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The Elder Scrolls V: Dragonborn |OT| Did you think you were the only one?

cdyhybrid

Member
Bought Skyrim LE for PC a couple of days ago and made quick test with high settings and it worked fine.
Well, finally got to tweak it a bit more and... It runs surprisingly well. Dropped the AA and slightly lowered shadows and tweaked distances to gain a bit steadier frame rate.
Looks good enough, better than on Xbox (higher resolution is probably the biggest thing).
Not gonna add any high-rez textures nor ENB shaders, don't think i can run those with decent framerate without sacrificing resolution. Besides, i don't really like ENB shaders, they look kind of "fake" in screenshots.

Playing with 360 controller by the way, this neat "mod" makes controller very usable too. Normally you can't quick save with 360 controller enabled.

But now i wonder.. play the game once, with all DLC and unofficial patches, or do i mod it right away? Haven't ever played Dragonborn DLC so...
As for mods, i'll probably have to do my own overhaul, haven't seen one i like so far. Has anyone compiled a list of overhaul mods? SkyRe, Requiem, etc.? Before starting my own, i probably should check major ones out first.

There are high-performance texture packs that won't kill your computer but will still look better than the default textures. Just search the Nexus. As far as overhauls, I use ACE because it's modular, and it's compatible with a lot more mods than SkyRe (for example). Just look into them all and install the one that makes the changes you like the best.

Finally, there's a mod thread here where you might be able to find some better information!
 

Woorloog

Banned
There are high-performance texture packs that won't kill your computer but will still look better than the default textures. Just search the Nexus. As far as overhauls, I use ACE because it's modular, and it's compatible with a lot more mods than SkyRe (for example). Just look into them all and install the one that makes the changes you like the best.

Finally, there's a mod thread here where you might be able to find some better information!

Thought there was a mod thread. Probably should sub to it.

Considering i'm running the game on a laptop, going to add a bunch of mods (modding tends to escalate...), and running close to the edge already (dips under 30 at times but not as badly as 360 version) i think i'll pass on all texture packs. Of course textures are more demanding about memory than CPU but still...
Besides, i hate texture packs being mismatched with mods with additional assets, experienced enough of this with Morrowind, for example with Tamriel Rebuild, re-textured all the original assets or nearly so, while all TR assets were with standard resolution. Ugh. Major example but still.

Now to check out that ACE, i reckon i won't like it either...
EDIT not really keen on ACE either.
 

Slermy

Member
If you're going to go through all of the DLC, I'd recommend grabbing Hearthfire as well. I enjoyed the housebuilding, and additional food/ingredients/items.
 

Edwardo

Member
If you're going to go through all of the DLC, I'd recommend grabbing Hearthfire as well. I enjoyed the housebuilding, and additional food/ingredients/items.

Oops I forgot to mention that I do have Hearthfire. I'll probably get into some of the housebuilding and other hearthfire things soon too.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I have the mods i want (aside from the kind of overhaul that doesn't exist, i don't like Requiem nor SkyRe) but i have the same problem as always: I can't figure out what kind of character i want to play.
I really like the paladin concept, heavy armor, two-hander, restoration and some destruction for ranged attacks, cloak spells. Only, it sucks, because magic sucks in Skyrim. Switching between two-hander and magic is slow*, early spells suck, and leveling these skills together ain't easy without one falling behind.
A pure mage or spellsword are also something i want to play but as i said, magic sucks. Hell, it sucks in Morrowind and Oblivion, at least in early game, later it would be okay but training it while it sucks... Fuck that.
Pure warrior is kind of boring in the long run, and i can't mix archery to it effectively either, it is much more effective and efficient to stick one offensive skills, unfortunately.
So this leaves me a sneaky character... and i've played that already. Guess i'll have to play it again, seeing as it is the only working character in Skyrim as it is.
The nightblade suffers from the same issues as the spellsword, and from the fact Skyrim doesn't have many useful spells for stealth characters. Some Alteration spells are good but as a whole the skill sucks, and Illusion alone is kind of boring (not to mention being nigh overpowered, though i guess i could up the difficulty... and be even more reliant on it).

