Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Starseeker]

lol, wouldn't that be easier? You can save on animating models which Beth aren't really good at anyway. Just one giant environment with lots of exclamation marks for NPC, mobs, and all the other moving and non moving objects.

 

[Alphadrop]

Yea, I end up with a lot of quest items I don't have the quest for, for example Davin's Bow and I'm not even sure who that is.

One of the parts of the main quest removes your items and sometimes doesn't hand back the quest items meaning a lot of quests can get boned.
You would think something that bad would be fixed on a quick patch like this.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

I'm not going to install the patch. How can I get best around to that with steam? I know there's an option to sign off on automatic updates, but if Bethesda wants their game to be updated, it'll be updated regardless of what I tell steam.

I could run Steam in offline mode, but it seems I have to set that setting to run when online. So, I guess my best bet is to kill my internet connection and then run steam? A bit troublesome to do so every time but it's a small price to pay so as not to be faced by patch incompetence.

 

[Daimyo]

I am so divided on Skyrim.

On one hand I am a bit sorry I do not have the PC to run it and so I have not bought it yet.

Because I want to play it.

On the other hand all these bug posts and balance posts seem to indicate there is something profoundly wrong, and straight up provoking with the game.

Perhaps it is for the best that I will not be able to play this for a while, because when I finally do I will get a smoother experience than the people playing now.

 

[aenemic]

I am so divided on Skyrim.

On one hand I am a bit sorry I do not have the PC to run it and so I have not bought it yet.

Because I want to play it.

On the other hand all these bug posts and balance posts seem to indicate there is something profoundly wrong, and straight up provoking with the game.

Perhaps it is for the best that I will not be able to play this for a while, because when I finally do I will get a smoother experience than the people playing now.

waiting for it to be patched up and modded is probably a good idea, but on the other hand I personally find it very enjoyable in its current state. like Sea mentioned, a lot of the bugs with the latest patch seem to come from people modding and tweaking the game already and shouldn't solely be blamed on Bethesda. and as for the imbalance issues, a lot of them are after all a matter of taste and how you approach the game. you can easily gather from the complaints that doing a pure mage build is probably a bad idea and powerleveling crafting skills will sort of fuck up the level scaling. but if you simply avoid those two, I find it pretty balanced and fun to play. there are few actually gamebreaking bugs and those that screw up quests can easily be fixed with console commands (in my 100+ hours of playing I've only had to do this once and haven't run into any other mentionable quest-related issues). yes, the game is bugged but it's not in the pitiful unplayable state some people seem to think.

 

[Faceless Stranger]

there are few actually gamebreaking bugs and those that screw up quests can easily be fixed with console commands (in my 100+ hours of playing I've only had to do this once and haven't run into any other mentionable quest-related issues).

Was it by any chance the dialogue bug with Esbern?

 

[Token-not-found]

I don't think bethesda ever released a patch to fix something else beside bugs (ex: game balance, underpowered magic, things wrong with the game that are not considered bugs )

Beth doesn't do those kinds of things, so don't hold your breath.

 

[Alphadrop]

Announcement about the CK, patches and Steam Workshop.
[spoiler:3d77ac2e7a]As of today, it’s been three weeks since we released Skyrim worldwide. We’re simply blown away by the response, from new and old fans, and amazed by the sheer number of people playing the game. It’s been absolutely fantastic hearing your stories, seeing early mods, and watching fan videos (more live music ones please, we love those).

We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do. We wouldn’t have this success without you, and we want you to know we’re committed to making your Skyrim experience even better. And not just in the short term, but over the life of the game. Here’s a quick peek at what we’re working on right now:

Creation Kit (PC Only) — Beginning in January, PC players will be able to download the same development tools we used at Bethesda Game Studios to create Skyrim. In tandem with the Creation Kit’s release, we will roll out a new Wiki and videos to help you get started. It also features something we think you’re going to love…

Steam Workshop (PC Only) – We’re excited to share news that we’ve been working closely with Valve to integrate Steam Workshop into the Creation Kit. Using the Workshop, you’ll have free user content with the push of a button. The Creation Kit will bundle your mod and upload it to the Workshop, where everyone can browse, rate, and flag mods for download. You’ll be able to do this from any web device, including your smartphone. Like a live Netflix queue, when you fire up Skyrim, mods you flagged will be automatically downloaded and installed. Everyone here is really excited about the opportunities and possibilities this opens up for our entire community.

