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[webrunner]

Did some shouts around people. One complained "not so loud!" A guard came up to me requesting I stop shouting all over the place.

 

[KingK]

I haven't had any problems using destruction magic like you're indicating; it seems fairly effective on all things I've encountered. Fire is definitely the way to go for almost everything; the extra damage from burning makes a big dent on the tougher enemies. I just found expert level destructionspells and there are a set that seem almost too powerful even without having the expert skill perk.

Lightning is useful on mages, ice seems really weak as stamina draining isn't really meaningful at all on enemies.

EDIT: I'm on the hardest difficulty also.

Yeah, lightning is super useful when fighting a difficult mage, and I still effectively use my spells against the easier enemies, but I'm finding it less useful against bandit chiefs/other difficult enemies or bosses. I'll shoot a few firebolts at them and only manage to take down a small amount of their health before they've rushed up to me and start fucking me up. I then have to use my blades which seem to do damage like 2 times faster than my magic, but I take so much damage that I have to chug potions like a madman.

Although, one strategy I've started using on bosses is setting up a couple fire runes before they know I'm there, then blasting them with some firebolts and having them run right through both ruins. Does quite a bit of damage before they get to me.

EDIT 2: As for some tips for going pure casting, I'd suggest going 3 perks into restoration for the improved magicka regen (And alchemy as well). Being able to use wards will also help a lot against enemy casters. For sword/spell I'd probably try to pick up some illusion or conjuration because you're going to lack one on one defenses with that setup.

Yeah, I'm doing sword/spell (all my perks have gone into Destruction, one-handed, heavy armor, and Restoration), and like I said, I've definitely noticed that I get wrecked close up against any really powerful enemies. A lot of them can take me down in like 4 hits. I've never had problems with Dragons or anything, but some of these bandit leaders take and deal a ridiculous amount of damage.

 

[zephervack]

So being a vampire sucks, now when i go into a city everyone just jumps at me, game is unplayable , is there something im doing wrong

 

[Alpha-Bromega]

Did some shouts around people. One complained "not so loud!" A guard came up to me requesting I stop shouting all over the place.

hahahaha i love this game

 

[PoweredBySoy]

So, before I commit too much to this theory and lose everything, the game remembers everything you place into public storage, correct? My thoughts are I'd like to find a nice house to claim for myself (by viciously murdering the owner while in wolf-form on the night of a full moon, of course) and I just want to make sure all the stuff I dump in it won't suddenly disappear. I'm guessing it shouldn't. I mean, for fuck sake, there's been a dead deer laying by the doors into Whiterun since I pretty much started the game.... so it doesn't seem the game forgets anything.

 

[Schmitty]

What do I do with ore I have mined? I don't see any stations at the blacksmith that can turn it into ingots.

 

[Dina]

Lydia died, so I'm using Janelle, the dark-elf from the archershop in Whiterun. Love her to death, been my itemcarrying, remark making dungeon-friend for about 20 levels now.

What do I do with ore I have mined? I don't see any stations at the blacksmith that can turn it into ingots.

Look for a smelter. The lady-blacksmith in Whiterun has one next to her shop.

 

[Alpha-Bromega]

So being a vampire sucks, now when i go into a city everyone just jumps at me, game is unplayable , is there something im doing wrong

you chose the wrong side of the underworld conflict.

 

[ElyrionX]

I haven't had any problems using destruction magic like you're indicating; it seems fairly effective on all things I've encountered. Fire is definitely the way to go for almost everything; the extra damage from burning makes a big dent on the tougher enemies. I just found expert level destructionspells and there are a set that seem almost too powerful even without having the expert skill perk.

Lightning is useful on mages, ice seems really weak as stamina draining isn't really meaningful at all on enemies.

EDIT: I'm on the hardest difficulty also.

EDIT 2: As for some tips for going pure casting, I'd suggest going 3 perks into restoration for the improved magicka regen (And alchemy as well). Being able to use wards will also help a lot against enemy casters. For sword/spell I'd probably try to pick up some illusion or conjuration because you're going to lack one on one defenses with that setup.

What level are you? How have you been distributing your points amongst Health/Magicka/Stamina?

And how useful are you finding the wards? Don't you think the mana drain it causes in a fight makes it less useful than it should be?

