Skyrim (Re-release with upgrade)

[hiddenmarkov]

I'm currently doing the dawnguard quest. I'm unsure if I want to side with the dawnguard or the vampires. Googling it seems to indicate that you get some cool, upgradeable equipment on the dawnguard side, but the vampire side seems to give you more power. I'm not sure how progressing through the main quest as a vampire will work. I'll probably save the game before I make the decision and then play it as a vampire for a while see how that works.

This is something you have to do with these games. Now depending how much a purist you are this could be considered save scumming. Me...I don't view it as that. Save scumming is in say Fallout 4 taking idiot savants perk, saving before guest turn in and reloading till you proc that 3 or 5 x times xp effect (based on level of IS). Basically if reloading till the RNG go favor your for something...yeah thats save scumming.

this...is just ye old doing all the side stuff until you make some make game deciding changes, save at that point to give you a nice spot to go back to later when you want to try something else and don't want to preroll and regrind for it. Latter can be fun and has its moments ofc, but sometime you don't want to do all that work all over again.

 

[maflynn]

Now depending how much a purist you are this could be considered save scumming

I've never heard of that, and frankly don't really care. Seems like of pretentious to me.

I'm playing the game the way I want too and I'm enjoying it as well

 

[hiddenmarkov]

I've never heard of that, and frankly don't really care. Seems like of pretentious to me.

I'm playing the game the way I want too and I'm enjoying it as well

I feel you there lol. All these games I make my pre decision based saves, couple of them actually lol.

 

[maflynn]

I'm enjoying the game, but one minor gripe, and maybe the makers did this on purpose, is that Skyrim is mountainous, yet at times, its nearly impossible to climb the mountains. I have to circle the mountain in the hope to find a path or a less steep way up. That's been a bit frustrating for me.

 

[cynics]

I've never heard of that, and frankly don't really care. Seems like of pretentious to me.

I'm playing the game the way I want too and I'm enjoying it as well

I agree and disagree. I feel I'm cheating if I save before a lock pick, sneak or pick pocket attempt then fail and just keep reloading until I succeed. However if I only have one lock pick left then to hell with it. Lol

Saving just to experience an alternative route later on is not save scumming. I did that in Fallout so I could experience all the faction endings.

 

[maflynn]

I feel I'm cheating if I save before a lock pick, sneak or pick pocket attempt then fail and just keep reloading until I succeed.

Oh I don't

I've done that before - In fallout 4 I'll save right before I try to persuade someone. A number of instances the discussion goes from yellow, to orange to red, and so every step, I'll save and retry if I have too

 

[cynics]

Oh I don't

I've done that before - In fallout 4 I'll save right before I try to persuade someone. A number of instances the discussion goes from yellow, to orange to red, and so every step, I'll save and retry if I have too

As long as you're enjoying the game, thats all that matters.

I'll often save scum in Skyrim when I fast travel to a town and then vampires, assassins or the dawnguard attack me and end up killing a ton of civilians. Since I don't know if those NPC's are of any importance I'll reload the autosave. I wish they would run away and let the guards and myself do the fighting.

People will always find something to complain about.

Some people have a problem with fast traveling in games...say its for the lazy. I feel Bethesda forces the issues, I would agree in Morrowind but not in Oblivian, Skyrim, or Fallout. There just isn't adequate means of traveling in those games.

 

[maflynn]

but not in Oblivian, Skyrim, or Fallout. There just isn't adequate means of traveling in those games.

I believe in the hardest levels (at least in fallout) there is no fast travel, but I agree with you. The goal of Bethesda is to make enjoyable games, sure there may be some hard core gamers who feel its not right, but Bethesda is focusing on the majority, and for them imo, fast travels makes the game more enjoyable.

If I had to constantly walk from Solitude to Whiterun or Riften, I'd stop playing the game.

 

[cynics]

I believe in the hardest levels (at least in fallout) there is no fast travel, but I agree with you. The goal of Bethesda is to make enjoyable games, sure there may be some hard core gamers who feel its not right, but Bethesda is focusing on the majority, and for them imo, fast travels makes the game more enjoyable.

If I had to constantly walk from Solitude to Whiterun or Riften, I'd stop playing the game.

They mostly mean lore friendly fast travel.

