Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Ennui]

My hotkeys are just 1) Skyforge Steel Greatsword, 2) Dual-wield healing spell, 3) Elven bow of Frost, 4) Elven bow of Souls.

My next playthrough I plan to be a mage and do pretty much pure magic.

 

[MJ12]

Raz, are you a mage? Can you recommend one of the destruction branches? They each seem pretty unique. I am a battlemage so I can only invest in one branch for now. I don't think fire is a good option because it causes targets to flee, which I don't think would be good for someone who is melee based.

Also, does anyone know what "magic damage" does? Like when you get an item that just says it delivers magic damage, nothing specific?

Yeah but only with 8 numbers. Right now I simply have for my hotkeys 1-8... my staff, ranged fire, ranged lightning, ranged frost, rune fire, rune lightning, rune frost, healing

I've given up on hotkeys. Too many combos and weapons you have to use; hotkeys actually slow me down. I just use the favorite list to swap.
Am I the only one who adjusted the controls for righthand=RMB and lefthand=LMB? It felt really awkward at first but it's helped a lot.

 

[Raziaar]

My hotkeys are just 1) Skyforge Steel Greatsword, 2) Dual-wield healing spell, 3) Elven bow of Frost, 4) Elven bow of Souls.

My next playthrough I plan to be a mage and do pretty much pure magic.

That's what I'm doing right now... I'm playing a witch character. Let me tell you, it's ****ing HARD. But very rewarding some of the fights. Those beginning and even apprentice level destruction magics don't do much of anything... and mana is a huge issue. I was exploring a dwemer ruin and I came out of this area and a dragon had attacked... but I could do nothing to it. I had to run back inside and avoid him by leaving out another entrance.





Oh and ZT... I'm using all three of the destruction magic schools. I've only gotten up to apprentice level spells and perks, so I haven't really done anything else with them. My character is only level 6 right now.

Edit: God damn... I just got ambushed by three ice wolves... and I have trouble enough attacking one ice wolf... let alone being ambushed by three. I had to run away and I leapt down part of this cliff face and luckily it wasn't too far of a fall to a boulder down there... They're circling around me now but I'm safe for the moment. Things are so much more exciting and frustrating when you're weak.

 

[Quixoticism]

Every TES game that I've played has had insanely weak casting. Oblivion felt much better than Morrowind did because you had mana regen, even though it wasn't the greatest, it was some. Casting at best has been a nice supplement to the melee weapons but it'd be nice to be a fearsome and powerful mage with the damage capabilities weapons offer.

But my oh my is Skyrim looking ever better each time I look at it.

 

[MJ12]

How do you spend Dragon Souls? I have the first shout, and I also found another shout, but I can't unlock it. I have like 3 Dragon souls.

 

[Ennui]

How do you spend Dragon Souls? I have the first shout, and I also found another shout, but I can't unlock it. I have like 3 Dragon souls.

Go to the Shouts section in the Magic screen, and when you have one of the locked known Shouts selected, there should be an icon telling you what button to push to spend a dragon soul and unlock it. I think on PC the button is either R or T.

 

[Krynn72]

How do you spend Dragon Souls? I have the first shout, and I also found another shout, but I can't unlock it. I have like 3 Dragon souls.

I didn't even realize I needed to "spend" them. I thought your powers just got more powerful when you got souls, and that I needed to kill a specific kind of dragon to unlock a shout I had learned. So yes, someone please explain how this shit works, because the game doesn't.

EDIT: Nevermind then. But yeah, that would have taken me ages to figure out, since I've been in the magic's shout section before and didn't notice it.

 

[Dog--]

You unlock the shout you have (unlock=being able to use it) by spending a dragon soul on it. You upgrade (more words to a shout) by finding them on walls/quests. When you already unlocked the shout you don't need to spend more dragon souls to add more words to it, it happens automatically. When you use the shout with more words (say a shout with 2-3 words), you hold down the shout button and your guy will say more words, making it more powerful. You can tap the button to say just 1 word, but it's less powerful. BUT takes less time to recharge. When you select a shout in your menu, the numbers next to the words tell you how long each additional word will take to recharge.

The numbers are kinda useless though as your 'shout meter' isn't numbered.. It's more a guideline. For example a 10 will recharge faster then a 20.

 

[MJ12]

I just beat the shit out of my horse for two hours in order to grind some skills. Never again. Done grinding.

Find a safe spot, bash the shit out of your horse with your shield, weapon or magic. Right before its about to die, hit "T" for wait, and hit "enter" so it regains health. Repeat.

 

[Dog--]

Why not just play the game like a normal person/the way it's meant to be played? You play video games to have fun. Is grinding fun? No. So what's the point? It'd be faster/easier to just go out and adventure around a bit, gather some gold and just use trainers.


Anyways, here's some of my better pictures.. I take a lot, but looking at them now they mostly suck. These are the 2 good ones I found.

 

[MJ12]

Why not just play the game like a normal person/the way it's meant to be played? You play video games to have fun. Is grinding fun? No. So what's the point?

