[Megathread] Skyrim Discussion

[Deleted]

Actually it makes low level bars really easy to get.. I got the meltdown perk early and just smelted cooking pots, kettles etc. into iron bars. Money isn't hard to get with SkyRe either. I increased to price of inns and carriages 10-15 times and houses 5 times and I'm still swimming in gold. Alchemy is still OP in every way (100% increased damage potions, magic immunity potions, poisons that paralyze and deal 300+ damage, health potions still heal full fast with high level in alchemy AND it still gives insane amounts of gold if you grab every plant from the side of the road and mushroom from the cave or especially when you grow them in your manor).

Selling potions is hard to nerf unless you make them worth like 5g each because you can just get so many ingredients, and then they would be cheap to buy too and you could just spam them.
And the power of potions seems really random... some gave around 30% elemental resist and some gave me 120% for some reason :\
If they levelled out alchemy leveling speed and results it would be better.

To get the smelt-down you need 30 or 50 smithing first, and then carry around boatloads of junk (I melted down so many jugs to use all my pickpocketed jewels)
Actual store items are pretty expensive before you get high ranks of Speechcraft + Thieves Guild hood, I have 20% cost reduction from perks, 15% guild hood and 25% racial and 500 base cost grand soul gems still cost 1700g in shops.

[-aiko-]

Keep everything from SkyRe except the combat module. Use Duel - Combat Realism instead.

I'm not at home to confirm, but I'm pretty sure newer versions of SkyRe use the NMM module, which lets you run an "installer" when you install it via NMM. The SkyRe installer should let you choose to install only the selected components. Uninstall SkyRe (properly, I think the readme/description has instructions), then re-install with NMM, selecting all but the Combat module. Do at your own risk! SkyRe changes a lot of things so uninstalling can possibly corrupt your save game. You could also check to see if SkyRe installs a package in your /Data folder for combat. You could try deleting it.

[Deleted]

Selling potions is hard to nerf unless you make them worth like 5g each because you can just get so many ingredients, and then they would be cheap to buy too and you could just spam them.
And the power of potions seems really random... some gave around 30% elemental resist and some gave me 120% for some reason :\
If they levelled out alchemy leveling speed and results it would be better.

To get the smelt-down you need 30 or 50 smithing first, and then carry around boatloads of junk (I melted down so many jugs to use all my pickpocketed jewels)
Actual store items are pretty expensive before you get high ranks of Speechcraft + Thieves Guild hood, I have 20% cost reduction from perks, 15% guild hood and 25% racial and 500 base cost grand soul gems still cost 1700g in shops.

Actually I got amulet of Dibella, Dibella blessing from Helgas bunkhouse, gift of charity and I used another Dibella amulet on the backpack from Frostfall. So prices were reasonable for me even right "out the door":P I guess I got lucky though because I found 2 of those amulets early. Speechcraft is still pretty useless.. I only put 3 points there to be able to sell everything to all merchants. Might invest more for better shouts though later.

And alchemy isnt that hard to fix tbh. Just remove incredients from alchemy shops or make the incredients super expensive. I mean smithing and enchanting doesn't have that problem, it wasn't a problem even in vanilla because buying the mats cost more than the made item unless you were very highly skilled.
Another good way to fix it is to add recipes for potions. So no more 1 this and 1 that for potion but for example 3 nirnroot, chaurus egg and 10 red mountain flowers for invisibility. But poisons/health pots could still remain as they are, they're cheap anyway and not that op.

[Shinzai]

Yay, story time! So last week, I had to abandon my Skyrim ironman run through (which quickly became attempted run throughs.... ad infinitum) when I discovered I seem to have installed a combination of mods at a past point that made the highest difficulty almost impossible. At least, at low level any way.

With my first character, I snuck up on the first group of bandits (2 Bandits and 1 Bandit Thug) outside of Helgen after the dragon attack and managed to kill one of them with 4 sneak attack Bow shots from a huge range at night, using kitty vision and running away each time. After doing the same to the second bandit, I fired once at the one named "Bandit Thug", which also had a bow and it turned and one shotted me with its own bow, sending me cart wheeling into the distance.

So. I came back on a remake of the same character, this time wearing heavy armour and wielding a sword and shield. I managed to dispatch both the bandits quite easily in melee, only dropping to 75% health after being hit a few times. Then the Bandit Thug shot me with an arrow and sent me cart wheeling into the nearby river. Another attempt was going slightly better as I was managing to whittle away at the Thug with sneak attack bow shots, then I got attacked by a wolf and the Thug spotted me and sent me cartwheeling into the woods, with the wolf.

After a few more characters were made, I decided to evade this fight altogether and instead went around doing quests in Riverwood and the like to level up. Then I went to clear the crypt of low level draugr, spiders and bandits. Everything was going fine and dandy. I'd killed the couple of bandits at the entrance without issue, it seemed their melee damage wasn't even high when I was wearing light armour. I even breezed past the giant spider, though I did nearly die to it's venom, which took me down to 50% hp twice in a row after healing up. Then I got to the draugr. I killed the first couple without much issue, one I facemelted with blasts of fire, the other I took out with sneaky bow attacks followed by some melee combat. Then a restless draugr ran over and hit me once with his great sword, sending me cartwheeling up the side of a wall.

