The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[dennilfloss]

I am a pure mage ftw!

Nothing beats magic here.

Pure mage too. Not wearing any armour.

 

[KaOTiK]

So after putting like a dozen hours in I decided to start doing the Companions quests. The one where Falka (whatever his name is that comes along with you to get initiated) is pretty badass. I ended up going all over the place with him following me and clearing stuff out that I had no business being near lol. I really am enjoying this game. Just fixing the amount of weight I can carry and extending the day/night cycle has made it much better.

I bought a horse, right when you were able to, but I find myself never using it as I find it to be more of a hassle then a help. I miss stuff riding by to fast, get into combat and if something hits the horse it runs away a good bit and have to track it down. Said screw it and just hoof it everywhere and find it much better. Maybe once I clear out and find most areas in paths going to and from spots I'll start using it, but right now, it is not worth it imo.

 

[petertheripper]

tried playing it today. After about an hour i had to stop.. i was seeing ALL the billion things you could do.. all the different tradeskill stuff and decided i better not get sucked into this game hahaha maybe when i have more free time

 

[flexy]

Just shy of 32 hours now.

[...]

And by popular request, since people have been wanting screenshots, I posted my own gallery, 1920x1200 pictures.

Click for slideshow gallery
Some shots of Whiterun, Winterhold College, and some dragon battles. Best pics are probably the travel to High Hrothgar by night. Some nice aurora borealis effects going on.

By the way, your water looks AWFUL. (4th picture in your slide-show). It doesn't look that bad in reality, i would post screenshots too but i have no clue how to do screenshots!

I already added bAllowScreenShot=1 in my .ini...i press "PrtScreen"...but nothing happens...i dont see screenshots in my skyrim folder and i also cannot paste them into PSP after PrtScreen.

 

[dennilfloss]

Spoiler

I took the leap. Spoke to the bard.

I had my first lock up during a battle with some forsworn dudes. CPU core temp went to 63C. Of course, it being 28C in the apartment doesn't help.

 

[Monster_Munch]

I'm playing as conjuration/destruction but I'm finding it frustrating that there's so few daedra you can conjure. In Oblivion you could summon about 10 different types of creature. In Skyrim there's only 3 atronachs and then you can raise the dead as well.

I've finished the mage's college quest line but I might reroll heavy armor + two hander for the main quest since the mage playstyle isn't that exciting.

 

[yhelothar]

How does one cast fire rune? Half the time I cast it, it fails. WTF.
I try to make sure I'm within distance and I cast it on a surface... but it still fails. It costs a helluva lot of magicka too.

 

[Monster_Munch]

You just aim it at the floor. Hold the button until it's charged up and then release. The crosshair turns red if you're aiming out of range. Then you have to make an enemy walk over it to trigger the trap.

 

[flexy]

Those are all on an old Geforce 275, running at 1650x1080, *some* minor tweaks in the *.ini files.
I am also having 4xAA as well as 4x Transparency Antialiasing forced (with NV inspector), settings on "High" in Skyrim options and all distance sliders maxed out. Getting around 50-60 FPS in the above scenes - so performance even with OLD sh!t hardware is not an issue, at least not for my resolutions.

The last two show very nicely how that haze/fog etc. adding to realism of a scene..i always missed that in many games. It makes things look natural and gives it atmosphere - as opposed to non natural colors which simply dont exist in "real life".

 

[dennilfloss]

First CTD took place at 11 hours of game time.

 

[Monster_Munch]

I'm 16 hours in and no crashes yet. I've seen a few graphical glitches though, missing water surfaces and missing head armor graphics making it look like my character was completely headless. I also found an enchanted elven chest piece that was mislabelled as "elven boots of stamina".

 

[yhelothar]

You just aim it at the floor. Hold the button until it's charged up and then release. The crosshair turns red if you're aiming out of range. Then you have to make an enemy walk over it to trigger the trap.

I've been trying that. It still only hits about 2/3rds of the time.

 

[Mem]

First CTD took place at 11 hours of game time.

I had only one CTD,overall very stable game....I wonder if the game has any memory leak issues?

 

[Kobota]

i dont think this was scripted but i happened upon a dragon fighting a giant and an ice troll. I came in just at the end got the dragon soul then hauled ass because either of those would have killed me easily.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Also, how useful is it to upgrade stamina? I've only put a few points in so far, and I run out really early in a fight all the time, so I don't see the value versus health.

