Skyrim V: Skyrim

[Calemyr]

Originally Posted by Morty

I suppose so. Currently I'm using a Skyforge Steel Greatsword anyway, but I'll try to make myself a new one soon. What baffles me slightly is that I need Corundum Ore to smelt Steel Ingots... for some reason.

A common element of most craft-fix mods is to rework that recipe to be Iron+Charcoal rather than Iron+Corrundum.

[The_Jackal]

Don't smelt steel, buy the bars from a Blacksmith. The corundum ore alone has the same base price as a steel bar.

[Triaxx]

Val's Crafting Meltdown corrects the recipe while also leaving the original in.

Craftable Water Arrows has become a must for thief types.

Midas Magic is fantastic. No matter what type of character you're playing the spells it has are awesome.

Phenderix Magic is also pretty cool. I've been watching a Let's Play with it, and it's got some awesome tricks.

Oh and Psijic Teleportation seems entertaining, but it's very obscure to try and actually FIND the spells. I still haven't. I've had to add them with the Console to play with them at all.

[Seharvepernfan]

Breaking news: Chain Lightning is an area of effect spell, like fireball.

I just found this out today, and holy crap, I love Chain Lightning now (I rarely used it before).

[Avilan the Grey]

Using three mages at once is overpowering. Not surprising, but I will stop using more than one follower and just use the benefit of more to not have to drop people when I get mandatory followers.

Edit: Using UFO, do followers learn new skills at all? Or do you HAVE to buy them magic books to read?

[DigoDragon]

Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey

Edit: Using UFO, do followers learn new skills at all? Or do you HAVE to buy them magic books to read?

None of my followers learned any new spells on their own, so I think you have to buy them the magic books.

[Avilan the Grey]

Originally Posted by DigoDragon

None of my followers learned any new spells on their own, so I think you have to buy them the magic books.

Good to know. I think I will go with J'zargo for now.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Lots and lots of interesting tips right now, thanks a lot people! I've also been looking for some more 'fantasy' styled sneaky armor sets, since I consider the DB ones hideous and are growing tired of the nightingale ones, so if anyone got a favorite I'd love to take a look.

[Calemyr]

Originally Posted by DeusMortuusEst

Lots and lots of interesting tips right now, thanks a lot people! I've also been looking for some more 'fantasy' styled sneaky armor sets, since I consider the DB ones hideous and are growing tired of the nightingale ones, so if anyone got a favorite I'd love to take a look.

Pretty vague description. First question has to be "Male or female?", because your options are drastically different.

For females:
* Triss's armor is practical, stylish, and comes in a lot of themes. It's a really good choice for someone who actually wants to look like an adventurer rather than a walking wardrobe malfunction.

* Duelist Armor takes the thieves guild armor and opens it so that it looks like a leather jacket over a white shirt. Very stylish and pretty practical, but I've only seen it for CBBE, and not the slim version, which means that girls with high weight (like Lydia and Mjoll) will be absurdly top-heavy.

For both:
* Black Mage Armor is a very well done, a fusion of leather and mage robes all retextured to fit together. The author recently changed it so that you need Advanced Smithing to craft the light armored, but it's pretty darn good.

* Nomo's Ranger Armor is another one in the thief/mage fusion mindset, putting guildmaster armor adornments over a mage's robe. Don't like the male gauntlets in 1st person, but the overall effect is quite good and the only semi-exotic material needed is linen wraps for the chestpiece, and those are common in draugr dungeons.

[Morty]

Originally Posted by Calemyr

A common element of most craft-fix mods is to rework that recipe to be Iron+Charcoal rather than Iron+Corrundum.

Hopefully one of the mods I'll install will do this, then.

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Don't smelt steel, buy the bars from a Blacksmith. The corundum ore alone has the same base price as a steel bar.

I know. That's what baffled me.

[The_Jackal]

Originally Posted by Morty

I know. That's what baffled me.

I think anyone with even a passing familiarity with Skyrim game mechanics will quickly come to the conclusion that the developers have a limited understanding of mathematics.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Calemyr

Pretty vague description. First question has to be "Male or female?", because your options are drastically different.

For females:
* Triss's armor is practical, stylish, and comes in a lot of themes. It's a really good choice for someone who actually wants to look like an adventurer rather than a walking wardrobe malfunction.

* Duelist Armor takes the thieves guild armor and opens it so that it looks like a leather jacket over a white shirt. Very stylish and pretty practical, but I've only seen it for CBBE, and not the slim version, which means that girls with high weight (like Lydia and Mjoll) will be absurdly top-heavy.

