[Skyrim] & [The Elder Scrolls] YOU WILL BE JAILED OR BANNED FOR POSTING SPOILERS UNTAGGED

Dashui

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a role-playing video game being developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls action role-playing video game series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It is scheduled to be released on November 11, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Skyrim's main story revolves around the player character's efforts to defeat a dragon god who is prophesied to destroy the world. Set two hundred years after Oblivion, the game takes place in the land of Skyrim in the midst of a civil war after the assassination of the king. The open world gameplay of the Elder Scrolls series is continued in Skyrim, as the player character can explore the land at will and ignore or postpone the main quest indefinitely.


News

11/11/2011 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is now available for purchase!


Information & Tips

Unlike previous Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim does not force you to decide your favored attributes and skills at the start of the game. In fact, you are not forced to choose any favored attributes or skills at all. Bethesda has opted for a class-free system, and those choices will come naturally through experimentation as you play the game.

Changes have also been made to the leveling system. You continue to raise your level by improving your skills, but you no longer have a long list of attributes you only add minor, numerical improvements to. Instead, you raise your health, stamina or mana by ten points and can then choose a perk. Perks are divided into the game's 18 skills, each skill having a branching tree of numerous perks. There are currently 280 perks in the game. You are not forced to choose your perks upon leveling. You can spend them at any time once earned.

If you raise all your skills to 100, the hard level cap you reach is around level 70. Bethesda has stated the soft level cap is 50, and past that point leveling becomes much slower. You do continue to earn perks past 50.

The racial bonuses are linked below:

Racial Bonuses 01
Racial Bonuses 02
Racial Bonuses 03
Racial Bonuses 04

The skills and perks in the game are linked below:

Alchemy
Alteration
Archery
Block
Conjuration
Destruction
Enchanting
Heavy Armor
Illusion
Light Armor
Lockpicking
One-Handed
Pickpocket
Restoration
Smithing
Sneak
Speech
Two-Handed

A skill and perk calculator can be found here.


Mods

[SKYRIM]

Skyrim Tweaker - Our own resident GnomeTank has created a fantastic graphical UI that lets you edit various properties and settings SkyrimPrefs.ini file, as well as explaining what every value does.

Large Address Aware - Skyrim can only make use of 2 GB of memory, even if your system has more. You can use this tool to allow the game to make use of all your available memory. This should improve game stability.

Map in full 3D - This mod changes camera controls in ingame map view so it becomes possible to zoom in almost to the ground.

No More Blocky Faces - This mod smooths out blocky facial features.

Detailed Faces - This mod increases facial textures and details.

Enhanced Blood Textures - This mod increases the blood decal resolution from 512 to 2048.

[OBLIVION]

Oblivion Modding Guide -- If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to send a private message to Dashui for help.

[MORROWIND]

If you'd like to breathe new life into Morrowind, I highly recommend Morrowind Overhaul - Sounds & Graphics. It installs all the latest audio and graphical mods to the game through an easy to use application. You choose from a variety of different mods, and can make changes later with the press of a button and without having to start a fresh game through the same application. Included is a very detailed readme that will guide you through the install and setup process.


Reviews

10/10 - Eurogamer - "It evokes a word that's overused in reviewing of all kinds: one that's best kept in the cellar in a plainly marked box and reserved only for the most special of occasions. For Skyrim though, I'd like to blow the dust off it, open up the lid, and enjoy a masterpiece with you."

5/5 - Gamespy - "I'm looking forward to continuing my adventures of the frozen north long after this holiday season, and it's without a doubt one of the best games I've played this year... if not one of the best role-playing games of the last decade."

5/5 - Joystiq - "This is the deepest, loveliest world ever created for a single player to explore, and one that no one should deny themselves. This is a game about following Emerson's advice, leaving the trail and finding that the most powerful force on Earth or Tamriel isn't fire or sword, but the ever-insistent desire to know what lies beyond."

9.5/10 - IGN - "It's difficult to ever feel completely satisfied with a play session of Skyrim. There's always one more pressing quest, one more unexplored tract of land, one more skill to increase, one more butterfly to catch. It's a mesmerizing game that draws you into an finely crafted fictional space packed with content that consistently surprises. The changes made since Oblivion are many, and result in a more focused and sensible style of play, where the effects of every decision are easily seen. Featuring the same kind of thrilling freedom of choice The Elder Scrolls series is known for along with beautiful visuals and a stirring soundtrack, playing Skyrim is a rare kind of intensely personal, deeply rewarding experience, and one of the best role-playing games yet produced."

