The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

[Narj]

EDIT: NVM I was doing it wrong.

 

[djxput]

maybe you guys can help me ...

I really like the game - visuals/combat/gameplay ... its just the game balance doesnt make the game that fun for me.

So Ive been trying to come up with ways to make the game challenging yet not impossible (IMO I shouldnt even have to do this (IMO the game should be balanced)).

Here are some things I have done but still feel there is a bit of a lack:

- Hardcore mode; if I die I restart my toon - have tried master level but seems I can do ok then often die to a really tough mob and I was just dying to much to make it fun.
Toned it down to expert and this works much better; still a challenge but not impossible
- No alchemy at All. So no heals in combat or bonus stats or poisons etc ... if I find any potions I just sell em.
- no smithing/enchanting ... seems even without using alchemy smithing/enchanting make the game quite easy.
Im rethinking this because as I get higher level I am finding it quite a bit difficult so was thinking about adding 1 or the other in; probably smithing.


So these are my main rules and they are affective for me and making it fun - but feel a bit stuck so wondering what others have done to make the game challenging yet fun. And wondering about including smithing now; just dont want to be too powerful.

 

[Shedman]

So after reaching level 100 destruction, I feel as though the spells aren't as powerful as I would have hoped. I thought about changing to a more sneak/one handed kinda guy, but as I'm level 45 its getting increasingly difficult to level up and unlock perks. Do you think I should start a new save and focus more on one handed attacks and enchanting?

 

[toon_mad]

Game is massively overrated, I thought Oblivion was good but just cannot see what the fuss is about with Skyrim.

 

[Merlin5]

Anyone else come across the moving army of ants on the tree stump at Pinewatch? I don't know if this is a one off or common to many cut tree stumps. They're not on the stump at Riverwood or anywhere else with stumps that I've come across yet. Cool touch. This stump is next to the cut logs at the lake as you go north of Pinewatch, and Pinewatch is between Falkreath and Helgen, or south west of the Guardian Stones and north east of Falkreath.

http://imgur.com/4nW0y,F0OGR#0
http://imgur.com/4nW0y,F0OGR#1

 

[monkentage]

So after reaching level 100 destruction, I feel as though the spells aren't as powerful as I would have hoped. I thought about changing to a more sneak/one handed kinda guy, but as I'm level 45 its getting increasingly difficult to level up and unlock perks. Do you think I should start a new save and focus more on one handed attacks and enchanting?

Spamming Alchemy, Smithing and to a lesser extent Enchant is a good way of levelling quickly.

 

[j.col]

Had some success today moving "The Companions" quest line forward.

Like a lot of people having completed

I returned to Whiterun only to find it in a 'stuck' state. The relevant NPC

wouldn't give me the next quest in the series:-

despite updating the previously completed quest. Several NPC's had gone to scripted locations and remained stuck.


So since a month in game had elapsed, I did what the bugfix suggested and used the console to advance to the next quest. With Vilkas in front of me in Jovaskrr, I typed the following

setstage C05 0

This removed my existing companion and added Vilkas (as it should do doing the quest normally) - I then got the updates in my Journal and off we set to Driftshade Refuge.

Completing the quest and then returning to Whiterun sucessfully updated the Journal and advanced to the next Quest. I can confirm that all NPCS returned to their normal behaviour and everything seems find again

Hope this helps anyone who finds themselves with this problem.

is there any way to get my quest fixed?

i have a problem with the Thieves Guild,
for the main quest, i quit talking to Mercer Frey before all the speech was finished. (at the end of Loud and Clear iirc.)

i completed
A Chance Arrangement,
Taking Care of Business,
Loud and Clear

but i never recieved the Dampened Spirits quest ( speak to mavern black briar)

now i have tried speaking to her, also tried Mercer and Brynolf but i cant go farther

also do the merchants ever increase their money?
i need to sell some ebony armour, swords etc... but the merchants dont have enough money to buy it off me

 

[Andy90]

I take it you had the update for sucessfully completing "Loud and Clear"?

You've then failed to get the "Dampened spirits" quest during the dialogue between your character and Mercer?

This page details everything known about the Dampened Spirits Quest.

