FastBlackCat

The "unowned" horses (i.e., free horses) can be borrowed, but they're behavior is set to act like stolen horses, you just can ride them without penalities or bounties. So when you dismount, they will go "home." I imagine that one of these days, some enterprising modder will fix this. There may be a console command to stop them from doing this, but honestly, I don't know if there is one or what it would be.

Despite the fact I'm enjoying Skyrim because I love to explore and loot, the game has been leaving me feeling . . . well, flat. I don't have a lot connection to my character, and the PC's character doesn't seem to have a whole lot of impact on the world. It's kind of going from point A to point B, loot this cave, finish this task, but it doesn't have a whole lot of meaning to the Skyrim world and to me personally. And there's no connection to other NPC's. I miss the character interaction of DAO and TW2, which invested me in the games more.

Heh...yep, same here. I remember my first one transistor radio, it was a Tonex. While I was in broadcast, I had to learn how make the transition to digital technology, we had to make digital technology work with linear..I mean tubes, we called it hybrid technology. I still have my old Atari 2600, it still works, and my TI-994A computer. Yes, we old farts are much more computer literate then some younger folks give us credit for. Sometimes, I wish i didn't know...LOL! I have worked with computers for twenty years too. The first system I learned on was Wang system that had eight inch floppies to boot up on, the disk drive sounded like a machine gun going off. Now I build my own systems and work in Graphic Design and learning 3D modeling. got a bit off topic here, sorry, but it made me laugh. But I appreciate the sentiment anyway. :tongue: I'm 58, so I'm a member of that exclusive club, too! :thumbsup: My first computer was an Apple II with a DOS operating system and floppy disks circa 1981. Remember the green print on a black screen? Never did much game playing until Myst came out--shoot, I think I still have it around here somewhere . . . although I don't think I have anything left that can run it. Morrowind got me hooked, then Oblivion, and now Skyrim!

I haven't tried a non-four legged companion yet, but I do have a brace of wolfhounds following me around: Meeko and Barbas. Barbas is well nigh indestructible (I guess being a Daedric dog has its advantages), so I can take him into situations I don't dare take Meeko into because he seems to get killed a lot. When going into tough places, I usually leave Meeko outside with the horse and take Barbas, although if you're into sneaking Barbas almost makes that an exercise of futility. One annoying thing, while Meeko usually keeps a nice distance, Barbas stays right on top of you and shoves you around--he almost pushed my PC off a cliff.

There's some sort of auto targeting? :blink: I didn't know that. It seems to me all my shots are manual--but I guess I could be mistaken. I've made some pretty long distance shots using trajectory, so the arrows seem to me to have weight and velocity. I usually use sneak and archery to clear out the bad guys--well, it worked pretty well until I got hooked up with Barbas the Daedric Dog, who doesn't have a wait command. Unfortunately, sneaking with him around doesn't work. :rolleyes:

You do like living dangerously, don't you? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I use it in a limited manner, but for the most part, I enjoy roaming around and exploring the countryside. I like the feeling of discovery when I come upon ruins or stone circles, or just viewing the scenery. Plus there are random encounters I would miss on the roads if I fast traveled all the time.

Yes, I use horses all the time. I enjoy galloping around in Skyrim on my horse sight-seeing. I almost never fast travel because I enjoy looking at the surroundings. And the horse's gait makes me grin--I think the way they bouncity-bounce along is darn cute. That being said, I find the fact that you can't fight from horseback or talk to other NPCs from horseback a little annoying, but maybe it was too problematic to include as part of the game. Having to take time to dismount while your enemies are consistantly attacking your poor horse first is also a little annoying. I was a little astounded the second day I was playing Skyrim by my horse's ferocity in battle. I had approached one of the forts where bandits resided and when I dismounted to do battle, my horse was flying all over the place attacking and killing the bad guys. :blink: I was afraid it was going to get itself killed.

It's built into the game that you can only be in third person when riding your horse, and I haven't tried the mod. Besides the clipping, does it work well?

And within the context of the Star Trek universe the change in appearance was explained as a side effect to an attempted mass genetic-engineering progect gone wrong. As such, TRUE Klingons have browridges. Which still doesn't invalidate anything i said, as what characteristics of Mer, particularly Dunmer, do not in the least resemble a Klingon brow ridge. To quote Wikipedia: "As originally developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon, Klingons were darkly colored humanoids with little honor, intended as an allegory to the Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, though Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry did not aspire to any political parallels. With a greatly expanded budget for makeup and effects, the Klingons were completely redesigned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), gaining ridged foreheads that created a continuity error not explained by Star Trek canon until 2005 . . . . . .In the original television series (TOS), Klingons were typically portrayed with bronze skin and facial hair suggestive of Asian peoples, and possessed physical abilities similar to humans (in fact, Coon's only physical description of them in his "Errand of Mercy" script is "oriental" and "hard-faced") . . .For Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the Klingons were retconned and their appearance and behavior radically changed. To give the aliens a more sophisticated and threatening demeanor, the Klingons were depicted with ridged foreheads, snaggled and prominent teeth . . . . . .that Worf acknowledged the difference in appearances when the crew of Deep Space 9 returned to the 23rd century in the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," but offered no explanation, saying merely, 'We do not discuss it with outsiders.'" So, the first Klingons were metamorphed by a big movie budget into what you call "true" klingons. Don't get me wrong, I have an abiding affection for the whole Klingon mystique, but they never started out looking the way they do now. And regardless of the fact that some don't see the likeness to Klingons, it's obvious from comments made in this thread that other people do think they resemble Klingons. What is probably triggering this comparison is the sheer cragginess of the Dunmer features. It's a matter of perception and interpretation, which is a process of the human brain to make sense of the world. It's like looking at cloud formations and one person sees a horse and another a human face. Right now, I'm leaning toward Romulans myself, although a friend that is also playing Skryim said they look like emaciated aliens, which is as good a description as any. Now, back to the topic at hand, I'm amazed at the amount of passion this thread has created. As BarefootWarrior said, it's obvious we all love our elves, whether we like the way they look or not (and I'm definitely on the not side). Those of us who don't like their appearance will be able to eventually mod them, the Nine be praised. And no, I'm not an anime fan, although I do admire some of the artwork. And my favorite elves were the DAO elves and the Mystic Elf characters I created for Oblivion from Ren's mod.

