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I don't have anything against consoles. I'm just a hopeless klutz with a controller is all. So when I say I will stop playing video games if PC gaming dies, it's because I am UNABLE to use a controller. I'd love to have the options of Playstation and X-box...but alas, they are for the more nimble. Besides I'm old and will be dead by then anyway. [Image Can Not Be Found]
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Ah, the latest patch seems to have fixed the save game crashes I was having.
My Enchanting is up to 100 now, so I've enchanted all of my stuff. Between perks and rings and amulets, I have around 90%-100% magic resistance, and I have Destruction Fortification at 100% (which means I don't use Magicak when I cast Destruction spells). I'd like to officially nominate my character as a Terror To Behold. With my Legendary-smithed Dragon Scale armour, physical attacks don't hurt so much anymore as well.
I'm progressing nicely along the main quest lines, and I think I am zero-ing in on the "end game", as much as that applies to Bethesda games. Very cool so far.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. – The Teachings of Don Juan
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Okay then, I'll second the nomination.
EDIT: I just completed the Labyrinthian quest and am Archmage of the Winterhold College. I am sporting legendary Ebony armor with no real enchantments yet but a lot of one-handed weapon perks that makes for mostly one-hit kills on the bad-bad-leroy-browns. I'm at level 31 and feel like some wandering around. Maybe revisit some places that sent me running before.
Boy howdy, there are a lot of explosions in this game. It's like Michael Bay on a computer. This is fun and all but I'm starting to want a little Woody Allen. At least he can get Scarlett Johansson to work for him.
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This overwhelming notion floating around the web that followers cannot die-- unless by your own hand-- is completely incorrect. It is true that most enemies will refocus their attacks when your follower is "downed," but in some very close quartered situations where there are quite a few enemies they can and will just aim at anything.
Last night I lost my fourth follower, and not one of them has died at an awry attack launched by my hands. It just takes usually a tough boss encounter. Last night I lost a guy named Vorstag while clearing out some catacombs for a dremora prince, Meridia. I lost my first follower to some named crazy fellow in a barrow den outside of Iverstead.
The most interesting one was the elf, Faendal from Riverwood. While out adventuring with him I lost sight of him after attacking a camp of bandits. I returned to Whiterun and received a letter from the Jarl that Faendal had been killed and left his gold and belongings to me in a will (what a nice guy!). I never found his body.
It is indeed possible.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
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See? This is why super heroes shouldn't have sidekicks. It's just a lot of heartache and post traumatic stress waiting to happen.
Ebony armour looks cool, Scout - if you're going to enchant it, it is well worth putting a lot of Perks into Enchanting. I've read that some people put Fortify <Weapon Skill> on almost every bit of armour, and that it is apparently pretty wicked. I made a set of clothes that had Fortify <Smithing> on just about everything, and wear those clothes whenever I improve my weapons or armour, to get them up to high levels. I haven't made clothes with Fortify <Alchemy>, but it is supposed to work really well for potion makers.
When I get bored with the game, I will enchant all of my clothes with Fortify <Pickpocket> and just run around stealing everyone's clothes. I stole my in-game wife's clothes, but whenever I re-enter my house, she just spawns the same clothes and wears them again. Doesn't matter if I reverse-pickpocket other clothes on her, she still wears the same drab stuff.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. – The Teachings of Don Juan
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I have been working my enchanting up between quest forays. I read about the Banish Daedra enchantment being the most lucrative and therefore the fastest leveling and lo, I walk across the street from my house in Whiterun to the Drunken Hunter Pub and the owner has a Glass Banish Bow for sale. I bought it, disenchanted it into a spell and now all the little daggers I made to level smithing to a 100 are worth around 850 septims a peice. I usually use a lot of enchanted stuff in the Elder Scroll games. I went crazy with enchanted armor in MW.
In Skyrim I have some alchemy rings and helmets and the same with smithing. I have figured out how to make Fortify Enchantment and Fortify Smithing potions and have started using them a bit. The money is beginning to pile up. I'm still happy with the balance at default. Some epic dungeon battles and nice animations for my one-handed sword critical kills. Woop. I level mostly via combat and when I get four levels that way, I craft stuff for a level then go back to combat. It keeps the balance about right.
