[PC/360/Ps3] The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Impressions, tweaks and more!

[Arclight]

Quick question. I have learned two shouts, but when I click on them it says I require a Dragon Soul. Well, I have 3 or 4 Dragon Souls. How many do I need for a shout?

[Roguetad]

Quick question. I have learned two shouts, but when I click on them it says I require a Dragon Soul. Well, I have 3 or 4 Dragon Souls. How many do I need for a shout?

When you click on a new shout, you should see an option titled, "Unlock".  Select unlock (X button the 360 controller I think), the game will ask you if you are sure, and then you can spend 1 dragon soul to unlock the selected shout.  It took me a moment to figure that one out. 

[Destructor]

I'm the same way.  I bought a horse, but generally don't bother with it.  It is a pain to dismount every time I see something cool to pick up or fight, and the horse is a pain in combat.  It doesn't help when every enemy charges the horse and ignores me.  It might sound great to have an equine tank, but I have to scramble to keep him alive in each and every fight.

If the health of the horse works the same way as your companion NPCs do, it can't 'die' unless it gets hit further once it falls over (by you, as NPCs will ignore it at that point). Just watch your AoE spells and such so you don't roast it to death.

Is there any way to get rested state back once you are a werewolf or is that one of the downsides of being one?

It's one of the downsides. There's also some always-on upsides as well, so it's worth your time keeping it, IMHO.

And in my 30 hours of gameplay (just hit level 21), I've had exactly one crash - I full on alt-tabbed away from the game (instead of shift-tab to chat with someone) and it didn't recover. I also had the 'blue cave wall' bug happen once, but a reload fixed that issue.

[skystride]

I was getting one crash per hour consistently.  But then I did this recommended graphics tweak which significantly improves the lighting/shadows and that tweak mentioned starting with the TESV.exe instead of the launcher.  For some reason, I haven't been crashing at all after doing this.

I love how fast this game loads when starting up first time or transitioning with fast travel and outdoor/indoor.  It's literally about 2-5 seconds.  I wonder if consoles are much worse?  I didn't even install on a SSD.

[rittchard]

I am absolutely loving this game, love love love it!  I've definitely experienced some of the minor annoying nits mentioned here (the compass icons, huh?  no info about your condition was driving me nuts, thx for explaining where that is) but in general the pros far far outweigh the cons.  Every where I go I want to take screenshots, it just looks so fantastic.  The couple of dungeons I've been in were just amazing.  Some parts look like regular dungeons but then all of a sudden I'd feel like it was something I'd never seen before.  Very cool.

The one thing I really love is the (fast) travel system.  This is really the best overall travel system I've experienced in a game of this nature.  You really do have to "earn" making it to a location, but once you've earned it once you can jump back at will.  Similar to the waypoint system of Diablo in some ways, but even better.  Just making it to a new location is an adventure, I really enjoy just running around and admiring the scenery, then stumbling upon a bandit hideout or whatnot.  Sometimes it means getting instakilled, but I've learned to quicksave ALOT.  So essentially I can unlock spots for future fast travel, which I just love.  The other thing about it is you really get the sense of distance and orientation.  You see a bridge or road in the distance and have to make it across some hills and a running brook, but eventually lo and behold, there's that road you were looking for.

And sometimes the simplest things amuse me in this game.  I was in a shop and kicked a pot on accident.  The lady was like "hey!" and berated me or something.  I just loved that moment, silly as it was.

- - -

Note on the wonky hotkey system:  first of all what's up with only 1-8 hotkeys, grrr?  Also if you change one of the "primary" keys, be careful.  I swapped F to be sheathe for a while, but then I couldn't set favorites any more, or rather I think it probably flipped favorites to C (I'm not sure).  

