The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[Kristijonas]

I have one question about this game. Does this game involves making decisions often and having to choose a path in every quest you do? I mean, like in planescape torment, fallout 2, Arcanum, Gothic, or is it pretty linear and it's "you get a quest - you do what was asked - you finish the quest" ? Not saying that any way is the better one, just curious to know about what to expect from gameplay.

 

[Merad]

Anyone experienced with smithing? I have all this Moonstone ore but I have no idea how to make it refined so I can craft with it. Any help here?

Not sure if moonstone is used in crafting. Maybe for some kind of jewelry?

Most of your actual weapons and armor will be made from iron at low levels. Hides/leather for light armors. The main downside to smithing is that it looks like you're required to invest perk points in it to go beyond the basic levels.

 

[Locut0s]

I have one question about this game. Does this game involves making decisions often and having to choose a path in every quest you do? I mean, like in planescape torment, fallout 2, Arcanum, Gothic, or is it pretty linear and it's "you get a quest - you do what was asked - you finish the quest" ? Not saying that any way is the better one, just curious to know about what to expect from gameplay.

It's the latter.

 

[KeithTalent]

After receiving multiple requests, the two major Skyrim threads have been merged into this one.

Happy rimming.

Anandtech Moderator
KeithTalent

 

[Red Storm]

It's the latter.

I've seen a pretty nice mix of both. Quests that appear to only have one solution, and then you're presented with an offer to do something else or the reverse, etc.

I do think overall you're right though.

 

[Locut0s]

After receiving multiple requests, the two major Skyrim threads have been merged into this one.

Happy rimming.

Anandtech Moderator
KeithTalent

Rimming? :hmm:

Thanks Keith.

 

[Locut0s]

I've seen a pretty nice mix of both. Quests that appear to only have one solution, and then you're presented with an offer to do something else or the reverse, etc.

I do think overall you're right though.

Huh good to know. I'm only 7 hours into the game.

 

[Kristijonas]

Thanks, I guess it's like Oblivion and Morrowind by quests, then.
And how's leveling ? I hear it's better than Oblivion, but is it better than Fallout3? Personally I'm a fan of being a one-man army in the end

 

[Nebor]

Rimming? :hmm:

Thanks Keith.

Don't argue, just do it.

 

[Locut0s]

Thanks, I guess it's like Oblivion and Morrowind by quests, then.
And how's leveling ? I hear it's better than Oblivion, but is it better than Fallout3? Personally I'm a fan of being a one-man army in the end

Much better than Oblivion. You still have to be careful from what I can tell but it's nothing like Oblivion where if you levelled wrong you were just fucked.

 

[dennilfloss]

Played 7 hours on high settings so far, not a glitch or CTD on my Phenom II 955 and Radeon 4870 1GB running at default with its original driver. Hope I'm not jinxing it.

My character.

Drusilla, a Breton evoker/sorceress, is not a nice person. She is obsessed with achieving immortality by becoming a lich and the foul magics she has tampered with have darkened her soul, blackened her eyes and taken a toll on her skin. Upon escaping Helgen, she immediately returned to loot the corpses of the fallen. If the dragons don't burn a town, she might... :sneaky:

I'm gonna post in the Elder Scrolls forums mod proposal thread and suggest a high-level quest at the end of which she might achieve her goal, with advantages and penalties once she does become a lich.

Drusilla just cleaned her first dungeon: Cracked Tusk Keep. Found something interesting in its vault and went up a level to #5. Conjuring a fire atronach makes things a lot easier than just a puny wolf familiar. Money still scarce but she now has enough to buy herself some robes of conjuring.

Life's good.

Lock picking's tough though but she's learning.

 

[PUN]

I am really enjoying the game so far.
The only downside is there is too much traveling involved from city to city. Also, most of the games involving the mission looks black and white due to snow & wind.

 

[Kristijonas]

dennilfloss, wow really interesting! Though how she's immortal if she's a lich ? They can still be killed, right? I don't really know the lore behind them though.

 

[dennilfloss]

Oh my... First sepulchre (Twilight) discovered. About to enter at level 5. Wondering how much of an ass kicking I'll get but the loot... the loot call is so strong.

Drusilla is quite the mountaineer. Just climbs as high as she can then moves laterally along the ledge and stops once in a while to observe what's below. I used to do this so much in Oblivion .

 

[dennilfloss]

dennilfloss, wow really interesting! Though how she's immortal if she's a lich ? They can still be killed, right? I don't really know the lore behind them though.

By immortal I mean no aging or disease. Liches can still be killed. That's why they stay hidden in the deep reaches of their hideaway place, just plying their trade, dreaming, brooding, hating the living.

 

[OCNewbie]

I'm not sure how many hours I've played, but it's pretty much all I've been doing since Friday night. I'm about halfway through lvl 20, focusing on 1-hand + shield style, with a little archery, sneaking, smithing, etc., thrown in. I've killed 3 dragons I believe. I have 5 or 6 shouts available.

I found one game-breaking bug. If you have the Blocking perk "Quick Reflexes", and try to block a giant's special attack, QR triggers its perk ability of slowing down time, but time stays slowed and never recovers. Or stays slowed long enough to kill the giant, and wait around for a while and it's still slowed. Awesome perk though, when it works properly (which it usually does). I've only found that it doesn't work right against giants.

