Elder Scrolls V "Skyrim" (and a discussion about E.S. IV, Oblivion)

[Art Blade]

space, not sure why your son's playing tag and hide and seek made you think of me but hehe, glad you're having fun together :) I liked the interactivity in Oblivion, too.

Which reminds me:

Fiach, stealing -- in Oblivion stolen goods were marked red in your inventory and you couldn't sell them plus it gave you some kind of notoriety. There were very few fences who would buy stolen goods from you, stolen goods were worthless otherwise unless you could eat/use them.

How about stealing in Skyrim?

[Fiach]

Well you can go up to an item on a table and if its steal-able, it will be written in red.

AFAIK its not a crime if nobody sees you, kinda like real life  >:D

I only did it once for the tusk and I closed the door prior to taking it, I havent done it since. I did click on an item in the apothacary shop and took it, she gave me a right telling off, so I just reloaded.

I did some crime on my last character, but I cant remember what it was, but I was given the option to pay a fine or go to jail, I just reloaded the game.

Just found a dungeon that I walked past without noticing on my melee character, I would say that if I wasnt a mage, it would have been a tough fight, I cant imagine it with melee, there were so many enemies. But its kinda cool that there are dungeons slightly off the beaten track that you find by accident :)

I found a horse beside a dead body, I could ride it, which was cool, I went as far as a dungeon (2 massive trolls inside), after the dungeon, the horse was gone when I came out, I thought I would be able to keep it. :(

[Art Blade]

Thanks, Fiach :)

Dungeons were essential for random loot (usually you'll find a treasure of sorts in every dungeon/cave) as well as for quite a few missions. I loved them but orientation could be tricky for me.

I'm a lousy pathfinder unless I got a map, a compass, and good luck slapping me on the head as in "gee, statistically you should have found that exit an hour ago, I can't stand it any more, here you go, get out already .."  :-()

[Fiach]

I never found any decent loot in any dungeons yet, which surprised me.

The maps are VERY good in the dungeons, the main map is pretty shite though.

[Fiach]

So, I got this dual wield skill for my mage, you can have a spell in each hand, of the same type, but it does more than twice the damage of the single version.

You can also have two different spells, eg a "ward spell", these have to be kept on all the time, so you have to keep that trigger held, plus eg a fire spell in the other hand, so in effect, you have a wall of protection around you, against spell attacks, yet you can cast attack spells yourself, really chews up the mana though.

Or you could have a heal spell on one trigger and an attack spell on the other.

My biggest problem at times can be friendly fire, eg my companion getting hit by my spell, it really pisses them off, but they wont attack you, however, if you are on a quest with a non-companion, they will attack you if you damage them significantly.

I have to say that I wasted alot of points with my melee character, but at least I knew what I was doing with the mage, so that character is MUCH better built, every point has gone into magic, unlike all the archery crap I put on the melee character, because it was free.

[Art Blade]

Although it is fun to fight with swords and some such in the end to me it seems better to use magic. Regenerates, can be a weapon or a tool (open locked doors, make invisible and so on) or err, what to call it, well -- medical aid :) or protection. Very versatile, hidden, and always ready (given you're loaded with manna). If you are allowed to enchant items.. whoa, even better :)

[spaceboy]

I'm enjoying a combo of melee and magic.  Shooting fire out of one hand and using my magic induced sword in the other (though shield bashes are fun too).  My sword is an Ancient Nord Ice sword that slightly freezes and depletes the health of the enemies I hit.  A very cool effect, though I wonder if it is counteracting the lasting fire effects lol - I may need to if I have an ice spell instead of fire.

Funny moment - on my way from Rorikstead  ("Rorikstead! I'm from Rorikstead"... "Archers!"... sorry, I can't help it) to White run I saw a giant near his campfire and a Wooly Mammoth standing nearby.  I thought I'd check out how much damage I could give the giant with some arrows from what I thought was a safe distance.  One hit on the giant's shoulder and the Mammoth, roars and starts charging at me! Apparently it was his "pet" with a very keen sense of protection of its owner!  Anyways, that thing ran so fast I couldn't escape getting trampled.  After respawning I just passed that duo up with a wide gerth.

