Skyrim

[JazFusion]

Started a second play through recently. As a Nord this time. I figured when in Skyrim...

I joined the Companions this time around and was so stoked when I found out

Spoiler

they're werewolves! But the beast power sucks. It would have been cooler if they'd made it where you turn into a werewolf at certain times at night or something. Disappointment!

I've also went with smithing a lot earlier this time around. I really didn't like where my mage was going. I tried the thief life; even got to be guildmaster. But I'm having way more fun with a battleaxe. I guess being a mage and/or thief isn't cut out for me. I bash things into a pulp.
[/spoiler]

[Avatar]

Yeah, I'm the sneaky type myself.

Agree about the beast power...the only advantage is the immunity to disease. I kept it for my Nord, but didn't bother with it for anybody else.

--A

[Major Isoor]

Well, have any of you tried the Dawnguard expansion? I've been doing a second playthrough of Skyrim as of late, (played it first around release for a good while, haven't really touched it since) and I found that the perks for being a werewolf can indeed be quite good - especially if you get Hircine's ring from Hirdine's quest; since that lets you turn into a werewolf whenever you please, rather than just once a day.

Also, do any of you play it on the XBox, and have played the Dragonborn expansion? I was wondering about getting that at some point, as Dawnguard was quite enjoyable.

[Avatar]

No to both of those I'm afraid. Anything new interesting?

--A

[Major Isoor]

Well, you can apparently ride dragons at will*, but aside from that (and that it's based in a new area/island, rather than still sharing the regular Skyrim map, I suppose) I don't have much idea as to what's being introduced, I'm afraid.

As for Dawnguard, it gave me at least a dollar-an-hour rate, (I paid $20 for it, and I got a good chunk more than 20 more hours out of it - although I replayed the first bit of the main plotline too, before diving in) so I can't complain about that - plus I found out (heh, 'stumbled upon', might be more appropriate! ) ingame that they've introduced mounted combat into the game, as well as crossbows**, which was one of the touted features.


*

Spoiler

Rather than the semi-cutscene in the main story where you ride one, briefly

**The crossbow seems to be pretty effective compared to most bows, but allegedly has a 'long reload time' which is completely false, if you were expecting anything similar to a crossbow's real reload time! Plus they haven't taken into account the effective range of a crossbow, which is generally a fair bit less than a conventional bow, (depends on poundage of bow and crossbow in question, etc etc) which, as I do archery in real life, irks me a little, as it makes one of my favourite weapons become second-rate in all situations, compared to the crossbow!

[Avatar]

Pfft, if they'd made throwing knives now, I'd be more interested. Although in absence of them I did use the bow an awful lot.

And I never bothered riding horses either, I must say, so none of that grabs me much. The extra 20-odd hours sounds good though.

--A

[Shaun das Schaf]

I never bothered with horses either - expensive horse meat - but I do like riding Shadowmere since she has glowing red eyes AND defends herself. And because she's the only thing that made the Dark Brotherhood questline worth doing, the thrill of senseless killing aside.

I like the satisfying thwack of an enhanced dwarven crossbow but seem to be alone in preferring the Dragonborn expansion to Dawnguard. What can I say, Solstheim grew on me.

Now, for someone who's always late to parties, if I was going to explore prequels in this universe, would you recommend Morrowwind or Oblivion? (I'm xboxing if that makes any difference.)

[Avatar]

Oblivion without a doubt. Morrowwind is probably a bit dated now, Oblivion still makes it.

Actually, I've just put 150-odd hours into it myself in the last couple months. It's not as good as Skyrim, and it still has the old "pick 3 stats" when levelling, but I still enjoyed it. Nearly finished the Shivering Isles expansion story-line now.

(Oh, it has Shadowmere in it. )

--A

[Shaun das Schaf]

That bit about Shadowmere, you put that at the top

Seriously, thanks for the recommendation. I was getting dangerously close to doing something with my life and this may just save me.

