Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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.

Ugh this thread is making me wanna buy skyrim for the 3rd time.

I got the new download working on my PC. Bye bye life.

BTW this is lovely for stressed out days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPZtRmx1Dyk

I've picked this up again over the past week. I'm still shocked that, after playing it for hundreds of hours, there are still places I haven't seen and quests I haven't started and doors I haven't figured out how to unlock and stuff I haven't leveled up, etc. I think you could easily milk this game for a decade (assuming continued interest in doing so).

Picked up the remaster at Gamestop's Black Friday (Weekend) Sale yesterday. Trepidatious about playing it again.

£3 on steam right now

I got that and the 2k texture pack mod, feeling that the remastered edition might be a bit of a scam that should contain a mandatory warning on the box that it has been rendered obsolete by the witcher 3

I also got the mod that lets you have a cloak

The sunsets are very nice

Did the OG game used to have rain and fog? It seems thats new, but maybe I'm just not remembering.

going back round again to play levels I haven't previously and, albeit the Stormcloaks are mostly pretty racist, the game doesn't give you much reason to join the Legion imo, torturers, appeasers, general douchebags as they are. would appreciate a bit more incentive to join up early on, apart from that one guy who you escape Helgen with being hospitable. even he sits around going "I love massacring me some Stormcloaks" once he gets home.

actually I only want a better reason to join up for dubious reasons of character internal role-playing consistency, I'm fairly comfortable with the way the Elder Scrolls consistently portrays the colonial power as torturers, appeasers, douchebags etc

joined the Legion simply cuz they were the first ones to ask me to join

Bumping this as I begin my journey, which was partly inspired by watching a Youtuber play on Survival.

Journey on, it's the bestest

Ohhh bud, you're in for a treat. The closest I've come to 100%-ing a game. Still just dip in from time to time, craft some armor, ride a dragon, murder an entire town.

does this suck on twitch?

i probably put like 90hrs into it on a slightly dodgy mac port, and made it maaaaaaaybe halfway through the main story

by twitch do you mean switch or do you mean watching other people play it which yes does suck

the switch version is good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jgwdkxzg78

God, the Companions are douchebags.

lol, that video is fantastic. That mirthful giggle when she first kills someone.

I got bored of her rambling before it got that far

I crawled my first dungeon last night and totally enjoyed it! I did bring a companion along, don't know if that's considered cheating, but I've got my first shout now is the important thing.

I'm not too sure why I enjoyed this so much more than Witcher 3, but I'm going to chalk it to to the combat mechanics. Janky as it is in Bethesda games, it at least didn't grind to a halt. Oh, and the loading times!

Taking somebody with you is totally not cheating but I find it really annoying, they fuck up my stealth

Companions are fine + perfectly acceptable except for the rare companion who won't hang the fuck back when you tell them to. In those cases, I advise Unrelenting Force shouting them off a cliff at every opportunity (once you unlock the majesty of that particular shout, of course).

Any general suggestions on perks to invest in? Is the strategy similar to Fallout New Vegas (speech, pickpocket/lockpicking, bartering, etc.)?

There's one good one in - I think - the Illusion tree that lets you spellcast silently. Combined with invisibility makes you a total ninja