I've been playing Skyrim since early June.

I've beaten the game three times out of four characters, and hindered by game breaking bugs once.

It's why I've been gone, and also why I've started actually blacksmithing. Got an anvil, made my own forge, all that jazz.

So, before anyone comments on how fucking long it took for me to even start playing Skyrim, I know. I'm nearly two years late. Rest assured that I've been punishing myself for that by playing Skyrim every day, side by side with my wife on separate Xbox 360's and flat HD screens. What's worse is I've found places I missed with every new character, and I've resorted to "navigating" by chasing alchemy ingredients and poaching deer.

 

We need to get punished for not playing Skyrim? I've been a very bad boy, then. Very bad indeed. The safe word is "cabbage", by the way.

 

Playing it in the 360? You are doing it wrong. D

 

I have yet to complete a playthrough of Skyrim. The problem I encounter is thus: I quickly lose focus on role playing and my efforts turn to gathering power. Between enchanting, alchemy and smithing, my character eventually reaches god-mode status. At that point, the fun deteriorates. Loot becomes meaningless, and combat is a mindless click-to-destroy exercise.

I have actually been playing Arcanum again lately. Similar problems arise. Almost any character build you choose will eventually have you one-shotting powerful beasts. My halfling thief character, unable to wield even a feather-weight axe upon leaving the crash site, now consistently deals 100+ damage with a balanced sword thanks to backstab and prowling. After fast-tracking the Velorien blessing, all my pertinent skills were maxed out. I eventually mastered such worthless skills as Spot Trap, Disarm Trap and Healing. By the time I was able to pick up Raven, she was lvl 32 and I was 47 and I'm all like, "sorry babe, you'd just slow me down."
Maybe I should try a playthrough in which I restrict myself from stealing anything, or utilizing any other game mechanic that makes things way too easy. Like chatting up bar patrons and taking them for 500g on a trivia question (which is more money than most quests pay out), or using haste potions, or the Harm spell, or Prowling, or Backstab, or the Sword. But then what am I left with? A nudist with a rusty dagger?

 

So that's where you've been.

Me too, as a matter of fact, playing Skyrim, finally, since June, I think.

Good to see you, anyway, dude.

 

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I actually do that quite regularly in role playing games. I had Arcanum and Fallout games in which I was purposely sticking to low/mid-tier armors and weaponry for roleplaying reasons and the trade-off in immersion was pretty recent. Took a much longer time for the gameworld to change from "a dangerous place where every NPC is to be taken seriously" to "my personal playground" as well.

Another way to keep a game from becoming boring from lack of challenges is playing it ironman. Recently almost succeeded in completing Fallout 2 in this manner. Advanced combat armor, the best weapon I could get my hands on and constant fear caused by knowing I'm at all times one critical burst of random punk's 10mm SMG away from permanent death. Man that game was intense.

 

I started another character today. Charlatan's protege, spent my starter points on charisma and persuasion. Gonna see how far I can make it without spending any more points, just using hired muscle.

 

Whoa whoa whoa. Grosse is married?

 

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I countered this in Skyrim by increasing combat difficulty to Master. I've seen that level is sufficient in that I still need to plan around tougher enemies being able to kill me, though I do know what you mean. In my latest game, due to alchemy and enchanting, I instantly leveled my smithing to 100 from 56 after a fortify restoration loop and making a smithing potion and improving two weapons. Then, at level 27, I was making dragonbone weapons and armor. However, if I have combat tougher, I still run the risk of being shouted off of a mountain by Draugr despite nullifying 80% of the damage they throw my way. Dragons...are dragons. Either by using terrain or making gear that resists magic, they can't hurt me until they land. And even then, a shield bash will stop them mid-shout (or mid-anything) and they're gone in seconds.

I get to a point where a follower just gets in the way. Literally. I've killed Lydia so many times because she runs in front of spells, or arrows.