*1h with magic is no better, you can't attack and cast effectively at once: attacks are slow if casting.
 
Building a gaming PC for the first time specifically to play this game (that I already own and have put hundreds of hours into) with mods. Worth it.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
Building a gaming PC for the first time specifically to play this game (that I already own and have put hundreds of hours into) with mods. Worth it.

I built my computer back when this came out for the same reason. Couldn't bring myself to ever play an Elder Scrolls game without mods.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
Here's my proposed system specs - figured this would be a good place to ask alongside the "I need a new PC" thread.

CPU: AMD FD6300WMHKBOX FX-6300 6-Core

GPU: MSI Gaming N760 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit

Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)

Will this make a pretty decent Skyrim-box? I want to be able to play on max with possibly some optimization mods.

I don't know enough to tell you. Hopefully someone else here knows, but you might be able to get a good answer in the Build A PC Thread.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Here's my proposed system specs - figured this would be a good place to ask alongside the "I need a new PC" thread.

CPU: AMD FD6300WMHKBOX FX-6300 6-Core

GPU: MSI Gaming N760 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit

Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)

Will this make a pretty decent Skyrim-box? I want to be able to play on max with possibly some optimization mods.

You're good to go, i think. Considering my relatively low-mid-end laptop can run the game on just-below-high settings rather well (dropped AA and lowered shadows basically).
Skyrim is not particularly demanding game.

And this may be of interest: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1

EDIT http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2013/06/25/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-2gb-review/6
EDIT You're definitively good to go for Skyrim, no idea about other games.
EDIT this site's testing method is silly (area around Whiterun is kind of empty) but you're still good to go. For Skyrim.
 

Slermy

Member
I have the mods i want (aside from the kind of overhaul that doesn't exist, i don't like Requiem nor SkyRe) but i have the same problem as always: I can't figure out what kind of character i want to play.
I really like the paladin concept, heavy armor, two-hander, restoration and some destruction for ranged attacks, cloak spells. Only, it sucks, because magic sucks in Skyrim. Switching between two-hander and magic is slow*, early spells suck, and leveling these skills together ain't easy without one falling behind.
A pure mage or spellsword are also something i want to play but as i said, magic sucks. Hell, it sucks in Morrowind and Oblivion, at least in early game, later it would be okay but training it while it sucks... Fuck that.
Pure warrior is kind of boring in the long run, and i can't mix archery to it effectively either, it is much more effective and efficient to stick one offensive skills, unfortunately.
So this leaves me a sneaky character... and i've played that already. Guess i'll have to play it again, seeing as it is the only working character in Skyrim as it is.
The nightblade suffers from the same issues as the spellsword, and from the fact Skyrim doesn't have many useful spells for stealth characters. Some Alteration spells are good but as a whole the skill sucks, and Illusion alone is kind of boring (not to mention being nigh overpowered, though i guess i could up the difficulty... and be even more reliant on it).

*1h with magic is no better, you can't attack and cast effectively at once: attacks are slow if casting.

Have you tried the other schools of magic? I think the others aside from destruction magic are much more interesting. I love the Illusion school, but you have to start working at it early or else the enemies will outclass you making the spells worthless. If you did want to stick with the destruction spells, try the runes. That way you can "prep" an encounter and then switch to your melee weapons and drag enemies into them.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
My problem with the other schools of magic is that they require a lot of menu-diving to be useful, e.g. going into the menu to keep Stoneflesh up. I mostly just dual wield firebolts and have fast-healing on hotkey.