 

[ironcreed]

So, before I commit too much to this theory and lose everything, the game remembers everything you place into public storage, correct? My thoughts are I'd like to find a nice house to claim for myself (by viciously murdering the owner while in wolf-form on the night of a full moon, of course) and I just want to make sure all the stuff I dump in it won't suddenly disappear. I'm guessing it shouldn't. I mean, for fuck sake, there's been a dead deer laying by the doors into Whiterun since I pretty much started the game.... so it doesn't seem the game forgets anything.

I have been storing all of my stuff in a dresser at the Companions Guild sleeping quarters and it is still there. Going to go ahead and buy me a house today, though.

 

[syllogism]

Exponential, game-breaking alchemy growth has always been a trademark for TES games. Go look at videos of people beating Morrowind in five minutes. They do it by making stronger and stronger potions until they fly to red mountain and one-shot Dagoth Ur at level 1.

Yes, and in this game it doesn't really work like that, so after first improving alchemy via enchanted items and then improving those enchantments with your fortify enchantment potion, you've pretty much plateaued. Of course you need 100,100,100 skills too

 

[Grisby]

Got to the first town. This game looks amazing on my 360. Only problems I've had is some tearing and menus taking a couple of seconds to respond.

To quote Gabe from that PA strip when he discovered Minecraft, "Oh no, I'm in some real fucking trouble here."

 

[brerwolfe]

You know what I love about this game, there are no Oblivion gates to close.

I hated all the Oblivion shit in Oblivion.

i played oblivion for 88 hours and only ever closed one gate... i had fun messing with everything else, i had no interest in the oblivion gates.

 

[Crazetex]

Lydia died, so I'm using Janelle, the dark-elf from the archershop in Whiterun. Love her to death, been my itemcarrying, remark making dungeon-friend for about 20 levels now.

Has she been actually stealthy (if you're even playing that way, of course)? I'm extremely wary of having a follower on my stealthy characters.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

So being a vampire sucks, now when i go into a city everyone just jumps at me, game is unplayable , is there something im doing wrong

What were you expecting playing as a vampire would be like? This isn't Twilight after all.

 

[erragal]

Yeah, lightning is super useful when fighting a difficult mage, and I still effectively use my spells against the easier enemies, but I'm finding it less useful against bandit chiefs/other difficult enemies or bosses. I'll shoot a few firebolts at them and only manage to take down a small amount of their health before they've rushed up to me and start fucking me up. I then have to use my blades which seem to do damage like 2 times faster than my magic, but I take so much damage that I have to chug potions like a madman.

Although, one strategy I've started using on bosses is setting up a couple fire runes before they know I'm there, then blasting them with some firebolts and having them run right through both ruins. Does quite a bit of damage before they get to me.

Oh, you're still at firebolt? Yea at the levels you're at bosses can be a real pain to deal with unless you chug mana pots. Keep pumping your destruction skill as much as possible (It reduces the cost of spells) and try to get the Adept level spells as they make a big difference in your damage output; flame cloak especially will help your playstyle like it did mine It helps that I went with Spellshield as my character idea, the stagger on shield bash really helps deal with certain enemy types.

I think you'll be fine when you get flame cloak and the expert level spells; they are more appropriate for the melee/caster hybrid you're doing than crappy firebolt.

 

[FStop7]

Ran into a Hagraven. That screeching sound they make when they attack... god. First mob in the game that's truly creeped me out.

 

[ckohler]

I haven't had any problems using destruction magic like you're indicating; it seems fairly effective on all things I've encountered. Fire is definitely the way to go for almost everything; the extra damage from burning makes a big dent on the tougher enemies. I just found expert level destructionspells and there are a set that seem almost too powerful even without having the expert skill perk.

Lightning is useful on mages, ice seems really weak as stamina draining isn't really meaningful at all on enemies.

EDIT: I'm on the hardest difficulty also.

EDIT 2: As for some tips for going pure casting, I'd suggest going 3 perks into restoration for the improved magicka regen (And alchemy as well). Being able to use wards will also help a lot against enemy casters. For sword/spell I'd probably try to pick up some illusion or conjuration because you're going to lack one on one defenses with that setup.

