NephilimNexus

Muskets and pistols would be spiffy. Remember that even with them you will not likely see too many gun themed character builds, because it simply isn't practical. Why? Because most current archery based characters are also almost always stealth based characters as well. Silent snipers, picking off a single target & fading away into the shadows/foliage until another opportunity pops it's head up. But with a musket? BOOOOM! You just got detected, pal. They know exactly where that shot came from. That big cloud of smoke is a dead giveaway, too. Expect them to come charging up with axes a' whirling while you stand there helplessly trying to reload. I mean, think about it from the Dark Brotherhood's perspective. Those guys would never touch guns. Too noisy, too messy, too many witnesses. Not their style at all. The only real use would be to give melee/tank fighters a powerful opening move before closing with sword & axe, just like in the old pirate days, or to quickly bring down a wounded opponent who is fleeing to quickly too run down in full plate armor. They don't worry about noise or messiness - they enjoy it. That suits me just fine.

Polygamous marriages should be done at the shrine of Sanguine. Divorces should be done at the shrine of Clavicus Vile, and you lose half your gold.

So I was thinking that it won't be long after the construction kit debut that someone will find a way to allow multiple companions at once. That much is obvious. To what I was thinking is that the next step is to create a much larger, player purchasable building in the world to act as they player's very own companion themed mead-hall/longhouse/barracks etc, and write appropriate scripts for said companions to go there & hang out, etc. Sort of like the "Companions" guild in the game, but run by the player. Thus, you could recruit the two dozens mages, archers, assasins & healers that will also no doubt come out with the construction kit and not have to try stuffing them all into Breezehome. Then you could go and pick the two or three you might needs for that quest, drop them off when done, then grab different ones for the next quest - and be able to do so in an easy to access, lore-friendly environment.

Does not work for Khajjit (my Khajjit thief is doomed to being single forever, I guess) and for the reason you guessed - lack of voice files, and moreover the lack of actual dialog links for Khajjit NPCs. With the construction set, fixing the dialog flags should be easy enough, but they'll probably end up silent movie style unless someone wants to actually do some voice acting/audio manipulation to back it up with something.

With the construction kit, polygamy should be very, very easy. I'm guessing that in the script for marriage there is a few lines amounting to "is character already married?" with a boolean true/false value, which is checked when talking to a potential spouse. If true, then it backs out and blanks the marriage dialog. Just remove that line. Now the marriage dialog should come up again even after you're married. Ta-da!

Stealth rocks against humanoid foes. Against animals, not as much, as they have much higher detection ratings (realistic). And against dragons stealth is pretty useless. You will get spotted, and the dragon will just swoop down and chomp you down in one gulp. I suggest any stealth build should include the invisibility spell, even if it's the only spell you ever learn. Invisibility in the left hand, dagger in the right, and you should be able to throat-cut anything on two legs easy enough. Or run the frack away from that dragon, as the case may be.

A couple more tips: 11) You can have a follower and a Conjuration pet at the same time. Get the right perk and you can have a follower and two Conjuration pets at the same time. See "spectator sport," above. 12) There are some magic perks that are, IMHO, useless. For instance, the fire perk that makes enemies flee when low on hitpoints. Problem is that all enemies already flee when low on hitpoints, regardless of how they are injured. Thus, redundant. There is a shock perk that disintegrates kills into ash piles. While this is an nice throwback to our beloved Alien Blaster, in reality this gains you nothing except the possible advantage that an enemy necromancy can't resurrect them. Then again, neither can you so it cuts both ways. So I don't see the point of that one, either. Illusion's Silent Casting really only matters if you have a high enough Sneak rating to make it matter, and even then NPCs will usually quickly detect the light from your spells, even if they can't hear them. Again, not needed unless you're really dedicated to playing a stealth character. 13) If you are playing (or adding) stealth into your build, you can very quickly and easily max out the Pickpocket tree (via Quicksave and Quickload). Though it will take a lot of perks to get there, with a full tree you can actually steal the armor & weapons right off an enemy if they don't detect you - and since you probably have an Invisibility spell, yeah, they won't detect you. This makes the ensuing fight against your now totally unarmed, buck-naked foe lean heavily in your favor. 14) If you do find yourself pressed into a swordfight, why would you not be using a conjured daedric weapon? I mean, really, think about it? Carrying actual weapons is just dead weight that could better used for valuable loot.