Magic is actually pretty good in Skyrim and honestly, I even find it more fun because its slightly more fair than melee. The primary problem is that stagger perks can break the game, but simultaneously, the game's normal combat can be mixed if you don't take them. I just find there's a lot more variety when using destruction spells because you have the optional trade off of spamming Apprentice level dual-casts to keep the enemy staggered, but you'll potentially run out of magicka doing it, but the spells themselves don't do tremendous damage. Moving up to Adept or Expert spells will drain you really fast.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Skyrim's magic is pretty bad because it doesn't scale well (basically, it sucks). You need to work on it a lot to keep it useful, or exploit certain things (Impact). And this requires full-time magery. And i do not like pure classes really. So i'm really talking only for myself but...

Pure mage is fun until i realize i'm sticking to one thing only because i can't do anything but to stick to one thing, for various reason (mana limits, need to advance offensive skills quickly, why waste mana on armor spell when i day if someone gets to hit me anyway). And it also stops being fun when i realize i can't afford more advanced spells, and i can't obtain money (by killing and looting things, i don't like crafting aside from occasional use) effectively without those advanced spells... Unless i start exploiting the system, which won't feel like being a mage.

Mage-hybrids do not work well in Skyrim either, magic is cumbersome due to constant menu use even with hotkeys (and i play with 360 controller). Melee doesn't combine with magic as i explained earlier, it is impossible to aim fast (using magic slows down aiming with 360 controller, no idea about KB/M) and prevents fast melee attacks.

Shouting works well due to their own button but is hampered by long cooldowns and not being a skill, it doesn't advance my character.
Illusion magic: Powerful once trained, to the point of being a game-breaker. Nearly no enemy can resist you, or detect you (especially if combine with sneaking). And then you see a dragon and your magic is utterly pointless. Unless i have something else with Illusion, which kind of defeats the point of Illusion magic in the first place (avoiding combat and making enemies fight each other, utterly pointless in support role because if you use melee/archery, you want to use your weapons as much as possible for highest skill-gain).
Runes: Can't use them right away, weak and AFAIK they don't benefit from perks aside from Rune Mastery, don't scale at all, mana-inefficient. Much more effective to blast my enemies with direct attacks and exploit terrain to stay out of reach. Rune Mastery is a waste of perk, for a mere 3 spells (unless you count the few runes added by Dragonborn, which are in other schools...).

A note on staves: Who the fuck thought it was a good idea not to have them increase skill of the relevant school? Who the fuck thought it was a good idea not to have them benefit from perks? Who the fuck though it was good idea to make Illusion/Conjuration staves so damn useless due to their low magnitude (and Conjuration and Restoration spells also suffer from this low magnitude issue as they're not boosted by dual-casting unlike Illusion spells, only duration).

Notes on Oblivion and Morrowind magic:
Oblivion's magic system had the advantage of quick casting, making it easy to combine with other play-styles, but the armor effectiveness and limited access to spells without enough skill (or Arcane University or fast travel to city guild halls) killed it for me. Also the magic was kind of exploitative in nature (weakness stacking on enemies) though it was powerful, after long training, which is a no-no for me as i want to feel good right away (Skyrim's magic does sort-of do this).
Morrowind magic was also powerful, aside from high-end enemies having Reflect... And it also suffers from casting stance, long casting times, failure chance... Also looked boring and terrible. Code Patch helps with addition of quick-cast key.

---

Still, despite all my above complaints, i'm planning a hybrid mage-stealth character at the moment. Alteration, Illusion, Sneak, Pickpocket, Archery.
I don't think it's going to work well though, going to require slow, methodical playing to keep skills up (Calm enemies and then kill them anyway).
In theory the build should have good synergy, Illusion providing quiet casting and being crowd control and boosting sneaking, Alteration providing armor and magic-resistance and utility for sneaking, sneaking and archery giving me potent killing power, and Pickpocket being there just for fun and roleplaying.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
It's a pain that Destruction is so hard to level up. Current character is a primarily bow-using assassin type, but I want to supplement that with some Destruction magic (mainly in the form of runes), with the idea being that I ideally am able to snipe all of the enemies before they can find me and I'm forced to get into close quarters with them. Runes and the rest of the Destruction spells would be my contingency plan if I'm found out or am forced to engage in close quarters.

