Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

have you been to blackreach... on weed?

Do I wanna be pretty levelled up before I attempt there? I'm still only about level 15 (been too busy to play games lately)

IIRC, there's nothing too overpowered in Blackreach. There are some giants, but they're avoidable. Lots of falmer hiding in the darkness. I think there might be some spheres? If you haven't encountered those yet, you might want to brace yourself.

It's an enormous area, though, without many exits. And it's largely dark and sometimes difficult to navigate. So keep that in mind.

I dont think Ive encountered falmer or spheres yet! Giants only in the meek, skulking distance. Not impeding on those fuckers.

It was pretty tough even getting to Blackreach for me. If you can get there, it's probably safe to be there.

I don't think you can go there at all until you've met Paarthurnax. That's what the Wiki implies, anyway.

Elder Scroll series is 75% off on Steam right now. Tempted to buy Skyrim again.

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/elder-scrolls/

Huh. I'd buy Elder Scrolls Online if I thought there was a chance in hell my laptop could handle it.

Has anyone here spent any time with ESO?

nope

I'm put off by the concept of MMORPGs, due to the Hell is Other People factor tbrh. 10 mins on WoW back in the day was enough for me.

If I could play it on a private server with a few mates it might be a diff story.

i tried eso for a couple of days. nice looking game but main problem i had with it is that it doesn't have the elder scrolls feel and the mmo part of it is kind of wack. so failing on those 2 fronts, its kinda hard to recommend

i did put boot camp on my macbook recently and installed skyrim and dark souls. looks really good, can't wait to start modding it

this story is amazing

https://twitter.com/PatrickLenton/status/717163582115307521

Most followers have "protected" status or something, but I always fight hard and expect them to just fill in the gaps with magic etc.—side note, is there a follower who just heals you repeatedly? that would be good. But I guess the dogs are not "essential" quest items or whatever. My loyal vampire hunting dog fought along side me for so long, but then, in the dwemer ruins, his AI pathfinding struggled to get out of the water. He just ran and ran and ran into the side of the underwater wall. I thought that leaving would cause him to teleport to me, like Serana always does, but when I went back I found him floating in the water.

... Just floating there...

I debated going to get the other vampire hunting dog I didn't choose, but it was just too sad, so I left.

Huh. I thought you personally had to kill your followers/companions for them to die. Goes to show what I know.

I liked having a companion but he and any other followers in quests kept getting in the bloody way because im a distance fighter and I'd keep inadvertently shooting everyone on my team, to cranky shouts of "hey! I'm on YOUR SIDE!".

...my bf swapped the PS3 for the PS4 in my little cave recently so now I cant play Skyrim anymore and I am sadface :(

(unless I go and buy a PS4 copy and START ALL OVER AGAIN I suppose)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkS4ebfDYsU

Started playing this again after F4 turned out to be meh. Going as a goth magic caster this time round since I didn't really do the magic stuff last time. Deep into it already.

I spent an evening whacking a load of mods on, using this video as a base (there's a handy googledoc with all the mods). It makes Skyrim look like it came out in the last 6 months, relaly beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sg8tqqrKtI

when's this getting HD remade

do steam folks get the remaster free or is it being treated as a 'new' game?

remake comes out in October.

And yeah it's a free update for existing PC owners.

My understanding is one has to have the base game and all the DLC for the free Skyrim remaster.

what, you can't simply walk into Markarth?

i have been thinking about playing this again. it was way better than any of the Fallouts imo.

I think back to Bergson's formulation of comedy as "something mechanical encrusted on the living." Bethesda games, to me, are about "something living encrusted on the mechanical." For all their clunkiness, there are always little events that seem unscripted or spontaneous and therefore joyful. They're usually bugs, to be fair, but I'm glad Bethesda doesn't try to limit them by designing more limited games.