In Morrowind there were quite a few means of lore friendly fast travel like Silt Striders, teleportation between mage guilds, recall scrolls, ships, etc. Even levatation spells would help in movement especially over mountains. I remember using the boots of blinding speed (made the screen black) but was able to counter the blindness with a spell temporarily.

In Oblivion they got rid of most of that. However there was a little bit of incentive to not fast travel because you could level your characters starts, athletics and acrobatics.

In Skyrim you really only have carriages (to go between holds you mention) which is nice but relatively useless in comparison. This makes fast travel nearly a requirement. A horse can help but not enough to say it's a lore friendly replacement versus previous games.

Meh, even if they did have things I would still probably fast travel. It's like taking a cab in GTA....you could do that but what's the point....

 

[maflynn]

I will say that I'm nearly done with Skyrim. I'm mostly done with the main quests, I've done just about all of the other side quests (dark brotherhood, thieve's guild, dawnguard dlc). Its been incredibly immersive game. While I've only been playing it for about a month, the time spent playing it has been hours upon hours.

I have the Dragonborn DLC left as well.

 

[cynics]

I will say that I'm nearly done with Skyrim. I'm mostly done with the main quests, I've done just about all of the other side quests (dark brotherhood, thieve's guild, dawnguard dlc). Its been incredibly immersive game. While I've only been playing it for about a month, the time spent playing it has been hours upon hours.

I have the Dragonborn DLC left as well.

Dragonborn takes a long time if you are doing the side quest.

I'm 118 hours in and have only beat the College of Winterhold quest line. I still have some of the Theives guild, Companions, Dawnguard, Main quest left along with all of the Dragonborn, Dark Brotherhood, etc etc.

I spent a lot of time reading a majority of the books...some are really interesting like 2920, Wolf Queen and there is one other that name escapes me right now (girl thinks she is a princess but no one knows she's alive).

Also got really into smithing and enchanting for all my equipment and my followers equipment. Very time consuming.



Serana gets my hand me downs lol

 

[maflynn]

I'm 118 hours in and have only beat the College of Winterhold quest line. I still have some of the Theives guild, Companions, Dawnguard, Main quest left along with all of the Dragonborn, Dark Brotherhood, etc etc.

I haven't done the College of Winterhold quest or the companions. The latter doesn't seem to interest me much.

I spent a lot of time reading a majority of the books...some are really interesting like 2920, Wolf Queen and there is one other that name escapes me right now (girl thinks she is a princess but no one knows she's alive).

I may play this again and take a slower approach. I've not read many books. I spent a lot of time and effort, to get my sneaking to 100, two handed weapons to 80 and largely ignored smithing. I also have Serana as my companion and she helps a lot.

 

[cynics]

I haven't done the College of Winterhold quest or the companions. The latter doesn't seem to interest me much.



I may play this again and take a slower approach. I've not read many books. I spent a lot of time and effort, to get my sneaking to 100, two handed weapons to 80 and largely ignored smithing. I also have Serana as my companion and she helps a lot.

Ya Serana is awesome. One, she can't be killed like Lydia (RIP). Two, her ice shards help me find corpses to loot.

She hurts your sneak though so I would have her waiting around a lot and forget where I left her.

It's kind of annoying when she reanimated a corpse I want to loot thought.

However when I have two conjured creatures, her and she reanimates a corpse it's like having a small army! Very useful, I can generally go about my business and let them do all the fighting. I really like how my conjured followers always agro, it's not like that in ESO.

 

[maflynn]

I finished Skyrim, I'm incredibly impressed by how large, and immersive the game was. I understand the PS4 game includes all the DLC, but even so, its a huge game and those DLC components are so well integrated into the game, it feels like its part of it.

One thing that I noticed in seeing other reviews and YT videos is that many people seem to have a high level, i.e., level 67 or 70. I finished up the game just approaching level 40. Is that because if I played the game with a higher difficulty, I would have increased faster?

Has anyone gone legendary on the perks? I push hard to get to 100 on my sneaking and saw that if I opted for legendary my perks would have been reissued and I could "start over" on the sneaking attribute. I'm not entirely sure why someone would do that.

