Relativelybest

Time constraints, possibly. Or they couldn't figure out in which perk tree to put it. That's the only reasons I can think of.

Can someone please make it possible to attack while jumping and falling? This was a combat feature I rather appreciated in Oblivion and I'm really missing it in Skyrim. I've lost count of the times I've instinctively jumped at an enemy while clicking for attack only to find that I have to land propperly (usually while taking hits) before I can strike. ><

Recently? Haha! I've always hated the combat in Skyrim. But seriously, you might actually want to consider lowering the difficulty. I know a lot of people consider this a matter of pride for some bizarre reason, but the purpose of having variable difficulty is to let you adjust the game to a level where you are actually having fun. You are not actually supposed to torture yourself through the game just because "real men play at Hardest!" or whatever. You said it yourself: You were having the most fun when the fights were challenging but even. Personally, I prefer the lower difficulty settings because I play games to relax and I'm not a damn masochist. Usually I start out at whatever amounts to medium and adapt the difficulty from there. The only time I've set Skyrim to Master was when I fought Alduin, because I'd heard he was kinda weaksauce and I wanted a memorable final boss fight. I've spent a lot of time playing on Novice and I can tell you right now that on that setting, the experience is the exact opposite to what you describe: At the higher levels and with sufficiently twinked out gear, almost nothing can kill you and you one-shot all but the strongest enemies. So, you know, maybe you should give Expert a try?

But the main character in Oblivion obviously did complete the main quest in canon, what with the world not being run by Mehrunes Dagon and his daedra hordes. This despite several (heck, most) of my characters not bothering to complete the main quest. So, the continuity already assumes you completed the main quest. Having the main quest end with you as the new emperor wouldn't be much different. Even if some players never bothered with it, the continuity can still assume they did because they were supposed to.

So, once again, Bethesda inexplicably denies us the possibility to marry anyone who is actually important or remotely interesting?

Pretty much. My main character isn't interested in being anything except a dragonblooded human. She takes quite a bit of pride in that - at this point she has actually somewhat started thinking like a dragon, and becoming a werewolf or any kind of vampire would basically be a downgrade for her. I'm pretty sure my Lv67 or so dovahkiin is already the most powerful creature in all of Skyrim. It's been a while since she met anything that even comes close to being a threat to her.

I've slowed down a lot lately, but I consider that a good thing. Because, really, you are not supposed to spend all your time playing a single video game. And you absolutely shouldn't expect to be constantly entertained by the same game for such a long time, either. There's a lot of other stuff to do. I still have some things to accomplish in the game, and I'll eventually want to try out Dawnguard and any other DLC Bethesda procuded along the line, maybe try out some mods that look interesting. So, I can still get back into it. But right now I'm finding it comfortably dull, meaning I'll only play it when I get bored. Which, if you think about it, is what games are actually for.

The dragons are described as being immortal in a conceptual way due to their connection with the god of time - conventual mortality actually doesn't apply to them, to the point that they can't even grasp the concept. That said, they don't seem to be godlike or even especially magical beings by Elder Scrolls standards. He's the head honcho dragon, pretty much - a unique and very powerful dragon with a lot of legends and folklore surrounding him. Some of that is confirmed by the other dragons (they do seem to believe he has a part to play as the "World Eater", whatever that may mean in actuality) but they also seem to follow him simply because he's the most alpha dragon, not because he's supposed to be some sort of god of destruction. (The moment it's made clear he might actually be defeated, the other dragons emidiately turn less loyal.) I suppose he's kinda the King Arthur of the dragons - supposedly a very big deal, but still just a dude when it comes down to it. Seeing as he needed a stationary portal controlled by a magical staff carried by a servant, I'm doubtful. It's not like he could just open portals wherever he felt like, like Dagon did back in Oblivion. Put it like this: If dragons are Aedra, they are Aedra in the same sense the Dremora are Daedra. Probably not a good comparisson, but still. Yes you can. He has the same weaknesses that all other dragons have. Hit him with a sword enough and down he goes. Honestly, I'm pretty sure you could have killed him on Nirn as well. The way I enterpreted it, he got scared after Dovahkiin and Parthuurnax double teamed him and fled to Sovengaard to gather strenght and feed on souls for a while, and you essentially chase after him. If he had stayed and stood his ground, I but you could have killed him and ended the game early. Even the soul-eating thing is described as "a privilege he guards jealously", implying it's actually something regular dragons could do as well, except he won't let them. I'm thinking not very well, seeing as Daedric princes tend to be game mechanically invincible whenever you do run into them, whereas Alduin can be defeated by a high-end adventurer with access to an esoteric type of magic. ...By the way, why the heck is this thread not on the Spoilers board? He's the final boss. It's impossible to discuss him without spoiling the game. o_O

That black tower is scary. Clearly, you have ventured into a realm where mortals were not meant to go.