Inspired by this revival, I loaded up an old saved game and just started killing everyone and everything I encountered, which quickly spiraled out of control and got pretty exciting just before the game inevitably froze up completely. Ahhh, there's that old Skyrim experience I'd forgotten!

no mods for ps4 version

http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/b31c4ced285e73f40c884d009c5a7da6-650-80.png

I only play strategy games and first person RP/adventure, where a 90° FOV on a desktop monitor is way more immersive. Consoles cost more than an adequate video card. Mods are icing for me.

TBF, the last console I personally owned was a Mattel Intellivision.

i was hanging out w some people irl and someone mentioned Skyrim. then someone asked me if I knew about the best build. he said to put all your points into stealth and magic, so that you can sneak up to anything and do massive crit damage. you cast a stealth spell and then do the leveled up surprise attack. apparently dragons will go down in 2-3 hits. has anyone tried this?

I bought this a couple weeks back in anticipation of getting a PS4 copy of the game:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MJNhHxZ7L._AC_UL320_SR300,320_.jpg

1200 pages of awesome.

wow - what is that?

My longest-played character has legendary stealth (making him effectively invisible while in crouch, even in broad daylight) AND some sort of life-sucking cloak that instantly chips away at enemy health whenever he's nearby AND legendary two-handed abilities + hardcore magically-crafted weapons that one-hit kill pretty much everything but a dragon. So leveling up hardcore on enchanting, crafting, one- or two-handed combat (depending on your preference, as I also have daggers that fuck some shit up), and stealth has proven to be a pretty solid plan.

i have perfect stealth and it makes you far from invisible in daylight (on PS3 anyway) - but it does allow you to grind thru dungeons picking off everything at a distance (especially combined with Aura Whisper) so a bunch of my other skills have basically awesomed up in its wake

Huh. It's possible that have some additional enhancements that enable my daylight invisibility. It's been a while.

I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to make my dude as close as I could get to omnipotent and invulnerable. Which, unsurprisingly, took some of the fun out of playing.

i dunno if Stealth at 100 is legendary or not tbf, and since i got it there i've stopped wearing stealth-enhancing armours, so maybe i cd be stealthier

anyway, i do love a good sneak and throat slash, so yeah

basically maxed out stealth, then armourer, then enchantment. but aggravatingly now it's taking a lot longer to level and i have hardly got any of the enchantment perks. next time i do this i'd grab them earlier i think

Yeah, that's when you have to start using the legendary skills function. Bite the bullet, legendary out your hard-won level 100 stealth, watch it drop to 50 or whatever, and then use some secondary skills as a crutch as you slowly build that skill level back up and, in so doing, slowly crank your character level up, as well. AFAIK, that's the only way to effectively level up once you start getting really powerful because using 100-level skills doesn't contribute anything to your overall character level.

i've been thinking about losing the armorer, it's pretty easy to build back and i've got a spare set of dragonscale gear ready to enchant when i've got all the perks. just can't quite bring myself to do it yet tho, feels a bit of a cheat somehow.

I kinda get that, but it does crank the game up a notch when a well-honed skill you've grown reliant upon is suddenly stripped away. It's a weird system of leveling, though, for sure.

i never played this past the patch where you could go legendary and turn your perks in. i did have carefully worked out character development plans; alchemy, smithing and enchanting at 100 were always part of it. the interactions of those three at max levels was just unholy.

i don't even really need the stealth at this stage! i wander about in the open and anything that comes at me gets fucked up sword and shield style pretty quickly so it's not like i can't do this but it's not like i need to really, just have a yen to make a ridiculously enchanted suit of armour

wow - what is that?

Its the Prima special edition guide for the new re release. Hard cover, 1200 pages, weighs a ton. Heaps of excellent info.

BTW downloaded and installed the new versh from steam on weekend and tried to run it - ASUS laptop with NVidia GT720M.

It wont run - wont even fucking *start* - and I dont know if its a too low specced card, or some random windows or nvidia bug.

too bad one can't transfer saved games from PS3 to PS4 - not sure I have the heart to start from scratch on the new version

Yeah same :/ I mean i wasnt massively far in, but ugh, it seems silly.