I'm going to re-play the game, this time focusing my time and energy a little different, for instance when the time comes to do the DawnGuard, I'll not become a vampire. I really like the crossbow and finding bolts was not an easy task as I did the dawnguard DLC on the vampire quest side of things. I'm also going to work on my smithing skills. I tried to rev that up near the end of the game, but it was too late.

 

[s0nicpr0s]

I finished Skyrim, I'm incredibly impressed by how large, and immersive the game was. I understand the PS4 game includes all the DLC, but even so, its a huge game and those DLC components are so well integrated into the game, it feels like its part of it.

One thing that I noticed in seeing other reviews and YT videos is that many people seem to have a high level, i.e., level 67 or 70. I finished up the game just approaching level 40. Is that because if I played the game with a higher difficulty, I would have increased faster?

Has anyone gone legendary on the perks? I push hard to get to 100 on my sneaking and saw that if I opted for legendary my perks would have been reissued and I could "start over" on the sneaking attribute. I'm not entirely sure why someone would do that.

I'm going to re-play the game, this time focusing my time and energy a little different, for instance when the time comes to do the DawnGuard, I'll not become a vampire. I really like the crossbow and finding bolts was not an easy task as I did the dawnguard DLC on the vampire quest side of things. I'm also going to work on my smithing skills. I tried to rev that up near the end of the game, but it was too late.

If I recall correctly, the leveling is based around your skills. So being maxed out on every skill tree without going legendary and starting one over, you can get up to level 81. But if you absolutely never touch multiple skill trees, your level cap is lower. But the legendary edition/update allowed you to reroll your skills and go further.

So to answer your second question, restarting your skill tree will allow you to increase your level without working solely on a different skill set.

 

[cynics]

I finished Skyrim, I'm incredibly impressed by how large, and immersive the game was. I understand the PS4 game includes all the DLC, but even so, its a huge game and those DLC components are so well integrated into the game, it feels like its part of it.

One thing that I noticed in seeing other reviews and YT videos is that many people seem to have a high level, i.e., level 67 or 70. I finished up the game just approaching level 40. Is that because if I played the game with a higher difficulty, I would have increased faster?

Has anyone gone legendary on the perks? I push hard to get to 100 on my sneaking and saw that if I opted for legendary my perks would have been reissued and I could "start over" on the sneaking attribute. I'm not entirely sure why someone would do that.

I'm going to re-play the game, this time focusing my time and energy a little different, for instance when the time comes to do the DawnGuard, I'll not become a vampire. I really like the crossbow and finding bolts was not an easy task as I did the dawnguard DLC on the vampire quest side of things. I'm also going to work on my smithing skills. I tried to rev that up near the end of the game, but it was too late.

Like mentioned once you max out a skill it will no longer contribute to your level.

So when you got to level 100 sneak and if you didn't use too many other skills your leveling will stop.

Since enemies level with you imo it's not that big of a deal and doesn't take away from the game although I prefer an experience point based leveling system like in Fallout 4. There are certain levels you need to reach before certain things will spawn and unlock though. This is why you start encountering enemies wearing better armor and such too.

Edit: Not all enemies level with you just the majority. For example, at level 47 on anything other then easy I doubt you could beat Karstaag or Ebony Warrior. Seek them out if you want to have some fun!

 

[hiddenmarkov]

One thing that I noticed in seeing other reviews and YT videos is that many people seem to have a high level, i.e., level 67 or 70. I finished up the game just approaching level 40. Is that because if I played the game with a higher difficulty, I would have increased faster?.

this a bit older thread but maybe of use to someone like me firing up skyrim more recently.

Cranking up the difficulty levels will see some skills progress faster while others go slower. So may not be char overall level progression faster. So high char level may result from higher difficulty depending on how char is raised. If a pure warrior as an example and no magic..you will max level your sword(s) faster, then hit a wall. If no magic skill xp is spammed, higher level for char overall the gets harder to do.

Default Adept as a base medium is a jack of all trades. You give and take damage in more equal measure.

make the game easier, some skills will progress faster as more effective. You will attack better so attack stuff (weapon or magic) will level faster. But armour may go slower as you take less damage.

make the game harder, armour skills may improve faster as you take in more damage to soak up but attack gets gimped multiplier wise.

