The Grand Skyrim Discussion, Tips, Hints, and Stuff Thread!

[Rainbowtrout]

I am FINALLY getting Skyrim for Christmas, and I though it would be fun-ish to constantly talk about it. So...

[1] Do you play Skyrim without stealing, killing innocent people, or just getting a bad reputation?

[2] What race do you play as?

Edited December 22, 2013 by Rainbowtrout

[The Destroyer]

Eh, I've never really felt a need to get into the hype, so I voted "meh"

[astropapi1]

Only if my gaming laptop didn't have a crappy integrated graphics card.

[Comrade Jenkens]

The only other game that can stand up to KSP in my opinion.

[pxi]

If I'm really honest, Morrowind was where it was at. But Skyrim is still quite reasonable.

[Aghanim]

Well I used to play skyrim until I just lose interest at it...I don't know why

But everyone else starts to play it again

[pebble_garden]

Do you play Skyrim without stealing, killing innocent people, or just getting a bad reputation?

Skyrim is one of my favorite games of all time. (Others include the Zelda games (starting with Ocarina of Time onward), the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games, Flight Simulator, KSP of course, and Forza/Gran Turismo.)

I'm a total carebear, so I always try to play the good angle. That means no stealing or killing innocents. If I accidentally do something that ruins my reputation, I go back to a previous save and try to avoid it. However, some of the plotlines in Skyrim force you to do bad things, and naturally I had some resistance to playing the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild questlines...

But a friend convinced me to give them a go, and I'm glad I did. Those two plots were my favorites in the game, and you can still play them fairly honorably, because the people you're robbing/assassinating generally deserve it. And you meet some of the most fascinating characters the game has to offer.

For my first go through Skyrim I played a stealth archer, with no magic.

That was fun. But this second time I've played a magic user, and that has proven to be very fun. I learned a way to grind to 100 Conjuration Magic in about 60-90 min (and rose from level 6 to 21 in the process). At 100 conjuration you can summon two storm atronachs as your own personal body guards, and let me tell you, that makes a huge difference.

Edited December 22, 2013 by pebble_garden

[Randox]

I play it on and off. It seems that every time I buy DLC for it, I lose interest in the game for a few months. Was my introduction to the series, and it's certainly a neat game. I usually take a sword and shield, with a crossbow to open combat with (thinking about switching to a mace), and I seem to be one of the few people who prefers heavy armour to light (Ebony and Daedric just look too awesome to not wear them). Tried a mage with my first character, and my tendency to focus entirely on destruction and restoration magic didn't work out so well (being a glass cannon works better if you can do glass cannon damage, and if you have other people to help you).

Anyway, I've been quite taken with the detail of the world. I like a good story, and I like immersion. This game is also totally on the list for trying to get back into it once my computer receives it's christmas upgrades.

[Sirrobert]

Quick tip: Get the mod 'Mining Flames'. Makes the tedius repetetive mining alot faster

[Rainbowtrout]

New question is up!

[RogueMason]

Skyrim is a very good, enjoyable game, and I've had hours of fun playing it on both my Xbox and my laptop. Nothing beats that feeling of first starting in the game (you feel the same with Oblivion and Fallout 3), where everything is new and intriguing, and you're just trying to make your way in the world. It does get grindy at times, but that will only be later on in the game, and you'll probably find you still have a ton of quests sitting in your journal, waiting to be finished.

As for me, I've played as a Nord male, Breton female, and an Argonian male. The Nord is my Xbox character, but he's somewhat... generic, albeit a cool generic character, roaming around in glass armour. The Breton and Argonian are my two PC characters, but through some tricky console commands, they actually share the same world*, but the Argonian is much further along than the Breton, acting now as my primary character:

Note that I am running quite a few mods for Skyrim, so the armour and bandoliers you see him wearing are not in the vanilla game.

I'm totally the sneaky sniper type, but I don't steal and murder (excluding the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild questlines...). Tip-toeing through dungeons and castles is my game, but I will draw my sword and shield should things get too close for archery (they rarely do... hehehe). Magic is occasionally thrown into the mix, with each school having its uses.

The nights skies can be pretty good as well:

*I wanted to change to an Argonian without losing progress, so console commands were the way to go.

[DisarmingBaton5]

The Breton and Argonian are my two PC characters, but through some tricky console commands, they actually share the same world*

*I wanted to change to an Argonian without losing progress, so console commands were the way to go.