What about clothing? Does the game reward mages for not wearing armor and if so, what's the tactic? In Oblivion, I wore completely non-armor items (robes, shoes, rings, etc.) and enchanged them all to boost magica. Is this still a good tactic?

I've been wearing a mage shirt and light armor shoes, gloves, etc. but I'm afraid wearing any light armor is hurting my performance.

Also, I concur on using destruction magic (especially fire). I'm only level 10 but I've been doing just fine so far just blasting people. I refuse to use weapons of any kind.

 

[syllogism]

What level are you? How have you been distributing your points amongst Health/Magicka/Stamina?

And how useful are you finding the wards? Don't you think the mana drain it causes in a fight makes it less useful than it should be?

You probably really need those -x% to mana cost enchantments end game if you want to feel powerful. While magic, even with fortify destructions potions (you can probably make like +100% damage potions with high enough alchemy), won't be quite as absurdly broken as melee with enough smithing/enchantment/alchemy abuse, some of the end game spells sound powerful enough once the mana cost is in control. For instance:

"Target takes 75 points of shock damage per second to Health, and half that to Magicka." seems nice when it's almost free to cast

 

[EviLore]

Also, another thing that came up:

Spell availability from vendors seems to be tied to your skill rank in each of the magic skills. I was expecting one of two things, either that I would start having access to higher level spell books once I enrolled in the mage college (wasn't the case), or I'd start to see higher level spell books once I got to a higher character level (level 44 now, not the case).

Basically, I hadn't put much emphasis on manually leveling up my magic skills in classic TES fashion (spamming them while running from place to place...) because I didn't have anything I couldn't use. But apparently the game just automatically makes higher level spells available in the vendor inventories once your spell skills reach certain thresholds.

Totally bizarre design decision. You don't see what you're working towards so there's little impetus to actually focus on skilling up to get to higher level spells unless you know about this mechanic, and also you can't get spells "early" and then do cool stuff like get a bunch of +magicka and -cost gear together to be able to cast a difficult spell once with your full magicka bar, in spectacular-yet-inefficient fashion.

It's another one of these big immersion-breakers to see this stuff magically pop into the game world when the player levels up skills sufficiently.

 

[Nista]

Why is everybody using Lydia? Vorstag all the way. He and Farengar Secret-Fire have the best names and the best voice actor in the game.

I've been using Faendal, whom I have nicknamed Dudebro, the whole time. Lydia just sits in my house and looks sullen at missing out on all the action.

I just wish I could buy him a horse as well. I feel bad leaving him in the dust.

 

[syllogism]

What about clothing? Does the game reward mages for not wearing armor and if so, what's the tactic? In Oblivion, I wore completely non-armor items (robes, shoes, rings, etc.) and enchanged them all to boost magica. Is this still a good tactic?

I've been wearing a mage shirt and light armor shoes, gloves, etc. but I'm afraid wearing any light armor is hurting my performance.

It only hurts your mana regen and certain alteration protection spells, so if that's not an issue you can wear heavy armour all you want. It's not needed, however, as your armor rating with the appropriate perks and stoneflesh/ebonyflesh will be very high

 

[Dina]

Has she been actually stealthy (if you're even playing that way, of course)? I'm extremely wary of having a follower on my stealthy characters.

Mmm, depends. If you give her a bow and nothing else, she just shoots what I shoot which works well. But give her a big 2h and it turns less so. In fact, decking out your companions is something that needs a mod, imo. I want to be able to store shit on her, and then pick out the items I want het to use. I had given my companion a good staff for keeping, but she just used it.

But she works pretty well. Stays behind, offers some mild comments in caves, yawns when I'm at the smith. 's all good.

 

[Yoshichan]

or I'd start to see higher level spell books once I got to a higher character level (level 44 now, not the case).

Damn, how long have you played the game? I'm not even close to level 44 and I've reached 40 hours

 

[TheExodu5]

Notably at the mage college all the NPCs are totally empty, for some reason.

The (Thieve's Guild spoiler)

Spoiler

fugitive Girl...forget her name...you can't steal her cool looking bow

.

 

[erragal]

What about clothing? Does the game reward mages for not wearing armor and if so, what's the tactic? In Oblivion, I wore completely non-armor items (robes, shoes, rings, etc.) and enchanged them all to boost magica. Is this still a good tactic?

