The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

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Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
Um... thanks for the reply, but I specifically said not to suggest that.

So, about in/finite mammoths?

There's no such thing as "that ship has sailed" in a console-equipped Elder Scrolls game. ;)

I actually did the quest for the item on my first play through. On the 2nd (and soon to be 3rd), I'm just adding that thing to my inventory.

But to answer your question, I've seen black soul gems for sale with magic sellers. Also on random people in dungeons.
 

JackSpadesSI

Senior member
Jan 13, 2009
636
0
0
There's no such thing as "that ship has sailed" in a console-equipped Elder Scrolls game. ;)

I actually did the quest for the item on my first play through. On the 2nd (and soon to be 3rd), I'm just adding that thing to my inventory.

But to answer your question, I've seen black soul gems for sale with magic sellers. Also on random people in dungeons.

I'm playing Skyrim on Xbox 360. However, as mine wasn't a platform-specific question, and this thread is thriving compared to its console counterpart, I posted here.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
I'm playing Skyrim on Xbox 360

I hope you had a good reason for passing up on mods. :colbert:

To answer your question on mammoths, a Google search tells me that they do indeed respawn, but the time it takes for them to respawn seems to vary by opinion. :)
 

JackSpadesSI

Senior member
Jan 13, 2009
636
0
0
I hope you had a good reason for passing up on mods. :colbert:

I'll try to be brief...

When Oblivion came out I didn't have a PC anywhere near powerful enough to run it, so I played it on Xbox 360. Since my console was hooked up to the big TV in my house my wife wound up watching me play a significant portion of Oblivion. While she never cared to play her own character, she really enjoyed watching the game as I played it.

So, when it came time to buy Skyrim I stuck with Xbox 360: so my wife could watch on a big screen (yes, I know how to hook up a PC to a TV), because I honestly think the control scheme works just fine on a gamepad, and because I knew I'd be done with the game before the mods really took off. Also, my current PC (see sig) would probably be on the low end to run Skyrim, anyway.

To answer your question on mammoths, a Google search tells me that they do indeed respawn, but the time it takes for them to respawn seems to vary by opinion. :)

Thanks!
 

Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
8
81
Are mammoths infinite (after a respawn period) or finite? I need grand souls for enchanting (I'm too cheap to buy them), but I don't want the mammoths to go extinct.

Also, how can I easily get a lot of black soul gems? They've got to be actual black soul gems, so don't suggest the
Black Star, because that ship has sailed
.

I bought them. I know you said you're too cheap to buy them, but it really is the easiest.

Buy every soul gem you can. fill them, enchant weapons, sell weapons buy more soul gems. The Riverwood trader seems to have more soul gems than other places I go, but maybe that's just me. You can refresh vendor inventory (including a re-stock of gold) by quitting to desktop and re-launching. I believe that I have occasionally seen black soul gems on the vendor... but not many. I had dozens of filled grand soul gems purchased, but only maybe 5 or so black gems.

With enchanting at 100 (with the top perk for double enchant) I'm enchanting every light weapon I pick up while I'm out (light like daggers, so I can carry them, war axes and such work, but you can carry only so many of those compared to daggers). With a petty gem and banish + paralyze they sell for 1700+ gold. Since vendors have very limited quantities of gold, you can only really sell one at a time, which means you have lots of opportunities for finding more soul gems in their inventory while you unload all your weapons from a haul.

If you're being cheap and your enchanting isn't 100 yet, and you were already planning on fully perking enchanting, then stop being cheap... enchanting is one of the key money making skills. Investing in gems to skill up enchanting will pay dividends in the future. A very sound investment. If you're being cheap and your enchanting is already at 100, then stop it and use the petty / lesser / common gems you pick up while shopping for grands to pay for the grands.

Also, my current PC (see sig) would probably be on the low end to run Skyrim, anyway.

FYI I'm playing on an (overclocked) i3-530 and a 5770. The CPU is about 20% faster than yours due to the overclock, and the video card is effectively the same speed. Looks better than the console version. PC hardware "requirements" are overstated when you consider that turning down some options doesn't make things look HORRIBLE. Even at medium the game looks better than the XBOX version, but your system would handle high. Maybe shadows would need medium. I run with about half the settings ultra and half high. Get some minor slowdowns sometimes (mostly outside like running around Whiterun.)