Another minor nit/question:

Spoiler for Hiden:

My housejarl chick (Lydia?) apparently got screwed and I don't see how I could have avoided it.  When you're in the dungeon with the speed jump puzzle with 3 gates, you have to use your dragon jump to make it through, and she never followed me.  I assumed she'd meet me at the front entrance.  Maybe I missed something but it's too late now.  I wonder if I should go back and look for her lol.

[hepcat]

I was getting one crash per hour consistently.  But then I did this recommended graphics tweak which significantly improves the lighting/shadows and that tweak mentioned starting with the TESV.exe instead of the launcher.  For some reason, I haven't been crashing at all after doing this.

I love how fast this game loads when starting up first time or transitioning with fast travel and outdoor/indoor.  It's literally about 2-5 seconds.  I wonder if consoles are much worse?  I didn't even install on a SSD.

I wonder why it improves the lighting/shadows?

[Blackhawk]

I'm the same way.  I bought a horse, but generally don't bother with it.  It is a pain to dismount every time I see something cool to pick up or fight, and the horse is a pain in combat.  It doesn't help when every enemy charges the horse and ignores me.  It might sound great to have an equine tank, but I have to scramble to keep him alive in each and every fight.

If the health of the horse works the same way as your companion NPCs do, it can't 'die' unless it gets hit further once it falls over (by you, as NPCs will ignore it at that point). Just watch your AoE spells and such so you don't roast it to death.

Only in theory.  I've had my horse die three times now to NPCs, my follower twice.

[Turtle]

So, I noticed that my follower commented a bit on stuff that happened, so far it's just been some remarks on generic stuff like, "Hey, it's a cave, I wonder what's inside."

Anyone else know if they comment on more story related stuff?

[skystride]

I was getting one crash per hour consistently.  But then I did this recommended graphics tweak which significantly improves the lighting/shadows and that tweak mentioned starting with the TESV.exe instead of the launcher.  For some reason, I haven't been crashing at all after doing this.

I love how fast this game loads when starting up first time or transitioning with fast travel and outdoor/indoor.  It's literally about 2-5 seconds.  I wonder if consoles are much worse?  I didn't even install on a SSD.

I wonder why it improves the lighting/shadows?

this is the tweak:

Before: http://i.imgur.com/CS9yK.jpg
After: http://i.imgur.com/K3cIu.jpg

Required Changes to INI:
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
fInteriorShadowDistance=2500.0000
fShadowDistance=2500.0000
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iShadowMapResolution=4096
iShadowFilter=4
fShadowLODStartFade=500.0000
iShadowMode=4
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bDrawShadows=1
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowMapResolution=4096
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1

[skystride]

Another minor nit/question:

Spoiler for Hiden:

My housejarl chick (Lydia?) apparently got screwed and I don't see how I could have avoided it.  When you're in the dungeon with the speed jump puzzle with 3 gates, you have to use your dragon jump to make it through, and she never followed me.  I assumed she'd meet me at the front entrance.  Maybe I missed something but it's too late now.  I wonder if I should go back and look for her lol.

If she doesn't appear when you fast travel, she is dead and you're a lousy Thane! 

[Morgul]

Is the interface bugging you guys on the PC?

I bought it on the PS3, and my daughter roles up a nord barbarian chick and my son has his orc smasher and I am having trouble getting to play.

Was thinking the graphics might sure be pretty on the PC, but is the UI real bad with the mouse/keyboard or just a minor annoyance/PITA? 

Can I map favorites to my 1, 2, 3 etc?

[hepcat]

I use a 360 controller on the PC version because I couldn't get the hang of the keyboard/mouse combo with this game...which is really kind of annoying.  With the 360 controller though, it's not so bad.

p.s. thanks a lot, skystride!

p.s.s. are these changes added to the skyrim.ini found in My Documents or to the skyrim_default.ini found in the steamapps/common/skyrim folder?

[Arclight]

Quick question. I have learned two shouts, but when I click on them it says I require a Dragon Soul. Well, I have 3 or 4 Dragon Souls. How many do I need for a shout?