I've been wearing a mage shirt and light armor shoes, gloves, etc. but I'm afraid wearing any light armor is hurting my performance.

I've heard that wearing armor impacts your spells but I honestly haven't tested it; I've been wearing clothes and using a heavy shield with no impact between spell damage if I'm not using the shield.

The advantage of clothes seems to be that most found robes/hoods/circlets have very powerful magic oriented enchants on them that would take you a lot longer to be able to match by enchanting on a piece of armor. It's also really easy to get decent armor as a clothed mage if you go heavily into alteration.

 

[EviLore]

Damn, how long have you played the game? I'm not even close to level 44 and I've reached 40 hours

43 hours

 

[Olivero]

This game.

Walking along a random path, spot some odd shaped rocks. I notice they are rim stone rock formations, so I start looking around for their origin and bam, geothermal vents.
It's little things like that. The world becomes so much more immersive and believable.

Bethesda, you folks have out done yourself.

 

[brerwolfe]

What do I do with ore I have mined? I don't see any stations at the blacksmith that can turn it into ingots.

you need to use the smelter. there's one outside the Warmaiden in Whiterun.

 

[nicoga3000]

Mods will save us all.

I'm trying to imagine an OOO type mod for Skyrim, and my mind starts to boggle a little bit.

If/when they release a mod that changes the way loot works (certain limitations, upgrades, etc), I would happily re-roll my current character. Give it time I guess.

The one thing I WOULDN'T want is for a mod to scale back everything to the point where it feels like you aren't ever getting to that point of "Legend of Skyrim".

 

[KingK]

Oh, you're still at firebolt? Yea at the levels you're at bosses can be a real pain to deal with unless you chug mana pots. Keep pumping your destruction skill as much as possible (It reduces the cost of spells) and try to get the Adept level spells as they make a big difference in your damage output; flame cloak especially will help your playstyle like it did mine It helps that I went with Spellshield as my character idea, the stagger on shield bash really helps deal with certain enemy types.

I think you'll be fine when you get flame cloak and the expert level spells; they are more appropriate for the melee/caster hybrid you're doing than crappy firebolt.

I'm a Dunmer, so I get to use a flame cloak once a day anyway, lol. Also, I do have some of the Adept level spells, but they use up too much magika right now. I need 50 Destruction to get the perk that reduces consumption of Adept spells, but my Destruction is like 48 or 49 right now. I'm guessing once I get that perk, I'll be able to use Fireball and Chain Lightning more often, and my magic will feel more useful again.

Also, does the availability of spells just scale to your level? I haven't been to Winterhold yet, so I'm not sure what I could get at the Mages College, but Adept spells are the highest I could buy from the court wizard in Whiterun (I'm level 17 right now, I think. Maybe 18?).

 

[Blizzard]

Also, another thing that came up:

Spell availability from vendors seems to be tied to your skill rank in each of the magic skills. I was expecting one of two things, either that I would start having access to higher level spell books once I enrolled in the mage college (wasn't the case), or I'd start to see higher level spell books once I got to a higher character level (level 44 now, not the case).

Basically, I hadn't put much emphasis on manually leveling up my magic skills in classic TES fashion (spamming them while running from place to place...) because I didn't have anything I couldn't use. But apparently the game just automatically makes higher level spells available in the vendor inventories once your spell skills reach certain thresholds.

Totally bizarre design decision. You don't see what you're working towards so there's little impetus to actually focus on skilling up to get to higher level spells unless you know about this mechanic, and also you can't get spells "early" and then do cool stuff like get a bunch of +magicka and -cost gear together to be able to cast a difficult spell once with your full magicka bar, in spectacular-yet-inefficient fashion.

It's another one of these big immersion-breakers to see this stuff magically pop into the game world when the player levels up skills sufficiently.

That is good to know in that I should probably start leveling up my spells by spamming them. However, it does still seem to vary a little between different vendors. I'm convinced I saw one person selling frost spike very early in the game, but I haven't found it again yet. I wanted to be an ice archer mage like Ashe, but unfortunately it sounds like ice is the most ineffective element. =P

 

[Yoshichan]

43 hours

Fuck, now I feel like I've done something wrong.

