The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Buccaneer]

Focusing on Destruction, what training and spells should I be looking for?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Focusing on Destruction, what training and spells should I be looking for?

I like Firebolt, my son likes Ice Spike - both are level 25 spells. Lightning Bolt is the other one at that level.

There are three NPC trainers in the game, without spoiling it too much I'll tell you that two are court wizards (in service of their respective Jarl) and the third is one of the people at the college in Winterhold.

edit to add: Otherwise, in terms of "training", it's really just a matter of using the destruction spells that you have frequently enough to level up the skill. In the beginning, that'll be Flames-Frostbite-Sparks, each of which is more (or less) effective against various types of opponents.

[Buccaneer]

Thanks for all of your help.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

[random thoughts]Josh, both dragons I have killed I have gotten their soul...somehow. Not sure what for, even though I do have the Shout thing but haven't used them at all yet (except to get by one booby-trap).

If you've visited Whiterun already, it's kind of explained what's going on. If you haven't, I shan't spoil.

Normally, when I kill a dragon, I get the soul. Last night was the first 'lol no' moment I've run into, and I think it's because I hit 'search Frost Dragon' as soon as the dialog popped up. It interrupted the soul gathering and now there's exactly one dragon corpse in my world for which the skin hasn't burned off.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I've got considerably more souls than I've found words (takes one soul in order to be able to use each word that you find). That's because my path has taken me near very few words so far (most are hidden within certain dungeons).

FYI...

Spoiler

When the guards say "I saw a dragon flying _____," check your map. There will probably be a mountain nearby that now has a stylized dragon head adorning it. There are words of power on those mountains, which you can collect after taking care of the dragon, and on one of those mountains, I actually found all three parts of a shout.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Whoa, didn't know that. Thanks for the spoiler SA, I'll keep a closer watch going forward.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I like Firebolt, my son likes Ice Spike - both are level 25 spells. Lightning Bolt is the other one at that level.

There are three NPC trainers in the game, without spoiling it too much I'll tell you that two are court wizards (in service of their respective Jarl) and the third is one of the people at the college in Winterhold.

edit to add: Otherwise, in terms of "training", it's really just a matter of using the destruction spells that you have frequently enough to level up the skill. In the beginning, that'll be Flames-Frostbite-Sparks, each of which is more (or less) effective against various types of opponents.

That was what I was missing. I did the cave with an overlord/warlord and I was simply too weak and was progressing very slowly (only managed to get Lydia and me out when the overlord got stuck on something). I was almost ready to quit. Then I went to the mage in Solitude and found that I could quickly level up Destruction. I went from 32 to 52 in about a half hour (including the two caves the court wanted me to deal with). Now I feel a lot more confident with flames and firebolt. Thanks.

Now I need better destruction but I'm not seeing it so far. I will go to Wilhelm and then to Winterhold to see what they have.

Regarding shout, I assume I will get to the point where they actually kill things?

[Eaglesfan27]

Got the game for Christmas... I can barely hear the early voices in the opening scene. Is it my speakers or was it that way for everyone.

[JPhillips]

I had trouble with volume on several cut scenes.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Got the game for Christmas... I can barely hear the early voices in the opening scene. Is it my speakers or was it that way for everyone.

My speakers are cranked way up.

[Groundhog]

I have subtitles turned on but yeah, sometimes I have trouble with the voices, it's like the game thinks I'm further away from the NPC than I actually am.

[Eaglesfan27]

Thanks everyone. Might still get some better speakers.

[thesloppy]

Just to be a pendant, are you guys using some sort of 5.1 receiver/device but outputting it to a single set of speakers/headphones? I occasionally get wonky audio when my receiver misinterprets the 360's output.

[mckerney]

I have a 7.1 headset and haven't had any problems with voices, though they're usually pretty loud overall.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Regarding shout, I assume I will get to the point where they actually kill things?

The powers of the Thu'um are many and varied

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The powers of the Thu'um are many and varied

Spoiler

Somewheres early on I got the 'Aura Whisper' shout, which is just detect life, but that thing is my crutch. I shout pretty much every ten seconds, when in a dungeon/cave.

[Buccaneer]

Spoiler

Got to meet the dragon at the top of the mountain. Interesting tale. Slowly beginning to see how the Shouts play into everything.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Spoiler

Somewheres early on I got the 'Aura Whisper' shout, which is just detect life, but that thing is my crutch. I shout pretty much every ten seconds, when in a dungeon/cave.