Similar armor to the duelist is Karliah. And I second the Triss armor for general amazingness.

[Calemyr]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Similar armor to the duelist is Karliah. And I second the Triss armor for general amazingness.

Karliah lacks the bulk of the Duelist Armor, and I felt that the additional armor and heavier shoulders really added some practicality and style to the whole thing. Still, it works quite well.

[Avilan the Grey]

Originally Posted by Calemyr

Karliah lacks the bulk of the Duelist Armor, and I felt that the additional armor and heavier shoulders really added some practicality and style to the whole thing. Still, it works quite well.

The armors as such is not something I care about changing, unless someone has made a mod that finally changes the higher tier armors into something that doesn't look laughable (as I have repeatedly stated I REFUSE to wear Daedric or Dragon bone / skin armors since they look beyond hideous. If I do light armor I do Leather as long as I can since that is the single best looking armor in the game, and if I do heavy I do steel plate armor all the way (maybe Ebony)).

I think I have to bite the bullet and change difficulty to Normal again. I tried to balance having two followers with turning it up to Expert, but after dumping one follower my 11 level summoner just isn't fit for that. I got PWNED on my way to Darklight Tower by common forest enemies (there is one road on the way where the game saw fit to have an assassin, two wolves and one frost bite spider coming at me from three different directions, and my follower and my ice elemental thing couldn't kill one quick enough to help me with the other two.

Anyway, I now have Illia, and will clean out the tower properly on the way down (on the way up we only attacked people that were in the way).

[Tergon]

In all fairness, the Dragon Bones are impossibly durable and hard, and being bones, they can't be exactly smelted into shapes the way metallic substances could. Plus, it's not like you have designs to work with, given that Dragons haven't existed for thousands of years. The Dovahkiin is taking a nearly-impossible-to-smith substance and coming up with a functional design on the fly. It's at least plausible that the resulting armour isn't exactly a decorative work of art.

I do agree there's not much excuse for the way Daedric armour looks, though. Yeah, the spikes are intimidating as hell, but you wouldn't be able to walk down a narrow corridor without striking sparks off the walls with that stuff. Wildly impractical.

[Avilan the Grey]

Originally Posted by Tergon

In all fairness, the Dragon Bones are impossibly durable and hard, and being bones, they can't be exactly smelted into shapes the way metallic substances could. Plus, it's not like you have designs to work with, given that Dragons haven't existed for thousands of years. The Dovahkiin is taking a nearly-impossible-to-smith substance and coming up with a functional design on the fly. It's at least plausible that the resulting armour isn't exactly a decorative work of art.

Well this is actually a good point.

Anyway, I found a number of "facelift" mods that actually don't produce porn stars or supermodels. I am using three; one for Illia (which comes in a pack with one for Aeala that I opted not to use, so I unchecked that one) that makes her look much more attractive without looking weird in any way, one for Aela and one for Lydia which both are very VERY close to the originals, just marginally softens some jaw angles and eyebrows etc.

(So now I can use Illia, which I have heard so much good things about) as a companion without constantly thinking "god she's ugly").

[DigoDragon]

Originally Posted by Tergon

I do agree there's not much excuse for the way Daedric armour looks, though. Yeah, the spikes are intimidating as hell, but you wouldn't be able to walk down a narrow corridor without striking sparks off the walls with that stuff.

I'm now imagining someone in Daedric armor pouring oil on the ground as they walk through said narrow corridors.


Funny result with Alchemy: I was doing some random potion making and somewhere between hagraven claws, blue butterfly wings, and snowberries I ended up making a poison that did magicka regen damage AND fortify enchantment.
It applies to my weapon like a poison, but I'm wondering what the heck with the fortify part, LOL.

[Calemyr]

Originally Posted by DigoDragon

I'm now imagining someone in Daedric armor pouring oil on the ground as they walk through said narrow corridors.


Funny result with Alchemy: I was doing some random potion making and somewhere between hagraven claws, blue butterfly wings, and snowberries I ended up making a poison that did magicka regen damage AND fortify alchemy.
It applies to my weapon like a poison, but I'm wondering what the heck with the fortify part, LOL.

That should probably be Fortify Enchantment, because that's a result of hagraven claws and snowberries. Any effects two of your ingredients carry apply to the potion, for good or ill. Can be amusing, but it's usually a waste.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Originally Posted by Calemyr

Pretty vague description. First question has to be "Male or female?", because your options are drastically different.