However, it would be pretty difficult to keep Archery AND Destruction leveling up at an acceptable rate unless I just arbitrarily switch how I'm attacking enemies - it just feels really clunky.

Bah. I suppose I could just use it until I'm able to cast runes and then let it slowly level up on its own.
 

Woorloog

Banned
It's a pain that Destruction is so hard to level up. Current character is a primarily bow-using assassin type, but I want to supplement that with some Destruction magic (mainly in the form of runes), with the idea being that I ideally am able to snipe all of the enemies before they can find me and I'm forced to get into close quarters with them. Runes and the rest of the Destruction spells would be my contingency plan if I'm found out or am forced to engage in close quarters.

However, it would be pretty difficult to keep Archery AND Destruction leveling up at an acceptable rate unless I just arbitrarily switch how I'm attacking enemies - it just feels really clunky.

Bah. I suppose I could just use it until I'm able to cast runes and then let it slowly level up on its own.

Number one rule of Skyrim: Stick to one offensive skill. It is practically impossible to level two effectively, it halves the advancement speed of both.
At least that's my experience (and that's hundreds of hours of playtime).

EDIT your idea does have some merit. You need 25 Destruction, Appretice Perk and over 100 magicka (preferably much more) to keep casting Runes often, and since you use bow, it ain't easy as you need to constantly switch between them...
EDIT Rune base cost is about 230, perk halves this and the skill cuts it down slightly too, the end result is that you need about 200 magicka to cast a Rune twice, assuming you didn't have time to recharge some magicka between Rune explosions.

EDIT are you on PC? If you're, then you could perhaps mod the game a bit to make your concept easier: Modify the game setting that limits the PC to one Rune. Or look if there's a mod for that.
EDIT: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/6812/? Increases rune limit to 20 apparently.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
Number one rule of Skyrim: Stick to one offensive skill. It is practically impossible to level two effectively, it halves the advancement speed of both.
At least that's my experience (and that's hundreds of hours of playtime).

EDIT your idea does have some merit. You need 25 Destruction, Appretice Perk and over 100 magicka (preferably much more) to keep casting Runes often, and since you use bow, it ain't easy as you need to constantly switch between them...
EDIT Rune base cost is about 230, perk halves this and the skill cuts it down slightly too, the end result is that you need about 200 magicka to cast a Rune twice, assuming you didn't have time to recharge some magicka between Rune explosions.

EDIT are you on PC? If you're, then you could perhaps mod the game a bit to make your concept easier: Modify the game setting that limits the PC to one Rune. Or look if there's a mod for that.

I am on PC, and there is a mod for that. I rarely run into packs of more than 2 or 3 enemies (at least this early in the game) so one rune would probably be enough. I don't plan on needing to cast them over and over, it's more like I'd find a good spot to snipe from, plant the rune to cover my back (or the only path to me) and then start shooting. I'm not worried about having to switch from bow to spell often (that said, it wouldn't bother me, hotkeys work fine for that). I guess I just need to bite the bullet and use Destruction when I can, at least until I can cast one rune. I figure that with proper sneaking and some patience I won't have to, say, fight an entire bandit fort at once.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I am on PC, and there is a mod for that. I rarely run into packs of more than 2 or 3 enemies (at least this early in the game) so one rune would probably be enough. I don't plan on needing to cast them over and over, it's more like I'd find a good spot to snipe from, plant the rune to cover my back (or the only path to me) and then start shooting. I'm not worried about having to switch from bow to spell often (that said, it wouldn't bother me, hotkeys work fine for that). I guess I just need to bite the bullet and use Destruction when I can, at least until I can cast one rune. I figure that with proper sneaking and some patience I won't have to, say, fight an entire bandit fort at once.

