Skyrim., Sitting here, slipping into an alternate realm... Options

[Critias]

One other quick note, when it comes to interacting with stuff in your inventory? This may or may not be common knowledge by now, but someone on another forum just mentioned they were tearing their hair out over it...

You can manipulate/zoom/rotate/examine stuff in your inventory.

[ Spoiler ]

This becomes night-essential for the various "Dragon Claw" unique items scattered around and the puzzle-doors they're individually associated with. The key to each such door is written, plain as day, on the bottom of each claw, telling you how to spin the big stone wheels, line up the symbols in the right order, and proceed.

I'd hate to picture anyone doing the "trial and error" method like someone just ranted about, because I cannot imagine a worse way to waste time, prematurely age myself, and learn to absolutely hate a game. No wonder he hated Skyrim, he'd been raging about those doors for a long time.

[Tanegar]

Steam has a Midweek Madness sale on Skyrim, 33% off ($40 rather than $60). I took advantage, and it's downloading now.

[Erik Baird]

I'd hate to picture anyone doing the "trial and error" method like someone just ranted about, because I cannot imagine a worse way to waste time, prematurely age myself, and learn to absolutely hate a game. No wonder he hated Skyrim, he'd been raging about those doors for a long time.

So... it'd be like playing Myst? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Tanegar]

Just ended my first session of Skyrim. Initial impression: basically similar to the other games built on the Oblivion engine, only prettier. Mind you, that's not a bad thing. Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas were tons of fun in my opinion. I've just gotten to the part where you fight the first dragon (I don't think the fact that you fight dragons is really a spoiler), and it killed me the first time. I'm downloading the free high-resolution textures DLC, and then I'm going back in.

My character is a female Nord. I'm taking a "what feels right at the moment" approach to character building, so I don't know a lot about her at the moment. She likes Destruction magic, one-handed axes, and heavy armor, knows her way around a forge, and so far is motivated mainly by treasure.

[Critias]

Inspired by a recent Ars Magica campaign that started up, I made a loyal Imperial combat mage. He opens with Lightning Bolt and Sparks, then wades in with his sword and shield once he's out of mana. I'm grinding Enchanting so he can start adding Shocking damage to his weapon and some good bonuses to his armor (gotta stick with Imperial Armor, but need to give it some real help to keep it competitive)...so far, so good. It's my first playthrough going Imperial instead of Stormcloak, too, so I'm looking forward to some new quests and stuff.

[crash2029]

As of yet I haven't gone stormcloak. I cannot get over my dislike of Ulfric. I have decided go stormcloak with my current character, an altmer maye. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's for Talos and not Ulfric.

[Tanegar]

Horses! See under: Dosen't give a shit. They will murderize with extreme prejudice any and all that threaten you. Keep healing that gluefactory for Dragon shame, ie: In Dragon Heaven, "So, how'd you die, I was stuck down by the combined might of 2 city's archers and mages!" "<Silence">

I actually wish my horse gave more of a shit. She's gotten herself killed by a saber cat (had to reload shortly after that, due to getting myself killed by a different saber cat, so I have a horse again), and honestly is kind of an obstacle in combat. I've seen her pursue a fleeing wolf, which shattered my suspension of disbelief into an arbitrarily large number of bits.

[Critias]

I went Stormcloak with my first two characters just because, well, they weren't the ones that had been trying to cut my head off (plus one of my guys was a Nord, so it just felt right).

That said, the further I got with each of them, the less and less I liked the Stormcloaks. I think they just set it up like that on purpose -- there's truly execrable stuff going on with each faction, so that you're basically picking what is (in your opinion, if not your character's) the lesser of two evils, no matter what. I think they were out to make it less clear a distinction as, say, the New California Republic vs. The Legion, in Fallout: New Vegas, and they were trying to present both sides as full of some heroes, some villains, and a lot of everyday people.

In my opinion, they might have overdone that a bit, as you may end up not really liking either side, which feels a little weird. But at least it wasn't as blindingly obvious a "good guy/bad guy" choice as F:NV, which I suppose increases replay value and such.

[Tanegar]

I also wish Lydia would swallow her damn pride and get on the horse with me. I feel like a weapons-grade jackass making my huskarl run behind me.

Anybody know how to take screenshots?

[X-Kalibur]

I went Stormcloak with my first two characters just because, well, they weren't the ones that had been trying to cut my head off (plus one of my guys was a Nord, so it just felt right).

That said, the further I got with each of them, the less and less I liked the Stormcloaks. I think they just set it up like that on purpose -- there's truly execrable stuff going on with each faction, so that you're basically picking what is (in your opinion, if not your character's) the lesser of two evils, no matter what. I think they were out to make it less clear a distinction as, say, the New California Republic vs. The Legion, in Fallout: New Vegas, and they were trying to present both sides as full of some heroes, some villains, and a lot of everyday people.

In my opinion, they might have overdone that a bit, as you may end up not really liking either side, which feels a little weird. But at least it wasn't as blindingly obvious a "good guy/bad guy" choice as F:NV, which I suppose increases replay value and such.

