Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Do you have power attacks from the beginning?

yeah, it's all tied to how long you hold down the attack button

Dan, my big tip is to use the favorites menu to the full extent, switching from bow to 2 handed to onehanded plus spell on the fly is super key

...and as it's not obvious, for PC users; you can still hotkey weapons and spells, just click a numeric key when you have the item selected in the favourites menu.

Blowed if I can work out how to make it do LH / RH right though, it keeps giving me Healing in both hands, doh.

click = press

yeah, it's all tied to how long you hold down the attack button

Do you have no be still when you do it, or can you be moving forward (or etc.) and then change direction?

lol dunno, I am still trying to keep from dropping into sneak mode mid-battle

i keep accidentally sneaking too. i may try to remap the buttons a lil' bit tonight

just a lil' bit

it is kind of hilarious though, to watch my character leap into swashbuckling warrior mode and then suddenly crouch down and MOVE VERY SLOWLY around my foe like he's playing a violent game of peek-a-boo or something

I keep doing that and then clicking the right stick and ending up in third person crouching combat. Many a foe has been knee-capitated.

you guys are frustrating the hell out of me!!

i'm having basically every above issue. also playing it on the harder (but not hardest) difficult level and i am getting two hit killed A LOT

i haven't tried dual-fisting magic yet, but can you wear heavy plate and dual magic? presumably the only thing stopping you would be that the robe stuff is all enchanted with the magic user goodies -- but can't you just level up your enchantment a bunch and enchant your heavy armor with magic user enchantments?

magic tank build ftw?

i'm wearing full heavy plate armor and occasionally dual magic. it's a pretty ridiculous combo but it's working out pretty well! other than that i'm really slow and can barely carry any extra shit.

i kno someone described above how dual magic works -- ie: why you don't just get smashed to bits the moment an enemy gets close enough -- but I don't remember the explanation?

i'm certainly no pro (first elder scrolls game, and also i don't dual magic too often), but i generally try to a) decimate the enemy before they get too close, b)be ready to switch to a healing spell in one hand to offset any damage you might receive, and c)be ready to use a potion or two if necessary.

also d)continually run backwards and maintain distance, of course

is there some kind of slow or freeze spell, so you can lock them in place and then unload DPS?

i wish you could explore more constellations in a single playthrough. like i really want to screw around with alchemy + enchanting on top of archery, lockpicking, all thieving skills, etc. i get that this gives the game more replayability, but i can't imagine wanting to play thru this game again finishing my first 1,000 hour session

i still havent used any of my perks, which i know is stupid, but i am *paralyzed by options*

totally understandable imo. tho some of them are great. the archery perks really make archery fun. esp the one that slows down time when you zoom in. that one perk is really a chunk of my enjoyment of the game.

I am only a level five and I already have two spells. But I really don't have a knack on how to use them well yet. I'm not sure how precisely I have to aim or how close I need to be.

totally planning on nerding out to this tomorrow (day off)

i am magic tanking btw. Level 13. i'm basically healing/oakflesh, then flame or firebolt attack then switching to axe/shield up close or greatsword if i think i can just smack them the fuck down

Didn't want to scroll through this in case there are spoilers. But before I buy this, are you guys running into a lot of game-killing bugs? What I mean is stuff like getting stuck in walls, game freezes, etc. I'm still trying to figure out if I should just wait for a patch before buying as I've read there are many general bugs -- somthing along the lines of random horses obtaining Pegasus-like powers and other assorted wackiness.

only bugs i've run into were freezes (only 2 after many hours of playing) and they didn't corrupt my save or anything. i just reset the xbox and went back to playing.

My game has frozen a couple times. I had to reboot once.

I'm on ps3.

i know this is begging for trouble, but no freezes yet for me. 360

I don't think I've had a freeze yet or encountered too much physics weirdness even (360)

Man, this Let's Play guy I'm watching is so dumb.

in my head i keep calling this elder scrolls vee

2 crashes on the first day I think, none since

I had four thugs try to kill me for pickpocketing somebody in Riften, despite the fact that a dragon was destroying the city at the time, it turned into a bit of a ruck with the guards, and then three characters for a minor sidequest got set on fire and died, so I reloaded

the second time, an old beggar woman I'd previously given money to ran up to the thugs and started stabbing them, allowing me to hit them in the head with an axe and throw them in the canal

It's fair enough if people you've crouched next to suspiciously for ages later twig that you robbed them, but I hope people you've robbed with immaculate stealth don't get to just psychically figure it out and send dudes after you

I had a fight with a moody woman on a moonlit bridge in the wilderness; when she died northern lights appeared

I played Oblivion on a tiny standard definition TV so I still habitually call this game 'Skyrm' - pronounced 'Skyrm' because I couldn't read the text properly and that was what I thought it said every time they referenced it

No game-killing bugs. People get stuck against rocks and a crucial enemy got jammed in a mountain at one point, but the game seems fairly adept at sorting out its own bugs as they happen.

It's like the list of bugs was so insurmountable that they found it easier to write AI into the game that deals with the bugs as they happen.

just found a book called "Notes on Racial Phylogeny and Biology: Seventh Edition"

it speculates about which of the Elder Scrolls' races can mate with one another to produce offspring

there's an app for that

My housemate just now, in an email containing a sentence I dont think i EVER expected I'd ever read:

"I have no idea how they managed to get the buckets on their heads so easily, I must've spent about 5 minutes gently rubbing a mans bucket on his face without anywhere near as much success."

irl lols at "gently rubbing a mans bucket on his face"

Haah yeah that was what killed me.

THE FUCK

I have been playing this game for 7–8 hrs so scenarios such as bucket-face-rubbing have thus far eluded me but seriously WHAT

u see, when a dark elf loves a khajit very much, and they decide they want to have a baby...

<consults "Notes on Racial Phylogeny and Biology: Seventh Edition" to make sure this scenario is valid...>

Adam: see upthread if u missed it, apparently chucking buckets over merchants heads blinds them and you can pilfer from their stores.

Lord only knows what anyone was thinking to even TRY this.

hm. so the ai is smart enough to let you pickpocket someone, trick you into thinking you got a way with it, and then later get swarmed by a band of bloodthirsty mercenaries out for revenge. but if you throw a bucket on someone's head and steal all their shit, they have no idea who might have stolen their goods?

That is unspeakably awesome, and now your email quote makes sense xp

I had one hard-crash about 2 hours in where "Skyrim has stopped working" (PC, obv), but otherwise I've not seen any bugs, not even things getting caught in the scenery, so colour me surprised.

oh, and from upthread:
Do you have no be still when you do it, or can you be moving forward (or etc.) and then change direction?

Nope, you don't have to be still; you can use your power-attacks while moving. When doing the Golden Claw and that Draugr Overlord got out of his box at the end I decided to just full on sprint and him and over-head smash with the two-handed sword. It was pretty satisfying, even if it only did about 25% damage.