The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[PrayForDeath]

I have some questions. Is it possible playing Skyrim (without finishing it I guess?) without killing dragons? Would it make my game miserable? Also, isn't magic underpowered? I mean if everyone can use dragon shouts, then why bother using magic, which is less powerful(?)?

Yes it is possible to enjoy the game without fighting dragons.

From Rockpapershotgun.com's review:

...
I have not replaced my initial horse with a better one. I’m very fond of the fat old idiot.
I have not been invited to join the Dark Brotherhood.
I have not earned the favour of any of the Jarls who rule Skyrim’s various cities.
I have not sided with either the Stormcloaks or the Empire in the great civil war wracking Skyrim.
I have not fought a dragon.
I haven’t even seen a dragon, apart from the one in the mandatory introduction quest.

 

[Mem]

I'm level 8 atm, and giants/mammoths are kicking my ass. I ended up buying the tusk for its quest instead of hunting mammoths. Giants always oneshot me no matter what I do, they even followed me into water (someone earlier suggested that they wouldn't.)

The most frustrating thing is that, when I engage dragons, giants will end up taking aggro, killing the dragon, and then proceed to kill me.

I also hate how you cannot give your companions any commands during a fight. Can't talk to them while fighting.

There are plenty of tusks lying around when you go exploring, so no need to kill a mammoth,infact I found loads just by exploring caves/places etc...

 

[RavenSEAL]

Yes it is possible to enjoy the game without fighting dragons.

From Rockpapershotgun.com's review:

theyredoinitwron

 

[HybridSquirrel]

game was crash happy last night....could fast travel anywhere without it crashing. Jorrvaskar is completely bugged, I can't see anything in there its just full of textures. GG.

 

[Merad]

All the guards tell me not to steal, make trouble, or mess with locks, and enemies tell me I'd make a fine rug. :'(

<Khajiit

In Oblivion a lot of those comments were based on your skills, not race. Probably the same here. My toon is a "good" Imperial 2H brawler but I still get some comments about being a sneak or not touching any locks.

 

[s1njin]

I was online looking at comparison videos between the consoles and PC - honestly the PC version doesn't look a world better than the consoles. Certainly not the jaw dropping 'OMG' I was expecting to see given PC hardware is many leagues more advanced now than the PS3 or 360 H/W. Am I missing something? Are these just lousy comparisons?

 

[Merad]

This article here explains how you can achieve such high draw distances, though it may require a new save-game. However, one of the comments offers a way to apply these tweaks without losing your old saves.

I spent several hours playing with uGridstoLoad and other settings a few days ago. It's great for grabbing beautiful screenshots but unfortunately not much else. Pretty much any changes caused my game to crash within 15-20 minutes.

 

[PrayForDeath]

I was online looking at comparison videos between the consoles and PC - honestly the PC version doesn't look a world better than the consoles. Certainly not the jaw dropping 'OMG' I was expecting to see given PC hardware is many leagues more advanced now than the PS3 or 360 H/W. Am I missing something? Are these just lousy comparisons?

Aside form improved draw distance/resolution/AA I don't think there are any PC specific graphics features. This is Bethesda, afterall, and they care much more about their console audience. So you can't expect their PC versions to differ much from consoles as BF3 and Crysis2 did.

 

[terry107]

I'm level 8 atm, and giants/mammoths are kicking my ass. I ended up buying the tusk for its quest instead of hunting mammoths. Giants always oneshot me no matter what I do, they even followed me into water (someone earlier suggested that they wouldn't.)

The most frustrating thing is that, when I engage dragons, giants will end up taking aggro, killing the dragon, and then proceed to kill me.

I also hate how you cannot give your companions any commands during a fight. Can't talk to them while fighting.

I'm the same level and ran into my first sabrecat this morning. It was not a pleasant experience.

 

[Punter]

If you don't like the look of dragon armor you may want to check this out:

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=319

 

[s1njin]

Aside form improved draw distance/resolution/AA I don't think there are any PC specific graphics features. This is Bethesda, afterall, and they care much more about their console audience. So you can't expect their PC versions to differ much from consoles as BF3 and Crysis2 did.

Bah !!!

You know, I should probably pick up Crysis 1 and 2 at some point shouldn't I?

As for BF3, it was actually refreshing to see the PS3 beat out the 360.

 

[RavenSEAL]

NSFW link? Just a few curse words in a funny pic.

http://www.halolz.com/2011/11/15/borris-badass-horse/

 

[ArizonaSteve]

Best mod yet - someone decided this was not a good game for arachnophobes, so they replaced the spiders with bears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D08XkfPNQyI

The result is hilarious.

 

[Rhezuss]

Damn this game is a full time job!!!!!!

I was completing quests at a nice pace yesterday and when I called it a night, I checked my journal and BAM!!! 8 quests over then when I started...

Gotta love helping people

Currently level 25 and didn't touched the main quest...around 30 hours in the game. Too much to do!!!!!

 

[dennilfloss]

Anyone encountered a draug deathlord yet? They're supposed to make draug overlords feel like fuzzy bunnies.

 

[PrayForDeath]

There are plenty of tusks lying around when you go exploring, so no need to kill a mammoth,infact I found loads just by exploring caves/places etc...

Ahh I didn't run into any... oh well haha.

