The Official Skyrim Thread

[sanityisforbidden]

I think its fine as DLC, but releasing it as a "one year anniversary" free DLC would have been ideal. Again, its cheap but without much real value added to the game, even 400 MS points is arguably too much...

 

I buy my MS Points 1600 at a time, most of the time things I want to buy are 1200 (Mostly COD Packs) so that little extra left over point would go to something else, a silly arcade game, a theme i'll never (or only) use, what ever. So now I can go buy that 1600 point card (when I have the money... and internet at home to download it), and use the 400 for hearthfire and the 1200 for a good XBLA game or a map pack, what ever.

[Bigpapa42]

I buy my MS Points 1600 at a time, most of the time things I want to buy are 1200 (Mostly COD Packs) so that little extra left over point would go to something else, a silly arcade game, a theme i'll never (or only) use, what ever. So now I can go buy that 1600 point card (when I have the money... and internet at home to download it), and use the 400 for hearthfire and the 1200 for a good XBLA game or a map pack, what ever.

 

In a sense, I don't think 400 MSP is too much for the Hearthfire DLC. Not when you compare to what you can get for 400-800 points on XBox Live. Stuff like XBL avatars, themes, maybe some "awesome" game content like horse armor, a specific weapon you can find or craft in game anyway... It just feels like the value added by Hearthfire is well less than what Dawnguard added and they only came out a few months apart. Maybe Hearthfire will feel like its adding more to those who interested in the cooking or adopting a kid...

 

Essentially, as much as I like and having making use of my newly-built home, I don't feel like I've been able to do something new and wonderous in the game. I could buy houses before. This is larger, I get some options on the layout, and choices on decor (to an extent, though not that much), and it was fun to put together. But in terms of value added to the game, it feels minimal. At least to me. I still don't think it really fits as "should have been included from the start", but I think it would have been perfect as a free DLC.

[lazorbeak]

I remember my first time playing Morrowind (in the Baldur's Gate days). Put difficulty on normal as I always did. Walked around and enjoyed it, did a few quests. In my first combat encounter, I got my ass kicked by a rat (and didn't save)... Maybe I 'sucked', maybe I should've persisted. Either way, I didn't touch the game for another 7 years.

 

As for the 360 dying after moving it. You are not the first one to report this. I do move it sometimes without it dying (but since 2 years I have received a newer model or something), but I understand it's rational behaviour to just let it be. After all, without internet you're not missing much (unless you're playing Skyrim ).

 

Like I said, it's tough to know what you're doing when you start out on that game. It doesn't help that there's a bunch of extraneous stuff you will never use (like choosing which style of attack you were doing, or weapons and skills that are completely useless). I put a ton of time into it and really enjoyed it, but it bugs me when anyone act like it was the height of achievement that no elder scrolls game has since touched.

 

In a sense, I don't think 400 MSP is too much for the Hearthfire DLC. Not when you compare to what you can get for 400-800 points on XBox Live. Stuff like XBL avatars, themes, maybe some "awesome" game content like horse armor, a specific weapon you can find or craft in game anyway... It just feels like the value added by Hearthfire is well less than what Dawnguard added and they only came out a few months apart. Maybe Hearthfire will feel like its adding more to those who interested in the cooking or adopting a kid...

 

Essentially, as much as I like and having making use of my newly-built home, I don't feel like I've been able to do something new and wonderous in the game. I could buy houses before. This is larger, I get some options on the layout, and choices on decor (to an extent, though not that much), and it was fun to put together. But in terms of value added to the game, it feels minimal. At least to me. I still don't think it really fits as "should have been included from the start", but I think it would have been perfect as a free DLC.

 

I guess I don't understand what the issue is? I mean, isn't this DLC supposed to be completely optional and only a draw to a certain type of gamer who both likes to collect/build stuff and doesn't play on the PC? Is that not how it was advertised and priced? I mean, yes, the value is less, but that's because it's not an expansion that changes the game in any real way, and a modding community on the PC makes it completely unnecessary. I mean it is exactly what it looked like, and is $5.

[bigtplaystew]

Morrowind was a bit tougher to get into. IMO Oblivion and Skyrim stand separately from the volumes before it. TES was always good, but it was never an exceptionally deep game that was super immersive and fun to live in.

