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How do you play Skyrim?
7star
Member Posts: 405
I've had Skyrim since it launched and only managed about 40 hours until two weeks ago. Since that time, I have played about 80 hours. I had some free time, but I'm not really that hardcore, usually.
I've been playing an Imperial light armor guy. He was supposed to be a good guy and do the Imperial questline, but wound up doing all the Dark Bro'hood and Thieves Guild quests (as well as Companions + Werewolf & maxed out smithing). There are only a few things I want to do with him now, like marry Aela the Huntress 
He's basically level 40 and I don't know what else to do with him. Did the main quest, but didn't get the Steam acheivement because I had made a shortcut instead of loading directly from Steam. That kind of bugs me as a completionist.
I still want to do a heavy armor smash face melee character who does the Imperial questline and a mage who does the Mages Guild and becomes a vampire. I've never been a dark elf, orc or argonian, so I'm thinking about rolling those. Just taking a break thinking about if it will be fun to do the main questline again a different way.
Also, I got all the DLC, which I haven't touched yet.
Would you just use the same character and train up the other abilities or roll a new one?
How many replays have you gotten out of Skyrim and what do you do when you get to level 40 or so?
Any cool ways to do new playthroughs?
Comments
Do you like to start over with a new toon or keep playing the same one?
I like the Morrowind mod I have now. It has graphics as well as balance stuff on it (sounds, too).
If I remember, Nexus has them rated. If you have any recommendations, let me know.
I absolutely loved the game, however, I got really thwarted from it by 2 issues:
1) Death consequences.
I like to play games hardcore way, however, for a game that has such a long time to play from start to finish (you could play for hundreds of hours and still never complete a third of it's quests) but a lot of premade quests (storylines of all the guilds and the main one), accepting "dead is dead" (when you die - roll a new character) is too much. However, this game offers no alternative!
I hate games where you die and that's it, unless its a roguelike which generally takes several hours to complete, but yes, dead=start again. Roguelikes are different in that each experience is unique and there are almost no repetitions between walkthroughs. In other games, i love some severe punishment for death mechanic. For exampe, in Might and Magic series (6-9) dying would take away all party gold (which means usually all loot you gathered since you left big town) plus leave you with broken equipment and place you in the starting area a week after you died (which could make you fail some time-sensitive quests). That was an acceptable harsh penalty.
I'd love such to exist in Skyrim, however, there is none. You just reload. And by the nature of the game, you cant really say that reloading from a checkpoint, no matter how far, is a good enough punishment for death - more like, its an annoyance, since you dont lose anything (that loot is still there to collect, etc). And mostly you die in Skyrim to unlucky oneshots, because combat system is so based on dodging attacks completely by moving out of harm's way (since again, on hardest difficulty, for a long time you're just oneshot by harder enemies). Plus, a very wierd mechanic of health instantly restored by consuming stuff on PAUSE makes it even worse - you die not because you ran out of consumables, but because you got hit for all your hp in one unlucky blow, and you're dead with all those potions you had (mod to autodrink potions doesnt always save you).
2) Difficulty curve
If you play this game not on highest difficulty, after certain point its too easy. Even if you play it from the start on highest difficulty, after certain point, its easy. My character is a kind of thief - sneak,illusion,archery/light armor/short blade and he just eliminates everybody with backstabs, usually one hit kills. When he doesnt he has invisibility, potions, and still does high damage. At some point, when you start reaching higher levels, you just have no challenge anymore. Best enemies in the game are nothing. Dragons are food. And so on.
So yeah, would love to enjoy Skyrim, but unfortunately, thats how it goes. Interesting until you become total annihilator. Which happens pretty fast for me (one or two days of gaming).
Doing all side quests while trying to be as powerful as possible as early as possible without cheating. Then realizing the rest of the game has no challenge and lose interest
I tried gimping myself but then you are just adding disadvantages just for the sake of doing it and that loses its appeal because of that. I'd rather the game offered a better curve and restricted you in becoming too powerful too soon. Yes I'm actually advocating restrictions because I have no self control
In my opinion there is only so much to do in this game before you get past the amazing graphics (which are only turly amazing after you replace 60% or more of the original content with after market fan mods) and realize that bethesda made 2 big mistakes with their approach that will likely mean skyrim will never have the same long term following that past elder scrolls games do. I want to go into these below but first here is my suggestion for...
What to do when you run out of things to do.
First thing...New game. Pick the charecter you were least interested in playing race wise. The same choice goes for gender, combat style, professions (basically get into fromn the start everything you had no real interest in or hadn't really touched).
