Topic: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Quemaqua]

Shut up. I have no job and all my dreams not to mention ability to eat are riding on me spending as much time working as possible, yet I'm playing. You have no excuse.

Fuck. The game is so much better than past TES games. I'm really digging just about everything they've done here. I do miss my medium armor, and I also miss being able to level up acrobatics (I almost always specialized in this before), but I love the new system on the whole. It feels more condensed but much more potent.

The graphics are both the same as Oblivion and jaw-droppingly better. It's a bit strange to see things that look like they could have come from the prior game and then stuff that's so much better right next to it. Still, the overall effect is great. It has its rough edges, for sure, but in general I'm very impressed.

Oh and idol: you can now dive into mines infested with bandits and... mine. Grab a pickaxe, find a vein, get jewels and ore, which you can then use for crafting!

[MysterD]

GiantBomb - REVIEW -> Perfect 5 stars - Video Review.; Written review.

G4TV
REVIEW -> Perfect 5 stars = Video review; Written review.
Discussion on the review.
How To Kill A Dragon.
Sessler's Soapbox -> Skyrim Survival Guide.

Eurogamer
REVIEW -> Perfect 10.
Digital Foundry -> Skyrim - PC version vs. PS3 vs. X360.

Tom's Hardware
Tom's Hardware -> Skyrim PC - Performance Analysis & Benchmarks.

[MysterD]

BethSoft working on HUGE Skyrim patch; it might take a while; and no timetable yet for its release.

Bethesda Working on Big Ol' Skyrim Patch, But No Timetable
If that texture issue is bothering you that much, it's gonna be a waiting game.

By Patrick Klepek  |  Nov. 15, 2011
When Bethesda will get around to making the poor buffalo as bad ass as Skyrim's horse?

There’s probably an argument to be made that we cut Bethesda Game Studios a little too much slack about the issues that plague the launch of every one of its products, but the games are just so damn good, so...we overlook it.

This is why I’ve put 25 hours into Skyrim and don’t seem to care about a fairly serious texture issue!

That said, Bethesda has publicly admitted there are plenty of kinks to work out. Pete Hines, the company’s VP of marketing and public relations, told his Twitter followers that a patch is coming.

“We are continuing to work on an update for all platforms to address issues any bugs and [performance] issues we can,” he said. “We will fix as much as we can for your platform. I don't know if it will fix ‘your’ bug. Takes a while to test/fix/regress. Hang in there.”

At the moment, there is “no word yet on when it’s coming out,” but as the company is still actively monitoring submissions from the community, it’s possible your issue could still be flagged and included in an upcoming patch.

If you were expecting that patch in the next 24 hours, however, that may prove too optimistic.

[Cobra951]

That's alright.  I can wait however long it takes.  I waited a year for Fallout 3, and I'm still waiting to get New Vegas.  I was hoping this would be the one Bethesda release out of the starting gate without significant issues.  Too much to hope for, I guess.

[Quemaqua]

To be fair, the most significant issue seems to be a 360 thing. I haven't encountered anything even resembling a bug yet.

[Cobra951]

Yep, it's only an issue on the one system I can use to play it.

[MysterD]

UberMap Mod
G4TV - Skyrim PC -> UberMap Mod.
Youtube -> Video on UberMap Mod in action.
Skyrim Nexus -> Get the UberMap Mod here.

[sirean_syan]

I feel I should comment because the game is completely fucking awesome. Remember, I was the one who couldn't play Morrowind or Oblivion more than a couple hours after their release because they just felt so bland to me. Over the weekend, much to the detriment of my work (and probably putting me closer to fucking up this semester than I care to admit), I spent almost 30 hours running around. Bethesda has clearly learned some lessons during their Fallout work and proceeded to make an awesome game around their world. It also doesn't help that I'm really partial to rugged snowy mountains and they've made a very pretty mountain region. Everything I've found has been interesting in some way and watching my character grow has been as rewarding as character growth in RPGs gets.

Que's right. I can clearly see how this came from the previous games, but it just feels more potent. My love of the universe got me into Fallout 3, but the game itself was just good enough to carry me through about 60 hours. Here it's the other way around. The game is so much better and it has me caring about the Elder Scrolls universe for the first time.

