95 Hours of game-play later

[Demonmustang]

haha I've put 70 hours into just one character and I have thirty plus quests in my log still to be completed. I have three other characters that I've put about 8 hours into total. There is no end in sight!! I just recently became the Harbinger of the Companions, and am about to assassinate the emperor for the dark brotherhood. the game is so in depth and expansive it's freaking crazy! Spent this much time on the game and there is still so much new stuff happening I just can't quit playing. lol I would have probably had an extra twelve hours into it, but I've spent about that much time trying out new mods and fixing ones that I've broken by installing other mods.

 

O.o i have been looking at the mods also!!! I have only used a couple like texture packs and the FXAA processing what do you use? I WANNA TRY EM!!! :P

 

I ended up settling on Himmelsrand Custom Shader Suite, with the setup from Realistic Skyrim v2, then I got a mod called Vurt's something it improves the textures of certain trees. I also got a few smaller more personal mods. No Blocky Faces, Detailed Faces, Detailed Bodies, and High Quality Eyes from xenius. Got one called Display Time on Loading Screen because I lose track of time fairly easy while I'm playing. lol I have one called Skyrim Sunglare so that the sun gives off a realistic glare, Enhanced Blood Textures (pretty self explanatory) and another called Glowing Ore Veins. the colors in ore veins have a slight glow to them so they are easier to find...and that's actually about it. I had a Dragon Texture Pack for awhile but I just dropped it to go back to the way bethesda made them. I tried using FXAA PPI and one of the custom profile programs somebody made for it at first, but ended up liking the Himmelsrand thing better. mostly just trial and error. trying to get the nexus mod manager to work and trying to decide if I had certain folders in the right places. it's been so long since I really played Oblivion I almost forgot how to mod. hehe

 

Edit: I don't know if the Himmelsrand Shader and FXAA PPI will work together, but I might spend some time trying it out. I find that just screwing around with modding to see what's compatible is fun....probably only for me, though. lol

 

Re-Edit: Do not try to play the game with both Himmelsrand and FXAA installed. The game locks up and crashes before it ever starts up. While both are great seperately, unfortunately they will not work together.

Edited November 19, 2011 by Demonmustang

[mademan77]

About 45 hours into the game now, lvl 28 on my main toon who's named Kallam the Bridgeburner. He's a redguard light armor wearing, dual ebony enchanted sword weilding, sneaky archer assassin. I only use gear and armor that I've upgraded and enchanted myself. I usually always play these elder scroll and fallout games as a sneaky, backstabber for my first play through. Just like my PnP dnd days of old I love me some theiving action. Didn't put any perks into lockpicking as levelling it up just happend naturally in the game, I put mostly skills in archery ( slow down time is awesome when coupled with staggering shot) and dual wielding one handed swords/ Haven't gotten to special dagger perk yet but it seems a lil overpowered.

 

The game is awesome, i started out just exploring and opening up the map.....as little fast travelling as possible. But now i am trying to push the story along a little. Joined the stormcloaks to crush the legion and have done some of the main quest as well. Still haven't touched the dark brotherhood or thieves guild stuff which is what this toon was created to do. Going to get this file completed so i can start a Mage toon, Quick Ben will be is name but he'll have to be a highelf for the spell mana regen though i'm not a huge fan of how they look. Will save the empire side and mage guild stuff for that character. And then eventually another Nord two handed beserker for the companion stuff. Unlike oblivion where i did every guild and every angle with one toon, i feel more compiled to specialize and make each journey individual and unique in this game, which for me is a huge bonus when it comes to replayablity, This game will be on my desktop for years to come.

Edited November 19, 2011 by mademan77

[BootyJuice]

I just installed Skyrim yesterday, so I have only a few hours playtime. I made a Khajiit in honor of my old Vah Shir rogue toon from EverQuest, Taffer Mousebane. I plan to go all sneaky and theify. Any words of advice from your experience in this play style? Edited November 19, 2011 by BootyJuice

[InuyashaFE]

I just installed Skyrim yesterday, so I have only a few hours playtime. I made a Khajiit in honor of my old Vah Shir rogue toon from EverQuest. I plan to go all sneaky and theify. Any words of advice from your experience in this ply style?

 

I'd say be careful of traps, a common mistake for me is to focus on hearing noises from enemies and I don't realize when I hit a pressure plate.

