So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[Roland]

I am certainly missing out on achievements, but Steam would think I was cheating anyway since I frequently accidentally hit the tilde key when I mean to hit the Q key.

FYI, just hitting the tilde key isn't going to make you lose achievements. I used to do it every play session to do FOV 85 because changing the .ini files didn't seem to stick for some reason and I was still getting achieves.

---

Is anyone else having issues getting Skyrim to launch after 1.3?

I haven't had a chance to play but Skyrim has refused to launch on PC's running 64 bit Win7 since day 1 and most of it is related to Steam. I've got a post earlier in this thread where I had the issue (before 1.2) and turning off cloud sync in steam fixed it.

I think this solution will resolve most launch issues for folks though.

Browse to your steam file directory. Typically Program Files(x86)\Steam
Delete (or safer rename) the Clientregistry.blob file.
Close Steam (and end the process in task manager if necessary)
Re-open Steam
Launch Skyrim

Patch 1.1 or 1.2 broke my Skyrim launch awhile back, but all I had to do was Verify Cache (which downloaded one or two files) and I was back up and running. I have the Steam version of Skyrim (bought and pre-loaded before launch), running on Windows 7 64-Bit, and I've not had any other troubles than that... except for more frequent crashes after 1.2 (never had any before 1.2), and it takes about 30 seconds longer for the splash screen to go away and the game to actually start (also introduced in 1.2).

Don't know what your specific problem is, but I don't think you can blame Windows 7 64-bit.

[Kevin]

Patch 1.1 or 1.2 broke my Skyrim launch awhile back, but all I had to do was Verify Cache (which downloaded one or two files) and I was back up and running. I have the Steam version of Skyrim (bought and pre-loaded before launch), running on Windows 7 64-Bit, and I've not had any other troubles than that... except for more frequent crashes after 1.2 (never had any before 1.2), and it takes about 30 seconds longer for the splash screen to go away and the game to actually start (also introduced in 1.2).

Don't know what your specific problem is, but I don't think you can blame Windows 7 64-bit.

So you are another data point that shows that it's Win 7 64-bit because you had the same issue.

Yes, sometimes a verify cache will fix it (because it properly updates the .glob file).
Sometimes turning off cloud sync will fix it (because then it doesn't look at the .glob on launch) and turning sync back on later, or restarting steam will correct it.
You can also sometimes fix it with a reinstall of Skyrim (which essentially does the same thing).

But again these failure to launch problems, that if you do a search of the Steam forums have been happening in every patch version pretty much only seem to happen on Win-7 64-bit, pretty much can all be fixed by the forcing Steam to update the .glob. Removing/renaming that file is guaranteed to force steam to update it.

Like you I only had it happen the one time, (see my post earlier in this thread for details) but I know lots of folks that have had it happen to them once or multiple times and since I get asked the help questions I found that solution and figured I would share it here.

I'm 99% positive your launch was not broken by 1.1 or 1.2 it was broken by this same issue. OK the patch may have indirectly broken it because it seems to be an issue for people that had some sort of broken connection to the Steam servers during some sort of update (be that a cloud sync, patch, or install) which is why one of the other methods might fix the issue. I still haven't fully sussed what the glob file stores but it seems to be be related to remote data passing and seems to only affect folks running Win 7 64-bit OS.

[Crushar]

Renaming the .blob file worked for me. Thanks for the quick replys!

[kandrathe]

Patch 1.3 is out on Steam, soon to be released for Xbox, and PS3.

http://www.techspot.com/news/46576-skyri...inect.html

Interesting also a bit on KinectFAAST using a Kinect to make the game interactive on a PC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...83wzJwrBK0

{whines} Now, if only the Kinect interface were available for XBOX.

[Concillian]

We’re also planning on rolling out support for 4-Gigabyte Tuning (Large Address Aware) next week for our PC users. Stay tuned!