Really enjoying the game. I don't cast ANY spells with this guy (unless you count shouts), and I keep wondering what it would be like to play a more casting-focused character, or pure archer. The sword 'n' board style is working great so far though.

Edit: I've had one single "crash" in all my time playing. There was no error message. I was just moving around, probably sneaking, in a dungeon, and all of a sudden, the game closed, in the same manner it closes when you confirm you want to exit to desktop.

At the time I was using the latest Nvidia 285.79 drivers. I've since reverted back to the 285.62 WHQL drivers. I was having odd crashes with Firefox.

 

[OCNewbie]

Anyone experienced with smithing? I have all this Moonstone ore but I have no idea how to make it refined so I can craft with it. Any help here?

There is a smelting station in Whiterun somewhere. I believe it's near the Warmaiden's smithing shop/area. You can take your ore and combine it into ingots there.

 

[Locut0s]

I'm not sure how many hours I've played, but it's pretty much all I've been doing since Friday night. I'm about halfway through lvl 20, focusing on 1-hand + shield style, with a little archery, sneaking, smithing, etc., thrown in. I've killed 3 dragons I believe. I have 5 or 6 shouts available.

I found one game-breaking bug. If you have the Blocking perk "Quick Reflexes", and try to block a giant's special attack, QR triggers its perk ability of slowing down time, but time stays slowed and never recovers. Or stays slowed long enough to kill the giant, and wait around for a while and it's still slowed. Awesome perk though, when it works properly (which it usually does). I've only found that it doesn't work right against giants.

Really enjoying the game. I don't cast ANY spells with this guy (unless you count shouts), and I keep wondering what it would be like to play a more casting-focused character, or pure archer. The sword 'n' board style is working great so far though.

Does that include no healing spells? If so do you just chug potions?

 

[RavenSEAL]

Played 7 hours on high settings so far, not a glitch or CTD on my Phenom II 955 and Radeon 4870 1GB running at default with its original driver. Hope I'm not jinxing it.

My character.

Drusilla, a Breton evoker/sorceress, is not a nice person. She is obsessed with achieving immortality by becoming a lich and the foul magics she has tampered with have darkened her soul, blackened her eyes and taken a toll on her skin. Upon escaping Helgen, she immediately returned to loot the corpses of the fallen. If the dragons don't burn a town, she might... :sneaky:

I'm gonna post in the Elder Scrolls forums mod proposal thread and suggest a high-level quest at the end of which she might achieve her goal, with advantages and penalties once she does become a lich.

Drusilla just cleaned her first dungeon: Cracked Tusk Keep. Found something interesting in its vault and went up a level to #5. Conjuring a fire atronach makes things a lot easier than just a puny wolf familiar. Money still scarce but she now has enough to buy herself some robes of conjuring.

Life's good.

Lock picking's tough though but she's learning.

Creepy D:

I'll post my Character later

 

[OCNewbie]

Does that include no healing spells? If so do you just chug potions?

Yeah, I just chug potions, and since I chose the lizard race (can't even think of what it's called) my racial ability is 10x regen for a minute, so I use that occasionally for a rapid heal. Works really nicely.

 

[Locut0s]

Yeah, I just chug potions, and since I chose the lizard race (can't even think of what it's called) my racial ability is 10x regen for a minute, so I use that occasionally for a rapid heal. Works really nicely.

Argonian :awe: Playing the same race and just about the same play style as you. What are you doing for armour? Light or heavy?

 

[OCNewbie]

Argonian :awe: Playing the same race and just about the same play style as you. What are you doing for armour? Light or heavy?

Light, since I guess it's more sneak-friendly? My sneak skill is over 50 now, with a point in the first sneak perk, and a point in backstab, and the archery attack boost too. I will probably put one in the dagger booster as well, at some point. I just got smithing to 30+, so my lvl 21 perk point will go into allowing me to make Elven armor I think. I believe my current armor score/rating is like 165-ish. That's with 2 points in the first armor perk, and 1 in the perk that gives +25% armor with 4 pieces of light armor worn.

 

[StrangerGuy]

This game is a million times better than Oblivion overall but the main plotline is terrible even by Beth standards seriously.

 

[Locut0s]

Light, since I guess it's more sneak-friendly? My sneak skill is over 50 now, with a point in the first sneak perk, and a point in backstab, and the archery attack boost too. I will probably put one in the dagger booster as well, at some point. I just got smithing to 30+, so my lvl 21 perk point will go into allowing me to make Elven armor I think. I believe my current armor score/rating is like 165-ish. That's with 2 points in the first armor perk, and 1 in the perk that gives +25% armor with 4 pieces of light armor worn.

Thanks for the breakdown. Going to adjust my character a bit now.

 

[Imp]

What difficulty level is everyone playing at?


Talk about dragons below, I don't think they're a spoiler, but if you do, look away...

I'm at Adept (middle - #3 of 5) and playing as a fighter. Most of the time my companion has aggro in encounters with dragons, and she's a fighter/tank. I only recall seeing her being knocked down once despite a dragon breathing cold/fire into her for a solid 30 seconds. The one time I had aggro against a fire dragon, I took a fairly serious amount of damage from its breath, and it never hit me with a melee attack. I think I'm up to 4 dead dragons now, and they were all pretty damn easy. Maybe it's the companion?

And if you're wondering why I haven't upped the difficulty - other bosses and specials are giving me enough trouble.