Skyrim

ulukinatme

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I hear ya, but there's no wrong way to eat a reeces. I started out married to my axe, and so I'll put up with its pitfalls because it's the only weapon I feel confident against how difficult the enemies now are. With a bow, they're hitting me about twice as much as I'm hitting them, loll.

This is true. Stick with what you like! You really can't go wrong combat wise in Skyrim as long as you pick no more than one or two skills to focus on (As oppose to mixing 4 different styles). Destruction + 2 Handers, or Bows + 1 Handers, or even just one of those, they all work. Are you still using Destruction? Destruction will allow you to pelt Dragons while they're in the air, otherwise it's not a big deal if you wait for them to land so you can slice them up with your Great Axe. As long as theres enough flat ground to land on, a Dragon will eventually land and let you melee it. If there isn't you may need to move where you're fighting at.

I always build a sneaky Archer first in TES games, and I was pleasantly surprised by how useful the Throw Voice shout is for this play-style in Skyrim. After a couple shots, enemies start honing in on your location, so you just use Throw Voice to send away from you and back into your sights. You learn all three words from a single easily-accessible Word Wall, and the cooldown is totally negligible.

Two-Handers are awesome. With 100 Block, 1/5 in Shield Wall, and a single modest Fortify Block enchant, they block as much as any shield can, while putting out a lot more damage than 1h + Shield. It's also really easy to stagger lock an enemy by chaining power attacks, and the Sweep perk offers the only AoE melee attack in the game.

Sneaky Archers are fun, but they're almost too easy after awhile. Bows damage is kind of weak at first too, it takes some time to build the skill if you do it legitimately. Great information about Two Handers and Block, listen to this guy, Koon. Stagger lock is "I win" mode. It can also be done with Destruction magic, or whatever else you're using depending on perk choice.

I spent about 35 minutes walking to Whiterun to sell some stuff yesterday, lol.

I haven't bought a house yet. I've bought rooms for a night, but no house. Doubt I could afford it now anyways, but does it make much difference where you buy?

Do you have a follower yet? They can help carry some of your loot.

It's not a big difference where you buy the house, so just go with a style/location you like. Whiterun's house, Breezehome, is fine for a starter house. You often end up in Whiterun anyway, so you can't go wrong there. Riften has a nice house if you're part of the Thieves Guild because not only are there numerous vendors in the city itself that you can sell to, but once you restore the Thieves Guild there are several more vendors in the sewers. It's almost impossible to sell all your loot in Riften and tap out the available gold on the merchants because of that. As far as other homes, I find Markarth's to be a bit dark, but it's a unique location, almost like a vault. Solitude has the best house, imo, but it's also the most expensive. I dislike the Winterhold house the most, partly because...well...I'll let you do the mission for that one first.

Some houses are def better than others... I really liked Riften (town wise) but the house there is terrible, like a one room shack. The best house is in... I forget where now, The large Castle city... but it's like three stories and is really nice.

I liked the house in Whiterun, it's the first one most tend to get and it will do... You have to work for the Jarl a bit before they even let you buy a house... and to fully furnish them can get quite pricey...

Yup, definitely Riften and the 3 story house in Solitude. Those are my favorite.

I love that in an era of multiplayer, online games taylored for the ADHD, they made a huge role player game... But I can't help but wonder how fun it would be to take down dragons together (well you take down dragons, and I hide behind a rock).

MMOs are fun when you're taking down a target like that. The downside is that most MMOs lack a compelling story/plot, theres little to no character development, and theres really no satisfying ending. MMO companies can't afford to give you a nice ending because it means their subscribers quit paying, which is bad for business. As a result, even when you complete a big raid or dungeon, theres always some loose end that will force you to tackle a new threat. There are a few newer MMOs that do a pretty good job making the grind more compelling instead of 100 quests that involve "Kill 15 goblins and return" or "Collect 25 pink unicorns." All of them have a grind though before you get to the good stuff, otherwise you would be done with the game in a week or two and once again unsubscribe.

So, in short, it can be fun getting together with some buddies and playing an Elder Scrolls type MMO, but you have to realize that it's a completely different animal. The story telling can't compare, the game play itself is different, and it's very rarely a sandbox experience where you can choose how you progress. Most MMOs are pretty linear and have you completing quests in a certain order along with several other players your level, and if you decide to go outside their progression you wind up where you're not supposed to be and dead.
 
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ACamp1900

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Wait, Solitude is the one with the three story!... Markarth is the Rock city right?? yeah.... I don't use that one at all... I'm Solitude... The giant castle city with the three story house (easily the best one)
 
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ACamp1900

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I'm gonna go and get one of my axes off the wall tonight... take some of my display case armor I never use and walk around and see how quickly I can get myself killed... lol
 

Whiskeyjack

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Sneaky Archers are fun, but they're almost too easy after awhile.

Absolutely. Please note that a lot of the advice I post in here is directed towards what is most effective, but taking that approach too far is a quick way to ruin the game. Pick the offensive style that you find most intuitively appealing, and then focus on immersion.

Bows damage is kind of weak at first too, it takes some time to build the skill if you do it legitimately.

You can get Sneak up to 85-90 within ~20m of creating a new character simply by sneak attacking Ralof with an iron dagger repeatedly when he pauses near the bear during your escape from Helgen (so there's your Deadly Aim). Then you can finish Faendal's quest in his favor (Sven's a douche bag anyway), get him to follow you, and get free Archery training up to 50. I was close to Hawkeye levels of bad-assery before I even stepped foot out of Riverwood.

But see the 1st paragraph for why that was a bad idea.
 
