Anyone Played Skyrim (Elder Scrolls V) Yet?

[Caspin]

Ooooooooooooooh!

That looks great. We're on Playstation too, though.

[Minty]

Playing the game with a new character (I like running up new ones after copying all the data for my old ones to somewhere safe to restore later), I came to that point yet again where it's the negotiating table at High Hrothgar & holds are to be handed over.

If you still aren't sure which side to back in the Civil War (if any), here's some thoughts on who is in charge & where (& their potential replacements)

Haafingar (Solitude) – Major : Elisif The Fair. She’s nice & has decent supporters. She is never ousted anyway, as although she hated Ulfric for murdering her husband they were both secret Talos worshippers.

Hjaalmarch (Morthal) – Minor : Ingrad Ravencrone. She is a bit batty, but a good diplomatic leader & her kids are nice.

Alternative : Sorli The Builder (Stormcloak). Obscure character from Stonehills just outside of Morthal. Curiously, is linked to the pro-Imperial Thank Bryling of Solitude via the mine she works at & he owns.

The Pale (Dawnstar) – Minor : Skard The Elder. Pro-Stormcloak Empire hating fannyspangle without a clue. Most of Dawnstar hate him as well & would be gladly rid of him.

Alternative: Brina Merilis (Imperial). The retired Legion legate with Horik Halfhand in tow who is more concerned about protecting Dawnstar from Dragon attacks than the civil war.

Winterhold (Winterhold) – Minor : Korir. He’s a Nordic Master Race hates all other races puddle-drinker & his slidy steward is about as much us as an inflatable pincushion. Strangely, if he is sacked, he moves to the Free-Winters home in Windhelm, the most anti-racist home in Skyrim.

Alternative: Kraldar (Imperial). Hangs about all the time with Thonjolf in his house (to think the locals spend so much time gossiping about the college instead of those two!). But is a big fan of the College of Winterhold, so good if you are a Mage.

The Reach (Markarth) – Major : Igmund looks and acts like he’s always about to fall asleep, & his steward is a flop in more ways than one (as those at The Hag's Cure know!).

Alternative: Thongvor Silver-Blood. The Silver-Bloods are a shower of scummy corrupt schemers & bourgeoise capitalist pigs who try stealing others silver mines (Karthwasten). You want to put one of them in charge? On the other hand, if you help the leader of the psychotic Forsworn escape, the idea of the Stormcloaks (who massacred the Forsworn at Karthwasten) now being in charge will be a red rag to their bull. One great reason for agreeing to Markarth being handed over to the Stormcloaks is the laugh of Ulfric's goons trying to keep it under control!

Whiterun (Whiterun) – Major: Balgruuf The Greater is a good bloke. He doesn’t like or trust Ulfric Stormcloak, yet is a Talos worshipper in private.

Alternative: Vignar-Grey Mane of the Companions.

Eastmarch (Windhelm) – Major: Ulfric Stormcloak. You either love him or hate him for what he stands for & the racist subtext to his cause. Remember however the Empire would happily have executed you along with him just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which kind of makes the Imperials every bit as scummy as the Stormcloaks in personal terms.

Alternative: Brunwulf Free-Winter (Imperial), a good man who has no time for racists of which Windhelm has plenty.

Falkreath (Falkreath) – Minor: Siddgeir. Complete and utter fud of a Jarl involved with organised crime & little else. Sits on his throne all day looking like he’s suffering from a trapped fart. His Steward does all the work.

Alternative: Dengeir Of Stuhn (Stormclock) was the former Jarl who got sacked for being a total conspiracy theorist as much as a Stormcloak. Falkreath is the most unfortunate of holds in terms of its choice of Jarls, both equally as poor - its a pity Barnabas the Dog can't be made the Jarl instead!

The Rift (Riften) – Major : Lalia Law-Giver is pro-Stormcloak but she doesn’t trust Ulfric an inch & regards him as a self-seeker. She herself is a very decent sort (if naive - she trusts Maven Black-Briar) & her court are good (although her Stormcloak supporting son is a dick & her Imperial supporting son is disowned but isn’t)

Alternative: Maven Black-Briar (Imperial) – Face it, if there was ever a reason to back Laila Law-Giver, it’s her. Not only is Maven the biggest cow in all Skyrim, but the biggest gangster; too chummy with the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood for anyone’s good.

[Ollie]

What the? How doo you get to the negotiation table so quickly? I haven't even gotten there yet. :3

[Minty]

LOL! Perhaps I ought to say that "new" really means "started a few weeks ago"!

Something I should mention as you'll all run into this one at some stage, but usually after the conference at High Hrothgar, & that's the Blades demanding you kill Paarthurnax or you're persona non grata Dragonborn or not (gee thanks Esbern! I rescue your scrawy old hide from the Riften Ratways & the Thalmor, but this is the thanks I get?)

