CACHED: SKYRIM!

[scott]

Oh ya I'm working up reposting the thread by Day. ha

[scott]

Nov-9-2011

Scott
2 days! I'm super hyped for it and can't wait to knock out some hours in it. Which leads me to the question: What race/class type do you usually play in Elder Scrolls games?

@desocietas
Haven't had time to play any of TES series, even though I own Oblivion... but just a reminder:


Scott
scott November 9 View Collection Permalink
That is true, ha.

I've found that it's tough to play TES without picking locks and sneaking. So I'm a Khajiit with a mix of Rogue and Warrior class skills w/ a touch of support magic. Usually play through the Thieves' guild quests first then Fighter's guild and Dark Brotherhood assassin contracts.

@varkias
@scott... This is freakin rediculous. We play a lot of the same games and now you steal my Skyrim toon!? Hehe. I was thinking Khajiit Rogue as well but mostly supported with magic. I skipped Oblivion so I'm not sure what to expect. My cousin is driving up to pick up the pre-order w/me @ midnight. He's bringing a second ps3 with him so we're gonna be playing all weekend at my place. I told the girlfriend about a month ago to "make plans"

Scott
@varkias That is pretty funny and how do I know you're not stealing my toon?

I'm not really a melee rogue, though I do usually have enough warrior traits to hold my own in melee. Usually I play as a stealth sniper, with enough magic to allow me to cast water breathing and healing. Khajiit are pretty much the only way to go for stealth/rogue, in my opinion. The fact that you don't need to use torches in darkness is so full of win it's ridiculous. I'm glad they finally got their look right. When I started with Daggerfall they looked like humans w/ face paint (boo), then they were finally cat-like in Morrowind and Oblivion (yay). Now they have that awesome full feline look that I've always envisioned them (hell yeah!).

I'll also be playing Skyrim all weekend long, but my copy will be shipping from Amazon w/ release day delivery. I'm working Friday and don't care for standing in line at midnight releases, especially when I have to be up for work the next morning. Since that means I can't play the game right away anyway. But, the game will be at my door after work and I'll be able to jump right in, so I'm happy.

[scott]

Nov-10-11

@psydswipe
I now have the game in my possession Not sure how much I'll get to play tonight though so having it early doesn't matter too much.

Scott
Jealous! Was someone selling it early?

@varkias
Yeah I'm way excited... I'm hoping I can mostly use a bow and magic for support. We'll see how things work. I have Friday off so I'm gonna run and pick up my copy tonight. But my cousin has made me promise to wait until he gets here tomorrow to play I'm excited to see how alchemy works out as well, I want to see some wicked poisons!

@psydswipe That's awesome! Someone should run straight to the Throat of the World... lolz

@psydswipe
I played enough to reach level five. Just did the opening bit and then ran a longer than expected quest for a merchant in the first town I got to. The reason I got it early just has to do with my work. It's not a retail job but we purchase games straight from a distributor and sometimes get them a little early. Most of the time we actually get them a day or two after release. Skyrim being a Friday release probably has something to do with why we got it early.

[scott]

Nov-11-11

Scott
@psydswipe Sounds like leveling works a lot quicker in Skyrim. In Oblivion I ended the game (and Shivering Isles) at level 16-18ish and I did everything except the 2nd half of Knights of the Nine.

Delivery confirmation tells me that UPS has left it sitting at my house, and I'm stuck here for 2.5 more hours.

@jobocan
Well, I watched my friend play the game for a few hours, so here's a few impressions (keep in mind I'm not a huge ES fan to start with):

The fighting is fun (helped by the simple weapon/magic switching you can do without going in all the menus), the leveling system seems good (and it's actually quite fast from what I've seen), sneaking around stealing stuff is fun, the crafting/enchanting/alchemy system seems fairly good, but.... to me, the conversations are a way too boring, and there's TONS of downtime where you're just running around doing nothing. I know that's part of the charm for some people, but I like my games to not have moments where I'm doing nothing for 10+ minutes.

Overall... I'm not terribly interested in picking it up, as I'll most likely get bored of it long before getting to the end. I know some people can get over the boring parts easily, but not me. I'm not saying it's a bad game though, it does seem super solid, just... not my thing. I'm sure you guys will have fun with it.

[scott]

Nov-12-11

@desocietas
What platform are you all using? Penny-Arcade's Gabe just wrote about Skyrim, and his mention of playing it on the Xbox makes me think maybe I should get it on PC (in the future... sometime): http://penny-arcade.com/2011/11/11/skyrim

Scott
I'm playing it on Xbox 360 . While there are load times I don't mind them, I also installed the game right away so I don't know what the times were like before I installed it. My cousin bought it for PC, but I haven't talked to him about it. Personally I'm fine with playing on the 360 over my PC. I'm sure the game looks way more amazing on my PC, but it's off in a side room and that room is cluttered at the moment.

Plus, I'd rather sit in my living room while gaming. I have Fallout New Vegas for the PC but never got far in it, bought New Vegas for 360 on a whim and played the hell out of it. /shrug.