 

I'm not saying it never found it's audience. Obviously it did. But whatever tweaks they made to make Oblivion so playable was when those game went over-the-top for me.

[Blackman]

When it comes down to it, Skyrim has quite a simple engine and isn't all that deep gameplay-wise. For some reason, however, I've never had more fun these past 10 years with ANY game, and that's saying something as I'm defo a gamer and played a lot of games. Skyrim is on my subjective "top 3" list of games, after BG2 & LoZ:OoT. I have no clue why I loved it so much and couldn't stop playing. I guess the game world is so huge and the quest aren't THAT repetitive. It felt really alive.

 

I didn't have that with Oblivion, though I also loved that game. The story was just... meh. I'd fringe every time I had to do another Oblivion gate, with their lineair structure and bad design. Yuck... But like bigtplaystew says, with Oblivion they transformed the game from what was essentially an RPG title made for RPG gamers to a slightly less immersive but more accessible game. The masses found it and it hit the succes switch. I don't want them to continue to progress in that direction like Bioware did with Dragon Age 2. DA1 was already accessible imo for 'noobs' (though just barely). DA2 was just too simple and had no options or strategy to it, which caused 'serious' gamers to shy away from it. I don't want that to happen to TES. The current gameplay is near perfect.

[bigtplaystew]

It's "deep" in it's game world. It's got my vote for the most fully fleshed-out world. So much fun to pop around and explore. And so huge!

[Blackman]

The cities are also very well done. Not just the same textures over and over. Each one is unique. In Oblivion, there was the capital, and then there were some "settlements" that just looked the same. My favorite one is the SW-ern one, against the mountains. If my video card was a little better, I'd get it for PC and be all over the mods.

 

If they were ever to release some sort of supergame with all areas integrated, my life as I know it will be forfeit. When playing Skyrim I was basically praying for the content to end so I could do something else.

[Killagy]

Been awhile since anyone posted in this thread, but I wanted to share an article that greatly rekindled my passion for this game and may help others overcome that inevitable stale/repetitive/burned-out feeling from playing Skyrim for so long. Showed me a refreshing approach that I'm surprised I haven't used sooner.

 

How to Build Interesting Characters in Skyrim

[sanityisforbidden]

Dragonborn DLC that comes out next week will revive the hell out of this game for me. A year later, and I still love this game though.

[D-Lyrium]

So seeing this thread resurface, I popped back into the world of Skyrim for a bit.

 

It reminded me of how amazing Dishonored is. Granted, Dishonored isn't truly open world, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

The world is great, and interesting to explore, yes. But the characters are just flat out... well, flat. I was going to say boring, but that's not quite true.

 

Skyrim, to me, is TOO big. They can't possibly populate it with enough interesting stuff. There's stuff going on, sure, but the majority of it is not interesting at all. Not to me, anyway. Generic characters spew random dialogue at you, some of them have side quests (which are usually "go to Random Dungeon Y and fetch me Item X", essentially). But they're just not as interactive as they're made out to be. It very quickly falls into a very simple pattern. Most of the voice acting is meh, some of it is terrible.

 

The game isn't BAD, of course, that'd be a ridiculous thing to say. There's a lot of cool stuff in it. It's just too big for it's own good, and as a result suffers from having a lot of boring samey filler stuff in it. It feels like taking a really good drink, and diluting it with water so that it lasts longer.

 

I'd prefer less, better tasting drink. I'd much prefer it if the world was half the size, but filled with genuinely interesting stuff. Far Cry 3, from what I've seen of it so far, seems to blow it out of the water in terms of open world exploration.

 

Skyrim would've been better off - if they REALLY wanted to make it so huge - by starting with maybe a quarter of the world at a reduced retail price, going up to a certain point in the story that was relatively self-contained, and making sure that there was loads of genuinely interesting, properly developed, side-quest content to explore. Then adding more chunks of fully developed world in DLC, until at the end you're left with the entire current gameworld but much better developed. Obviously planning the stories as a whole game so that some of them can interlink with stories and areas in upcoming or previous DLC.

 

As it is, as I said, it just feels diluted.

 

And melee combat is still awful in TES games. Always has been, especially duel-wielding. Archer and/or Mage is the only real fun way to play IMO. Stealth melee has it's fun moments though to be fair.