The official LAA executable will be fun, and will be my gateway into some mods, I think. Now I just need 28nm cards to come out so I can get the graphical mods and get decent framerates. The mobile GPU refresh announcements with rebadged previous gen 40nm parts leads me to believe there are significant problems at TSMC with 28nm. Boo. Originally people were talking end of the year, but rumors are no high end 28nm from nVidia until late 2012, AMD is expected to have a 6 month head start, but nobody really knows for sure. I'm buying midrange, most likely, which should be sooner than the topmost parts, but was hoping at least by Diablo III, but it's looking like that might be optimistic thinking.

[whyBish]

Thoughts?

Terrible
- There is a bug where all the children in the realm
a) look the same
b) sound the same
c) can't be killed
- There is a bug where the Two Handed trainer keeps running up to you and pulling out his sword and telling you how talkative you are. You can't kill him to shut him up
- Nothing interesting to explore (Where is the crab city or volcano or moon city or tree city like morrowwind?)
- No interesting mage guild quests (compare to Oblivion where it took ages to become arch mage Skyrim is oh you found a staff we bow down before you oh great magician)
- Fights can be insane (insanely easy mixed in with one hit kills of the player).
a) OHK by dragon melee. Don't try melee only
b) One fight where 6 dudes have a shout that makes you roll around on the floor for 30 seconds. Sure, it's hard to lose the battle, but I've got better things to do than watch my player be paralysed 90% of the time.
c) The paralyze bug. Get a sword. Enchant with 1 second paralyze. Get the 5% soul recharge perk. Paralyzing an opponent for any length of time causes them to be out of battle for an additional 10 seconds as they try to stand up again :/
- The dragon shouts are mostly useless (The only two I used were throw voice for an assassin, which was more of a fun diversion than being useful, and the slow time, when I got caught in some screwed up battle where my sword was doing almost no dmg vs undead but finally realized fireball OHKed them ...)
- Weird chance stuff. Hit a dragon priest (Krosus) in my third dragon encounter (at ~ level 6). Eventually his staff ran out of juice and I daggered him to death :/ Next dragon priest encounter (Guy with 100% mana mask) was at ~level 50 and the dude didn't even attack.

They did a nicer job of balancing the levelling though. No more alchemy quick path (probably gone too far the other way), but smithing is an easy leveller.

Pity it's best of breed.

[whyBish]

[quote='Treesh' pid='191425' dateline='1321197607']
You can assign 8 hotkeys but I had to google to find out how (and google to find out how to recharge using a soul gem). I played a one handed sword and healing spell in off hand because of not knowing about the hotkeys, and now I know, I still do, because the hotkey system sucks anyway. You assign a skill to a hotkey, not a left/right pair to a hotkey.

How to assign hotkeys:
Bring up Q and hover over the skill you want and press then number (1-8) you want to assign it to. I think you can hold ctrl(?) to get it to try assigning it to your other hand first but I couldn't get that working.

[Treesh]

[quote='Treesh' pid='191425' dateline='1321197607']
You can assign 8 hotkeys but I had to google to find out how (and google to find out how to recharge using a soul gem). I played a one handed sword and healing spell in off hand because of not knowing about the hotkeys, and now I know, I still do, because the hotkey system sucks anyway. You assign a skill to a hotkey, not a left/right pair to a hotkey.

How to assign hotkeys:
Bring up Q and hover over the skill you want and press then number (1-8) you want to assign it to. I think you can hold ctrl(?) to get it to try assigning it to your other hand first but I couldn't get that working.

The hotkeys are for PC, not Xbox. I'm primarily played on the console so no, you can't assign hotkeys for Xbox. You can only set favorites.

And it's not a bug that you can't kill the little brats in the game. That's how Bethesda wants it. They won't even let you directly link to any mod that allows you to kill the children on their official forums. Same for the nudity mods. It's also not a bug that all the kids look and sound the same. They just didn't create different models for them and didn't get different voice actors. Just because something is undesirable to how you want it (and how I want it) doesn't make it a bug.

Edit: And on a completely unrelated note, but something I laughed at in game. You can kill some folks by pick pocketing them. I don't have the perks to be able to pick pocket items they have equipped, but I can apparently reach into the forsworn briarhearts' chests and take their hearts without them noticing it, causing them to die the instant I leave their pockets. It's just too much fun doing that. =)

[kandrathe]

Terrible
- There is a bug where all the children in the realm
a) look the same
b) sound the same
c) can't be killed

This might be a difference between us. I haven't tried to kill children.