PC hardware requirements have a tendency to be vastly overstated in the forums. Especially if you use console quality as your baseline.
 
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Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
Are mammoths infinite (after a respawn period) or finite? I need grand souls for enchanting (I'm too cheap to buy them), but I don't want the mammoths to go extinct.

Also, how can I easily get a lot of black soul gems? They've got to be actual black soul gems, so don't suggest the
Black Star, because that ship has sailed
.

Draugr Deathlords are the most reliable source of grand soul gems, and dungeons respawn regularly. One guy in Markath or Dawnstar sells black soul gems, IIRC. Otherwise, just hump stuff back to town to sell, and buy filled souls. I have over 150 filled grand souls because I hump so much crap back that stores run out of gold, and I buy assets in place.
 

Visaoni

Senior member
May 15, 2008
213
0
0
I'm usually pointlessly cheap in these types of games, and my I'd highly recommend just buying the cheaper soul gems for leveling, and the expensive ones when you want to enchant your own stuff. Enchantments are just so useful, and there really is a large excess of gold in the game.

I must admit I finally broke down and just installed a mod to give all vendors 3000 gold. It saves so much time (I used to have to make a circuit around Skyrim after every dungeon, as well as if I spent much time exploring), and frankly makes more sense than the original system. Since they have vendors (their goods to be specific) scale with your level, it really makes sense the vendors would have more gold on hand. Besides, a few of the basic alchemy perks, combined with a set of +alchemy gear makes potions with insanely high values. Without the mod, I would be completely unable to sell a good number of them without first buying a bunch of stuff that, at this point, I don't need.

Also, you can reset merchants without quitting the program completely. That sounds... horrible. You can just kill the merchant and reload. It makes things a little more entertaining, and is certainly much, much quicker than repeatedly quitting to the desktop.
 

Powermoloch

Lifer
Jul 5, 2005
10,084
4
76
able to get 2 followers at the same time...tricky tho :O. Lydia and a Dark brotherhood initiate, each of their weapons have paralyze + extra enchant (fire or ice)

ABD5EC51A7811F6B8D8D27BBA8BD58D5804AA227
 
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JackSpadesSI

Senior member
Jan 13, 2009
636
0
0
I bought them. I know you said you're too cheap to buy them, but it really is the easiest.

Buy every soul gem you can. fill them, enchant weapons, sell weapons buy more soul gems. The Riverwood trader seems to have more soul gems than other places I go, but maybe that's just me. You can refresh vendor inventory (including a re-stock of gold) by quitting to desktop and re-launching. I believe that I have occasionally seen black soul gems on the vendor... but not many. I had dozens of filled grand soul gems purchased, but only maybe 5 or so black gems.

With enchanting at 100 (with the top perk for double enchant) I'm enchanting every light weapon I pick up while I'm out (light like daggers, so I can carry them, war axes and such work, but you can carry only so many of those compared to daggers). With a petty gem and banish + paralyze they sell for 1700+ gold. Since vendors have very limited quantities of gold, you can only really sell one at a time, which means you have lots of opportunities for finding more soul gems in their inventory while you unload all your weapons from a haul.

If you're being cheap and your enchanting isn't 100 yet, and you were already planning on fully perking enchanting, then stop being cheap... enchanting is one of the key money making skills. Investing in gems to skill up enchanting will pay dividends in the future. A very sound investment. If you're being cheap and your enchanting is already at 100, then stop it and use the petty / lesser / common gems you pick up while shopping for grands to pay for the grands.

Yeah, you're right. I started buying soul gems last night - albeit empty ones to save money (baby steps). I do plan to get my enchant to 100, anyway. Sadly, I have neither the banish nor the paralyze enchantment. Do those only show up on found gear at high levels? I'm level 33 right now.

FYI I'm playing on an (overclocked) i3-530 and a 5770. The CPU is about 20% faster than yours due to the overclock, and the video card is effectively the same speed. Looks better than the console version. PC hardware "requirements" are overstated when you consider that turning down some options doesn't make things look HORRIBLE. Even at medium the game looks better than the XBOX version, but your system would handle high. Maybe shadows would need medium. I run with about half the settings ultra and half high. Get some minor slowdowns sometimes (mostly outside like running around Whiterun.)

PC hardware requirements have a tendency to be vastly overstated in the forums. Especially if you use console quality as your baseline.