 

Oh, and because nobody asked, my top 5 games of all time would probably be Deus Ex, Dishonored, Baldur's Gate, Diablo 2 and Bastion. Though I should point out the caveat that I've never played a Final Fantasy or Zelda game, or any Metal Gear Solid game after MGS2.

 

 

On the other hand, the artile Killagy linked to is amazing and should be read by everyone who ever plays any RPG ever. I do most of those things naturally without thinking about it (probably because I was a tabletop roleplayer before I found computer games ). Especially fun in MMOs, when there are other human players to interact with (and occasional semi-human players called Dwarfhunter or SexyElf1993 to completely ruin it ). Also check out this guide: http://j-u-i-c-e.hubpages.com/hub/roleplaying-skyrim Especially #5, which I pretty much consider essential.

[Killagy]

God, I think I'm enjoying my current playthrough a thousand times more than I enjoyed my last five or so ever since I read both articles (the one I and D-Lyrium posted). It really helped me get more engaged into the experience than I was when I first puchased the game!

 

But woe, now I'm extremely butthurt after reading this below. I'm a PC owner, so hopefully "Early '13" means January. Around or on my birthday would be so awesome lol:

 

Dragonborn coming tomorrow to Xbox LIVE. Coming to PS3 and PC early 2013.

[denzil85]

God, I think I'm enjoying my current playthrough a thousand times more than I enjoyed my last five or so ever since I read both articles (the one I and D-Lyrium posted). It really helped me get more engaged into the experience than I was when I first puchased the game!

 

But woe, now I'm extremely butthurt after reading this below. I'm a PC owner, so hopefully "Early '13" means January. Around or on my birthday would be so awesome lol:

 

Dragonborn coming tomorrow to Xbox LIVE. Coming to PS3 and PC early 2013.

 

As an Xbox owner, I'll be getting home as soon as I reasonably can

[VBigB]

God, I think I'm enjoying my current playthrough a thousand times more than I enjoyed my last five or so ever since I read both articles (the one I and D-Lyrium posted). It really helped me get more engaged into the experience than I was when I first puchased the game!

 

But woe, now I'm extremely butthurt after reading this below. I'm a PC owner, so hopefully "Early '13" means January. Around or on my birthday would be so awesome lol:

 

Dragonborn coming tomorrow to Xbox LIVE. Coming to PS3 and PC early 2013.

 

Yeah XBox has a one month exclusive dlc deal with Beth. I'm pretty sure it was the same with the last 2 dlc's.

[Killagy]

Yeah XBox has a one month exclusive dlc deal with Beth. I'm pretty sure it was the same with the last 2 dlc's.

 

I'm aware of the deal, but the agreement was suppose to expire after two DLCs. Apparently Microsoft didn't really consider "Hearthfire" a full-on DLC and still held Bethesda to their agreement. -_-

[sanityisforbidden]

The Dragonborn DLC will be on my 360 the minute (or two that it takes to download) when I get home. If you don't see me for a few days, please know, I went out doing what I love.

[Clarity]

God, I think I'm enjoying my current playthrough a thousand times more than I enjoyed my last five or so ever since I read both articles (the one I and D-Lyrium posted). It really helped me get more engaged into the experience than I was when I first puchased the game!

 

But woe, now I'm extremely butthurt after reading this below. I'm a PC owner, so hopefully "Early '13" means January. Around or on my birthday would be so awesome lol:

 

Dragonborn coming tomorrow to Xbox LIVE. Coming to PS3 and PC early 2013.

 

Have they finally fixed the PS3 version?!?!

[sanityisforbidden]

Without spoiling anything, the Dragonborn DLC pack is defenitely meant for higher level characters.

[Blackman]

Does it come with enough content? I will soon start my second playthrough of the game (after purchasing Dragonborn and - maybe - Dawnguard, if it's actually good), and I wonder if I'll be done with it after a day, or does it take more time? <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

[Guest codey]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Blackman" data-cite="Blackman" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="32563" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Does it come with enough content? I will soon start my second playthrough of the game (after purchasing Dragonborn and - maybe - Dawnguard, if it's actually good), and I wonder if I'll be done with it after a day, or does it take more time? <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I haven't played Dragonborn yet, but Dawnguard was quite fun. They really nailed the setting of it, and it added some pretty enjoyable lore to the game. If you do get it, though, don't waste your time doing all of the quests in the purgatory type place. That was just a big empty wasteland full of suck.</p>