[Art Blade]

Nice pet. Would it be allowed in into a church, do you think?  >:D

[Fiach]

Mana is the problem Art, especially if you are a warrior, my starting mana was twice as high as my HP lol :)

Killed a dragon in about 10 seconds, used lightning bolts as it was a fire dragon, so its good to have spells from opposing elements :)

That ice sword, you may notice a greay bar that depletes as you use it, when its gone you will need to recharge it with a soul gem at an enchantment table.

Ice slows enemies and steals their Stamina, so its a pretty cool sword (pun intended :)).

You can get a spell called Bound Sword, it creates a magic sword in your hand, dunno if its useful against some particular enemy, but it could be worth considering if you meet some enemies that dont take melee damage, it may be useful against them (just a guess on my part, I havent encountered anythin like that, but I cant see it being of any other use). There are other bound weapon spells you can get too.

I'm lv 11/12 now, so near enough where I was with the last character, it was worth restarting, having a good time, I am doing the companion missions again, currently in Dustmans Cairn.

[spaceboy]

Yeah actually I had to regenerate my sword's power already once, but I think I did it right out in the open, no special table or place to do it iirc.

Other fun things:

Using scrolls.  One I found gave me a huge fireball to unleash.  Another I haven't used yet reanimates dead skeletons to fight for you for a bit.

Potions/poisons:  I had a bit of a tough time on a group that had archers, melee dudes, and one particularly nasty mage that came at me hard with fire.  Kept dying.  So I put a little potion on my sword that makes the next person hit with it, fight against your enemies.  When I entered the camp I ran straight for her tent, smacked her once and watched as she came out and started blazing up her friends!  It was great.

I'll have to keep an eye out for that Bound Sword!

[Art Blade]

There was a spell with that effect, space, which I loved to use all the time, turn enemies (or anyone, ehehe) against one another and create chaos and wild brawls  ^-^ :-X

its a pretty cool sword (pun intended :)).

At least in Oblivion spell-bound (even worse: scroll-bound) weapons were crap for one reason: they wore out the moment you relied on them the most. Which could look like this:

"Oh. I believe that over there is the enemy. Right, old chap, I'm going to teach you a lesson in a minute. I'll just cast my magic sword with that spell.. I said, with that spell.. where the f.. ah! Got it. Oh good gracious, he's seen me. I reckon I need that other spell for my magic shield, then. God damn it, where in that bleeding mess of an invento.. Oh wow, there he is, proceeding towards me rather quickly! Alright, cast spell.. done. Oh gee, he's almost here!! Quick, I need my magic armour. I think I had a spell for a magic armour. I can't fricking find.. just in time!"

CLONK!

"Ouch! My sword has just vanished!"

CLONK!

"Ow! And why did he hit m.. my shield! It's gone."

CLONK!

"Aw, man! My armour has just gone, too!"

CLONK! *AAARGH!*

"What the.."

Reload last save game? [Y/N]

[Fiach]

Cool stories guys, I'll keep an eye out for those potions, all I pick up are HP and Mana :)

[Art Blade]

If there is a place where you can enchant gear and, independently, learn how to create spells, focus on that. I had used the same "spell" (25% invisibility) to enchant four items I could wear at once: two rings, an amulet, some clothes. 4x25=.. totally invisible  :) Since you wear those enchanted items, their effects are immediate and permanent (as long as you wear them).. no "wearing off" of effects  :-D

And for spells.. like spaceboy described.. a spell that turned anyone against the next guy 

[Fiach]

Not sure mate, you can create spell books, using "ruined books", but its not something I have looked into really.

[Art Blade]

I was thinking of a mage university or something like that.

[Fiach]

Yes there is a college, but I only go there to level up spells, I havent started the quest chain there yet as I am with a different group (The Companions) doing their quest chain first, I'm doing theirs because I can rush through them really quickly as I have done them before :)

[Art Blade]

I see  :) Should you ever find time to play in a way that the college becomes your anchor I'm not sure but hope that you'll like what you can do with that (sorry, judging from Oblivion) -- spells (goes for enchanting items, too) there can be comprised of different features and be of different nature. What I remember is that you could select qualities that didn't exist in available spells (or were not as powerful as one had hoped) and using those as well as proper range and power made the magic stuff really worth while and the fights very, very enjoyable.  >:D

Basically you could create a spell that, when you fart, the blow turns someone behind you into a pile of charcoal that smells of roses and illuminates a dungeon for hours.  :-D

[Fiach]

I played Oblivion, as melee with the Knights of the Nine armour, so that stuff about spells doesnt really ring a bell, but I bought it recently for the PS3 (GOTY edition), so I hope to be replaying in the near future, I'll keep what you said in mind, cheers :)

[Art Blade]

 :) :-X

[Fiach]

Getting a bit fed up with this now, Im lv 19 nearly 20, there s few problems that are really getting to me.