Want the high char level...legendary skills and rerun them up really. And you have to work as many skill trees as you can. If only to have a few trees you don't care about to legendary cycle. Less vital trees once maxed...make legendary.

One is advised to not legendary primary trees unless a backup in place. If one went heavy archer, going legendary for archer an hard call. You will lose some ability. Now if like me and archer and dual wield dagger build...when either maxed I can legendary one of them and rely on the other as the other resets for a bit.




One of my few dings against the game. Its not really giving much incentive to go for harder levels beyond usual ego boost stuff imo. I do that via other means on less harder levels using mods. Hypothermia and dealing with it, needing food etc...a different take on difficulty I have. I don't view enemy that took 20 hits now needing 40 as just harder, I find it more tedious than harder.

granted one could say having to actually eat or suffer or rushing to find fire/make a camp site to warm up after a swim is tedious as well. and I'd say yeah kind of. But its more immersive. More immersive than an enemy saying oh no you didn't as the arrow protrudes from their head. That and I after many months of fallout 4 have an aversion to water anyway. See water think rads lol...so limited swimming not an issue I have. Which is kind of funny, I run a cool mod to show effects of the environment. Went for swim? Get out the water and you are dripping waters a bit. In colder areas...see the armour ice up a little.

 

[pat500000]

That dawn guard quest the one you rescue sarena vampire gave me a glitch that prevented me from going into the castle.

 

[hiddenmarkov]

That dawn guard quest the one you rescue sarena vampire gave me a glitch that prevented me from going into the castle.

Does replay off a an older save help?

also sometimes you need the healing power of complete shutdown. Not the turn off console to a warm start status. If xbone one talking that complete shutdown (I unplug it even just to be sure) that needs the long start up. I'd gather ps4 would be the same, dunno for sure though.

Unofficial patch plug as always if can be run (not sure of your dedication to achievements or ps4 user....save the estalking much like in fallout 4 thread...I am mod junky so not even on the radar). Not sure if it fixes this, maybe read patch notes. Its been fixing tons of stuff for me.

 

[pat500000]

Does replay off a an older save help?

also sometimes you need the healing power of complete shutdown. Not the turn off console to a warm start status. If xbone one talking that complete shutdown (I unplug it even just to be sure) that needs the long start up. I'd gather ps4 would be the same, dunno for sure though.

Unofficial patch plug as always if can be run (not sure of your dedication to achievements or ps4 user....save the estalking much like in fallout 4 thread...I am mod junky so not even on the radar). Not sure if it fixes this, maybe read patch notes. Its been fixing tons of stuff for me.

I'm far off in the game to even bother going back to that game file. I'll try full power shut down. I wanted to get into the castle badly to fight that secret boss.

 

[hiddenmarkov]

I'm far off in the game to even bother going back to that game file. I'll try full power shut down. I wanted to get into the castle badly to fight that secret boss.

hope it works. Complete shutdown removes any memory resident stuff that may be an issue.

I have found even mods that work in Bethesda games....on unmodded saves. turned on for a modded save, turned off mods to go to an unmodded save and the mod effect still in play. Achievements still worked which I thought odd and interesting. the mod took its spot in memory and the game did not release it. And the game just carried on like it was all good.

 

[pat500000]

hope it works. Complete shutdown removes any memory resident stuff that may be an issue.

I have found even mods that work in Bethesda games....on unmodded saves. turned on for a modded save, turned off mods to go to an unmodded save and the mod effect still in play. Achievements still worked which I thought odd and interesting. the mod took its spot in memory and the game did not release it. And the game just carried on like it was all good.

Actually I found a solution. They said (YouTube videos) that you need plate and use speed shout.

 

[hiddenmarkov]

Cool...nice you found a way.


since I mentioned mods...and like I did in fallout 4 thread...for the new to modding or looking for ideas, some ideas on xbox one. PS4...no scripts no external files, sorry for you all really about that.

unofficial patch mod....this always at top and we all know what it does.

x32 maximum skeleton + realistic ragdolls.
Common base to many mod armours and such. Side benefit of better physics not using these. Put another way, dead bodies will be more natural. Shot old boy in the head with an arrow, he can slump down and settle more naturally vice a staged layout I guess a way to put it.