Prefer to use existing modding sites? Not a problem. You’ll still be able to upload/share/access Skyrim mods on fan-created mod sites.

Continued Game Updates – This week we released update 1.2 across all platforms, and we’ll be releasing an incremental update next week. We anticipate it will be up on PC first, and then hit PS3 and Xbox 360 later in the week. Among other things, the update will fix issues like magic resistance not calculating properly and the rare, amazing backwards flying dragon. Once the update is released, we’ll share the full release notes.

After the holidays, we’ll continue to release regular updates for the game — through full title updates, as well as incremental “gameplay updates” to fix whatever issues come up along with rebalancing portions of the game for difficulty or exploits. We plan on having a lot of these, not just a few. Overall, you should expect updates to be hitting the PC and Steam earlier and more often, as that’s a process we control. Console updates will follow, as they must be certified and processed by those manufacturers.

We all know this is a huge game, and everyone has a different experience. We’ll continue to do everything we can to make the game better and better for as many people as possible every day. We’ve also realized that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this. To be safe, we are prioritizing code side fixes right now over data fixes. Quest and balance issues are usually data, and those will start rolling in a large way with the January updates.

Thanks again for your continued support and patience. We truly have the best fans in the world, and we couldn’t do it without you. [/spoiler:3d77ac2e7a]

 

[Faceless Stranger]

Sounds legit... But I'm watching you Bethesda...

 

[aenemic]

there are few actually gamebreaking bugs and those that screw up quests can easily be fixed with console commands (in my 100+ hours of playing I've only had to do this once and haven't run into any other mentionable quest-related issues).

Was it by any chance the dialogue bug with Esbern?

nope, I mentioned it earlier in this thread. it was the longer quest in Markarth, the one with the Foresworn.

anyway, I'm now for the first time feeling my interest for this game waning. I still get an urge to play, but I don't drool as much as I used to. mainly the constant dungeon crawling is getting to me, and so is the escessive loot.

even with 400+ in carrying capacity and a companion to carry loot, I find myself over-encumbered halfway through most dungeons. I guess I can only blame myself, I'm a hoarder after all, but the real problem is that even if I only keep the most valuable loot it's simply too much. I haven't had to buy a single potion and I haven't come close to using all the ones I've found. the chest in my Whiterun home is spilling over with enchanted items I just don't know what to do with. even if I didn't consider disenchanting them later on I can't possibly sell all of them.

and I have way too much money to know what to do with. this is such a common problem with games these days, and especially Bethesda's games. what's the point in even having some sort of currency when you end up with a limitless amount of money with very little effort? the limited gold vendors have is nothing but an annoyance - if they run out of gold, just go to the next city or rest for a while and they'll have money again. and where are the money sinks? buying a house is only expensive if you do it in the first few hours of playing. training skills can get very expensive, but it's so easy to raise them anyway so that's nothing but an optional waste of money. at most you only need to train one or two skills once in a while.

and as for the dungeon crawls, they can be fantastic and very fun. but I wish that some quests could be completed without having to crawl through a dungeon or two. I'm mainly talking about the longer quest lines for the different factions. when you've cleared a few of each dungeon type they do get a bit repetative, even if most of them are very well made and offer something unique. I just wish they had put in some other challenges to reach your goals than to clear dungeons.

I still really like the game, but when you get to this point it's kind of hard to motivate playing. the story in itself isn't interesting enough and I have a strong feeling it'll only force me to crawl through even more dungeons. and as for exploring... well, it's been a while since I felt like I saw something new and exciting. and it's not like I need any more loot or better gear. I kill everything in a few seconds at the moment.

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is actually something called "too much", even in a game like this.

 

[Ilosar]

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is actually something called "too much", even in a game like this.

It's a case of quantity vs quality, IMO. While quantity has a quality of it's how, and Skyrim is better about this than Oblivion and arguably Morrowind, it still remains the majority of the game is generic and/or randomly generated. Dungeons are an example; the first few barrows or Falmer caves I raided were really good, but after a dozen the patterns are returning. It's normal, since there are so many of them. But a bit less dungeons (say, 7-8 of each type, maximum) would have allowed more uniqueness, and you still would have landed about 60-70 dungeons total, quite a lot. Maybe put some unique loot in too, hmm? I mean there are only so many times I can exit a dungeon with solely junk I will sell to the nearest merchant before it gets tiring. At least new Shouts are usually nice.