I'm the same level and ran into my first sabrecat this morning. It was not a pleasant experience.

Oh yeah, forgot about those! When I saw them I was like oh let's get some easy hides. Horse charged first, got one-shot, and I'm like that's strange he can usually take quite a beating, next thing I know I'm in 3rd person looking at my character dead on the ground. lol

Best mod yet - someone decided this was not a good game for arachnophobes, so they replaced the spiders with walking pedobears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D08XkfPNQyI

The result is hilarious.

Fixed, haha

NSFW link? Just a few curse words in a funny pic.

http://www.halolz.com/2011/11/15/borris-badass-horse/

Too true. I actually never climbed the 7k steps. I looked at the map, found Hrothgar, and made a beeline from Whiterun towards it. Mountain was rather steep, but nothing my horse couldn't handle! It reminded me of the early wow days when you could explore hidden/unfinished zones before they nerfed wall climbing (IF airport, old Hyjal, etc..) Good times

 

[waggy]

Too true. I actually never climbed the 7k steps. I looked at the map, found Hrothgar, and made a beeline from Whiterun towards it. Mountain was rather steep, but nothing my horse couldn't handle! It reminded me of the early wow days when you could explore hidden/unfinished zones before they nerfed wall climbing (IF airport, old Hyjal, etc..) Good times

you can still do it. just have to find the spots.

NSFW link? Just a few curse words in a funny pic.

http://www.halolz.com/2011/11/15/borris-badass-horse/

hahah thats fucking great.

is there any reason to get a horse? i like wondering around gathering and finding odd stuff. would a horse be to fast to do t hat?

 

[waggy]

And they haven't even released the creation kit yet

i expect when they release it we will see some serious shit!

so far not impressed with the few mods released. the quality of some of the oblivion mods were outstanding. that is what im waiting on.

 

[PrayForDeath]

I'm at work so I cannot try these tweaks atm, but they supposedly fix the shadows-shimmering-every-3-seconds issue:

fSunShadowUpdateTime=0
fSunUpdateThreshold=0

Not sure about their effect on day/night cycles. Anyone care to try them?

Alternatively, you can change the timescale and slowdown in-game time, but that would only delay the inevitable shimmering.

 

[thraashman]

Oh, and yeah. This is so far the hardest enemy i've had to face.

I had to face him and a dragon simultaneously.

I ran into this fight accidentally too. I actually saw the dragon first and killed it, then when I approached the word wall, this guy popped up. He was kicking my butt until I managed to get him stuck down a cliff and slowly killed him with summoned Flame Atronachs ... Then I accidentally walked forward off the cliff and killed myself before saving

Anyone encountered a draug deathlord yet? They're supposed to make draug overlords feel like fuzzy bunnies.

Yep, ran into one accidentally in a dungeon. Can't remember the name of it but there was another place nearby that was something Labyrinth. The thing one shot me with an arrow when I was level 16 or 17. I have not gone back yet, but probably will soon as I'm now like 25 and running with much better armor.

 

[Demo24]

Anyone encountered a draug deathlord yet? They're supposed to make draug overlords feel like fuzzy bunnies.

I believe I have, and while they can take awhile to go down in the end not so bad.

One of the hardest enemies so far was this forsworn ice mage/whatever dude that could easily freeze you to death before you might have time to properly react.

 

[waggy]

Holy crap, i just **** bricks. That

Spoiler

deadra

house in Markarth is NUTS.

just finished that quest. the mace is great but people don't like me when i carry it.


had the weirdest thing happen. i was walking around merkath and a little girl fell from the sky and landed in front of me..scared the shit out of me heh.

 

[Kobota]

I was online looking at comparison videos between the consoles and PC - honestly the PC version doesn't look a world better than the consoles. Certainly not the jaw dropping 'OMG' I was expecting to see given PC hardware is many leagues more advanced now than the PS3 or 360 H/W. Am I missing something? Are these just lousy comparisons?

From what i've seen, the load times on the console version is unbearably long, like 30 seconds or longer. On my pc its never more than 5-6 seconds. Most of the time that wouldn't bother me but in towns would drive me nuts

 

[AMDZen]

Yes it is possible to enjoy the game without fighting dragons.

From Rockpapershotgun.com's review:

Agreed

[I have not fought a dragon.
I haven’t even seen a dragon, apart from the one in the mandatory introduction quest.]

Same situation in my game, too busy with side quests and when I finish some I get more. This game is just too good, not sure why but I like this one even more than Oblivion when I first got that game which I was extremely addicted to as well.

 

[thraashman]

Agreed

[I have not fought a dragon.
I haven’t even seen a dragon, apart from the one in the mandatory introduction quest.]

Same situation in my game, too busy with side quests and when I finish some I get more. This game is just too good, not sure why but I like this one even more than Oblivion when I first got that game which I was extremely addicted to as well.

I seem to get randomly attacked by Dragons fairly often now. I have like 3 or 4 souls currently I haven't bothered to assign because the words I have to assign them to currently I don't care for. I wanna go find upgrades to my fire and frost breath words, but I have something like 20 quests backlogged right now.

What Daedra quests have everyone done so far?
Currently I've done:
Meridia (Dawnbreaker looks pimp)
Clavicus Vile
Peryite
Currently in the process of doing:
Molag Bal (I've seen a few people mention this one in this thread, so I know some have done it)