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[diffusionx]

I got my character up to level 5. Just to put everything into perspective, Oblivion was, I felt, an absolutely terrible game in every way. If I was a game reviewer I would've given Oblivion a 2/10. That's how bad it was.

This game, though... man. It's awesome. I'm playing as a mage and it's a ton of fun blasting people and raising dudes from the dead to fight by my side. After I got out of Helgen I tried to go south but there were lots of guys ready to kick my ass (like some Spriggan in a hole). So I turned and went north to Whiterun and it's just been pure fun since.

I had to turn the game off when I got to the College of Winterhold last night but I am itching to play some more. This game is what I wanted Oblivion to be.

 

[Alienups]

Is there housing with mannequins? I have so much stuff I dont want to use but just have in my house. What has this game done to me!!

Yup, there are two in the Riften house. Some other houses probably have them as well but i've only visited 3 cities (in 61 hours playtime lol)

 

[cbox]

Did one mission and the dude's voice stood out, I instantly knew it was garret from thief.

Game just got 100x better.

 

[v0mitg0d]

I recently helped a good friend get started and they really seemed to help him out so I figured I'd share with anyone who's just starting the game.

• After Riverwood, head to Whiterun to progress main story's quests chain until the Jarl honors you. Then join either The College of Winterhold if you're a Mage, The Companions in Whiterun if you're a Fighter or The Theives Guild in Riften if you're an Assassin/Theif and run through the entire quest chain. Completing any of these yield valuable loot, items and abilites that you'll use for the rest of your playthrough.
  
  
• Talk to every Innkeeper about rumors. They always have a quest to give you, and some start particularly great quest.
  
  
• Once you're done with your first guild, just do whatever you feel. However don't fast travel, use a carriage or even ride a horse. It sounds nuts I know but doing any of these cuts the opportunity of serendipitous discovery. There is SO MUCH content sprinkled throughout Skyrim and doing any of those forfeits the opportunity of exploration and discovery. Even a horse, at least I found, just gets in the way. It's just easier to run around, beside the horses in Skyrim are way too aggressive and get in the way.
  
  
• At some point you absolutely HAVE to do ALL of the Daedric quests.
  
  
• If you're interested in getting wealthy then get good at lockpicking, sneaking and pickpocketing and head to the very rich city of Solitude.
  
  
• I think everyone should invest in Enchanting very early on because once you reach 100 you can enchant an item with two abilities. Leveling Enchanting quickly is actually not difficult either. Just use soul gems (sold or found all over the world). Just purchase some empty soul gems and head out questing with Soul Trap in hand. CAst the spell, kill enemies and fill the gems up. Until you’re level 100, just use crappy items and the smallest soul gems. Plus, if you have the money, the trainers at the College are a REALLY great source too.
  
  Oh and one more thing, anything you double-enchant will sell for A LOT more!
  
  
• If you’re running through the wilderness and you see an icon resembling a dragon on your compass--check it out. Listen matey, there be dragons ahead! Well actually its just one dragon, but there will also be a new Shout to learn as well. PLUS a treasure chest with some awesome loot.
  
  
• Keep in mind Magic skills only gain experience if an enemy is around, even restoration spells
  
  
• If you have a ton of stuff to sell, I found the Blacksmith (two vendors) and general goods guy in Whiterun to be the most efficient way of selling things quickly. Though the vendors have a finite amount of money, just waiting for 48 hours will repleish their pool. This is how I got rid of 600lbs of dragon bones and scales.
  
  
• There are only two people in the world who will buy stolen stuff (Winterhold/Riften), however if you get your speech skill high enough any vendor will buy stolen goods.
  
  
• Last and most importantly, explore the world as you please. These are mere suggesting, and Skyrim is probably the most adaptive worlds every created so you can't go wrong. Whatever direction you decide to go at the crossroads, you're guaranteed to have a great time.

 

[thetrin]

I feel sorry for my wife. She's so devoted, but when she comes home from work, she just sits in my dingy, furniture-less house with my retainer Lydia, making small talk.

Btw where do I buy furniture? Breezehome is looking a little sad.