Next, ignore the main storyline. it wonderful game full of side quests and mini adventures without dragons around. And at that point they are still a myth, something your character has only seen once. people are wary...but where are they, when will they attack? You can purposely inject a little roleplay mystery this way (fool yourself). Without the main storyline and the weight of being dovakiin discovered looming over you. You will feel a lot more involved and at the level of other npcs as you did in past games (not being able to shout goes a long way towards this).
Lastly...really explore the game. I did this recently and there were sooooo many things I simply over looked. Like the dungeon that is more extensive then bleak falls barrows, which the entrance to is accessed by an easy-to-miss button on the wall in the Pinewatch cottage (on the way to falkreath from helgen).
Or chests I passed 100 times without seing. Like the one in bleak falls barrows, just before the giant spider room (there is some thick webs in the corner with a skeleton laying there and it is almost impossible to see that chest in passing as it is under the webs and part way in the wall).
I can almost garuntee you that there is a lot you did not do, and many interesting things you missed. It only requires reclaiming some of that first day niavity to find it and appreciate it.
Now for my little digression/rant about what went wrong here and why. Players are often left unfulfilled by the game (if you don't want a long boring read just ignore this part).
1) Be the Dragon Born.
In oblivion you were a side charecter in some one else's story. In previous games to that you were arguably even less important. This put you on every one else's level. Any one in good enough armour, with high enough skills, or the element of surprise could show you at anytime that your just another adventurer in the world if you were not careful. You were like the guard in skyrim who says "Makes me wonder if I could be the dragon born and i just don't know it yet."
But, in Skyrim you are pretty much elevated from almost the very start of the game as better then every one else. It is a lot harder to become emotionally invested and thusly fully engrossed in the game world because you are by default, set apart. The base power potential between you and NPC's in the game is about the same as what it was in fable. But at least fable made you feel as if your role was truly vital and apreciable. Where as in skyrim at the end of the day any NPC with an iopinion basically tells you it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it.
2) Dragon Fights.
Dragons become real annoying real quick. All they do is interupt what ever it was you were doing needlessly. they were better left as a myth. They are like that moment when you start to slip into a nice dream, then the dog, in a late night I need to pee dance wakes you up abruptly with whining and licks. It's a just when you were starting to care...about a storyline or whatever you were doing...just when you felt yourself slipping into becoming truly involved...a dragon attacks.
And half the time they run away when they realize they have started something they can't finish. Which is just frustration icing atop your omg-wtf-give-me-a-break-cake.
The Real Issue, IMO.
Bethesda caved...Being the dragon born and dragon fights were two of the biggest things fans thought they wanted after oblivion. One thing to realize is bethsda didn't have to make skyrim the way it is as a next natural step. the whole elder scrolls series is based of a long ago agreement with the gary gigex estate make D&D into a video game. and it slowly became it's own thing (and if you play D&D...and I mean the reall pencil, paper, and dice game you'll realize everything in the elder scrolls draws heavily from it). Anything within the D&D universe would have been acceptable.
Skyrim is the first part of tamriel discovered and settled. They could have used it as a gateway to get deeper into lore, dlc and later games. To discover living remnants of the lost dwemer race, to finally explane the origins and motivations of the series more mysterious, factions. And they didn't. They gave players exactly what they wanted the most. And we almost always pay for getting exactly what we want.
I mainly played without any "Magic" or "Abilities" Just a plate Armor, a Bow and a 2 Hand.
No heal spell bunnyjumping with one sword and omfg FUSHROHDAAAH! Spam
Since i played like that i also worked a lot with the configuration files to make "Bow" a trully fittign weapon in skyrim.
I disabled all indicators and ui elements / Crosshair / dot. I increased the drawing distance, and the hard part the arrow physic and enemy AI awareness range (mostly done with help from others in various forums).
The arrow damage got slightly increased and total health (especially mine) reduced.
In the end i had a zero UI game (except the world map) and could snipe dragons from 300~ meters afar. (And the hillarous chaos unfolding when the dragon looked for me and found something else).
Half a year ago the multiple followers script got released by someone which gave me my very own Archery squad. It's pretty much more fun taking (increased enemy amount) keeps with your own archers and melee fighters which you've collected across skyrim. (You can evne issue the command like stop, defend etc)
So far i sunk over 300 hours into skyrim.
It's just so more fun to watch your little ambush squad suprising bandits while you sneak up and put some arrows in their back.
And there is still plenty to go around, somehow i never tire of 100 imperials vs me vs 5 elder dragons
What makes skyrim so great, outside the main story you don't have to put up with all this fusrohda magic stuff. Playing a runty female ork sure helped with my attitude and bias against magic
I know exactly what u mean . Back in Morrorwind i was playing at difficulty 75 setting and every encounter with medium-hard enemies could be your last since they were dealing lots of dmg.