Now I just can't play the game more than a couple hours over the next two (three?) weeks. At all. Or I'm fucked.

[MysterD]

Skyrim -> Retro Version - Trailer.

[W7RE]

Is there a timer somewhere that shows how long I've played? All I see is in-game day, plus time spent sleeping and waiting.

[Quemaqua]

It has the info on the PS3 save. Dunno about other versions.

And glad to hear it, Sy. I think if you'd gotten a little deeper into the other games you'd have found that they're very similar to this, but there's definitely something special about Skyrim. I love the setting and they've definitely learned some lessons. Not all the lessons they need to learn, but enough to make a big difference.

[sirean_syan]

I imagine that is more or less the case (with the older games), but there was just such a large hump to get over before going hog wild in them. Here, that hump is gone which also makes me feel like the rest of the game will be that much better for it.

Does the game show time played in the stats section of the pause menu? I sort of imagine it would be there, but I'm too afraid to turn the game on and check.

[Xessive]

I love the game. That said I cannot deny some of its major issues, which are almost exclusively interface design missteps.

This Ars Technica article sums up my UI plight.

I've read some complaints about Bethesda dropping the weapon/armour condition but that is one change that made me so frickin' happy! I can understand that wear & tear can add some element of "realism" to a game but the advantage of a melee weapon is that it does not use ammo; melee weapon condition translates to limited usage which just means "ammo" stripping away the one advantage that melee weapons have over ranged or throwing weapons.

I don't mind item condition conceptually as long as it is implemented in such a way that the item is not so fragile. For example, Dead Island frustrates me to no end with how fragile the melee weapons are: after stabbing/cutting 3 zombies my combat knife looks like tattered steel and bent out of shape. Pretty useless, pretty much forcing me to carry 6 or 7 melee weapons as backups for when I will inevitably have to throw that knife, either away or at a a zombie as a last-ditch effort.

Anyway, back to Skyrim. I have faith that the community will address most of the issues but I can't abide Bethesda idly sitting by letting the community fix their game. The UI is a crucial part of the game that Beth kinda fumbled, they have to at least address its basic function. One serious problem I have with it, in terms of function, is the inaccuracy of the mouse and keyboard i.e. I highlight a dialogue option or inventory item and when I click something else is selected, this led to so many re-loads to earlier saves simply because the game chooses the wrong dialogue option:

-"Very well, I accept your offer."
-"Nah, if I kill you I can have it all."

I click "accept" and to my surprise the NPC says something "That's disappointing..." and starts attacking me!

I decided to exclusively use the keyboard for dialogue from that point but the same problem happens. It scrolls but the selected item doesn't always change.

[Quemaqua]

Since I'm not playing it on PC (I know, this is weird to me also), I can't really speak to that... but I gotta say that I love the way they did it on the consoles. A far better and more graceful interface than any that have come before it.

[Xessive]

Since I'm not playing it on PC (I know, this is weird to me also), I can't really speak to that... but I gotta say that I love the way they did it on the consoles. A far better and more graceful interface than any that have come before it.

I've tried playing with the gamepad on PC and it definitely works well with the interface (4 basic directions and A to select, B to cancel), it's simple.

However, the UI still lacks some basic interface elements that were present in previous games. For example, to check my active effects I pop open the menu, select Magic, scroll down to Active Effects and select it. As illustrated in the link I posted earlier, Active Effects are critical to the gameplay and should be accessed more readily, especially temporary effects which in Oblivion and Morrowind were actually displayed in the HUD. Something as simple as that I shouldn't have to navigate through a whole menu for.

Also, what happened to the character display in the inventory?! That was useful! Why did they take that out?

[W7RE]

I've tried playing with the gamepad on PC and it definitely works well with the interface (4 basic directions and A to select, B to cancel), it's simple.

However, the UI still lacks some basic interface elements that were present in previous games. For example, to check my active effects I pop open the menu, select Magic, scroll down to Active Effects and select it. As illustrated in the link I posted earlier, Active Effects are critical to the gameplay and should be accessed more readily, especially temporary effects which in Oblivion and Morrowind were actually displayed in the HUD. Something as simple as that I shouldn't have to navigate through a whole menu for.

Also, what happened to the character display in the inventory?! That was useful! Why did they take that out?