- There is a bug where the Two Handed trainer keeps running up to you and pulling out his sword and telling you how talkative you are. You can't kill him to shut him up

The monotony of conversation in town drives me to adventure in the wilderness.

- Nothing interesting to explore (Where is the crab city or volcano or moon city or tree city like morrowwind?)

There are some interesting places underground, but nothing reality breaking.

- No interesting mage guild quests (compare to Oblivion where it took ages to become arch mage Skyrim is oh you found a staff we bow down before you oh great magician)

I was a little surprised at the brevity of the ascent to head the mages guild, but perhaps in Skyrim, it is a pariah position that nobody wants.

- Fights can be insane (insanely easy mixed in with one hit kills of the player).

I'm enjoying the differences.

a) OHK by dragon melee. Don't try melee only

Other than Ancient dragons, I melee all the others. I used to struggle with blood dragons, at lower levels, and then with elder dragons. But, eventually, those fights become easier as you level.

b) One fight where 6 dudes have a shout that makes you roll around on the floor for 30 seconds. Sure, it's hard to lose the battle, but I've got better things to do than watch my player be paralysed 90% of the time.

Frustrating, yes. But a tactical challenge to position yourself to encounter them one or two at a time.

c) The paralyze bug. Get a sword. Enchant with 1 second paralyze. Get the 5% soul recharge perk. Paralyzing an opponent for any length of time causes them to be out of battle for an additional 10 seconds as they try to stand up again :/

I didn't find a weapon to disenchant with paralyze until I was like level 30, and I've not used that particular cheese.

- The dragon shouts are mostly useless (The only two I used were throw voice for an assassin, which was more of a fun diversion than being useful, and the slow time, when I got caught in some screwed up battle where my sword was doing almost no dmg vs undead but finally realized fireball OHKed them ...)

Oh, I disagree. Some are very useful for crowd control.

- Weird chance stuff. Hit a dragon priest (Krosus) in my third dragon encounter (at ~ level 6). Eventually his staff ran out of juice and I daggered him to death :/ Next dragon priest encounter (Guy with 100% mana mask) was at ~level 50 and the dude didn't even attack.

The weakness of any mage is the charges in their staff, and their mana pool. They will eventually run out of gas, and are weak in melee. But, I find that charging them and beating them to death with my shield is more satisfying. Stupid mages.

[kandrathe]

Edit: And on a completely unrelated note, but something I laughed at in game. You can kill some folks by pick pocketing them. I don't have the perks to be able to pick pocket items they have equipped, but I can apparently reach into the forsworn briarhearts' chests and take their hearts without them noticing it, causing them to die the instant I leave their pockets. It's just too much fun doing that. =)

That is too cool. They are a b*tch to fight. Yes, I'm on expert mode. But, at level 54, I can finally charge into a foresworn camp and hope to live through it. The only big worry now is dying from the multiple ranged ice shard casters. FUS RO DAH!!!

[Roland]

So you are another data point that shows that it's Win 7 64-bit because you had the same issue.

Yes, sometimes a verify cache will fix it (because it properly updates the .glob file).
Sometimes turning off cloud sync will fix it (because then it doesn't look at the .glob on launch) and turning sync back on later, or restarting steam will correct it.
You can also sometimes fix it with a reinstall of Skyrim (which essentially does the same thing).

But again these failure to launch problems, that if you do a search of the Steam forums have been happening in every patch version pretty much only seem to happen on Win-7 64-bit, pretty much can all be fixed by the forcing Steam to update the .glob. Removing/renaming that file is guaranteed to force steam to update it.

Like you I only had it happen the one time, (see my post earlier in this thread for details) but I know lots of folks that have had it happen to them once or multiple times and since I get asked the help questions I found that solution and figured I would share it here.

