kevinwastaken

I'd like to see more random spaceship encounters, landings, and less "abduction missions" proportionately kind of how you are suggesting. I think drawing out the strategy layer timewise would be more interesting. I want more time to shoot sectoids with bullets before moving on to mutons and lasers. Perhaps increasing everything by a time factor of 5, and including more UFO sightings would make that part of the game feel more substantial. I've restarted enough times to know that the progression is strictly scripted with certain events always happening at the same time. That is... disheartening. I know it would make the game easier since you'd have far more access to alien resources, but honestly I'm fine with that. I'm playing to kill aliens and have fun doing it for as long as possible. Unfortunately the strategy layer seems hollow and artificially challenging by just making you rush through the game in a linear fashion. That is not very XCOM. I love Firaxis' reimagining but it is astonishing that the 18 year old game has so much more depth in strategy. I'm not even sure any of this is possible without modding tools, unfortunately.

If you don't complain about problems with the products you pay for, I don't think it's an off-base insult to state this obvious truth: you are an absolute braindead moron. You should pay me to be your friend. Then when I kick you in the balls every time I see you, don't complain because being your friend is a labor of love.

Such a sad sight to behold.

Wow that really looks terrible.

I was actually shocked to find no chainmail in Skyrim with its generic viking theme. But then I remembered Skyrim is "streamlined" so it makes sense. The traces of chainmail on the existing armors hints just how horrific a true set of chainmail would look in 512x512 so maybe we are all better off leaving this to the modding community.

You'd need a steward NPC to serve as your "drop box" for the incomes of the estate. Then you'd need to rebuild the three beehives you torched, and perhaps add more since there is all that vacant land. It'd be kind of fun to see the farm bustling with NPC peasants hauling your honey into Riften every so often.You'd also have to deal with Maven Black-Briar in one way or another since she believes it to be her property following the Thieve's Guild quest line. It's a nice home though, conveniently in the layout of a modestly sized dungeon. :P

That is really only true if you view the chicken's feces as food... Otherwise chickens hold within them the secret to perpetual energy and have defeated entropy, in direct defiance of the laws that govern the very universe.

Kodlak in the Companions upon your initiation into the group comments, "Go see Eorland about a suitable weapon to replace... whatever that is." "That" is an ebony warhammer, dickface. It's just not a necessary line. I know you can't change it because his lines are unique, but it would have been better to say "Welcome Companion. Go see Eorlund and he'll fix you up with some new equipment if you like."

If you think enchanting is worthless you are doing it wrong. It is so not worthless, that it will in fact destroy any semblance of challenge in the game if used even modestly. I have to force myself to use it sparingly on my mage and not at all on my warrior.

I've never seen concrete proof of what exactly the bleeding effect is, whether it stacks, or even if it does anything at all. Everything is speculation. UESP still claims that 2H axes do more DPS than the other weapons though. Swords and Axes have the same speed, which might be a bug or might be intended, hard to say. It is clear that bleeding damage from a 2H weapon is worthless no matter what it does since 2 whacks kills pretty much anything that bleeds.

I find Skyrim to be far superior to Oblivion. I literally could not make myself play unmodded Oblivion. The level scaling and some other oversights really ruined the experience for me. Skyrim I have played excessively with only minor (texture) mods. The graphics of Skyrim are a whole different story. Oblivion was pretty impressive in 2006. Skyrim is VERY lackluster for 2011. Graphics are, thankfully, the least important aspect of a fun gaming experience though.

They are annoying and they appear in the same places repeatedly. (Mages College, Riverwood, Falkreath) and it gets tiresome when you enter a cell and... suddenly dragons. I wouldn't mind them at all except after the main quest, dragon problems are supposed to be solved. Otherwise, it was in vain.

Take a kettle to the ocean, fill it with sea water, put it on a campfire, and when all the water boils off, SALT! I like the salt mine idea though.

ha! I noticed mudcrabs don't give up the chase so easily. They have better pathfinding AI than Lydia. :P

I matched Stamina/Health until 200, then it all went to Stamina. At about 350 now. As you progress, you rarely lose health in fights and that extra stamina keeps the power attacks powerin'. (Also can slow time for as many arrow shots as I need, generally)

I must second (or third) that master difficulty offers little challenge. The enemies have more hitpoints, that is all. With high level gear, they still offer little resistance.

I absolutely HATE that the guards ALL know I'm a "sneak thief" or "fiddling with locks." If they don't see me, they shouldn't know, otherwise I'm the worst thief in the world. The sweetroll thing is ok, I guess. All guards in Skyrim are jerks according to Bethesda's dialogue, so I get that- but they shouldn't know my skills by looking at me.

I have no help for you, but Haelga in Riften thinks we are married. She's not even marriable as far as I know, but when I did the Thieves guild quests to shake down the Riften locals, my option was "My Dear, you need to pay Brynjolf what you owe." Her dialogue went something like "I always knew this would come between us someday." She doesn't live in my house, and doesn't cook meals, but when I walk by her she still says nice things which is very uncharacteristic for this NPC. Not sure what I could have done to activate this bug. But it is clear Haelga was intended to be a romance option.

Olfina the Ice Queen. Ugh. Whiterun is full of hags.

J'zargo is my favorite companion... to sacrifice to the Daedra. I prefer Aela and Mjoll. Mage NPCs annoy me.

I was standing on the wall outside of Whiterun and saw them walking up the road toward the main gate. I cast fury on one, and immediately the entire Khajiit encampment went after them. It was a bloodbath. I don't even bother reading their notes, I couldn't care less who sent them. I appreciate the free (low end) gear.

Ha I love that about her. I wish I knew what trait made her so eager (and aggressive) to pick up trash so I could assign it to more NPCs.

I sided with the Stormcloaks because I tend to go for the underdog, and that's clearly why the Stormcloaks are even included in the Skyrim story. It's a Star Wars, American Revolution kind of situation, with maybe a tiny smidgeon of Czech/Polish partisan discontent thrown in. In any case, the Legion wears skirts and that just isn't wise for the cold mountains of the north. So Stormcloaks win by virtue of not wearing skirts.

I don't mean to beat up on Bethesda because I think they worked hard on Skyrim and I personally have really enjoyed it. I honestly believe they are lacking the skill and talent to make decent graphics, though. I see plenty of evidence for the lack of skill in their art department while looking through the game's texture files. They did they best they could with what they had I guess, but the reason you see modern games even on console with such jaw-dropping graphics is because they have talented graphic designers with a vast repertoire of tricks to make top-notch textures, and Bethesda just has a couple of guys with Adobe Image Ready and a Wacom tablet. Making textures is not hard, it is without a doubt the easiest part of graphic design; thus the most simple answer is that there is a decisive lack of creative talent behind the scenes. The Witcher 2 has gorgeous graphics because CDPR poured their heart (and paid artists to do magic) into the game. Skyrim has... a very mixed bag of good and bad textures because they refuse to recruit modern talent.

I too have seen monsters finish off my companions. Especially mages with their area effect damage. Faendal, Lydia, Aela... only Mjoll the Lioness is unkillable.