Cavern I found while exploring north of solitude. I'm running on medium settings with tree receiving shadows and land shadows enabled. Also this pic does not do the cavern justice at all. Just so many times my jaw is dropping at something in the world.
you have to spend a dragon soul to activate them, by default it is the R key, but check bottom left of the menu when you are looking at your shout menu page
Aaaah - so you have to assign the souls manually? I'm going to try that once I get home from work. Thanks for the help!
In other news - I got ambushed by two icewraiths yesterday. They took down Lydia pretty quick and I was only able to kill one of them before I had to start running trying to heal myself. Left with almost no health and sure I was going to die I was quite surprised to see a stray dog come out of nowhere and leap at the remaining icewraith - which gave me just enough time to heal up and get back into the fight to finish the wraith. After the fight I had to discover though that the dog didn't make it. Poor little bugger gave his life to save my ass - I didn't even find out why. .
Anyone mind re-uploading those pics willy wilson posted? can't see at work because dropbox is blocked. Quite curious to see.
I'm at 20 hours played apparently and I feel like i've barely scratched the surface of the game. , I think when I'm done with this character I'll have to play again as a warrior. I'm currently playing a thief and it seems like I never really 'use' the dragon shouts as I'm mostly sneaking.
Unfortunate about Steam cloud saves not being supported, would love to continue playing during lunches at work. But hey, maybe I'll start that Warrior character and play it only at work.
Killed 5 dragons now I think. I was sneaking around in the wilderness after some bear and one just landed behind me, was quite surprising.
I've finished the mages guild and the Dark Brotherhood and to be honest I was quite disappointed with their endings and how short they were.
As usual the NPC's half acknowledge me as the arch mage but where's the power? Surely an arch mage would have access to master spells. They both started off so well but I was expecting so much more length wise. I wanted to know more about the mages who take the Eye of Magnus away.
Still it was awesome to meet an old character...in ghost form. I love how he comments on the quests.
I've finished the mages guild and the Dark Brotherhood and to be honest I was quite disappointed with their endings and how short they were.
I'm surprised you thought it was short, I'm playing through the College of Winterhold and it feels like that quest could be split off and packaged as a full game. The quest also feels more epic than the mages guild questline from Oblivion
As far as how I'm playing, I'm putting most of my points in magicka & destruction. My bread and butter is 2 handed firebolt. I've got the 2 handed stagger perk which is pretty amazing, it even staggers dragons.
oh yeah, after playing a bazillion hours of Mount & Blade it feels like a huge step backwards when a game doesn't have mounted combat - please add for Elder Scrolls VI please!
Anyone playing on Master difficulty? Im getting my ass kicked. haha. I tempted to turn it down, but ugh, i love the challenge, and i feel i will feel more of a power boost when i start doing better and leveling up
I'm a fairly badass Orc that flings magic around and then goes in and chops them up with my dualwield weapons. I'm currently leveling four main skills (Onehanded, destruction, smithing and heavy armor).
Really great game although I do have a problem with getting circling dragons down to the ground. My spells are easily evaded
Anyone playing on Master difficulty? Im getting my ass kicked. haha. I tempted to turn it down, but ugh, i love the challenge, and i feel i will feel more of a power boost when i start doing better and leveling up
Master with no fast travel :P, I do run quite a lot from random high level encounters in the wild, but it makes combat way more rewarding, with blocking and timed attacks playing a huge role, weapon-flailing becomes instant fail.
I must say, I'm so darn glad I got the collector's edition. The art book alone makes it worth the price. The book is huge, 203 pages, and well-built too. Feels solid.
The statue also makes people jealous here at work.
Master with no fast travel :P, I do run quite a lot from random high level encounters in the wild, but it makes combat way more rewarding, with blocking and timed attacks playing a huge role, weapon-flailing becomes instant fail.
Same, except I've fast travelled a couple of times. Went to solitute to go to that Thalmore keep to rescue someone, and after realising that I couldn't handle it I fasttravelled back to Whiterun to bring Lydia with me. Unfortunately she didn't survive many battles , taking out all those guards was the hardest I've come across so far, I had to use level-ups just to survive and my summon seems to do most of the damage.
