# The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 12, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846 "2010-12-12T02:45:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/181 "2011-06-08T19:56:52Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > There’s a new gameplay video from E3 that looks awesome: > > [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-elder-scrolls/714851](http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-elder-scrolls/714851) > > This is probably a must buy for me. Holy Moly! The combat graphics (esp vs the dragon) were mindblowing! I really hope it’s got a great character-advancement system to go with those amazing graphics. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/182 "2011-06-08T20:40:10Z")
Graphics looked alright but certainly not 6 years better than Oblivion. Hard to tell on the low res compressed video. Kinda sparse. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/183 "2011-06-08T20:41:11Z")
The graphics didn’t really impress me. They’re better than Oblivion, but Oblivion is several years old now. Still see a lot of flat “rock” textures instead of proper tessellation, or even more advanced texture effects. And the lighting and foliage isn’t up to par with other titles, textures are low rez, etc. Still looks pretty damn good. What DID impress me were the animations! The character animations are 1,000 times better than in Oblivion, and the Dragon’s attacks, flight and landings were absolutely convincing. Can’t wait! ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/184 "2011-06-09T00:59:36Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > The graphics didn’t really impress me. They’re better than Oblivion, but Oblivion is several years old now. Still see a lot of flat “rock” textures instead of proper tessellation, or even more advanced texture effects. And the lighting and foliage isn’t up to par with other titles, textures are low rez, etc. > > Still looks pretty damn good. > > What DID impress me were the animations! The character animations are 1,000 times better than in Oblivion, and the Dragon’s attacks, flight and landings were absolutely convincing. > > Can’t wait! Animation is not part of graphics?! In any case, to clarify, what really impressed me was in fact the animations. Given the low resolution of the video I wasn’t really looking at texture details and things like that. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/185 "2011-06-09T02:11:26Z")
Just watched that video. Wow, just wow! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/186 "2011-06-09T04:02:44Z")
Very nice! Just the other day I was trying to install that Morrowind graphics overhaul (damned MGEgui won’t work), but this looks promising enough that I may have to build up few months of Elder Scrolls withdrawal. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/187 "2011-06-10T11:59:25Z")
Have they decided on a game breaking mechanic yet? Will it be alchemy like Morrowind or invisibility like Oblivion? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/188 "2011-06-10T14:38:32Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Have they decided on a game breaking mechanic yet? Will it be alchemy like Morrowind or invisibility like Oblivion? LOL. You’re strong enough to not be tempted right? That’s the downside of open world games. I never discovered the invisibility in Oblivion, I mainly did sword, bow & arrow, and a few simple spells. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/189 "2011-06-10T19:01:23Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > LOL. You’re strong enough to not be tempted right? That’s the downside of open world games. I never discovered the invisibility in Oblivion, I mainly did sword, bow & arrow, and a few simple spells. A 100% chamelon buff makes you able to stealth flawlessly, and remain undetected even after sneak-attacking an enemy. Even ridiculously-scaled high-level ogres can be whittled down effortlessly. Cap out your alchemy (by making cheap restore fatigue potions from foods bought in shops) so you can make one-ingredient potions. Pick all of the bloodgrass you can find. Make it into chameleon potions. The buff stacks (easily to above 100%), and lasts a long time. Alchemy was otherwise still kinda broken in Oblivion, because even cheap ingredients could make powerful potions. Stawberry + flour = damage reflection; drinking four could give you like 96% reflection. Strawberry, flour, orange, and tomato give a cheap potion that grants damage reflect, shield, and life detection (far better than any life detection spells or items); the only bad side effect was burden by a few pounds for a few seconds. Of course, alchemy in Morrowind could more literally break the game. Fortify intellect (ash yam plus something else not-too-expensive) potions make you better at brewing potions. Brew, drink, brew, drink, brew, etc. and before long your fortify strength potions give a buff of over 20,000 that lasts for a week. Try that with a speed potion, and the game crashes trying to make you run faster than a speeding bullet. ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/190 "2011-06-10T20:04:37Z")
And to think I wasted all that time learning how to use the Modder Kit just so I could start with a Belt of Ignore Inventory that had permanent 10000 feather on it when I could’ve just exploited alchemy instead. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/191 "2011-06-10T20:43:52Z")
