I am sworn to carry your burdens - Skyrimming for fun and profit

I am tempted to start a parallel game where companion death is permanent, just because that is likely the only way I'm going to see what the other companions are like

I've been perking destruction, heavy armour, block, 2h; might do restoration but speech and alchemy look pretty tempting too.

oh yeah and i am an imperial.

FASCIST

I know I've thrown a random point at archery, alchemy and blacksmithing; can't remember if I did lockpicking as well

lol I'm an Imperial too! Basically I was vacillating between that and Redguard until I read "Imperials find more random money" in the race descriptions. I then of course made my Imperial as dark as I could in keeping with my "first playthrough character looks as much like me as I am willing to spend time on" rule (only I gave him a floppy mohawk because it looked hilarious)

i wonder if some of the weird shit people will say/how they act towards you changes depending on race? like i am assuming that people wouldnt spend so much time talking abt thieving elf scum or filthy lizard people if i was one of them?

I'm a Khajiit. I kept on wondering why people kept on shouting "You'll make a fine rock hat!" at me. It's actually "You'll make a fine rug, cat!"

i'm getting increasingly bothered by how fucked up and evil the whole cosmology of this world is. or more the point, how little the writers have thought to give you (even standard) good/evil choices in some of these quests, and have written-in reactions from the npcs based on what you choose. it's very narrow: once you're in, do it or don't.

i don't know if this is intentional or if its overall meaning was even considered. the "gods" are distant and weak. the evil "daedra" are everywhere, they give away kewl loot, and a lot of times their quests only turn super evil right near the end. thank you for investigating this place for me, now, beat this man to death. what? you can walk way but not say no a lot of the time. it's a really odd oversight.

the same with the racist civil war stuff. i'm playing as an elf. people routinely tell me how the the land of the aryans nords must be cleansed of its cosmopolitan jews imperial outsiders, but they don't have any recognition of what i am, and i can't tell them to fuck off, or anything like that. it's like this element is there, but not REALLY there. dragon age was way way better about this stuff.

xps lol

I sometimes spend time talking to the same guard several times in a row just so I can hear in quick succession:

"Watch yourself, IMPERIAL."
"We'll kill all of those dragons with you around!"
"I've got my eye on you."
"I was once an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee."
etc etc

lol I' am refusing to take a side in the Empire/Stormcloak fight because the Nords are such dicks

^^^ this

Are the imperial/stormcloak quests mutually exclusive?

yup. and buggy too!

bugs in this game are amazing, I have to find this one spectacular movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4QUFfYA0wA

tbf re: racism, theres always kind of a weird thing in most rpgs with race because thats normally built into the structure, ie orcs are strong and mighty but kind of dumb, khajits are good merchants, dark elves are really good at math, imperials make good bards but poor dancers - it does get a little different here tho because all the racial stuff is very open vs say fallout where its pretty clear that people who hate ghouls are scumbag bigots. in this game tho everybody wants to talk to you about how awes nords are or that shifty lizard dude that must be up to no good because wink nudge. its kind of odd, but in some ways seems pretty well handled to me

the most lolsome Nord I've encountered is still the brawler companion how wants you to beat her up before she adventures with you

I mean, waht

i guess it's the diff btw dragon age and this; DA had your intro quests be dependent on your race/class background choice, and how people treated you the entire game depended on it! the elder scrolls games always start with the same nobody prison break. i don't get it, but i guess it's just a tradition now.

it's not like as an elf anyone refuses to trade with me, or offer me work, or anything, even grudgingly. it's like, "WHITE POWER, oh, thank you so much!!"

lol, so basically it's an RPG set in MN

I do agree that DA does a better job of having the world react to your race/class (I mean, you get the elf stuff, but you also have an entire body of paranoid reaction if you decide to be a mage)

yeah that's what i'm getting at: so much of the elements in place in skyrim are there because it would be cool, or there were there in earlier games, or it's fantasy standard, but nobody thought through what it would be like to live with those things/institutions, or how it makes sense as a coherent whole, or how they would be affected or react to a big crisis.

it's like all of this shit is there but none of it matters particularly.

there's a big mercenary guild that has no apparent politics, no position on anything happening, seemingly lets anyone in, gets along just fine with the local lord, and they're all werewolves. being a werewolf is awesome, right?!?!

all my problems with macro picture aside, the micro stuff is just way more absorbing and engrossing than any other game i've played. just doing miscellaneous crap, taking out little mines and ruins filled with fuckos, making stuff, all way more fun than advancing the story

lol I tried going beastmode once and while it seemed like I could soak up more dmg I didn't like that I couldn't loot anything

I did like chomping fallen foes tho, and being immune to diseases is kind of hot, also the lolsome guard comments like "why do you smell like a wet dog?" and "is that FUR coming out of your ears?"

