Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Kyero Fox]

RF could be a person's name in letters or something.

[Ak3mi]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

I personally don't want to install too many things that alter gameplay too much, other than what I personally think was retarded in the original. Follower leveling up properly, for example, was critical. And I am still waiting for a mod that force my follower to equip EXACTLY what I want her to wear. She is wearing the heaviest armour just because if I give her Steel, she would swap it with random Dwarven whenever I give her loot to carry. Fallout 1 and 2 got it right; the follower should have fully customised equipment, they should never be allowed to wear and use whatever they feel like.

Other than that, the usual cosmetic changes. Better map that actually show roads (what's the point of a map otherwise?), SkyUI, and that's about it.

Yeah, gameplay changes I don't really feel like they need modded, other then followers like you mentioned.However I do like the sound of the mod which changes how Thiefs play in Skyrim making it harder but more rewarding and adding in more places to sneak around in when in cities. Skyrim's modding community so amazing, the house mod Asteria was mind blowing, really nice.

[Vexx]

I just added the "immersive thunder" mod.... yes, THAT is what a real thunderstorm in the mountains sounds like.

I did figure out which mod was killing my game - sadly it was the huge retexture mod files. Though I have a 560ti and the latest drivers, etc, something in those files utterly breaks the game CTD on the first loading screen.

Mods I'm currently using:

Spoiler for Mod list I'm currently using with comments:

A Quality World Map
ApachiiSkyHair (look, Skyrim has water and soap!)
ArgentCBBEV3v1dot2 (my nod to high fantasy armor)
Armored Circlets by Quickfox (another high fantasy nod)
Assassins Daggers (nice daggers for dual-wield assassin that aren't overpowered)
Athletic Nude Women (women who are in battle probably have muscles, subtle)
Black Elven Armor and Weapons (evil wears black!!)
Blacksmiths have Metals (Ya think they'd sell metal,r right?)
Bright Eyes v1-3
Calientes Female (if you keep the slider bar near "Physically Possible" it is passable, unfortunately very few modders are making armor for *normal* or *petite* frames)
Deadly Archery v2 (a combination of 3 mods I'm liking very much)
Enhanced Night Skyrim (You can see the sky on a clear night)
Every city has various guards outfit TS Edition (nice touch and lore-friendly)
Feminine Running and New Dash Animation (it is actually pretty subtle, nice touch)
Fountain of Youth (high fantasy, thanks)
Immersive Skyrim Thunder v5 (the way thunder in the mountains actually sounds)
Janne Half Elf v1.1 custom NPC follower (not a bad follower, girl-next-door-as-elf candy)
Lydia Young Petite Coed Version ((heavily modified using the NPC Editor mod))
More Blood and Gore (because death is messy)
Nicoroshi Creations (only complaint is that they're a bit too shiny metal)
NPCs Walk at Player Speed (o god this keeps me from killing the NPCs in escort moments)
R18 Argent Armour (nice retexture of the Argent mod)
R18Pn Set - Inner Wear Set (I particularly like this because it fixes a lot of the 12yr old derp unsexy-clinical armors that would otherwise be cool)
Silent Killer-7271 (silent kills are silent)
Skyrim NPC Editor (I'll go to this before the CK)
Smithing Perks Overhaul (fixes most of the "wtf?" bits of the Smithing perk effects)
spelltomeconjureethrealhorse (great mage horsey)
The Dance of Death (for the cinematics)
The Eyes of Beauty
The skeleton of female models - Perfect 3-2 (My eye says this intuitively looks righter)
UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul (absolutely essential unless you obtain followers just to kill them in rage)
UNP - UltraSkimpyNightinggaleArmor (much of the armor out there is derp-stupid but this particular outfit has nice "assassins flair" for my dark elf)
Vendors Have Arrows (why yes, they SHOULD if they are bow and arrow vendors!!!)
Weapons and Armor Fixes (Still testing this but so far appears to correct a lot of wtf in the vanilla attributes)

When adding mods that affect the skill tree or perks, be wary (back up your game) because uninstalling them later can have you CTDing when you select General Stats on the menu. I went through several perk mods before settling on one and am not sure which one did the "evil" to re-install it. My guess is that each gamesave contains perk data - modified perk data from a now uninstalled mod is read by the General Stats function as corrupt, but instead of saying "durrr?" it crashes the whole game.

I've also been tinkering with a few mods that add sewer systems and thief access points (windows, climbable, etc), but don't really have a recommendation yet.

[Kyero Fox]

you guys are light weights, I remember my Oblivion file had like 100+ mods

[DuoRanger]

im still waiting for a Dwemer version of the Liberty Prime + the Leather Armors from Fallout

unfortunatelly, these ones are impossible thx to bethesda policy about their games(even FO1 and 2 are on the list)

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by DuoRanger

im still waiting for a Dwemer version of the Liberty Prime + the Leather Armors from Fallout

unfortunatelly, these ones are impossible thx to bethesda policy about their games(even FO1 and 2 are on the list)

Dwemer version of Liberty Prime was in Morrowind, it got destroyed.