It seems a bit crazy how you can be going through the same dungeon, take out a couple of people no problem but the next set just 1-2 shots you.
oh yeah, had a weird bug - a Dragon landed next to me and killed my horse as soon as I dismounted but the video game gods decided to gift me with unlimited magicka so I was able to continually firebolt-stagger the dragon to death. Unfortunately I got too cocky with my unlimited power and let a group of bandits get a little too close, on reloading I was back to normal.
Question, can anyone confirm if your character gets detected when they get the Perk 'Eagle Eye' in Archery? It's the Zoom function. Apparently, when you zoom, you not only lose Stamina over time, but also 'breath', which causes me to get detected much more easily by nearby enemies.
And I can't find any spells or info about detecting enemies around me, that would be useful, a skill which allows me to see enemies on my little compass would work wonders.
Also, I agree, Smiting is pretty broken, it takes me forever to level up speech and lockpicking, but I makes a couple of hide bracers or steel/iron daggers and bam, level 100. Although in retrospect, unless you plan on mining and or buying stuff to smith from does take alot of time.
i had to shave my beard twice in 3 hours of playing skyrim, it just kept growing!
Seriously, this game is a masterpiece and im having a blast. Each little asset might not be the most polished prop in the world but when you put it all together you really get a game that looks, and plays amazingly.
Got the game, and it's really a great game. But the melee part of it seems insanely flat, to the point where I'm thinking maybe I missed something. Started out 2H and now I went 1h+spells.
I made one, and I can't for the life of me figure out what's the point of those classes. It seems infinitely more boring than a magic class. I don't get it. Made a 2H-sword warrior type, and I get no abilities. It seems like you just click your mouse to swing and that's it?
Guess I'm used to MMOs where you get abilities to use with your 2H weapon.
Really what I wanted to do, was make a vamp dual-wield character. I thought there would be some way to have a health siphon working with those weapons.
Not sure, there is a full perk tree for Dual-Wielding two weapons in each hand, but I'm guessing soul/health siphoning is available in the later areas?
Also, Vampire's? How are they? I became a Vampire but almost lost it instantly due to becoming a Werewolf.
PS: I was wondering if I should start a separate thread about modding. I found some interesting mods and tweaks for Skyrim, some which help with UI and Mouse Acceleration. Should I start a new thread for that, or should I keep it all in here?
What I'm saying is that I couldn't find a way to make melee weapons function any differently than they currently do. Maybe through enchanting I could put an effect on them? Not sure.
What I'm saying is that I couldn't find a way to make melee weapons function any differently than they currently do. Maybe through enchanting I could put an effect on them? Not sure.
You can enchant the hell out of weapons. Speaking of modding weapons, I was informed last night that you can use your poisons on the tips of your weapons. Never knew.
It seems like you just click your mouse to swing and that's it?
power-attacks can be made by holding the slash-button down, they're stronger and can break through defences, and then there's some variation with varying effect, like strafe->powerattack, which in case of a 2h perk can cause damage in an arc.
there's also backwards-powerattack which I haven't figured out exactly what it does.
1h+shield or 1h+parry seems to be the most tactical though, as you'll do all your directional power-attacks and on top of that you'll be blocking with your shield and can do shield-bashes.
Both 1h, 2h and blocking comes with an additional sprint-attack which is another perk.
I'm enjoying the game so far, but there are some thing that makes me think the game could have used a month or two more in polishing.
So here's a list, no story spoilers, but I'll keep it within a list anyway
1. 2 handed feels useless. I started out by going battlemage and just before whiterun I decided to start over and go with a 2 handed badass.. Well so far the things I can conclude after playing the game for 18 hours is that nearly every magic user, troll, giant or mamut will tear your ass into pieces like there is no tomorrow. Power attacks may stacker people, but it takes longer for myself to recover from the swing then them, so I take nearly 2-3 hits with any melee mob without being able to move or block..
2. Magic enemies are fucking crazeh, even with my entire orcish gear enchanted with magic res, thoose damn mages with ice spikes can kill me before I get in range, and when I'm finally near one after having chucked 2 health and resist potions, I don't have enough stamina to stagger them and they will just keep at it.