I thought for a moment you turned the unused character into an NPC

I played as an archer-Khajiit for a while before getting burned out on the game. I might start a new game soon, though.

[cesarcurado]

Tips: To level alteration fast, Get Waterbreathing, go to Whiterun's Cloud District, jump on the water pools there.

There are stone steps there, stand in the middle so half of your char's body is in the water and half in the air.

Keep casting waterbreathing and you gain alteration points and level up fast.

To level illusion, just keep casting Courage at city guards.

In both Dragonborn DLC's Secret of Arcana perk helps A LOT.

Pretty cheaty so I'd recommend doing that only if you have leveled most other skills and don't wanna level these the usual, slow way.

[pebble_garden]

Here is how my friend told me to level my Conjuration to 100 in no time:

pebble: So this time I'm starting Skyrim with an emphasis on magic.

Lotus: May I make a suggestion?

pebble: Sure. You're gonna say go for illusion.

Lotus: Actually no.

Lotus: Well, yes, if you want to be really sneaky.

Lotus: High level illusion leads to invisibility spells, but...

Lotus: I'd say max out your conjuration tree first.

pebble: I'm finding destruction satisfying though.

Lotus: Destruction is BAD.

Lotus: Not at first, but it doesn't scale properly into the high levels without mods.

Lotus: By level 30 it's basically useless.

(NOTE: I did find a mod that scales magic properly, and like it a lot.)

Lotus: However, conjuration is a force multiplier, or a "sit back and watch my dremoras and atronachs kill everything in sight".

Lotus: It's super fun and you can conjure bound weapons which are essentially daedric quality.

Lotus: So you can rock and roll in melee whenever you want, without having to carry weapons around.

pebble: Okay, I'll give that a go.

Lotus: One more thing.

Lotus: I will tell you a very fast way to level conjuration.

Lotus: For conjuration to get really fun, you need to get it to near max or max.

Lotus: Here's a really easy way to level it...

(NOTE: Lotus forgot to tell me this works best if you wear everything you can lay your hands on to speed up magicka regeneration, so you don't have to wait as long.)

Lotus: 1. Go see Drevis Neloran in the College of Winterhold. He's the short wood elf illusion trainer.

Lotus: 2. Get his quest to "cleanse the focal points" with the mystic gloves.

Lotus: 3. Go buy "bound sword" spell from the Conjuration trainer at the college, and learn it.

Lotus: 4. Put on the gloves and clean the first focal point. (It looks like a glowing blue fountain.)

Lotus: 5. Your magicka regen will now be 250% of normal for the next couple hours.

Lotus: 6. Go down to the beach below the college and find some horkers. Attack them, and jump up to a place they can't reach.

Lotus: 7. Once you have them aggro'd but are safely out of reach, spam your conjure bound sword spell, and as soon as they appear, sheath them. Use the same spell in both hands. Rinse and repeat, constantly.

Lotus: You'll be at 100 conjuration in about 15 mins.

Lotus: Once you're done you can finish the quest by cleaning the other focal points and return the gloves to Drevin.

Lotus: The spamming of conjure-bound-sword-and-sheath thing only levels your conjuration if you have something out there trying to attack you.

Lotus: The horkers are perfect as they're slow and can't really do hills properly.

Lotus: You can do this at level 1, it's awesome.

Lotus: And then you can "play" with all your other skills while your two conjured beasts/atronachs/dremora tank everything.

Lotus: Oh, and once you reach level 100 in conjuration, make sure to go back and talk to the conjuration trainer at the college. What comes after that is very cool, very funny, and very useful.

I like to call my two storm atronachs "Flash" and "Bang", as they make a great deal of noise while prosecuting attacks. Need to clear out that bandit camp? No problem! Hahaha.

Edited December 22, 2013 by pebble_garden

[Rainbowtrout]

This stuff really helps! Thanks guys!

[pebble_garden]

As for what races I play: I would play an Elf, but the Elves in Elder Scrolls are kinda ugly.

So I stick with Human characters.

From what I can see, though, the Elves in Elder Scrolls Online are FINALLY getting a much needed overhaul. Woo hoo!

Though, back when I played Daggerfall, I had a Khajit thief (cat burglar! hehe) who could scale the city walls at night and leap from housetop to housetop, almost never needing to walk on the ground. That was fun.