Dampened spirits

It might be possible to invoke the quest similar to what I did, but I would make a backup of your saved games first (I accept no responsibility for a messed up game

According to the writeup, the console command for stepping through "Dampened spirits" is

setstage TG03 stage

where stage is the number of the stage you want to complete. Try

setstage TG03 0

If that doesn't work try

setstage TG03 10 (which should assign a journal entry to speak to Mavin)

 

[G18241]

Just gone up a few levels clearing my house out of blacksmithing supplies Level 30 now, need to start sticking some points into some damage perks as im relying on stealth kills a tad too much, though i started the game wanting to be a mage :/

 

[Amraam]

Anyone else come across the moving army of ants on the tree stump at Pinewatch? I don't know if this is a one off or common to many cut tree stumps. They're not on the stump at Riverwood or anywhere else with stumps that I've come across yet. Cool touch. This stump is next to the cut logs at the lake as you go north of Pinewatch, and Pinewatch is between Falkreath and Helgen, or south west of the Guardian Stones and north east of Falkreath.

http://imgur.com/4nW0y,F0OGR#0
http://imgur.com/4nW0y,F0OGR#1

That is awesome. I'm gonna look for them next time I play.

 

[Evilsod]

So after reaching level 100 destruction, I feel as though the spells aren't as powerful as I would have hoped. I thought about changing to a more sneak/one handed kinda guy, but as I'm level 45 its getting increasingly difficult to level up and unlock perks. Do you think I should start a new save and focus more on one handed attacks and enchanting?

It seems Destruction Magic isn't the end-of as far as magic combat goes because its way underpowered once the top-tier enemies start spawning. After all, the Expert level spells w/ 2/2 Augmented will hit for less than a bow an equal number of perks invested and some of the later enemies take multiple 3x damage sneak attacks to kill.

Needs support from other sources. Conjuration to give you some more firepower and a distraction and you can eventually kill an enemy with a Storm Atronach then animate a powerful undead from him at the same time.
Illusion you can Calm or Fear an enemy to take them out the fight or Fury in the hope they turn on their allies, or just Paralyse people or go invisible and hide to regen and Muffle to help you sneak.
Alteration to boost your armour and Detect enemies to prevent you being ambushed.
Restoration for the obvious healing but you can also counter Undead and defend against spells with Wards (or more likely, Dragon Breath attacks).
One-Handed weapons can be a nice addition if you've armoured up with some Alteration spells or have enough Illusion to be sure you'll never be the target.

Either way, it took me way too long to kill a single Draugr Scourge on Expert with a Storm Atronach and Adept Destruction and they aren't even the toughest Draugr.

If you're willing to sacrifice one perk in Pickpocket you can level it up almost without trying (because apparently the chance jumps massively with 1 point in it), alternatively just reload a lot if it fails. You can gain a stupid amount of skill with it by pickpocketing some valuable stuff like gems and jewellery. I'm already at 51 with it, if I really went for it and pickpocket'd everyone and everything in sight it would be maxed in no time. Illusion is really easy to level too. Simply cast Muffle repeatedly or spam Courage on random targets in town. Not sure if Alteration works the same way or not, it might only work if you engage in battle.

 

[j.col]

I take it you had the update for sucessfully completing "Loud and Clear"?

You've then failed to get the "Dampened spirits" quest during the dialogue between your character and Mercer?

This page details everything known about the Dampened Spirits Quest.

Dampened spirits

It might be possible to invoke the quest similar to what I did, but I would make a backup of your saved games first (I accept no responsibility for a messed up game

According to the writeup, the console command for stepping through "Dampened spirits" is

setstage TG03 stage

where stage is the number of the stage you want to complete. Try

setstage TG03 0

If that doesn't work try

setstage TG03 10 (which should assign a journal entry to speak to Mavin)

Thanks Andy, will give it a try tomorrow.

this explained what i did wrong. (for players who have not done this yet)

Spoiler

If the player breaks into Honningbrew Meadery before receiving this quest, it will not become available Loud and Clear.

After completing the quest Loud and Clear, if the player does not ask Brynjolf why Maven Black-Briar is requesting a meeting, the quest will not become available. Also Brynjolf will not speak to the player, saying only that he has "important tasks to be doing".