3. Dragons are nearly the easiest enemies out there. I find it more difficult to kill a ice troll then it is to kill a epic dragon.. I mean bethesda, come on? :P
4. Like any other Elder Scrolls game, it lacks some serious explaining elements, I went 15 hours through the game before I realised that I could bind items and spell to keys and that I was able to mine and smelt ore.
With that being said, still a cool game. I might play through it again and just roll some kind of magian or rogue.
1h+shield or 1h+parry seems to be the most tactical though, as you'll do all your directional power-attacks and on top of that you'll be blocking with your shield and can do shield-bashes.
It's saved me a few times, but depending on the enemy sometimes it seems like blocking doesn't negate any damage .
On a lighter note, I managed to take down a mammoth (using a very short cliff that I could jump up but the mammoth couldn't reach), it only took 100 arrows and then a few charging swings to take it down, just for a snout and 1 tusk...
I'm enjoying the game so far, but there are some thing that makes me think the game could have used a month or two more in polishing.
So here's a list, no story spoilers, but I'll keep it within a list anyway
1. 2 handed feels useless. I started out by going battlemage and just before whiterun I decided to start over and go with a 2 handed badass.. Well so far the things I can conclude after playing the game for 18 hours is that nearly every magic user, troll, giant or mamut will tear your ass into pieces like there is no tomorrow. Power attacks may stacker people, but it takes longer for myself to recover from the swing then them, so I take nearly 2-3 hits with any melee mob without being able to move or block..
2. Magic enemies are fucking crazeh, even with my entire orcish gear enchanted with magic res, thoose damn mages with ice spikes can kill me before I get in range, and when I'm finally near one after having chucked 2 health and resist potions, I don't have enough stamina to stagger them and they will just keep at it.
With that being said, still a cool game. I might play through it again and just roll some kind of magian or rogue.
You need to realize that there are some enemies out there who are way too high level for you to kill. Some of them being level 25-35+. If you have Orcish gear, I take it you're probably around level 15-20, which means you're not fit to face a lot of enemies out there. Level up, go back and kill them later.
That's something I really like about this game, no more level scaling! (At least, none that I can tell)
So can you do a vamp health-siphon build then? Either 2H or dual-wield
Cause if so, I'll go back to melee.
If you level up enchanting you can get absorb health to put on your weapons? I think it's gonna be a long time before I reach that stage but it'd definitely make melee slightly easier.
A coworker plays 2handed battle-axe focusing on perks for that. He does massive amounts of damage while standing still and can do decapitation finishers.
It's saved me a few times, but depending on the enemy sometimes it seems like blocking doesn't negate any damage .
Probably skill-level related with a high blocking skill blocking more damage, blocks wont completely block damage in all cases, but it blocks a ton of it, but if you get attacked with a power-attack you will lose guard and you will stagger, and the same on them.
There is a perk that can make your shield negate all arrow damge when hit by them though.
Also, shield bash is the most awesome thing ever, since it does a ministun on enemies, sometimes often long enough to get a hit in.
I love the blocking mechanics. Makes for much more visceral encounters. I have perks for blocking that include the ability to block arrows, resist 50% magic damage, and power shield bash. I also have one that slows down time if the enemy is performing a power attack, which allows me to bash and get a few hits in before his weapon comes down. Fun stuff.
You need to realize that there are some enemies out there who are way too high level for you to kill. Some of them being level 25-35+. If you have Orcish gear, I take it you're probably around level 15-20, which means you're not fit to face a lot of enemies out there. Level up, go back and kill them later.
That's something I really like about this game, no more level scaling! (At least, none that I can tell)
The thing is, thinking back or talking to mates of mine, they don't have the same problem with their builds focusing on forexample magic or 1h + shield or archery. Trolls are a good example, you meet them early on and while it might take a bit of kiting, they are easy to down as a magic / ranged dude, while I had loads of trouble downing without drinking 8 potions
I'm enjoying the game so far, but there are some thing that makes me think the game could have used a month or two more in polishing.