When you click on a new shout, you should see an option titled, "Unlock".  Select unlock (X button the 360 controller I think), the game will ask you if you are sure, and then you can spend 1 dragon soul to unlock the selected shout.  It took me a moment to figure that one out. 

That's the ticket, thanks RT.

[jersoc]

Quick question. I have learned two shouts, but when I click on them it says I require a Dragon Soul. Well, I have 3 or 4 Dragon Souls. How many do I need for a shout?

When you click on a new shout, you should see an option titled, "Unlock".  Select unlock (X button the 360 controller I think), the game will ask you if you are sure, and then you can spend 1 dragon soul to unlock the selected shout.  It took me a moment to figure that one out. 

wow wtf is this never explained? I had no idea either. I figured I had to progress the main quest or something. Also kept wondering why I was getting dragon souls and not unlocking them.

[skystride]

p.s.s. are these changes added to the skyrim.ini found in My Documents or to the skyrim_default.ini found in the steamapps/common/skyrim folder?

Under My Documents folder.  And start Skyrim with TESV.exe otherwise the setting reset apparently.  Also I removed some of the duplicate lines in there, I don't know if it matters.

[skystride]

Can I map favorites to my 1, 2, 3 etc?

Yes, press the number key after you hit Q to display the favourites.

[EngineNo9]

Is the interface bugging you guys on the PC?

I bought it on the PS3, and my daughter roles up a nord barbarian chick and my son has his orc smasher and I am having trouble getting to play.

Was thinking the graphics might sure be pretty on the PC, but is the UI real bad with the mouse/keyboard or just a minor annoyance/PITA? 

Can I map favorites to my 1, 2, 3 etc?

There are certainly annoyances with the interface on the PC, and for the first while I let that really get me down.  Once I figured out a few of the quirks and where to find some information I've learned to live with it, and don't really notice it that often.  And it didn't stop me from playing ~25 hours of it so far. 

[Fuzzballx]

I was getting one crash per hour consistently.  But then I did this recommended graphics tweak which significantly improves the lighting/shadows and that tweak mentioned starting with the TESV.exe instead of the launcher.  For some reason, I haven't been crashing at all after doing this.

I love how fast this game loads when starting up first time or transitioning with fast travel and outdoor/indoor.  It's literally about 2-5 seconds.  I wonder if consoles are much worse?  I didn't even install on a SSD.

I was getting about a crash an hr as well straight to DT with no error... shadow settings changes did not fix it.  Running from TESV.exe has, so far, not seen a crash...in a couple hrs...will keep at it and see if it continues to not crash.

[hepcat]

By the way, the game manual is up on steam now.  just right click on the game in your library and you'll see the option to open it.

[Morgul]

Ok, cool.  Thanks for the info.

Playing a mage, its a pita on the ps3 hitting the left dpad and scrolling through a menu every 5 secs to change spells...   If that makes anyone feel better.

IE>

Start off with the light spells in left hand, flames in the right, cause i like the light spell up cause i cannot see shit in msot dungeons ...  
Get jumped..  

up arrow
Scroll down find summon familier
left bumper.
unpause
Cast it
up arrow
scroll through and find barkskin
left bumper
unpause
cast it
up arrow
scroll through and find flame spell for left hand for dual wield bonus
left bumper
unpause
start blasting
SHIT! (hitpoints almost gone cause I am a damn mage in cloth with 100 hitpoints)
up arrow
scroll down find heal spell..
left bumper
unpause
heal
run backwards
up arrow
scroll down to recast familiar

etc.

[Covenant]

You should be able to "hotkey" a couple spells to the left trigger.  Call up favorites, hover over the one you want, press left on d-pad and hold, note the 1. shows up.  now hover over another and press right on d-pad and hold, note the 2. that shows up. Now pressing left/right will insta-switch your left hand spell.  There's some wonkyness in it right now (hit left twice and the spell will equip on both hands and then get out of synch or something) but if you remember which is which, it really speeds things up. It's also easy to fix if it messes up (just repeat the process).