88/100 - RPGFan - "Oblivion is in my top five most overrated RPGs of all time, while Fallout 3 is one of my favorite current-gen RPGs. The Elder Scrolls V sits somewhere between the two. Indeed, Skyrim strongly resembles its predecessors at times, and the catalogue of small changes and minor additions makes it more of the same. Skyrim takes few risks. Perhaps the only risk it takes is failing to match up to its competition in individual areas. Other RPGs released this year have better stories, sharper graphics, and more visceral combat. Skyrim doesn't really care. The latest Elder Scrolls has such confidence in the allure of its open-world structure that it shirks the need to compete. And, it largely succeeds in being better than the sum of its parts. So grab a tankard of mead, wrap yourself in a tundra beast's hide, and stoke the meadhall's fire. There is a long winter ahead."


Screenshots

-Tal

Why haven't the giants taken over the world?

Neli

because they are so easy to kill and loot

[edit] at least as a mage

CorriganX

Neli wrote:

because they are so easy to kill and loot

[edit] at least as a mage

Dagger goes in, Loot comes out.

Wolfprint

So, regarding the Companions questline:

Should I become a werewolf?

Just want some ideas/thoughts from those who have/haven't.

harvest

These last 15 points in Smithing are turning out to be a right bitch to get. I have to travel all over the world to find enough iron ingots to make daggers, and I lose lots of money per point. Still cheaper than training.

Now, on a similar topic, can you actually make money with crafting? It seems like an epic-quality glass greataxe should be worth more than the sum of its parts. Is it just because my Speech skill is bad? Similarly, how can you effective raise Speech? It seems like it takes forever to skill up in it.

Dashui

harvest wrote:

These last 15 points in Smithing are turning out to be a right bitch to get. I have to travel all over the world to find enough iron ingots to make daggers, and I lose lots of money per point. Still cheaper than training.

Now, on a similar topic, can you actually make money with crafting? It seems like an epic-quality glass greataxe should be worth more than the sum of its parts. Is it just because my Speech skill is bad? Similarly, how can you effective raise Speech? It seems like it takes forever to skill up in it.

I always assumed you could make a lot of money through crafting jewelry. Some of those rings and necklaces have a really high value.

-Tal

Wolfprint wrote:

So, regarding the Companions questline:

Should I become a werewolf?

Just want some ideas/thoughts from those who have/haven't.

yes, the transformation rules

the only downside I have found so far is that you can't get restful sleep

CorriganX

harvest wrote:

These last 15 points in Smithing are turning out to be a right bitch to get. I have to travel all over the world to find enough iron ingots to make daggers, and I lose lots of money per point. Still cheaper than training.

Now, on a similar topic, can you actually make money with crafting? It seems like an epic-quality glass greataxe should be worth more than the sum of its parts. Is it just because my Speech skill is bad? Similarly, how can you effective raise Speech? It seems like it takes forever to skill up in it.

I had a necklace that had +10% sell value, helmet from a quest that was +20% sell value, and I was still losing money selling stuff. Its not worth it to make money, but its a great way to get super enhanced armor and weaponry, and crafting the Dragon Armor is really nice. I have 400 something armor in Light.

Newres

One thing I was wondering. I am going through the game with a wizard / one handed build and was wondering if that would not gimp my character much as I have to spread my level up bonuses (bonii ?) pretty thin this way between stamina/health/magic. And did not find much in the perks that would support this. It seems going one handed, they either want you to dual wield or have a shield up.

Mukk

Like for many others, a dragon flew over and landed at the courtyard of the wizard college. A frost dragon whose breath took me to almost half health and stamina. Then it landed and was about to unleash another freezing blast -- only to be interrupted by a simple double-cast firebolt with the Impact perk. And interrupted again. And again. Until it died.

Wow.

Also found the standing stone of Tower that let's you automatically unlock an Expert level or lower lock. At first I was really bummed because I thought this was another case of Oblivion's "let's make a skill utterly useless with magic" but it turns out that it's only once a day power. I'm hoping that there isn't a skeleton key (or whatever its name was) in Skyrim because I really disliked how certain skills were pointless in Oblivion (Speechcraft, Sneak, Lockpicking... probably others).