@desocietas
Good to know. I have a 250gb 360 so would probably install the game to the system as well. I hear you about the console to PC preference... I've never been good at playing with mouse and keyboard and prefer controllers (though I wonder if I could use my controller with my PC for Skyrim). However, the screensize for the Xbox would be much larger than my current PC screen... Hm. I'll have to think about it some more, but thanks for the info!

Scott
I read somewhere that the PC version, while it has better load times, has an odd control scheme. But I never looked into it, I'm sure if it is anything like the controls of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I'm sure it's not that big of a deal. ha

I don't think I would have a problem playing it on PC, but since it's off away from everything else in the house. I played through Fallout 3 and it's DLC on it and used to play games on it all the time. Of course, when Diablo III releases, I'll be on my PC for that and my 360 will be getting ignored. ha

[scott]

Nov-13-11

@varkias
Having so much fun with this game right now. I've completed all the Companion's quests (very cool) and just hit level 22.

[scott]

Nov-14-11

Scott
I just completed all of the Dark Brotherhood quests. Working on the Theives Guild stuff next, I'm nearly level 13.

@psydswipe
Bethesda stated that there are some graphical issues if you install the game on Xbox 360: http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1258645-texture-scaling-on-360/

I've not come across anything to do with a Dark Brotherhood but I'm nearing level 14. Spent most of my time doing quests for Whiterun. I did get to Solitude last night and did a quest for the Bard's College. Although I always want to try a mage class in RPGs, ultimately I always end up a warrior which is what has happened again; I've primarily been wearing heavy armor and using two-handed weapons. Only managed to kill one dragon outside of the first one in that early quest. Encountered another but it wouldn't land and I'm no good with ranged attacks.

[scott]

Nov 15-11

@varkias
Ohh... I want to start the Dark Brotherhood stuff soon. I just killed an assassin last night and found a note on him calling for my death Got to the end of the Thieves guild questline, but I'm going to wait on finishing it. I'm not going to say why for the sake of spoilers though I also ran across a Dragon Priest last night called Krosis, he was very nasty to bring down but the reward was amazing! So I've killed 6 dragons so far and 2 blood dragons, anyone fight another type of dragon so far?

Scott
I usually do the Assassin's Guild stuff first, so I joined the Dark Brotherhood straight away. I also joined the Thieves Guild at the same time, which gave me a "I'm with the guild" bribe option. I totally think the DB questline in Skyrim was better than in Oblivion. Since I've finished the Dark Brotherhood quests I am moving on to the Thieves Guild.

I've not run into any Dragon Priests yet, but I've taken down 6 dragons as well. I believe they were all regular dragons. I've bought a house and decorated it with items from my Assassination and Theives Guild quests and joined the Stormcloaks, rather than the Imperial Army (total Role-Play decision, I won't say due to possible spoilers). I also joined the Companions and Mage's Guild, but not sure how far I want to go in them at the moment. Of course I may just do them all, like I did in Oblivion.

@varkias
How did you decorate your house? Mine is a pathetic thing, with only an alchemists table so far... I know you can buy stuff from the guy that sells it, but you can add trophies in there or what?

Scott
@varkias I bought a house in Whiterun (Breezehome) and all of the furnishings, and then picked up any items I didn't want laying about. Then I dropped the items I wanted to place in the house on the floor and used the A button (Xbox 360) to pick up the item and moved it onto a table/dresser etc.

One of the furnishings is a Weapon rack, so I placed an extra bow on it and a Great Sword that I thought was cool. Upstairs I placed my Assassin items in the master bedroom on top of a chest and a copy of "The Book of the Dragonborn" on my end table next to my bed.

Even though I am rarely there. I may buy a bigger house eventually and deck it out better. I kinda wish there was an armor stand for the house, I have I nice set of armor I wouldn't mind having on display. ha

[scott]

Nov-16-11

@varkias
@scott Oh snap, I never thought about trying that. I figured that stuff might disappear or something and I've only been using the two chests I have available right now. Have you found a larger house available yet? I have most of the main cities discovered so far, I need to do some more poking around. That weapon rack is a good idea!

Scott
@varkias Items in your house or in chests you own never disappear. But if you put stuff in "public" chests, they can be lost forever. As far as new houses, I've not found any others, but I know there are more out there. In order to be able to purchase new houses, you have to befriend that city's Jarl. Which means doing some kind of quest for them.

Also, I know that the houses all vary in price, but I'm not going to buy a new house until I snag the 100,000 gold achievement. Since you need to have 100,000 gold on hand, and it's not a lifetime tally. :\

@desocietas
   

scott said:

    I'm not going to buy a new house until I snag the 100,000 gold achievement. Since you need to have 100,000 gold on hand, and it's not a lifetime tally. :\

I wonder if the game tries to send thieves at you when you get close to 100,000 gold... wouldn't that be awesome/scary?

