soot00

Thus far am enjoying the Radiant AI at work in Skyrim.... http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Radiant_Story

I am primarily playing two toons. A good goody Paladin type class and an evil Dark Elf mage. When I get to the same quest npcs I answer appropriately of what an evil or good class would respond so I can see the different end result of the quest completion. It's a good way to test Bethesda's radiant AI. While the main plot is obviously scripted the same for both toons regardless of their good/bad reputation history. I have noticed a big difference with the same random quests.

I think the UI for skyrim is frikkin awesome. Of course I am running a N52TE game pad controller alongside a G15 keyboard. Also have a mouse with multiple buttons that are all configured for the hotkeys in Skyrim. If you are the unfortunate type that is only using a standard 2 button mouse and single keyboard, I would probably hate the UI as well.

There are so many weapon varieties I have ignored the specialized weapon perks and just dumped points into 20-40-60etc base damage. Can't wait til I get "Sweep" which comes far later.

Radiant storytelling is what sets Skyrim part from previous releases. I am playing 2 different toons, one venturing toward the dark side and other the good side. Aside from the scripted Main quest plots which are identical, I can clearly notice the Radiant AI at work with the random quests... http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Radiant_Story Radiant Storytelling appears to be a feature that Bethesda is using in their engine for Skyrim that acts as a narrator for your character in the world. It records your actions and changes things in the world according to what you have done - for example, if you murder someone, their family will find out, as well as the community. It also adjusts game difficulty depending on your skills and changes different things in quests such as different reactions or outcomes depending on how you play, like deciding to not enchant armor you're supposed to as a favor for someone out of your own money; he would then pay you back. If you sell the armor instead, Radiant Story would adjust the quest to your preference. "The game eventually logs a huge storehouse of knowledge about how you've played, and subsequently tailors content to your capabilities and experiences. Entering a city, a young woman might approach you and beg you to save her daughter from kidnappers. The game will look at the nearby dungeons you've explored, automatically set the mission in a place you've never visited, and designate opponents that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses." - Raphier "There's a similar balancing act at stake when it comes to the beefed-up Radiant AI, which gives NPC townsfolk a degree of independent-mindedness, and the all-new Radiant Storytelling system, which tracks your every itty-bitty decision and alters the play of options appropriately, including where and by whom you're offered quests. Carelessly drop an axe in a forest during an afternoon's bear-slaying, for instance, and a merchant chum might retrieve it for you later. Behead him as punishment for running his filthy, lucre-loving fingers all over your prized weapon, and he won't be able to enlist you as a caravan escort - but his unsuspecting widow might. You get the idea." - OXM UK edition New, updated Radiant AI: You won't find townspeople loitering aimlessly in town squares anymore. Each citizen performs tasks that make sense in their environment. To impart the towns and cities with a greater sense of life, Bethesda has populated them with mills, farms, and mines that give the NPCs believable tasks to occupy their day. The improved Radiant AI technology is also more aware of how a citizen should react to your actions. As you perform tasks for them or terrorize them by ransacking their home, the NPCs develop feelings about you. If you're good friends with a particular NPC and barge into his house during the middle of the night, he may offer you lodging rather than demand you leave the premises. If you swing your weapon near an NPC, knock items off their dinner table, or try to steal something of value, they'll react with an appropriate level of hostility given their prior relationship to you. Radiant Story: Many quests are still completely governed by Bethesda, but the Radiant Story system helps randomize and relate the side quests to players to make the experience as dynamic and reactive as possible. Rather than inundate you with a string of unrelated and mundane tasks, it tailors missions based on who your character is, where you're at, what you've done in the past, and what you're currently doing. Radiant Story is also smart enough to know which caves and dungeons you've already visited and thus conditionalize where, for instance, a kidnapped person is being held to direct you toward a specific place you haven't been to before, populated with a specific level of enemy. Skyrim also tracks your friendships and grudges to generate missions. Do a small favor for a farmer and it may eventually lead to a larger quest. Some NPCs will even agree to be your companion to help you out in specific situations.

I stopped playing the previous two releases til months / year down the road when mods starting appearing.... With Skyrim, it's become an addiction and can't stop playing it.

Nope, I think the default limit is fine. I do understand some of us like being pack rats and grab anything and everything tho. If you want to increase your carry load without cheating, the game does say Stamina = Carry weight, just increase it during level up and/or chant items with stamina

Coolest thing ever. Movement, looks, sound, concept....just perfect!!

