The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[PrayForDeath]

Very good question, I've wondered about that myself.

Is there any difference (however small it may be) between say... having 21 or having 24 in Archery? Or, indeed, do we just level-up until we can unlock the next Perk? From my own observations (playing as a Sneak/Archery/Magika Thief/Mage hybrid) there really isn't much difference in my Sneak abilities until I actually get a new Perk to "make a difference", I might be wrong but it's one example out of a few others which makes me think that Perks is all there is to leveling. If not then I guess it takes a very long time in most skills to make a noticeable difference outside of Perks themselves.

If they bothered to include a 'statistics' page, it would help clear up things like this. I don't understand how an RPG (a huge one, mind you) is missing such a core feature. Hope someone creates a mod for that.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Here is a cool tool that will create an ini file for you with whatever settings you select.
http://donotargue.com/cfg-makers/skyrim/

Great tool. Word of advice though, don't set the shadow distance setting above 2500 because it will make your shadows extremely blocky. Before After

And thanks to whoever mentioned the timescale command earlier in the thread. I set mine to 10 and the day/night cycle feels much better now (takes roughly 2.5 hours instead of 1 hour)

 

[PrayForDeath]

nice that you don't need steam to actually run the game, that might skew their active numbers a bit

Pretty sure you need steam to run this 'steamworks' title.

edit: Ok I'm on a triple-post roll, next time I should read the thread before I begin replying. Sorry

 

[Rhezuss]

I was supposed to make a note of that in OP, it's supposed to be a hit and miss thing. It might work with some PCs, might now work with others.

Work fine for me.

In-game AA/AF turned off and CCC AA/AF to 4x.

Result: Less FPS drops and fluid game.

About shadows, here's my .INI setting:

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=1500.0000
fShadowDistance=1500.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096

fShadowLODStartFade=500.0000

iShadowMode=4
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1

bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0

iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4

iShadowFilter=4


This way shadows are less blocky and don't hurt the FPS. If I set shadowdistance to 400 I get awesome shadows but they artifact/bug at close range. So 1500 is quite fine for me.

 

[shortylickens]

Is TweakGuides still up and running?

 

[volcane]

I got the game 2 days back.

Installed it and Steam, and been having fun..until today.

Now the game won't launch from Windows 7 Games menu or shortcuts. Steam won't start either. Whenever I double click those icons the ring icon will pop up for a few seconds and disappear. PC doesn't hang or anything but Skyrim just won't load.

Anyone having this problem?

 

[-Slacker-]

I'm at level 21 and currently doing the quest

Spoiler

after that one where I have to find the something something horn for the graybeards, before it turns out that bartender chick form rivensomething stole it to capture my attention etc

My question: is it now a good time to pick a side between the imperials or the stormcloaks? Haven't picked one yet.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Is TweakGuides still up and running?

Yea but he must be working for nVidia or something, because you can only read his new guides at Geforce.com

He's currently working on a Skyrim guide.


I just learned that Bethesda created a whole new language for the game (complete with its unique 34 character alphabet), and the choir that you hear in the soundtrack actually sings in this language. Pretty crazy lol

 

[waggy]

My question: is it now a good time to pick a side between the imperials or the stormcloaks? Haven't picked one yet.

I was wondering that myself.

 

[Majic 7]

I got the game 2 days back.

Installed it and Steam, and been having fun..until today.

Now the game won't launch from Windows 7 Games menu or shortcuts. Steam won't start either. Whenever I double click those icons the ring icon will pop up for a few seconds and disappear. PC doesn't hang or anything but Skyrim just won't load.

Anyone having this problem?

Same thing happened to me this morning. Close anyway. With either the exe. or launcher I would get a small black not resonding window in the upper left corner. Then I had to kill it with TM. Went back to stock ini. and verified cache, seperately. Nothing. Changed password on Steam and nothing. Then Steam froze so I restarted PC and that fixed it.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I sunk 30+ hours into this game, overall its pretty good, but when after some time when u play it you can't help there's so much potential wasted that could had make this truly stellar. Bethsoft could have done much better with quest writing and stealth mechanics during the past 5 years just to name a few.

 

[Wardawg1001]

Very good question, I've wondered about that myself.

Is there any difference (however small it may be) between say... having 21 or having 24 in Archery? Or, indeed, do we just level-up until we can unlock the next Perk? From my own observations (playing as a Sneak/Archery/Magika Thief/Mage hybrid) there really isn't much difference in my Sneak abilities until I actually get a new Perk to "make a difference", I might be wrong but it's one example out of a few others which makes me think that Perks is all there is to leveling. If not then I guess it takes a very long time in most skills to make a noticeable difference outside of Perks themselves.

I can say with certainty that at least some skills have bonuses simply by leveling them.

Pickpocketing becomes MUCH easier just through leveling it, and at lower levels it seems like it is literally impossible to pickpocket items of higher value. At 20-30ish pickpocketing, you can barely get away with stealing an item of 300 value off a sleeping person, and dont even think of trying to steal multiple items of any value in one go without getting caught. I'm up to 100 pickpocketing (with no perks) and I can usually successfully steal 5+ items of much higher value off people who are awake. There seems to be an actual hard cap on the value of an item that you can steal with a given level of pickpocketing

Blacksmithing also improves through leveling. The higher your blacksmithing skill, the more you can upgrade your items at the whetstone and workbench. It goes Fine > Superior > Exquisite, and then theres more levels beyond that I haven't found yet.