I find that more... gritty and realistic. Hell, look at our elected officials these days. Don't we usually end up picking the "lesser of two evils"? Everyone has skeletons in their closet, after all.

Tanegar - I think that through Steam the default Screenshot key is F11 or F12. Check your steam overlay to make certain, you can re-bind it as well.

[Critias]

I find that more... gritty and realistic. Hell, look at our elected officials these days. Don't we usually end up picking the "lesser of two evils"? Everyone has skeletons in their closet, after all.

Yeah, I certainly agree the end result was more gritty and realistic. It's just also led to disappointment with some people, because they wanted epic fantasy, instead. It can be irritating to keep finding those skeletons, in a game universe where you're actively killing people and stuff in order to keep someone in power. I don't mind a bit of moral bankruptcy -- hell, I play Shadowrun, it's par for the course -- but particularly when the "gritty realism" of various sides tends to involve great big chunks of ethnic cleansing, racist fanaticism, religious intolerance, yadda yadda yadda, some folks really get their buttons pushed and don't want to support either side.

[CanRay]

Option 3 would have been nice in this situation, like the FOURTH option in New Vegas. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Critias]

Oh, heck yeah. "Fuck it, I'm the Dragonborn, I want to be king" would've been a lot of fun.

[Tanegar]

I think they were out to make it less clear a distinction as, say, the New California Republic vs. The Legion, in Fallout: New Vegas, and they were trying to present both sides as full of some heroes, some villains, and a lot of everyday people.

They could have done that at least as well by making both sides likeable. They both have legitimate causes: the Imperials are trying to hold the Empire together, while the Stormcloaks want to hold on to their native traditions, and the only things making those two goals incompatible are the White-Gold Concordat and the Thalmor. IMO, there really should have been an option to unite the Imperials and the Stormcloaks against the Altmer.

[CanRay]

Oh, heck yeah. "Fuck it, I'm the Dragonborn, I want to be king" would've been a lot of fun.

Damn straight! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Tiralee]

Oh yes - After the Embassy fun and games I made it a point to kill any Thalmor patrols I found wandering...often by "accidently" bringing a dragon over to reduce my chances of getting a bounty. That, and head-shooting any Stormcloak messengers I saw running about.

It's a real pity you can't use your awesome skills for the forces of good in Skyrim, just the forces of <mandatory plot line>.
And having the guards say something else about my character (Like, "Oh, good afternoon to you, Archmagister..." when I walk by, followed <sotto> by, "Yeah, keep walking...damn mages and their magic") or recognise that I single-handedly stormed the assassin's guild and stealth-killed the lot of them (apart from the spider.)

....Or that most of the Reunification quests WERE accomplaished single-handedly (Storm call helped, that was delicious fun)
"D'ja hear about this mad Legate that the Legion use as a weapon of last resort? Yeah, well that's why no-one's heard from <Insert fortname here> Recently..."


-Tir

[Critias]

Oh yes - After the Embassy fun and games I made it a point to kill any Thalmor patrols I found wandering...often by "accidently" bringing a dragon over to reduce my chances of getting a bounty.

I've always just engaged them in polite conversation, mentioning in passing that I, perhaps, worship Talos. Then they attack me, and I'm just defending myself. No need to worry about a bounty, if they throw the first fireball. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[X-Kalibur]

Oh, heck yeah. "Fuck it, I'm the Dragonborn, I want to be king" would've been a lot of fun.

I think you should get to work on making that mod.... Just sayin'

[Tanegar]

Is there an enchanting table in the College of Winterhold, and if so, where is it?

[Tiralee]

Archmage's Quarters - I also think there's an alchemy one, as well as another alchemy one in the Heap.

Oh - and get the atronach forge recipes if you want some uber spells at low-levels. Hint: there's a reason why ruined books exist, now.
Also: broomsticks!

[X-Kalibur]

Is there an enchanting table in the College of Winterhold, and if so, where is it?

Aside from the Arch-Mage quarters there's an enchanting Table in eastern rest quarters (I forget the name, the western one has an alchemy table though).

The Hi-Rez pack is really nice, I buckled down last night and stayed up almost all night finishing up the Thieves Guild - by which I mean running jobs to "restore" the guild and become the guild master.

[Critias]

I think you should get to work on making that mod.... Just sayin'

If HTML wasn't about the limit of my "coding" skills, and if I didn't have Skyrim on my 360 instead of my PC...I'd love to.

[KarmaInferno]

Oh, man...

Point of general advice. Never ever get a Bethesda open-world sandbox game on anything other than a PC.

Because otherwise you'll miss out on the massive PC-only mod and add-on community.




-k

[X-Kalibur]

Oh, man...

Point of general advice. Never ever get a Bethesda open-world sandbox game on anything other than a PC.

Because otherwise you'll miss out on the massive PC-only mod and add-on community.




-k

If I'm not mistaken they have or are going to make available mods to console owners this time around.

[Tanegar]

Behold, she who rode out from Whiterun as simple Kyria, daughter of Skyrim, and returned Kyria Dragon-Blooded, slayer of the dragon Mirmulnir! Gaze upon her steadfast countenance, and count yourselves accurs'd that you were not there to share in the glory of that dread battle!