At this point, the fun is in beating previous records for tough enemy kills. I managed to kill Vokun at level 9 with archery, and two other targets. I did many other diversion kills while playing Raagol Fraa-gol, my Orc warrior/conjurer. But that was my favorite.

I know. I don't have a PC that can handle it, though. So this is my only option. This could also be read as the cheapest option.

And you as well. We seem to parallel each other.

Yes.

 

Skyrim suffered from the "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" problem for me. Just couldn't get into it for some reason.

Maybe it's because it was my first Elder Scrolls game and I had incorrect preconceptions? Maybe if the FFXIV relaunch is super bad I'll give it another whirl.

Also, glad to see you back again again again Gross.

 

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My wife has that problem with games too. However, it can be fixed when she's got a hang of what she's doing - it's how I convinced her to try playing the first Fable again, and now that's her favorite in the series. I end up becoming a human strategy guide, and in the case of Skyrim, she wasn't as into it until I got deeper in the game than she did and could tell her how different perks would help, what ingredients she needed for good potions, that kindof thing.

This game is actually the third in the series I've played, and yet the only one I could get into. I didn't like Morrowind, and I can say the same about Oblivion. But then you have folks raving about those two and hating Skyrim, because those two games were apparently more immersive. I hesitate to go back due to character models in Oblivion causing "so much discomfort in me, it's as if my liver caught my stomach masturbating."

 

I think I put in a good 60+ hours in Skyrim, so I didn't feel like I wasted my money or anything. Much like Arcanum, I never really got far in the game's main plot, I mostly just dithered around and played with 2-3 different character types before I got bored and played something else.

I made a nuke-type mage and a 2H melee warrior, but the furthest I got (and the longest a character kept me interested) was with a sneak dagger and archer sniper/assassin.

Maybe I only enjoy combat and since the game's combat system wasn't super robust that's why I didn't fall in love with it? Or at the very least, if combat is sufficiently boring I'll simply find other things to do. Your point about having to "respect every other NPC as a possible threat" thing is what really keeps the game real to me. If suddenly you become an unstoppable killing machine too early it ruins the immersion. Perhaps "master" mode is for me on my next play through.

I acknowledge there's a lot to love in Skyrim, maybe it's just not for me. I'm glad other people seem to enjoy it though.

 

I only ever played Skyrim on master, and I suspect that had something to do with my eventual loss of interest. As with so many games, increasing the difficulty level doesn't make the enemy fight better; it just makes them beefier and harder-hitting. So I found myself constantly having to use hit and run tactics, hiding in corners while my mana recharged so I could continue whittling down an enemy with my weak-ass spells. And to exacerbate the frustration, every time I gained a level and became more powerful, so did the enemies. Since no amount of skillful spellcasting could give me an edge, I turned to drugs. Soon, my character was jacked out of his mind on potions, spending hour after hour picking flowers and brewing ever more potent elixirs. Once alchemy was maxed out, then it was on to the hard stuff: enchanting. Once my enchanted panoply was complete I became a being of phenomenal cosmic power, swatting dragons like flies and incinerating all who opposed me. But instead of ascending to godhood or overthrowing daedric princes, I found myself trapped in a world where the chief end of man is to perform menial errand jobs and exterminate rats in basements.

 

Okay we get it - you're married now. Sheesh.

 

Shouldn't that be "My wife and I"?

 

I can't always put her first. Though it was my understanding that either phrasing is grammatically correct, you're perhaps more in tune with proper syntax, being a nazi.

Sorry. I'll get a divorce right away so I don't act like a newlywed anymore.

I actually agree with everything you're saying. I still don't understand why I, the Dovahkiin, with an immortal Dragon's soul, can be forced by a daedra to do anything. Granted, I can leave quests open and uncompleted, but I'd rather have the option of saying "No" and closing it so I don't have so many cases of unfinished business - especially in the case of Molag Bal. The guy gets off on dominating people, so I'd love the ability to kill his boner. Still, the novelty of Skyrim hasn't expired in me yet, and I have a great time playing it.

