The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[Kobota]

, how in the hell have you done that? I thought I was doing good to get up over 7k at one point, but been spending money at trainers and a house which took up some coin (easy way to level up btw, just train a few times and if your close enough you get a new level out of it). I loot pretty much everything, and have more stuff than I can sell cause everyone runs out of money and still only at like 5k.

--

Ran across this tonight, any idea why this elk is glowing green like it was stamina enchanted?

It ran right up to me and then started to attack me, at which point my companion got it with an arrow.

I have done only 3 main quests, something like 60 side quests. I guess the gold just adds up

edit:I know one side quest i got more than $4000 with only about 5 minutes of time with fast travel since i have explored so much previous

 

[IGemini]

Ran across this tonight, any idea why this elk is glowing green like it was stamina enchanted?

It ran right up to me and then started to attack me, at which point my companion got it with an arrow.

Only time I've seen that was when they were under control by a Spriggan. It was also three wolves, a bear and couple sabre cats. Animal allegiance shout turned the tide pretty quick.

 

[RebelCapitalist]

Most satisfying kill so far:

Spoiler

Cicero. That joker got on my nerves. Loving Astrid's voice acting. The game got a whole lot better when the brotherhood came a calling.

 

[Jaiguru]

FML! I decided to start a new character tonight and stupidly decided to quicksave to end it. What do you know... it erased every single saved file on my 40+ hour character. Damn you Bethesda!

 

[dennilfloss]

Even though acrobatics is no longer a skill, I still find myself hopping from time to time. Old habits die hard...

 

[RavenSEAL]

I've been clearing quest near Solitude tonight, but I need some sleep. I've been 1-hitting everything with my bow for the most part...might be starting to get a bit annoying?

 

[MustangSVT]

FML! I decided to start a new character tonight and stupidly decided to quicksave to end it. What do you know... it erased every single saved file on my 40+ hour character. Damn you Bethesda!

oh crap. thanks for letting us know.

then how do we run multiple characters? move the safe files around when you want to switch?

 

[coldmeat]

Has anyone else been playing an archer and noticed there seems to be a range where the arrows stop doing any damage?

I may not be the best with the bow, but I know that given 30-40 tries I should be able to hit an animal as long as I can see it. The animals don't even react to my arrows landing near them like they would if I were closer.

 

[PrayForDeath]

I have to say, I'm currently playing both Demon's Souls and Skyrim. DS is an old game, I know, but I just got a PS3 and I'm catching up on exclusives. And the transition from DS to Skyrim is quite jarring, feels like I'm going several years back in time due to the primitive combat in Skyrim.

They had several years to improve upon the combat, but all they did was enhance spells and bows a bit. Melee combat is very annoying. Your weapons don't connect with the target/environment, you only have 2 basic attacks, etc..

I hope we get a decent combat overhaul mod, but we'll prolly have to wait several months before we get any extensive mods like that.

 

[gorcorps]

oh crap. thanks for letting us know.

then how do we run multiple characters? move the safe files around when you want to switch?

You have to manual save from the menu. Instead of hitting quicksave, you just save from the esc menu and that won't be touched by a new character.

 

[Monster_Munch]

Yeah the quicksave and autosave are not character specific. It was the same in Oblivion.

 

[shortylickens]

Yeah the quicksave and autosave are not character specific. It was the same in Oblivion.

They assume each person in the household (player) will log into windows on their own and then only be able to access their own save game files, since they are kept under My Documents or My Games or whatever.
But yeah, profiles would have been nice. Thats something very few games do and I normally appreciate it when I do see it. Starcraft had that.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Anyone playing a battlemage/spellsword?

I'm currently playing a high-elf with a sword in the right hand and magic in the left. I'm kinda confused as to which magic schools to get perks in (minimal experience in previous TES games).

Really liking destruction so far. What other schools of magic really benefit a playing style of 50% magic/50% melee?

Not much of a RPG'er here, but damn, this game is fun. Maybe my next character will be a pure mage.

I'm playing a spellsword, and have been sinking points into conjuration, restoration, 1 handed and enchantment.

Conjuration allows you to call bound weapons, and a few points in those bound weapons will autocast the soul capture spell (allowing for easy filling of soul gems). This obviously helps with enchantment, which in turn is a good way to make money.

The 1H skills enhance damage and effectiveness for all 1H weapons, including bound weapons. The benefits of restoration are obvious.

Spoiler

FWIW, my level 17 spellsword has been able to handle just about any encounters thus far, including the Chaurus Reaper in the frostflow abyss (near winterhold)

 

[zokudu]

Finally picked up Skyrim. Got my Orc character going and I'm pretty happy with it. Just finished up the starting area quest thing. The leveling system seems nice. I'm working on a Heavy Armor and Shield gladiator type character. Probably going to make him a Smith as well.

What are everyones thoughts on the different One-Handed specializations? I was planning on using swords but the talent/perk/whatever its called is kind of lackluster. Seems like Mace may be the best bet. Anyone at higher levels have an opinion?

 

[Zenoth]

So I decided to check one of my quests...

*Minor spoilers ahead*

It lead me to Shearpoint, to investigate the source of some power. I won't spoil too much even with the spoiler warning, but suffice it to say that I never thought I'd encounter a foe that's even more powerful than a dragon. I tried everything I could to beat that thing (won't say exactly what it is to avoid too much spoilers). Me, my companion (Lydia, from Whiterun) and my summoned Fire Atronach... anything I tried was futile. I'll go back later, much later when I'm around level 25+, for now I'm level 14 and I got the point, get back doing some lowbie errands and get stronger. And you know what, I love it. So far it's much better than Oblivion's constant auto mobs leveling with you.