Dragon fights are another example. They are by no means bad (albeit a bit easy because they animations can be too easily exploited, as well as their AI), I mean if there were 4-5 fights in the game with gradually increasing difficulty it would be perfect. But it's not. I am level 27, and I have killed 13 dragons. Some were part of the main quest, others were just fodder that Lydia and me killed qute fast, a speedbump on a road if you will. Compare that to the first Dragon Age, where you only kill 3 dragons, but each of them is an epic, time-consuming battle that is much harder than the rest of the game. It feels like you fight a dragon because 1. It's hard and 2. because you didn't spend the rest of the game doing it. Finally bringing the beast down war far more of an acheivement than killing random killer lizard #13.

All I say is, I understand that the shtick of TES is a vast world et all, but more unique moments (and, dare I say, characters) would really help Beth's much-touted immersion. Don't just copy what Bioware does, of course (especially if it's DA2), but take inspiration from such things.

Damn, this made me want to replay Origins.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

It's mainly the maintenance that gets to me after a while. I don't mind the dungeon crawling, fighting stuff is still fun and, if you don't use your best skills, still a bit of a challenge sometimes at higher levels. Looting gets increasingly boring and tedious though, but I've more and more phased out the less expensive items and leave a lot more behind.

But what gets to me is the stuff that needs to be done between dungeon crawling. I need to get back to my house, wait/sleep until it is day so I can haul over the next wheelbarrows full of loot to the appropriate merchants, get all my ingredients in a chest, pick up the enchanted crafting items, go make potions, sort potions, sell potions, enchant away my new hoard of soul stones, sell enchanted items, see whether I can upgrade my armor again, same for weapon, see whether Lydia can get something better, upgrade her shit, store all the enchanted crating items again, store all the other crafting equipment, find some quests to do.

And then I can go crawl another dungeon, perhaps 3-4 of them, before the whole shlebang hits me again and the game sulkily demands another half-hour/hour of maintenance again just to keep all the crap piling up on me stored/sold away and to keep my skills going up.

So I think I'm going to put the game to a rest for now. I've barely scratched the main quest line, only done the companions quests, and pretty much none of the other guilds/colleges. I think I've levelled far too quickly, already at 48.

 

[Token-not-found]

It's mainly the maintenance that gets to me after a while. I don't mind the dungeon crawling, fighting stuff is still fun and, if you don't use your best skills, still a bit of a challenge sometimes at higher levels. Looting gets increasingly boring and tedious though, but I've more and more phased out the less expensive items and leave a lot more behind.

But what gets to me is the stuff that needs to be done between dungeon crawling. I need to get back to my house, wait/sleep until it is day so I can haul over the next wheelbarrows full of loot to the appropriate merchants, get all my ingredients in a chest, pick up the enchanted crafting items, go make potions, sort potions, sell potions, enchant away my new hoard of soul stones, sell enchanted items, see whether I can upgrade my armor again, same for weapon, see whether Lydia can get something better, upgrade her shit, store all the enchanted crating items again, store all the other crafting equipment, find some quests to do.

And then I can go crawl another dungeon, perhaps 3-4 of them, before the whole shlebang hits me again and the game sulkily demands another half-hour/hour of maintenance again just to keep all the crap piling up on me stored/sold away and to keep my skills going up.

So I think I'm going to put the game to a rest for now. I've barely scratched the main quest line, only done the companions quests, and pretty much none of the other guilds/colleges. I think I've levelled far too quickly, already at 48.

Why would you want to do that? The game has random generic loot, from what i understand all dungeons have it.

Just make sure you have some decent gear, don't loot anymore gear - just enjoy the dungeon crawling until you reach the max level required for the best randomly generated generic loot.

After that research what are the best random generic items you can get (on uesp) - you will get them with a bit of luck (and reloading) in a few dungeon runs.

You can skip the last step and end up with max 5-6 hours of maintenence or do the last step and limit you maintenance time to less then an hour in total.