Some tips: 1) You don't have to wear regular clothes. Yes, many types of robes have big bonuses to magic regeneration, but you could - and should - just learn those enchantments and then reapply them to actual armor. There is no penalty to magic use in the game for wearing armor, even Daedric plate, thus no real excuse not to do so. 2) Get a follower, preferably an "essential" one (if you don't mind a little cheating, you can make any follower essential via the console), and use that follower as your "tank." You can get Faendal as a follower right in Riverwood at level 1 simply by doing a stupid easy task for him (deliver a letter to a girl in the same town). He's a Bosmer archer, not a tank, but hey free follower, right? Load them in heavy armor, a good bow and let them take the aggro for you. In practice, that means opening up with a long range sniping spell, letting your follower intercept the bad guy as they run toward you, and then flanking around to finish them off with your own spells. 3) Transmutation is a an absurd money generation spell, so get it as soon as you can. Why? It turns iron ore into gold ore in two passes. Most shops will sell you iron ore for under 10 septims a piece. Turn two of them into two gold ores, then smelt into one gold ingot and then smith that ingot into a pair of gold rings worth 75 each. Oh, and jewelry crafting levels up your blacksmith fast, which will come in handy for better outfitting your tank (above). 4) If you want to rapidly boost your enchantment skill (and you do), then do the Azura's Star quest ASAP (you can usually start it just by asking random people about rumors and they'll point you in the right direction). Next get yourself some kind of offensive staff once you have the star & go crazy with the Soultrap spell. Spot a target, soultrap spell, then kill them with the staff spells, and then immediately recharge you staff with the star. Why? Because recharging items counts towards boosting your enchantment skill. You've just created your own perpetual experience point loop. 5) If you want to learn archery fast (Why? I don't know?) you can exploit Faendal (above) very easily, as he happens to be an archery trainer. First recruit him (easy) and then have him train you. When you check his inventory, the gold you just paid for your training will show up in his inventory and you can just take it right back - no pickpocketing needed! You can easily turn 500 septims into a level 8 character with 50 archery before you ever even leave Riverwood. This has nothing to do with magic, but I'd just thought I'd throw that in there. 6) You don't have to dual-cast anything. Often times you'll find that having a different spell in each hand is preferable, and you can still cast them both at once. There is nothing stopping you from using Flame in one hand and Frostbite in the other, for instance. This is especially important when Wards come into play, because you can attack and defend at the same time. Or heal, whichever. 7) Start with the Mage Stone but later on you might want to switch to the Apprentice Stone, provided that you can compensate for the magic vulnerability with the appropriate magic resistance enchantments in your armor. 8) You can actually put a spell in one hand and a shield in the other, if you don't want to spend magic points on Wards. This may work for you, or it may not, but it's worth considering. Shield bashing can be a real life saver. 9) Since your not going to be spending Stamina on swinging swords around, there is no reason not to burn it on running the frack away when you magic runs out & you need a breather to recharge. 10) Remember that you can give stuff to your follower/tank, even things that you yourself don't need. Things like flaming swords, shock bows and combat buff enchantments. Hint hint. Do this well enough and combat becomes more a spectator sport.

Also factor in, for Oblivion at least, the strong "Akaviri" influence within the Empire, too - hence the Japanese style swords married to Roman style armor. Which frankly just looks really, really cool - which, in turn, is probably why they did it. Remember, kids, this is a fantasy game, not a historical simulation. One could easily make these same criticisms about the Romulans from Star Trek, and the producers would give the exact same retorts.

You got the bounty because the guards themselves are witnesses. To their credit, the developers added the mechanics of witnesses being needs for a crime to put a bounty on you. So when you free a prisoner, the guards for that prisoner are the witnesses. As above posted, if you kill the guards first and leave no witnesses, you get no bounty. You can also delete a fresh bounty if you kill off all of the witnesses quickly enough. While this may work on a remote farm, don't expect it to work inside a major city. I like this mechanic, too - it makes the Dark Brotherhood stuff really feel more authentic.

I suspect that the guard comments about being hit in the knee with an arrow is the developers themselves making a joke about the lack of knee protection in the game's armor lists, especially for the Imperials.

Also, you can do it without cheating (to a lesser extent). There are certain magic items (though rare) that increase carry wait, and you can break them down & remake them at the Arcane Enchanter like anything else. Works good with boots, not sure it it works on rings, though. Try making a full set of armor with carry boost enchantments and give them to your follower to really turn them into a pack mule. Or cheat. Whichever, but the above would also be plausible even for the Xbox version as well.

Actually, there is a bookshelf in Breezehome that automatically sorts books into it for you. Sadly, though, it is only the one shelf and it only holds about a dozen books at most. Waiting for modders to grab that code & let me build my own personal library. I've been a compulsive book collector since Morrowind. Also, Oblivion & Morrowind had their fair share of automatic sorting/placement mods that allowed wall mounted weapons, working display cases, and even mannequins for your armor. So again, I doubt it will take long for modders to add more of that to Skyrim once they get their hands on the construction set.

If I'm going to spend hours on end staring at a character's backside, I'd like it to be a backside I actually enjoy starting at.

