Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Mopy · Post by **Mopy** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 17:24

CBJ wrote:I bought Skyrim over Christmas because it was on offer, but I've only very recently finally found time to install it and give it a go. I have to say that the first 10 minutes were one of the worst first impressions I've ever had of a game.

I was so excited to get my new machine built so that I could play this at Christmas. I was sorely disappointed and stopped playing about 30 minutes in. I had to force myself to come back to it. The start was slow and uncomfortable. However, I found that once I'd encountered the first

Spoiler

Show

Dragon (is that even a spoiler nowadays?)

At about two hours in, the fun went up from there hugely. And again once it came down to free exploration. I've never gone from such a dislike to such a strong like in a game before, so do give it time if you can.

The most jarring thing of all was that game made no concessions whatsoever to a PC gamer

A few things I did that helped:
1. Used the UI mod to help the interface a bit.
Link to mod: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863
Link to mod manager thingy: http://skse.silverlock.org/

2. Swapped the left and right buttons in the menu, so left mouse was left hand, right was right hand.

A secondary annoyance was there was no way to adjust the volume ..

Escape -> settings -> volume seemed to do it. I recall having the do the same on the cart though for some reason.

Another thing that's bugging me is motion sickness. [..] and have they found any other ways to solve, or at least reduce, it?

This one gets me too. I found it helped to increase the field of view. It solved it mostly.

tilde key -> type 'fov XX'. I believe XX=75 when you start. I like 90 personally.

Hopefully some of that is useful.

Samuel Creshal · Post by **Samuel Creshal** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 17:46

Mopy wrote:
Spoiler
Show
Dragon (is that even a spoiler nowadays?)

No. I never played Skyrim and I know about them.

Mopy · Post by **Mopy** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 17:58

Samuel Creshal wrote:No. I never played Skyrim and I know about them.

Thought as much

Nevermind, a bit of overkill is good for the soul.

deca.death · Post by **deca.death** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 20:11

Sorkvild wrote:Hi, can you guys tell me who did you recruit for the Blades ?

All housecarls work as recruits.

Rug · Post by **Rug** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 21:23

@CBJ I don't have a controller, so it certainly is playable with keyboard / mouse. I didn't get the prompts to use LS and RT, so that is your answer I guess.

Yes the start is awful. It's the main reason why after my second character start (the first was to see what this game was about - it's my first of this kind) I have stuck with him for 200+ hours. I just can't face that huge and boring cut-scene ...

Once you're out and poterring aimlessly about it is great though.

Can you turn bobbing off in the options ? It may help a little. I've not suffered motion sickness in this game, but Minecraft (as mentioned by Creshal) was evil ...

Rug

Freddy72nz · Post by **Freddy72nz** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 21:30

Just hazarding a guess but LS might be Left Shift and RT might be Return.

Have a good one,
Freddy

FyreByrd · Post by **FyreByrd** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 21:57

CBJ wrote:Oddly enough, space games and flight simulators don't give me motion sickness; only first-person games, and even then not all of them. The worst so far have been Half-Life, Far Cry 2 and now Skyrim. I don't remember having any problem with Oblivion, and the Mount & Blade games don't give me any trouble at all, whether on foot or horseback.

My wife has the same problem. ALL first person games give her quite bad motion sickness -> headache -> Migraine.

However any game (no matter how sensitive the mouse, and how fast she moves) that's in third-person, she's totally fine with. So Mount & blade is fine for her. As is Skyrim (and other TES) as long as she goes into third person mode. I would imagine that you've tried something as simple as this...but.....,,,

FyreByrd

(Also this is probably my first post at Ego in nearly three years...the temptation to help CBJ just proved too much!)

A5PECT · Post by **A5PECT** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 22:28

deca.death wrote:
Sorkvild wrote:Hi, can you guys tell me who did you recruit for the Blades ?
All housecarls work as recruits.

I recommend using the ones you acquired most recently, as they're the most closely keyed to your level.

Unless you bring in the command console...

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 23:30

CBJ, I think unplugging the controller would definitely help--in my experience, if you have one plugged in, Skyrim expects you to play with it; the game *is* a console port when all's said and done. Once you unplug it you should get prompted with the proper mouse and keyboard shortcuts during the tutorial. Note that the user interface isn't designed for mouse, in somewhat the same way that bricks aren't designed as boats, so most of the time you'll find yourself navigating through menus using the keyboard and pretty much only using the mouse to look around.

Can't help you with the motion sickness thing, though, I never suffer that with games. Would sitting a bit further away from the monitor so you can clearly see the edges help, perhaps?

As for the beginning, it is *incredibly* badly designed--you can't do anything for most of it, it interrupts you at a moment of high tension to make you design your character, it forces you into thinking one side in particular in the civil war are the bad guys (hint: they're the ones trying to *cut off your head* for no reason), and they have you travelling down an enclosed, wooded track so you can't even see a nice view! Once you escape Helgen and the game opens out, though, it starts to shine.

Post by **CBJ** » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 23:51

Thanks, everyone, for all the input. I'm going to try starting again from scratch with the controller unplugged, and switch to third person view as soon as it lets me.

Mopy: I'm not a big fan of using mods on a game I've not yet played in vanilla form, but I'll bear those in mind.

FyreByrd: Thanks for breaking your silence for me!

pjknibbs: Using the keyboard for everything except looking around is ideal for me.

I should also own up to only having found the manual for the game after posting my little diatribe, so before I start again I will at least RTFM.