Use soul gems as you find them and stop accumulating worthless generic loot after you are comfortable with the money you have.

I see you are lvl 48 so either you are very greedy or a hoarder to still be doing that stuff- in that case my advice is useless.

I'm a minimalist myself (much more so in real life)

 

[Edmond Dantès]

I see you are lvl 48 so either you are very greedy or a hoarder to still be doing that stuff- in that case my advice is useless.

I'm a minimalist myself (much more so in real life)

I prefer completionist as a better descriptive term for myself

Anyway, it's all in an attempt to get my dragon armor fully upgraded, and since I've taken enchanting, blacksmithing and alchemy, it means getting the three of them up to 100 in the end, enchanting items with +alchemy stuff, to make potions with +enchanting/blacksmithing, to then enchant and upgrade everything to the hilt. You need a sodding boatload of soul gems and ingredients to get there.

Even if it weren't for the tediousness inherent in that goal, I've been overplaying the game anyway, at which point I know of no game that still has achieved to remain fun in my experience. I got L.A. Noire not too long ago in a Steam sale, so I might hop on to that one for a while.

Or I might go on reading Terry Pratchett.

 

[Token-not-found]

I see you are lvl 48 so either you are very greedy or a hoarder to still be doing that stuff- in that case my advice is useless.

I'm a minimalist myself (much more so in real life)

I prefer completionist as a better descriptive term for myself

Anyway, it's all in an attempt to get my dragon armor fully upgraded, and since I've taken enchanting, blacksmithing and alchemy, it means getting the three of them up to 100 in the end, enchanting items with +alchemy stuff, to make potions with +enchanting/blacksmithing, to then enchant and upgrade everything to the hilt. You need a sodding boatload of soul gems and ingredients to get there.

Even if it weren't for the tediousness inherent in that goal, I've been overplaying the game anyway, at which point I know of no game that still has achieved to remain fun in my experience. I got L.A. Noire not too long ago in a Steam sale, so I might hop on to that one for a while.

Or I might go on reading Terry Pratchett.

I'm also an obsessive completionist - but it my case it does not apply to random content.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

To be fair, I have the problem of loot sorting in Bethesda games in general. Diablo get's massive props from me for having no pointless crap. In Beth games I have to figure out what's worth taking which is a lot of comparing and then you get 500lbs of the same type of amour from a single dungeon... It's just a pain to sort what you do and don't want. The games are full of junk and it requires a much different play style than pretty much every other RPG, a play style that involves ignoring tons of the loot. It's somewhat ironic given the focus on loot but that's what happens when you fill your world with junk. All in all it's a play style that I'm struggling to adjust to in New Vegas.

 

[Faceless Stranger]

That's why I vastly preferred the loot system in Morrowind, most good loot was pre-set, you could judt come across a random artifact in a dungeon completely by chance, it made it worth going dungeon diving, and the Daedric Armor? Don't even get me started on that...

 

[Starseeker]

huh? Wasn't there only 1 whole set of daedric armor you can collect in MW? I think you have to kill a major quest NPC for the other set.

 

[Alphadrop]

huh? Wasn't there only 1 whole set of daedric armor you can collect in MW? I think you have to kill a major quest NPC for the other set.

Sort of, it was a mostly complete set as it was missing a pouldron.

 

[Crni Vuk]

people might kill me for it. But I used simply cheats. I am not spending hours of "grinding" the skills just to get the max out of the game. My time is to valuable for it. And I dont see skyrim as an RPG with real progression (level scaling and "random" loot simply kills it for me), so I can simply enjoy the combat. By saying that i didnt simply maxed out my skills with the console. Only after it. I dont see why I should make 1 million potions just to get it to 100 now. What kind of fun is that ? I prefer a system like Fallout 3 even for that matter where you chose which skill you want to increase. Much less time consuming and it has the same effect. - The perks on the other hand are some awesome idea. Because it means you chose them once you level up. Sadly they have not done more about it. The game should have much more skill checks particularly in dialogues. But I guess ... one does not play Beth games for dialogues.

My combat skills improve naturaly. Even destruction was rather easy. Call me a cheater if you want. I dont care. But I am not going to spend hours of hours just to get to the "end game" to speak so. Its not an MMO its a damn single player game. Grinding should be left to online games.