Blackreach was cribbed from the Lost Spires mod for Oblivion, right down to the ambient chimes. Huh, I would have guessed that they cribbed it from the D&D Underdark. I actually played Lost Spires but didn't make it that far for various reasons. Did it really have an underground cave the size of a city? Becuase if so, it's even more ambitious than I thought, though I never got that impression from any of the screenshots.

You are aware Alduin was the being that turned Dagon into what he is. Dagon's current form is the result of Alduin eating him and placing a curse on him. Alduin is stronger then Dagon in lore. So what? The lore says a lot of crazy and often contradicting stuff. Most of it is actual legends and myths in the context of the setting, not an accurate and reliable transcription of what really happened. The lore also says Malacath was created when Boethiah ate Trinimac, a story Malacath himself considers "far too literal minded." In the actual games, it took direct divine intervention -a literal miracle- to stop Dagon because there was absolutely nothing the mortals could do to him when he manifested, whereas I didn't even need my best gear to stab Alduin to death at Master difficulty. Again, the lore probably shouldn't be taken literally. That could just as well be a poetic way of saying Alduin is meant to destroy the established societies, or that he "eats the world" in a symbolical sense by marking the end of the particular era he appears in.

They're obviously both being ironic. Keep it up, guys, this is hilarious! :thumbsup:

Honestly, it was possibly even worse in Oblivion. I recall making an observation once that the Champion of Cyrodill becoming Emperor/Empress would probably just be a formality since you eventually run basically everything anyway.

I seriously doubt it. Despite the mythology surrounding him, Alduin was still just a dragon, albeit a very powerful dragon. You could still hit him with a sword and do damage, and aside from his thu'ums he didn't have any godlike powers. Most Daedric Princes can't even be fought. Mehrunes Dagon was impossible to damage, and attacking Sheogorath instantly resulted in you getting your medieval ass teleported into the sky and falling to your death. As far as I know, the only Daedric Prince you can actually defeat in combat was Jyggalag, and he was probably nowhere near his true strenght at that point. Clearly, we need a mod that lets you fight Peryite. Also, Akatosh.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a mod that does exactly this, actually. If I find it again, I'll let you know. SkyUI does this. Actually, I was thinking about this: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1227 Seems like it's outdated now, however.

Are Daedric Princes conceptually immortal the same way dragons are? If so, Dragonrend ought to hurt them the same way as well. You know, in theory. Thing is, even if you hit Dagon with a Dragonrend, all you'd do is make him really angry. He's still impervious to attack, after all, and Daedric Princes are way, way, way more powerful than any dragon. ...Heh, maybe if you had the shout Dagonrend, you might stand a chance. :tongue:

