The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[you2]

Can you take prisoners or show mercy ? I.e, when I did the "sp: rendarant retreat" bounty and attacked the bandit chief; near the end he cried for mercy. I sheath my sword by pressing r but not much happened; he just attacked me.
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Btw how do i get my reward for this quest? When I went back to the inn where i found the bounty no one wanted to awared me for my valiant effort.
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(obviously i'm low level as that is a level 3 or 4 quest)
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On another track sven will join me; is there a negative to letting him do so ? is there a penalty if he dies on our adventure ?

 

[Merad]

I think the call for mercy is just a scripted thing. Eventually they'll recover a bit of health and start fighting again. Some severely injured enemies will also try to crawl away from you.

The bounty quests usually are turned in to the Jarl's steward for the quest's area. So if you picked it up in Riverrun that would be turned in at Whiterun.

 

[DottedInDian]

Did Any of you guys become a blood Kin to the orcs yet???..

 

[O'Malley]

I loved Fallouts 3 and NV but I'm not a huge fan of the whole knights and dragons stuff, mostly because MMORPGs ruined such images for me.

Would I still like this game? I'm on the fringe of buying it.

 

[Merad]

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.

Needs to go under the Display section of the INI. It works, but the sun seems to only update about once a second, so there is still some degree of "jerk".

 

[hans030390]

I posted this earlier but go no responses, so here it is again:

Is anyone playing Skyrim on a Phenom II X6? If so, how does it run, and at what settings? My framerate seems to dip in cities and other areas with high settings (tweaked shadows, AA and AF turned off and forced through CCC) with my Phenom II X3 at 3.3GHz and HD6870. My brother has a Phenom II X4 at 2.8 GHz and HD5770, and it seems to run smoother on his system.

Besides Skyrim, I have no complaints about the performance of my PC. I'm wondering if I could get the buttery smooth playback I'm looking for if I upgraded to an X6. Otherwise, I was planning on saving up for a 2500k. I'd rather save money if possible.

 

[Alienwho]

My load times are so fast that I can't even read 1/2 of those info hints or enjoy the artwork. It's actually kind of bothersome. I don't have a real SSD but I have one of those hybrid SSD-Mechanical drives, so maybe it actually works. I also have an i7 920 @ 3.6, an OC'd 6950 and 12GB ram and skyrim doesn't even put a dent in my system at 1080p. I'm not one of those graphic haters but I feel like I could have run this easily on my old 4870 and not notice much graphic depreciation from what I see now with everything maxed out.

 

[Anteaus]

Load times are fast to begin with. I guess thats a side affect of being optimized for consoles...smaller buffers=more numerous but less intrusive loading for us...I've seen it on consoles and the load times, while not horrible, is noticeably longer for them.

2600k, 8GB ram, 570 gtx, WD Cavier Black

 

[Red Storm]

My load times are so fast that I can't even read 1/2 of those info hints or enjoy the artwork. It's actually kind of bothersome. I don't have a real SSD but I have one of those hybrid SSD-Mechanical drives, so maybe it actually works. I also have an i7 920 @ 3.6, an OC'd 6950 and 12GB ram and skyrim doesn't even put a dent in my system at 1080p. I'm not one of those graphic haters but I feel like I could have run this easily on my old 4870 and not notice much graphic depreciation from what I see now with everything maxed out.

Just wait for the crazy high res texture mods and other graphical enhancements. The community will make Skyrim put your rig to work.

 

[Merad]

5 Personality Flaws Skyrim Forces You to Deal With

 

[RavenSEAL]

5 personality flaws skyrim forces you to deal with :d

roflcopters

king: Wanderer! Thank the gods you've come! The prophecy told us that a mighty warrior would arise, worthy of wielding fjalnir, the god-axe, and slaying the evil demon prince synraith. We believe you to be that warrior. What say you, traveler? Will you accept this task?

Me: Yea, verily i shall accept thine task and vanq- wait, synraith? Fiery dude in a floating city? Cape made out of screeching souls? Ahhh, shit. I already killed that guy.

King: You ... Already slew the demon prince, the knife in the dark, the void at the heart of all men, whose identity you did not learn until just now?

Me: Yup. I saw that castle floating up in the sky, and i wanted to know if i could jump up the rocks to get in the back way. It took a lot of reloads, but i finally managed to hop on up in there.

King: You "hopped on up" into the abyssal palace?

Me: Yeeeep, yep yep yep. Just squat-jumped on in there and looted the place. Then i killed that sydney guy-king: Synraith, demon prince of the abyss.

Me: -yeah him. I ganked that guy. Mostly just to see if i could. Plus he looked like kind of a dick.

King: Indeed, the foulest of the foul was "kind of a dick." but you vanquished him without the aid of sacred fjalnir, the god-axe?

Me: Totally. It wasn't even a thing. I just hid on top of a bookshelf where he couldn't reach me and shot him with arrows. Then i waited until he forgot i was shooting him, and did it all again to get the sneak damage bonus. Took a while, but he died all the same.

King: Forsooth! Thine heroic deeds are ... Well, that sounds kind of fucked up, actually. Never thought i'd feel bad for he who devours. So you have no need of our sacred totem weapon?

Me: What, the gold dealy, with the shiny bits? Nah, i already stole that out of the display case four hours ago, before i knew who you were. I gave it to sven, but he quantum leaped out of the game with that shit.