Here's your plan's weak point.
It won't work. Enemies tend to be in open areas, with no good sniping spots (not saying it won't happen but is rare for sure). And if you go where they come... well, they won't try if they're melee, and probably won't walk into your rune.
Runes are good against melee enemies rushing at you, or you can bait your enemies to run into your rune (go over it, enemies will follow you...).
Anything else, meh. Skyrim's AI is not sophisticated enough to think of flanking or getting behind you... Ironically the AI's stupidity works for their advantage where your plan is concerned.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
Runes are positively useless after a certain level. They just don't nearly enough damage. And neither do most spells. I found Destruction to be quite useless as a 'main' attack type. It was ok to use for secondary measures, but you really need to get some high level enchanted gear as soon as possible so you can keep your magicka levels useable or else you just run out quickly and are fucked.

Are there mods that make magic more powerful?
 
Are there mods that make magic more powerful?

There are mods for everything.

I kinda like the idea of a stealth/magic character, like an assassin who conjures his weapons and distractions.

One thing the A.I. in Skyrim needs is to take a look at Dishonored. If you kill someone, move the goddamn body, because if it gets discovered the enemies go on high alert.
 

Woorloog

Banned
There are mods to make magic more powerful BUT they tend to make it alone more powerful. As i've complained, there are not many overhauls that touch everything, and those that do, do a lot more than just enhance vanilla Skyrim, they turn it into something else.

Destruction is worthless as a secondary skill really, IMO, and as a primary it is meh, though it does work with patience (low damage=slow).

I kinda like the idea of a stealth/magic character, like an assassin who conjures his weapons and distractions.
Another good concept, roleplaying-wise. That doesn't work in my experience, gameplay-wise. Without Quiet Casting anyway... which requires 50 Illusion. And Illusion is much, much better for various assassination purposes, or for distractions.

I decided to make a quick mod to buff Alteration before i start my kind-of-Nightblade.
The Mage Armor perk now works with armor, the armor spells are slightly more powerful (normal armor has actually higher than displayed armor rating, because every piece of armor adds 25 hidden armor rating but the magic armor spells do not), and buffed the Dragonhide spell duration.
The end result is perhaps slightly overpowered early on... but then obtaining max armor in Skyrim is not particularly hard.
EDIT i keep the spell costs at default though, so yes, pure buff mod.

EDIT Dragonhide now lasts 2 minutes and costs the same as vanilla, armor spells were buffed by 20 rating each (perk bonuses were increased accordingly) while keeping the default casting cost, and Mage Armor perks now works with armor as well and merely state the increased strength, it doesn't read "if not wearing armor" anymore. All in all, very small buff but should increase viability of Alteration, and makes armor+Alteration more viable choice, perhaps even too good early on but you can always increase difficulty.
I'll see about uploading the file later on. Gotta write a readme first. And test the mod of course.
EDIT quick test indicates the mod works as it should.
 
I'm thinking of getting the Legendary Edition for 360. I could buy it for $50, or just borrow the regular edition from a friend. Is it worth buying the Legendary Edition? How big is the install for all of the DLC on 360?
 

GungHo

Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
Runes are positively useless after a certain level. They just don't nearly enough damage. And neither do most spells. I found Destruction to be quite useless as a 'main' attack type. It was ok to use for secondary measures, but you really need to get some high level enchanted gear as soon as possible so you can keep your magicka levels useable or else you just run out quickly and are fucked.

Are there mods that make magic more powerful?

Yes. Several. I recommend cutting to the chase and using SkyTweak. It not only lets you adjust the magnitude of magic to your tastes (without touching anything else), but also shouts and a ton of other things, all through the MCM (so you need SkyUI as well).
 
In my experience there isn't a single enemy in the game that can't be toppled by continually staggering it with a weak dual-cast Destruction spell. People call it useless after a certain level but I've found that it trivializes most situations.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
In my experience there isn't a single enemy in the game that can't be toppled by continually staggering it with a weak dual-cast Destruction spell. People call it useless after a certain level but I've found that it trivializes most situations.
Which is fine if you're only ever up against a single enemy and have plenty of magicka to keep doing it over and over.

I admit though, I never spent much time dualcasting. Should probably give that a try.

