The *playing* Skyrim Thread.

[TrulyYuki]

I know, i'm double posting!!!

Hey, where are you guys storing your items? I still don't have enough to buy a place and had to hobble around for hours looking for a place to put my loot.

I bought a house... and store all my things at the winterhold college. I have WAY too much stuff but not enough people have money to sell my things too. BUT, I don't really need money as much anymore. I make the things I need or find them on quests.

My tip- delete Oblivion. Install Skyrim.

I hope he did.

When in your Q menu, press any of the number keys while hovering over the desired weapon/spell with your mouse. It will hotkey it.

SOOO. I haven't even touched the hot key. I forget about "favorites" all the time too.

When looking at items in the Inventory ('I' key) screen or magic/powers/shouts in the powers ('P' key) screen, you can click the 'F' key to favorite/unfavorite them. Then when you exit those screens back into the game, the 'Q' key will bring up a list of your favorites. You can then hover over the items/spells in the favorites list with your mouse cursor and assign some of them to number keys.

I need to spend time time to actually learn the keyboard for this game. I'm wasting so much time when there are quick ways to get to the map, journal, etc.

I didn't really see much about shout, any of you using them? How? and Why can't I use them over and over again in a fight? I only have 2 shouts I can actually use, the wirlwind and the unrelenting force.

 

[whooleytoo]

I didn't really see much about shout, any of you using them? How? and Why can't I use them over and over again in a fight? I only have 2 shouts I can actually use, the wirlwind and the unrelenting force.

I find them quite handy, although the recharge time is a bit slow, true. The whirlwind one lets you reach places you couldn't otherwise, and is also handy for getaways if you're running from someone/something with very low health.

In a swordfight, the unrelenting force is good for staggering opponents so I can get a couple of extra jabs in before he/it fights back.

The flame one is quite good too, even in its weakest "one word" form. I'll often poison a sword/arrow with Weakness to Fire, and strike the opponent, then hit them with the Fire shout, then switch to a double-casting fire spell and finish them off, usually easily.

 

[TrulyYuki]

I find them quite handy, although the recharge time is a bit slow, true. The whirlwind one lets you reach places you couldn't otherwise, and is also handy for getaways if you're running from someone/something with very low health.

In a swordfight, the unrelenting force is good for staggering opponents so I can get a couple of extra jabs in before he/it fights back.

The flame one is quite good too, even in its weakest "one word" form. I'll often poison a sword/arrow with Weakness to Fire, and strike the opponent, then hit them with the Fire shout, then switch to a double-casting fire spell and finish them off, usually easily.

Agreed. I've used unrelenting force to push down some difficult master Draugrs. I have a lot of words under shouts but when I try to equip them, they say i need dragon souls... i have 9, wtf?

 

[whooleytoo]

Agreed. I've used unrelenting force to push down some difficult master Draugrs. I have a lot of words under shouts but when I try to equip them, they say i need dragon souls... i have 9, wtf?

Learning a new shout involves first learning the shout 'word'. These are usually written in whatever cryptic language on certain walls in Skyrim, or else you can be taught them. The first word teaches you the basic shout, and the two subsequent words teach more powerful versions.

Once you know the word, you need to unlock the shout in the shout menu. You can only do this if you have learned a word that hasn't yet been unlocked, and have dragon souls to use to unlock them. AFAIK, each dragon soul unlocks one word; i.e. one new version of a shout.

 

[SidewaysTakumi]

And just to add, the longer you hold down the shout button, the more powerful the shout you throw (assuming you've unlocked all 3 levels of the shout). If you have only unlocked two levels, holding down the shout button will shout the most powerful shout you have unlocked.

Man I love the game guide. So huge tho...like 650 pages.

 

[Rodus]

New 1.3 patch finally released ( to fix everything the last patch broke). Spell resistances work fine now, although the fan-made script extender fixed that last week, and the backwards flying dragons look like they are sorted too.
Great news from Bethesda is that there is an official LAA PC patch coming out next week. They actually listened to the players!

 

[TrulyYuki]

Learning a new shout involves first learning the shout 'word'. These are usually written in whatever cryptic language on certain walls in Skyrim, or else you can be taught them. The first word teaches you the basic shout, and the two subsequent words teach more powerful versions.

Once you know the word, you need to unlock the shout in the shout menu. You can only do this if you have learned a word that hasn't yet been unlocked, and have dragon souls to use to unlock them. AFAIK, each dragon soul unlocks one word; i.e. one new version of a shout.