[sanityisforbidden]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="codey" data-cite="codey" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="32563" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I haven't played Dragonborn yet, but Dawnguard was quite fun. They really nailed the setting of it, and it added some pretty enjoyable lore to the game. If you do get it, though, don't waste your time doing all of the quests in the purgatory type place. That was just a big empty wasteland full of suck.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> Dawnguard was great, but it didn't really add anything new to Skyrim that was game changing. I still recommend buying it though.</p><p> </p><p> Dragonborn on the otherhand... adds a whole new island, more monsters, more spells, ingredients, shouts. It's a mind-blown moment to see how a Morrowind type of place in Skyrim form! The Redoran houses, the giant mushrooms, natch's and siltstriders. Whoops I have said too much, basically go get this freaking dlc.</p>

[Blackman]

<p>Well, after more then a year, I finally started a second playthrough after buying the full edition on the PC. I did have all the DLC for 360, but it always seems more appealing on PC because of the mods. But boy, did that prove me wrong.</p><p> </p><p>

As a general rule, it seems that you need to spend a buckload of time 'configuring' your setup. I spend days figuring out what my pc could or could not do. You get crashes at 2.2 gig RAW usage, and you must juggle HD mods in order to find that sweet spot that still looks awesome, yet is playable. That was the second step. The first step is actually finding the mods that are worth it. Some look good, but seem to totally crash the game when used in conjunction with other mods.</p><p> </p><p>

Then it appears you need test every combination of mods until you find a good one that doesn't crash after 30 hours. Now that I've finally got one that is stable, using mainly SkyRe and the new Civil War Overhaul. The last one, however, decided it would just break one of the main quest storylines. I could advance it first with some console commands, but that just wrings the game in so many problems I just started over... again. Oh, and if you plan to start now: never EVER uninstall a mod during a game. It might seem ok, but it will haunt you later on. Trust me.</p><p> </p><p>

There's also a great fanmade mod called Falskaar, which adds a completely new world. Just wow. Didn't trigger the opening sequence yet, but it is rumored to be awesome.</p><p> </p><p>

Does anyone have a stable mod setup they want to share? I currently use these (the imo 'essential' ones are market with *):</p><p> </p><p>

- The HighRes Texture packs 1-3</p><p>

- The 5 unofficial patches*</p><p>

- Better Dynamic Snow</p><p>

- SplashofRain</p><p>

- Improved Combat Sounds</p><p>

- StaticMeshImprovementMod</p><p>

- 3 Birds mods*</p><p>

- Immersive add-ons, f.i. patrols</p><p>

- Skyrim Flora Overhaul*</p><p>

- SkyUI*</p><p>

- iHUD*</p><p>

- Deadly Dragons*</p><p>

- SkyRe</p><p>

- Breezehome Fully Upgradable</p><p>

- Bridge Farm Hearthfire</p><p>

- Hunting in Skyrim</p><p>

- Inconsequential NPC's*</p><p>

- Perfect Whiterun</p><p>

- Riverside Lodge</p><p>

- CCO: character overhaul</p><p>

- Civil War Overhaul</p><p>

- Guard Dialogue Overhaul</p><p>

- Helgen Reborn</p><p>

- Apocalypse Spell Package</p><p>

- Dance of Death Ult. Ed.</p><p>

- EyesofBeauty</p><p>

- SkyNPCReimagined</p><p>

- Vilja companion</p><p>

- WATER*</p><p>

- SPTDiverseMuscleTones</p><p> </p><p>

(and a bunch of armor, weapons and minor mods that don't change much)</p><p>

I also used a mod for Locational Dmg, but that seemed to stop working I think.</p><p> </p><p>

The main things I deleted because of errors due to scripts:</p><p>

- Warzones (awesome mod adding loads of random encounters and wars, but just too taxing to use along with other stuff)</p><p>

- SkyTEST, though it should be safe enough but didn't want to risk it. (but a cool mod nontheless)</p><p>

- Convenient Horses (it was a 'little' too inconvenient for my taste)</p><p> </p><p>

I still get the occasional freeze, but it's far from problematic. CWO is currently failing, but it might be due to problems with Guard Dialogue, though I fail to see the connection. In total, I do have about 114 mods, but many of them are really small (like a mod that changes auto-traveling time).</p>