As much as I want to play this, I have no money and a shitty videocard so the likelihood of me buying any time soon is pretty slim. Plus I already have more videogames than I know what to do with, so I really can't justify it.
So I took Lydia with me through High Hrothgar (cleaning a couple of bandit encampments I encountered along the way) and overall I like having her around - she seems to be pretty good about stealth, when a wolf jumps me I only need to hit it once and she'll hit it with another arrow and kill it, she chases down runners and alerts me to undetected enemies, and she's good at taking a lot of aggro when there's a bunch of bandits on me. There was only one idiotic moment, at the mage fort, where after we killed the first mage to run out through the entrance, she charged into the middle of the fort. Goddammit, stay back and bottleneck them. She wound up perma-wounded even though I managed to clear the fort and I had to reboot after giving her 10 minutes to crawl out. I really wish there were a mode I could put her on similar to defensive mode for hunter/warlock pets in WoW. I also wish she had more than one comment opening her inventory screen ( I also wish it were shorter/skippable) and that it were less bitchy (I'm giving you upgrades, dammit). Finally I wish the AI were smart enough to determine when it would be best to go tank vs. dps rather than just taking out the highest power melee weapon.
Speaking of the mage fort, my one irritation right now is that I have no way of telling in the open world whether approaching humanoids are bandits, soldiers, or talkative NPCs, which for a range focused character is kind of important. I've taken to saving before every attempted interaction. Also putting combat-relevant skills and crafting into the same leveling pool, and having the world level up against you, promotes some non-intuitive behavior. It seems like you better know exactly what the hell you're doing if you start crafting or you'll just gimp yourself. Personally I'm going to just blow it off if I can.
Is anyone else having a hard time choosing between the Imperial Army and the Storm Cloaks? I have this funky "Join the Resistance!" vibe in me but when I visit Windhelm and see how they're treating the dark elves and hearing them be so racist about it I start to think "These guys are dicks! I'm outta here!".
I know it really won't matter much to the story but I am curious about people's thoughts.
I think I'm going to stay with the Imperials because I believe what Tiber Septim did back in the day was right (uniting all of the countries). Plus my character is Imperial (made sense to make Daenerys one.)
Imperials are corrupt assholes, Stormcloaks are racist assholes. Imma stay out of that war for now.
Well, I'll go imperial, then. I'm the leader of the thieves guild, I can hardly complain about corruption.
I think I'm going to stay with the Imperials because I believe what Tiber Septim did back in the day was right (uniting all of the countries). Plus my character is Imperial (made sense to make Daenerys one.)
(<-super nerd that really cares about the lore)</p>
Oh, you think that's good?
It turns out, if you talk to the God of Madness, that
since he's speaks of being there around the time of Martin Septim and the oblivion crisis, along with a few other conversational hints that he drops, he's pretty clearly you from Oblivion, after the events of Shivering Isles.
It turns out, if you talk to the God of Madness, that (...Spoiler...)
In response to your spoiler:
Omg when I did that quest and ended up in the woods with a table, I immediately was like "YAY its Sheogorath!" Hmm I didn't get that he was the player from Shivering Isles though. Maybe that's why he looked so different? I remember thinking his character design looked pretty bad compared to the Oblivion one. Also I always play a girl so maybe that's why I didn't get it.
Level 44 now. Still loving this game, but I almost feel like I'm leveling too fast. There's so much content I haven't seen yet (haven't even finished the Thieves guild, only really seen 4 towns). Feels like I steamroller just about everything I go up against and the stuff I haven't done yet will be too little challenge/reward to be worth doing.
Wow...how are you level 44? I'm in the middle of the Theieves' Guild stuff right now, and I'm only level 9ish. To be fair, I've been meandering eastwards from Whiterun, rather than west.
Wow...how are you level 44? I'm in the middle of the Theieves' Guild stuff right now, and I'm only level 9ish. To be fair, I've been meandering eastwards from Whiterun, rather than west.
