What Game Are You Currently Playing?

[thaddeus6th]

If you go for enchanting you can make yourself largely resistant by applying the relevant enchantment to multiple items.

Markarth is one of my least favourite cities. Pretty samey. Oblivion did a better job making cities feel different, by and large. To be fair, Markarth does stand out but, as you say, its structures are all very much the same. Although, the Daedric quest that starts in a house there is quite good to start with.

 

[Foxbat]

If you go for enchanting you can make yourself largely resistant by applying the relevant enchantment to multiple items.

I have some enchanting skill but, when I activate an enchanting table, I can select an item and soul gem but no enchantment seems to be available. I’m not sure if that means I just haven’t found the right spell yet or if there’s something else I need to do.

 

[Toby Frost]

Have you destroyed a magic item with the relevant spell, in order to learn it? If you destroy an item with, say, "resist frost", you'll learn how to enchant things to resist frost. The down-side is that the enchantments you can then make will often be weaker than the one on the destroyed item.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I'm struggling to find places to sell stuff in Skyrim. It was much easier to do this in Oblivion but there seems to be a real dearth of retailers with plenty of gold coin in this game.

Also, as I've progressed I've discovered how susceptible I am to fire. Is there some kind of fire protection ring or something similar I could acquire? I recently died at the hands of Cultists who kept bombarding me with fireballs. I can manage one or two but they seem to appear in groups of three or four.

There's the Investor perk in the Speech tree that boosts all merchants by 500 gold, but you have to be level 70 in Speech and I don't know how many other perks you need to take to get it. Also, if you get Speech 100, the master trader perk bumps that up to 1000 gold. But Speech 100! I wouldn't know how to even grind up to that level (In Oblivion you did that by selling everything you had individually as the sale of a bundle of things only got you the same increase in speech as the sale of one individual thing. Skyrim might be similar. It was tedious to do, but if you wanted that sweet, sweet 100%....)

As for fire resistance, how is your alchemy? I forget the exact recipes, but there are quite a few combinations that give you fire resistance potions, (Dragon's tongue and Snowberries is one). If you go that route, you may want to invest a few perk points in alchemy to maximise potion strength etc.

There is also a resist fire enchantment, that you can apply to apparel, but you need to find a piece of clothing with that enchantment first, so that you can learn it. That has to drop randomly for you. Again once you have it, you may want to invest points in your enchantment tree to maximise any enchantment you make!

If you are getting swarmed by attackers - having a companion with you will take some of their attention away from you, and you can also conjure another helper to push the odds further in your direction. The flame atronach is apprentice level, so not too bad, and gives you something that is fire resistant.

 

[Foxbat]

There is also a resist fire enchantment, that you can apply to apparel, but you need to find a piece of clothing with that enchantment first, so that you can learn it

This sounds what I need. I tend to forget about potions until it’s too late so enchanting a bit of clothing would be a big help. I didn’t realise that I needed an item to learn from. Maybe that’s why no enchantments are in my menu.


I have a companion and a dog but I just tell the to stay at home because I prefer exploring without them - mainly because I find they often just get in the way. I have a few scrolls for conjuring help so I’ll have to delve through my treasure chest and see what’s there

 

[Venusian Broon]

This sounds what I need. I tend to forget about potions until it’s too late so enchanting a bit of clothing would be a big help. I didn’t realise that I needed an item to learn from. Maybe that’s why no enchantments are in my menu.


I have a companion and a dog but I just tell the to stay at home because I prefer exploring without them - mainly because I find they often just get in the way. I have a few scrolls for conjuring help so I’ll have to delve through my treasure chest and see what’s there

Go through your stuff and pick up all the magically enchanted items that you wouldn't use or can't be bothered to sell (or if they are so valuable you can't find a shop with enough money!) and go to an enchantment table and disenchant the item - it destroys it, and you learn how the enchantment works. BTW once you've disenchanted one object, you can't accidently disenchant another item with the same properties, so don't worry about that.

You then need a soul gem - I think with a soul in it - and the new piece of equipment and you can place any enchantment you've learnt on it. The "strength" of the effect will be dependent on your Enchantment skill level, the type of soul (I think) and the sort of perks you've picked on the Enchantment skill tree.

Levelling up Enchantment isn't too bad. You get experience in it for disenchanting/enchanting but also from using soul gems to put power into your magical weapons.

This now means you need soul gems with souls in them - they drop all the time in dungeons and in shops (I think) - but you can also use the Soul Trap spell to fill your own when killing things (not humans, unless you have a black soul gem!)

Oh, and rings/amulets are great things to enchant - they are very light, so if you want to change your resistances quickly, carry a bunch of these with different enchantments. Much easier than carrying loads of different heavy armour!