 

[TheExodu5]

The loot is actually pretty terrible in Skyrim, yes. It's a combination of several factors.

-WYSIWYG loot system is only selectively enforced. There are basically no enemies walking around in lootable high level gear sets. Best I've seen is steel plate. Kill an extreme badass enemy, expect to loot an empty or near-empty corpse and be directed to the level-scaled chest of loot next to his body. This is just not nearly as satisfying even if you get something good in there. An example in Morrowind would be entering a remote dungeon and finding a Vampire Lord in full glass armor and weapons, having an epic battle with him, then having an ear to ear grin as you loot all that stuff for your character.

-Instead of level scaled bandits in glass armor, we have level-replaced "BANDIT CHIEFTAIN OVERLORD GOD-KING" level 50 enemies still wearing leather.

-Simplified stat system doesn't allow for as much magical loot variety.

-Only six equipment slots for armor/accessories means that replacing gear is very infrequent, and some questline sets render all the primary slots irrelevant for tens of hours at a time (and they can be upgraded with smithing to last you basically the entire game if you want).

-Enchanting system granting you permanent crafting status of any generic loot you receive (quest-type items are exempt from this since they usually can't be disenchanted) means that certain types of enchantments on gear are purposely withheld for a very long time for balance purposes, so you just won't see that type of gear drop, even in weaker forms (because getting a sword of 1 health absorb lets you disenchant and make your own sword of 50 health absorb, hypothetically).

-Merchants are all level-scaled. Merchants eventually all sell the high tiers of gear, making what you find in the wild not seem special.

-No scarcity of crafting materials, again with the merchants level scaling and providing you with infinite materials for making glass/ebony/etc. Why can you even go out into the game world and gather 2-4 ores per mine when the merchants have infinite stacks? Wasted opportunity for resource scarcity, at least for the rare materials. Also an immersion-breaker and specialness eradicator to see podunk town smiths with a full stock of ebony and malachite ingots later in the game.

-Almost all the hand-placed loot of value in dungeons and houses is potions. Occasionally I'll find a glass or ebony weapon hand-placed in a harder dungeon, but I am generally just overwhelmed by the potions I'm receiving.

Yup. The loot is easily the worst aspect of the game, and it is the one thing that's truly holding this game back from "RPG masterpiece" status. They've done a great job with perks and designing unique environments, but sadly, they weren't able to spread that expertise to the loot system. It's a shame.

I maxed out smithing yesterday and now I have Dragonscale armor and I don't have much to look forward to other than leveling enchanting. Loot will mostly be meaningless to me from this point on.

43 hours

44 hours here, though I'm just level 34. Pickpocketing and smithing are what have leveled me the most. Really, I've only done 20-25 quests or so, so my combat skills are a bit behind.

 

[ckohler]

It's also really easy to get decent armor as a clothed mage if you go heavily into alteration.

What do you mean by 'get decent armor'? Just wear ordinary clothes and use alteration spells to protect yourself instead?

 

[FStop7]

Ack.

That's exactly what I didn't want to hear. Based on some walkthrough vids, the game does look very pretty, so maybe I'll warm up to it (no pun intended).

I don't think it's anything like Fallout 3, which is a game I stopped playing partly due to how dreary the world was. Skyrim's a lot more vibrant.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Fuck, now I feel like I've done something wrong.

Don't, I've gone long stretches of time without leveling because I was doing more talk/investigation heavy quests. If you did the conspiracy in Markarth, for example, that's a good chunk of time spent not leveling any skills.

 

[Blablurn]

whats the best way to level up in the beginning? finished some stuff at whiterun and now im around level 8.

 

[universalmind]

Weird pause in the fighting between me and a dragon

 

[erragal]

Also, another thing that came up:

Spell availability from vendors seems to be tied to your skill rank in each of the magic skills. I was expecting one of two things, either that I would start having access to higher level spell books once I enrolled in the mage college (wasn't the case), or I'd start to see higher level spell books once I got to a higher character level (level 44 now, not the case).

Basically, I hadn't put much emphasis on manually leveling up my magic skills in classic TES fashion (spamming them while running from place to place...) because I didn't have anything I couldn't use. But apparently the game just automatically makes higher level spells available in the vendor inventories once your spell skills reach certain thresholds.