 

[Evilsod]

Why the **** is there no grace for accidentally hitting allies during combat in this game. Just had an epic fight with a Dragon at a farm outside Riften. Keeping the Guards buffed with Courage, sometimes healing them (not that you can even tell if people need it since theres no health bar), plinking the dragon with my bow and flame jet, etc. After a bit it flies off and decides to go attack a bear and troll, we chase it, dragon takes off again so I fear both animals while we kill them. Bit more scrapping with the dragon before it flies off to attack a Spriggan... then just before its about to die 1 of the ****ing guards walks in front of me and takes an arrow in the back. Suddenly I've got 2 hostile guards, a Spriggan and a Sabre Cat coming at me, on Master difficulty. Got rid of 1 guard chasing me only to be 1 hit killed from half health by the Sabre Cat, wasting the last 10 minutes spent fighting the dragon...

 

[Merlin5]

Why the **** is there no grace for accidentally hitting allies during combat in this game. Just had an epic fight with a Dragon at a farm outside Riften. Keeping the Guards buffed with Courage, sometimes healing them (not that you can even tell if people need it since theres no health bar), plinking the dragon with my bow and flame jet, etc. After a bit it flies off and decides to go attack a bear and troll, we chase it, dragon takes off again so I fear both animals while we kill them. Bit more scrapping with the dragon before it flies off to attack a Spriggan... then just before its about to die 1 of the ****ing guards walks in front of me and takes an arrow in the back. Suddenly I've got 2 hostile guards, a Spriggan and a Sabre Cat coming at me, on Master difficulty. Got rid of 1 guard chasing me only to be 1 hit killed from half health by the Sabre Cat, wasting the last 10 minutes spent fighting the dragon...

Heh. I had a save game a while back where myself and guards were killing a dragon in riverwood, and after a while, the guards would then start attacking me for no reason that was apparent, I hadn't done anything to them! This happened every time I loaded that game. After a while I showed them who's boss and slaughtered them all, including the dragon. Then robbed them and sold it all in the shop. That'll teach them to mess with the dragonborn

 

[yashiro]

I would suggest that if you're playing on Master your first port of call should be to pick up the Animal Allegiance Shout. Impossible to die VS. any beasts, including Trolls.
And since Spriggans usually summon/or are in the vicinity of bears, it makes them a joke too.

 

[Amraam]

Just 8 more crimson nirnroot to find! God they're tough to find

 

[Merlin5]

Just 8 more crimson nirnroot to find! God they're tough to find

Funny you mention that Amraan, I've got a few to find too. I found the nightshades and the deathbells and earned some money from her.

I've got a dilemma now. I'm starting to kit lydia out in ebony legendary. Got her armour so far, about to do gauntlets and boots. Now I've done the ebony helmet to replace her orcish helmet, but the thing is, I can't see her face anymore.

Ebony helmet

Orcish helmet

Ebony looks cooler and matches, and will be a bit stronger, but orcish is still 60 armour protection and I can see her face. What should I do?

 

[Amraam]

Yeah my Daedric armour is the same. When you look at my character in 3rd person, the eyes and mouth etc are just black where the face should be.

I know which quest you're doing, the one for that black-briar chick I think. They're easy to find, there's a farm that has about 8 in a field, otherwise just look on the shores of lakes and seas. Easier to find them and night as you can see their glow better.

I've now found all the crimson nirnroot in blackreach. Well, 31 actually

I'm finally seeing Dragons again too! I actually just saw two fighting eachother. One had a name (but was still evil), not sure about the other as he scarpered off. Killed the other one one handed

 

[Merlin5]

Yeah my Daedric armour is the same. When you look at my character in 3rd person, the eyes and mouth etc are just black where the face should be.

I know which quest you're doing, the one for that black-briar chick I think. They're easy to find, there's a farm that has about 8 in a field, otherwise just look on the shores of lakes and seas. Easier to find them and night as you can see their glow better.

I've now found all the crimson nirnroot in blackreach. Well, 31 actually

I'm finally seeing Dragons again too! I actually just saw two fighting eachother. One had a name (but was still evil), not sure about the other as he scarpered off. Killed the other one one handed

Yep, same with my daedric helmet, completely faceless. I'm surprised the guards are still cheeky to me tbh, they should be scared.

Are you finding nirnroot for a different quest then, other than ingun black briar? As well as the glow, I listen out for nirnroot since they make a humming sound. Great that you're finding dragons now!

 

[Ezah]

youre obviously getting a bit too attached to Lydia.. dump her and find a new follower I am using Eola, the cannibal one with the dodgy eye atm, and she is excellent!

My Lydia died on the first quest we did together, so I never got that attached