Edited December 22, 2013 by pebble_garden
Actually checked my spelling for burglar and fixed it, thanks to Rainbowtrout's graceful hint.

[Rainbowtrout]

Khajit Thief (cat burgular!)

Ba-Dum Tsh.

Thanks for noticing my graceful hint Pebble_Garden!

Edited December 23, 2013 by Rainbowtrout
Thanks.

[Vahal]

Ahhh Skyrim. One of my favorite timesinks. I just love to walk around and see how beautiful the country is and hunt [almost everything, I just spare cutes foxes and rabbits... most of the time) helping people decimating necromancers and bandits with my deadly and stealth arrows. I played an heavy armored nord with 2h battleaxe who was quite fun "hey bandit, see my battleaxe?" *SBAF in his head* "See it better? Oh... dear, you lost your head. Sad news... NEEEXT!" but tried a sneaky and nasty imperial warrior who fought with her bow and dual daggers. Just deadly. So much powerful that I roflstomped the poor guy you fight at the end of main Dragonborn quest (no spoil ^^) "Hey dude, how are you?" One arrow in the head "You seems to be in really shape... what a shame. two other arrows and it was down... . REally the stealth bowman is the deadliest "class" I played, without any mod you can almost twoshot everything when it's not oneshot.

Another thing I like with Skyrim is the player community, with lot of modders, guys and gals giving tips and advises... Well, Like here in fact.

The main issue with Skyrim was stability. Each DLC came with its bunch of bugs and crashes... Damn I was so mad when earthfire came out and just made my game so unstable that I barely could play 1min until it crashed. Hopefully it's not a problem anymore.

[Galacticruler]

[1] Do you play Skyrim without stealing, killing innocent people, or just getting a bad reputation?

[2] What race do you play as?

1. I try.(I borked the Dawnguard, not they won't stop trying to kill me ;_;. and I'm one of them.

2. Khajiit. just personal preference.(Man there need to be more anthro races)

EDIT:

The main issue with Skyrim was stability. Each DLC came with its bunch of bugs and crashes... Damn I was so mad when earthfire came out and just made my game so unstable that I barely could play 1min until it crashed. Hopefully it's not a problem anymore.

Hearthfire*

and it is much more stable now.(Xb360 anyway)

Only issues I encounter are items starting where you dropped them after the first re-visit to your home(s), but placing it again should help.

oh, and if you get Zypher, the faster dwarven bow.

DO NOT PLACE IT ON A WEAPON RACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you'll be forced to hunt it down somewhere in the house, as it HATES the weapon racks and ususally glitches under the floor...still taking up that slot.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Galacticruler

[Vahal]

Oops yeah Heartfire . And, yeah items on racks tend to fall on the ground randomly, some others are sticked in some weird position. And if you put something on table or other furniture, usually you will find it on the ground the next time you'll come at home =_= . Zephyr, that's the bow you find when helping the poor dead girl to achieve her lifetime quest?

What makes Skyrim just beautiful ils the amount of HD textures for everything. Ok, it makes the game heavier for the system, but damn, it's so nice!

[Rainbowtrout]

Yes, the textures are one of the things that got me. Also, the in-game world.

[AletzN1]

well I dont have a god PC and I dont intend to, ever. so i got the legendary edition for ps3, and it is great!

I have 2 characters, my first one is a khajiit, not the thief Khajiit, but the stormcloak "I can do whatever I want I'm not roleplaying" Khajiit about level 58. Bought all heartfire lands and already constructed 2 Houses, have a wife and a daughter, own all of the guilds, and have daedric, dragonplate and dragonscale armors.

AND i got a nord as my second character, an "empire-is-good-no-stealing-block-n-slash-nord". level ~10.

[Rainbowtrout]

Fun.

(Tenchar)

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

To be honest, when I first played Skyrim (on release) it felt boring. The world is huge, but there isn't really a whole lot to do. I put the game on the shelve for more then a year and after that I decided to give it a second go. I modded the hell out of the game and now it finally is the game I want to play; simply amazing.

I've started a new play through about a month ago as a Nord; currently I'm at level 22, living in a cave with only very little food and water left...

[Comrade Jenkens]

I've sunk hundreds of hours into that game and I'm still not bored of it. I've started installing mods now which can greatly improve both the gameplay and graphics.

The worst part about it is how unstable it is! Even without mods I get crashes on a regular basis.