I beg your pardon? In the original Star Trek episodes Klingons looked like this: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.startrek.com/legacy_media/images/200306/tos-027-the-klingon-kor/320x240.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.startrek.com/database_article/kor&h=240&w=320&sz=19&tbnid=dABpLF_UyMGLOM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&zoom=1&docid=fahtYWi23FKlLM&sa=X&ei=cmzMTsnnC8WoiQLQnfD0Cw&ved=0CDkQ9QEwAQ&dur=2125 See any brow ridges?

It's a matter of taste and preference, and personally, I find the elves hideous. They look like a cross between Klingons/Romulans/Navi. Dark elves are my favorite race to play, but when I saw the elf faces in Skyrim I went :yucky: and for the first time as far as Elder Scrolls games, I made my PC one of the human races. I can hardly wait for the construction set to come out.

Well, I'm certainly glad I read this before launching my game through Steam this morning. I don't want the dang thing, so I made a shortcut to the exe file to my desktop so I can avoid getting this patch. Also made a back up for my TES exe. What in heaven's name were they thinking (well, they probably weren't thinking about us the paying customers, that's for sure)?

My PC has killed about three parties of Thalmor escorting prisoners to be interrogated because we have a problem with repressive, totalitarian groups and they are about the most arrogant jerks I've run across in the game. They are a little difficult to beat because there's usually three of them, but it can be done.

I agree. The landscape fits a land in the sub-arctic and arctic zones, and although it is a little on the bleak side, I find it breathtaking. I've spent most of my time in the game so far just running the roads and striking out cross country to sightsee. The other night, after doing some dungeon diving (or cave-diving rather :tongue: ), when I got out it was night time and the sky was awesome. The moon was out and there was a spectacular aurora borealis rippling across the sky.

There are three dogs available in game that I know of: Vigilance (as Draco856 said, available at the Markath stables), Meeko (in the wilderness in Hjaalmarch near Meeko's shack), and a stray dog that shows up in one of two random world events. And they remind me of Irish wolfhounds, too.

I've only gotten the "you look sick" comments when my PC was sick. It seems sometimes just taking the Cure Disease potions don't do the trick, so my PC usually goes into a temple and gets herself zapped by one of the Nine.

Aside from the graphics which I still think are rather spectacular, it's the ability to roam and discover I love the most. Just take off in a direction, explore the countryside, come upon caves and ruins . . . you know--explore! There's been a lot of complaints about the horses, but I love jumping on one and galloping around the roads (sort of like a vacation to me :laugh: ).

After working a grueling 10 hour day, I'm going to take myself to the nearest coffee kiosk, and treat myself to the biggest iced Mounds coffee (coffee, chocolate milk, chocolate and coconut Torani syrup, and a ton of whip cream) they've got (if they had a gallon sized one I'm going for that!), hang out for a while, then run over to GS at 10:00 p.m. and mill around with the other Skyrim enthusiasts waiting for the midnight release.

I have to say, I enjoyed your article immensely. My husband came in to see why I was laughing my head off (I had just read the part where the atronach had slapped your companion across the screen).

Are we forced to link it with Steam, even if we actually got the CD? My understanding is that like Fallout New Vegas, we will have to go through Steam to get the game files (please, somebody, correct me if I'm wrong!). When I got FONV, it took about 15 hours to get the download from Steam, and I have cable internet. With TW2, I didn't have a disk, so to be fair, maybe that was why it took so long.

If Steam takes as long as it did to download Skyrim as it did when I downloaded TW2, the first 30 hours after I get the game in my hands is to download the game files from Steam. After that, I'll probably spend a great amount of time playing with the character creator--at least a couple of hours--playing with this race and that.

I'm still afraid of showers, something about the water spewing at you straight out of the wall and the noise! And then there is this bastard in the drain ... **SHRIEK!!!*** This is definitely making me rethink my preference for showers . . . I wonder if Rotorooter or industrial strength Draino will get rid of him . . .

I'd have to say I find Overwhelm the most annoying (and rather alarming when it comes to the giant spiders! :ohmy: ) because as stated previously, you can't do squat while it's happening. And Feign Death seems particularly useless to me--I've never used it as a skill myself because I'm generally a "get in there and slug it out" sort of person, so falling down and playing dead doesn't appeal to me.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: It looks great--love the red. But what about the sleigh and eight tiny reindeer?