I'm only level 2 after a few hours, I think I've spent to much time stealing
I forget what level I'm at, I think 9/10 ish (after 20ish hours of play). I keep getting so distracted by everything! It seems like almost everyone has something you can do for them, and I can't say no. -_- In fact I'm pretty confused about where I am in the game and think I may have strayed from the main quest, need to check the wiki. I do notice that the misc quests tend to be much better than they were in the previous games, always seem to have something interesting about them. Of course there are still some good ole fetch quests in there, too... if only I could say no ;-;
Well, there's two explinations - the Lore one, which is
That over time, the crown of the mad god simply warped the previous character into their current form, not unlikely, since while the mad god can shift to any shape and do any number of things, they would likely have a base form that each person who became the mad god would eventually become
or the in reality one, which is that it could be clearer, but Skyrim doesn't load anything from your oblivion saves, thus removing any ability to refer back to it in anything but vauge terms and clues.
Also, I'm running at level 35 as we speak, but I'm only seven missions into the main story. So many sidequests. But I think I blazed through levels because I was sneaking pretty much any time enemies were about, immediately improving any weapons I picked up, picking every lock, visiting a ton of stores and selling my stuff, casting quite a few spells, so on. I've got something like a 92 in sneak, mid-70s in archery, high 90s in lockpicking, and somewhere in the 50s for speech. Blacksmithing is pretty high, but I never look at it to remember - it only took me about ten levels to get all the perks out of that, so now I can craft damned near anything I like. A bunch of enchanting, too, from re-charging magic weapons I've picked up here and there, and tend to use, especially wabbajack. Archery and stealth are going up quick as soon as I got sneak attacks - Because it counts as both a big tick towards stealth AND archery, or whatever skill you use to sneak attack the person. Also went by some trainers, but it has limited effect, since you can only train five times per level.
That said, don't worry, you won't be stomping the shit out of things too badly later - some of the combat gets easier, but it still scales quite intelligently - the enemies which are ball-rupturingly hard early on - for example, duregar scourges or deathlords - start to become much more the norm, after Duregars become little of a challenge.
Oh yeah - and the last two days of play have been simply clearing out all the side-quests I've picked up in the short little bit of the main story I got through, and from talking to random people about town. Though, had a hilarious one - Some thief bloke stole a bow, runs up to me and says "Hang onto this, I'll pay you big time when I see you again, don't lose it!" and then is killed mid sentance by the person who he stole it from. Who then proceeds to turn around, sheathe his weapon, and ask me "Hey, did you see a thief carrying a bow run through here?" "Uhh...No. No I did not." "Well, if you see him, come tell me!" "Yeah, sure, I'll get right on that..."
And then I took the bow out of my inventory, hung it around his neck, and walked off. Not worth the trouble, man.
Oh, and be warned, there is a glitch in one of the final companions quests, but if you're on the PC, you can fix it pretty trivially, though it does involve being a little weird - basically, you have to use the console to force-start the quest, then punch a random civilian in the face outside of the mead-hall, so that the other NPC's start to attack you, which breaks your companions out of their locked/busy states, then turn the hell away, wait till everything calms down, pay your fine, and finish the mission.
I'm level 11 playing what amounts to a fighter/magic user/thief. I love the mining & smithing & alchemy & enchantments. The combat is kind of funny because I can kill dragons but if I'm not careful, a wolf can do me in. The NPC interactions I don't much care about although I am getting married to one. There's a mask puzzle that is very intriguing that I want to explore later.
I've got 35 hours in it and I'm sure I'll put in a ton more. If nothing else, the real draw to the game is that you can play it any damn way you want. If I want to hack and slash, I can go do that. If I want an intricate quest, I can do that. I never want political intrigue, but if I did, there's that too.