Lydia is starting to fall behind even though I have her well outfitted. I finally had to break down and add Healing Hands to give her a boost. I did watch her run around with a dot of health and take quite a bit of punishment at basically 1% health. So far she has only gone down via friendly fire...but she gets knocked down a lot too. I'm starting to set her at the back of the party and lead with Mr. Dremora.
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...Haven't focused too heavily on smithing because I'm a light armor wearer and have only switched sets three times. Yesterday I finally had a much needed house inventory purging. Smelted all my ore, brought my hides to the tanning rack, smithed a crap ton of jewelry and proceeded to enchant and sell said jewelry, and lastly got rid of some of my dragon scales and bones. I'm light armored all the way, and I've read that the dragon remains are for nothing other than heavy dragon armor, so I'm parting ways with it as I can.
I may not have unlocked the best enchantments yet but from my work so far it seems the fortify archery and fortify sneak enchantments give items more value than most others. This is good for selling.
Question: does anyone know why a lot of houses and merchants have some symbol etched near their doorways? It's like a block with 4 or 5 bars inside it ... I haven't heard any references to it in game. The only thought I had was that it could be a way to show your loyalty to the Empire or Stormcloaks.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
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xtal, I think there are two versions of dragon armor, light or dragonescale and heavy, or dragonplate.You could make a set of dragonscale and have it all be light armor.
I think those carvings have something to do with the Dark Brotherhood or Thief guilds. Or I just assumed so. Like how hobos used to mark gates to yards with warnings and such.
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Yes, xtal, you can make light armour from the Dragon Scales, and heavy armour from the Dragon Bones! I'm wearing a full set of Dragonscale Armour that I made myself (and enchanted myself). You'll also use the Scales and Bones to improve your armour, once you've created the various bits and pieces.
*IF* I was going to take Lydia out with me, I'd enchant an ebony/deadric one-handed weapon with paralyse and absorb health (so she stuns her prey, and heals herself with hits) - I think i'd be able to enchant her stuff with around 70% magic resistance (I'm not sure of the percentages, but I think rings can do around 20%, necklaces/amulets can do around 20%, and shields maybe around 30%), and also some fortify health regeneration (so she regenerates), and also lots of fortify heavy armour and fortify one-handed. I'd also consider putting a Muffle enchantment on her boots, too. That should make her pretty tough. The highest level Enchanting perk lets you place two enchantments on each item.
Oh, I've finished the main series of quests, too.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. – The Teachings of Don Juan
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i am still playing and loving this game. Dark Elf (battle mage) moving along slowly as I always do. I have a house in
Whiterun, Lydia as a sidekick (I go back and forth about whether sidekicks are a plus or minus), a horse etc. I am trying in this game to be more focused on developing skills. Mainly magic (destruction), one handed, sneak, alchemy.
So far it is working. I am still alive. I have done only a bit on the main quest to get some shouts. I am currently working on the Staff of Magnus. I am having fun.
Kay
Imagine life with no hypothetical situations.
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Hopped back onto the Main Quest after joining the Dark Brotherhood. I finally made it to Sky Haven Temple, home of the Blades. I remember doing a lot of Blades quests in Morrowind so it's good to be back working with my fave sword guys. Got my butt handed to me the first time I tried to get to the entrance. Lots of high level Foresworn and a Blood Dragon at the river where I first tried to cross. Second time I went upstream and around and came down the other side and had a lot less Foresworn to wade through. What we found inside sent me back to the Throat of the World where I talked to the greybeards' leader at the very top of the peak. I have M'joll as my follower at the moment. She is pretty good at melee but tends to wander away. As I spoke with the greybeards leader about the history of dragons and men and how Skyrim got to be like it was, basically a big backstory dump that sort of went on and on, M'joll stood behind me and yawned the whole time. She is an action girl. Too much talking bores her.
I'm a lowly member of the Companions, the Blades, the Thief Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, not really advancing in any of their quests yet. I joined mostly to use their trainers. Lydia is holed up in my house in Whiterun since I switched to M'joll, so I think I'll recruit her to the Blades and set her up in Sky Haven Temple.
I've been trying to level up my Alchemy in order to make some good armor. Didn't know that I could return to a trainer each time I leveled up. Once I figured that out, I used the Whiterun Alchemy trainer until I hit her level cap. The big kahuna Alchemist Trainer is in the Dark Brotherhood so I sort of had to join them.
I've found a lot of enchanted weapons but nothing better than the stuff I smithed myself many levels ago. My favorite shout so far is the Marked for Death. I use it at the start of a battle with a dragon and it seems to help soften them up to some degree.
I'm at level 38 now, still wearing my ebony armor and using ebony weapons. Have enough Dragon parts to make about 6 Dragonplate sets at this point. Fast traveling a lot, which happens in real time, seems to trigger the appearance of a dragon. I guess they come about every two days at this point.
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Jarrod: Not 100% on this, but I think enchantments and boosts are capped at 85%. So even though something might be enchanted to 90%, the last 5% don't actually work. May want to double-check this.
xtal: Even if you aren't using heavy armor, the ability to improve your armor (especially enchanted armor once you get a lvl 60 smithing perk) is great. It's got to be the easiest skill to level as well. Just buy up all the leather and iron you can get your hands on, and make a million iron daggers and leather bracers. Added bonus: enchant your main weapon with soul trap, and collect a ton of souls with which to place low level enchantments on those crap daggers, and level that ability as well.
There are also some lovely PC mods for smithing which allow you to craft some of the specialized armor like thieves guild (my favorite armor in the game), Forsworn, Brotherhood, and so on. Dragon Scale armor, though the most powerful light armor in the game, looks kind of silly to me.
Also, those sketches on doors and the like are coded messages from the thieves guild. Once you join, you can find a book in their HQ which lists all the symbols plus their meaning. It's also online I'm sure.
As for companions, give them spell books (and I'm pretty sure) they will use the spells. If you give them magic staffs, they will use the hell out of those. Great way to boost their abilities.
My favorite shout is slow time, which I understand at the 3rd level allows you to GRAB ARROWS IN MID FLIGHT!!
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Hey Armand, I know that armour is capped at 85%, but I hadn't heard the same was true about enchantments... All I know is that dragon breathe doesn't damage me any more, some melee damage does, when I have a heap of people on me, and magic barely damages me too. Oh, and I cast all of my destruction spells without using any magicka.
Speaking of mods, did you guys see that Skyrim one that improves performance by 40%?
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/.....be-faster/
I just picked up a Disarm shout, which I intend to have a lot of fun with.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. – The Teachings of Don Juan
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I've been using that mod for a while now, and it really did improve my frame rate significantly. I also started using this one today:
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/dow.....hp?id=4463
Your jaw will drop to the floor. It looks so freakin amazing! It's a bit trickier to install than your average mod, but the results were well worth it. The screenshots don't do it justice. Night time is just so cool looking now!!
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I still haven't enchanted my ebony armor. Just plain ebony. I do have an enchant on my ebony sword but nothing on the apparel yet. As a result, the dragon fights are starting to get tough again at default difficulty. I have to watch out for sneak one hit kills on my character from sneak ranged attacks too. I keep upping alchemy and enchanting and making better potions and better alchemy and enchanting suits for the day when I finally have to apply enchants but I kinda want to see how high a level I can get before I am forced to start wearing enchanted armor to survive. Right now I'm only at level 39 so it's not that bad yet. I'm afraid I'll get bored once I make my super armor but I want to be ready to craft a set once it gets too hard.
I was trying to finesse the first few Dark Brotherhood kills but with no real sneak or ranged weapon skills I finally I just said "screw it" and walk up and clobber them with my sword. Had to pay a fine the first time but the next two I managed to find the victim in isolated areas.
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I hammered out a set of deaedric armor this weekend, gave my ebony set to Mjoll, whose repetitive banter is driving me bat shit crazy. I got Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing at 100 and have all my improve Enchanting and Smithing potions ready to go. Just have to decide what I want to put on mine and M'joll's suits.
