Skyrim - Review Roundup #2

So I always map all the keys over to the right side, closer to the mouse. I use the middle keys (INS, DEL, arrows, etc) plus the NUMPAD to map and the mouse. So going from Q to Z doesn't really solve anything :).

I've been doing the exact same thing since around 1998. Nothing to do with my desk though, I just prefer the Numpad over the 'wasd' area.

So yeah, I get pretty annoyed if a game doesn't allow me mapping access to all the keys on the Numpad. I'll usually break out a key mapping program, like AutoHotkey, in that situation.
 
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Binding combo's to hot keys on PC

Apparently you can bind combo's to the keys 1-8 on the PC. I haven't tried it yet but will shortly . here is the post I found on it on a forum:

The book that comes with the physical copy for PC mentions using 1-8 for hotkeys to select weapons, however it doesn't work the same way oblivion did. So I wanted to write a quick guide on how to use this method of quickly changing weapons/spells.

The directions in the book are poorly worded and I think have a few errors but after some tinkering I figured it out.

For this example I'll use two swords, a shield, fire, and heal for our items/spells. First you have to favorite them by pressing F in the items/spells menus. Then you press Q in game to bring up the favorites menu. Now I love dual wielding so I'm going to L-click and R-click on the sword to put on in each hand, then while I still have the sword selected if I press 1 that assigns that combo to 1 key any time I press it I'm now dual wielding swords. Now comes the tricky part the sword is labeled with a 1 so I can't assign another key to it, but if I put my shield (or any other weapon) in my left hand and press 2 (while that item is highlighted) it will give me a sword/shield combo when ever I press the 2. I can continue this by equipping the heal and pressing 3 and then fire by pressing 4 (while keeping that item highlighted). Want to add a great sword or bow select it and press your desired key.

This function basically allows you to set up your equipped weapons and spells. It probably works the same way with armor (I don't change my unless I get better so I didn't try) or arrows (again I like to hit things so I didn't experiment with that).

The biggest thing you need to remember is you have to favorite the item and you can only assign one number to each item so it takes some work getting 2 handed combos properly set up. I'm not sure how to hotkey dual sword, dual fire, and then fire/sword (since that would lead to a double label on one fire or sword).

I'm sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes I was up late playing this awesome game so I'm still a little tired.

Now go kill some dragons my fellow Dovahkiin!
 
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Sorry one more tip. Turns out if you REMAP the Point of View (POV) key from its default it will break the ability to use favorites. Meaning if you don't use the default F key for POV then when you try to go into spells or inventory to add something to favorites you won't be able to.

I was fine tuning keys and I broke it. So after some research found out this is a common problem. Put POV back to F and everything worked.

On another note I was able to bind combos to keys 1-8 just fine so that was a plus.

EDIT: See my latest post, as this has been now resolved and the key mapping is now working.
 
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3 1/2 hours in so far.

My machine runs it smoothly on High. I bumped it to Ultra, but it didn't seem much different to me visually. I changed the field of view to 95 las was recommended in the PC gamer article… much, much better (hit ~ then type FOV 95 [return])

So far, it's running smoothly and not a single glitch. I've been screwing around a lot though trying to figure things out. It's like a much better version of Oblivion. The menus are really not that bad... after all the complaining I've read (here and more so elsewhere) I was expecting to hate it. I don't hate it, but I'm sure some modders are working on it right now.

I'm not a huge fan of the Nord dialect… I give them credit for trying it. But some of the actors pull it off and some sound like they're doing an impression of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets.

Very minor early game spoiler, though not giving much away:


I went into the Barrow Temple to get the golden claw for the guy in River town. What a great dungeon! I still haven't finished. Could it possibly be that all the dungeons are this good? Really? Really?…
 
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I went into the Barrow Temple to get the golden claw for the guy in River town. What a great dungeon! I still haven't finished. Could it possibly be that all the dungeons are this good? Really? Really?…

I did that one and then another for an early Companions quest and both were really good. Not sure if all 100+ are that good, but those two were excellent.
 
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Sorry one more tip. Turns out if you REMAP the Point of View (POV) key from its default it will break the ability to use favorites. Meaning if you don't use the default F key for POV then when you try to go into spells or inventory to add something to favorites you won't be able to.

Thanks for the heads-up, wolf. The first thing I did was remap that, since i'm always shifting from 3rd to 1st person view and was wondering why the "favorites" thing did nothing at all.

So I always map all the keys over to the right side, closer to the mouse. I use the middle keys (INS, DEL, arrows, etc) plus the NUMPAD to map and the mouse. So going from Q to Z doesn't really solve anything :)

I noticed how the "enter" key doesnt work on the numpad, which kinda sucks since they make everything so keyboard-centric. And speaking of that…

The interface kinda sucks. It just cannot make up it's mind whether it wants to be keyboard or mouse-driven, and some of the keyboard-directional thing is half-baked. I'm for one fine w/ an all-keyboard interface, that's how I roll on a netbook i use keys for everything. Sometimes you can mouse sometimes you cant. Sometimes two taps of the directional WASD keys get things done, other times they dont. Sometimes you can keyboard around to where you want to go, then key again and it gets things done, other times only a mouseclick will then execute the command. It's annoying.

Try and back all the way out of the menus w/ a simple hit of the escape key like every good game interface on the planet does, and youre in the game menu and realize "oh yeah, TAB for everything". It's awkward and seems like one of those things that's just going to take a bit of getting used to, like eating left-handed or something. It's doable, but it could be better. And I thought Witcher 2's new interface was shit….

Should have the paper doll thing too.
 
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I wish they hadn't dropped traditional attributes. I miss the focus being more on stats.