And thanks for the mod suggestions. I really like the spells in Skyrim, I just never found them effective enough to want to use them more. A stealth/archer always seems like the most fun class to play as but I've gotten a little worn out by it.

Wont be starting it up for a little bit, but I'd definitely like to get a collection of mods in mind for when I do, cuz this'll be my first time playing it on PC.
 

GungHo

Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
There's actually a big ass GAF thread dedicated to mods.

There's also things like Skyrim GEMS and the STEP Project that gather some of the more exemplary mods. STEP's more "serious" (their description) and presents their mods as "all getting along" (not really, though if you tell them you're having issues, they will eventually help you after immasculating you) and the GEMS stuff comes with disclaimers guaranteeing that some of it is going to clash.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
In my experience there isn't a single enemy in the game that can't be toppled by continually staggering it with a weak dual-cast Destruction spell. People call it useless after a certain level but I've found that it trivializes most situations.

But at the very least its mana-limited so its not necessarily a feasible combat tactic in crowds. A Heavy Armor character with stagger perks in melee can do it indefinetely because the magicka regeneration rate is fast enough that Fast Healing and Respite give you unlimited stamina to just power attack indefinitely.

The problem is that not having a stagger can make combat very frustrating, but having a 100% stagger ability with a trivial cost can trivialize combat entirely. Hopefully Beth finds a solution for that combat issue in ES6.

I'm currently using a destro focused character, but I also spent 75% of my leveling perks to increase magicka.

It's a pain that Destruction is so hard to level up. Current character is a primarily bow-using assassin type, but I want to supplement that with some Destruction magic (mainly in the form of runes), with the idea being that I ideally am able to snipe all of the enemies before they can find me and I'm forced to get into close quarters with them. Runes and the rest of the Destruction spells would be my contingency plan if I'm found out or am forced to engage in close quarters.

However, it would be pretty difficult to keep Archery AND Destruction leveling up at an acceptable rate unless I just arbitrarily switch how I'm attacking enemies - it just feels really clunky.

Bah. I suppose I could just use it until I'm able to cast runes and then let it slowly level up on its own.

On the PC that wouldn't be clunky, just assign a rune-type to a hotkey and your bow to another hotkey, set the runes up and then start firing. And you get runes at Destruction 25, I think? I think Altmer even start higher than 25 Destruction.
 
Admittedly with that pure-Destruction build I poured resources into Enchantment to get as low a percentage of magicka cost as possible. Sort of evens out how weak it is.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Impressive, this game has some bugs, documented bugs, even with Unofficial Patches. Didn't get Marked For Death shout... had to use the console, which then proceeded to give me all 3 words...
 

Edwardo

Member
Does everyone make their skills Legendary when they hit 100 with them? I'm level 37 right now and my only two skills at 100 are 2 Handed and Heavy Armor. I'm trying to level up other things right now, but I occasionally will run into some enemies that I cant kill unless I switch back to a 2 Hander. It's also much easier when I run around with a 2 Handed weapon and just two shot people.
 
Does everyone make their skills Legendary when they hit 100 with them? I'm level 37 right now and my only two skills at 100 are 2 Handed and Heavy Armor. I'm trying to level up other things right now, but I occasionally will run into some enemies that I cant kill unless I switch back to a 2 Hander. It's also much easier when I run around with a 2 Handed weapon and just two shot people.

I did my main skills, but only when I was sure it wouldn't fuck me over.
 

Edwardo

Member
I did my main skills, but only when I was sure it wouldn't fuck me over.

Ya I'm slowly working on bows and 1 handers right now. So maybe once I get them up a little higher I can reset my main skills so that I at least have a backup in case I get in any sticky situations.
 

snacknuts

we all knew her
Number one rule of Skyrim: Stick to one offensive skill. It is practically impossible to level two effectively, it halves the advancement speed of both.
At least that's my experience (and that's hundreds of hours of playtime).