 

[windz]

Put in ~17 hours over 3 days and stayed up till 3am 4am and 2am respectively. Been taking naps after work every day so I can stay up and play - lol. I loved how last night I had planned go to a new city and start a quest, and 3 hours later I finally arrived. Ended up exploring a couple small/medium sized caves, found some sweet armor, killed my first ice dragon when I was wandering around, got a new shout, and got a ton of loot to sell for coin. I absolutely love this game. It's crazy how fast time goes by when playing too. Can't wait for Sunday, my day off. Inc 12+ hour session.

 

[Omegasquash]

I feel sorry for my wife. She's so devoted, but when she comes home from work, she just sits in my dingy, furniture-less house with my retainer Lydia, making small talk.

Btw where do I buy furniture? Breezehome is looking a little sad.

Same dude you bought the house from. It's surprisingly NOT expensive, either.

 

[Alienups]

I feel sorry for my wife. She's so devoted, but when she comes home from work, she just sits in my dingy, furniture-less house with my retainer Lydia, making small talk.

Btw where do I buy furniture? Breezehome is looking a little sad.

The person you bought the house from also sells furniture packs (kitchen, bedroom etc)

 

[arts&crafts]

Is there anyway to clear a bounty without involving guards aka losing all my stolen merch. In oblivion you could pay the thieves guild to erase your bounty but i don't see that option anywhere.

 

[webrunner]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE4uzGaQDQg Archery, amirite?

I feel sorry for my wife. She's so devoted, but when she comes home from work, she just sits in my dingy, furniture-less house with my retainer Lydia, making small talk.

Btw where do I buy furniture? Breezehome is looking a little sad.

whoever you bought the house from sells furnature packs.

Is there anyway to clear a bounty without involving guards aka losing all my stolen merch. In oblivion you could pay the thieves guild to erase your bounty but i don't see that option anywhere.

A member of the thieves guild, or someone with the "Bribe" perk, can bribe guards.

 

[Zona]

I don't know if anyone’s linked this yet (This thread moves way to fast) but I feel this deserves to be read. Its a bit long but very worth it. Awesome story

 

[ShinNL]

[*]Keep in mind Magic skills only gain experience if an enemy is around, even restoration spells

I've boosted a large bit of my restoration by jumping from high-ground, walking back up while healing, repeat. So that part of your amazing list is not true.

I've done it with two characters on the same spot (outside of Whiterun gate), as far as I know with no enemies around.

 

[odin toelust]

I recently helped a good friend get started and they really seemed to help him out so I figured I'd share with anyone who's just starting the game.

• After Riverwood, head to Whiterun to progress main story's quests chain until the Jarl honors you. Then join either The College of Winterhold if you're a Mage, The Companions in Whiterun if you're a Fighter or The Theives Guild in Riften if you're an Assassin/Theif and run through the entire quest chain. Completing any of these yield valuable loot, items and abilites that you'll use for the rest of your playthrough.
  
  
• Talk to every Innkeeper about rumors. They always have a quest to give you, and some start particularly great quest.
  
  
• Once you're done with your first guild, just do whatever you feel. However don't fast travel, use a carriage or even ride a horse. It sounds nuts I know but doing any of these cuts the opportunity of serendipitous discovery. There is SO MUCH content sprinkled throughout Skyrim and doing any of those forfeits the opportunity of exploration and discovery. Even a horse, at least I found, just gets in the way. It's just easier to run around, beside the horses in Skyrim are way too aggressive and get in the way.
  
  
• At some point you absolutely HAVE to do ALL of the Daedric quests.
  
  
• If you're interested in getting wealthy then get good at lockpicking, sneaking and pickpocketing and head to the very rich city of Solitude.
  
  
• I think everyone should invest in Enchanting very early on because once you reach 100 you can enchant an item with two abilities. Leveling Enchanting quickly is actually not difficult either. Just use soul gems (sold or found all over the world). Just purchase some empty soul gems and head out questing with Soul Trap in hand. CAst the spell, kill enemies and fill the gems up. Until you’re level 100, just use crappy items and the smallest soul gems. Plus, if you have the money, the trainers at the College are a REALLY great source too.
  
  Oh and one more thing, anything you double-enchant will sell for A LOT more!
  
