The Elder Scrolls Saga Thread

[IronEvangelion]

I'm guessing Stealth Archer is a very popular build in TES?

[Chuckman]

In Skyrim it's incredibly overpowered and the AI is dumb about it, so you have guys who say "What was that?" when one of their comrades drops dead from an arrow in the ass, and guys that give up looking for you with an arrow still embedded in their heads.

Also it's the only really interesting/fun build because of doing shit with arrows and aiming. Melee is swinging different weapons left and right and if you go for a mage build you end up using the same four spells.

Unless'n you mod, that is.

[Lorkhan]

Between the potential overpowered crit rates, damage output, and the AI's inability to coup with anything that isn't flying directly in their face yeah, stealth archery is ludicrously easy. Skyrim's skill system is all kinds of fuckered up though. Skill Trees are a good concept, but they're...not that good. Fallout 4 seems to be attempting to build something off of it, and the results seem to look betterish.

So what did you guys actually play as, anyway? Just curious.

Depends. I roll a lot of different characters with motivations going every which way. Depends on what my fancy is. I did try for a Colovian Asuka and Nibenese Shinji once. Didn't do a whole lot with them though.

I usually don't do too many Mage builds. Not in Vanilla Skyrim anyway.

[soul.assassin]

Mods are the only way to improve and balance the flawed skill system if you need to play a different build other than a ranger, but in most cases that means installing a reproccer to rebuild that system.

[Chuckman]

Meh, you can pretty easily buff the spell and combat systems up without a reproccer. The changes that SkyRe and the other mod package make are too much for me, I prefer a lighter perk overhail (SPERG) and some rebalancing tweaks + more spells and weapon types. I particularly don't like that SkyRe and its successor touch EVERYTHING and so you have to do a lot of work to get that favorite one-off sword mod into the game and make it play nicely with everything else. I don't even really see the point of arbitrarily changing all the damage and HP numbers anyway.

[IronEvangelion]

I started putting some time into Skyrim today. It may be my first TES game, but I've already learned a couple of important things: I look ill, and I never shoulda come here. So far it's been your typical Bethesda open-world RPG, but I am starting to warm up to it. It's also a bit surreal because it plays exactly like Fallout 3 with swords, but it looks so different from a Fallout game. My first build is a female high elf dark knight who I spent a great deal of time trying to make pretty (it didn't work), and I just told the Jarl in Whiterun that a dragon is on the loose. Now I have to go to a very dangerous place to find a stone tablet for reasons. I'm looking forward to it. Did I mention the elves in this game are hideous?

[NemZ]

High elves are all bastards. You'll fit right in.

Also if someone in town tells you that you look sick it means you have picked up a disease somewhere. Time to visit a shrine.

[Sachi]

Also if someone in town tells you that you look sick it means you have picked up a disease somewhere. Time to visit a shrine.

Alternatively you can find or purchase a potion of cure disease. This is a good item to look out for and have modestly stocked in your inventory.

[IronEvangelion]

Thanks for the tips! Currently I haven't done any more questing, I'm just running around killing stuff to level up before I continue in the main quest line. I really like the weapon designs, especially the greatswords (which my current character uses). I also love being able to hunt deer by chasing them down on foot and meleeing them. Oh, and I bought a horse as soon as I got to Whiterun. like how the game lets you fight from horseback. By the way, how do you rename the horse?

[soul.assassin]

Immersive Horses should allow you to name horses.

I started putting some time into Skyrim today.

Remember one thing: before you begin modding Skyrim, it's best to experience the game in vanilla first. Only after some 100 or so hours in vanilla Skyrim, you'll get an idea of what aspects of the game you may try to improve.

Of course most people who have been playing the game longer will put forward and recommend Morrowind.

--------------
The other day, someone on Reddit was trying to get absolute 60FPS and 1080p on Skyrim -- with full-on graphics and weather mods! I -- as an owner of a 4 year-old potato machine, happily chugging on up to 30FPS at 1280x800 -- was suddenly struck on just why people have to chase 60FPS, when Skyrim isn't a shooter but a glorified Viking simulator?

Frankly, it's near-impossible to get 60FPS all the time in-game. I'm sure as heck that even in vanilla, there'll be a slight frame drop while walking around in Markarth.

What I care more about the game is making it stable and balanced enough in that I want Skyrim to look great and playable at the same time, but I concentrate more on content than eyecandy. This is why I install mods that improve combat AI, add more weaponry, and develop my own tactics to deal with enemies that are more motivated than ever to kill.

[IronEvangelion]

it's best to experience the game in vanilla first.

Oh, don't worry about that, I will. I'm playing it on PS3.
Immersive Horses sounds like a mod name. Isn't there a way to rename the horse in-game? I could have sworn I heard an NPC mention it, but I can't remember what it was.

[TehDonutKing]

You name it in your head. It'll always just be "IronEvangelion's hores"

[Dima]

Oh, don't worry about that, I will. I'm playing it on PS3.

The worst option to play this game.... Game is running so bad that i was so mad at Bethesda during that time. The patches helped a bit but still the game runs awful on PS3.

[IronEvangelion]

Yeah I know the X360 versions of Bethesda games run a lot better, but ever since E3 2013 I have acquired such a loathing of Microsoft that I avoid buying games for my 360 unless they're exclusives. Plus the blu-ray discs PS3 games are printed on are more scratch-resistant than DVDs like the 360 uses. PC would have been the best option in terms of performance, but I never game on my laptop anymore and I like having a physical copy of a game. I really wish Bethesda would get together with Obsidian and remaster Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas for PS4 and X1, those consoles could probably run the games at Very High settings instead of the Low settings the 7th gen consoles were barely capable of running. Not to mention all the extra RAM they could take advantage of.

[soul.assassin]

CoT author concedes defeat to Vivid Weathers.

[IronEvangelion]

I've progressed a bit more in Skyrim, my current character is level 9 now and she just acquired the ability to yell at dragons. My first dragon fight was a lot of fun by the way, I was amazed Bethesda managed to pull off an air-to-land battle without their engine shitting itself. Before I fought the dragon though, I went exploring in the north and found a village called Dawnstar. Killed a couple vampire thralls there, then left town and found some dwarven ruins. I was not expecting the dwarves to be an ancient lost civilization with highly advanced technology!

[Monk Ed]

I was not expecting the dwarves to be an ancient lost civilization with highly advanced technology!

The Dwemer are in Skyrim?! (<-- Monk Ed, 2016, still hasn't played Skyrim despite owning it for yeeears.)

Also: Pff, anyone who's played Morrowind already knew that!

[IronEvangelion]

The Dwemer are in Skyrim?!

Maybe not the Dwemer themselves, but they did leave all their junk behind. Indoor heating, deadly mechanical soldiers, Dwemer metal, everything's there except for the creators. Maybe they're all on vacation?

[Monk Ed]

Sorry, when I said "the Dwemer" I meant their effects, because the Dwemer themselves have been extinct for a long time. (Except for this one guy you can meet in Morrowind.)

[soul.assassin]

Maybe not the Dwemer themselves, but they did leave all their junk behind. Indoor heating, deadly mechanical soldiers, Dwemer metal, everything's there except for the creators. Maybe they're all on vacation?

Lord Kagrenac did something stupid with the Heart of Lorkhan during the Battle of Red Mountain, and they all vanished from the face of Nirn.