Actually, Lydia is already on the vanilla list so you shouldn't have to do anything to make her eligible. As for other NPCs... using addfac 19809 1 only makes them eligible for marriage. It does not make them interested in you. That requires a certain relationship level - meaning they have to actually like you first. Weird, eh? So, as above the next step is setrealtionshiprank player 4 and, for emphasis, follow it up with player.setrelationshiprank player 4. I honestly don't know why the second part is needed, or if it even is, but the first part definitely is. In fact, you can use that on just about any NPC to improve their disposition towards you for any of several reasons - such as turning them into followers, if eligible for that role) Oh, and yes you will need to turn people into followers as well, in which case you want to add addfac 5C84D1 to the mix. Again, merely making them a potential follower is not enough unless they actually like you. See above. Now this will usually be enough to make any NPC eligible for marriage but just in case it does not, the final step (and be sure to Quicksave before you do this in case you screw it up): Click on the NPC and type disable and then enable without leaving the console screen. Emphasis on not leaving the console screen, because once you type disable they will vanish, but their "tag" on the console will still remain. Since they are still tagged, typing enable brings them reappear again. Should you leave the console screen between these two commands, I can not promise that you'll even be able to bring them back. You may, but then again you may not. So don't risk it (hence, Quicksave just in case) and do it all in one pass. What that does is resets the NPC and, in doing so, reloads their dialog options with the new features enabled. Namely, the marriage and/or follower dialog that, for whatever reason, you were not getting before. Using this method I have yet to encounter any NPC that I could not turn into a follower or candidate for marriage. Also, before I finish, I would also like to add this: help _____ 4, with the blank being their name. This will barf up some statistical data on the NPC, including their ID number in the game - which is important when you follow that up with setessential _____ 1 to make sure that they can't be killed. This is how I turned Shal from being just some random Orc chieftan's mistress into one of my personal bodyguards, as seen here:

Actually, you can do this in Skyrim, if you max out your Pickpocket skill, approach from behind & undetected (when in doubt, an Invisibility spell ensures undetection)

And in normal clothes with no armor rating at all.

Proof of concept - Lydia wearing fur armor.

Well I found a workaround, actually. First, talk to them and ask to share inventory. Take everything you can - this will make editing their inventory much, much easier. Console ~ Click on Companion type "showinventory" Now you see what they are carrying, along with the item ID# of their stuff. If you can't see it all at once use PAGEUP to scroll back up the console window. While the companion is still targeted, "removeitem XXXXXXXX" (with X being the item ID# shown in previous "showinventory" list) The item will vanish. Now close the console and quickly talk to them, ask to share inventory, and hand them something that fits that slot. For instance, if you deleted their boots, give them a new paid of boots. Since the companion code is to equip whatever has the best rating (actually, I think it decides this based on the PRICE of the item, not it's stats), and their default item is gone, they will equip whatever you hand them. The reason I say do it quickly is that I've noticed that if you don't give them something to fill that default slot then the game tends to magically make their original gear respawn into their inventory. However, so long as they have something in that slot then their default does not respawn. Thus, they actually wear the outfits you give them and wield the weapons you give them as well.

Ran into M'aiq the Liar again in Skyrim. Some of you may recall this same Kajjit was also in Oblivion, and his dialog here is just as perplexing. Which makes me wonder... is his return in Skyrim some kind of light hearted joke/east egg on part of the developers, or some kind of hint that he may not really be what appears? After all, ES5 takes place 200 years after ES4, which would make M'aiq... well, let's say he's aged well.

So then what is the console command to flag someone as your friend (i.e. - have done a favor/quest for them, even if you really haven't)? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

I miss the old Oblivion hotkey system. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than this rubbish. I seriously wish they'd put just a little more effort into these console ports and try giving real PC style control options for a change. Bring back REAL hotkeys for people with real KEYBOARDS!

So if you have companion/servant/spouse/etc you can have them live at your house. Spiffy. Problem is, however, that the game gives all these characters a hidden default armor/clothing type that absolutely cannot be removed with current game mechanics. Yes, if you give them better (read: higher stats) armor then they will change into that, instead. But what if you want them to have weaker armor/clothing? They won't touch it. Personally, I found little use for the companions in the game (playing a stealth archer, so they really just get in the way - sometimes literally) but they keep piling up. Well, fine, they all want to live at my house? They can ditch the full plate armor, throw on some NORMAL clothing like any sensible person and... I dunno... sweep up or something. Sadly, though, I can't do that - see above. Thus the mod request: Removal the automatic/default/demand flags on companion inventory items (read: armor & weapons) so that we can put them into whatever outfits we want. Thanks!

I have, this would really just be a minor modification of one of those mods.