The *playing* Skyrim Thread.

[Huntn]

I thought you could just put the armor in their inventory and they will equip it?

(I don't use followers with this time around. Hard to sneak around with them. Plan to make mage build next time with follower.)

In Oblivion, you could look at their inventory. I don't know how you do that in Skyrim. Regarding folllowers, I like having company...

This, although it can be glitchy. If you give a follower a weapon/armour that is better then they already have then they will equip it, although dual handed specialists will often ignore good one handed weapons in favour of a poorer dual handed weapon and vice versa, light armour specialists can ignore heavy etc.

What should happen is that you follower will be spotted and attacked but not you allowing for some excellent sneak attacks.

Good to know!

 

[Huntn]

*12/17/11- Substantial reorganization of guide posted consolidating class info.

 

[Huntn]

Question: How do you give a follower something?


And from any knowledgeably Elder Scrolls player I'm looking for some input on the following summary describing the conflict between the Stormcloaks and the Empire. Is this close or out in left field? Thanks!

----------------------------------------

The Thalmor and the Empire waged war during a time before modern day Skyrim known as the Great War. Both sides called for an end to the fighting under the condition the Empire ban all Talos worship, among other things, as conceded in the treaty known as the White-Gold Concordat. The Stormclocks are fighting to bring worship of Talos back. But it is not that simple by a long shot.

Which side should you pick? I've read some historical links online and there does not appear to be a "good" or "bad" choice, just compromises. On one hand Imperials try to execute your character at the beginning of the game, have outlawed the worship of Talos, and welcomed the Thalmor who btw, will cheerfully carry out the death sentence for those caught worshipping Talos, and it can be argued the Thalmor have designs on taking over the entire show.

On the other you've got the Stormcloaks led by the great Ulfric himself who comes across as an overly egotistical zealot and who openly practices racism against the elves and anyone not a Nord (i.e: the Gray Quarter in Windhelm). The Stormcloaks are wreaking the Empire which could easily lead to a successful Thalmor invasion. Although the Empire agreed to ban the worship of Talos, it is not actively involved in stamping it out. That honor goes to the Thalmor.

Conventional wisdom say that basically, the Imperials are humanities best hope against the fascist Thalmori dominion, and if you ally yourself with the racist Stormcloaks you will only create a weaker Skyrim and a weaker Empire. So do you pick the racist underdogs, making things easy for the racist, fascist elves or go with the crumbling empire? Lol!

 

[solMac]

From any knowledgeably Elder Scrolls player I'm looking for some input on the following summary describing the conflict between the Stormcloaks and the Empire. Is this close or out in left field? Thanks!

----------------------------------------

The Thalmor and the Empire waged war during a time before modern day Skyrim known as the Great War. Both sides called for an end to the fighting under the condition the Empire ban all Talos worship, among other things, as conceded in the treaty known as the White-Gold Concordat. The Stormclocks are fighting to bring worship of Talos back. But it is not that simple by a long shot.

Which side should you pick? I've read some historical links online and there does not appear to be a "good" or "bad" choice, just compromises. On one hand Imperials try to execute your character at the beginning of the game, have outlawed the worship of Talos, and welcomed the Thalmor who btw, will cheerfully carry out the death sentence for those caught worshipping Talos, and it can be argued the Thalmor have designs on taking over the entire show.

On the other you've got the Stormcloaks led by the great Ulfric himself who comes across as an overly egotistical zealot and who openly practices racism against the elves and anyone not a Nord (i.e: the Gray Quarter in Windhelm). The Stormcloaks are wreaking the Empire which could easily lead to a successful Thalmor invasion. Although the Empire agreed to ban the worship of Talos, it is not actively involved in stamping it out. That honor goes to the Thalmor.

Conventional wisdom say that basically, the Imperials are humanities best hope against the fascist Thalmori dominion, and if you ally yourself with the racist Stormcloaks you will only create a weaker Skyrim and a weaker Empire. So do you pick the racist underdogs, making things easy for the racist, fascist elves or go with the crumbling empire? Lol!

I think it's a pretty decent breakdown if not a little biased. If your using labels, I would think of something more descriptive/neutral and less dramatic than racist, fascist, or crumbling. These imply quite a bit (and things might not be that black and white). One example: there is war-torn history between the Stormcloaks (Nords) and dark elves that has established their dislike for eachother, not simply because they are dark skinned and have pointy ears. Has this made some of them racist? Probably so. In sword and sorcery settings it's very common for one race to be pitted against the other via waring factions.