 

And there's a perk for that, I'd consider getting it if you have that problem. :psyduck:

[mademan77]

The pressure plates are pretty easy to spot once you'v e seen one from my experience. I really like the way my toon is unfolding. Archery + perks + sneak really makes crawling through a dungeon a good experience imo. You can take your time and take it all in, and if you are running on Ultra there with mods there is a lot of eye candy to take in. I have put all my lvl up perks into, one handed weapon / archery / light armor lines and the rest have lvled up resonably well without putting perks into them. Lockpicking his just trial and error and there is no shortage of lockpicks so putting perks into those are just for convenience and i would not suggest doing so but rather put them in the areas that boost your melee performance. A couple of the archery perks seem to help with combat more then the one handed ones ive taken. For instance halfway through the perk tree for archery you can take an ability to slow down time while zoomed in, works great when stealthy as you can get a sneak attack in and usually another attack or two before the enemy even gets close to bridging the distance. Another feat, the stagger all but the biggest enemy, works much the same as in you can just shoot the enemy several times without him being able to close the distance. These feats are awesome and totally replace the tendency to back up continously and shoot in a game like oblivion, which imo was a great improvement.

 

Light armor is key to stealthy toons, i mostly took these feats to improve armor rating and when i had not reached a high enough skill lvl to take a feat in the archery or one handed weapon line. ( Feats can be saved / not used on lvl up) but i preferred to use them every gained lvl. The one handed weapon line is pretty straight forward, more damage, more speed, more crits. Can't really go wrong with any of these.

 

If you have played any fantasy game in the past, you can't really miss it up. I like to sneak through most dungeons, and as such my skill lvl in sneak stayed intuned with my melee and ranged skills without having to spend too many perks in it. I disenchanted items that had good abilities that i wanted to use later, and enchanted armors and weapons after i used smithing to improve them. This allowed these skills to lvl with me and stayed pace with my progression without having to use feats as well.

 

THe game is pretty intuitive overall,and i must say i have really enjoyed playing as a sneak. Hope you enjoy it as well. I suggest going to Riften early, good story arc stuff there which unfortunately i didnt jump into until somewhat later in my game file.

[Goliath978]

Wait what the...do you have any sort of life?

 

School? Work? Income of any sort?

 

yeah actually I am a full time student, got a problem with what i choose to spend my time on? go take it up with somone who cares.

 

http://wordnerd1.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/giveadamn.gif?w=510

Uh that's completely fine. I'm actually impressed. Just asking however: what is it you study? Art? History? Painting? Sitting?

 

I'm in last years high school and I gotta get 2 hrs a day at most for Skyrim and rest I have to study to keep an average over 89. I'm very interested as to what it is you study.

[Phillydee]

I have gotten about 20 hours in, although I am now off work for 10 days so I expect to achieve absolutely nothing outside of this game and eating lots of Turkey in the next week or so

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Sadly I haven't been able to sink the dawn-til-death play sessions I'd like to, but I'm starting my second build soon. I purposefully left a whole lot of stones unturned so that each character would have a unique feel; I did the same with Oblivion.

 

Playthrough #1: Taneiza (Orc). Went with an axe-and-shield setup; when Oblivion came out my computer couldn't handle head-on confrontations so I was eager to play a hack-and-bash warrior type for a change. Completely ignored the civil war aspect of the game... it wasn't her fight and after nearly getting beheaded she wanted to stay far, far away from other peoples' wars. She started out as a sellsword, joined the Companions, and finished out as a stalwartly neutral defender of things more significant than who wears what crown. Secretly a werewolf with a bit of a thing for lunching on bunnies.

 

Playthrough #2: Sigurdis (Nord). Not built yet, but intended to be a sneaky thief type consistent with the sorts of characters I've played in the past. She will start out flippantly unconcerned with affairs higher than where to find her next meal, but will ultimately get drawn into larger events (after stealing everything in Skyrim that isn't nailed down or on fire). She'll be somewhat callous but will eventually discover that she can't help but care what happens to her homeland and its people. I do love me a good redemption story. Likely to wind up in the Stormcloak camp before meddling in the affairs of dragons. Also likely to become a werewolf somewhere along the road to seeing the larger picture, because that was just too much fun the first time around.

 

Playthrough #3: Unknown. Will probably be a mage of some sort just to round out the "power trio." Likely to be a greater good for greater number type from day one and throw in with the Empire.

[PointBlankPB]

I'm currently on 80 hours played and I just finished the main quest with my level 38 Khajit rogue/warrior/sneak thief/cut-throat

 

I have a level 6 two handed Nord Warrior and a level 15 Destuction mage on the way. This game has taken faaaaar too much of my time over the last week!

 

Also I accidentally had the game on Master the whole time... only figured it out by level 20 and damn was the game a lot more friendly after I moved it down to Expert... especially since I wasn't really a crafter and didn't have the best armors/weapons early on.

Edited November 19, 2011 by PointBlankPB

[FireBat2469]

With 50 hours played, I've only created one character. He's an Orc specialized in smithing and one handed weaps, but with enough knowledge about Restoration to get out of sticky situations.

 

I do have plans for a second character, an Argonian...destroyer of everything... xD