The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[137th Gebirg]

Holy crap! I went to my last save where the blood dragon appears. I used my Wabajack on him... and he died in like five hits!!! Now I want to use this weapon for the rest of the game

Interesting. Don't recall having seen one of those yet. Where did you find it?

 

[Mr Light]

I was riding through a snowy pass in the south-western part of the map.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I think they randomly start to appear when you're at a certain level.

 

[backstept]

yeah lower levels are just 'Dragon' and as you level up you'll start seeing Blood, Frost, Elder, and Ancient Dragons

 

[Mr Light]

Welp, I'm off for a week long vacation to Orlando... so no Skyrim for a week! I think I'll go through withdrawal

 

[Owain Taggart]

Today's PS3 patch has improved the lag considerably. It's far more smoother now and feels less clunky.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

I haven't been able to make my Wabbajack do actual damage just yet. All it's done so far is turn a Foresworn Briarheart invsisible, at which point I just fireballed his ass. Then it turned a necromancer into an unstoppable Daedric Lord of some sort, who ended up slapping me around pretty badly while talking smack, until he morphed back into the weak necromancer form and I shouted him off a ledge.

As for the xbox 360 patch, does anyone know if it actually fixes quest glitches in saved games or will I have to restart the game completely to get these to work. There are like half a dozen bugged quests in my queue so far, one of which is preventing me becoming a thane of Riften. Super irritating.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ever since the latest patch, I'm experiencing weird lighting issues, and I'm wondering if it's happened to anyone else using the PS3 version. It's hard to explain. Basically, any orange lighting seems to have been turned up to the maximum instead of used more subtly. It's most noticeable in taverns when used to create the warm atmosphere. It's like the orange is brighter and less translucent and more saturated.

Today, I happened to be walking by Helgen and I noticed a strange orange glow through the fence surrounding the town. Looked like the town was on fire and was quite intense, so I went up to the front gate and while it didn't quite look like anything was on fire, it did have bright orange areas that would normally be caused by a fire's glow. Tried reloading and it didn't fix it. I'll have to see if I can get some screenshots of what I'm seeing.

 

[Winterwind]

Is there a way to get screenshots on a PS3? An easy way that is? I've read that the PS3 is capable of them but that the game developer has to allow for it. What I read said that when in game, hit your XMB botton, scroll over to "Photos" and there'll be a screen shot option but sadly, New Vegas and Skyrim don't have that option when I try those steps.

I haven't noticed that lighting issue by the way.

And now, for a funny bit with companions...

We all know that they're essentially only pack mules in a game like this. They have no quests, no real personality, etc but still I use them, well, usually just Lydia.

What I find amusing is the way they've been programmed. There are nine holds in Skyrim, each tracks its crime separately, etc, etc. So I find it really amusing that if I'm in a different hold than Whiterun's, in a building I shouldn't be in (there's a thieves guild quest for example where you follow one of their contacts into a warehouse) and when I try to talk to Lydia, to access her inventory, all I get is her saying "You shouldn't be in here" and I can't interact in anyway until I leave. Why should a housecarl from Whiterun care what I do in Solitude. She does that in other places too.

Adding on to that, what's even funnier... Last night I came out of a building in Whiterun and a student mage asked me for help training so he could join the college (Note, this is not the wizard challenger that attacks you but a student). He asked me to cast a ward spell so he could cast some offensive spells. He then says, when done, thanks for your help and proceeds on his way... and then Lydia runs up to him and cuts him down in cold blood in the street. WTH???

It was amusing but it still speaks to the weaker aspects of the game.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Depends on the games. The games have to enable it from within the game. In DC Universe for example, there's a screenshot option, but I haven't run into any other games that allow screenshots. In other words, you basically have to take a picture of the screen you're playing on with a camera. I really wish more games would have the option as the technical ability is there waiting for use. Anyhow, the issue seemed to fix itself the next day as the game I loaded up didn't have the issue anymore. But I can see what happened. The parts that were orange were without texture where they were supposed to represent embered wood. Textures not loading is apparently pretty common, but I hadn't seen it myself until the latest patch. But what's troubling is that the save games that were saved to represent the issue were missing their thumbnails.