I agree there is no good or bad choice in the game but I think that's for the better. I think the writers are purposefully making everything gray area which is refreshing. I find it more realistic and engaging when characters and factions have good AND bad qualities to them vs the stereotypical BS. A lot of writers/games/shows/movies are doing this now and it's nice to see our heros and groups with a few skeletons in their closets. I think the choice should be based on whichever struggle strikes more of a tune with your play style vs searching for the most wholesome group to join.

 

[JackAxe]

After reading the above, I'm voting for the empire. I have yet to choose either side.

I have not played this game for an entire week and I probably wont be able to get back to it until Christmas day. :S

BUT, I GOT the soundtrack in today. It's a 4 disc set, so I'm currently importing it into iTunes.

I won't be able to play Skyrim for a few, but at least I'll be able to listen to its music while I work.

++++

MUAHAHHHAAA!!! This game's music is easily one of my favorites and something I'll be listening to for years to come!

The game sounds awesome on my Logitech G35s, but the music sounds so much nicer on my Sennheiser 595s via my external DAC tube amp -- the MacBook Pro's DAC is absolute rubbish!!

Now I'm sad, as I honestly would rather be playing Skyrim now instead of just listening to it. =( But must get ahead of my workload!!!

 

[Pentad]

I too am playing Skyrim on my Mac.

I purchased the DVD and have it installed under Boot Camp and under a Cider Wrapper on OS X.

On Boot Camp/Windows I have:

12.1 Preview Drivers (which I found helped a great deal)
4GB Patch
Defragged my HD via Defraggler

I get excellent frame rates even on Ultra.

Under the Cider Wrapper, the game stutters on Ultra. I realize that Cider (WINE) is not as fast as real Windows but I would like to compare the Cider version with the 4GB patch but I have not been able to get it to run.

I changed the Cider Wrapper to execute the 4GB patch first so in turn it would load Skyrim but it bombs out.

Has anyone else been successful?


-P

 

[deadwulfe]

I think it's a pretty decent breakdown if not a little biased. If your using labels, I would think of something more descriptive/neutral and less dramatic than racist, fascist, or crumbling. These imply quite a bit (and things might not be that black and white).

I agree, even Jarl Ulfric tells the protagonist that he's not trying to eliminate non-Nords. He only wants Nord-country to be governed and ruled by Nords, not by Imperials or the Thalmor. Nords didn't die in the war against the Thalmor just to have the Imperials decide their fate when they gave up and signed the White-Gold Concordant and Nords lost their right to religious freedom. Many who are supporting the Stormcloaks are racists and not much is being done to prevent racist attitudes, but it's not a strictly top-down attitude direct from Ulfric.

 

[Huntn]

Thanks SolMac and Deadwulfe for your input. I did not really write this, but compiled it from comments I've read online discussing the Stormcloak vs Empire conflict. So the racist and facist labels are what other people were saying. That is why I was asking how it sounded. In the game I have witnessed prejudice actions where Stormcloaks are picking on outsiders, in once case a dark elf. And the first Thalmar I met was at Winterhold, there as an adviser, and he is a jerk. But hey if you look at history prejudice is intertwined into the human race don't you think? My tribe, your tribe, etc. I don't really know about the Thalmar being fascist although supposedly they do tout their superiority and are religious zealots. Let me see if I can come up with better "labels", but maybe racist is a good descriptive adjective. I need to go back and see again why the empire was trying to kill me at the begining of the game.

 

[antonis]

Well, all the previous posts did a great job explaining the situation in the land of Skyrim. But if we want to be more realistic and look at the things from our heroe's point of view, I think nobody would join a side that tried to kill him at first place. I believe that the only way for our hero is to take the biased decision and join stormcloaks - the imperials created a revolutionist by the time they tried to chop his head off. Our hero is not a neutral judge, and none expects him to be unbiased. Even more, none would be able to put aside an almost-execution.

 

[WhoGotTheChunk]

Has anyone got mods working on Mac? I've got a few working but ones with .esp files, I need to enable in the launcher. Using Cider it goes straight into the game. Is there any way I can enable the launcher first using Cider so I can select the mods I want to enable?