Normally I'd agree with you, but as a melee based character I shouldn't have to play through the majority of the game to unlock only a few of the "combos" that should have been immediately implemented to any warrior from LVL 1. I am talking about stuff like Shield Bashing, decapitation, and running sword swing; these are the things that make melee combat feel like something more than just Oblivion 2.0, and I am not going to spend 40+ hours basically experiencing the same Oblivion type combat before I can unlock something fun and dynamic Stuff like damage stats I level naturally though.

It'd be faster/easier to just go out and adventure around a bit, gather some gold and just use trainers.

Gold scavenging is definitely grinding and less fun imo. Either way, it's a grind.

 

[Dog--]

Normally I'd agree with you, but as a melee based character I shouldn't have to play through the majority of the game to unlock only a few of the "combos" that should have been immediately implemented to any warrior from LVL 1. I am talking about stuff like Shield Bashing, decapitation, and running sword swing; these are the things that make melee combat feel like something more than just Oblivion 2.0, and I am not going to spend 40+ hours basically experiencing the same Oblivion type combat before I can unlock something fun and dynamic Stuff like damage stats I level naturally though.

I agree about the certain perks you gotta unlock, they should've been from the start of the game. But I can also kinda see where they are coming from as game developers. Do those perks not want to make you play the shit of their game? I took one-handed specifically so I could decapitate lol

Gold scavenging is definitely grinding and less fun imo. Either way, it's a grind.

How is going into caves killing things and getting treasures less fun then getting hit and restoring getting hit restoring getting hit restoring?

 

[Dynasty]

Holding down the mouse in melee whilst holding w,a,s or d gives you a combo attack. Holding both mouse buttons down when in melee does a flurry of spins attack that does pretty awesome damage.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Gold scavenging is definitely grinding and less fun imo. Either way, it's a grind.

What else are you spending it on though, honestly?

 

[MJ12]

What else are you spending it on though, honestly?

Horses that get killed by dragons. New Armor. Saving up for a 5000 dollar house even though I saved the whole ****ing town.

 

[Zephos]

Seriously how did Bestheda not know their UI was this ****ing terrible. Did they not have playtesters?? I spend more time fiddling around in that ****ing thing than I do actually enjoying my surroundings.

 

[Naph]

Because the game isn't console port or anything.

 

[Higlac]

Actually, the more time I spend in the UI, the more it grows on me, I find that I can navigate menus quicker with wasd than I ever could with a mouse in Oblivion. Granted, the ESC menu is terrible, since you can't actually use wasd to switch between submenus. But all in all, it's quicker than using a mouse for a lot of tasks and it reminds me of learning my keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Linux.

 

[Tagaziel]

It's still a badly designed, crappy user interface. The fact that you're getting used to navigating it doesn't mean it's not badly designed and ill-conceived.

Spoiler

I got Skyrim and I must say, it grows on me. I feel like in Morrowind again, actually, which is good. Voicework is fine and racial design is top notch. The main story is kind of cliched and an excuse to make my character super important, but I pretty much ignore it and walk in random directions. Dungeons are great fun and gameplay is decently challenging at times. Much, much better than Oblivion in ever aspect.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Yeah, cancer grows on people too, asshole.

 

[Tagaziel]

Yeah, cancer grows on people too, asshole.

Excuse me sir, but I do not follow.

 

[Vegeta897]

He was responding to Higlac. He's on your side.

I'm not sure how one couldn't be.

 

[Raziaar]

I just beat the shit out of my horse for two hours in order to grind some skills. Never again. Done grinding.

Find a safe spot, bash the shit out of your horse with your shield, weapon or magic. Right before its about to die, hit "T" for wait, and hit "enter" so it regains health. Repeat.

Why the **** would you grind in a singleplayer game?

 

[Vegeta897]

Because he doesn't want to go through a majority of the game lacking the skills he wants but doesn't have.

Mods to the rescue! I'm vaguely interested in this game, but am definitely holding off until price drop and a good set of mods are out. Win/win.

Ya'll are suckers paying 60 dollars and ruining your first experience with the campaign with all this crap.

 

[Raziaar]

That's retarded though. Nearly all games that have skills like "shield bash" have it unlocked after spending some skill points... by playing the game a little bit. And yes it is just playing the game a "little bit" to get those skills as the game intended... not having to grind.

Oh well, whatever floats their boat. I think grinding in a single player game is ridiculous.

HAH! Yeah right about you being vaguely interested in the game. That's just your justification for posting in yet another game thread that you really have no intention of playing.

Vegeta and American RPG's... Ho ho ho.

 

[Vegeta897]

HAH! Yeah right about you being vaguely interested in the game. That's just your justification for posting in yet another game thread that you really have no intention of playing.

That was my first post in the thread. And it was simply clarifying someone else's post.

Vegeta and American RPG's... Ho ho ho.

Am I known for playing Japanese RPGs or something? I'm pretty sure I've played a lot more american than foreign.

Diablo 1 and 2, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, Eschalon Books 1 and 2, tons of free MMOs back in the day with my brother, and even Morrowind. I even downloaded that massive Mortal Online game just because everyone else was playing it.