Totally bizarre design decision. You don't see what you're working towards so there's little impetus to actually focus on skilling up to get to higher level spells unless you know about this mechanic, and also you can't get spells "early" and then do cool stuff like get a bunch of +magicka and -cost gear together to be able to cast a difficult spell once with your full magicka bar, in spectacular-yet-inefficient fashion.

It's another one of these big immersion-breakers to see this stuff magically pop into the game world when the player levels up skills sufficiently.

I agree entirely; it was a bit confusing to go to the mage college and see adept spells for some schools and novice spells for others based on them being less than ten skill points behind. You do get access to the expert level spells before you can actually buy the cost reduction perk; not sure what the exact number is however.

It would have been much better to see the spells randomly appear from final chests in caster oriented dungeons. I've seen some low level spell books in caster dungeons, they could have easily thrown a few higher level spells in there occasionally (And honestly I'd prefer if everything above adept were drop or quest only rather than buying spells).

 

[HTuran]

The (Thieve's Guild spoiler)

Spoiler

fugitive Girl...forget her name...you can't steal her cool looking bow

.

You don't need to steal it

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

whats the best way to level up in the beginning? finished some stuff at whiterun and now im around level 8.

Just go play the game. If you concern yourself over-much with power-leveling it's going to throw everything out of whack and damage the experience.

 

[EviLore]

Yeah I've intentionally not brought smithing to 100 yet, because it might kill the game for me to not have any better gear to look forward to.

I'll get my enchanting 100 perk instead and enchant a set of Glass Armor of Carry Capacity, that'll make me happy ;b

 

[FStop7]

This game.

Walking along a random path, spot some odd shaped rocks. I notice they are rim stone rock formations, so I start looking around for their origin and bam, geothermal vents.
It's little things like that. The world becomes so much more immersive and believable.

Bethesda, you folks have out done yourself.

I came across some hot springs and thought to myself "in real life there would be people and even animals bathing/resting in the warm waters". Walked around a bend and came across a random hunter who'd camped next to the springs and was bathing.

 

[erragal]

What do you mean by 'get decent armor'? Just wear ordinary clothes and use alteration spells to protect yourself instead?

Yes. With only the adept level armor spell and my shield I'm running around with 283 armor (Level 31 atm); it's not heavy armor fully improved smithing OP levels but it helps quite a bit.

 

[TheExodu5]

Man...this game would have been so much better with zero level scaling. Considering the amount of effort they put into designing such a well crafted world, I'm amazed they didn't go the extra mile and properly distribute static/unique loot. The game is a massive step up from Oblivion, that's for sure...but once you level up enough the flaws are evident.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Yeah I've intentionally not brought smithing to 100 yet, because it might kill the game for me to not have any better gear to look forward to.

I'll get my enchanting 100 perk instead and enchant a set of Glass Armor of Carry Capacity, that'll make me happy ;b

That's exactly why I didn't pump up smithing too, even though I had the gold to do it. If I went crazy with it and started walking around in full dragonbone at lvl 20 it would have ruined the experience. Much better to level it naturally by playing around with it when I have new armor to make or something to upgrade.

How easily it levels makes me think that that's exactly how Bethesda wanted it done.

Bethesda: Feel free to break the game, but we'd prefer you don't.

 

[EviLore]

Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to name your enchanted item creations? :/

I have to have my soul trap dagger and my non-soul trap dagger at different smithing upgrade levels to identify them on my favorites menu.

 

[ElyrionX]

Yes. With only the adept level armor spell and my shield I'm running around with 283 armor (Level 31 atm); it's not heavy armor fully improved smithing OP levels but it helps quite a bit.

Not sure if you saw my question on the previous page. But I'm wondering if you can share how you've been distributing health magicka and stamina. At your level, do you have trouble with enemies if you just use Destruction? Also, how useful do you find warding to be? Do you think it's worth going down the Restoration perk tree just for warding?

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to name your enchanted item creations? :/

I have to have my soul trap dagger and my non-soul trap dagger at different smithing upgrade levels to identify them on my favorites menu.

You can name them, there's a button for it in the enchanting UI. It's "Y" with the 360 controller (I'm on PC with the controller)