I can't figure out for the life of me what mod I installed last year that ramped up the difficulty so high, but I don't remember having so much trouble on Master difficulty previously (on a side note, these attempts were all with fortified health and stamina). I'm now tempted to go through all of this without the ironman requirement and figure out how the hell to beat mobs that act like giants from the start.

[Fhi]

Roleplaying a good character is such a chore. First of all, quests are shoved down your throat, and require advanced metagaming knowledge to avoid them altogether. There's also no consequence to being evil, while you miss out on plenty of story and quests if you're good. I'm thinking of just abandoning my paladin "good" alignment and doing everything I come across. I'm just afraid it'll make the game less enjoyable, but at the same time, knowing that I am missing out on stories I haven't seen is not enjoyable either.

A way around this is to make multiple characters, and that is just something I am not willing to do.

[Deleted]

*snip*

Easy, just don't pick any fights before level 10-20 I only play dead is dead and don't really die.. ever. So I usually just let Ralof tank everything in the starting cave, then let him escort me to riverwood, make a little money, help Faendal and take archery training 5 levels. Then follow the road to Whiterun, the few wolves on the road aren't much of a problem and then instead of going for the dragonstone I take the cart to Riften, run around the city, gather herbs etc. If I pull a spider or a bear, run to guards:P

Then join thieves guild, fail the first quest on purpose. Then usually make 2-3 invisibility potions or steal them, sneak into the guild and do the small jobs for gold + gather plants for potions and train archery and sneak every level. Oh and invest all into health till 400 or so. Around level 15 it's already a lot easier and level 30 I don't even have to try Put then I usually died in the past because I got reckless, went out in nice clothes instead of those with good armor and sneak bonuses or was too lazy to make myself an invisibility potion or health potions for those tight spots. Oh and I fell to death a few times too:P

[Shinzai]

Easy, just don't pick any fights before level 10-20 I only play dead is dead and don't really die.. ever. So I usually just let Ralof tank everything in the starting cave, then let him escort me to riverwood, make a little money, help Faendal and take archery training 5 levels. Then follow the road to Whiterun, the few wolves on the road aren't much of a problem and then instead of going for the dragonstone I take the cart to Riften, run around the city, gather herbs etc. If I pull a spider or a bear, run to guards:P

Then join thieves guild, fail the first quest on purpose. Then usually make 2-3 invisibility potions or steal them, sneak into the guild and do the small jobs for gold + gather plants for potions and train archery and sneak every level. Oh and invest all into health till 400 or so. Around level 15 it's already a lot easier and level 30 I don't even have to try Put then I usually died in the past because I got reckless, went out in nice clothes instead of those with good armor and sneak bonuses or was too lazy to make myself an invisibility potion or health potions for those tight spots. Oh and I fell to death a few times too:P

Hmmmm, I'll have to give it a try... it's just... I like fighting things. :<

[Deleted]

This is so true.. thats why I always RP the antihero:P I don't kill any bystanders and only kill in self defense pretty much and do the evil quests during the "losing control phase", after becoming a vampire, a werewolf, going down the dark path.. whatever.

---------- Post added 2013-01-29 at 09:55 PM ----------

Hmmmm, I'll have to give it a try... it's just... I like fighting things. :<

Well, you could fight animals around Whiterun. The skeevers, mudcrabs and wolves aren't much of a threat. Also if you're using SkyRe, playing a nord comes really handy. They have this once a day 7 second immortality. It's really good, especially at the beginning.

[Fhi]

This is so true.. thats why I always RP the antihero:P I don't kill any bystanders and only kill in self defense pretty much and do the evil quests during the "losing control phase", after becoming a vampire, a werewolf, going down the dark path.. whatever.[COLOR="red"]

Yeah, I think I'm going to rewrite his motivation and personality a little. Still a knight who uses restoration to protect others, but maybe add in an intense natural curiosity, only drawing the line at outright murder. This does open up Thieves' Guild, which I always enjoyed.

[Valenhil]

I'm not at home to confirm, but I'm pretty sure newer versions of SkyRe use the NMM module, which lets you run an "installer" when you install it via NMM. The SkyRe installer should let you choose to install only the selected components. Uninstall SkyRe (properly, I think the readme/description has instructions), then re-install with NMM, selecting all but the Combat module. Do at your own risk! SkyRe changes a lot of things so uninstalling can possibly corrupt your save game. You could also check to see if SkyRe installs a package in your /Data folder for combat. You could try deleting it.

I'm well aware...that was not my question.
I just wanted to know if switching SkyRe's combat module for Duel would be more balanced and/or interesting. But I already did that.
But now that I've turned off SkyRe's combat module, I realized the armor rating on my armor is the same, and I thought the changes to that were in the combat module. I assumed that meant I needed to make a clean save before switching the module off, except disabling SkyRe makes me CTD as soon as the main menu appears. So I need to fix this.