So here's a list, no story spoilers, but I'll keep it within a list anyway
1. 2 handed feels useless. I started out by going battlemage and just before whiterun I decided to start over and go with a 2 handed badass.. Well so far the things I can conclude after playing the game for 18 hours is that nearly every magic user, troll, giant or mamut will tear your ass into pieces like there is no tomorrow. Power attacks may stacker people, but it takes longer for myself to recover from the swing then them, so I take nearly 2-3 hits with any melee mob without being able to move or block..
2. Magic enemies are fucking crazeh, even with my entire orcish gear enchanted with magic res, thoose damn mages with ice spikes can kill me before I get in range, and when I'm finally near one after having chucked 2 health and resist potions, I don't have enough stamina to stagger them and they will just keep at it.
3. Dragons are nearly the easiest enemies out there. I find it more difficult to kill a ice troll then it is to kill a epic dragon.. I mean bethesda, come on? :P
4. Like any other Elder Scrolls game, it lacks some serious explaining elements, I went 15 hours through the game before I realised that I could bind items and spell to keys and that I was able to mine and smelt ore.
With that being said, still a cool game. I might play through it again and just roll some kind of magian or rogue.
Although I do agree with you on some things, I think I can shed some light on this to help you out.
2-handed weapons are quite strong, but they leave you without a shield or a spell cast. With that in mind I think your character needs some spells. Illusion and conjuration might be something to look into until you unlock better 2-handed skills. With illusion spells you can weaken your target or discombobulate them (pacify is really helpful, so is the buffs you can give to your comrad if you go with conjuration as well, if not you can always get someone to follow you, or even hit up the Atronach Forge in the Midden [under the college in Winterhold]). If you're warrior only, then I would go into enchanting and smithing more and get that armor and weapon SUPA POWERFULL! Also realize that certain creatures are weak to certain elements, use that to your advantage always carrying the elemental weapons. Also pick the right guardian stone, I think the The Lord Stone will be your best shot.
Those mages are tough, you're right... So you need a staff or something with range. If your staff has the effect of depleting mana and maybe even health, it's a win-win.
I have to disagree about the dragons, when trying to solo them I run in quite a lot of trouble! I do think that they might be scaled with you as you level (if you're level 4 so are the dragons, like oblivion, but this is me speaking out of my assssss).
The not explaining things fully, I do understand. They do not explain anything about the UI, but there's always plenty of info about things in the world that NPC provide.
Btw sandbag, did you install the game or run directly off the dvd? There's some issues surrounding installing the game to the disk where textures will mess up.
All bethesdas videos have primarily been the 360 version as it is today, screenshots have been both pc and 360, but most shown has been from 360.
I blink and suddenly I'm 5 pages behind...
I did install it, is it best to just run it off the disc? I was hoping I could minimize load times by installing it, but if it isn't worth it then I may as well uninstall it.
After spending about 5 or so hours in it I've come to grips with the awkwardness of FPS sword fighting, made peace with the wacky "all details are done with alpha'd planes" (btw - ironic that they own id tech 5 and dont use it when their pipeline is literally "use megatexturing stamps for everything, but be unable to bake it down and get rid of ugly alpha borders")
The lighting still drives me insane, but I realized I had a torch, which at least makes indoor areas navigable.
I did install it, is it best to just run it off the disc? I was hoping I could minimize load times by installing it, but if it isn't worth it then I may as well uninstall it.
After spending about 5 or so hours in it I've come to grips with the awkwardness of FPS sword fighting, made peace with the wacky "all details are done with alpha'd planes" (btw - ironic that they own id tech 5 and dont use it when their pipeline is literally "use megatexturing stamps for everything, but be unable to bake it down and get rid of ugly alpha borders")
The lighting still drives me insane, but I realized I had a torch, which at least makes indoor areas navigable.
There are issues with causes big glaring texture-streaming issues or so, which makes the game look really ugly.
Megatexturing would definately not be healthy in any way for a project like this, where everything to a heavy extent is very un-static,
For example: I could build a small village somewhere in skyrim and save it down in a plugin at most likely only a few hundred kilobites, that could be run together with many other plugins that alters other different parts of the world, because there is no massive megatexture to pass around, there's nothing to be baked down, you can have a world exponentially and insanely larger than the small world of rage, but in a much smaller dataset, and you can have a vast amount of dynamic objects, and you can modify any part of the world with a tiny plugin.