King: Huh. So. I guess ... The bards will ... Sing of your tale now?

Me: Oh yeah? Sweet, let's hear it.

Bard: The hero came with eyes aflame / his tasks already done / the land was rescued all the same / but 'tis kind of a shitty song.

Me: Word.

 

[KaOTiK]

The only real bug I keep getting is when I go and kill like 2-3 people in the same area, one of the corpses always just disappears. A bit fustrating

 

[PrayForDeath]

I posted this earlier but go no responses, so here it is again:

I have a Phenom II X2 unlocked to X4, though the game doesn't really use more than 2 cores from what I've read. The game runs perfectly smooth. If your game is stuttering with an X3, then your game settings must be messed up or something. I have everything maxed out and have even modified my ini for extra visuals.

 

[coldmeat]

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.

Dragons don't spawn in the world until you get a couple of missions into the main quest. Once they start spawning, they are sometimes unavoidable. I've walked out of inns and had a dragon land right in front of me.

 

[Dahak]

I've walked out of inns and had a dragon land right in front of me.

I had that happen twice once when I walked out of a keep it landed right in the court yard.
The 2nd was when I quick traveled to spot where I got a Shout Word and one landed right beside me.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I posted this earlier but go no responses, so here it is again:

The lack of crossfire CAPs is cluster*******ing my performance. Definitely worth the upgrade if you're thinking about it though. You cant go wrong for the price.

Regarding whether the game will use all the cores or not, think of this way. If the game only uses two, windows has 4 cores left to do whatever the **** it feels like it.

 

[AMDZen]

Dragons don't spawn in the world until you get a couple of missions into the main quest. Once they start spawning, they are sometimes unavoidable. I've walked out of inns and had a dragon land right in front of me.

At this point I don't even know what the main quest is, I have too many of them and lost track of which was "main"

LOL

 

[RavenSEAL]

At this point I don't even know what the main quest is, I have too many of them and lost track of which was "main"

LOL

If it has anything to do with you talking to someone about being a badass dragon born, that's probably it.

 

[shortylickens]

At this point I don't even know what the main quest is, I have too many of them and lost track of which was "main"

Part of the fun in all Elder Scrolls is you arent railroaded into a single play through. You can have fun just exploring for months and engaging in side quests or milking the main quest. In fact forgetting that theres something you "have" to do and just enjoying the world is one of the reasons the series is so popular, even though it may be ignored for years at a time.

 

[AMDZen]

Part of the fun in all Elder Scrolls is you arent railroaded into a single play through. You can have fun just exploring for months and engaging in side quests or milking the main quest. In fact forgetting that theres something you "have" to do and just enjoying the world is one of the reasons the series is so popular, even though it may be ignored for years at a time.

Indeed

And this is the best one yet, IMO at least. Skyrim is just truly addicting. I cannot wait to play it again in a couple years when all the best mods are out and stabilized

 

[sigurros81]

I'm in the same boat, I don't know WTf my main thing I have to do anymore. I'm guessing there are two separate main storylines?

1-You're a badass dragonborn and you gotta go do something about the dragons that have resurfaced?

2-Joining a side in the civil war?

Am I missing anything else. I've been preoccupied with building my dragon armor, which I finally did and got myself a pretty mean Daedric swords.

Also, anyone got a listing of companion NPCs? Is it just me or are all the NPCs are pretty much mindless generic drones with no personalities. I'd like to find a caster that can just stand back and nuke shit for me since I'm a nord 2hander warrior.

 

[coldmeat]

How would I go about getting something like a detect life ring? I miss detect life from my Oblivion assassin/thief. I haven't come across even a detect life spell in Skyrim yet.

Would I be able to enchant a ring with detect life? I have an enchantment and alteration skill of ~17.

 

[AMDZen]

I'm in the same boat, I don't know WTf my main thing I have to do anymore. I'm guessing there are two separate main storylines?

1-You're a badass dragonborn and you gotta go do something about the dragons that have resurfaced?

2-Joining a side in the civil war?

Am I missing anything else. I've been preoccupied with building my dragon armor, which I finally did and got myself a pretty mean Daedric swords.

Also, anyone got a listing of companion NPCs? Is it just me or are all the NPCs are pretty much mindless generic drones with no personalities. I'd like to find a caster that can just stand back and nuke shit for me since I'm a nord 2hander warrior.

I think all of the peopl you can hire definitely fit this criteria. However, I am currently running around with a guy from the 'Waking Nightmare' side mission from 'DragonStar' (?) where you save the town from having nightmares.

Spoiler

At the end you have the choice to kill him and take the skull or let him destroy the skull and he joins you

I like him, he has made me laugh a few times and says interesting things about the areas we are in

 

[Hikeon3]

Out of sheer, morbid curiosity; has anyone tried playing this on an 8800GT?

I need to upgrade...

 

[hans030390]

I have a Phenom II X2 unlocked to X4, though the game doesn't really use more than 2 cores from what I've read. The game runs perfectly smooth. If your game is stuttering with an X3, then your game settings must be messed up or something. I have everything maxed out and have even modified my ini for extra visuals.

How does it run in cities? For example, Whiterun always seems to drop below 30 fps for me, depending on where I'm at in the city. Tested it out on my brothers X4, and it did the same thing. Doubting that an X6 would really improve it.