Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
I do not like the WordPress editor and how it handles images, but I thought that since I’ve written about Skyrim before (recently- the blog prompts tend to repeat), then I’d add screenshots to this one. Some of them are just pretty; some are intended to be dark enough to use as a desktop background (like the entrance to the Thieves Guild). Skyrim is a wonderful place for walking around and “taking pictures,” especially with a mod called “immersive HUD,” so you can turn off your heads up display if you want an uninterrupted screenshot of something. But let’s start with something simple…… a picture of me. 😉
“I’m” wearing what’s called “Stahlrim” armor, and in Skyrim, Stahlrim is an ancient enchanted ice that’s harder than steel. My arrows are made of dragon bone, and coupled with a dragon bone bow, I’m fairly unstoppable. Shortly after “this picture was taken,” though, I started playing a mage-type character, because honestly the relighting mod I used makes it where when it gets dark, it is piss your pants dark…. not Bethesda dark.
I also took off my ranger hood for the photo, but it’s got an enchantment on it that gives me a circle of light. It’s nice because I don’t have to keep casting a candlelight or mage light spell (candlelight puts a ball of light over your shoulder that travels with you, magelight you point the spell and a ball of light sticks where you put it). Both of my hands are free for destruction or conjuration spells. I prefer conjuration because it’s more fun to watch other people fight than it is to fight myself, and casting Dremora Lords or Storm Atronachs will clear out a tomb in a hurry….. and that’s all Skyrim really is….. cleaning out tombs and Bethesda-ing up a mountain.
That term comes from a redditor whose name I now forget, but it’s basically a universal idea among Elder Scrolls/Fallout fans. Basically, if you just work the controller enough, you’ll be able to climb mountains you aren’t actually supposed to be able to climb. Failing that, you can buy a horse that somehow defies the laws of physics (at least in Fallout: New Vegas, anyway). They can Bethesda up a mountain faster than you can. My horse in Skyrim, Shadowmere (yes, I am leader of The Dark Brotherhood), is my traveling house just like I used to keep everything in my car. But that’s what your horse is for- carrying all the crap you just don’t want to manage. But truly, where a horse comes in handy is when “you can’t get there from here.”
Oh, my sweet summer child.
Very few places in Skyrim is this true if you have a horse or a wooden plate. I can’t explain the wooden plate glitch because I’ve never used it, but It is a Thing. Apparently if you hold it, you can glitch through textures. Now that I have discovered sprinting and destruction/conjuration magic, I’m ditching my gear and the horse at home. I can even leave all my weapons now, if I didn’t want to carry them. I’ve found that conjuration plus a bound bow or sword is sufficient. Especially if you enchant your armor and jewelry to make you better at archery, “bound bow” is one of the most powerful spells in the game. You can also equip any arrow that you want, so I generally use frost or shock, because I can’t enchant a bow that comes from Oblivion and goes back there when I’m not using it.
There’s only two things to remember with “bound bow.” The first is that when you cast it, you’ll lose whatever is in your opposite hand, whether it’s a spell or an item, because of course a bow and arrows are a two handed weapon. However, if you just retract the weapon, you’ll go back to having what was in your hands before. This is good to know when your bow is still going strong, but you need to cast more destruction/conjuration.
I’m late enough in the game that I can take down a Frost Troll all by myself with just this one spell, because the base damage on all my spells is high before the archery enchantments on my armor.
But if I have a favorite weapon in terms of looks, it’s the Nordic series. I love the Nordic Carved Armor, and all the weapons that come with it. In fact, nearly every display in my player homes that has two swords and a shield end up being Nordic because I can’t think of anything prettier to do with them. 😛
I’ve played this game so many times that I’ve memorized most of the quest lines, and it’s still fun because maybe you’re not playing the way you normally do. For me, playing against type would be being armed to the teeth with either an enchanted greatsword or warhammer, because I don’t like two-handed weapons except for the bow. I’ve gotten more handy with a sword over the years, but most of the reason I carry one is that there are a few dungeons where you have to cut down boards to get through and I’ve been there. I’ve been the one standing in front of a nest of frostbite spiders or whatever and no sword to cut through the webbing, or three loosely placed pieces of wood that are supposed to indicate “maybe we shouldn’t go this way.”