There's so many good things about the architecture bethesda put together, which still up to this day makes the recent TES games plugin architecture unique.
And without having any insight into the development of skyrim I can without a doubt imagine that it has made the creation of the world so much easier and versatile than if it had been something like idtech5.
I'm getting the best of both worlds - PC's higher resolution and loading times so fast I can't finish reading the text that pops up combined with the controls the UI & game were designed for. I haven't tried it with kb & mouse so I can't compare but with the controller it's possibly the best UI I've ever used.
I have been using my PS3 controller for the PC version of Skyrim..my hand is so fucked up from drumming and from working, that even though I have an ergonomic mouse at work, I can't do too much PC gaming without awful pains and intense hand cramps after playing a show.
But that said, using a controller feels really nice and comfortable. I fucking hate though that using a controller doesn't let me use any keyboard commands..I just wanna press "J" and look at my journal.. Y U NO LET ME, SKYRIM?!
Does everyone else have the constant blinking where the screen darkens a bit for a half second every now and then, mainly outside? Some sort of weird HDR shit? It's kinda shitty.
I think it has to do with the Tonemapping, it happens when you look at the bright sky, then back at a dark surface. Kind of like how your eyes adjust to light IRL. I find it's a neat touch.
It also darkens when you approach a dragonwall (whatever they're called) and are about to learn a new shout.
moving this from the character thread since it isn't the place for it:
I'm getting the best of both worlds - PC's higher resolution and loading times so fast I can't finish reading the text that pops up combined with the controls the UI & game were designed for. I haven't tried it with kb & mouse so I can't compare but with the controller it's possibly the best UI I've ever used.
I tried it on my Cuz's PC and the controls are awesome. the whole quick menu thing is easier using WASD. you barely move your arms! lol but i was just teasing! :poly142:
Replies
HURR DURR I'M A HURRSE
This game is amazing.
In other news - I got ambushed by two icewraiths yesterday. They took down Lydia pretty quick and I was only able to kill one of them before I had to start running trying to heal myself. Left with almost no health and sure I was going to die I was quite surprised to see a stray dog come out of nowhere and leap at the remaining icewraith - which gave me just enough time to heal up and get back into the fight to finish the wraith. After the fight I had to discover though that the dog didn't make it. Poor little bugger gave his life to save my ass - I didn't even find out why.
I'm at 20 hours played apparently and I feel like i've barely scratched the surface of the game. , I think when I'm done with this character I'll have to play again as a warrior. I'm currently playing a thief and it seems like I never really 'use' the dragon shouts as I'm mostly sneaking.
Unfortunate about Steam cloud saves not being supported, would love to continue playing during lunches at work. But hey, maybe I'll start that Warrior character and play it only at work.
Killed 5 dragons now I think. I was sneaking around in the wilderness after some bear and one just landed behind me, was quite surprising.
As usual the NPC's half acknowledge me as the arch mage but where's the power? Surely an arch mage would have access to master spells. They both started off so well but I was expecting so much more length wise. I wanted to know more about the mages who take the Eye of Magnus away.
Still it was awesome to meet an old character...in ghost form. I love how he comments on the quests.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/14/user-interfarce-skyrims-silly-choices/
I'm surprised you thought it was short, I'm playing through the College of Winterhold and it feels like that quest could be split off and packaged as a full game. The quest also feels more epic than the mages guild questline from Oblivion
As far as how I'm playing, I'm putting most of my points in magicka & destruction. My bread and butter is 2 handed firebolt. I've got the 2 handed stagger perk which is pretty amazing, it even staggers dragons.
oh yeah, after playing a bazillion hours of Mount & Blade it feels like a huge step backwards when a game doesn't have mounted combat - please add for Elder Scrolls VI please!
Really great game although I do have a problem with getting circling dragons down to the ground. My spells are easily evaded
Master with no fast travel :P, I do run quite a lot from random high level encounters in the wild, but it makes combat way more rewarding, with blocking and timed attacks playing a huge role, weapon-flailing becomes instant fail.