 

[Foxbat]

Thanks for that advice. It’s a big help and I’ve got a pile of unwanted/unused enchanted objects in my possession.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Foxbat, different items have different acceptable enchantments. These can also have different prices (useful to know for selling the item to a mage and buying swanky gems from them for more enchanting). Carry weight, especially on survival mode, can be especially useful.

The only downside with enchantment is that it can be overpowered.

 

[Foxbat]

Thanks all for the Skyrim advice...but...I've just learned that my favourite game (Shadow Empire) has a new DLC that introduces Maritime Trade Houses into the mix so Skyrim will be sidelined for a while whilst I ressurect New Byzantium and conquer the (procedurally generated) world

Been waiting for this for quite some time.

Downloading

 

[Rodders]

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is £14.99 on Steam. Too good a price to pass up.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've been playing Farcry 5, in which a doomsday cult takes control of a county in Montana and you have to drive them out. I have learned that, despite being heavily-armed, the people of Montana always leave their cars and planes unlocked, with the keys in the ignition. The main life form in Montana is the man-eating bear, of which there are very many. Joking aside, the game is extremely slick and the "day to day" business (!) of recapturing strongholds from the cultists is entertaining. It seems to want to be non-political, which the basic concept makes impossible. As with Farcry 3, some of the shifts in tone are really weird - it lurches from horror to comedy at points, as if the writers didn't speak to each other very often. Likewise, the cultists are much more interesting in creepy faux-positive mode than when running at you guns blazing, screaming about a pale horse. It all reminds me strongly of this:

 

[Foxbat]

Got myself a copy of Cold Waters for less than a tenner on GOG.
Diving.........preparing for silent running......

 

[Rodders]

I tried to play The Last of Us, but my computer is old and the graphics look really odd. I'm not sure when i'll be able to afford a new PC, so I've had to uninstall for a bit.

 

[Foxbat]

Firing up Rule The Waves 2 in anticipation of Rule The Waves 3 being released at the end of May.

It's rare that I get excited by a game release but this one is special. It may look like an ugly duckling compared to the whiz, bang, graphic artistry of these modern times but this series of games has a helluva lot going on in the engine room.

 

[condatis]

Funny you mention encountering that for the first time, a that's my usual route (for Ivarstead, I take the cart to Riften then head west). I've had the same thing in other places, though.

I've read it's where you end up after completing that crimson nirnroot quest in Blackreach. I've never bothered with that.

Btw did you know there was a hidden path from Whiterun to Ivarstead? Walk up along the river until you get to the ritual stone, turn right up the grassy bank, just left of the stormcloak camp and keep going. It gets you there in just a few minutes.

 

[condatis]

I think I've played 1200+ hours, and I only discovered that Markarth had a general store two weeks ago (All their buildings look the same!!)

It was ages until I found the fletchers in Solitude, and my first few playthroughs were heavily archer based.

 

[CrazyKB]

I own a flight Sim for R/C aircraft called Real Flight. Although, the Sim's primary function is to teach the user how to fly R/C aircraft and/or help hone one's skills for scale flying or 3d, it does have a game on it called 'warbirds' where you do combat with other players flying a p-51 Mustang. I also play GTA online and some No Man's Sky and F1 22.

 

[Foxbat]

Btw did you know there was a hidden path from Whiterun to Ivarstead? Walk up along the river until you get to the ritual stone, turn right up the grassy bank, just left of the stormcloak camp and keep going. It gets you there in just a few minutes.

I decided to follow your directions and, sure enough, I found the secret path zig-zagging over the mountain

 

[thaddeus6th]

I've read it's where you end up after completing that crimson nirnroot quest in Blackreach. I've never bothered with that.

Btw did you know there was a hidden path from Whiterun to Ivarstead? Walk up along the river until you get to the ritual stone, turn right up the grassy bank, just left of the stormcloak camp and keep going. It gets you there in just a few minutes.

Maybe... if that's the way through the mountains then I've been that way when doing the Clavicus Vile quest.

The 'secret path' (it does involve mountain-hopping) I used to use was to Bleak Falls Barrow from Whiterun. Ignore Riverwood, and head south from the city. You can get up the mountain and get there directly, although occasionally you may encounter a snow cat that can be unhelpful.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Btw did you know there was a hidden path from Whiterun to Ivarstead? Walk up along the river until you get to the ritual stone, turn right up the grassy bank, just left of the stormcloak camp and keep going. It gets you there in just a few minutes.

<Boast mode on> That was the first route I found to get to Ivarstead </Boast mode off> However, it took me a couple of hundred hours to find the main road route that did the same journey