 

[alphaod]

I have played this for 170 hours so far. I love the game.

 

[Huntn]

Has anyone got mods working on Mac? I've got a few working but ones with .esp files, I need to enable in the launcher. Using Cider it goes straight into the game. Is there any way I can enable the launcher first using Cider so I can select the mods I want to enable?

I'm getting ready to add a section on mods to the MacRumors Skyrim Guide. I have not done this myself.

The normal way to activate an Addon is to launch Skyrim and select "Data" off the top menu. If you have installed your addon correctly, it's name should appear and is activated by putting a checkmark by the name.

The alternate way to activate a mod is to navigate to C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Skyrim\Plugins.txt. Open this file (Plugins.txt) with a text editor. In Windows just selecting "open" in the menu should work. If the addon consists of an .esp file, add a new line with the name of the plugin. If you have no addons currently added it would just say "Skyrim.esm" (no quotes). If you installed something like the Arrowsmith addon (ESP file), you'd add "Arrowsmith.esp" on the second line of the file and then save it so it would look like:

Skyrim.esm
Arrowsmith.esp

Then close the file.

 

[deadwulfe]

But if we want to be more realistic and look at the things from our heroe's point of view, I think nobody would join a side that tried to kill him at first place.

Not necessarily. It was guilt by association. If you're ambushed with a group of rebels, wouldn't several of them say they aren't with the rebels just to save their own necks? Besides, that same faction is the reason why you escape Helgen and are let free in the first place. One could see joining the Imperials as an opportunity for improvement!

 

[Huntn]

I just found my beautiful people mod for skyrim, at least for the ladies. It is wonderful and it works on all ready established characters. The results are stunning. Find it here: CoverWomen.

I also have a confession having just installed Lockpick Pro into Skyrim. I just don't get any good vibes from picking locks and based on the interface, I don't feel that there is any skill involved so it is just an annoyance.

These are in the Q&D or soon will be.

 

[JackAxe]

I just found my beautiful people mod for skyrim, at least for the ladies. It is wonderful and it works on all ready established characters. The results are stunning. Find it here: CoverWomen.

I also have a confession having just installed Lockpick Pro into Skyrim. I just don't get any good vibes from picking locks and based on the interface, I don't feel that there is any skill involved so it is just an annoyance.

These are in the Q&D or soon will be.

I tried installing the no blocky face mod the other week and didn't see the folders they mentioned in the read-me.

SO, having said the above, how does one install a texture mod?

When it comes to lock-picking, I haven't invested any skill points points into its tree, nor do I needs any mods. I can pick adept and expert locks sometimes on the very first try.

 

[Huntn]

I tried installing the no blocky face mod the other week and didn't see the folders they mentioned in the read-me.

SO, having said the above, how does one install a texture mod?

When it comes to lock-picking, I haven't invested any skill points points into its tree, nor do I needs any mods. I can pick adept and expert locks sometimes on the very first try.

See the Skyrim Guide/Mod Section.

Some of those folders don't exist until you install them in the Data folder, the texture & mesh folders are 2 example. However if you are installing a texture mod, in it's contents there should be a Data folder>Texture folder and maybe even an Actor folder inside the Texture folder. So all you'd do is pull the Texture folder from the mod folder and stick it in the Data folder. That's all you have to do. And in the future if you install another texture mod, in Windows when you put another texture folder into the data folder where a texture folder all ready exists, Windows will ask if you want to combine the contents. Of course you say yes.

I don't know about No More Blocky Faces, however my suggestion is to try Cover Women. My character hardly looks like the original in a good way.

 

[Maverick513]

In Oblivion, you could look at their inventory. I don't know how you do that in Skyrim. Regarding folllowers, I like having company...


Good to know!

The follower’s default equipments are not showed in their inventory. You can open the console, click the follower, input "showinventory", then you will get a list. You can remove his/her default/hidden hunting bow and other things by the command “removeitem code amount”. After that he/she will only use the melee weapon and be a better tank.

 

[Huntn]

The follower’s default equipments are not showed in their inventory. You can open the console, click the follower, input "showinventory", then you will get a list. You can remove his/her default/hidden hunting bow and other things by the command “removeitem code amount”. After that he/she will only use the melee weapon and be a better tank.