Grog

Well there's the Unbreakable perk for Lockpicking that means (surprisingly) your picks don't break, but I think it requires 100, so it doesn't make the skill redundant

Lorahalo

So has anyone found any Daedra quests yet?

I found Azura and Meridian's shrines, who gave me Azura's Star and Dawnbreaker (Fire sword that explodes on undead). I also found Mehruhes Dagon's shrine but nothing happened there. Then I found Sheogorath in Solitude's abandoned wing and he gave me Wabbajack.

Dark Raven X

So I'm actually getting exciting! Boxed copy is getting delivered soon.

Yeah I gotta wait.

But hey.

I get a map.

Dashui

Mukk wrote:

Also found the standing stone of Tower that let's you automatically unlock an Expert level or lower lock. At first I was really bummed because I thought this was another case of Oblivion's "let's make a skill utterly useless with magic" but it turns out that it's only once a day power. I'm hoping that there isn't a skeleton key (or whatever its name was) in Skyrim because I really disliked how certain skills were pointless in Oblivion (Speechcraft, Sneak, Lockpicking... probably others).

There is a skeleton key, but there's a catch.

It's part of a quest for the Thieves Guild. You'll get it as you progress through the guild, but you'll have to eventually give it up.

And there's also what Grog said. You can just take the Unbreakable perk and it amounts to the same thing.

Echo

Dragon souls aren't entirely obvious: they tell you you need a dragon soul to unlock shouts, but odds are you already have a few saved up. It should just ask if you want to use one to unlock it.

At the bottom of the UI you see if you have souls. Select your locked shout, press R to use a soul to unlock it.

Morblitz

So, I was doing the Laid to Rest quest in Morthal. And now I have a problem, spoilers within but maybe someone could offer some advice

So I just spoke to the ghost of the girl in the burnt down house. She said to find her after dark so I used the wait function until night, and went to find her. Problem.

DRAGON ATTACK.
A blood dragon attacked the town, it was a really cool, albeit awkward fight (most of the town is water except for little bridges, and the dragon flew all over the place and I had to keep up).
We killed it, and all the npc's breathed a sigh of relief (that was pretty cool) but halfway through the fight I got a quest update telling me to talk to someone, weird.
So I went to talk to him, and he started talking about parts of the quest I wasn't up to yet. The reason is because I was supposed to find the ghost of the girl again, but also confront a vampire in the process. The dragon had KILLED HER and I got credited with it, without actually being there to fufill that part of the quest.

So she's dead, the quest has skipped forward, only its telling me I havnt completed the part where I need to talk to the girl to set the whole thing in motion. Is the quest finishable? There's still other things I can do, but I can no longer talk to the girl, she won't activate. Sorry if this was confusing, it's a little bit timey wimey.

hadoken

Motherfucker, dragons are OP. They crash the game whenever they die...

Scosglen

harvest wrote:

These last 15 points in Smithing are turning out to be a right bitch to get. I have to travel all over the world to find enough iron ingots to make daggers, and I lose lots of money per point. Still cheaper than training.

Now, on a similar topic, can you actually make money with crafting? It seems like an epic-quality glass greataxe should be worth more than the sum of its parts. Is it just because my Speech skill is bad? Similarly, how can you effective raise Speech? It seems like it takes forever to skill up in it.

Granted I'm only in the 40's for smithin, but I'm purposely avoiding crafting too much because It's so damn easy to skill,and I don't want to inflate my character level. Remember that making leather gear is also smithing, and leather is plentiful from wolf, bear, elk, cat hides, etc. Most primary components like hides/leather and ore/ingots are plentiful in shops, I find. More advanced recipes and ones that require more materials seem to give more skill progress too, so making iron daggers is maybe not the best way.

As far as making money, well, yes, i've made insane amounts of gold. I found a spell that transmutes iron ore into gold ore, which I turn into gold jewelry, which I then enchant using one of the dozens of petty and lesser soul gems I have, and make ridiculous profit. I'm sure there are many other clever tricks for making things at high profit margins.

Rohan

Tower of Mzark issue -

I'm stuck on the machine inside the tower. I've had to resort to looking up a guide to see what I have to do - according to Gamespot's one, I have to place the lexicon in the receptacle, press the second button four times, the third one twice and the first button, on the far left, once. Only problem is, when I place the lexicon, only the two right buttons light up, while the two on the left stay dark.