I just robbed the smithy in Solitude clean. Then leveled my smithing up like a boss
Also, making a dagger seems to give you the same amount of xp as an armor. That doesn't make sense.
The statue also makes people jealous here at work.
Same, except I've fast travelled a couple of times. Went to solitute to go to that Thalmore keep to rescue someone, and after realising that I couldn't handle it I fasttravelled back to Whiterun to bring Lydia with me. Unfortunately she didn't survive many battles
It seems a bit crazy how you can be going through the same dungeon, take out a couple of people no problem but the next set just 1-2 shots you.
I let Lydia stay at home and tell me how awesome I am every time I get back to drop off loot.
noooo, who carries all your heavy shit?
I wish she wouldn't complain about it every damn time though
And I can't find any spells or info about detecting enemies around me, that would be useful, a skill which allows me to see enemies on my little compass would work wonders.
Also, I agree, Smiting is pretty broken, it takes me forever to level up speech and lockpicking, but I makes a couple of hide bracers or steel/iron daggers and bam, level 100. Although in retrospect, unless you plan on mining and or buying stuff to smith from does take alot of time.
Seriously, this game is a masterpiece and im having a blast. Each little asset might not be the most polished prop in the world but when you put it all together you really get a game that looks, and plays amazingly.
Got the game, and it's really a great game. But the melee part of it seems insanely flat, to the point where I'm thinking maybe I missed something. Started out 2H and now I went 1h+spells.
I made one, and I can't for the life of me figure out what's the point of those classes. It seems infinitely more boring than a magic class. I don't get it. Made a 2H-sword warrior type, and I get no abilities. It seems like you just click your mouse to swing and that's it?
Guess I'm used to MMOs where you get abilities to use with your 2H weapon.
Really what I wanted to do, was make a vamp dual-wield character. I thought there would be some way to have a health siphon working with those weapons.
Anyone else try anything like that?
Also, Vampire's? How are they? I became a Vampire but almost lost it instantly due to becoming a Werewolf.
PS: I was wondering if I should start a separate thread about modding. I found some interesting mods and tweaks for Skyrim, some which help with UI and Mouse Acceleration. Should I start a new thread for that, or should I keep it all in here?
You can enchant the hell out of weapons. Speaking of modding weapons, I was informed last night that you can use your poisons on the tips of your weapons. Never knew.
power-attacks can be made by holding the slash-button down, they're stronger and can break through defences, and then there's some variation with varying effect, like strafe->powerattack, which in case of a 2h perk can cause damage in an arc.
there's also backwards-powerattack which I haven't figured out exactly what it does.
1h+shield or 1h+parry seems to be the most tactical though, as you'll do all your directional power-attacks and on top of that you'll be blocking with your shield and can do shield-bashes.
Both 1h, 2h and blocking comes with an additional sprint-attack which is another perk.
So here's a list, no story spoilers, but I'll keep it within a list anyway
2. Magic enemies are fucking crazeh, even with my entire orcish gear enchanted with magic res, thoose damn mages with ice spikes can kill me before I get in range, and when I'm finally near one after having chucked 2 health and resist potions, I don't have enough stamina to stagger them and they will just keep at it.
3. Dragons are nearly the easiest enemies out there. I find it more difficult to kill a ice troll then it is to kill a epic dragon.. I mean bethesda, come on? :P
4. Like any other Elder Scrolls game, it lacks some serious explaining elements, I went 15 hours through the game before I realised that I could bind items and spell to keys and that I was able to mine and smelt ore.
With that being said, still a cool game. I might play through it again and just roll some kind of magian or rogue.
http://vimeo.com/32092467
It's saved me a few times, but depending on the enemy sometimes it seems like blocking doesn't negate any damage
On a lighter note, I managed to take down a mammoth (using a very short cliff that I could jump up but the mammoth couldn't reach), it only took 100 arrows and then a few charging swings to take it down, just for a snout and 1 tusk...
lol that's not a glitch. you hold down the button to pick up and move objects, except this time it happened to be a drauger.