Where are my spell buff timers? Starting to get old going back to my "Active" menu to figure out how long my Pet smmons or Armor buffs are about to go...

Skyrim is a cpu prostitute. Download a cpu / ram monitor and let it run in the background when you play Skyrim.... My CPU (AMD Phenom Ii, X4 955) gets up to 70pct load during heavy play and my ram stays under 35pct load

True but I actually supplied a link with a developer quote. The rest of the peeps...who knows? lol

The max level is somewhere around 75, not 50. ;) The mathematical cap is 70 afaik. The cap you can reach is 50. It's a soft cap at 50, meaning that's how far you're supposed to get, and after that leveling is extremely slow, but you can reach around 75. ;) After maxing all the skills through the console, max level seems to be 81. I am basing my level cap "guess" off the Bethesda developer chat.... “The levelling is faster. Oblivion and Fallout 3, we think of them as 1-25 games. This is a 1-50. But what that means is we just sped it up. It’s not like it’s going to take you longer. There are so many perks and the power really comes from the perks, we wanted to get it going faster. You level faster in the beginning and then it slows down.” http://gamerant.com/bethesda-skyrims-level-cap-dungeons-robk-80402/

Yes I could be a full plate wearing, 2 Hand Axe wielding, Fireball caster class....but this would make the game too easy. What I try to do is look at a class build from a previous game I played (Shadowknight from Everquest, Rogue from WOW, Paladin from Neverwinter nights, etc etc) and use them as a template to build my Skyrim toon

Main Toon which I spend 80pct of my Skyrim time is a Female Imperial Thief 2ndary Toon which I log onto 20pct of my Skyrim time is a Dark Elf Male Pure caster.

My Fallout 3 is on Ultra mode, max on everything. Up until last week I thought the graphics were still pretty frikkin amazing... Now after playing Skyrim, holy crap what a difference!

I have two toons going. -Pure Thief, Daggers Only, Light armor only, Archery and the usual thief perks, sneak, etc -Pure Mage, Clothing Only, Enchanting etc etc. Pure Mage definitely takes more micro managing. I suggest get your Astronach pet spell asap...but these astronach's are far from tanks, they more like glass cannons early going so you still need to becareful. Level max is 50 in this game. Will be interesting how "balanced" my two classes feel upon reaching these levels....

Barara? or whatever. He looks like an Airedale Terrier. Anyways I stopped his quest mid point and took him along for my other quests. He is an awesome tank. AI pathing is pretty good too. Yes he gets lost when I have to scale the cliffs but he eventually finds me. Think I am gonna keep him around to see how long he lasts....

Only one CTD here. Game engine is very stable.

Worked just fine for me. Just save your character before you perform plastic surgery.

Bethesda games tend to give your cpu a workout. For one I noticed in your system specs cpu is decent. That probably explains it more than any other. Oblivion was coded long before multi cores became mainstream, hence did not utilize quad core cpus efficiently. I have a background CPU and Ram monitor flashing on my Logitech G15 keyboard display as I am playing Skyrim. During heavy gameplay my Ram stays under 40pct load while by CPU jumps to 70pct load. My CPU is AMD Phenom II X4 955 w/ ATI 6850 video card and 8 gig memory.

Am more amazed Skyrim is only 5 gigs! Yes some of the inns are the same texures but the vastness of the world, the random encounters, voice acting etc etc Totally amazed Bethesda pulled this off with 5 gigs.

In the enchant tree there are certain perks to up those "measly" stats.

The Fact I can wear Full Heavy Plate Armor wielding a 2 hand Great sword casting Destruction spells does not mean I am going to go that route. Some of us like challenges and don't need game limitations holding our hand to do so.... :teehee:

Hehe. It's all about looks for me. If my character does not look good in their new found gear it's not gonna be worn regardless of stats :biggrin:

I was getting a good 45+ FPS but it seems like there was slight stuttering in the wilderness. After some web searches it turns out the Anti Aliasing feature in the launcher is buggy. I disabled BOTH AA and Anistropic filtering in the Skyrim Launcher. I then went into AMD Catalyst Control Center and turned them both on but make sure you UNCHECK "Use application settings" so Skyrim does not override. Lots better now. Graphics are amazing