It's not perfect. Everything the reviewers say about the interface is true, but after a while you get used to it. Even when I get frustrated, it pulls me back in. I'm glad in reading Churba's comments that it sounds like I'm only just getting started.
Crafting. It is ridiculously easy to level those, especially smithing. Kill every random deer and fox you see, make hundreds of leather bracers, hit the skill cap in no time. Alchemy is a bit slower but still fairly easy. Pickpocket is equally broken, rewarding a full skill up almost every time you take something valuable.
Those who are complaining about flying through the game, what difficultly are you playing at?
Thaed's post makes me feel better because I'm at probably 12-15 hours and I'm level 5. I'm definitely avoiding all non-essential tasks because of my experience in Fallout 3 (left a few areas unexplored until max level doing sidequests, found that most random open world encounters at that level turned into such large bottlecap (ammo) sinks that I couldn't justify continued exploration). I get a little pissed every time I get a point in sneaking. If it's good enough to avoid detection in most reasonable situations for now I don't want it leveling me, I only want points in things that let me deal or prevent damage better. I like this better than how things went in Oblivion but I still wish Bethesda would go with a normal world level system.
So while waiting for Skyrim I restarted playing Morrowind and I was reminded of one thing that always annoyed me. Not ever enough strength to carry all the stuff I need (read. loot), especially when it seems that everything drains strength in that game. Does Skyrim suffer in similar problems or can I go to a looting spree without thinking about inventory management too much?
Those who are complaining about flying through the game, what difficultly are you playing at?
While I don't doubt you know the difference between "Complaining of rapid progress" and "Noting rapid progress without complaining", I'm playing on adept. I tried master briefly, but it was a little too much- I made a quicksave, switched it up, and tried to take on a bandit camp - the first bandit saw me immediately despite my enormous sneak skill, and then proceeded to one-shot me with his bow. Well, alright then, back to adept.
It should also be noted that according to steam, I'm nearly 60 hours in. I had a few free days, so I binged pretty hard on it - So it's not like I'm only two or three hours in, and the non-combat skills are both useful and easy to blow through levels REALLY fast.
Thaed's post makes me feel better because I'm at probably 12-15 hours and I'm level 5. I'm definitely avoiding all non-essential tasks because of my experience in Fallout 3 (left a few areas unexplored until max level doing sidequests, found that most random open world encounters at that level turned into such large bottlecap (ammo) sinks that I couldn't justify continued exploration). I get a little pissed every time I get a point in sneaking. If it's good enough to avoid detection in most reasonable situations for now I don't want it leveling me, I only want points in things that let me deal or prevent damage better. I like this better than how things went in Oblivion but I still wish Bethesda would go with a normal world level system.
Don't worry about it - the game scales well, and is still quite challenging at level 35 as it is at level 5. Much better than oblivion, where as soon as you jumped a level, everyone around you would have ridiculous equipment and suddenly be hank-the-fucking-tank. Don't worry about it, it'll be fine.
So while waiting for Skyrim I restarted playing Morrowind and I was reminded of one thing that always annoyed me. Not ever enough strength to carry all the stuff I need (read. loot), especially when it seems that everything drains strength in that game. Does Skyrim suffer in similar problems or can I go to a looting spree without thinking about inventory management too much?
Yes and no - As your stamina increases, your carrying cap goes way up, and a lot of smaller things are worth much more - you'll get a better haul out of a dungeon by picking up gems, coins and the like than you will lugging around all the weapons and armor you find. You might have some trouble a little later, before you stamina gets too high, or you get any gear that gives you extra carrying capacity, but it is a problem rapidly solved. It also helps to carry a few potions of strength, just in case you go a bit over, you can drink one, fast travel back to a town, divest yourself of some goods, then get back to it.
Failing that, just drop whatever shite is the cheapest, and make sure you haven't picked up any useless junk like Pots, plates, or the like. Though, I must admit, I have been grabbing a lot of books for no more reason than to put them on the bookshelves of my houses. I've a reasonably impressive library.