Cause if so, I'll go back to melee.
You need to realize that there are some enemies out there who are way too high level for you to kill. Some of them being level 25-35+. If you have Orcish gear, I take it you're probably around level 15-20, which means you're not fit to face a lot of enemies out there. Level up, go back and kill them later.
That's something I really like about this game, no more level scaling!
If you level up enchanting you can get absorb health to put on your weapons? I think it's gonna be a long time before I reach that stage but it'd definitely make melee slightly easier.
A coworker plays 2handed battle-axe focusing on perks for that. He does massive amounts of damage while standing still and can do decapitation finishers.
Probably skill-level related with a high blocking skill blocking more damage, blocks wont completely block damage in all cases, but it blocks a ton of it, but if you get attacked with a power-attack you will lose guard and you will stagger, and the same on them.
There is a perk that can make your shield negate all arrow damge when hit by them though.
Also, shield bash is the most awesome thing ever, since it does a ministun on enemies, sometimes often long enough to get a hit in.
The thing is, thinking back or talking to mates of mine, they don't have the same problem with their builds focusing on forexample magic or 1h + shield or archery. Trolls are a good example, you meet them early on and while it might take a bit of kiting, they are easy to down as a magic / ranged dude, while I had loads of trouble downing without drinking 8 potions
Although I do agree with you on some things, I think I can shed some light on this to help you out.
Those mages are tough, you're right... So you need a staff or something with range. If your staff has the effect of depleting mana and maybe even health, it's a win-win.
I have to disagree about the dragons, when trying to solo them I run in quite a lot of trouble! I do think that they might be scaled with you as you level (if you're level 4 so are the dragons, like oblivion, but this is me speaking out of my assssss).
The not explaining things fully, I do understand. They do not explain anything about the UI, but there's always plenty of info about things in the world that NPC provide.
I blink and suddenly I'm 5 pages behind...
I did install it, is it best to just run it off the disc? I was hoping I could minimize load times by installing it, but if it isn't worth it then I may as well uninstall it.
After spending about 5 or so hours in it I've come to grips with the awkwardness of FPS sword fighting, made peace with the wacky "all details are done with alpha'd planes" (btw - ironic that they own id tech 5 and dont use it when their pipeline is literally "use megatexturing stamps for everything, but be unable to bake it down and get rid of ugly alpha borders")
The lighting still drives me insane, but I realized I had a torch, which at least makes indoor areas navigable.
There are issues with causes big glaring texture-streaming issues or so, which makes the game look really ugly.
Megatexturing would definately not be healthy in any way for a project like this, where everything to a heavy extent is very un-static,
For example: I could build a small village somewhere in skyrim and save it down in a plugin at most likely only a few hundred kilobites, that could be run together with many other plugins that alters other different parts of the world, because there is no massive megatexture to pass around, there's nothing to be baked down, you can have a world exponentially and insanely larger than the small world of rage, but in a much smaller dataset, and you can have a vast amount of dynamic objects, and you can modify any part of the world with a tiny plugin.
There's so many good things about the architecture bethesda put together, which still up to this day makes the recent TES games plugin architecture unique.
And without having any insight into the development of skyrim I can without a doubt imagine that it has made the creation of the world so much easier and versatile than if it had been something like idtech5.
I'm getting the best of both worlds - PC's higher resolution and loading times so fast I can't finish reading the text that pops up combined with the controls the UI & game were designed for. I haven't tried it with kb & mouse so I can't compare but with the controller it's possibly the best UI I've ever used.
But that said, using a controller feels really nice and comfortable. I fucking hate though that using a controller doesn't let me use any keyboard commands..I just wanna press "J" and look at my journal.. Y U NO LET ME, SKYRIM?!
It also darkens when you approach a dragonwall (whatever they're called) and are about to learn a new shout.
I know this is the biggest database of Elder Scrolls info, so I'm sure they'll be adding info for Skyrim as it's discovered.
http://www.uesp.net/
I tried it on my Cuz's PC and the controls are awesome. the whole quick menu thing is easier using WASD. you barely move your arms! lol but i was just teasing! :poly142: