The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -- 11/11/11! -- It's out!

[Brend]

That sounds incredible! Think I'll have a go at that tonight! I <3 Skyrim.

 

[Max Powers]

True, I thought we were supposed to follow him out.

Anyone know where I can find recipes for potions?

Don't know about recipes...but try eating all of your ingredients...it will unlock some of the properties about each, plus raise your alchemy a bit...helps a lot in figuring out which potions do which.

I'm working with a thief type character. Joined the thieves guild almost immediately and started doing their missions, you obtain some nice armor with sneaking bonuses for joining the thieves guild too.

Somebody asked about factions...I'm not too sure on that one yet and have purposely waited on making my decision, I'm leaning towards the stormcloaks though.

btw a really easy way to level up your smithing involves making lots and lots of iron daggers.

 

[F1 fan]

The grinding wheels are to make your weapon into a "fine" quality increasing it's damage output.

And beyond that even.

I also transfered all of my blacksmithing items to a barrel thats right next to the blacksmith.

Bad idea. I did something similar at the start of oblivion, and after a while, things disappeared. You should really leave your items in an "owned" location. Otherwise they can disappear. Alternatively, if you find someone willing to join you on your journey, they can carry some. You could also buy a house.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Bad idea. I did something similar at the start of oblivion, and after a while, things disappeared. You should really leave your items in an "owned" location. Otherwise they can disappear. Alternatively, if you find someone willing to join you on your journey, they can carry some. You could also buy a house.

I already own a house. I already have a companion and I have no problem losing items. I have been doing it since Fallout 3 and NEVER had an issue. It has been stated that the problem of losing items was only in Oblivion and was resolved in Fallout. There is nothing wrong with storing items in a barrel or other storage devices in Skyrim.

 

[F1 fan]

Not true. Read the game manual for Skyrim. The idea is, that if you were to leave a bunch of valuables around in real life, eventually someone would take them.

Same applies here according to the manual.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Not true. Read the game manual for Skyrim. The idea is, that if you were to leave a bunch of valuables around in real life, eventually someone would take them.

Same applies here according to the manual.

Thats ONLY if you store your items in someone elses storage device that says "owned". Otherwise its perfectly safe. I put over 250 hours into Fallout 3 and nothing ever came up missing. Oblivion is the game that had problems with this. Dont store your items in something that says "owned" by someone else. THATS how your items come up missing. If you put them in a random barrel you will be fine.

 

[F1 fan]

I put hundreds of hours into Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas too. That doesn't mean that Bethesda haven't gone down the same route as Oblivion here. As it happens, one of my homes is a short walk from two blacksmiths, so I'd rather not take any chances.

Of course I wouldn't leave my possessions in a container "owned" by anyone else, but you cannot be sure that yours won't eventually disappear either.

Again, I will say read the manual.

 

[doblocruiser]

Well well, we have a battle mage and a nordic warrior here! Get popcorn ready guys! Some live Skyrim action right here at GTP

 

[F1 fan]

I don't think so.

The point I was trying to make is that Bethesda put a lot of work into creating a believable world. It's not hard to believe that a bunch of valuables left lying around might "disappear" after a while. The game has only been out five days, so at this stage, it is likely too early to know whether they will disappear after an extended period of time or not.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I also didnt think it was a big deal. I will leave my forging items in the Blacksmith barrel as an experiement. If they come up missing then we will know that its not safe to leave items out of your house. I have 35 hours into Skyrim so I guess we will see how long those items can last in a barrel outside the Blacksmith shop. I will let everyone know asap if they disappear. I was just stating I never had an issue with this in Fallout 3 or NV. It is a new game so we will see. Not a big deal. I only have forging items in that barrel anyway so if they do come up missing I can load a save or buy new material. Most of my items are stored safely in my house. If they wanted to get very realistic they could have people break into that and steal items from my house inventory too. It would be like Sims.

 

[CMvan46]

Didn't one of he ingame hints say that things left in containers not owned by you may disappear? I'm nearly positive I saw that.

 

[Omnis]

So I got archmage robes. Thing is, they make you look like a native American medicine man, not really a wizard. Especially when you have a buff Breton as your character.

Camaroboy, if you need a good bow then just go loot the companions HQ. They have some badass Elven gear in display cases. The bow room is always empty.

I want to be a badass smith but I use bound weapons. Once I realized they get all the one hands perks and don't weigh anything, I was like OK IM ON IT.

Bound weapons + atronachs = pwnage. Conjuration and alteration really complement eachother well. Especially for Bretons

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

So I got archmage robes. Thing is, they make you look like a native American medicine man, not really a wizard. Especially when you have a buff Breton as your character.

Can you disenchant them and put the magic onto armor that you like? Some items can be disenchanted and some cant. I found some really good robes, disenchanted them, and put the magic on my current armor, rings, shield, and weapons.

 

[Brend]

University dealt with, now onto the amazing Skyrim! Gonna get me some One-handed stat upgrades.

 

[Omnis]

Can you disenchant them and put the magic onto armor that you like? Some items can be disenchanted and some cant. I found some really good robes, disenchanted them, and put the magic on my current armor, rings, shield, and weapons.

I don't use armor. With iron flesh and perks I have 284 armor while not wearing armor. also, you wouldn't want to disenchant archmage robes. They're unique looking and give you 15% magicka cost off all spells, +50 magicka, and 100% magicka regen.

 

[CMvan46]

Could anybody give me tips on mining ores? I found one mine not far from Riverwood but I only found about 6 ore there. Does the ore regenerate after some time? I was doing it to make money to buy a house so I can actually store things.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I don't use armor. With iron flesh and perks I have 284 armor while not wearing armor. also, you wouldn't want to disenchant archmage robes. They're unique looking and give you 15% magicka cost off all spells, +50 magicka, and 100% magicka regen.

Oh ok the best robes I found had 25% magica off spells and 75% magica regen. I usually disenchant those and put it onto my weapons, armor, and rings. That way I am not carrying robes and armor.
On a side note thats quite amazing you are not wearing armor at all yet still high armor. Also how do you see the total amount of armor? Some pieces I have are around 30 some have 29. How do you know exactly how much armor total you have without just adding it up? I would guess I am at least around 150 with my armor on.

 

[Omnis]

If you go into the apparel menu, there is a total armor readout near the bottom right. Shields don't count as armor, luckily. The catch with the way I'm doing things is that you only have that armor 60 seconds (Maybe 120? You can increase duration with perks) at a time. Seems like longer though. Anyway, it's more than enough time to take out whatever you're fighting. Then you just kite, cast, and move onto the next guy.

Also, for you sneaky cats out there, don't forget about illusion magic. Get that 15x critical sneak attack damage perk, cast calm, then sneak up and wail away at your target.

Winterhold spoilers below

Spoiler

The fight against Morokai at the final quest for the College of Winterhold was SO HARD. This guy ate my crap for breakfast, so basically I had a 20 minute atronach battle with him in order to finally beat him. I hid, and then just sent out atronachs. He'll turn your atronachs against you, but if you have bound weapons you can send them back to oblivion in one hit. So it was basically a long, drawn-out process of keeping up my fire atronach. Worked though. Thank god, because otherwise I would've been stuck there. I'd like to see how some other people have beat him. I tried everything before I just settled on the pussy-out method.

 

[F1 fan]

There is an armour rating in your inventory. Go to the apparel section. If you're not wearing an item that would actually be an improvement on something you are wearing, there'll be a number at the bottom of the screen in red(eg +15).

Likewise if the armour you select is weaker, there will be a number displayed in red with a minus.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I cant believe I havent seen the total armor readout. I have seen the total health but not the armor readout. I will have to check that out. I am guessing mine is around 150ish if even that. I still need to start using the potions.

I am also a little confused on books. Some you pick up and get a bonus right away before even opening, some you have to click "read" to get the bonus. And some do nothing. Not sure how to tell which books will level you up. And do I need to hold onto the book for that bonus or is it permanent?

 

[Omnis]

Books are permanent. Most are just lore, but there are a few that boost your skills like in Fallout. You don't have to take them either, just open them.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Ok thats what I have been doing. If I pick it up and it says nothing, then I will click "read" and usually it will instantly upgrade my character. I did a mission and had about 8 books on me after the mission. I had to click "read" on each one to level up. I forgot I had them for a long time. hah I plan to check out more books for sure but now that I know I dont have to keep them on me, I will probably just read them, and sell right after that. or just drop wherever they are at.

 

[Eric.]

I haven't fought a single dragon yet. I'm doing the same thing I did in Oblivion, ignoring the main storyline completely. The advantage in the previous game was that oblivion gates didn't pop up everywhere. The advantage here is you don't get Dragons randomly attacking you. I haven't come across a single bug or glitch (Apart from a crash to desktop upon loading a saved game, which was fixed by updating my GPU drivers).

I'm level 21. I've bought proudspire manor in Solitude (Cost 25k plus furnishings, bringing it to 35-40k). I've barely scratched the surface of the game yet, and i've put in well over 20 hours of gameplay. My quest list is full of around 25 quests that have been started but not completed.

I'm curious as to whether you can max out your perks for all skills, or whether you have to plan it out in later levels.