Thanks for this tip. I'm always interested consol commands. I have found out that you can open a dialog with your companion and tell them you need to trade, then their inventory becomes available.

As far as configuring Skyrim favorites, I assume you can only assign numbers to favorites in the "Q" menu and no letters? Or can letters be also assigned? Gosh, actually I've not tried it, just read the instructions on hotkeys...

 

[JackAxe]

See the Skyrim Guide/Mod Section.

Some of those folders don't exist until you install them in the Data folder, the texture & mesh folders are 2 example. However if you are installing a texture mod, in it's contents there should be a Data folder>Texture folder and maybe even an Actor folder inside the Texture folder. So all you'd do is pull the Texture folder from the mod folder and stick it in the Data folder. That's all you have to do. And in the future if you install another texture mod, in Windows when you put another texture folder into the data folder where a texture folder all ready exists, Windows will ask if you want to combine the contents. Of course you say yes.

I don't know about No More Blocky Faces, however my suggestion is to try Cover Women. My character hardly looks like the original in a good way.

Thanks! I hope to get to this shortly.

And that mod looks awesome! I'm definitely going to put it in. Looking at it, I don't need the other mod, which simply smoothed out the normal-maps of the faces.

The Skyrim CD is freaking awesome! Gives me a few hours of non stop music, which completely focuses my mind.

 

[WhoGotTheChunk]

I installed the lockpick pro mod because it gets tedious when lockpicking. Everyone eventually maxes the skill and I always end the game with 300+ lockpicks.

I've also installed:
FPS Limiter (Helps with mouse lag, a definiate must!)
Glowing Ore Veins 300 (So much easier to see the veins when in the dark)
Nightingale Prime (Easily my favourite armour in the game so why not make it look even more badass)
No More Blocky Faces (Improved visuals)
Realistic Water Textures (Nice mod to the water, just improves the overall visuals)

Couldn't get the Tytanis mod working as it invoves an .esp file and using the Cider port it wont allow me to see the launcher and select the files.
I also would like to install Skyrim4GB but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to using Cider.

The alternate way to activate a mod is to navigate to C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Skyrim\Plugins.txt. Open this file (Plugins.txt) with a text editor. In Windows just selecting "open" in the menu should work. If the addon consists of an .esp file, add a new line with the name of the plugin. If you have no addons currently added it would just say "Skyrim.esm" (no quotes). If you installed something like the Arrowsmith addon (ESP file), you'd add "Arrowsmith.esp" on the second line of the file and then save it so it would look like:
Skyrim.esm
Arrowsmith.esp
Then close the file.

As for this, that path doesn't exists inside the Cider app. I'm gonna try it in a few places and see if any of them work.

 

[Huntn]

Can anyone give me some Alchemy tips. My first try at it, I wasted a lot of inventory trying combine items with resulting "failed potions". Based on what I remember from Oblivion, I mixes items both with positive individual properties or both with negative properties, for example restore magicka, restore stamina. I remember when I first started out there were some categories on the left of the interface that were lit up. Maybe the game was trying to tell me what I could do. I kinda ignored those and looking at my inventory, just started mixing stuff. Any suggestions or a good link? Thanks!

I installed the lockpick pro mod because it gets tedious when lockpicking. Everyone eventually maxes the skill and I always end the game with 300+ lockpicks.

I've also installed:
FPS Limiter (Helps with mouse lag, a definiate must!)
Glowing Ore Veins 300 (So much easier to see the veins when in the dark)
Nightingale Prime (Easily my favourite armour in the game so why not make it look even more badass)
No More Blocky Faces (Improved visuals)
Realistic Water Textures (Nice mod to the water, just improves the overall visuals)

Couldn't get the Tytanis mod working as it invoves an .esp file and using the Cider port it wont allow me to see the launcher and select the files.
I also would like to install Skyrim4GB but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to using Cider.



As for this, that path doesn't exists inside the Cider app. I'm gonna try it in a few places and see if any of them work.

I'll check out your mods, thanks! So far I've intalled 3 texture mods, Cover Women, Lush Grass, and Lush Trees, although I was in Winterhold, probably one of the bleakest places in Skyrim when I installed them so it's hard to tell how much effect they have.