> [@Headrush042](#): > > And to think I wasted all that time learning how to use the Modder Kit just so I could start with a Belt of Ignore Inventory that had permanent 10000 feather on it when I could’ve just exploited alchemy instead. :smack: Well, the problem with five-digit strength is that you one-shot enemies god-mode style, which gets boring pretty quick (and breaks your weapons almost as quickly). (I forget, can you make feather potions in Morrowind?) For more inventory, there’s a different trick to get permanent feathering. Go to a spellmaker and make a spell with two abilities: feather 100-100 (or whatever) for 2 seconds on self, and soul trap for 1 second on target. The “soul trap glitch” will make any accompanying buff in the spell permanent (and invisible). Cast that spell (preferably at a ceiling so you don’t accidentally hit anyone with the soul trap) over an over for a minute or two, and you should be able to carry everything you want without resorting to game-breaking strength buffs. You can use this glitch for other buffs, but I wouldn’t use it for anything besides attributes (permanent water breathing will bite you in the ass). ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/192 "2011-06-11T00:03:59Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > (permanent water breathing will bite you in the ass). Why? ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/193 "2011-06-11T00:17:10Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Why? There’s a part of the game the pilgrimage where you have to intentionally “drown” yourself. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/194 "2011-06-13T05:49:50Z")
[Lead producer](http://www.gamersmint.com/bethesda-consoles-to-be-the-lead-platform-for-skyrim-aim-to-make-it-really-accessible) on the game says that consoles are going to be the lead platform on skyrim (expected) but also that they plan on dumbing the game down: > [@](#): > > “We wanted to take it and make it really accessible,” the producer said.“… We still have the complexity behind the scenes, but we wanted to make it so that you could pick up the controller and play and it was easy; the average person could get into it…We knew we wanted to make the user interface a little bit more open and available … get away from the stats and things like that.” Eww, stats! That’s like.. nerd shit. LET’S DO GEARS OF WAR WITH DRAGONS BROSKI ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/195 "2011-06-13T11:24:04Z")
Oh fuck me. I really hope that’s just BS marketing some suit decided the devs needed to spew out for some mainstream article. The game IS nerd nirvana. God damn it, RPG developers get over the fact that games like this are never going to appeal to the Madden, Call of duty “Brahs” out there. Never. Quit “Dragonage-ing 2” our RPG’s! Again, I’m hoping this is just marketing. I also don’t understand their sudden disregard of PC gamers. We love that franchise. The last couple of games sold extremely well on PC. Heck, who is still playing morrowind? PC gamers are, thanks to the huge mod community. I don’t see the reason for their rhetoric. And finally, this made me laugh and cry at the same time: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SV97ozaD4vs/hqdefault.jpg "An Assay on Why Bioware Sucks") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV97ozaD4vs) ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/196 "2011-06-13T18:22:30Z")
Well, despite the soundbites, it looks like their doing good by PC gamers. They are confirming a “much more powerful toolset” (than the Oblivion one, I’m assuming) coming out day one for modders to play with. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/197 "2011-06-13T21:03:30Z")
So long as they release proper mod tools, the game will be saved from whatever poor decisions they make. Oblivion, unmodded, IMO, is a fairly mediocre game - it had had some beautiful visuals and cool features but a lot of the mechanics were just poorly thought out. A properly modded oblivion, on the other hand, is a great game. It actually makes me sort of sad that most of the people that ever experienced Oblivion experienced the mediocre version, not knowing what it could become. It’s like a work of art that most people could only read the incomplete or censored version of, or something. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/198 "2011-06-13T23:21:59Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > So long as they release proper mod tools, the game will be saved from whatever poor decisions they make. Oblivion, unmodded, IMO, is a fairly mediocre game - it had had some beautiful visuals and cool features but a lot of the mechanics were just poorly thought out. A properly modded oblivion, on the other hand, is a great game. > > It actually makes me sort of sad that most of the people that ever experienced Oblivion experienced the mediocre version, not knowing what it could become. It’s like a work of art that most people could only read the incomplete or censored version of, or something. What did the mods bring? Can you recommend some? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/199 "2011-06-14T00:25:43Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > What did the mods bring? _Everything_, pretty much. New critters, places, items, quests, factions, game mechanics, interfaces, magic systems, weapons, graphics enhancements and replacements. And on and on. > [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Can you recommend some? For Oblivion, a few I’ve got are Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul (drastically changes the game in many ways), Unofficial Oblivion Patch, Oblivion Mod Manager, Oblivion script Extender (needed for some mods). ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846/200 "2011-06-14T00:50:41Z")
Basically check out [tesnexus.com](http://tesnexus.com) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/563846.md?page=11)