[Kyero Fox]

that was awesome XD

[DuoRanger]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Dwemer version of Liberty Prime was in Morrowind, it got destroyed.

that one doesn't count!

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

that was awesome XD

for a few seconds i've heard doom E1m1 music in my mind while i was watching this video!

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Now that I maxed my skills with a dozen skill points left over as a fire/lightning mage, I end up having to decide what to do with the spare points.

I had been using the Longhammer as my backup weapon at this point, so I end up maxing the Two Handed skill as well with the spare skill pints.

To be frank, Destruction isn't weak; I don't have trouble killing things with it. Ironically it is those annoying mages with their ward spells that made me pull out my hammer. It is just faster to bash the heads of mages because their HP is so low.

So now I end up becoming a hybrid class. Lightning for everyone non-magical, and hulk-smash anyone with spells.

On that note, the Thunderbolt spell is a little bugged. When dual cast with stagger, the enemy become immune to it during their recovery animation. So I now mostly use Chain Lightning, as for some reason it CAN hit staggered enemies.

I also use chain lightning for hunting. Mighty useful to hit things far away when you just need to hit close, and can usually take down two targets at once. Lightning is also good for shooting hawks.

EDIT: What am I suppose to do when meeting enemies in the water? Strange that Skyrim does not allow under water combat of any kind, but still kept the killer fish.

[DuoRanger]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Now that I maxed my skills with a dozen skill points left over as a fire/lightning mage, I end up having to decide what to do with the spare points.

I had been using the Longhammer as my backup weapon at this point, so I end up maxing the Two Handed skill as well with the spare skill pints.

To be frank, Destruction isn't weak; I don't have trouble killing things with it. Ironically it is those annoying mages with their ward spells that made me pull out my hammer. It is just faster to bash the heads of mages because their HP is so low.

So now I end up becoming a hybrid class. Lightning for everyone non-magical, and hulk-smash anyone with spells.

On that note, the Thunderbolt spell is a little bugged. When dual cast with stagger, the enemy become immune to it during their recovery animation. So I now mostly use Chain Lightning, as for some reason it CAN hit staggered enemies.

I also use chain lightning for hunting. Mighty useful to hit things far away when you just need to hit close, and can usually take down two targets at once. Lightning is also good for shooting hawks.

EDIT: What am I suppose to do when meeting enemies in the water? Strange that Skyrim does not allow under water combat of any kind, but still kept the killer fish.

detruction is horribly overpowered without mods in this game, if you take a icestorm or 2 ice spears... GG

you can slow down a dragon with frost perks, you can kill a dragon in midair with lightning at max.

thank god that there's mods to balance this

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by DuoRanger

detruction is horribly overpowered without mods in this game, if you take a icestorm or 2 ice spears... GG

you can slow down a dragon with frost perks, you can kill a dragon in midair with lightning at max.

thank god that there's mods to balance this

Defensively, I think most players aim for max magic resistance as soon as possible anyway. As for offence, I skip ice spells entirely because too many enemies are immune or resistant to it. Ice spells are nice in theory, just not in Skyrim with Nords and Frost Trolls.

On a different matter, I found it easy to switch to Two-Handed late game because I am a pack rat. I spent 50% of my stat points on pumping stamina just for the extra carry capacity. This meant that I never had to worry about running-out of Stamina in power attacks.

[Urzu 7]

When working with mods and when they say back up your game, do they mean create a new save, or make a back up of your game saves? Noob question, I know. I'm guessing it just means the former.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

When working with mods and when they say back up your game, do they mean create a new save, or make a back up of your game saves? Noob question, I know. I'm guessing it just means the former.

They mean back up a safe un-modded copy of the entire game folder (entirely separate from game saves). Some mods do not un-install properly, some make changes that can make gamesaves unusable.

So when you have a very clean working Skyrim, copy that "steam/steamapps/common/skyrim" folder somewhere else.

[Urzu 7]

I was playing a lot of Skyrim, never beat it, and then put it down. I wanna start a new game and start from scratch with it. The thing is, when I was working on my first play through, I was power leveling a lot, and then I realized, many hours into it, that I was taking away of lot of the enjoyability of it through power leveling. I stopped playing, starting coming up with ideas for a second character, and then patch 1.5 released and people were saying it was really buggy, so I put off starting a new game.

Is the game not so buggy now? Is it pretty stable again?

I came up with a lot of characters I could play when thinking up a second character. I think I may just go with an archer who makes use of a lot of stealth attacks. If I put some perks into one-handed (sword) and block, do you think I could do fine when facing three to five bandits? That is when I had problems as an archer.