Now in Skyrim many places especially bosses rarely end up leveled with you, and you get one-hit. Additionally, I tried to charge a giant on the plains near Whiterun, for the heck of it, I just wanted to see if I could damage just one of them. I kept some distance from the giant near his camp, he saw me and stared at me, but didn't charge. So I took out my Dawrven Shield and Axe (both Superior quality, and the rest is all Dwarven too), ran and power-attacked my swing on the giant's waist, and just as my swing was about to hit him, his own club hit me, and I died. Just one hit, hit first, questions later. I'll stay away from the Mammoth as well now, kinda like the lessons learned the hard way.

 

[gorcorps]

Finally picked up Skyrim. Got my Orc character going and I'm pretty happy with it. Just finished up the starting area quest thing. The leveling system seems nice. I'm working on a Heavy Armor and Shield gladiator type character. Probably going to make him a Smith as well.

What are everyones thoughts on the different One-Handed specializations? I was planning on using swords but the talent/perk/whatever its called is kind of lackluster. Seems like Mace may be the best bet. Anyone at higher levels have an opinion?

I only breezed through the one handed skill tree to see what was there, but I would go mace if I do one handed. There was some perk that bypassed a certain % of armor (or something like that), which I think would be very useful in many situations.

 

[zokudu]

I only breezed through the one handed skill tree to see what was there, but I would go mace if I do one handed. There was some perk that bypassed a certain % of armor (or something like that), which I think would be very useful in many situations.

Yea its called Bone Breaker and maxed it ignore 75% of armor. Compared to a Bleed from Axe's and a 20% chance to crit with swords it just seems like far and away the best option right?

 

[gorcorps]

Yea its called Bone Breaker and maxed it ignore 75% of armor. Compared to a Bleed from Axe's and a 20% chance to crit with swords it just seems like far and away the best option right?

Depends on what you're fighting I guess. Obviously most melee folks you encounter will have armor so that helps all of those, but for non-armored folks you get no bonus. The real question is are (some) dragons considered armored? I know we can make armor FROM dragon parts, but do dragons have armor themselves? That would be a good boost to melee damage if that's how you fight dragons.

 

[Sureshot324]

dual swords is pretty cool, as is the animations and if you get it right you can do some decent damage. The downside is that you also take damage very easily, so not always the best solution for 2+ enemies.

Dual weapons seemed useless when I tried it. You can't block since both keys are assigned to a weapon, and you can't seem to attack much faster than a 1 hander.

 

[waggy]

FML! I decided to start a new character tonight and stupidly decided to quicksave to end it. What do you know... it erased every single saved file on my 40+ hour character. Damn you Bethesda!

oh shit! that sucks. but err thanks i was wondering if i could start a different toon.

You have to manual save from the menu. Instead of hitting quicksave, you just save from the esc menu and that won't be touched by a new character.

ahh! great!

They assume each person in the household (player) will log into windows on their own and then only be able to access their own save game files, since they are kept under My Documents or My Games or whatever.
But yeah, profiles would have been nice. Thats something very few games do and I normally appreciate it when I do see it. Starcraft had that.

yeah profiles would be great.

 

[gorcorps]

oh shit! that sucks. but err thanks i was wondering if i could start a different toon.



ahh! great!



yeah profiles would be great.

I should say that it SHOULDN'T have an issue if you start a new character. There could be a legitimate bug that affects some people though, so I'd backup the save in case something happens before you try it.

 

[Demo24]

Dual weapons seemed useless when I tried it. You can't block since both keys are assigned to a weapon, and you can't seem to attack much faster than a 1 hander.

Blocking can be a problem yes, but I've realized if you have strong enough one handed skills, you can often 'pummel' them to kinda knock them off balance. At that point you are free to instigate dual swing mode (pres m1&m2 together like spells) which as long as you land the blows does a lot of damage. :thumbsup:

This isn't how I always play, but hey I find it sorta fun and I tend to level things somewhat consistently so I have spells, shield, bow and arrow, or 2-handed to fall back on if that doesn't work.


edit: I've also enchanted them, so one takes health from an enemy and gives it back to me and another takes stamina. Although I may have changed that last night to one does fire damage as one of them was dissolved by an enemy. Happened to me once before with a glass battle axe I was about to use, spent 20 minutes looking for it before I finally gave up. Still haven't found another

 

[-Slacker-]

Although I find this game to be the best in the series by far, to the point where I actually not only like it, but can't stop playing it, I can't help but notice that it wants to be "gothic 2 night of the raven" so bad that it's basically a more up to date version of it, but bigger and with traditional elder scrolls combat...

Let's see: Dragons, ancient mystical languages that you have to learn to improve your character, the strikingly similar crafting system, alchemy tables instead of carry-able items etc ...

Doesn't really bother me though, I'm actually happy to see a big time developer finally acknowledges an old, relatively nice RPG that I used to play like crazy.

 

[Demo24]

Only time I've seen that was when they were under control by a Spriggan. It was also three wolves, a bear and couple sabre cats. Animal allegiance shout turned the tide pretty quick.

Ahh, yes I know exactly where you are talking about. That area pwned me the first time cause I wasn't expecting to suddenly get eaten by a bear and 2 sabre cats.

However this is just out in the wild, and the 2nd time I've encountered this so who knows. Maybe Spriggans are extending their influence and taking over..:sneaky:

 

[Red Storm]

Yeah the dual wielding implementation leaves much to be desired. They should have made it so that left click attacks with both swords (two attacks with one click, so it's actually faster than just using one weapon), and right click blocks/parries (obviously not as good as a shield).

*adds to mod checklist*