Edit: Found it. one compatibility patch had escaped me. And apparently the armor changes are in the MAIN module instead of combat module. I wanted to never again need compatibility patches for standalone armor. Phooey.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I think I'm going to rewrite his motivation and personality a little. Still a knight who uses restoration to protect others, but maybe add in an intense natural curiosity, only drawing the line at outright murder. This does open up Thieves' Guild, which I always enjoyed.

Thieves guild isn't that bad actually. The only part about it I don't like is the deal with Nocturnal. It's basically Karliah selling the DB and Brynjolf to the "devil" to get her revenge and get back in good graces with Nocturnal. Wish these was an option to just refuse the deal.

I still haven't figured out what to do about most daedric quests though. A lot of them are really evil and involve murder.

[Buckwald]

I still haven't figured out what to do about most daedric quests though. A lot of them are really evil and involve murder.

You can't really refuse most Daedric quests. I don't willing accept ones that make you murder people (Boethia, Molag Bal, Mehrunes Dagon) so I normally pick "I'll never work for you, demon!" and continue on as if I have no other choice.

[Deleted]

You can't really refuse most Daedric quests. I don't willing accept ones that make you murder people (Boethia, Molag Bal, Mehrunes Dagon) so I normally pick "I'll never work for you, demon!" and continue on as if I have no other choice.

You lose at least 2 artifacts as well as the achievement like that though.. I just cant bring myself to murder the priest or even that mystic dawn guy.

As for Dark Brotherhood.. I wish it was more like Oblivion. You only had to kill a few people there, most of them being bad anyway, like bandit leaders etc. and them most of the line was eliminating other murderers (which I didn't have a problem with:P). In Skyrim it's just plain mean and evil mostly, like the wedding or that poor insane beggar who lost his sister.

[Adam Jensen]

Actually the THALMOR can indeed be dealt with conclusively. The thalmor (and the aldmeri dominion) are not the entirety of Mer existence and are actually relative new comers to the secene. They are a political compact that gained popularity based on the lie that they solved the oblivion crisis. They can be ended.

In TES6, I hope I get to kill more Thalmor. Fuck those guys and their condescending attitude. Brb, launching Skyrim so I can kill some High Elves.

[unholytestament]

If you're a good guy you wipe out the Dark Brotherhood.

And I still say that it sucks that you can't wipe out the Thieves Guild. Just take the skeleton key off what's-his-face's corpse.

[Deleted]

If you're a good guy you wipe out the Dark Brotherhood.

And I still say that it sucks that you can't wipe out the Thieves Guild. Just take the skeleton key off what's-his-face's corpse.

Wiping them out would be kind of evil though.. besides if you make guildmaster, you can run it however you like, I guess, even RP turning them into a group who steals from bad rich people and gives to the poor. Wish there was an alternate way to not get involved with Nocturnal and get rid of Maven though.

[Buckwald]

You lose at least 2 artifacts as well as the achievement like that though.. I just cant bring myself to murder the priest or even that mystic dawn guy.

Since murdering those people for the quests don't (or shouldn't) go on your crime sheet, I normally just do them as fast as possible and skip the dialog. It's not something I like doing, as most of my characters are never plain old murderers, but I'm a completionist and I don't like having quests in my quest journal.

As for Dark Brotherhood.. I wish it was more like Oblivion. You only had to kill a few people there, most of them being bad anyway, like bandit leaders etc. and them most of the line was eliminating other murderers (which I didn't have a problem with:P). In Skyrim it's just plain mean and evil mostly, like the wedding or that poor insane beggar who lost his sister.

If you kill the leader of the Dark Brotherhood in the cabin (which is easy even on master) you can wipe them out and complete that series. Which is what I did. All you miss is some gold, the jester gear and Shadowmere (I never use horses any way).

Wiping them out would be kind of evil though.. besides if you make guildmaster, you can run it however you like, I guess, even RP turning them into a group who steals from bad rich people and gives to the poor. Wish there was an alternate way to not get involved with Nocturnal and get rid of Maven though.

Killing a guild that's dedicated to murdering people seems to be on the good side of the spectrum (for me). Just like wiping out a cave of bandits.

[Fhi]

It's not something I like doing, as most of my characters are never plain old murderers, but I'm a completionist and I don't like having quests in my quest journal.

I think this is precisely what I struggle most with at my attempts to roleplay. Roleplay versus content.

[Buckwald]

I think this is precisely what I struggle most with at my attempts to roleplay. Roleplay versus content.

It's also a reason why I always hated being the guildmaster of every guild in the world.

[unholytestament]

Wiping them out would be kind of evil though.. besides if you make guildmaster, you can run it however you like, I guess, even RP turning them into a group who steals from bad rich people and gives to the poor. Wish there was an alternate way to not get involved with Nocturnal and get rid of Maven though.

They are thieves and thugs and the first thing they have you do upon SPEAKING to them is frame an innocent man for theft. The sole act of manipulating the economy of Skyrim in times of crisis all for profit is enough to make me want to run them all through. Not to mention how half the conversations you have with them are laced with threats until you have reached a sufficient rank.

There's a difference between being a good guy and being a friend to all living things. These are not good people, and they cause the suffering of good people.