For females:
* Triss's armor is practical, stylish, and comes in a lot of themes. It's a really good choice for someone who actually wants to look like an adventurer rather than a walking wardrobe malfunction.

* Duelist Armor takes the thieves guild armor and opens it so that it looks like a leather jacket over a white shirt. Very stylish and pretty practical, but I've only seen it for CBBE, and not the slim version, which means that girls with high weight (like Lydia and Mjoll) will be absurdly top-heavy.

For both:
* Black Mage Armor is a very well done, a fusion of leather and mage robes all retextured to fit together. The author recently changed it so that you need Advanced Smithing to craft the light armored, but it's pretty darn good.

* Nomo's Ranger Armor is another one in the thief/mage fusion mindset, putting guildmaster armor adornments over a mage's robe. Don't like the male gauntlets in 1st person, but the overall effect is quite good and the only semi-exotic material needed is linen wraps for the chestpiece, and those are common in draugr dungeons.

Thanks for the tips, I haven't had time to check them out, but I will tonight!

I'll probably do a female character now, as my three latest has been males, so I'll focus on those.

Originally Posted by Lamech

Similar armor to the duelist is Karliah. And I second the Triss armor for general amazingness.

Ah, I'll make sure to take a look at that one as well.

[Morty]

So... is the Disintegrate perk actually useful? Turning the enemies to ash when they're at 10% of their health is cool and all, but doesn't seem worth spending a perk on.

[Dhavaer]

Originally Posted by Morty

So... is the Disintegrate perk actually useful? Turning the enemies to ash when they're at 10% of their health is cool and all, but doesn't seem worth spending a perk on.

It's good for stopping necromancers raising bodies and not having to look at dead frostbite spiders.

[Triaxx]

This video shows off some better looking retextures.

A great looking one is actually the Masters of Death mod, which gives an awesome looking alternative to just plain leather and is just sweet looking.

There's also the Black Sacrament, but I'm less and less enamoured of that one.

[Morty]

Not worth a perk, then. There are many other ones I can take instead.

[DigoDragon]

Originally Posted by Calemyr

That should probably be Fortify Enchantment, because that's a result of hagraven claws and snowberries. Any effects two of your ingredients carry apply to the potion, for good or ill. Can be amusing, but it's usually a waste.

Oops! Yes, you are correct, I wrote the wrong skill name there. I'll edit that to show the correct effect. Otherwise yeah, some effect combinations are silly.
Though a Mudcrab Chitin and Charred Skeever Hide combination makes for a nice Cure Disease potion with an added Poison Resistance effect. Not a bad multi-tasker item early in the game.

[Morty]

All of a sudden, my Archmage's Robe is incompatibile with any headgear. I think the Unofficial Skyrim Patch did this. It's a bit annoying, especially when I'm doing alchemy, since putting on Krosis now results in my character striping to the underpants.

[Calemyr]

Originally Posted by Morty

All of a sudden, my Archmage's Robe is incompatibile with any headgear. I think the Unofficial Skyrim Patch did this. It's a bit annoying, especially when I'm doing alchemy, since putting on Krosis now results in my character striping to the underpants.

I assume you've got the hooded version? You were never supposed to be able to wear that and a circlet/mask in the first place, but there's a bug where you can put on a mask and it'll hide your head, so that you look like a ghost in a hood.

That's the problem with fix patches, frankly, they fix the good bugs and the bad bugs alike.

[Morty]

I have the hooded version, yes. I got it for becoming the Archmage. I assumed it's intentional that I can put on a circlet while wearing it, since it looks perfectly normal.

[Calemyr]

Originally Posted by Morty

I have the hooded version, yes. I got it for becoming the Archmage. I assumed it's intentional that I can put on a circlet while wearing it, since it looks perfectly normal.

The problem is that that masks have an additional equipment slot they fill and the archmage's robe didn't fill it originally, resulting in the bug. Maybe they fixed it so that you could just wear circlets with the robe (a reasonable fix) but the masks were never supposed to work with that robe.

[Triaxx]

The circlet thing depends on which nodes it's using. I know at least one mod had changes that removed hoods from using the circlet node, so you could wear both. Not sure which one.

And the reasoning behind positive and negative effect is A) value increase and B) one of the perks removes positive or negative effects, creating potions without downsides and poisons without upsides. You'd have to check the wiki to figure out how it determines it, I can't recall.

[Zen Monkey]

Is there a mod to group the pc save files by character? It's difficult to play more than one without losing track in all the saves. I've searched the steam site but haven't found one with this feature yet.