Ran into my first Ancient Dragon last night. Luckily I was at the Mage College entrance and was able to hide under the arches and toss fireballs for about 5 min. Meanwhile all these super mages are strolling around like it's a spring afternoon…Jeez guys, think you might want to lend a hand? A couple of them finally did but it's the usual Bethedsa cognitive dissonance. In a game were dragons are all anyone can talk about, when one does appear, half the NPCs don't even seem to notice.
Most fun of the weekend was when I was on my way to Shimmermist cave at night and a Blood Dragon literally landed right on top of me. There are wimpy dragons so it was no problem but actually a lot of fun. Flames blinding me, then total darkness, then more flames. Shimmermist Cave was beautiful, all phosphorescent glowing organic matter dripping down from the cavern ceilings.
Once I enchant my armor it's off to Blackreach to do some heavy duty exploring. I'm at level 45 and still having a blast. Am jumping between Dark Brotherhood quests, main quests and misc stuff. I stopped at the Companion Quests when they took me into the underreach and showed me what they expected me to do. Not sure I want to dive down that rabbit hole quite yet. The Thief guild just isn't doing it for me right now so I've sort of abandoned them.
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I haven't posted my progress for a few days because my progress has been, well, halted.
My save file was just tipping over 8MB, it told me I had played for 130 hours, and I was level 30. Some time last week I experienced what was only my second or third hard freeze of the PS3. Oh well, let's power down and call it a night, start up tomorrow. (It's worth mentioning that at the time of the crash I was just messing around with a newly created character.)
Next day fire up Skyrim, go to my load screen, scroll scroll scroll . . . ummmm, where is it? Where the hell is my 130 hr save file?? Quit Skyrim, look in the save game utility . . . I see all my Skyrim saves and one other file: "Corrupted Data."
Fuck.
A bit of Googling tells me unless I want to stick this file on a flash drive and peddle it to some experts (yeah right) then it's done. Cooked. Over.
I know what you're thinking: just use your other most recent save file. Well, I save often, but I don't like creating a boatload of save files; I keep a few old saves at key decision points then just stick to one for a while. My next most recent save on that character was at the 83 hour mark; in other words I had totally lost 50 hours of progress. In a game like Skyrim that's pretty heartbreaking.
Rather than trudge on from there and regain lost ground I made the decision to abandon the PS3 version and get the game for the Xbox. I can have control over how often I save, and I can make tweaks to improve performance if necessary, but I can't control what file my PS3 chooses to corrupt when the system hard freezes. How or why it happened to the most important save I had (out of about 8 or 9 total) I don't know. I decided I don't want that sort of thing out of my hands; so yes, I've put those 130 hours to rest. I've moved on. Even though that's the longest play time I've ever spent with any RPG (not to mention that I was probably another 100 hours away from finishing the game).
I decided to spend another $60 on the Xbox version because while I have now spent over $120 to buy Skyrim twice, I know the value will outweigh that cost in the end.
So I've abandoned my spry wood elf archer in favour of a Redguard spellsword. My new character is half tribute to my initial character (they share the same face paint, see) and half tribute to my first real exposure to The Elder Scrolls, which was TES Adventures: Redguard.
Here we go. Again.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
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Scout, I found a mod for you. (readers: squint carefully at the word "mod" and you will see that the font is faintly navy blue and is therefore a link)
If I weren't playing Star Wars: The Old Republic every free gaming moment, I'd install this mod.
Even not playing, I'm going to search out the other character mods mentioned in the article. The more over the top (hair, color palette, BIG eyes…did you see her backpack? [Image Can Not Be Found]), the more likely I will install.
Edit: Xtal, wtf? [Image Can Not Be Found] [Image Can Not Be Found] [Image Can Not Be Found]
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That was my face too, Yap.
[Image Can Not Be Found]
How are you liking SWTOR?
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
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Well, as to how I'm liking SWTOR, if having 8 alts correlates with enjoyment, I must be having fun.
Voice-overs are so good, as are class-based personal stories,* that I am attached to both "me" and my story arc as well as my companion's.**
My plan is lvl 30 *** for at least two classes in both Republic & Sith factions. Hells, I probably won't match your herculean 130 hrs, but my interest begins wavering at 50+ in any game, so that's ok.
* each class story is different thus 8 alts
** so far, I've only earned the first of five
*** after which combat difficulty ramps up considerably, so I've read
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