I'm 99% positive your launch was not broken by 1.1 or 1.2 it was broken by this same issue. OK the patch may have indirectly broken it because it seems to be an issue for people that had some sort of broken connection to the Steam servers during some sort of update (be that a cloud sync, patch, or install) which is why one of the other methods might fix the issue. I still haven't fully sussed what the glob file stores but it seems to be be related to remote data passing and seems to only affect folks running Win 7 64-bit OS.

Ok. Wasn't trying to rag on you. All I know is when patch 1.2 hit it broke my launch, and Drasca told me to "Verify Cache". Whatever that did fixed my launch (I didn't see the specific files it downloaded - went by too fast), and I haven't had a problem since (although, as I said, I'd never had a crash before that patch, and since then it happens at least once or twice a play session). I do know that Bethesda has continued their history of their games locking up during Alt+Tabbing (forcing an End Process), but that's nothing new - although no less irritating.

Glad I'm not having more problems than that.

[Frag]

We’re also planning on rolling out support for 4-Gigabyte Tuning (Large Address Aware) next week for our PC users. Stay tuned!

The official LAA executable will be fun, and will be my gateway into some mods, I think. Now I just need 28nm cards to come out so I can get the graphical mods and get decent framerates. The mobile GPU refresh announcements with rebadged previous gen 40nm parts leads me to believe there are significant problems at TSMC with 28nm. Boo. Originally people were talking end of the year, but rumors are no high end 28nm from nVidia until late 2012, AMD is expected to have a 6 month head start, but nobody really knows for sure. I'm buying midrange, most likely, which should be sooner than the topmost parts, but was hoping at least by Diablo III, but it's looking like that might be optimistic thinking.

*ahem*

[Concillian]

We’re also planning on rolling out support for 4-Gigabyte Tuning (Large Address Aware) next week for our PC users. Stay tuned!

The official LAA executable will be fun, and will be my gateway into some mods, I think. Now I just need 28nm cards to come out so I can get the graphical mods and get decent framerates. The mobile GPU refresh announcements with rebadged previous gen 40nm parts leads me to believe there are significant problems at TSMC with 28nm. Boo. Originally people were talking end of the year, but rumors are no high end 28nm from nVidia until late 2012, AMD is expected to have a 6 month head start, but nobody really knows for sure. I'm buying midrange, most likely, which should be sooner than the topmost parts, but was hoping at least by Diablo III, but it's looking like that might be optimistic thinking.

*ahem*

This one is saying shortly after Chinese New Year:
http://www.fudzilla.com/graphics/item/25...n-february

But there are pictures emerging of the high end cards, so it looks like they'll come first:

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards...k-Internet

http://vr-zone.com/articles/more-amd-tah...14193.html

[Frag]

We’re also planning on rolling out support for 4-Gigabyte Tuning (Large Address Aware) next week for our PC users. Stay tuned!

The official LAA executable will be fun, and will be my gateway into some mods, I think. Now I just need 28nm cards to come out so I can get the graphical mods and get decent framerates. The mobile GPU refresh announcements with rebadged previous gen 40nm parts leads me to believe there are significant problems at TSMC with 28nm. Boo. Originally people were talking end of the year, but rumors are no high end 28nm from nVidia until late 2012, AMD is expected to have a 6 month head start, but nobody really knows for sure. I'm buying midrange, most likely, which should be sooner than the topmost parts, but was hoping at least by Diablo III, but it's looking like that might be optimistic thinking.

*ahem*

This one is saying shortly after Chinese New Year:
http://www.fudzilla.com/graphics/item/25...n-february

But there are pictures emerging of the high end cards, so it looks like they'll come first:

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards...k-Internet

http://vr-zone.com/articles/more-amd-tah...14193.html

The images you have there are real leaks, but they don't discuss the issues that are ongoing inside the engineering of the board. From the last time we've talked, there's been two more setbacks in the QA'ing of the chip, even so, I feel the timeframe I gave you is a bit too pessimistic. They've caught up and they might make it prior to March 15th.

[Drasca]

About enemies with shouts that push you down:

I've recently discovered you can block those shouts. Very useful! Previously, I interrupted them with a shield or pommel bash, or destruction/bow 'stagger' via perks.