Scott
@desocietas I wouldn't be surprised, I've already had a gang of 3 Hired Thugs track me down for stealing. They had a contract on them saying they were hired to beat me up to pay for my theft. It also let them use their discretion as to whether or not they should use deadly force... after having died once to them, I reloaded my save and sniped one, and lured the other two out of town one at a time.

btw, the item I stole had to have been accidental, since I hadn't purposefully stolen anything yet at that point.

[scott]

Nov-17-11

Scott
Just killed my first Blood Dragon, it seemed way tougher than a normal dragon encounter... Then again it was 1 on 1.5 as Shadowmere was trying to help me fight it. Lol.

Just hit lvl 25 and am nearly done w/ the Thieves Guild, I may also hold off on finishing the quests for the same reason as @varkias. But there are bunch of repeatable Thieves Quests to do, so maybe I'll work on those.

Btw, the Nightingale armor set looks so bad ass. I think I found my replacement for the Dark Brotherhood armor.

@madmax
I just got skyrim today. I'm at lvl 5. Played for quite a while. The games awesome!

btw @scott. I figured I was cool enough to take on a giant. 1 hit and I go flying through the sky xD

@darko
   

scott said:

    @varkias I bought a house in Whiterun (Breezehome) and all of the furnishings, and then picked up any items I didn't want laying about. Then I dropped the items I wanted to place in the house on the floor and used the A button (Xbox 360) to pick up the item and moved it onto a table/dresser etc.

    One of the furnishings is a Weapon rack, so I placed an extra bow on it and a Great Sword that I thought was cool. Upstairs I placed my Assassin items in the master bedroom on top of a chest and a copy of "The Book of the Dragonborn" on my end table next to my bed.

    Even though I am rarely there. I may buy a bigger house eventually and deck it out better. I kinda wish there was an armor stand for the house, I have I nice set of armor I wouldn't mind having on display. ha

How do you add items to your house? I haven't been able to figure that out yet.

I'm loving the game. Going through the Thieve's Guild. I'm lvl 18ish? About 25 hours in. It's much better than Oblivion in my eyes

Scott
@darko To get furniture/chests/dressers etc, you have to talk to the Jarl's assistant and he'll offer to sell you furnishings. Then if you want to place items around the house, you just need to drop them on the floor and then you can carry them by holding the A Button (360) and set them where you want to. The Weapon Rack lets you place 2 weapons on it. You walk up to it and press A to activate it, and you'll place whatever weapon you are currently holding in your right hand.

I agree, Skyrim seems to be much more alive than Oblivion. I really dig both of the Dark Brotherhood and Theives Guild quests. The rise to power in Skyrim's guilds seems much more fluid than it was in Oblivion's guilds too.

[psydswipe]

Since I went with heavy armor I have little use for the Nightingale or Dark Brotherhood armor sets :/ I'm kind of regretting putting so many perks into two-handed weapons as well because I feel like trying dual wield. Too bad those aren't interchangeable. If you read the perks for two-handed and one-handed weapons they are all nearly identical. I wasted a lot of my perks though, also put some in the speechcraft tree to get better prices but once I got blacksmithing up I was making items worth a lot more than any merchant could afford. I easily got the 100,000 gold achievement and then went and blew a lot of it on the Solitude house. Aside from costing 25,000 gold, it's another 11,000 to furnish all of the rooms. That house has a couple of mannequins so I've got the light armor sets on display there. You can also mount a few weapons on the walls.

Leveling is fast, especially if you work on certain skills. I maxed out blacksmithing so that I could make dragon armor. I'm close to maxing enchanting now. Last night I was wandering around capturing mostly petty souls. Just trying to get a bunch to practice with and then I stumbled across a cottage and found that it is possible to capture chicken souls That makes it a little too easy to get petty souls since chickens can be found around farms, they can't run away (like the elk), and they die in one hit.

[scott]

The house in Solitude has mannequins? Awesome. I'd like to have my Dark Brotherhood and Nightingale armor on display, for sure. I'll have to start crafting so I can save up cash toward the achievement and the house, I think I'm currently sitting around 26k. Of course I spent the 20k you get from completing the Dark Brotherhood on refurbishing the Sanctuary as part of the quest line, or I'd be sitting at ~50k.

That's funny about the petty souls and Chickens. Sounds like Voodoo or something, haha.

[psydswipe]

I finally decided to finish up the main quest so I could move on to something else. Put in about 118 hours total but still have a pile of quests I could do, and there are plenty more out there I'm sure. I think that last patch did negate my magical resistances which I had read it could do as I was taking a lot more damage from dragons after that. Fell three achievements short of getting all of them. I think I have 17 shouts (out of 20 for the achievement), I've got a handful of Daedric artifacts but I doubt I'm close to 15, and I never got a high bounty in any city, though it's probably easy enough to do.

[scott]

Ya basically you just need to outright murder someone with witnesses. I haven't done it yet, I don't want to accidentally screw up my save...

[varkias]

I already tried once to take over whiterun without saving.  You can't kill the Jarl or his body guards.  I'm at level 32 and can just walk through that place mostly untouched.  I probably need to crank up the difficulty...