Well, this is a tricky one. On one hand, I prefer the Ayelid ruins in terms of exteriors: There were pretty much everywhere in Cyrodil - even sticking out of lakes - making for some really atmospheric scenery, and while I thought all were too small (non of them even came close to resembling a city, most not even being big enough to pass for a fortress) some where still kinda impressive. They really did give the impression of a lost civilization. The Dwemer ruins are a bit too rare, however some (like Minchaleft or the Silent City) have pretty impressive exteriors. Somehow they don't fill me with the same sense of wonder, though. Maybe they've just held up too well. In terms of interiors, I think both have the exact same problems: They don't feel like places where people actually used to live. The Dwemer ruins had a couple of beds, I think, and one or two of what seemed to have been debate halls. But other than that they are just long, winding hallways that lead to rooms that don't seem to have any purpose other than housing enemies and treasure chests, doors that do not provide privacy, no kitchens, etc. I kept wondering why the Ayelid insisted on living underground in these dark, gloomy stone dungeons. I suppose in that sense the Dwemer ruins make more sense since the dwarves were largely a subterranian race, but still. I'd love to find, like, a Dwemer prison or a soul gem processing plant or a centurion factory assembly floor. You know, the kind of things you expect to actually find in ruined cities. Something interesting that seems to have been built for a reason. Even the dwemer ruins that have designations like "War Quarters" still come across as very generic. I also have to wonder why the hell both of these powerful elven empires felt the need to booby trap their own living areas. I know traps are a part of dungeon diving but they should still make sense. If you are going to have traps you should put them in places where you expect to have to repell intruders, like a treasury or the Inner Sanctum of the Ancient Temple enshrining the Dangerous Artifact. Not a random corridor where your own citizens will be walking on a daily basis. The Dwemers outfitted some of their facilities with spinning helicopter blade traps that could cut a person in half. The Ayelids had traps that released poison into the air. Who does that? That's crazy. That's rabid howler monkey insane. It's just one step away from putting a lava pit in your living room. Oh well, I digress. I guess I like the Dwemer ruins more in concept, but they also disappoint me more in practice because they make me feel like Bethesda missed an opportunity to put something awesome into their game. I was hoping they would be the Skyrim equivalent of the the Fallout service tunnels, these really atmospheric utalitarian places full of weird machines. Really, after Fallout 3, you'd think one thing Bethesda would know how to do by now is the derelict ruins of dead civilizations. But all I found in the Dwemer ruins were just another type of generic dungeon, with a few pipes sticking out of the walls.

I'd love to voice my personal opinions on piracy, but I kinda don't want to risk getting banned. So instead, I'll just take comfort in feeling smarter than the guy who made this thread.

Eeh... *wiggles hand* Saying Oblivion is a better game is going a bit too far, methinks. I mean, it did have some serious shortcomings, and many of the things I don't quite like about Skyrim are things I didn't like in Oblivion either. And honestly, Skyrim does introduce a lot of technical improvements. Oblivion just kinda had more staying power, somehow.

Then, if the taxes get too high and aggressive, you can form a band of merry robbers who assult tax collectors and redistribute the gold to the beggars. Sell the houses! There's never enough real estate in barren Skryim! :thumbsup: Actually, selling your house is something I've always kinda wanted to do. Is there a mod for that?

So, I'm looking for a modest player home, fairly small without too many fancy features. While looking, I've noticed a lot of homes are outdoor/open to the worldspace. Now, according to the wiki's entry on respawning: Am I then correct in assuming that any stuff I leave laying around an outdoor home will vanish after ten days? See, I prefer to leave some of my possessions out in the open rather than stashing them in containers.

Make sure you've targeted the hatch and not, like, the floor or something. Sometimes the console gets picky about that.

I got to thinking... Maybe I'm Tiber Septim and I just don't know it yet? o_O

Not really. Iron ore and corundum ore can be combined into steel ingots, but you can't combine iron ingots and corundum ingots the same way. Also, the Transmute Mineral spell turns iron into silver and silver into gold, but it only works on ores. Other than that, I'm pretty sure ores are only good for selling or being turned into ingots. It seems to vary depending on the material. For example iron is worth more as ingots (1 ore with base value 2 become one ingot with base value 7) but gold isn't. (Two ores with base value 50 becomes one ingot with base value 100.) Gold weighs the same regardless if it's in ore or ingot shape, so its worth more in terms of weight but the same in terms of the material you need to dig up.

While I like to play characters, I usually don't bother with an exact backstory. I find it's a bit limiting to decide things so early on. Most of the time I only have an idea who the character is when I start playing, and then I use that character's actions and thinking to piece together and idea of where the character came from. So, I basically roleplay backwards. I think that's more fun, personally. For example, my archer hates giants, so I eventually decided she was orphaned when a giant killed her parents. I don't know where the family lived before that or why she doesn't have a home. Possibly they lived in that destroyed house outside Whiterun? Dunno. My mage character, on the other hand, definitely grew up in Whiterun and spent most of her time saving up for magic books until she could take the cart to Winterhold. That's just about all I know, though - realistically, she should still have family in Whiterun. I still have no idea where my semi-feral catgirl barbarian came from or how she ended up in Skyrim.