I had some people in a couple towns telling me I looked sick. I assumed it was something minor and didn't worry about it (had no idea how to check my current buffs/debuffs). After 4-5 hours of play like this, I looked it up on the web, found out how to find my debuffs, and realized it was Rockjoint (-25% effectiveness with melee weapons)! And I'm a full on melee character, no spells, very little bows.

[Xessive]

I had some people in a couple towns telling me I looked sick. I assumed it was something minor and didn't worry about it (had no idea how to check my current buffs/debuffs). After 4-5 hours of play like this, I looked it up on the web, found out how to find my debuffs, and realized it was Rockjoint (-25% effectiveness with melee weapons)! And I'm a full on melee character, no spells, very little bows.

Yeah! That's exactly what happened to me. At first I thought one or two people were just concerned but when everyone in town is telling me I look sick I realized something must be wrong. I had to check online to figure out how to check for active effects and diseases. Turns out I had Ataxia and my lockpicking and sneaking skills were -25% effective and I'm a stealth bastard! hehe

[MysterD]

For those who missed it, GiantBomb has been putting up the Skyrim marathon w/ Kasavin from last week.

GiantBomb - Skyrim Marathon w/ Greg Kasavin
Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
Part 4.

[W7RE]

I played up to level 11 with light armor and 2 handed swords. (going for a viking/barbarian look) Then I switched to dual daggers, which seems like way more damage, despite lower weapon skill and using basic steel daggers. I can't block anymore, but I kill faster. I also don't hit my horse and companion all the time with my wide ass swings. It doesn't seem so great for fighting dragons though. I look like a cool rogue now (thieves guild armor), but not as cool as I did with the regular light armor and 2 hander. (also wore no helm most of the time when I was using a 2hander. I like the way my head looks.)


What's up with directional power attacks? I see mention of them in some of the skills, and it's making me wonder if I fully understand the combat system.

[W7RE]

Also, I just notice you can zoom out. I've been running around with my weapons out (except in towns) just for the more zoomed out view.

I can use mouse scroll to zoom in/out. BUT... If I start the game with the controller on, the mouse/keyboard aren't recognized by the game. If I start the game with the controller off, it doesn't get recognized when I turn in on. I can't find a way to zoom out with the controller, and the zoom settings doesn't save from session to session.


EDIT: Nevermind, got it. I can boot without the controller, change the camera zoom, then turn on the controller. BUT, once I turn on the controller, the mouse and keyboard loase functionality. Also, the zoom setting DOES save, you just have to save your game for it to save. I could probably go to an older save and it would have the default zoom.

One nice thing though, is that apparently sheathed and unsheathed stances remember their own zoom settings.


Oh, and for clarification: I'm playing on PC (obviously), but with an Xbox controller.

[Xessive]

Zooming out with the mouse-wheel happens with the weapons out or not. You can also push the "Perspective" key to jump in and out of 3rd-person.

Zooming with the gamepad is done by clicking in the right-stick and adjusting the zoom level with the left stick. I discovered that by accident.

[Xessive]

Aww, Little Baby Dovahkiin Is Born! Parents Win Skyrim Naming Contest!

[W7RE]

Zooming out with the mouse-wheel happens with the weapons out or not. You can also push the "Perspective" key to jump in and out of 3rd-person.

What I meant was, you can have separate zoom settings for each mode (weapons drawn/weapons sheathed). By default I seem to be down by the bottom of the screen with weapons out, and I'm like one mousewheel click from first person when they're sheathed. So I zoomed in a little for when they're drawn, and out a little for when they're sheathed.

Zooming with the gamepad is done by clicking in the right-stick and adjusting the zoom level with the left stick. I discovered that by accident.

Nice! It's snapped back to default on me a couple times, and I was turning off the controller to fix it with the mouse.

[Xessive]

What I meant was, you can have separate zoom settings for each mode (weapons drawn/weapons sheathed). By default I seem to be down by the bottom of the screen with weapons out, and I'm like one mousewheel click from first person when they're sheathed. So I zoomed in a little for when they're drawn, and out a little for when they're sheathed.

Ah, I see. Well then, carry on.

The stealth mechanics in the game are certainly the best in the series but they're still off the mark when you compare it to dedicated stealth games (naturally). I only bring it up because of the comment Todd Howard made about making the stealth bits "the best stealth" etc.