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ACamp1900

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Heavy Armor and double handed are basically at level 4 or 5 for me (I would guess without looking) but just about every other aspect of the game my character has to be over 50...

I'm all about dominating fools.
 

Whiskeyjack

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When buying a home, there is a short delay between selecting the purchase dialogue and the gold coming out of your inventory. If you drop your gold or store it in a nearby container during that delay, you get a free house.

Houses are nice, but they're not all that important to your progress in the game. Their main advantage is safe storage; most zones in Skyrim (both indoor and out) respawn at regular intervals, and when that happens, any items you've left in such zones will disappear. Owned houses never respawn, so your stuff won't disappear.

You also get a slightly improved rested benefit-- 5% for sleeping in a rented bed or guild hall, 10% for sleeping in a home you own, or 15% for sleeping with your wife.

I usually pick one with a bunch of mannequins/ display cases to use as a trophy room. But I haven't even bothered to buy one yet on my current play through.
 
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ACamp1900

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When buying a home... If you drop your gold or store it in a nearby container during that delay, you get a free house.

Says the guy who doesn't want to ruin it by making it too easy...
 

Whiskeyjack

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Says the guy who doesn't want to ruin it by making it too easy...

Says the guy who just recommended that a noob buy the 25k gold house in Solitude.

That's fair, though. I just don't think this little exploit is likely to ruin anyone's game.
 

ACamp1900

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Ha, did i actually recommended he buy it.... now?

;)


I try to avoid exploits when i can, but sometimes the 'drunk' gets the best of me (I know that will shock all you IE scholars) and earn some cheap shizz...

I remember one where you keep summoning Dedra and killing them to earn a bunch of level ups... I did that for about ten minutes once...
 

ulukinatme

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My favorite house recently has been part of a mod called Helgen Reborn. It's a series of quests where you help this guy rebuild Helgen into a thriving town. If you complete the quest you get to take the main tower in the center of town as your own. It comes with a nice living quarters, a basement with tons of weapon racks, mannequins, bookshelves, etc. Finally, theres a trophy room/cave where you can display some of your kills (A taxidermist will stuff/create the trophies for you after each kill lol)

Just some of the Trophy room/cave:
35841-1-1386507149.jpg

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More trophies:
35841-4-1373569834.jpg

Crafting room:
35841-1-1386108232.jpg

Guild items (Thieves Guild trophies) and Dragon masks, theres also shelves for Bees in a Jar, and one for all your claws:
35841-1-1386107201.jpg

Racks for bows, plenty more for other weapon types:
35841-1-1386105681.jpg

More displays and mannequins:
35841-4-1386103599.jpg

Bedroom area:
35841-1-1386108425.jpg

The tower exterior once the quest is complete:
35841-1-1386108615.jpg
 

ulukinatme

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Nice, I'll have to try that.

If you decide to try it, make sure you don't install the mod from a brand new game. The game gets all screwy when it tries to start a quest to rebuild Helgen...when Helgen isn't destroyed yet :laugh: I usually wait a few days after Helgen's aftermath, then I turn the mod back on. I use the Nexus Mod Manager, makes it easy to turn mods on and off like that and downloading new mods. Do you use it, ACamp, or one of the others?
 

ACamp1900

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OHHhh, so the rebuild Helgen is a mod?

that sucks, it always bothered me how it just remained trashed... even the parts of Whiterun after the war.. everytime I see it I'm like, "Yeah, someone would rebuild this."
 

ACamp1900

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The next Elder Scrolls game should drop sometime in the next 2-3 years (There will clearly be one on this Gen, I am sure of that) … I am interested to see where it goes.

They have fully established continents like Akavir or Atmora that have never been shown, just mentioned within the game/cannon… (Remember Tamriel is not the world, just the lone fully known/explored continent of the world). So they could easily move the entire story to say Akavir, maybe that’s where all the Dwarves went for example…

Even better, open the entire continent of Tamriel as gamers would know it… and have the ability to travel to the new continent where at least half the story takes you.

Honestly cannot wait. I fully expect teasers and stills within the next year, that would fit Bethesda’s typical profile… then the new game around 18 or so months after… Roughly speaking of course.
 
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ulukinatme

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OHHhh, so the rebuild Helgen is a mod?

that sucks, it always bothered me how it just remained trashed... even the parts of Whiterun after the war.. everytime I see it I'm like, "Yeah, someone would rebuild this."

Haha, funny you would say that, I thought the same thing. I hated the fact that there was no way to clean up the mess in some of the cities after the civil war. Someone actually made a mod to clean up the cities...if you dream it...it's probably already out there on the Skyrim Nexus.

I thought the same thing about Helgen too, which made me pleased when I saw someone spent thousands of hours creating this verbose mod with quests and such to restore Helgen to a working town. Theres decent voice acting and everything. You guys need to put together PC's that are capable of running Skyrim (If you don't already have one) and whatever TES game is going to come later on. Considering Skyrim has been out for awhile, it wouldn't take a ton of coin to put together a PC that will run it.
 

ACamp1900

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Unreal Tournament had so many mods... You can clearly do it fo consoles...
 

Whiskeyjack

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If it's like that, I'd argue you must give up any Skyrim discussions as well and not be able to be in this thread! :)

You're cruel, Koon. I contemplated giving up IE and reddit as well, but I'm only flesh and blood.
 
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I don't use a horse. Speaking of jumping, I love how you can scale mountains with ease.
 

Whiskeyjack

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I don't use a horse. Speaking of jumping, I love how you can scale mountains with ease.

I usually just get Restoration to 40. Respite perk = unlimited sprinting.

This is also the only reason I'd ever consider keeping lycanthropy. Werewolf form is fast.
 
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