 

[Raziaar]

That was my first post in the thread. And it was simply clarifying someone else's post.


Am I known for playing Japanese RPGs or something? I'm pretty sure I've played a lot more american than foreign.

Diablo 1 and 2, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, Eschalon Books 1 and 2, tons of free MMOs back in the day with my brother, and even Morrowind.

"Back in the day" is not modern "i shit on rpg's" vegeta.

 

[Vegeta897]

I played the Eschalon games not too long ago, and just thinking about all those RPGs put me in the mood to play one. I should roll a new char in Eschalon.

Oh and I should include Dwarf Fortress adventure mode.

Stop derailing threads with me and get on msn already. And don't tell me you have work.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Excuse me sir, but I do not follow.

I was agreeing with you that just because the interface grows on you it doesn't make it any more intuitive. Though I don't really think Higlac is an asshole, obviously.

 

[Tagaziel]

That would certainly affect his social life, you know, the smell and the tightness.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Hahaha

 

[15357]

Because he doesn't want to go through a majority of the game lacking the skills he wants but doesn't have.

Mods to the rescue! I'm vaguely interested in this game, but am definitely holding off until price drop and a good set of mods are out. Win/win.

Ya'll are suckers paying 60 dollars and ruining your first experience with the campaign with all this crap.

$60?

I paid around $33 for the PC package. I'm kinda surprised that its actually more expensive at its place of origin. Or even on Steam, which I despise and cannot use.

Anyway, I don't think I'm halfway through the game, but I'm already making plans for my next character, which I mean to play as a mage clad in steel armor. The potential for replayability is great, because a lot of the quests actually give you a choice without mentioning it (like the first brotherhood quest) and I wonder what it'd be like, so I plan to take that choice in my next char and so on.
Also, I don't grind, save for smithing so I guess I might need to get a new char to say, invest in heavy armor, as I'm nearly mastering light armor and so on.

Edit: Also, I think I'll knock up the difficulty to its maximum, since that might be more fun and it might actually give me a reason to use poisons and make potions.

 

[Dog--]

I don't have any problems with the menus other than the fact that the mouse doesn't even register half the time. Goes for clicking and selecting. Clearly a ****ing console port because the mouse doesn't work in general about half the time, I find myself clicking like 3 times to ready my weapons..

 

[Dynasty]

Mods incoming and already here.

And all the PC problems disappear.

 

[MJ12]

That's retarded though. Nearly all games that have skills like "shield bash" have it unlocked after spending some skill points... by playing the game a little bit. And yes it is just playing the game a "little bit" to get those skills as the game intended... not having to grind.

No, it's not a little bit. Nearly 30 hours in I can't access the most basic things. You also neglect the fact of how unbalanced things like shield, one-handed sword, and destruction are, because they are almost impossible to level up reasonably (they always need a target). As you know, the game works so that whatever you use the most is what will naturally level up, so things like conjuration, restoration, alteration, and smithing are super easy to level up because you don't need a target. If you are leveling a skill that needs a target to register, it is extremely slow and difficult.
This is how the game is unbalanced, the player might want to use a certain weapon type or spelltype, but can't simply because it is low level and too weak to realistically survive in combat, so that thing that you WANT never gets used, and therefor never leveled.

Just because it was how the game was "meant to be played" doesn't make it good or balanced.

 

[Dog--]

Hold on, I played for about 5 hours and had shield bash, decapitation, power attacks, everything. 30 hours? You either really suck or have been spending your skill points elsewhere.

 

[CptStern]

I find myself clicking like 3 times to ready my weapons..

? what? are you selecting weapons by pausing the game going into inventory and then clicking on weapons? you can map weapons to the number keys by going into the quick menu (press q) and putting a number next to your favourites. my set up:

1 = sword and axe
2 = bow
3 = sword + fire spell
4 = sword plus ice spell

etc

I switch weapons, abilities on the fly

 

[Dog--]

No, I don't mean switching weapons, I mean when you click the attack button it doesn't register (when you click attack your character draws their weapon(s), as in the mouse isn't responsive, as in they made the PC port a last priority, as in they are assholes. Also when you're in dialogue with an NPC, half the time it is selected on something I don't want to say, I go to click something else and it doesn't select it, and stays selected on the last thing you picked. The mouse is this games biggest problem because they had to make sure the consoles were perfect and just slapped together the PC version last minute. Really the only way to play this game is by not using the mouse for anything other than looking around.

I got a USB XBOX360 controller and it works flawlessly with this game on my PC which is ridiculous. I bought it for PC I don't want to have to use a ****ing controller, I want to use a mouse and keyboard or else I would've just bought a console version.

Games these days just piss me off. Back in the day they made games for the sake of making a good game, now they just make them as fast as possible for the money and we as gamers get glitches galore.

 

[Higlac]

Just use wasderTAB for all of your menu options, including dialog.

 

[Dog--]

Yea, it's what I do, but I should be able to click through it - I'm on a PC.