So in the Shout menu do I unlock the shout using a dragon soul... how?
I know where to find the shouts... i've found way too many already. I assumed they become unlocked with the dragon souls automatically. I'm sure i have as many shouts as I do dragon souls. But I guess this way you get to chose which you unlock. I want the slow time down one... looks WAY cool.

On a different note,
I still can't get my game to run smooth. I have the Latest 3.4GHz quad-core iMac with the 6970m graphics card. why can't I get it so run like butter.

AND anyone try out the update yet?

 

[Rodus]

So in the Shout menu do I unlock the shout using a dragon soul... how?
I know where to find the shouts... i've found way too many already. I assumed they become unlocked with the dragon souls automatically. I'm sure i have as many shouts as I do dragon souls. But I guess this way you get to chose which you unlock. I want the slow time down one... looks WAY cool.

On a different note,
I still can't get my game to run smooth. I have the Latest 3.4GHz quad-core iMac with the 6970m graphics card. why can't I get it so run like butter.

AND anyone try out the update yet?

Click on the greyed out shout and hit 'R' (on PC) to enable it.
Are you running the latest 11.11 Catalyst drivers for your GPU, they can make a big difference.

The update seems to have fixed the stuff the last one broke.

 

[Erasmus]

Are you running the latest 11.11 Catalyst drivers for your GPU, they can make a big difference.

Can you provide a link to the correct 11.11b/c drivers? Preferably 6000M compatible Windows 7 64 bit? Double preferably from AMD's website?

I'm presently playing at 1280x800 on High, + high quality shadows. I would have thought I would be capable of more than this with a 6750M.

 

[TrulyYuki]

Click on the greyed out shout and hit 'R' (on PC) to enable it.
Are you running the latest 11.11 Catalyst drivers for your GPU, they can make a big difference.

The update seems to have fixed the stuff the last one broke.

I can't seem to locate the driver for that. I downloaded and installed the latest version but I'm not seeing anything. I hate windows sometimes. Spotlight in mac finds everything... search in windows doesn't get you anything.

 

[Rodus]

I can't seem to locate the driver for that. I downloaded and installed the latest version but I'm not seeing anything. I hate windows sometimes. Spotlight in mac finds everything... search in windows doesn't get you anything.

Try these
http://downloads.guru3d.com/downloadget.php?id=2823&file=1&evp=c3428d9fd2bc20ce33a692942c367468
Or
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/hotfix/catalyst_11.11_hotfixes/amd_catalyst_11.11c_windows_vista_7.exe

Latest 11.11c performace drivers for ATI cards and these should support mobility cards, you should get a frame rate boost. Also try turning down the shadows settings if they are on high/ultra, Skyim is badly optimised and very CPU bound and shadows can hurt performance, another boost can be gained from turning off Anti-aliasing, if you are running at 2560x1440 (native res) then you don't really need it on.
Even people with high end gaming rigs and tri-fired 6970's are having frame rate issues due to poor coding.

 

[Erasmus]

The shadows in this game are VERY disappointing. Even on high they still look like crap.

P.S. Thanks for the link, Rodus.

 

[JackAxe]

Yeah, they're pretty tough. However, someone commented on the bethesda forums that resistences were broken from the recent patch. I noticed that my Nord was taking a lot of damage, so they're pretty right. Besides, the racial resistence to frost is 50%, not 20%, so something isn't right with taking that much damage from their breath.

A statement from Bethesda made it sound like we shouldn't expect any more patches until after the hollidays, though...

I honestly don't know where I got 20% from.

Kind of sad now, that I have 100% frost resistance when my Elven Shield of Frost Suppression is equipped.

Well, then hopefully my next Frost Dragon will be easier.

The Draugr lord/masters are so difficult. I mean, I end up beating them but they can kick my butt. the others are easy to kil. One shot with my Ebony enchanted bow and down they go.

Dragons, i've killed 9 based upon the souls i've collected from dragons. Giants, i've got them down now. They are super easy to kill.

I LOVE THIS GAME! I'm trying to understand how shouts work and how scrolls work. I haven't done any smithing, so I'll work on that tonight. I should learn to enhance my armor and weapons. I wish there was a way to remove quests. I started a quest where they want me to eat a guy and I refuse. That just is gross. I don't care if its a fake, I won't do it. I could just "fail the quest" and kill all those people... I'd much rather do that. haahaa. While I'm stuck here at work, I'll read this thread a bit more thoroughly so catch any help I've missed.

Your bow makes me jealous. I still can't find an Ebony Bow. I'm only 28 right now and have only killed 6 dragons. :O

Ha, I know which quest you're talking about with the eating. The way I replied to the a certain someone, has my quest marked for me to kill them.