That said, I've enjoyed the hell out of my first night in Skyrim. It was a great first dungeon....and a long one. I liked having my Nord friend from the first town tag along. I like what they did with spell casting. And I really liked all my new corpse friends. Digging my first zombie spell. And I've already found some necro robes. Good news for you, Skaven.
 
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does the game keep forgetting anyone else's favorites?
I'll have dual swords set to 1., bow set to 2., magic to 3 and so on, and it keeps wiping out #2. I'll hit the key, no bow. Bring up the menu, there's no 2 beside the bow anymore. Infuriating, wtf?
 
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Regarding the interface, I don't know what people are on about. This interface is really good! So good that I much prefer it over using the gamepad, even if that means having a keyboard on my lap. Certainly much improved over Oblivion. Yes, very keyboard-oriented, but effective at that. Keyboard works better than mouse in this case, anyway.

I did experience an annoying performance bug just now, though. In the Bleak Falls Temple dungeon, I had some extreme slowdowns where I could hardly look around any more. Walk a few meters forward and it was gone. I also had one crash to desktop so far. I hope they can fix these issues soon.

Furthermore, I have a hum in the audio sometimes. This is very annoying. It seems to be there in some screens or areas, and gone in the next. It's not loud enough to really be in the foreground, but once it's gone it is a relief. Must find fix for this (I already put my speakers on 44.1Khz 24-bit).
 
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Regarding the interface, I don't know what people are on about. This interface is really good! So good that I much prefer it over using the gamepad, even if that means having a keyboard on my lap. Certainly much improved over Oblivion. Yes, very keyboard-oriented, but effective at that.
Are we playing the same game? IMO, the interface is very controller-oriented, designed for a gamepad not keyboard and mouse. It's tolerable, yes, but at times really irritating.
 
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Reading elsewhere, it seems bows might be buggy with Favourites.
Not for me. I have a bow in Favorites along with a few spells and a sword. I can easily switch between the bow and the sword+spell combo via the Favorites menu. It even remembers what spell I had equipped with the sword when I switch, i.e. by just selecting the sword from the list I can equip it and the previous spell.
 
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Are we playing the same game? IMO, the interface is very controller-oriented, designed for a gamepad not keyboard and mouse. It's tolerable, yes, but at times really irritating.

It's shortcut heaven. Almost everything is close by and easily reachable. Yes, I don't click and drag, but that's pretty cumbersome, anyway. You can't tell me that you'd prefer Morrowind's mouse-driven GUI.

For the record, I also loved Gothic's interface. :) Well, most of it.
 
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its a cool UI,
and don't remember how many hours in I am :))
but I've killed 4 5 dragons
its a cool game, but its worse than Gothic for me
although everything is good, the open world is too much, and nothing sticks, in gothic the semi liniarity worked like a charm, here I'm going here and there, forget all the names, NPC are not memorable although they have great voices and good dialogs
You can brush through everything so fast :)
quantity kills quality imo
 
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EDIT: Deleted since I figured out what was happening to the key mapping - see my latest post in this thread for what the problem was.
 
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Another observation: It's really easy on default difficulty setting, at least at first. I started as a Nord, and the beginning destruction spell (fire) just destroys everything. And I haven't ever run out of magicka. This might be the first game I've ever played where I'm going to start on a higher level of difficulty.
 
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Another observation: It's really easy on default difficulty setting, at least at first. I started as a Nord, and the beginning destruction spell (fire) just destroys everything. And I haven't ever run out of magicka. This might be the first game I've ever played where I'm going to start on a higher level of difficulty.

Likewise. I almost always play on the easier setting, just enjoy things more that way. But I was like woah ... this is way to easy. I like some challenge (just not a lot). I put it on Adept and finding that to be just about right.
 
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And I've already found some necro robes. Good news for you, Skaven.

I FINALLY got a zombie spell. I took a little detour on my way to the first town and ended up in this HUGE dungeon/temple. My destruction and restoration skills are way up there, but I have a lot of catching up to do with my conjuration skill.

I'll have to go looking for those robes later. I'm making a beeline straight to the college of magic. I don't want to be level 20 before I find a way to increase my enchanting skill.

I need a mod where it let's me choose which skills to specialize in again so I'm not leveling up when every little skill gets a new level or better yet another level-up mod that changes the whole thing. However, that kind of mod will take some time to do right.
 
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Another observation: It's really easy on default difficulty setting, at least at first. I started as a Nord, and the beginning destruction spell (fire) just destroys everything. And I haven't ever run out of magicka. This might be the first game I've ever played where I'm going to start on a higher level of difficulty.

Difficulty is one of the things I certainly count among the game´s positives so far.
I´m playing on expert and I´d guess this probably applies to a lesser extent to the normal difficulty as well, but there´s a sufficient amount of spikes which can easily kick one´s ass. Killing a pack of wolves at level 13 is routine since each wolf is over in one hit, but around the corner there may be a bear (these are fast, btw) which kills me in two hits. Dungeons usually feature some mini-boss encounters which can be quite tough, some locations may be over one´s head altogether and a good use of surrounding environments or resistances is quite a must if one wants to have some chance against dragons.
Basically, the difficulty is uneven enough for me to consider this iteration of level scaling to be a good one, at least so far.
 
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I FINALLY got a zombie spell. I took a little detour on my way to the first town and ended up in this HUGE dungeon/temple.

Was this temple non-linear?
I´m asking because the 6 or so dungeons I´ve been to so far were very linear.
They were mostly quite eventful so I enjoyed "clearing" them, but this might get old after a while if some more intricately laid out ones aren´t present.
 
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