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Fri, 3. Feb 12, 00:24

CBJ wrote:pjknibbs: Using the keyboard for everything except looking around is ideal for me.

Agreed, but.... wait until you get to trying to use the inventory. Or anything else remotely dependent on the non-immediate gameplay GUI. It really should not have been difficult. Bethseda took a very lazy way out.

Steamworks (or whatever it is called) is not very far away. When it arrives you should be able to "steamlessly" (my copyright) install a bunch of mods that should make the entire experience a joy, as opposed to a chore.

Snowship · Post by **Snowship** » Fri, 3. Feb 12, 00:39

I have no problems using the mouse roll-wheel for scrolling the menu's

And the cursor-over highlight the text.
That being said, after choosing a dialogue option, the next time choosing can be a bit hit-and-miss with the mouse and using the keyboard can give more accurate selection.

Edit to add:
I feel CBJ's pain with the low volume, even with the sound setting to max it's still quiet compared to normal, have to up the sound then after the game remember to reduce it back down again (usually after something else makes a noise and my ears are crying)

Post by **CBJ** » Fri, 3. Feb 12, 10:20

I gave it a go last night, and I can confirm that unplugging the controller results in a completely different set of instructions on all the tutorial pop-ups when you start the game. I also managed to start the game with the volume on nice and high, which was a good thing as you definitely couldn't access the in-game menu to adjust it until after the cart scene. You also can't switch views until your hands are untied, but the third person view does seem to have helped with the motion sickness, enough to make the game playable for me at least.

So far I've wandered rather aimlessly around in the mountains, which was, rather aptly given the RL weather here at the moment, a chilly experience. I'm trying to play a slightly more subtle style than I usually manage in these games, where lack of control finesse usually forces me into just going for a maximum-armour-maximum-damage approach. I've been sneaking about a fair bit, and gathering lots of stuff™ that I have no idea what to do with, but I've yet to experiment with magic or special abilities. I've also died several times because I have no real idea what I'm up against, and found myself frustrated by how far I've had to go back and confused as to what I've lost (or rather not gained) as a result, but no doubt I'll get better at that. I've ended up in an inn in some village or other, and I'm not yet sure what I actually want to do in the game.

berth · Post by **berth** » Fri, 3. Feb 12, 11:11

Quicksave (F5) is your friend

Nyax · Post by **Nyax** » Fri, 3. Feb 12, 19:13

Incidently has anyone else done what i've done (or something similar) and bound-
The skills menu to F1
The Inventory to F2
The Magic to F3
The Quests Journal to F4
The Map to F5

So that you never have to visit the stupid and completely unessesary 'compass menu' screen ever again?

Derkylos · Post by **Derkylos** » Fri, 3. Feb 12, 19:38

Mopy wrote: 2. Swapped the left and right buttons in the menu, so left mouse was left hand, right was right hand.

Never quite understood why people had problems with lmb=right hand, unless you're playing a spellsword, and even then, only if your primary offense is magic, as, for me, lmb is attack and rmb is block, which works with shields, 2 handed, single wielding, hell, doesn't take much trouble to set up a mage to work with this configuration (offensive spell in right hand, ward in left), and dual wielding is all about hitting both attack buttons at once, anyways...

Nyax wrote:Incidently has anyone else done what i've done (or something similar) and bound-
The skills menu to F1
The Inventory to F2
The Magic to F3
The Quests Journal to F4
The Map to F5

So that you never have to visit the stupid and completely unessesary 'compass menu' screen ever again?

By default, "I"=inventory, "J"=quests, "P"=Magic, "M"=Map, in line with most other RPGs. The compass menu seems to be more appropriate on a console (where you can't add shortcuts to keys...in fact, Skyrim only really has 2 menus, character and system.)

Snowship · Post by **Snowship** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 01:47

Nyax wrote:Incidently has anyone else done what i've done (or something similar) and bound-
The skills menu to F1
The Inventory to F2
The Magic to F3
The Quests Journal to F4
The Map to F5

So that you never have to visit the stupid and completely unessesary 'compass menu' screen ever again?

no, I can remember
Inventory - I
Magic - P
Quest Journal - J
Map - M
yes skills are still tab and up but only used when levelled

Edit: ninja'd by Derkylos

Also I'd lump swapping the mouse keys with inverting the Y-axis... Why!
(sorry, but inverting the Y-axis is a pet peeve of mine... tell me a flight control that has back for down

Nyax · Post by **Nyax** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 02:12

Snowship wrote:no, I can remember
Inventory - I
Magic - P
Quest Journal - J
Map - M

I have far more pressing use for those keys

I opted for the F1-5 approach because that's pretty much how it was in Oblivion. (which also had a vastly better interface)

Snowship wrote: Also I'd lump swapping the mouse keys with inverting the Y-axis... Why!
(sorry, but inverting the Y-axis is a pet peeve of mine... tell me a flight control that has back for down

Well personally i always invert the Y axis. I find the default method INCREDIBLY counter intuitive. Long may they continue to include it as a feature. I have no problem with them offering both methods, so long as they CONTINUE to offer both methods.

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Sun, 5. Feb 12, 02:09

Here is the exterior view of a house I created in 3DS Max and have imported into Skyrim.

Now my "proof of concept" works, I'll further improve the house.

I have it placed on the piece of land across the little bridge in Riverwood:

[ external image ]

I'll finish connecting (and designing) the interior when the Creation Kit comes out next week.

ClearSky · Post by **ClearSky** » Sun, 5. Feb 12, 02:28

Skyrim meets Frank Lloyd Wright!

I like it.

Icky

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Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim