The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[Demo24]

Found a scroll book recently for bound weapon which gives me the ability to conjure a sword in my hands. Pretty awesome I must say! I was kind of surprised to find it seems to do roughly the same amount of damage as my other 1-handed swords I'm using at the moment. Still rocking the dual swords a lot of the time now, gotten to the point where I frequently knock them off balance in the first blow. After that it's pretty much game over for them as they go down fast then!

I'm wondering if the conjure swords hurt magicka cause the few mages I've been fighting as of late don't stand a chance against them. Then again, they don't really have anything in the way of armor anyway so it could just be pure dps.

 

[Locut0s]

It isn't playable however as the game often goes back to single digit FPS upon entering and exiting areas. Though you CAN fix it by ALT-TABing again.

 

[Kobota]

i'm up to 97 two-handed, but the regen of enemies is really making me mad. whats the point of exploring when the enemies just come back?

 

[RavenSEAL]

I just grinded my smithing to 60 and got Orc Heavy armor. My golden mask looks kinda out of place, but the stats are sweet, specially with the specialization.

I honestly feel like nothing can even touch me at this point in the game

I'm one-shotting pretty much anything that isn't a "boss" or a dragon.

Oh and yeah, regarding the picking sides thing:

Spoiler

Me and Ulfric just took back Solitude and I'm his BFF, waiting to see if the Thalmor do anything

 

[Zebo]

Anyone know the race to choose for power gamers? You know life/work/family kinda get in the way of character exploration. Back in Oblivion I was a Atronach Redguard which made game absurdly easy goes it.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Anyone know the race to choose for power gamers? You know life/work/family kinda get in the way of character exploration. Back in Oblivion I was a Atronach Redguard which made game absurdly easy goes it.

Wood elf/archer is pretty straight forward. As I've mentioned, I've been dropping enemies relatively easily.

 

[RebelCapitalist]

I definitely feel pure magic characters don't scale as well as other builds.

 

[hans030390]

what graphics card do you have?

hd6870.

 

[hans030390]

Just finished the main quest. Fun stuff. Got a Daedric sword to go along with my Dragonplate armor as well (everything is upgraded as much as possible). Still so much to see and do!

 

[Locut0s]

The bTreesReceiveShadows=1 setting doesn't seem to affect frame rates all that much which is nice. Seems to be only a few FPS hit at most. It certainly does lend trees more depth and is very noticeable. I don't find it an absolute must though so I'm keeping it off for now. Changing iShadowMap to 4096 has a huge impact on performance though, as expected. But it also does really smooth out the shadows. Very nice looking if your card can handle it.

 

[Zenoth]

The bTreesReceiveShadows=1 setting doesn't seem to affect frame rates all that much which is nice. Seems to be only a few FPS hit at most. It certainly does lend trees more depth and is very noticeable. I don't find it an absolute must though so I'm keeping it off for now. Changing iShadowMap to 4096 has a huge impact on performance though, as expected. But it also does really smooth out the shadows. Very nice looking if your card can handle it.

I like the difference that bTreesReceiveShadows=1 adds to the trees, but I think it's better when combined with Ambient Occlusion activated. Ultimately though in my case specifically I have to pretty much remove all the shadows I can, to gain performance and maintain a 40+ FPS in outdoor areas. Otherwise on Ultra without additional tweaks it dips down within the 20's and it gets unbearable.

My GTX285 is definitely due for a change, it used to laugh at Oblivion despite dozens of tweaks I added on top of the highest settings. Now Skyrim one-hits my GPU like the giants do to my character.

 

[OCNewbie]

I honestly feel like nothing can even touch me at this point in the game

I'm one-shotting pretty much anything that isn't a "boss" or a dragon.

Turn difficulty up to "Master", and see if that brings back a challenge. I'm not sure of the extent of how things are changed, but enemies definitely seem to hid harder, and have more hitpoints. I decided to restart the game and start from the beginning on Master difficulty and it's definitely much more challenging.

 

[-Slacker-]

Does anybody know what dungeon I can find

Spoiler

Igmund's (Maraketh's jarl) shield

I want to buy a house there, but I think I have to complete this quest first.

 

[-Slacker-]

Changing iShadowMap to 4096 has a huge impact on performance though, as expected.

How huge is that?

 

[dennilfloss]

Interesting. I just tried enchanting for the first time. No problem enchanting a falmer bow with fire damage but every time I enchant simple (non armour) cloth gloves, the enchantment takes but some of my keyboard keys stop responding and I have to ctrl-alt-del out of the game. Mouse still responds as does the ~ for the console. Must be a bug.

Oblivion also had a problem with cloth gloves sometimes.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Is it ok to ignore crafting? (enchanting, smithing, alchemy, etc...) I kinda dont feel like chasing ingredients and grinding professions after playing wow for years.

 

[shortylickens]

Is it ok to ignore crafting? (enchanting, smithing, alchemy, etc...) I kinda dont feel like chasing ingredients and grinding professions after playing wow for years.

In previous games it was perfectly fine.
The whole point is you can do anything you want but you dont HAVE to do any one particular thing.

 

[s1njin]

I like the difference that bTreesReceiveShadows=1 adds to the trees, but I think it's better when combined with Ambient Occlusion activated. Ultimately though in my case specifically I have to pretty much remove all the shadows I can, to gain performance and maintain a 40+ FPS in outdoor areas. Otherwise on Ultra without additional tweaks it dips down within the 20's and it gets unbearable.

My GTX285 is definitely due for a change, it used to laugh at Oblivion despite dozens of tweaks I added on top of the highest settings. Now Skyrim one-hits my GPU like the giants do to my character.

It'd be fantastic to have a matrix of tweaks based on video card wouldn't it?

 

[gorcorps]

In previous games it was perfectly fine.
The whole point is you can do anything you want but you dont HAVE to do any one particular thing.

Plus at standard difficulty the game isn't hard enough to worry about your choices making you too weak. You should be able to do well enough regardless.

 

[dennilfloss]

OK. Volsung the dragon priest was a bitch to kill in a mage vs mage fight. ah heck could turn my atronachs against me. I had to position myself really carefully between rocks in a spot where he could not ice-spear me and my minion could not harm me when turned. He died a very slow, rewarding, fiery death. My first dragon priest slain.

 

[MustangSVT]

wisp mother and group of witch just pwned my ass...

 

[Zenoth]

Here's a future essential UI mod in the making, it was inevitable, and in my humble opinion needed. I looked at the previews in the mod's thread, and all I can say is that God exists.

 

[Demo24]

Is it ok to ignore crafting? (enchanting, smithing, alchemy, etc...) I kinda dont feel like chasing ingredients and grinding professions after playing wow for years.

So far I've had plenty of luck just finding most of the potions I need in the world, and I've come across a number of enchanted weapons. I definitely think you can play without bothering, but sometimes doing those things will net you some benefits. For example poisons aren't very common to come across and are expensive to buy.

 

[waggy]

Here's a future essential UI mod in the making, it was inevitable, and in my humble opinion needed. I looked at the previews in the mod's thread, and all I can say is that God exists.

that is what i have been waiting for. i HATE the ui now.

 

[dennilfloss]

OK. After trials and errors, it's not enchanting cloth gloves that locks my keyboard once done. I had the same thing happen with hide bracers. Nor is it the fortify sneak enchantment. Nope. What does this is renaming the item. If I don't all is peachy.