That's a pretty funny encounter btw. I had a funny one myself yesterday. I'm walking along and get ambushed by a group of 4 bandits which I easily take out with my companions. I say companions because I also have Barbas with me as I'm doing the quest. Anyhow, once the bandits are killed I turn around as my companions run towards a mammoth that seemingly just appeared a few feet behind us. It wasn't even in the area a few seconds ago, wtf? No problem though, as we're pounding on the mammoth and we're just about ready for the killing blow when I'm suddenly killed by a giant, which I only ever saw once I was killed. Wow, I had no way out of that one. Felt like I had been set up by the game

 

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Yes, I always steer clear of mammoths. There always seems to be a giant nearby when they're around. Yes, selling the tusks can be lucrative, but sometimes not worth the grief unless you saved your game prior to the engagement.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, in this case though, my companions were at fault for engaging. Stupid companions and their death wish.

Anyhow, I experienced the problem I detailed earlier again, and it was again Helgen. This time I took pictures of what I was seeing.

 

[Winterwind]

That is a weird glitch indeed. I can occasionally see through parts of mountains when I'm ascending or descending but nothing like imaginary fires.

As for mammoths and giants... Mammoths are a great source of grand souls and once you're high enough in level and have some decent, enhanced, armour they're easy as pie. I always start with some good shots with my trusty bow to soften them up then move in for the kill with a quick soul trap spell and a few good hacks.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'm still not entirely sure how to use soul stones, to be honest. I used them in previous Elder Scrolls games, but here the interface is rather different.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

I'm not sure what you specifically mean about 'using' them, so i'll break it down.

1. Find/Buy Soul Gems
1a. If they don't have a soul in them, cast soul trap spell or use a soul trap enchanted weapon to capture the soul of the relevant enemy (petty soul fits in any gem, npc soul only fits in Black Gem, etc)
2. If you want to enchant a weapon, go to an enchantment table, bigger soul gems give better enchantments
2a. If you want to recharge an enchanted weapon, go to the weapon in the inventory and choose to recharge it (should say which button that is at the bottom). It'll show you how much recharge you get with each gem.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I have tons of them that I've picked up. It's the soul trapping that I'm unsure of how to do using this interface since the mechanic wasn't properly explained.

 

[backstept]

I have tons of them that I've picked up. It's the soul trapping that I'm unsure of how to do using this interface.

1. cast Soul Trap on an enemy, or have a Soul Trap enchanted weapon
2. kill away

the gems automatically fill when the enemy dies while under the effect of Soul Trap, assuming you have a gem of the right quality depending on what you're killing

Petty Soul Gem = creatures below level 4.
Lesser Soul Gem = creatures below level 16.
Common Soul Gem = creatures below level 28.
Greater Soul Gem = creatures below level 38.
Grand Soul Gem = any soul except man and mer (NPC)
Black Soul Gem = any soul including man and mer (NPC)
Azura's Star = same as Grand, re-usable
Black Star = same as Black gem, re-usable

 

[backstept]

I read on Kotaku that Bethesda seems to be more committed to Skyrim DLC than with Fallout 3. Todd Howard said that the DLC will seem more like expansion packs than extra quest lines. So less like Operation Anchorage and more like Point Lookout, only a bit more substantial. This of course means a longer wait for DLC, but maybe we'll see some more freebies in the mean time like the high res texture pack on PC, or hopefully some of the fun stuff the devs did for their game jam funtime

I'm hoping for a civil war expansion . . . pick up at the end of Skyrim's civil war, and regardless of who you sided with and who won, take the fight to Cyrodiil and drive out the Thalmor and send the Aldmeri Dominion back to their little island

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, that'd be cool. Speaking of Cyrodiil, what's the story with the tower? Seems like that might have been modeled to give players a view of Cyrodiil at one point in time, but that they eventually hid it.

 

[Hoser]

So I picked it up on Steam yesterday, and it has about as many bugs as the previous games. They always feel like unfinished games, I'd love to say I feel like a beta tester but the previous games never got fixed so it's not like I was testing anything except for my patience. I had a computer crashing bug right at the naming screen, then disappearing weather and water effects (like half of a waterfall or rapids disappearing while I'm swimming in it, or storms disappearing when I turn south), ghost flames all through castles (similar to what Owain posted, but with fire), arrows that get stuck in mid-air.....

...and yet I'm really enjoying the game. Being stalked by dragons, the Norse motif everywhere, simple mobs and NPCs look cooler....it's like a dream game come true. If it weren't for the ever present killer bugs, I'd put this game up in the legendary games category. As it is, I'd say it's the best of the year.