I don’t know whether a bound sword would do it or not- probably would, but I haven’t had time to try it. If it does, I’m not carrying swords anymore, either, because with melee attacks I tend to switch to two daggers/war axes than a sword and shield. That’s because I can craft legendary daggers that will have twice the stopping power of a sword alone. And now, that would be true with or without enchantments, because the base damage on a legendary weapon is going to be a lot whether you enchant it or not.
Here’s the thing we don’t talk about when we talk about enchanting……… you can make better weapons than any of the ones you find in the game, which means that you’ll love collecting them; you won’t ever use them. Chillrend has been in my basement for months. So has Bloodskaal Blade (my favorite when I do have to use a two-handed weapon). But when you compare that to having the two enchantments per item perk, the most iconic weapons in the game cannot stand up to them. Last night I one-shot killed a Draugr Death Lord, which will not be impressive to anyone who hasn’t played the game, but it illustrates my point. I created a weapon so powerful that it downed one of the toughest villains in the game with haste. I like it that way, many people don’t.
I don’t play Skyrim for the combat, and a lot of people do. I like to be so overpowered that I don’t have to focus on it- every fight is done quickly and I can move on to picking flowers or whatever the shit the kids and Serana have me doing. 😉 I have Silverstead Mine and Hearthfire adoptions, so with the Serana Dialogue Overhaul, she becomes marriageable. With Hearthfire adoptions, we have four kids, not two. There may be room for more- I think there are six kids’ beds at Silverstead, the only problem being that unless you obtain an equally large player home, no one is moving. Good luck. God bless.
I also love Haafinger Hall, and use it when I want to avoid the kids (I’m not an avoidant person when it comes to children- you just haven’t met the kids in Skyrim………) You really have to have the kids for a while before they become interesting. Like, at first they don’t say much. Yesterday, Sophie told me she’d adopted a fox. Can we keep him? Of course. When they’re tamed, they look like chihuahuas.
It hasn’t happened in this playthrough, but when we lived at Haafinger Hall, we had a fish hatchery off the back deck. I come home one night and there is a slaughterfish flapping around on the steps and my son asking if we can keep it. I thought, “son…. I’m not sure you know how keeping fish as pets works.” Trust me, of all the pets your Skyrim kids can bring home, the fox is the least annoying.
I know there are stray dogs all over Skyrim, but I’ve never adopted one. Therefore, my Bethesda connection in all of this is that I named the fox “Dogmeat.” (For non-Bethesda people, Dogmeat is the name of your companion if you adopt him in the Scrapyard in Fallout 3. Pro tip: get the Puppies! Perk as soon as you can, because I have never seen a grown woman cry harder than watching me see my dog die during combat. The Puppies! Perk will ensure that if Dogmeat dies, there will be another dog waiting for you at Vault 101). ALSO, UNLIKE LYDIA, DOGMEAT HAS NEVER GOTTEN ME KILLED.
Lydia.
One of the most storied characters in video games because absolutely no one knows what to do with her. She can’t sneak for shit, so if there are any enemies around, they’re going to know we’re there immediately…. because she’ll run out into the middle of the room and announce our presence like fuckin’ “LLEEEEEEEERRRRRRROOOOOYYYYYYY JENNNNKKKKINNS!!!” She’s also terribly helpful. If you need to go through a door, she’s blocking it. If she’s having trouble fighting a villain, good luck getting a clear shot. In the Skyrim early game, you only have one challenge…… getting Lydia to move out of the way.
But now that Serana and I are companions, I don’t use Lydia that much. Serana uses magic, but I also give her a legendary enchanted dagger for melee. Lydia will probably become my housecarl in either Morthal or Falkreath, because I think those are the two homes where you can dismiss followers to be stewards. In my case, this means “watch my kids while I go off and save the world……. again.” I hate the thought of adventuring with Serana and leaving Lydia at home, but I can think of 50 followers I’d like to have in Skyrim and Lydia is simply not on the list.
I have Amazing Follower Tweaks installed, so I could have 30 followers if I wanted. Therefore, this time, it’s really not me. It’s Lydia.
It’s what I’m thinking about as I’m Bethesda-ing up the mountain.
Stories That Are All True 