What is one's advice for dwemer ruins and automatons? Do you ever get swarmed by them, or could you be fine with stealth attacks? I'm wondering if I should invest Illusion magic to help with groups of bandits, groups of foresworn, and automatons.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

I was playing a lot of Skyrim, never beat it, and then put it down. I wanna start a new game and start from scratch with it. The thing is, when I was working on my first play through, I was power leveling a lot, and then I realized, many hours into it, that I was taking away of lot of the enjoyability of it through power leveling. I stopped playing, starting coming up with ideas for a second character, and then patch 1.5 released and people were saying it was really buggy, so I put off starting a new game.

Hmmm, I have no idea what "bugginess" they're talking about... the only problems I've had were mods. This appears to be the stabilizing fix:

FIXES PC: if you move your Skyrim.ini and Skyrimprefs.ini files out of their folder , then run the game , this should fix any major problems. The game wil create new ini files with more appropriate settings

I came up with a lot of characters I could play when thinking up a second character. I think I may just go with an archer who makes use of a lot of stealth attacks. If I put some perks into one-handed (sword) and block, do you think I could do fine when facing three to five bandits? That is when I had problems as an archer.

If you carry a dagger in the primary hand, a sword in the offhand - that seems to get a good balance of dagger stealth and 1hand. I wouldn't mess with block unless you're using a shield (unlikely if you're stealthing about). OTOH, some people carry three or more weapon sets -- I'm just not one that does that. My archer still gets overwhelmed if too many mobs close in (more than 5 and one is a boss) .. but then that's part of being an archer, planning to avoid that risk (occasionally running away and returning with a follower).

What is one's advice for dwemer ruins and automatons? Do you ever get swarmed by them, or could you be fine with stealth attacks? I'm wondering if I should invest Illusion magic to help with groups of bandits, groups of foresworn, and automatons.

I go through a lot of arrows in dwemer ruins (sniper fire) and try not to let them even get close. Personally, I haven't experimented with illusion much but my assassin is on tab to try that now (she's lvl 45).

Interestingly, the character I'm having the most challenges with is my 2H Rawr Grrl ... I so often play other types that screaming in up close and going nuts is just hard to get used to.

[Urzu 7]

I was thinking of going around with a bow, a sword, and a counter-dagger (it is from a mod, the counter dagger acts as a shield). I could try regular dagger and sword.

I just want to figure out something that will help me with 4 or 5 bandits or foresworn and automatons.

I want to put many perk points into archery and alchemy, and then choose either Illusion or sneak. Do you think I'd be fine if I just focused on sneak instead? If I had 5/5 for the starting sneak perk plus one or two fortify sneak accessories, do you think that I could create distance from mobs most times? If that is the case, I'd rather be a great sneak than invest in Illusion just for mobs and automatons.

[Vexx]

Hmmm, not sure I can answer authoritatively.... I've maxed out Sneak on a couple of characters but really haven't done much with Illusion to see how that compares. The re-disappear sneak perk works fairly well if there are shadows to work with. I can't totally saunter around ... but maxed sneak is pretty effective with conservative patient tactics.

[Urzu 7]

If I'm making a sneak character, maybe I could become a sneak thief. Can a sneak thief do the Companions quest line just fine?

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

If I'm making a sneak character, maybe I could become a sneak thief. Can a sneak thief do the Companions quest line just fine?

Yeah, I didn't have much problem with it, once or twice when there were a lot of mobs I had another Companion or two with me ... but then I really didn't use the special powers of the Companions and at the end I gave the powers back.

As a sneak thief, I just avoid open warfare and being out in the open. Now to be clear I haven't tried to complete the main dragonborn questline yet -- mostly because it just didn't make sense to me for that character.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

If I'm making a sneak character, maybe I could become a sneak thief. Can a sneak thief do the Companions quest line just fine?

The thing with sneak, is that there is a secret; if you enchant a pair of muffle boots, you don't need ANY sneak skills at all!

Muffle boots you can buy or obtain in the game is only 50% effective, and the sneak perks are also only 50% effective. But Muffle Boots that you enchant yourself, even if you have crappy Enchant skill and use a petty soul gem, would give you 100% sneak!

And I do mean 100%. Your armour would make no noise no matter how heavy they are. You can run and sprint everywhere undetected as long as you are in sneak mode. In short, the left side of the sneak perk tree is useless. As soon as you got home-made enchanted muffle boots, no further perks in sneaking or skill points will make a difference. So just focus on the right side of the sneak skill tree for the sneak attack damage bonus.

(Just remember that any non-dagger weapons would make a sound when used, that you need a special perk to cast spells quietly, and Falmer can sense you.)

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Muffle_%28effect%29