Failing that, just drop whatever shite is the cheapest, and make sure you haven't picked up any useless junk like Pots, plates, or the like. Though, I must admit, I have been grabbing a lot of books for no more reason than to put them on the bookshelves of my houses. I've a reasonably impressive library.
This. Also, some books will give you skills, some books are just random lore, and some books will actually be really helpful in the game.
Lounging in mah armor, enjoying the misty mountain views, and my FANCY HAT.
The worst part about this game is how everyone keeps talking about shit they do with my girlfriend.
Lydia gets around ^_~
About the strength/carrying items thing, at least in this game you can walk if you have too much stuff. So instead of dropping, selling, coming back, grabbing, selling, you can slowly walk to the store. Can't fast travel though, so its only good if you're in a town. Or if you have a pack mule (aka companion).
Does Skyrim suffer in similar problems or can I go to a looting spree without thinking about inventory management too much?
I'm completely full after a big dungeon where I'm taking small valuables and a handful of the most valuable weapon and shield pieces, then again I'm not wearing heavy armor. I remember Oblivion being more problematic in this regard but I was trying to go 1h/shield there.
Don't worry about it - the game scales well, and is still quite challenging at level 35 as it is at level 5. Much better than oblivion, where as soon as you jumped a level, everyone around you would have ridiculous equipment and suddenly be hank-the-fucking-tank. Don't worry about it, it'll be fine.
That's good to hear. I wonder if this is finally the iteration where they got the leveling right, or at least close enough. I do see some complaints from people who tried to split evenly between magic, physical ranged, and melee, as well as people who went deep into every crafting tree very early in levels.
It occurs to me that you need to do math if you want to get the most out of this game. You get 5 purchased skill upgrades per level, so leveling needs to be done with forethought. You need 20 levels to buy your way to 100 skill points. Also, the perk tree has lots and lots of wonderful things but I'm not sure there is a single field where I want everything with the possible exception of enchantment.
And Rochelle, I have a wife in her house and Lydia in my house. At this point, I'm getting far more virtual attention than IRL. If you're experiencing the same thing, your significant other is probably SOL.
And Rochelle, I have a wife in her house and Lydia in my house. At this point, I'm getting far more virtual attention than IRL. If you're experiencing the same thing, your significant other is probably SOL.
This doesn't apply to Andrew, who gets the benefits of having a Lydia 24/7 ^_^
Comments
Speaking of the mage fort, my one irritation right now is that I have no way of telling in the open world whether approaching humanoids are bandits, soldiers, or talkative NPCs, which for a range focused character is kind of important. I've taken to saving before every attempted interaction. Also putting combat-relevant skills and crafting into the same leveling pool, and having the world level up against you, promotes some non-intuitive behavior. It seems like you better know exactly what the hell you're doing if you start crafting or you'll just gimp yourself. Personally I'm going to just blow it off if I can.
I know it really won't matter much to the story but I am curious about people's thoughts.
(<-super nerd that really cares about the lore)
It turns out, if you talk to the God of Madness, that
In fact I'm pretty confused about where I am in the game and think I may have strayed from the main quest, need to check the wiki. I do notice that the misc quests tend to be much better than they were in the previous games, always seem to have something interesting about them. Of course there are still some good ole fetch quests in there, too... if only I could say no ;-;
Also, I'm running at level 35 as we speak, but I'm only seven missions into the main story. So many sidequests. But I think I blazed through levels because I was sneaking pretty much any time enemies were about, immediately improving any weapons I picked up, picking every lock, visiting a ton of stores and selling my stuff, casting quite a few spells, so on. I've got something like a 92 in sneak, mid-70s in archery, high 90s in lockpicking, and somewhere in the 50s for speech. Blacksmithing is pretty high, but I never look at it to remember - it only took me about ten levels to get all the perks out of that, so now I can craft damned near anything I like. A bunch of enchanting, too, from re-charging magic weapons I've picked up here and there, and tend to use, especially wabbajack. Archery and stealth are going up quick as soon as I got sneak attacks - Because it counts as both a big tick towards stealth AND archery, or whatever skill you use to sneak attack the person. Also went by some trainers, but it has limited effect, since you can only train five times per level.