I'm basically doing the same thing as you with my mage. Summon/light on left, flame on right.

[Morgul]

You should be able to "hotkey" a couple spells to the left trigger.  Call up favorites, hover over the one you want, press left on d-pad and hold, note the 1. shows up.  now hover over another and press right on d-pad and hold, note the 2. that shows up. Now pressing left/right will insta-switch your left hand spell.  There's some wonkyness in it right now (hit left twice and the spell will equip on both hands and then get out of synch or something) but if you remember which is which, it really speeds things up. It's also easy to fix if it messes up (just repeat the process).

I'm basically doing the same thing as you with my mage. Summon/light on left, flame on right.

My god thank you.  I owe you a crown and coke.  I will try that tonight.

[Harkonis]

Loving the finishers with a Khajiit fighting bareclawed

[Roguetad]

Is the interface bugging you guys on the PC?

I bought it on the PS3, and my daughter roles up a nord barbarian chick and my son has his orc smasher and I am having trouble getting to play.

Was thinking the graphics might sure be pretty on the PC, but is the UI real bad with the mouse/keyboard or just a minor annoyance/PITA? 

Can I map favorites to my 1, 2, 3 etc?

That's funny...I went through the same decision process for the exact same reason.  My oldest son now plays Skyrim on the PS3, and I play on the PC.  I use a pc 360 controller which works well enough.

[Morgul]

Well, I was not really expecting the daughter to play... She usually plays pet games and mario, little big planet, etc.

But she wanted to, and son protested, and I said look dude, she can play.

So, she names her barbarian chick Xonna..   and I remembered she been watching "xena" on netflix a few months back..

uh oh..   She busted level 7 already,  and stop anytime a wolf bites her horse to protect it, heh..

Must say, huge axe..   geesh 

[jersoc]

bethesda needs to do something about the AI pathing for your companions. Mine was stuck on a cliff in a dungeon. I had to force push her off.

[hepcat]

bethesda needs to do something about the AI pathing for your companions. Mine was stuck on a cliff in a dungeon. I had to force push her off.

There seems to be a few places where the AI pathing just...well...switches off.  I can replicate the problem consistently in a couple of areas on the exact same spot.  Thankfully I also discovered that using the force shout knocks them back into line.

[Greg Wak]

Okay Oblivion this ain't. I already have bailed on a couple of areas that were just a little too tough. I think Skyrim has a lot more atmosphere than OB and I have barely scratched it's surface. Combat is much more satisfying as well and I can feel the connection when I land a solid hit. A couple of nits to pick: I get some graphic corruptions-usually involving shadows. Quiting and starting again gets rid of it. If I hit continue-why does it ask me again if I want to continue? Same with quit to desktop-please don't ask me twice. But I love this game, and I think it will carry me well into and probably past the next steam sale-which is way cool.

[CeeKay]

After a bunch of exploration I'm assuming you need to finish a certain story mission to get dragons to start showing up, no?

[EngineNo9]

By the way, the game manual is up on steam now.  just right click on the game in your library and you'll see the option to open it.

These days it has gotten to the point where reading a manual is generally a joke and all the tutorial info you need is in the game, but I just found out that apparently I have a Powers button (press 'z') and every race starts with some default power.  Cripes, I had no idea there even were Powers to begin with.

[CeeKay]

When you choose a race it mentions them in the description.  That said I didn't know they had a separate button either.

I bet all of this stuff is explained in the strategy guide 

[Turtle]

Ugh, I think I broke my character.

Tried doing too much stuff and now all the combats are ridiculous on normal.

I went with both Sword+Shield and Archery, Light Armor, sneaking, enchanting, and smithing. But with skill points and perks spread out so much, I'm getting wasted in combat, especially since I spent so much time smithing and potion making in early levels.