Ks Hairdos
has a light and larger full blown version depending on how large a file and variety you want. Has as one can guess...more hair style options. male and female. With the longer hairs you may see clipping with armours on shoulder or back. Accept and move on or run shorter hair styles.


Adorable females
Nice package of small mods all together to improve appearance of females. Tasteful mod not slooty...I like to think of as not having females get that been out all night drinking with 2hours of sleep dead tired/sickly look.

Beautiful mistress v2.1.
UNP body replacer for females. Recommended for female character rolls. This gets as modest or slooty as you want by setting weight slider. Light weight, will have more average natural bodies. Higher weight, yes you get the coke glass figure of more breast and butt size and skinny waste. Useful for using UNP based armour mods. Its one of the better replacers out there imo since like mentioned if you don't want slooty, it can do natural females nice as well.

True storms
Makes the weather more realistic. Rain is rain...snow is snow.

Natural eyes
eye replacer, makes eyes look much better.

Breezehome by Elionora
massive conversion to breezehome in white run. this works best and only really on a clean new save. Its worth it unless some have that 100+ hour save. I made a test save to try it. And said...well there went 40 hours of my life as the test save is the new unplanned reroll. No regrets about that for me, the house setup is just that awesome.


Wet and cold
go for a swim you drip water after. You boots make squishy sounds. Armour will show icing up. Blizzards and its high winds...you have reduced run speed. No more Olympic time trial times in the 100 hard dash running in a blizzard. Adds some nice immersion.

Enhance night sky
Puts some nice stuff in the sky. Really beautiful environment mod.

Vampires suck No attacks in town
Like the name on the tin...as it can suck whe non protected NPC's die in town to vampire visits you really wished were still alive. Want to kill vampires, leave town. It just has towns safe.

 

[pat500000]

Cool...nice you found a way.


since I mentioned mods...and like I did in fallout 4 thread...for the new to modding or looking for ideas, some ideas on xbox one. PS4...no scripts no external files, sorry for you all really about that.

unofficial patch mod....this always at top and we all know what it does.

x32 maximum skeleton + realistic ragdolls.
Common base to many mod armours and such. Side benefit of better physics not using these. Put another way, dead bodies will be more natural. Shot old boy in the head with an arrow, he can slump down and settle more naturally vice a staged layout I guess a way to put it.


Ks Hairdos
has a light and larger full blown version depending on how large a file and variety you want. Has as one can guess...more hair style options. male and female. With the longer hairs you may see clipping with armours on shoulder or back. Accept and move on or run shorter hair styles.


Adorable females
Nice package of small mods all together to improve appearance of females. Tasteful mod not slooty...I like to think of as not having females get that been out all night drinking with 2hours of sleep dead tired/sickly look.

Beautiful mistress v2.1.
UNP body replacer for females. Recommended for female character rolls. This gets as modest or slooty as you want by setting weight slider. Light weight, will have more average natural bodies. Higher weight, yes you get the coke glass figure of more breast and butt size and skinny waste. Useful for using UNP based armour mods. Its one of the better replacers out there imo since like mentioned if you don't want slooty, it can do natural females nice as well.

True storms
Makes the weather more realistic. Rain is rain...snow is snow.

Natural eyes
eye replacer, makes eyes look much better.

Breezehome by Elionora
massive conversion to breezehome in white run. this works best and only really on a clean new save. Its worth it unless some have that 100+ hour save. I made a test save to try it. And said...well there went 40 hours of my life as the test save is the new unplanned reroll. No regrets about that for me, the house setup is just that awesome.


Wet and cold
go for a swim you drip water after. You boots make squishy sounds. Armour will show icing up. Blizzards and its high winds...you have reduced run speed. No more Olympic time trial times in the 100 hard dash running in a blizzard. Adds some nice immersion.

Enhance night sky
Puts some nice stuff in the sky. Really beautiful environment mod.

Vampires suck No attacks in town
Like the name on the tin...as it can suck whe non protected NPC's die in town to vampire visits you really wished were still alive. Want to kill vampires, leave town. It just has towns safe.

I havent tried the mods but maybe i should.

 

[MaulRx]

I hate paying full price for a remaster but Skyrim was worth it just for a more stable running game nevermind the graphical bump which looks better in pictures than it does moving. Here's hoping for Fallout 3 and NV remasters.