Other skills are harder to judge, for instance weapon skills. Between gaining skill, upgrading your weapon, and adding in perks, its really hard to tell if the actual skill gains are doing anything for you. If there are console commands or cheats that can adjust your skills, someone could do a quick test by attacking the same enemy with say 20 in the skill, and then 100 in the skill. Should be pretty easy to notice if it improved your damage, and since there doesn't appear to be dodges or misses in this game, I can think of little else that improving a weapon skill would do. Same thing could be done for the magic skills, though you could also check if they maybe lower the mana cost or cast time or what not.

I think it would be odd that some skills provide benefits just from leveling them, and others dont.

 

[Demo24]

These hotsprings... there are people bathing in them! Clothes and shoes strewn everywhere, wine, and a sword planted into the ground.

Ha, I found that place and had a laugh when I saw the people just chillin in the water. Felt sorta hippy-ish to me. :thumbsup:

I'm playing a Khajiit but I haven't even used that perk yet, I keep forgetting.

Well the cats benefit 2 ways I've noticed. Sneak starts out decent and you can only make it better. Also the claw attack is surprisingly decent. I can easily take out wolves, skeevers, and skeletons with a swipe. But it is kinda slow so not as useful against much else but I have fought off bandits with claws and flames.


Finally fought a blood dragon last night. Well...sorta, dragons seem to be easily distracted so it carpet-fire-bombed some goats, wolves, and then fracked with a polar bear for awhile. I think after they get about 75% damaged they won't fly anymore, which gave me enough time to go catch up to it and end it. Lesson learned, attack on the side as from the front = getting eaten and spit across the map.

 

[dpodblood]

So after an hour or so of tweaking the game and editing INI files I finally got it it a workable state. Played for a few hours so far and just wrapped up killing my first dragon, which was much easier than expected. Enjoying the game so far, and hoping to get many more hours in this week.

I am having problems with screen tearing though. It's not like normal screen tearing though which you see when panning from side to side. Its like one line that goes across the screen. It's most noticeable when looking at the ground while walking. I get a constant torn line through the screen. Is anyone else having this problem? Solutions? I have V-sync disabled BTW.

 

[hans030390]

So...has anyone crafted dragon armor yet?

My smithing is up to 80 currently, and I'll be at 100 soon. I have a good bit of dragon bones and scales waiting to be used.

If you want to get your smithing up quickly, go to every town/city with a blacksmith and buy as many iron bars/ore and leather strips as possible. Make a bunch of iron daggers and watch your smithing jump to 100 in no time.

 

[Merad]

Or just take a run through the wilderness and slaughter every animal you see. Then use the hides to make leather bracers.

 

[RavenSEAL]

My smithing is up to 80 currently, and I'll be at 100 soon. I have a good bit of dragon bones and scales waiting to be used.

If you want to get your smithing up quickly, go to every town/city with a blacksmith and buy as many iron bars/ore and leather strips as possible. Make a bunch of iron daggers and watch your smithing jump to 100 in no time.

Where are you stacking them? I honestly know of no place to store them without getting married or dropping 5K on a house.

 

[Magusigne]

Debating between using a 1 hander and a shield...or just going pure 2 handed..

 

[RebelCapitalist]

Anyone run into anything good that's high priced? I'm about 30 hours in and gold is just stacking up (went into one dungeon and cleared about 5k alone). Bought a home a long time ago and aside from dropping a couple K for a fine, I'm not seeing too much.

Oh, any fellow conjurers know if there are spells for better beasts out there than the couple you get/find early in the game?

 

[Demo24]

Debating between using a 1 hander and a shield...or just going pure 2 handed..

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.

 

[Gheris]

Debating between using a 1 hander and a shield...or just going pure 2 handed..

My Ork Warrior is Sword/Shield. Basically went this route because I want to go with a heavily armoured Juggernaut with a shield. That and I am going to get Shield bash ASAP. Still only Level 3. I like to wander.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Debating between using a 1 hander and a shield...or just going pure 2 handed..

1 hand and shield obviously hold a defensive advantage. I like to switch it up between that and ranged, the first skill open for hunter bumps up your damage up to 80% easily, probably why i'm dropping **** left and right so quickly

 

[magomago]

Locust was right on how to approach this game, but I can't help myself LOL. I simply end up spending so much time thinking about what to do, very little gets done


Its just too fun running around aimlessly


By the way how does the leveling system work? I want to do side quests, but I'm concerned with getting owned so fast. At the same time I'm concerned with doing the main quest for so long that the side quests get too easy.

 

[Kaekae]

This game convinced me to overclock my Q6600. I've had it at stock speeds since I got it over 4 years ago. Skyrim was running OK, but I still noticed dips in the fps every now and then.

I've got my Q6600 running @ 3.0ghz. It was pretty easy to do, and is perfectly stable as far as I can tell. The game runs so smooth now, like butter, on high settings of course.

That's awesome that you don't have to spend $ to upgrade your old quad. I miss my Q6600, but Sandy Bridge definitely makes the overall PC process so unbelievably fast + a SSD.

Q6600 @ 3.0GHZ should last you for a while :thumbsup:

BTW, when specifically did you notice dips in your performance? I feel like only when I enter a dungeon and there is fog/smoke/lighting effects that it dips in performance (even with my Rig), but I have been using the in-game AA and everything set on Ultra.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Locust was right on how to approach this game, but I can't help myself LOL. I simply end up spending so much time thinking about what to do, very little gets done


Its just too fun running around aimlessly


By the way how does the leveling system work? I want to do side quests, but I'm concerned with getting owned so fast. At the same time I'm concerned with doing the main quest for so long that the side quests get too easy.

It's supposed to be adaptive, as in, certain stuff levels up as you do; that applies more or less.