You can remove or reset quests in the console from what I've read. Anyways, I see that others have answered on the shouts and stuff, so I won't be redundant.

On a different note,
I still can't get my game to run smooth. I have the Latest 3.4GHz quad-core iMac with the 6970m graphics card. why can't I get it so run like butter.

AND anyone try out the update yet?

If you've already tried lowering your graphic setting, the best option is to go down a resolution, or even two. Try running the game at 1900 x 1080.

The iMac has 2560 x 1440 screen and your GPU is a mobile version, so even though it's a really capable GPU, that's still a ton of pixels to move around. I'm running the game at 2560 x 1600, but that's on my i7 920@3.8Ghz(Completely stable) with a beast of a GPU; the GTX 580.

 

[Bob Coxner]

An interesting critique of Skyrim (and other Elder Scrolls) here: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7290527/one-night-skyrim-makes-strong-man-crumble I haven't spent enough time with any of the games to comment with any authority but I would be interested to hear the views of some veterans.

 

[antonis]

Since I haven't been too far into the game yet, I'd like to ask anyone who has: after being Harbinger with the Companions guild, are there any real quests to get from them ? The next 2 quests I got after being named Harbinger where identical: go to the X house, and kill the beast that is in. Does this mean the Companions quests are done ?

 

[Rodus]

Since I haven't been too far into the game yet, I'd like to ask anyone who has: after being Harbinger with the Companions guild, are there any real quests to get from them ? The next 2 quests I got after being named Harbinger where identical: go to the X house, and kill the beast that is in. Does this mean the Companions quests are done ?

Yes, future quests from them are infinite and pointless.

 

[cerote]

Your bow makes me jealous. I still can't find an Ebony Bow. I'm only 28 right now and have only killed 6 dragons. :O

I am 38 and have 17 dragons down. Oh and you have to go for smithing and get the deadra smithing. The daggers and bow with that are insane. Just making it and one upgrade put it at 100 damage. Daggers are at 47 damage. So working my way to brign up enchanting and alchemy to make boost smithing to make a better one.

 

[JackAxe]

I am 38 and have 17 dragons down. Oh and you have to go for smithing and get the deadra smithing. The daggers and bow with that are insane. Just making it and one upgrade put it at 100 damage. Daggers are at 47 damage. So working my way to brign up enchanting and alchemy to make boost smithing to make a better one.

I'm still at glass for my weapons.

I can only make steel items on smithing, so I guess I should start making silly items just to sell to get it up. I'd like ot guild the rest of my elven light-armor. My enchanting is up to 48 from what I recall, still not great, but way better than my smithing.

 

[cerote]

I'm still at glass for my weapons.

I can only make steel items on smithing, so I guess I should start making silly items just to sell to get it up. I'd like ot guild the rest of my elven light-armor. My enchanting is up to 48 from what I recall, still not great, but way better than my smithing.

To level smithing fast just make iron daggers. Takes about 5 to get a level and the mats are cheap. And the amount of xp they give never goes down. So you can do that all the way to 100. I used whiterun cause the two smithing people right at the start of whiterun sell the mats and the smithing stuff is right there.

 

[deadwulfe]

I used leather bracers to skill my smithing. With a decent level of speech, you can buy the hides from merchants for less than they sell the equivalent amount of leather. Then enchant the bracers with petty soul gems to make some money back when you sell the enchanted bracers.

 

[AlanShutko]

Just ordered this bad boy today... I remember that I purchased an Oblivion strategy guide when I played it and it was very helpful for making sure I did not miss anything. Thinking about it for this game. Hmm.
__________________

I can't imagine a strategy guide having anything that UESP is lacking.

 

[deadwulfe]

I was going to say the same thing about the Skyrim Wikia, but I suppose you gotta read something while in the bathroom!!

 

[JackAxe]

Thanks cerote and deadwulfe. I didn't realize it was that easy to lvl on smithing. :O

I have both of those sites bookmarked, but I'm still going to get the book.

 

[SidewaysTakumi]

I really enjoy having the book as a reference as well. At only $17 bucks it's a pretty good deal.

 

[JackAxe]

LIFE!! Must bring LIFE into the thread!

I had an occasional issue, where as the game would start to slow down, as if it was going swap crazy when my PC has a ton of ram(and of course the game is only 32-bit without the mod.) -- I think because of a memory leak. Dragon Age: Origins did the same thing after a longer period of play and was eventually patched.

Anyways, either I just have not encountered it again, or this 1.3 update resolved it. When it would happen, I would save and then restart the game, and then all was happy again.