Spoiler

The one I referenced in my earlier spoiler is ventriloquism. I wonder how useful that would be in the Thieves Guild quests.

[Buccaneer]

I did one quest that made me sick. Somehow I decided to do a thieves quest and had to beat up two women. That was despicable and I will never do another quest for thieves again, not that I needed to in the first place (except to find Egbern(sp?).

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

That was despicable and I will never do another quest for thieves again

I never did the thieves guild line in Oblivion, not willing to do it in Skyrim either (I had already befriended my first intended target, just couldn't do it).

Even my son, typically a chaotic neutral kind of player at best, revolted at the thieves guild line in Skyrim. Told me that he'd decided they were genuinely bad people as opposed to the more gray area guild in Oblivion.

[korme]

What do you guys know about dragon masks?

[korme]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I never did the thieves guild line in Oblivion, not willing to do it in Skyrim either (I had already befriended my first intended target, just couldn't do it).

Even my son, typically a chaotic neutral kind of player at best, revolted at the thieves guild line in Skyrim. Told me that he'd decided they were genuinely bad people as opposed to the more gray area guild in Oblivion.

The Thieves Guild rewards you with some great things, however. Very glad I did those challenges

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

I did one quest that made me sick. Somehow I decided to do a thieves quest and had to beat up two women. That was despicable and I will never do another quest for thieves again, not that I needed to in the first place (except to find Egbern(sp?).

Er...I didn't have to beat up either woman. I threatened to drop one's statue off a cliff and implied I'd track the other woman's family down if she didn't pay her debts.

Why are you running around beating up women when there are other options available to you?

[Lonnie]

Yeah you can be a thug without laying a hand on a woman.

[Buccaneer]

I guess because my Persausion was very low? I know I could've walked away and I will here on out. My bad.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Lonnie

Yeah you can be a thug without laying a hand on a woman.

Same for me, I've done the Thieves Guild quests and I haven't beaten up any woman who hasn't asked for it. I may have

Spoiler

assassinated a woman on her wedding day

for the Dark Brotherhood, but that's different than beating her.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

I guess because my Persausion was very low? I know I could've walked away and I will here on out. My bad.

I could be wrong, but I don't think there was a speech check on them. I think you just needed to do some digging before confronting the person.

[RainMaker]

With the recent updates, is it safe to install this on the hard drive and not lose the HD textures?

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

With the recent updates, is it safe to install this on the hard drive and not lose the HD textures?

I think so. I know the water still looks gorgeous for me post-updates, and that wasn't true during the texture degradation the first time around. I'm probably going to reinstall one more time, though, since the last time I did was in between the first and second patches. Just to be on the safe side.

[Buccaneer]

Spoiler

Damn. Took the Elder Scroll to the top of the mountain, saw the event of the past and then that damn dragon showed up. Long fight that took both my son and I manning the keyboard. Was not prepared for that nor expecting that but Lydia and I survived just fine.

[korme]

My roommate just became a werewolf. It seems all right, he's doing werewolf missions now, but I don't know if I'd ever do it. Also, your basketball skills don't improve AT ALL

[SackAttack]

I like that you can still do Radiant missions in the Companions questline, but...

Spoiler

Not thrilled that they go "Oh, hey, you're the boss now" and then chastise me with "I don't wanna hear about any deaths, okay?" when I say 'Hey, what needs doing?'

[Edward64]

My son and I have been playing it like crazy over the holiday week. Great game overall with some dings.

I think the smithingskill is somewhat facetious. I wish there was some other real method of increasing that skill or paying someone to craft the weapon/armor for you (e.g. all I'm doing is buying a bunch of iron ingots and leather strips after each quest and creating an iron dagger to get to smithing 60+).

The character faces are god awful. They are detailed but why can't they (at least the humans) be more human-like-realistics? It doesn't seem to be gpu constraint anymore.

Why can't your companion/aide travel with you on the horse and buggy? I pay for the solo-travel to new destination, fast travel back to pickup the companion/aide and then both fast travel to new destination.

Trading and selling interface is cumbersome.

After the 10th time of selling something to general/weapon store, the store keeper should just say "hello" and bypass the canned speech.

Really enjoying the reassuring "thud" sound when sniping.

[RainMaker]

Sort of getting annoyed with all the glitches/bugs on quests. Have about 3 right now that I can't finish due to bugs.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Why can't your companion/aide travel with you on the horse and buggy?