[Quemaqua]

So wtf, how is it nobody's talked about their characters yet?

I've got a rogue/mage with a specialization in necromancy, one-handed weapons, destruction magic, and restoration magic. I'll probably be maxing out the sneak perks, the undead-related conjuring perks, non-weapon-specific one-handed weapons perks, and restoration magic perks. Have decent scores right now in sneak, conjuration, destruction, restoration, archery, lockpicking, one-handed weapons, and light armor. Have tossed a point into the basic perks for whatever I'm using even if I'm not planning to go up the chain, since the initial bonuses are fairly nice.

Am using a Falmer bow and sword that I picked up in a very dark and spooky cave place I found when I was trying to get to a town that wasn't even really part of a quest. Super awesome series of moments there, involving jumping off waterfalls, climbing cliff faces, and nearly getting myself killed a half-dozen times after getting jumped by nasty things in the dark.

Solved a few quests in rather... unconventional ways. No spoilers, but there's an Imperial fort with a lot of dead people inside it and a lot of people on the outside who have no idea what the fuck went down right under their noses. I was really just screwing around, not thinking I'd manage it, but started making some progress despite super-tough enemies who would kill me if I fought more than one or two at once, so I had to divide and conquer. It took me a really long time, but I gained a shitload of sneak while I was at it, which is what made me decide to officially go rogue.

What are you guys playing? Any awesome experiences so far?

[beo]

I'm playing warrior with restoration and archery.  Speccing majorly in one handed also in smithing - I want me some dragon armour.

[Pugnate]

I've just played a few hours. I have a wood elf archer axe dude so far.

On my first impression I was disappointed with the visuals. It seems like Oblivion 1.5 and while Oblivion blew me away, this did not. That being said, it seems that with them working with the same engine they were able to polish the crap out of the game. It runs really really well on my PC! It just doesn't feel at all like a next gen Elder Scrolls on a technical level. At the same time, the art direction is fantastic and the game does look really really pretty on an artistic level.

The menus do suck, and they need a lot of work, but they don't bother me nearly as much as they do some people. Hell, I like them more than I did in Oblivion, where they just felt really consolized.

Here, they don't feel consolized... just... inefficient. I like em. Haven't selected the wrong dialog option so far either, though it almost did happen.

So yes... a few hours, but I am loving it.

edit:

It is a real pity that they took away the level of character customization from the previous games. It is still good... just not that good. Also, for some reason my guy looks like Sean Bean if he were just some wood elf. Oh, and I wish there were hotkeys for weapons. The favorites thing isn't bad, but need some hotkeys for weapons.

[Quemaqua]

As far as the visuals go, it's a new engine, just based on the old engine. But their engines are sort of hacked together things anyway, really. Regardless, I think that for the most part it looks much, much better than Oblivion, both technically and in terms of art direction. It's not a huge leap, but to have that you'd never have gotten another game this console cycle. The games are far too huge, there's no way they could keep this scope and completely rebuild every time without having years and years of development. I think they did a nice compromise with Skyrim: it's new and better, just not so new and better that we had to wait a decade.

[W7RE]

OK, my character:

I started off grabbing whatever 2 hander I could find, which for a long while was a steel greatsword, which I improved with my smithing skill. Then later I found my way into the Thieves Guild, who gave me a full set of armor with sneaking and lockpicking style bonuses on them. The big sword looked strange with that armor, and I was getting sick of hitting my horse and companion with my wide swings. So I switched to daggers, which seem to do a lot more damage. (probably because of dual wielding, and having an awesome power attack) Stealing just wasn't enough, so now I'm a member of the Dark Brotherhood (assassins).

I think I liked the barbarian look better, but the gameplay of the thief/assassin setup is more fun. I'm assuming later I'll be able to craft and enchant armor better than what I was given by the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood


Here's the visual evolution of my character:




And me on my first horse:

[sirean_syan]

I have a wood elf. I'm still wavering how my character is going to end up, but most likely she will end up focusing on archery, enchantments, and sneaking. I've put some work into one handed swords as well to sort of helps me once someone gets near me but it's getting tough to stay alive if someone gets through my stuff Also, I'm sort of plodding along with blacksmithing so I can keep my gear upgraded.