So beardface & the barmaid get snotty over the dragon without who I'd have ended up a Dovahkin kebab up on the Throat of the World a few days back. If I do what they say, I fall out with the Greybeards which means no more word wall radiant quests. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

There is a way however around it on the PC. Go to console & type in

setstage MQPaarthurnax 100

Quest is marked as completed, Paarthurnax remains alive & takes part in the big finale at Sovengarde, & both the Blades & Greybeards still think you're the dog's danglies.

[Caspin]

I'm now totally lost, but it sounds great!

I'll have to come back and read this if any of my Skyrim players reach the negotiating table. Then I can tell them all the pros and cons of their options and look amazingly knowledgeable.

[Minty]

Only in Skyrim could this be so!

[Caspin]

That certainly looks very supportive!

[Minty]

As Caspin's going to be in a Skyrim mood this weekend on her travels, thought I'd add a few tips on sneaky ways to level up in Skyrim with minimum risk to yourself.




Creakies are the most useless enemies in all Skyrim. Their health is poor, their movement walking pace & both their weapon & combat skills non-existant. They are however very useful if you want to level up your Block & the two Armour skills.

Once you have armour at a decent enough level, find yourself a single creaky with a sword or axe (if they are wearing a cape, watch out, they are a skeleton mage!), preferably in a confined area to limit its movement choices.




When they swing their weapon back to hit you with, press your "block" button & wait for the clang. Your player will make a grunt, but your health should remain unaffected or the dent is so low that you have regenerated while the skeleton is recovering from the effort. That is how poor an opponent creakies are (only in numbers, with arrows or as part of a group of other monsters are creakies any threat).




If you are feeling ambitious (or just downright cruel) & have plenty of health back ups such as enchanted rings & necklaces of health or fast health restoration, step back & let Mr Creaky do his worst. The blood may flow, but all it's doing is building up your armour skills.




You can even swap your weapon & shield for Healing spells & use this as an opportunity to level up your Restoration at the same time Mr Creaky is levelling up your Light/Heavy Armour skill for you!




If you do find your health or magic going down too much, you can always fire an apprentice level Turn Undead (the "fear" spell for use against creakies & Draugr) spell to gain 30 seconds of breathing space. As this is a Restoration spell, it is a useful one to practice in conjunction with healing yourself.




Boosting up the Illusion skill like all the magic skills can be a pain in the early days because they are weighed down with carrying lots of bottles of magicka potion for battles against even the simplest opponents. There is however a simple way to boost up your Illusion skill rating.




Horkers are large & the slowest creatures in the game. You really have to be not paying any attention at all to get gored by one. This makes them ideal for practicing spells on.

Get yourself a reasonable distance away from a horker. Arm one hand with a Fear spell (this will make them run away, or at least try to), the other with Courage. Fire Fear at the horker followed by Courage a second later to negate the effect. Keep doing it until your magic is out & needs to regenerate.

Once you get the hang of it, you can do this to two or three horkers together. You should find yourself advancing up with Illusion very quickly doing this.

[Caspin]

Those are good tips, thank you Minty. I watched a lot of Skyrim this weekend, being played by people who can actually handle PS3 controllers. Then I was made to have a go, so I made an elf character and repeatedly ran into walls and fell of parapets until people had laughed themselves into a stupor. I really am useless at this kind of thing! Having said that, I did manage to shoot a wolf with an arrow through the eye, resulting in a fab slow-motion effect, and strangled some hapless bandit with a big war axe (I decided that two-handed weapons were a good choice, since I have zero chance of coordinating a one-handed weapon and shield). All good fun

Here's a question for you guys - is there any way of obtaining a good supply of those pink soul gems other than to just buy them from traders?

[Minty]

Soul gems - there's never enough. Wizards are always your best bet for plenty of soul gems, with the six Mages of the College of Winterhold being an easy way to buy lots, along with Nelacar the wizard down at the Frozen Hearth Inn (he stays in the room to the right of the bar).

One way of getting soul gems for free is running around the various palaces once you are friendly with them, as there's always a few lying around the same rooms. Top floor of the Blue Palace for example. In the room where Sybille Stentor the wizard is the resident slugabed, there are a couple of soul gems you can take. Make it a regular job to revisit them & you can slowly build up a steady gem pile.

Draugr tombs also have them lying around, in chests or inside burial urns. Dwarfen ruins tend to have loads of ones to pick up, but I'd not make it a reason for going in, as the damn places tend to have Falmer & Dwarven mechanoids (which have soul gems in them). Falmer & Dwarfen mechanoids will kill you very quickly when you're a novice, & I'd say try & avoid getting involved in them when you are low level in archery and/or destruction magic (& stamina for running away!).

I have to be honest, I found it less hassle to take the money hit & buy them using the profit from selling junk to the merchants. It's less of a grind to make iron daggers at a forge, enchant them using a poxy filled Petty Soul Gem to boost up their price to a stupid sum, sell them on, & use the money to buy more Soul Gems. That way you are skilling up your smithing, enchanting & speech quick too (which means bigger profits quicker & more money to buy gems).

Would I be right in guessing you played the game on PS3 in third player mode rather than first player? I gave up on trying to play games like that years ago because I was forever running into walls as well!