Dragons don't seem to be that difficult. At least the two I've killed. There were guards around helping a little, but neither one really focused on me. In fact only the first one even attacked me and the second one (appeared when I was going past Honningbrew Meadery) never attacked me at all and I had to chase after it. I have a bigger issue killing Trolls.

 

[Max Powers]

Could anybody give me tips on mining ores? I found one mine not far from Riverwood but I only found about 6 ore there. Does the ore regenerate after some time? I was doing it to make money to buy a house so I can actually store things.

Ores regenerate over a month in-game time. There are some lists online of the various mines and what ores are in them

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Mining

The best, most profitable mine I came across is Gloomfield mine, it's east of Windhelm and the entrance is located in an Orc settlement. Honestly, I didn't find the mining to be very profitable...but I am just saving up as many different types of Ingots as possible in my house so I can craft whatever I want later.

I found the best way to make money early is fighting dragons. 3 dragon bones and 3 dragon scales will give you a very nice sum of money and after taking a few out, you should approach the 5000 necessary to buy a house

 

[Brend]

Anybody know where to find some Steel Ingots?

EDIT: Got some!

 

[Jay]

Can you disenchant them and put the magic onto armor that you like? Some items can be disenchanted and some cant. I found some really good robes, disenchanted them, and put the magic on my current armor, rings, shield, and weapons.

Hah thats what I did, disenchanted a robe which had 75% magicka regen wanting to use it on my steel armour.. well can't.. I ended up just putting 20 magicka points on my ring instead, was a little dissapointed.

Dragons don't seem to be that difficult. At least the two I've killed. There were guards around helping a little, but neither one really focused on me. In fact only the first one even attacked me and the second one (appeared when I was going past Honningbrew Meadery) never attacked me at all and I had to chase after it. I have a bigger issue killing Trolls.

Some dragons are harder than others and the circumstance matter too, if the dragon it terrorising a town it is easy to hit him while he is busy with other NPC's but alone in the open it isn't so easy. Trolls however are tougher IMO especially due to their health regen but get easier as you level up.

 

[Omnis]

Anybody know where to find some Steel Ingots?

EDIT: Got some!

Riverwood Smith has plenty that you can steel. Get it?

There's also iron ones and they're underneath left of the workbench. You can steal them and they regenerate after a while. Unlimited ingots!

Dragons that go flying around and stuff are super super easy. The skeletal ones that are in dungeons... OMG good luck there buddy.

 

[Seismica]

Dragons don't seem to be that difficult. At least the two I've killed. There were guards around helping a little, but neither one really focused on me. In fact only the first one even attacked me and the second one (appeared when I was going past Honningbrew Meadery) never attacked me at all and I had to chase after it. I have a bigger issue killing Trolls.

That is good to know. The toughest enemies I have found so far was a Forsworn mage (That was killing me in like 3 hits) and an ice/frost troll (or whatever you call them). Both I had to kill with my bow after they got stuck on an object, runescape style

Ores regenerate over a month in-game time. There are some lists online of the various mines and what ores are in them

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Mining

The best, most profitable mine I came across is Gloomfield mine, it's east of Windhelm and the entrance is located in an Orc settlement. Honestly, I didn't find the mining to be very profitable...but I am just saving up as many different types of Ingots as possible in my house so I can craft whatever I want later.

I found the best way to make money early is fighting dragons. 3 dragon bones and 3 dragon scales will give you a very nice sum of money and after taking a few out, you should approach the 5000 necessary to buy a house

There is one in the bottom left corner of the map that is full of gold. I made around 27-28 gold ingots from what I found in there, so over 50 ore can be found. Mining isn't that profitable, it just saves you from buying ores/ingots from NPCs when trying to level up your smithing skill. Smithing is extremely useful, I haven't bought a single armourpiece, i've made or looted all mine. (Maybe it's more profitable than I think, having made well over 40k since I started).

Apparently this game is full of bugs:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EricSchwarz/20111111/8866/Skyrim_or_How_Not_to_Make_a_PC_Game.php

This made me laugh, because i've not had any of these problems.

 

[Fryto]

Dragons don't seem to be that difficult. At least the two I've killed. There were guards around helping a little, but neither one really focused on me. In fact only the first one even attacked me and the second one (appeared when I was going past Honningbrew Meadery) never attacked me at all and I had to chase after it. I have a bigger issue killing Trolls.

Same for me. Didn't kill a troll yet (he slayed me instead), but put two dragons down.

Funny that my second dragon also appeared at the watchtower where the first one appeared. It's starting to look like a dragon graveyard now

 

[Seismica]

Oh wait, I forgot about Giants

After my first encounter i've just avoided those completely. Wonder if I could take one on now...