I loooove the simple borderless windows launcher. Makes it sooo much better for switching between windows. There are also two inventory interface mods at the skyrim nexus, one auto-sorts into smart groupings (all resist potions together, all shields together, etc), and the other does sub-categories and a spreadsheet with weight and value/weight.

The latest patch, 1.3, runs very stable on my comp. I just upgraded to 12 gigabytes of ram, and am loving it.

[whyBish]

This might be a difference between us. I haven't tried to kill children.

I accidentally tried to slaughter all the children in Skyrim.

<Slain by KSOH>

[kandrathe]

This might be a difference between us. I haven't tried to kill children.

I accidentally tried to slaughter all the children in Skyrim.

<Slain by KSOH>

All? Is there an epidemic? I felt bad enough saving my game, then sequentially murdering one guard in each hold, to get the "Master Criminal" achievement (then reloading to my pre-criminal status). So far, that is the only time I've had to go out of character to get an achievement.


< Possible spoilers below -- read at your own risk >




I have two Achievements to go... 15 Daedra Artifacts, and Pick 50 locks and 50 pockets (no trouble on the locks), I have about 46 pockets to pick though. This characters play style is not so much sneaking, but more shield bashing, thuum shouting, stomp the room, then loot the corpses.

For the daedric artifact hunt, I've only completed the ones I've stumbled upon, rather than seeking them out. I've done, Azura (white), Clavicus Vile, Hermaeus Mora, Mehrunes Dagon, Meridia, Molag Bal, Nocturnal, Sanguine, and Sheogorath. Yet to stumble upon, Boethiah, Hircine, Malacath, Mephala, Namira, Peryite, and Vaermina.

I've also stumbled upon 10 of the jewels from Boethiah's crown. Eventually, I'm going to have to go get a list of dungeons to search, as they are really easy to miss -- especially with stuff getting scattered due to the amount of explosions happening around me.

My advice on questing for now would be to save pursuing the battle between the Imperials and Stormcloaks until you've done everything else you want to do. I sided with the Stormcloaks, and I'm getting many undoable side/miscellaneous quests now that require me to talk to a missing NPC. Turn in any completed tasks beforehand as well. I still have a couple of miscellaneous quests (bounty) to turn in to the Whiterun steward, who is now deposed and missing from the game. All in all, there is still a 1.0 level of brokenness to quests, but I've only had about a dozen broken quests so far ( out of hundreds completed) -- unfortunately this is typical of TES line in general. Skyrim is not different from it's predecessors in this regard.

It also bugs me that when I encounter the remnant Imperial camps, I can slaughter the Imperial soldiers, but the leader of the camp is still unkillable. I end up freezing him in a block of ice, as I ride away.

I think my choice to complete the Imperial/Stormcloak conflict in the middle of the main quest, has also messed up Esbern. I'm done with both Main, and civil war quests, but Esbern is stuck wanting me to choose between Parthanax, and the Blades.

All in all, this Nord Battle mage character is mostly done at level 57 (about 200 hours of game play), and was my exploration of everything possible (companion, thieves guild master, listener to the black hand, and master of the mages college). He'll probably be retired at level 60 -- having 100 in the skills he primarily uses, single, two handed, block, heavy armor, destruction, conjuration, lock picking, smithing, and 30's to 60's in the rest. Most of his perks are in single blade, shields, heavy armor, smithing, and conjuration.

My next character will be a female Breton morally neutral mage, who will side with the Empire (no companions, no thieves guild, no assassins) ...

[Thenryb]

I think you are correct to suggest postponing making a choice in the war until after most everything else is done to avoid further fouling the already screwed up quest lines. Currently, the thieves guild line leading to Master is broken. I wish I had known that before my character went to the trouble of doing all those quests for Vex and Mallory. I even completed the quest for the Crown of Bereziah (and I did find a list of the locations of all the gems). I think this line must have been broken by the last patch or maybe the one before that. Even if it was not already broken, participating in the civil war would certainly screw it up. I am currently in pursuit of Alduin and am not sure what to do after I finish that. I still have the last of the main Dark Brotherhood quests to do. A previous character did that and I did not find it very gratifying. I have done few of the Deadric shrine quests and am not interested in most of the rewards. It seems like the game almost forces you to join all of the guilds in that you miss things that are encountered while doing those guilds quests (like word walls).