  
• If you’re running through the wilderness and you see an icon resembling a dragon on your compass--check it out. Listen matey, there be dragons ahead! Well actually its just one dragon, but there will also be a new Shout to learn as well. PLUS a treasure chest with some awesome loot.
  
  
• Keep in mind Magic skills only gain experience if an enemy is around, even restoration spells
  
  
• If you have a ton of stuff to sell, I found the Blacksmith (two vendors) and general goods guy in Whiterun to be the most efficient way of selling things quickly. Though the vendors have a finite amount of money, just waiting for 48 hours will repleish their pool. This is how I got rid of 600lbs of dragon bones and scales.
  
  
• There are only two people in the world who will buy stolen stuff (Winterhold/Riften), however if you get your speech skill high enough any vendor will buy stolen goods.
  
  
• Last and most importantly, explore the world as you please. These are mere suggesting, and Skyrim is probably the most adaptive worlds every created so you can't go wrong. Whatever direction you decide to go at the crossroads, you're guaranteed to have a great time.

Bolded is untrue. You can definitely train illusion when there are no enemies around. I got ~15 illusion points by running around in a circle at the mages college casting muffle

 

[arts&crafts]

A member of the thieves guild, or someone with the "Bribe" perk, can bribe guards.

Do you know who? I checked everyone at the thieves guild

 

[syllogism]

I recommend travelling to the throat of the world, entering player.setav speedmult 500 (or so) and walking/jumping into the abyss

 

[lucius]

When it says "no direct path seen" when I use Clairvoyance and I have a quest selected is that because my Level is too low or that is suppose to happen sometimes?

 

[SuicidalSteve]

A very firm message from David Houghton at Gamesradar regarding the problems about the ps3 version of Skyrim

A good read

Here

 

[coopolon]

So my second character is assassin type, but I have no idea how I'm going to kill dragons until I get way up the sneak perk tree. The first one should be okay since there's so many people around to distract it with, but I don't bring companions with me so random ones have me scared. Master difficulty as well.

 

[Tenck]

After you finish companion quest line, you can take anyone in the guild with you. Farkas is really good I'd say.

What?!?!? How long is the companion quest? Anyone of them would be a lot of help.

 

[crazy monkey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE4uzGaQDQg Archery, amirite?


.

omg that was so cool lol

 

[drizzle]

I don't know if I should keep doing the main quest or if I should splinter and do one of the guild's quests (probably mage's guild).

I really want to explore at will, but I really REALLY want to finish the main storyline this time around. I never got to in Oblivion (closing those gates was VERY annoying and repetitive), but this storyline seems interesting and engaging.

I'm trying to keep the main storyline close, to see the game Bethesda made. Then I'll explore and do random crap later, with mods. Butat the same time i'm wondering if I'm preventing myself to get some awesome items/abilities by not doing the Mages or the Companions (which I already know the "big prize") questlines.

Decisions, decisions...

 

[thundr51]

Has anyone else gotten 'reprimanded' for using shouts around town?

 

[thelurkinghorror]

35 hours in the game, no fast travel yet, on expert (is so usefull take a step or two trough this awesome lands....). What an experience!

My pg is called Zsava the imperial. Is a brutal two handed weapons user, with some good skills in archery and alchemy, but also a very good cook.

 

[Gravijah]

Has anyone else gotten 'reprimanded' for using shouts around town?

one of two things usually happens with shouts:

i drop my controller, or it hits my leg or something while i'm barely paying attention, causing a shout to go off and scaring the shit out of me.

or i accidentally hit the shout button in the middle of town and then i have to restart.

 

[Mindman]

So there aren't any tricks to making the game run smoother in 3rd person are there? Playing on Xbox 360. Love playing third person, but it's just a tad too stuttery.

 

[odin toelust]

So my second character is assassin type, but I have no idea how I'm going to kill dragons until I get way up the sneak perk tree. The first one should be okay since there's so many people around to distract it with, but I don't bring companions with me so random ones have me scared. Master difficulty as well.

I would recommend leveling the marked for death shout as much as you can as that makes taking the dragons down much easier. Beyond that I would just say bring a shit ton of arrows and try to fight on your terms, i.e. w/something to hide behind when the dragon starts shootin fire and shit at you

 

[bengraven]

Has anyone else gotten 'reprimanded' for using shouts around town?