Back in oblivion i was playing difficulty 55 +OOO (oscuro oblivion overhaul) and it exactly the hard setting game needed, u were 15 lvl for example and in an encounter with 3 banditd they could be 10-25 lvl and that was making all battles unpredictable.
Here in Skyrim when game launched after playing 3-4 hours i quitted and was waiting the tool to launch so mods and overhauls to arrive that fix its diffiulty immersion levels.Right now i play alot of skyrim with :
1.difficulty setting at expert
2.WIS IV (wars in skyrim iv)
3.PISE More intense level scalling
4.GM-HMSPotions 3 secs (healing potions heal over 3 secs and not instantly)
Like this the game is a living hell. You die a lot, sometimes even when u are carefull since many enemies that spawn are much higher lvls than u,and if u apply to all these a simple hardcore rule like when u DIE its GAME OVER (no load unlesss ofc u died of un natural reasons during a fight cat falls to your keyboard,call phones door rings,earthquake etc etc ;P) u ll want to revise your statement about how hard skyrim can be hehe. Also during many fights that way u ll expirience lots of adrenaline rush,minor heart attacks,bad aiming during combat due to mouse trembling and all in all immersion agony despair, and above all, the great fewling of accomplishemnt and success when u ding at level 14 or 16 and u realise u r still alive without dying a single time in this cruel world.
P.S. BTW i still wait for a mode that makes races unique and different form eachother different speed, different stats starting health,magicka,stamina .There are some already out but all fo them have flaws or not inputted correctly the values realistically.
Aint played it for ages think i got about 10 hours in and got bored..
Might give it another shot
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships
Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
i tried to think of a character and what they would have for example
my thief i started thinking about what skills they would have e.g lock pick ,leather armour ,sword ,bow , sneaking ectra
and just tried to keep to a character
found this very cool way to play the game
I'm afraid I don't share Helleri's opinion in his digression, especially about dragons or being Dragon Born. I love dragons. Since I have "Better Dragons" they area lot tougher and I have a character that goes out of his way to hunt and kill dragons. It's also important to point out that one was the Nervarine in Morrowind if one chose to go thta route so you were also "better than everyone else".
However, when I say "chose to go that route" I mean that these games give you an "out". You don't have to go down that road if you don't want to. two of my Skyrim characters are not "the" dragonborn but "a" dragon born. they don't go to the top of the mountain and pretty much end their involvement after the watchtower incident.
In any case, I have over 490 hours into the game and still going strong. How do I play?
I adopt a persona for the character and stick with it unless it makes sense to change it.
So, my main character is actulaly, in my mind, my same character from Morrowind and of course through Oblvion. Yup, he's that old. Apparently becomeing the Nerevarine and all my work closign Oblvion Gates gave me unnatrually long life. This one is a Dark Elf Male.
This is essentially a "good" character where he does melee and magic. No thieve's guild or assassins guild for him. This characer, as of last night is level 65.
I then have a High Elf Holy Warrior that is male. I am using the recently released Templar Armor mod. It's very good. This character will use restoration but no other magic. Only Melee and always does "the right thing" even if that "right thing" seems a bit iffy. Basically a blinders on character who is very "black and white".
I then have a High Elf Vampire character who is female. Very evil, will do the assassin' guild quest and has no issue wiping out a small town if it suits her needs.
I then have a Nord Character who will side with the stormcloaks. Sort of looks like Conan. Also, only melee and healing.
I recently started a Succubus character who is now a vampire. I think this character will be more neutral in how she works in the world.
I have also recently restarted Morrowind which I played solidly for two years after it was released.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
i'm not quite that bad but no pants nontheless :-P
oh yeah 813hrs total played with many characters but current one is max level and not sure if i'd wanna start over lol.
PSN-SlyFox5679
Xfire-Slyfox5679
raptr-slygamer1979
I'd argue the dark brotherhood quests are probably the best across all the games. Skyrim's was a little lack luster compared to Oblivion's, but outside of that, it was still really exciting.
As for my playstyle - I know a lot of people tend to make multiple characters and to specify, but for me, I've always enjoyed the fact that I can be an all-arounder without real consequence, which I prefer. And, I usually only play one character. On lower difficulties it does get obscenely easy, but I play on Max difficulty and it keeps things fresh.
I start by turning my computer on. Since I had the game installed, I let steam load, start the game, hit continue and play!
Really though. I just mostly pick random talents and not go for an uber build or anything just terrible. Just mix points around and have fun.
After trying characters such as a mage or archer etc I am finally trying just a plain Warrior. I use a sword and shield, nothing fancy.
My warrior is afraid of magic and will not use it. I am trying to play as a real life human, no potions, no magic weapons, no dragons.
Doing a lot of smithing.
Finally enjoying the game.