Well, you've put in a full work week plus overtime into Skyrim and you don't like it - I suppose it's not for you. Still, I admire your tenacity in playing so long despite not falling into the game.

 

Kids nowadays.

I still remember getting all giddy with excitement about text based RPGs.

Skyrim does all the things you all listed on your wishlist for future RPGs: buy houses, alter the politics, marry npcs, crafting, customised avatars etc.

The most common complaint I hear is "after weeks of power levelling, my character is too tough".

Personally, I don't play RPGs to challenge myself, I play to pretend I'm a motherfucking dragonslayer, or at least a blacksmith in Iceland, and Skyrim delivers. Four stars.

 

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To be honest, that's normally my only complaint, though it's not due to power leveling so much as exploits. Considering the degree to which I exploited game mechanics in my second game, however, I ended up being able to enchant gear that increases my blacksmithing by over 5000%, making health regenerating potions so powerful that I heal much quicker than normal enemies can hurt me, or simply making a pair of swords with an absorb health enchant so strong that I could liken myself to a highlander. It was a bonus if I had soul trap on one, because it simulated the lightning.

In the scenario I described, where I artificially increased my skills hundreds of times higher than the game should allow, I would hope you can see it being detrimental. And to think I only tried it to prove the folks saying it didn't work weren't doing it right.

I couldn't finish the game on that character because neither Ulfric or Tullius would speak to me.

In my current character, Mr. Mittens the Khajiit, I'm slightly tougher than my very first character, who was already nigh-unstoppable. I'm just having fun travelling the mountains and valleys of Skyrim doling out my special brand of Cat-Justice. Basically, having a hedonistic attitude towards intoxicants and scratching people in the face.

 

Okay, so spell it out.

You use alchemy gear, drink a f-restoration potion, take off and put on your alchemy gear, then repeat? Then make a fortify enchantment potion and enchant an uber alchemy item for further exploits?

How much of which ingredients? Which enchantments and potions do you use in which order?

 

I too have been sucked in again by Skyrim. I think the addition of Legendary (a step up from Master) difficulty which came with one of the newer patches really added to my enjoyment of the game, as when I stopped playing it a year or so ago when they only had Master I was finding things as Japes said where the game was very hard to begin with but very easy once you'd mastered alchemy, enchanting and smithing. Now however even when you reach your über status, enough difficulty is retained so that the game is still fun - at least in my experience. Loot does become meaningless, but I think that's the case in all rpg games once you come across a way of making good money without dungeon crawling. Plus I bought the Dragonborn DLC (already owning Dawnguard), which has some very nice touches - such as rings that enhance your werewolf abilities, new spells that can only be cast when you have a certain artefact equipped and artefacts with other unique effects such as the ability to walk on water, one that lets you breathe jets of steam like the dwarvern centurions and another that gives you spell absorption (outside of the atronach stone or perk).

The only downside is I'm doing what I always do with rpgs, which is start a character, play for about 20 hours and then get bored and start a new one. I've finally settled on a werewolf-mage concept that should be fun, so hopefully now I'll see the game through.

For that particular quest you can kill the Boethiah follower he wants you to spank and fail the quest - perhaps not an ideal resolution for a goody-two-shoes character but it is a nice way to give him the finger if you're so inclined. Still you're right, there are a good many quests that you can't get out of in a convenient way if they become active - like never being able to read Boethiah's Calling if you're a good character and don't want that quest looming over you. It's part of the reason I like playing more evil characters, as then you can be a bit more fast and loose with what quests you accept.

There's a very good guide to Skyrim here, it covers the restoration glitch and is vastly more detailed in what it covers than any other guide I've seen. It took me a while to discover it actually, I guess that's what happens when you name a thread something needlessly vague like "Useful Information".