My starting character is my "usual:" Dark Elf Stealth with Bow+Magic; Thief/Mage; Member to: Bard, Dark Brotherhood, (Imperial) Legion, Companion, & Stormcloak(!?!?)
Replies:
1) Loot, Loot, Loot!: If you're not having problems toting all your stuff around, you're not looting questies and dungeons enough!
2) Best "cheat"/short cut I've found: Pelts, pelts, and MORE pelts! Make 'em into leather and leather straps (at a 1::2 ratio, which is tricky math since the strips come in fours...) and "forge" Leather Braces to gain Smithing skill. (I was a lvl 86 Smith at character lvl 14!)
3) Yeah, the bows are WAY overpowered, but the new "zoom" feature being stamina-based is a GREAT tradeoff!
4) Um, there are different types of Dragons, you know! 'Seems like there's three tiers, which I've labelled:
NORMAL: <12 arrows/20 secs dual blast (of opposing type. I.e. Fire versus a Frost dragon.)
BLOOD: 12-25 arrows/40+ sec dual last w/ "Impact"
and BLACK (of which I think there is only the one?): I have no idea as he toasts/freezes, and/or zaps me to dust in like 15 seconds everytime I try to target him!
None of which should be tried until level 12-14, really, unless you've got a tank or something going on
*.
Finally, it hit me yesterday why the new quest style seemed so familiar: In addition to their detailed, well-thought out brawler/stealth maps, they've added ... Laura Croft-style Tomb Raider complexity and "puzzles" all over the place, too! (I's say their easily three times more difficult than the Oblivion ones....)
5) I still hate several aspects of the UI, despite having learned how to deal with it. (Which from a game design perspective, is EXACTLY BACKWARDS!) The only saving grace is "game-time "freeze" while you fumble around with items sometimes. But the fact that sometimes the "E" key CONSUMES an item and other times it could also USE an item, and yet another time it DROPS an item, is CRAZY! (And then the "R" key jumps into the act sometimes, too!
)
Sometimes it "blocks" on stacks of items, like say six or more, requiring acknowledgement with an additional action, but ... why the random quantity limit?? Almost all double-digit quantities block, but sometimes items stacks of just six, or even FOUR, block too?!?
6) SEPARATE-OUT WEAPONS AND APPAREL INTO TYPE GROUPS!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! . . .
ALPHABETICAL?!?!7) And yes, I could've made good use of the "9" and "0" keys as EQUIP slots!
To whit, I have: 1:Flame, 2:Freeze, 3:Zap, 4:Bow, 5:Sword/Melee, 6:Voice #1; 7:Voice #2; 8:"Active" Spell. I'd love to have the other two so I could have an alternative weapon in one, and then a BLOCKING item, as well, or maybe even potions or tomes....
And
I WANT TO ORDER THE DISPLAY OF THE "Quick" list myself, TYVM!!
Anyway, I've also stumbled into two nasty bugs which stopped serious quest lines cold, and it crashes on me at least twice a day still, too.
(FYI: If you run into strange quest difficulties you might want to check the Bethesda Tech Support FAQ, as they've got dozens of issues that aren't code related, but are rather complex synchronization/timing issues and the like, and your problem might be on their list. (E.g. "If character A happens to meet character B somewhere else before meeting to complete a quest step Q in city Z, the quest cannot be completed. Period. Ever.")
These are problems that are NOT fixed in the 1.1 patch, either, BTW....
And yet... it consumes me....
* Which reminds me of the GREAT QUEST with Barbas the Telepathic Dog!" Not only is the whole thing hilarious, but Barbas makes a great tank, since he's immortal!
What's your "worst predicament ever" in the game so far? Can you beat this scenario?:
Noticing a dragon flitting and careening about attacking some NPC(s) semi-distant across that huge open plain area (West of Whiterun, I think?) I set off to Take Him Down. When I get in proximity to the fray I notice that he's been torching a troll. I hang back and wait a bit.... (! ) The troll gets lost, or runs away, and I start to move in on the dragon... who begins flaming the ground just over the hill I'm cresting.... Another critter, perhaps?
No. The dragon starts chanting in his native tongue, flames the ground on hos side of the hill, speaks some more Dragon-Tongue, and leaps up into the air, giving life to ... another dragon. I just watched the Black Dragon bring YA buddy to life. Great. Time to leave this party!
So I turned to my right to take the shortest route to the woods (which are too far off to be of any help, really, but hey! Gotta TRY for some cover!)....
Unbeknownst to me, while I was occupied the The Dragon Birth Ballet a bandit trio: A NecroMage, a fully-armored Berserker with a huge axe, and a bowman had come charging out of the woods - probably to attack the dragon - BUT HEY! Here's a lone guy that's easy for the pickin's! As I did my about-face to go back over the hill the NecroMage yells: "OH NO YOU DON'T!" and starts blasting me with lightning.
As I crest the hill - it's actually been some time since I was back on the other side of that hill, you know - there are THREE giants herding their pair of Woolly Mammoths my way....
.
.
.
When it rains . . . it kills you, right?
I dropped my quite-tensed shoulders and watched the slo-mo of the NecroMage frying me like a 2GW Tesla coil in an electric fry pan.
Then I reloaded from my last save and steered clear of that whole area, 'cuz I KNEW I wasn't going to make it out of there again, or EVER for that matter!