Just read JazFusion's earlier post, I seem to gravitate to warrior over mage too (which doesn't stop one becoming ArchMage and pillaging soul gems/potions on a regular basis) but I was mostly an Archer/one-handed gal. This time around, with my Khajiit Sammy, I got stuck straight into two handed. Never realised the battleaxe was so much fun! (And having gone light armour on this build, I can afford to carry the thing).

Khajiit's default advantages are kind of meh (who needs night vision when you can turn up the brightness on your display or use candlelight spell) but man, dem cats look SO cool!

Re: Smithing, I found Hearthfire - building three houses and all the stuff in them - rather handing to level this up. (And more fun than crafting two million iron daggers.)

[Avatar]

Two handed is one of the few things I've never bothered to try. I've played pretty much everything else in it.

--A

[balon!]

Anyone use nexus mods? I hadn't touched this for awhile and then discovered texture packs and city rebuilds, conan swords, expanded magic, OHMAN

[Avatar]

Wow, been a while in this thread. Since then I got the Legendary Edition, so played Dawnguard and Dragonborn.

Yes, I use Nexus Mods for it. I run about 50 mods for Skyrim in fact.

Some graphics mods, some player homes. I like the Immersive Armours and Immersive Weapons mods as well. And I use all the unofficial patches too. And the HD textures etc.

(I use nexus for Fallout too.)

--A

[Avatar]

I see they're releasing a Remastered version of Skyrim in October. Free for PC users, if you already own either the Legendary Edition, or Skyrim and all its DLC.

--A

[peter]

I'm playing Skyrim for the first time - and really enjoying it! (Only on an old 360, but hey, it's working.) Thing is, I got into a scrap with an Ice Mage/sorcerer whatever, who I killed, but now I've got a huge ice spike sticking out of my ars ........ I mean arm! ( ) How do I get rid of the damn thing? I've tried changing my clothes, stripping naked (near about), fast-traveling, you name it. I haven't tried morphing into a werewolf yet, coz I'm only on level nine and I don't know how to do it! Any suggestions?

[Avatar]

Hmmm, it's supposed to disappear on it's own. I remember them persisting for an annoying amount of time sometimes, but I played on a PC so not sure how the console version will be affected. Have you saved and reloaded?

--A

[peter]

I'm getting sort of used to it Av, and t doesn't seem to affect my characters performance much. I've been told that it will disappear of it's own volition in due course, so I guess this is how it works. More significantly, I wonder if my character might not be suffering from some kind of debilitating disease or magically induced malaise; he just seems a little ........ sluggish shall we say - slower to respond than normal. I've looked in the information screens, but while I can find a list of the number of diseases contracted in the general stats, there doesn't appear to be any info on diseases/spells currently affecting the character. My current weight carrying figure is fifty or so below my maximum capacity and my armour is none too heavy, so neither of these should be problematic. It's odd; I'm just not fighting as well as normal, my magic takes longer to respond etc. I've been repeatedly poisoned by these clucky underground scorpion like thingies, and wonder if this is having a longer term effect than just what is seen on the health bar?

[Edit; Seems to have corrected itself - I think it was probably just the effect of the poisons during the fight that was causing it! ]

[Avatar]

You can see what your active effects are, in the "Magic" tab, where it lists your shouts and stuff.

Scroll down and you should see an active effects option, that shows you whatever buffs you have from gear, blessings etc. and any diseases you currently have.

--A

[peter]

I must have been carrying something Av, I met a woman who told me I looked sick and proceeded to 'heal' me by magika. At present I seem to be diverted from the main quest of dealing with the dragons reappearance into some sort of side quest at the College of Magika in Winterhold. Not quite sure how it happened, but at present I'm just going with the flow and very much enjoying it!

[Avatar]

Haha, yeah, it's a great game. One of the best of the last decade without a doubt.

--A

[peter]

I'm becoming increasingly impressed with the whole scope of The Elder Scrolls. The back story is huge and detailed, rivaling anything in fantasy literature at it's best. The dimension of moral complexity of the situations one is placed in goes far beyond the simple good Vs evil scenarios of traditional story telling. All in all a world to get lost in if one so chooses!