Archery has sort of been hit or miss. Even with sneak attacks, I either blow a person away or barely dent them. So far the trick has been to have a strong enchantment but even then there are occasional issues.

[idolminds]

Skyrim is metal.

[beo]

really loving the crafting in this (alongside everything else)! here's my guy in full dwarven armour - very close to making a full orcish set now.

[W7RE]

I'm actually a little concerned I might be spreading myself too thin. Right now I'm level 19, and have the following:

Name | Skill Level | Perk Points used

Smithing | 60 | 2
Block | 30 | 2
Two-Handed | 43 | 4
One-Handed | 39 | 3
Archery | 28 | 1
Light Armor | 37 | 2
Sneak | 47 | 1
Lockpicking | 37 | 0
Pickpocket | 23 | 0

The perk points I put into block and two-handed aren't being used. I pretty much use just daggers and bows now. Though anytime I get into a tough face to face fight, I have issues.

Also, for some reason it says my One-Handed is 20, and the number is red. I checked my active effects, and there's nothing that would make my weapon skill lower.

[Quemaqua]

That happened to me once too. I dunno what it was, but after I leveled it again, it leveled back to normal. Dunno if it's just a bug with the display of the stat or the stat itself, but I'm guessing just the display because I didn't feel like I was crippled at the time or anything. That or there's some other mysterious thing at work.

Finally getting to play tonight. Dog was keeping me busy all damned day after I got home, spent a long time playing with her and doing some training sessions. She's smart but fucking exhausting. So glad I finally get to sit down and play. I'm in Riften now, exploring the Ratway. My sneak is up to like 59 now, far outweighing all my other skills. And I hadn't even planned to use it initially. I was thinking more a middle-class swordsman with some conjuration and spells to augment, but I haven't even gotten any good spells yet beyond basic stuff, so while my spells are still useful, they're a bit behind my swordplay, especially conjuration which I haven't hardly used at all lately. I need to get to Winterhold and grab some real spells before much longer to justify the perks I've put into conjuration and restoration. I do use my heal spell a lot, but I need to learn some more restoration spells and my necromancy is totally slacking.

EDIT - God, this game is so good. It's fucking amazing. I didn't even have a marathon session today but... fuck, so much amazing stuff happened. I was flung from the top of Winterhold College all the way down to the ice below the crag it sits on; I fought a random dragon battle on its bridge, chased the beast to one of the towers, then killed it inside the courtyard; ran across amazing arbitrary, middle-of-nowhere places where awesome things happened; found awesome new gear; explored Windhelm and polished off a couple quests; figured out the path I'm going to take to finish more stuff and get back to Solitude to turn in some stuff and tackle some local jobs there.

This might be my favorite game ever.

[gpw11]

Holy shit, this is addictive as all hell.  That said, I concur about the PC version:  Horrible interface and I actually had trouble even switching to keyboard and mouse, it just kept on defaulting back to the gamepad.  So, I just went with that.

[W7RE]

I keep using the wagons and quick travel, and missing out on all the awesome things that happen when you just walk places.

[Xessive]

I wish the gamepad and KB+M controls switched on-the-fly like in most other games. When I'm wandering around and exploring I don't mind using the gamepad but when combat starts that's when I need to jump back into KB+M mode, particularly when the enemy is moving around a lot. The menus and dialogues definitely work much more effectively with a gamepad too.

[W7RE]

FYI, there's a patch as of today, but it changes nothing and adds DRM. Sort of. It makes the exe only run if Steam is running. Until now, you could just run TESV.EXE and you didn't have to have Steam running. Now you do.

[MysterD]

FYI, there's a patch as of today, but it changes nothing and adds DRM. Sort of. It makes the exe only run if Steam is running. Until now, you could just run TESV.EXE and you didn't have to have Steam running. Now you do.

Holy crap - The Skyrim forums on both Steam and BethSoft's site are on FIRE over what this patch has done...
A lot of people crashing, BSOD'ing, and other things, since the new Steam patch went live.
Some are turning updates off and reverting back to the previous patch.
INSANE.

[Quemaqua]

Jeez. Because of Steam, I'm almost happy I'm playing this on a console, as much as I hate to say that. Though I wonder what the issue is. It wouldn't seem like it should cause that big of a problem.