This kind of bums me out. I've got the game on 360 and have only been playing for a few weeks. I'm level ~30, have done the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines, and I'm the Archmage of wherever. I've been playing as a thief first and foremost, but I have been goofing around with lots of different combat styles. Some one-handed, some archery, some destruction. As a Khajiit, I was doing mostly unarmed combat for quite awhile at the start of the game. I am getting to the point where I favor sneak archery, but I don't craft potions or poisons or anything (I have created exactly zero items at alchemy tables), and I have never enchanted anything either. I have avoided these because I have no idea what I'm doing, and alchemy/smithing/etc seem tedious and boring.

At any rate, now I'm concerned that I've screwed up my character's once-bright future. Maybe it's time to learn to make poisons and focus on archery, and only use daggers when I can sneak up behind someone and get the 30x sneak-attack-from-behind bonus. Maybe I need to work on illusion to make myself even sneakier? I've been boosting health, magicka, and stamina at approximately equal levels, so I guess I need to focus on one more than the others? My only gripe with the game so far is that things like are kind of overwhelming to someone like me who has very little experience with RPGs.
 

Woorloog

Banned
This kind of bums me out. I've got the game on 360 and have only been playing for a few weeks. I'm level ~30, have done the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines, and I'm the Archmage of wherever. I've been playing as a thief first and foremost, but I have been goofing around with lots of different combat styles. Some one-handed, some archery, some destruction. As a Khajiit, I was doing mostly unarmed combat for quite awhile at the start of the game. I am getting to the point where I favor sneak archery, but I don't craft potions or poisons or anything (I have created exactly zero items at alchemy tables), and I have never enchanted anything either. I have avoided these because I have no idea what I'm doing, and alchemy/smithing/etc seem tedious and boring.

At any rate, now I'm concerned that I've screwed up my character's once-bright future. Maybe it's time to learn to make poisons and focus on archery, and only use daggers when I can sneak up behind someone and get the 30x sneak-attack-from-behind bonus. Maybe I need to work on illusion to make myself even sneakier? I've been boosting health, magicka, and stamina at approximately equal levels, so I guess I need to focus on one more than the others? My only gripe with the game so far is that things like are kind of overwhelming to someone like me who has very little experience with RPGs.

Archery with sneak attack daggers works just fine without one-handed. But it is not your primary combat skill, sneak that is, but rather your Archery is that.
 
I just built my PC yesterday so forgive the possibly noobish question...

Last night I installed both Steam and Skyrim under Program Files. I open Steam and everything updates just fine. I play a little while to check that everything's working fine and then call it quits for the night.

This morning I read that having Skyrim under Program Files can be troublesome, so I uninstalled both Skyrim and Steam and reinstalled them under User/Administrator. Now when I go into Steam to play it asks me to update it like it did last time but the download isn't going anywhere. It downloaded 1% of the update and now it keeps giving me time out error messages. What's causing this? Nothing happened to my internet connection. Is this being caused by me reinstalling Steam in a different folder than usual?
 

Dartastic

Member
I heard this is the place to actually ask, so I'm gonna ask in here as well. So, my girlfriend wants to get the PS3 version because I lent her my system. Did they ever fix it? Or should I just tell her to keep playing it at my place on 360? Also, does anyone know of any places with good deals on it right now? Thanks!
 

strafer

member
So I'm working on a new character. This one is going to be a Two-Handed, Heavy Armored beast.

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snacknuts

we all knew her
Archery with sneak attack daggers works just fine without one-handed. But it is not your primary combat skill, sneak that is, but rather your Archery is that.

I've pretty much been using nothing but my bow since this post and have gotten to the point where it almost doesn't feel like a challenge most of the time. The Bound Bow has become the best weapon I have, especially after constantly using it let me boost my conjuration to the point that I added the perk of getting extra damage on bound weapons. If undetected, I can kill a Frost Troll with two arrows. The "mini-bosses" at the end of most caves/dungeons are taken out with one shot. It's a lot of fun, but I will be interested to see how this progresses as I continue to level up. I foresee a future in which I am going to have to grind my smithing up so I can start making more powerful weapons.
 
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