What have I missed?

Mildly disappointed that the game is running on the Oblivion engine. Ugly faces all around!

Maz-

Wow, that conversation Ulfric has with his advisor when you walk in on them is amazing. Now to decide if I should join the Stormcloaks or not..

RadioElectric

Anybody else have to turn the difficulty down at Shearpoint?

Krosis was killing me, Lydia, and my summoned atronarch. For the best of me I couldn't take more than a sliver off his health at Adept difficulty. I assume I should be using my Lesser Ward spell to block his fireballs, but I'm not sure whether that's working, and even if it is that leaves me with no magicka to counterattack with. I'm mainly playing one-handed, magic and heavy armor mainly. For this fight I've been trying to mainly use spells though because getting close is fireball-deathiness.

Had to put it down to Novice to kill him. Awesome mask though, even if the wording made me roll my eyes.

Otaking

Tower of Mza

Rohan wrote:

Mildly disappointed that the game is running on the Oblivion engine. Ugly faces all around!

I don't know, they just look gritty and Norse-like to me as opposed to Uggoblivion. There are actually attractive faces now on some NPCs. I mean there is a dirt slider for cripes sake. They are still overboard on some of the race models with bags under the eyes and klingon brows but I attribute that to the designer's taste, not the engine. They've been doing that kind of stuff since Daggerfall. I have even seen dare I say hot Redguards and Nords.

Grog

Anyone else tried going the unarmed path? I've been pumping heavy armour and smithing and it's working pretty well. Neat thing is, increasing heavy armour bonuses (via perks) also increases the damage.

Not so neat is there is no other support. One-handed damage/ power attack perks don't seem to apply, though I'm not sure if the 6x sneak attack perk works for it.

Domhnall

Is there a way to change my mouse sensitivity in game? I felt like my character took quite a while for the impressive feat of turning his head.

Maz-

Yeah, it seems weird that they've removed Hand to Hand as a skill what with there being unarmed bar fights now.

Morblitz

RadioElectric wrote:

Anybody else have to turn the difficulty down at Shearpoint?

Krosis was killing me, Lydia, and my summoned atronarch. For the best of me I couldn't take more than a sliver off his health at Adept difficulty. I assume I should be using my Lesser Ward spell to block his fireballs, but I'm not sure whether that's working, and even if it is that leaves me with no magicka to counterattack with. I'm mainly playing one-handed, magic and heavy armor mainly. For this fight I've been trying to mainly use spells though because getting close is fireball-deathiness.

Had to put it down to Novice to kill him. Awesome mask though, even if the wording made me roll my eyes.

Some tips

He was tough, and actually turned my frost atronarch against me one time uuuugh. It took me a few tries to fight him, especially since the first time I woke him up I was in the middle of a dragon fight. I held my own for a little but eventually succumbed.

Anyway, I'm a pure wizard, so I ran around trading fireballs with him, make sure you aren't on high ground, it's easier for him to miss you, but hit the ground behind you and you get fucked over on splash damage, there was way too much area of effect going around to make using a magic ward a viable option, I think. You said you were using magic, he's easier to hit with splash damage of your own.

He also has a staff of fireball, so mana drain things won't work on him (I realised that halfway through a fight and had to change tactics.
I managed to get him into this little black ruin part of the area, and I was on the low ground so he had a lot more trouble hitting me, and I was using the ruined structures to deal splash damage to him until he died. It was tough.

Melkster

Rohan wrote:

Mildly disappointed that the game is running on the Oblivion engine. Ugly faces all around!

It's not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim wrote:

When development for Skyrim commenced, the team wanted to start over and build their own technology for the game.[28] The resulting game engine was dubbed the Creation Engine, which was based on the Gamebryo engine used for Oblivion and Fallout 3[17]

Dashui

Fighting dragons with just a sword and shield and no ranged attack from a bow or a spell is a pretty scary (and awesome) experience. I can't wait to get the perk that lets me block 50% elemental damage.

Rohan

Odd. It doesn't feel like a new engine in any way at all.

Otaking

Anyone know of a way to make the dual cast timing more forgiving? I have to really time it perfectly to get one to fire up, usually I just end up casting two copies of the spell in a hectic combat.