[Arkon]

So I am up to level 37 with my Argonian Thief.  I have made a ton of mistakes in building him up that have made the game more difficult than it should be...focused way too much on things like picking pockets, sneaking around and opening locks.  Oh and then there is smithing, enchanting and alchemy.

I have some combat abilities, but trying to use daggers, there are good perks if I can get in a sneak attack, but if my 15x damage from a sneak attack doesn't kill something outright, I put out pretty pitiful damage.  Draugr are slaughtering me, not to mention the dragons.

I am considering "rerolling" to a paladin of sorts, focusing on 1-handed, block, heavy armor, restoration and smithing.  Considering going Breton for the racial resist to magic.

[Arkon]

Ugh, I think I broke my character.

Tried doing too much stuff and now all the combats are ridiculous on normal.

I went with both Sword+Shield and Archery, Light Armor, sneaking, enchanting, and smithing. But with skill points and perks spread out so much, I'm getting wasted in combat, especially since I spent so much time smithing and potion making in early levels.

I think it is possible to salvage, and I may do so with my Argonian, but it is tough to say the least.

I really wish it would let me name my save games.

[Destructor]

Ugh, I think I broke my character.

Tried doing too much stuff and now all the combats are ridiculous on normal.

I went with both Sword+Shield and Archery, Light Armor, sneaking, enchanting, and smithing. But with skill points and perks spread out so much, I'm getting wasted in combat, especially since I spent so much time smithing and potion making in early levels.

I think it is possible to salvage, and I may do so with my Argonian, but it is tough to say the least.

I really wish it would let me name my save games.

I've already seen mods that let you change character save locations and such (basically put one into storage it seems), so you can have multiple characters. But yes, it's quite annoying.

Also, find a trainer ASAP and pay them to focus on something. And keep doing it every level. But without some good perks backing things up...

After a bunch of exploration I'm assuming you need to finish a certain story mission to get dragons to start showing up, no?

(minor spoiler)

Spoiler for Hiden:

Correct. Once you've killed your first dragon via the main storyline (which doesn't take long if you follow it) it inserts more dragons into the game world.

[Arclight]

With a thief type, are dual daggers viable? Although ATM I'm playing a two hander brute I've been watching daggers I've seen. They all seem really bad.

[Soulchilde]

With a thief type, are dual daggers viable? Although ATM I'm playing a two hander brute I've been watching daggers I've seen. They all seem really bad.

There are some good talents in the one-handed tree to pump up daggers.  Also, better daggers do better damage.

[Arkon]

With a thief type, are dual daggers viable? Although ATM I'm playing a two hander brute I've been watching daggers I've seen. They all seem really bad.

There are some good talents in the one-handed tree to pump up daggers.  Also, better daggers do better damage.

Actually there is nothing in the one handed tree that is specific to daggers, there is the general damage increase for all one handed weapons perk, and then the dual wield perks, but not are specific to daggers, unlike the sword/mace/axe specific perks.  The only dagger specific perk is in the sneak tree.

[Crawley]

I wanted to go the dagger route but never came across any good daggers (only L17) so stuck with the shield/axe route as secondary to my bow. Actually like pulling out the shield/axe as I love the stagger attack you can do with the shield.

I have been worried about painting myself in to a corner with putting skill points in smithing/enchanting rather than the combat arts. For a few levels I seemed very under powered where just about everything was killing me. Then finally found a few areas that allowed me to progress and now I seem back on track. Sucks that it seems like you can't spend too many points in to crafting.

[Reemul]

Whatever way you look at it you gotta be a badass with the killing skills to survive in the wild, hence the reason you don't see many smiths out in the wilds but safe in town.

Any idea how many perks you can get, is it 50? That seems mroe than enough to put plenty in to the non combat stuff, unfortuantely not before the combat stuff though. Seems like you need to balance it in favour of the combat stuff first then the other if you want to be powerful enough