[kandrathe]

I think you are correct to suggest postponing making a choice in the war until after most everything else is done to avoid further fouling the already screwed up quest lines. Currently, the thieves guild line leading to Master is broken. I wish I had known that before my character went to the trouble of doing all those quests for Vex and Mallory. I even completed the quest for the Crown of Bereziah (and I did find a list of the locations of all the gems). I think this line must have been broken by the last patch or maybe the one before that. Even if it was not already broken, participating in the civil war would certainly screw it up. I am currently in pursuit of Alduin and am not sure what to do after I finish that. I still have the last of the main Dark Brotherhood quests to do. A previous character did that and I did not find it very gratifying. I have done few of the Daedric shrine quests and am not interested in most of the rewards. It seems like the game almost forces you to join all of the guilds in that you miss things that are encountered while doing those guilds quests (like word walls).

My first character is the completionist. But, I don't think all the shouts are necessary.

I finished the Thieves Guild master after the main quest, and the civil war. I spent a big part of last Saturday doing jobs for Delvan and Vex(bypassing my self imposed rule of traveling on horse, carriage or foot to the quest place, but allowing for fast travel via the map home), until I would get the special job. It felt like you needed to do about 5 jobs (each) per major city before Delvan would give you the special job for that city. Once you've completed the special job for Whiterun, Markath, Windhelm, and Solitude, and have completed the Nocturnal quest, then you are made the Guild master. I completed the main Nocturnal part first, before doing many of the Vex, and Delvan jobs.

There are a few of the quests that are messed up due to 1.2, like buying a house in Windhelm. There is a needed quest to make the house available, that isn't happening, so the steward just tells me there is a house, but it's not ready yet.

I've adapted my tactics to get by the deadly elemental damage. 1) when fighting elemental spammers, like caves of necromancers, I use "Summon Dremora Lord" to do the damage and dying for me. He wields a nasty two handed daedric flaming great sword, and the cloth wearing squishies die in one or two hits. I find a choke point, summon, if they get by him, I use unrelenting force to send them tumbling back down the tunnel, then rinse, repeat. 2) with dragons... esp. Ancients... Getting dragon rend helps alot, as it forces them to land. I stay on a wing, slashing with one hand, and when it turns it's head toward me, I shield bash. Keep health above 50% to prevent the dragon from getting a critical on you. I try to run towards potential allies of the moment to distract it as well, such as giant camps. It's sometimes easier to deal with post dragon hostilities from an ice troll, or a camp of bandits, than deal with the dragon alone. "Hey, bandits, I just slew the dragon that toasted your friends!" They reply, "WHY... WON'T... YOU... DIE?!?!"

The funniest so far in delayed dialog are the nearly Monty Pythonesque Black Knight moments. I execute a critical decapitating strike on say a Bandit Leader, then the dialog says something like, "This is only a scratch", or "Is that all you've got? I've had worse." Really?

[Thenryb]

The process you described for becoming guildmaster no longer works. My character did all of those things and not only does not get an offer of an armor upgrade from Tonilla (a key part of the quest) but Brynholff is "too busy, lass" to talk. I tried a new character, did the few prefatory quests, was admitted to the guild and told to go get armor from Tonilla who would not offer me even the initial set. Trust me, the part of the thieves guild questline leading to guildmaster is broken. Of course, the main quest, leading to Nightingale seems intact, so it is still worth doing if you want the Nightingale gear, but if you want to be guildmaster, you will have to wait for a mod or a patch. The main quest line is the only interesting part anyway. The rest of the thieves guild stuff is as boring as leveling alchemy. I probably ought to try a battlemage sometime. However, I tend to suck at playing magic using characters and I am sure Skyrim would be no exception.