballs at your feet. :slight_smile:

879

I could be wrong but it seems to me that Dragons take more damage from Lightning.

880

How do you see the damage you’re doing? I mean, I can see the health bar go down, but I’m not seeing specific numbers anywhere.