I did, in Moranth and Whiterun. In Whiterun I was very apologetic and told them it was my bad. In Moranth I was pissy, because I'm the fucking Dragonborn bitch.

The guy was like, "I know it's not necessarily illegal...I suppose...but I will lock you up if I have to for the safety of the people" and I was like "aw, he's a Florida state trooper" and stopped.

 

[TheKurgan]

Finally made it to Greybeards last night. Lost my horse to a dragon, and almost my life to that stupid Frost Troll. Not an easy journey for lvl 8 Nord.

Question: What is the quickest way to make some gold? I am in desperate need of storage - so a house is a must. Right now I have all my Dragon Bones/Scales stashed in a barrel in the town at the base of the "7,000 stairs to the bearded dudes".

 

[The Lamonster]

[*]There are only two people in the world who will buy stolen stuff (Winterhold/Riften)

Great post dude. But who exactly in these cities can I sell my stolen items to?

Keep in mind I am not in the Thieve's Guild.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Finally made it to Greybeards last night. Lost my horse to a dragon, and almost my life to that stupid Frost Troll. Not an easy journey for lvl 8 Nord.

Question: What is the quickest way to make some gold? I am in desperate need of storage - so a house is a must. Right now I have all my Dragon Bones/Scales stashed in a barrel in the town at the base of the "7,000 stairs to the bearded dudes".

That stash can be stolen, there are thiefs in the game. Sell it, since you can encounter more dragons and the sale will help you get gold.

Apart from that quickest way to make gold is pickpocketing and stealing. Joining the Thieves Guild gives you good missions that pay 300-600g per and are easy to do.

 

[bonesmccoy]

Blasted!

Trotting w/horse around the Winterhold area, near the Azura shrine, and I don't notice a massive cliff right in front of me. We plunged about 100ft; thankfully the horse took all the damage, since I hadn't saved in ages.

 

[close to the edge]

Wow, already a second OT? Crazy. I'm now about 16 hours in and just started the Dark Brotherhood stuff yesterday before going to bed. (3 AM, this game is killing my sleep schedule) I'm loving it so far. The interface could be better on the PC but I can't see why people are so upset about it. It works well enough.

 

[webrunner]

Here's a question:

Has anyone actually counted the steps? are there really 7000?

 

[The Lamonster]

Here's a question:

Has anyone actually counted the steps? are there really 7000?

I haven't counted but according to Bethesda there are literally 7k steps.

 

[maniac-kun]

This is Bruce my lvl 18 Breton mage.

 

[Omegasquash]

Heh, I killed a dragon just outside of Riften, and went over encumbrance by a pound or so. While all the guards were in front of me, I dropped a steel dagger that I picked up somewhere.

The guard proceeded to give me shit because someone could hurt themselves. What a nice touch. Pity that there were about 8 other guards around, though. Smart-ass do-gooder would have gotten killed, otherwise.

 

[drizzle]

Question: What is the quickest way to make some gold? I am in desperate need of storage - so a house is a must. Right now I have all my Dragon Bones/Scales stashed in a barrel in the town at the base of the "7,000 stairs to the bearded dudes".

• Get EVERYTHING every single enemy drops. EVERYTHING. Fur boots worth 10 coins? Get it. Sell it.
• Use Lydia (your Body Guard as a Thane from Whiterun) as a pack mule. She can carry A LOT OF SHIT. Just ask her to follow you, then talk to her and tell her you have to give her some items. She's free, but you can do that with any "bodyguard" or "companion" NPC.
• Steed Stone is pretty awesome - negates your Heavy Armor weight and gives you an extra 100 points of "carry stuff limit" - I really don't see why would you use any other blessing stones.
• Go (preferably with Lydia) to a dungeon, fill yourself up with junk from enemies, go out, fast travel to Whiterun, sell everything, fast travel back to the dungeon, continue the looting.
• The first skill point in the Speech tree is pretty awesome: 10% extra on every vendor. The second one is pretty awesome too: 15% extra on vendors of the opposite sex.
• I spent most of my early "level up points" in Stamina, because each point in that gives you five extra points in "carrying stuff". With the Steed Stone, i'm up to 475. I usually start "empty" at 166 (I like my potions, extra weapons and ingredients).