The map is freaking rubbish.
Companion AI is VERY bad, but jesus, the wardog takes the biscuit, I dunno how many times I have had to reload the game due to AI stupidity, the just dont obey commands, in a dungeon, like "wait here", "go fecking home", they will attack anything on sight, making any tactical approach impossible. In the end what I did was go to my house, leave the dog there, then take Lydia with me, but I park her outside dungeons and just use her as a loot mule.

Its very easy to kill your companions in a fight as the area of effect for spells is quite large, if you can get away with just wounding them thats OK, but if you injure a quest companion, they will attack you back and try to kill you.

I was doing a quest for the companions and I had to kill a bunch of witches, crikey just finding the place was a pita, it took me ages, between trying to find it and exploring, by the time I got there killed the witches and returned, the

Spoiler

quest giver had died

, now I havent checked, it could be part of the story line, but its just annoying all the crap I went through to do the quest and I cant

Spoiler

give the bugger the witches heads

:D

I'm quite tempted just to finish the main quest and leave it, maybe return at a later date and do sidequests.

[spaceboy]

I'm still early on, probably level 5, I took a break and played some Battlefield this weekend and started AC Revelations.  I'll be bopping around between games for awhile I think.  My son is on level 15 I think.  He seems to be really enjoying it, but also took a little break for some LBP2 - making Skyrim levels  :).

I'll keep an eye out for those AI problems though.

[Fiach]

Well I'm now leader of the Companions and what happend earlier was supposed to happen. It was a pretty cool quest chain in the end, but the fact that, each area was so far away and took so much time to get to, it diluted the impact of the storyline for me.

I have a ton of dragon bones and dragon scales, do you know if there is a use for them spaceboy?

I dont know what prompts dragons to spawn, I initially thought there was like a dragon as a boss of each region, but I have killed two in the first area and two at the mage college, so maybe they respawn, or level ups trigger their appearence. I havent progressed the main quest any further than the first dragon, so I dont think its the main quest that triggers their appearence.

BF3 is supposed to be very good, my kids have LBP1 and seem to enjoy it alot :)

[Art Blade]

The companion/dog story reminds me of Oblivion and why I had modded my very own body guards of two immortal trolls with enchanted armour and "insta-death" weapons. I had their aggression level cranked up so high that they'd attack anything that moved but wasn't me. They were so dangerous to the environment I had to enable and disable them when I needed them because leaving them running around would have led to ghost countries (as opposed to ghost towns). When they met other NPCs they'd kill them without hesitation and keep clubbing quest-NPCs unconscious over and over again  :-()

I remember having them around when I went for a stroll through a little forest when I noticed both of them halted and turned their heads followed by whipping out their maze and sword and then they dashed off into the woods. I followed them and from far I could hear their weapons hit and swoosh through the air followed by something weird, a sound as if someone choked on a flute or something like that. Turned out that they had sensed a herd of deer a mile away and kept killing them all. They had that kind of madness and a completely insane expression on their faces when they realised there was yet another and another and another deer left to kill.. I saw deer come sailing across hills, having been clubbed by one of my maniac guards and sent flying.. I was laughing so hard at that spectacle, I'll never forget 

[spaceboy]

that's a funny story Art :)

Fiach - I don't know what Dragon scales and bones do.  I assumed they were for some awesome potion or magic.  I only slayed the first one.  I read that dragons are just supposed to spawn intermittently in the world "naturally", and of course any story based ones too.

[Fiach]

LOL, so if santa cancels Christmas this year, we'll know it was you killed the reindeer :)

Spaceboy, have you ever followed any of the rabbits or foxes, they lead you to cool places from what I have seen, just a little off the beaten track that you may otherwise miss.... ummm well thats the way it seems from what I have seen, they dont just hop around a small area, they travel a fair bit.