loot rule of thumb: if it is not a. practically useful to me or b. worth at least 20 gold per point of weight, it stays where it is

yeah i was gonna say something like that :)

here's another why-don't-they-have-real-writers-write-these complaint: you have gold ore and ingots. you are a master crafter. the world's currency is gold. anyone else see an opportunity here?

one thing i do not like abt how they did this is that there is never anyone in any cave or dungeon or ruined castle or whatever that isnt dead set on killing you - i went through the first few waiting to shoot at people until their intentions were known but quickly realized that they were never anything other than "KILL U DED!" which has at least a few times made zero sense, ie the hapless scholar lost in a ruin that immediately charged me once i got in the room.

i stopped doing the companions quest basically because i dont want to be a werewolf? can you dump the werewolf thing after becoming one or are you stuck with it from there on out?

yeah, i avoided the werewolf thing so i am not sure why the silver hand want to kill me so much. however, i understand you do get the chance to unwolf yourself if you do go that route

one thing i do not like abt how they did this is that there is never anyone in any cave or dungeon or ruined castle or whatever that isnt dead set on killing you - i went through the first few waiting to shoot at people until their intentions were known but quickly realized that they were never anything other than "KILL U DED!" which has at least a few times made zero sense, ie the hapless scholar lost in a ruin that immediately charged me once i got in the room.

hah I cured myself of that very quickly by going "oh hey Mr. Giant, how are you toda- *squish*" early on in the game

i stopped doing the companions quest basically because i dont want to be a werewolf? can you dump the werewolf thing after becoming one or are you stuck with it from there on out?

just fyi there is literally zero downside to being a werewolf that I've noticed; no one treats you differently and you don't have to transform if you don't want to AND you are 100% immune to diseases, plus there's a strong hint that it's reversible if you really can't live with it

The only ppl you end up wilding out on are the Silver Hand anyway, unless you are like me and use it as an opportunity to try to eat some guards.

yup, npcs have no apparent purpose other than try to kill you until their last breath.

or tend their shops and give you their problems to solve.

xp i think there is a final optional quest that allows a cure.

xxp wait are there times when you go wolf uncontrollably? vs the silver hand dudes?

if you are a wolfman you get no XP bonus after resting. also, no skill increases while in wolfy mode, for obv reason.

lol no, I'm just not communicating clearly

those are the only ppl I tried beast form out on because I was killing them anyway

oh resting gives an XP bonus? ;_;

I kind of wish this game had a real manual

is it ever 'worth it' to let an npc go if he asks for mercy? or does he just heal up enough to come at you again in a minute? i have soul trapped many a begging man.

btw soul trapping, how sick is that, when you think about it??

that's why black soul gems are considered evil i guess

i haven't figured out the distinction btw which souls are 'black'. is it all people, or just important people?

all people. i read a book about it in game. animal souls are white, ppl souls are black.

yeah i feel weird that a bandit is trapped for eternity inside my boots, but it is the easiest way to get a grand soul

our fallen nature and all

xp lol tell me there wouldn't be some lord with a black soul slave farming operation to kit out his knights. does nobody consider basic incentives when they dream up these worlds...

dlc idea

the only creature i have found that gives a grand soul is a mammoth

Haven't had the heart to kill a mammoth yet.

Haha so I have been practicing FOUL ARTS because I've been soul trapping ppl who attack me?

Oh shit I just skyrimmed for five hours straight.

Found dan's dwarvish ruins, full of copious amounts of heavy dwarven artefacts. Unfortunately this was just after Lydia suddenly started refusing to be a beast of infinite burden, and she was already laden down with my ingot collection and a bunch of dragon bones I forgot to sell. However she is wearing a mask I gave her which gives an extra lol every time I ask her to try and carry something more.

The dwarven ruins looked great but were just too big and too samey, as was the mage castle I had to battle through inmediately before. Found both sections a bit of a chore tbh.

i'm so jealous of you guys having lydia - i accidentally killed her within about 20 seconds of the first battle i entered with her.

I really want the potions submenu fixed. All poisons together, all potions together. Then, all magicka potions, all stamina potions, all health potions, etc. Alphabetical order is just a huge chore.

I only ever use beast form to fast travel to places I've not already been to - wolf sprint is way faster than horse gallop.

omg i just figured out something about the alchemy menu

if you go down it's sorted by the effects that you know. but if you go RIGHT from the top of the menu, you go to a list of all the ingredients you have. and you can just mix stuff up blind! which is how you're supposed to learn more effects (apart from eating the stuff). all the ingredients have all their abilities whether you know what they are or not. so by luck (or looking shit up hint hint) you can make a lot of potions right away.

oooohhh...i may try that later. i mainly use alchemy to get restore health and magika potions, because the stores never seem to carry enough and i'm often in dire need in the midst of boss battles.

somehow my heavy armor AND sneak skills are leveled way up. no idea how this is actually working, but it seems nice

if i can unlock the heavy armor perk that makes wearing heavy armor more quiet for sneaking, i should be set there