As far as Cider, sorry to hear that. I afraid I assumed, thinking Cider offered somekind of a Windows interface. I'll have to fix that in the Guide. Apparantly the game uses that plugin file to keep track of what mods you want active or not.

 

[whooleytoo]

Can anyone give me some Alchemy tips. My first try at it, I wasted a lot of inventory trying combine items with resulting "failed potions". Based on what I remember from Oblivion, I mixes items both with positive individual properties or both with negative properties, for example restore magicka, restore stamina. I remember when I first started out there were some categories on the left of the interface that were lit up. Maybe the game was trying to tell me what I could do. I kinda ignored those and looking at my inventory, just started mixing stuff. Any suggestions or a good link? Thanks!

I didn't even know you could make failed potions!

You can mix anything with one or more shared properties (such as Restore Health etc..). You can find one property of every ingredient by eating it; so then you can see which items are highlighted in the Alchemy menu to see which items have matching properties and thus can be mixed.

As you mix more and more together, you'll learn the other properties of the ingredients so you'll have more choice in what to mix. Enchanted items can help improve the potency of your potions too.

I just buy/pick up loads of ingredients (in particular, any which I haven't tried before) and mix potions even if I don't need them, and sell on any potions I don't use as their weight can add up quickly.

 

[BenGiller]

Hi Guys,

I'm running Skyrim on my 2011 iMac, in OS X with the Cider wrapper. I completed the main quest and am now trying to actually play the game but it keeps on crashing every couple of minutes or so... That or the sound suddenly switches off when I go into a room or fast travel somewhere. It did do those things while I was playing the main story line but no where near as much as it does now. Does anyone have any idea how this can be fixed? I've tried playing with the resolution and graphics settings but it doesn't seem to be helping. Thanks very much for any answers!

 

[Huntn]

I didn't even know you could make failed potions!

You can mix anything with one or more shared properties (such as Restore Health etc..). You can find one property of every ingredient by eating it; so then you can see which items are highlighted in the Alchemy menu to see which items have matching properties and thus can be mixed.

As you mix more and more together, you'll learn the other properties of the ingredients so you'll have more choice in what to mix. Enchanted items can help improve the potency of your potions too.

I just buy/pick up loads of ingredients (in particular, any which I haven't tried before) and mix potions even if I don't need them, and sell on any potions I don't use as their weight can add up quickly.

Well, lol, that is where I failed. I did not do this. I tried to mix things like Restore Magicka + Restore Health... failed potion, ingredients lost. Next time I'll save before hand and I'll try ingredients with "like" properties like Restore Health + Restore Health.

On another note... Skyrim Combat Management SUKS!
I'm into the game now and although it has some great aspects, after having some experience using my Razr Naga, my number one critique, in comparison to Oblivion, this is the ABSOLUTE WORST spell/weapon combat management scheme. It stinks.This is becoming more apparent as I acquire more abilities. All encounters basically have to be preplanned, go assign ur favorites to a limited number of buttons. This completely takes away from spontaneous flexibility.

It really is a hindrance to flexibility. Would you all say this is a valid complaint? Fingers crossed that someone comes up with a combat management Mod that allows you to quickly select new attacks on the fly.

 

[WhoGotTheChunk]

Hi Guys,

I'm running Skyrim on my 2011 iMac, in OS X with the Cider wrapper. I completed the main quest and am now trying to actually play the game but it keeps on crashing every couple of minutes or so... That or the sound suddenly switches off when I go into a room or fast travel somewhere. It did do those things while I was playing the main story line but no where near as much as it does now. Does anyone have any idea how this can be fixed? I've tried playing with the resolution and graphics settings but it doesn't seem to be helping. Thanks very much for any answers!

FPS Limiter Install this. It might help.

----------

As far as Cider, sorry to hear that. I afraid I assumed, thinking Cider offered somekind of a Windows interface. I'll have to fix that in the Guide. Apparantly the game uses that plugin file to keep track of what mods you want active or not.

It does run a similar folder scheme, its just in transgaming>c_drive>Program Files etc.

One thing might be I installed without the use of Steam. Maybe thats the problem. Also the documents and AppData/%userprofile% folders are everywhere. I shoved that Plugins.txt everywhere I could think of and none of them worked. Wish someone with a bit od cider wrapper knowledge would know (not meant as a bad word to you Huntn)