Ok, fair enough, but I already own the game. Honestly, the ONLY complaint I have about playing on the console is the long load times (I really don't have a lot of interest in mods). But, I'm not trying to start any sort of obnoxious debate between the platforms. My boss has Skyrim on his PC (specs similar to yours, but an i5 I think) and he really likes it.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
Yeah I got my Enchanting skill up to 100 with just petty and common and a lot crummy hide & leather armor.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,700
31,059
146
Is there a quick and easy fix for armor clipping issues? I'm not sure if these have to be done with specific armor pieces, or if it's hair type (which, of course, I would not be able to pick out of a lineup right now), but Yngol's helmet and Dragon plate helm are clipping with me lady's lustrous red hair. It's a bit annoying.

:(
 

Skott

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2005
5,730
1
76
I'm curious as to which follower everyone is using. My shield and board warrior has Lydia and my thief-assassin has been using the old archery trainer guy (forget his name) so far. Do you guys have a favorite or do you swap and switch them out as needed?
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
I'm curious as to which follower everyone is using. My shield and board warrior has Lydia and my thief-assassin has been using the old archery trainer guy (forget his name) so far. Do you guys have a favorite or do you swap and switch them out as needed?

Storm Atronachs and reanimated enemies. ;)

I also have a staff that summons (weak) wolves. It creates nice diversions.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
I prefer summons to actual followers. They keep getting in the way, taking my kills (and therefore skill improvements) and they dont know when to shut the FUCK UP!
 

Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
8
81
Yeah, you're right. I started buying soul gems last night - albeit empty ones to save money (baby steps). I do plan to get my enchant to 100, anyway. Sadly, I have neither the banish nor the paralyze enchantment. Do those only show up on found gear at high levels? I'm level 33 right now.

Banish doesn't show until higher, but I think paralyze should be showing up by 33.

Visaoni said:
Also, you can reset merchants without quitting the program completely. That sounds... horrible. You can just kill the merchant and reload. It makes things a little more entertaining, and is certainly much, much quicker than repeatedly quitting to the desktop.

That does sound more entertaining. Load time on a reset isn't terrible with a huge RAM cache and deferred writes. I moved to an SSD, but 2nd load times are actually similar between spinner and SSD with my 8GB RAM cache. I cannot finish reading the little blurbs that are posted during the load screen. Regardless, killing and re-loading would definitely be faster.

Doesn't matter so much to me now. I got the 100,000 gold achieve and now I'm trying to train myself not to carry so much junk around to sell. I put most of my filled soul gems away and am doing more quests and less crafting and selling. Still have ~20 points to go on alchemy, and I'm going to need to sell quite a few 2000+ gold potions though.
 

Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
8
81
2 very nice mods:

SkyUI (the precursor to which was discussed a long while ago in this thread): http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863

and
Skyboost r3 : http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1331790-skyboost-topic-5/

This has re-written portions of the game to use SSE instructions and boosts CPU related FPS dips as much as 50%. This is a true must have for anyone. CPU related FPS problems are GONE with this mod. A good place to demonstrate CPU related issues is to stand at the top of a large city looking down (edge of the stairs in front of Dragonreach in Whiterun is one, Riften is even worse.)
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,490
157
106
I use Uthgerdh the Unbroken as my follower, since she was the first one I had and even though she is ugly she is pretty strong.

I didn't realize they all have different sayings. Uthgerdh seems to know pretty much everything though, and tells you there are enemies in the next room before you get there. Although I use the Aura shout often, so I don't really need her to tell me that. (It is the only shout I usually use)
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,490
157
106
2 very nice mods:

SkyUI (the precursor to which was discussed a long while ago in this thread): http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863

and
Skyboost r3 : http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1331790-skyboost-topic-5/

This has re-written portions of the game to use SSE instructions and boosts CPU related FPS dips as much as 50%. This is a true must have for anyone. CPU related FPS problems are GONE with this mod. A good place to demonstrate CPU related issues is to stand at the top of a large city looking down (edge of the stairs in front of Dragonreach in Whiterun is one, Riften is even worse.)

I don't think I have ever had an FPS dip in the game, but if it becomes an issue I will check that out.

I would like to see a Qarls type pack for this game. Hopefully when the development kit is released, I will see something like that.