Upgrading your stamina lets you carry more stuff.

I've yet to suffer from any CTD. Game runs smooth on my Phenom II X4/560 even after applying all the graphics tweaks mentioned online. I cannot stress enough how important it is to apply the shadow tweak I mentioned earlier to make shadows less blocky. It's a huge difference.

I stumbled across a dungeon on the way to Hrothgar, and after finishing the little quest associated with it and clearing the whole dungeon I got a new shout.

I also managed to open several master/expert locks inside with my measly 15 lockpicking skill. Took lots of trial & error and reloading, but I was rewarding with 4 lockpicking skill-ups

 

[IGemini]

By the way, your water looks AWFUL. (4th picture in your slide-show). It doesn't look that bad in reality, i would post screenshots too but i have no clue how to do screenshots!

I already added bAllowScreenShot=1 in my .ini...i press "PrtScreen"...but nothing happens...i dont see screenshots in my skyrim folder and i also cannot paste them into PSP after PrtScreen.

Could be the FXAA, I'll try switching it off. The water looks better in motion in a surreal way.

Unlike Oblivion, the bAllowScreenshot parameter isn't needed.

 

[dennilfloss]

Drusilla just ran along the battlements of a large, high-perched fortification after killing its denizens. Made me feel what it would have been like during the Middle Ages.

BTW, her fire atronach bested a frost troll! First one she's met. Ugly motherfuckers!

The feel of danger in this game is a lot more like Morrowind than Oblivion. It's bleak and real danger lurks around the corners.

Also found my first dwemer ruins but I need a key to enter it.

Finally, as a geologist, I absolutely love spending time on all the outcrops, looking at the textures. Reminds me when I was mapping and prospecting. Ditto for the mines.

 

[Mem]

i dont think this was scripted but i happened upon a dragon fighting a giant and an ice troll. I came in just at the end got the dragon soul then hauled ass because either of those would have killed me easily.

Seen a few dragons while exploring, one decided to attack me so I headed for cover(only at level 4).

 

[dennilfloss]

Who ya lookin' at?

 

[Merad]

How far along do you have to be to start getting random dragon encounters?

Spoiler

I'm at level 11 and have visited High Hrothgar for the MQ, but haven't done any of the main quest beyond that. I still haven't seen a random dragon.

 

[PrayForDeath]

How far along do you have to be to start getting random dragon encounters?

Spoiler

I'm at level 11 and have visited High Hrothgar for the MQ, but haven't done any of the main quest beyond that. I still haven't seen a random dragon.

I'm at that same spot in the MQ and have yet to see a dragon. So I'm guessing it's soon after, but I'm not sure if I wanna trigger them just yet.

Rock paper shotgun reviewed the game without touching the main storyline. The reviewer played for over 32 hours, and enjoyed it immensely.

 

[NoSoup4You]

I've had four random dragon encounters, one in which the dragon simultaneously fought a bear on another hilltop nearby, taking turns to fight me too. Epic. I play on Expert difficulty but I would have liked the dragons to be even slightly more powerful still. Bears and Trolls kill me nearly instantly yet the dragon breath takes almost 20 seconds...etc. I'll likely play on Master difficulty on the next character.

Loving the game thus far, 27 hours in and zero crashes. I've recently added the sharper shadows fix, along with the trees casting selfshadows and the smoother, clearer water reflections. Game looks great now, I also removed mouse acceleration which was brutal on my G500. The menu's are much easier to deal with as a result.

 

[Miklebud]

I beat the MQ last night, after 26 hours. Oh my Awesomeness. Now I can go back and do the Thieves Guild, Companions, StormCloaks, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. In those 26 hours, I only had one crash. But I had a handful of game-stopping bugs, where characters would loop in a cycle, so the story couldn't progress

Spoiler

like when Alduin refused to land during my vision through the Elder Scroll.

But overall, its a fantastic game. I haven't played a game that much continuously in YEARS, I just couldn't put it down! I love love loved it!!

 

[Red Storm]

Oddly enough, I've had more random dragon encounters where the dragon just flies around and then leaves. Only once has a dragon actually landed to fight...

Spoiler

I know there's a Shout that forces them to land, but I haven't progressed the main quest beyond getting that horn. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild has kept me busy.

 

[dennilfloss]

Level 8, met my first giant & mammoth. Slain both though they killed several fire atronachs in the process.