Wolfprint

I was ambushed by a dragon near Fort Amol. The first time around the bastards from the fort killed it, robbing me of one dragon soul. Damn kill-stealers. Reloaded, killed the dragon, then used my new Fire Shout on them. Revenge!

Ambushed by a second dragon a few minutes later. Popping potions and swinging my sword = another new soul!

After I returned to Whiterun, I got ambushed by a naked courier who gave me a letter from a mysterious friend commenting on me using my Shout at Fort Amol.

Mind blown.

Morblitz

Dashui wrote:

Fighting dragons with just a sword and shield and no ranged attack from a bow or a spell is a pretty scary (and awesome) experience. I can't wait to get the perk that lets me block 50% elemental damage.

Ive been wondering how a sword person would fight a dragon if they don't land (some don't as much as others). And I did notice that

They sometimes buzz the ground really low and slow, but its often followed by a prolonged burst of fire, but are still reachable as they pull up. Is that when you move in to get some good blows?

CorriganX

Dashui wrote:

Fighting dragons with just a sword and shield and no ranged attack from a bow or a spell is a pretty scary (and awesome) experience. I can't wait to get the perk that lets me block 50% elemental damage.

Shields are for pussies. Two Daggers. Once that asshole lands only one of us is walking away.

Grey Paladin

Thinking of trying a lightly armored sneaky barbarian in the tradition of Conan, using sword and bow. Should I just stick to heavy armor and give up stealth?

Scosglen

Except that statement of "starting over with new technology" is basically a lie, or a gross exaggeration at best. It's Fallout's gamebryo with some further development and enhancement, calling it a brand new engine is kind of silly.

Not that it matters, because the engine has almost nothing to do with how the faces look. That's 100% the artists.

RadioElectric

Domhnall wrote:

Is there a way to change my mouse sensitivity in game? I felt like my character took quite a while for the impressive feat of turning his head.

There's a menu, but you'd be better off doing the mouse sensitivity ini tweaks. I couldn't get it to playable with the options they give you. Have a search around for them.

Morblitz wrote:

RadioElectric wrote:

Anybody else have to turn the difficulty down at Shearpoint?

Krosis was killing me, Lydia, and my summoned atronarch. For the best of me I couldn't take more than a sliver off his health at Adept difficulty. I assume I should be using my Lesser Ward spell to block his fireballs, but I'm not sure whether that's working, and even if it is that leaves me with no magicka to counterattack with. I'm mainly playing one-handed, magic and heavy armor mainly. For this fight I've been trying to mainly use spells though because getting close is fireball-deathiness.

Had to put it down to Novice to kill him. Awesome mask though, even if the wording made me roll my eyes.

Some tips

He was tough, and actually turned my frost atronarch against me one time uuuugh. It took me a few tries to fight him, especially since the first time I woke him up I was in the middle of a dragon fight. I held my own for a little but eventually succumbed.

Anyway, I'm a pure wizard, so I ran around trading fireballs with him, make sure you aren't on high ground, it's easier for him to miss you, but hit the ground behind you and you get fucked over on splash damage, there was way too much area of effect going around to make using a magic ward a viable option, I think. You said you were using magic, he's easier to hit with splash damage of your own.

He also has a staff of fireball, so mana drain things won't work on him (I realised that halfway through a fight and had to change tactics.
I managed to get him into this little black ruin part of the area, and I was on the low ground so he had a lot more trouble hitting me, and I was using the ruined structures to deal splash damage to him until he died. It was tough.

It felt like either he was too accurate or I wasn't moving fast enough to avoid his fireballs. If dodging worked that fight would seem a lot more fair. Does heavy armor affect your movement speed? That might be why I had so much trouble with it.

Cantido

I'm a Nord! I'm a big manly bearded dude! I burn and pillage and have no need for rape 'cause women flock to me! RAAAAAAAWWWRRRRR!

Otaking

Some of the Nords will tell you heavy armored Imperials clank like a kitchen and should be working in one instead of outside fighting with real men.

El Fantastico

When development for Skyrim commenced, the team wanted to start over and build their own technology for the game.[28] The resulting game engine was dubbed the Creation Engine, which was based on the Gamebryo engine used for Oblivion and Fallout 3

Complete with random crashing (on the PC version anyway).

override367

I'm starting to think that people don't want open world games, but tiny super condensed linear narrative stories.

This way, the graphics are better and there's less crashing