That said, don't worry, you won't be stomping the shit out of things too badly later - some of the combat gets easier, but it still scales quite intelligently - the enemies which are ball-rupturingly hard early on - for example, duregar scourges or deathlords - start to become much more the norm, after Duregars become little of a challenge.
Oh yeah - and the last two days of play have been simply clearing out all the side-quests I've picked up in the short little bit of the main story I got through, and from talking to random people about town. Though, had a hilarious one - Some thief bloke stole a bow, runs up to me and says "Hang onto this, I'll pay you big time when I see you again, don't lose it!" and then is killed mid sentance by the person who he stole it from. Who then proceeds to turn around, sheathe his weapon, and ask me "Hey, did you see a thief carrying a bow run through here?" "Uhh...No. No I did not." "Well, if you see him, come tell me!" "Yeah, sure, I'll get right on that..."
And then I took the bow out of my inventory, hung it around his neck, and walked off. Not worth the trouble, man.
I'm level 11 playing what amounts to a fighter/magic user/thief. I love the mining & smithing & alchemy & enchantments. The combat is kind of funny because I can kill dragons but if I'm not careful, a wolf can do me in. The NPC interactions I don't much care about although I am getting married to one. There's a mask puzzle that is very intriguing that I want to explore later.
I've got 35 hours in it and I'm sure I'll put in a ton more. If nothing else, the real draw to the game is that you can play it any damn way you want. If I want to hack and slash, I can go do that. If I want an intricate quest, I can do that. I never want political intrigue, but if I did, there's that too.
It's not perfect. Everything the reviewers say about the interface is true, but after a while you get used to it. Even when I get frustrated, it pulls me back in. I'm glad in reading Churba's comments that it sounds like I'm only just getting started.
It should also be noted that according to steam, I'm nearly 60 hours in. I had a few free days, so I binged pretty hard on it - So it's not like I'm only two or three hours in, and the non-combat skills are both useful and easy to blow through levels REALLY fast. Don't worry about it - the game scales well, and is still quite challenging at level 35 as it is at level 5. Much better than oblivion, where as soon as you jumped a level, everyone around you would have ridiculous equipment and suddenly be hank-the-fucking-tank. Don't worry about it, it'll be fine. Yes and no - As your stamina increases, your carrying cap goes way up, and a lot of smaller things are worth much more - you'll get a better haul out of a dungeon by picking up gems, coins and the like than you will lugging around all the weapons and armor you find. You might have some trouble a little later, before you stamina gets too high, or you get any gear that gives you extra carrying capacity, but it is a problem rapidly solved. It also helps to carry a few potions of strength, just in case you go a bit over, you can drink one, fast travel back to a town, divest yourself of some goods, then get back to it.
Failing that, just drop whatever shite is the cheapest, and make sure you haven't picked up any useless junk like Pots, plates, or the like. Though, I must admit, I have been grabbing a lot of books for no more reason than to put them on the bookshelves of my houses. I've a reasonably impressive library.
Lounging in mah armor, enjoying the misty mountain views, and my FANCY HAT.
Huh. Why does my character never smile? :-/
About the strength/carrying items thing, at least in this game you can walk if you have too much stuff. So instead of dropping, selling, coming back, grabbing, selling, you can slowly walk to the store. Can't fast travel though, so its only good if you're in a town. Or if you have a pack mule (aka companion).
And Rochelle, I have a wife in her house and Lydia in my house. At this point, I'm getting far more virtual attention than IRL. If you're experiencing the same thing, your significant other is probably SOL.