Mine doesn't get on the buggy in the cut scene but always shows up with me.
(That's on 360)

[Buccaneer]

Lydia and I teleported with the two blades to get close to Sky Haven(?), except the blades wouldn't follow us there or really move. I managed to get there days later after some detours and sure enough, the blades were there fighting in that camp. Same thing with my companion, Lydia. Even if she is stuck somewhere, going through a load gets her right by my side again. The game has a good mechanism of getting people where they need to be.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Why can't your companion/aide travel with you on the horse and buggy? I pay for the solo-travel to new destination, fast travel back to pickup the companion/aide and then both fast travel to new destination.

No need to go back and then come back again. Just fast travel to where you are, and they will show up. So for instance if you took the wagon to Solitude, walk a few feet then fast travel to Solitude. They'll likely be right at your side.

Still, im with you in principle, they should just get on the wagon with you.

This might be my favorite game of all time, but I could spend 8 hours giving my views on minor changes that could make the next game better.

[RainMaker]

I have an issue trying to liberate Falkreath. I can stand in the spot but can't get the prompt to start the mission. Trying everything but I don't know if this just means I can't do this storyline any longer or what.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Edward64

The character faces are god awful. They are detailed but why can't they (at least the humans) be more human-like-realistics? It doesn't seem to be gpu constraint anymore.

There are some fixes for this.

Trading and selling interface is cumbersome.

I haven't seen anything to fix the trading menus specifically but there is a UI overhaul, plus addition UI improvements with an improved favorites menu and a better world map.

[frnk55]

Anyone play on expert difficulty level? If so is it a lot harder? I'm thinking about doing this since it's starting to get a tad bit easy.

[Buccaneer]

Finally reached a milestone: Destruction level 75. Finished the mage College quests, which more than anything else, gave me enough very valuable loot (along with everything in arch-mage quarters), to buy my way from 71 to 75. I now have J'zargo as my follower and he's good. I'm at Level 18 but only got two more main quests, so getting close to the end (I think). Very fun game, lots of things they did right.

[thesloppy]

After 50 some levels I finally took a side in the civil war. Stoopid Nords forced me to join the Empire, just in order to kill some of them racist bastards.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I think the smithingskill is somewhat facetious.

Smithing is by far the easiest to get to 100 in. Seems like they almost want you to get to 100 so you can craft Dragon bone Armor.

As for ore/bars, wish you could melt down some of the equipment you find.

[Buccaneer]

Done. Took about 40 hours, reached level 19 and completed the Main Quests as well as the College of Winterhold quests. Every Christmas-New Years for the past 10 years, we always play an RPG game and this was easily one of the best ones ever. Thanks for the recommendation Blackie!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mustang

As for ore/bars, wish you could melt down some of the equipment you find.

I've thought that a few times myself. It seems like a logical option to have, even if it was limited by the risk of some failure (kind of like the way you could harvest plants but sometimes come up empty in Oblivion).

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

After 50 some levels I finally took a side in the civil war. Stoopid Nords forced me to join the Empire, just in order to kill some of them racist bastards.

I have to say, I love the fact that the civil war is not easy - not the standard "opressors + evil overlord" vs "heroes", but rather one where both parties are both admirable and despicable (ie, the racism, the fact that the Empire needed to survive). I still haven't made a decision (Level 30), but its definitely a genuine moral dilemma. I supposed I could avoid it all together, but that seems somewhat... chicken.

[RainMaker]

Is there any way to make your own arrows?

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Is there any way to make your own arrows?

Not without mods

[Buccaneer]

Probably should mention that I played most of the game as a dual-caster mage. It took a while to learn how to effectively fight, even though I had to adjust at time depending on the circumstances. Most of the time, I had my distance spell (firebolt, fireball and then the awesome incinerator) in my left hand (lmb) and my close-in spell (flames, sparks) in my right (rmb). I would switch to both flames when I have to fight those @%!$ flying ice things. The distance/close combo worked very well when going through a cave/etc. where you don't know whether something is going to appear at a distance or close in.

[Dreghorn2]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

those @%!$ flying ice things.

I hate those @%!$ flying ice things.

I've restarted about 7 times. I want to do the main quests 'right' with my 'final' character.

Level 21 Illusion/Conjuror (great mix) so much fun. Just headed for Hrothgar.

Wife thinks i'm nuts.

[mckerney]

I love being able to deal 1050 damage on a backstab with my dagger. Just took donw a Dwarven Centurion Guardian in one hit.