I wouldn't recommend you to do the "loot everything, fast travel when full, sell, fast travel back, continue looting" on storyline quests. Do it when you're walking around and found a new place that you want to explore. Do the loot run, fast travel back and forth, finish the dungeon, then continue on your "main quest", whatever that may be. It took me three runs of this one Dwemer (spl?) dungeon to bring everything back with me. I ended up with 100 Dwarven ingots because of it.

Doing those things, I already bought and completely furnished my Whiterun house and I have 18k gold laying around.

Also, be aware that chests and barrels in the open are not kept around forever. After 48 hours (or whatever), the items inside them will reset, and you'll lose everything you kept in them. Only place where lockers are guaranteed are in your home.

 

[webrunner]

This is Bruce my lvl 18 Breton mage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA

 

[DopeyFish]

Lol certainly didn't expect to get attacked by a blood dragon on the college of winterhold bridge

 

[KingK]

one of two things usually happens with shouts:

i drop my controller, or it hits my leg or something while i'm barely paying attention, causing a shout to go off and scaring the shit out of me.

or i accidentally hit the shout button in the middle of town and then i have to restart.

I accidentally hit the shout button while in my house when getting up from my chair and knocked all the stuff off the kitchen table and nearly killed my wife. lol.

 

[maniac-kun]

Lol certainly didn't expect to get attacked by a blood dragon on the college of winterhold bridge

I allready had 3 dragons at this damn bridge.

 

[British Monsoon]

A very firm message from David Houghton at Gamesradar regarding the problems about the ps3 version of Skyrim

A good read

Here

That's all very well and good, but whether a game is technically 'acceptable' is entirely subjective. I've put over 100 hours into the PS3 version of Skyrim, and while I have noticed my game grinding to a halt after extended periods of gameplay, a quick exit to the XMB and restarting the game seems to temporarily fix this. I also played through all of Fallout 3 and New Vegas on PS3, and while some of the DLC episodes managed to reach a level that even I would consider unplayable, the main games that so many complained about and decried as 'unacceptable', 'unplayable' or 'broken' never gave me cause to complain, beyond a handful of stutters and crashes.

So is it my fault and the fault of other forgiving gamers that Bethesda get a free pass when it comes to glitchy, problematic games? Maybe. Or maybe it's just that we're willing to be so forgiving when the scope and scale of Bethesda's games are so far above and beyond that of their competitors.

 

[bengraven]

I love when the skies go grey and you hear distant thunder in the background.

And I stop riding, running and look to the sky in panic, thinking it maybe the beat of a dragon's wings? After looking around in a full circle and noticing no red dot and no flying creatures, I ride on. My heart finally slows and relaxes.




Then I wonder "why doesn't it actually rain?"

 

[close to the edge]

Was anyone ever attacked by two dragons? I had that two days ago. They didn't both attack me at the same time though (after one was dead, the next one came along).

 

[thetrin]

Same dude you bought the house from. It's surprisingly NOT expensive, either.

Hmm, thanks. He wasn't selling anything last time I talked to him. I'll have to check again.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

I've boosted a large bit of my restoration by jumping from high-ground, walking back up while healing, repeat. So that part of your amazing list is not true.

I've done it with two characters on the same spot (outside of Whiterun gate), as far as I know with no enemies around.

You can also boost your restoration stepping on those fire traps over and over and heal from that. It's extremely slow though, I don't think it's worth the effort.

 

[blahblah...blah]

Re: the number of fences, I believe there's one in every major city in the game, or nearby. I think in Whiterun it's

Spoiler

the new owner of the meadery

and in Solitude it's

Spoiler

your East Empire contact

. Don't know about the rest

 

[Gravijah]

Hmm, thanks. He wasn't selling anything last time I talked to him. I'll have to check again.

might have been too late.

 

[Prodigal]

I wish there was more to two-handed combat...kinda bored of just holding down the mouse click and doing repeated overhead swings. Unless I'm missing some kind of combo, but I'm assuming there isn't much more than that. I did put some points in that tree to get the charge/crit thing but it works almost the exact same way. I guess I'll try out some dual-wield stuff.

 

[thetrin]

might have been too late.

Ah maybe. I'll have to check in the middle of the day.