I'm waiting to see what the general consensus is before i download a beta patch. Just in case they end up having to put out a hotfix for whatever reason.

That said, most feedback thus far seems positive. Just one or two people complaining about major issues, but i suspect they have a heavily modded install. Personally, ive been keeping any mods ive been running, small and simple, just for that reason.

Yeah, I'm guessing that's how it's got to play out. Apparently it is possible to negotiate the truce if you've joined one side or the other and don't have any pending Civil War quests still hanging out there... but *not* if the Battle of Whiterun has been fought and the city's taken over by one side or the other, at which point I guess whoever the current Jarl is then would just go along with the Dragonborn's plans for Dragonsreach without the rest of it.

Well, Hjerim will just have to wait a while for its new owner. I can't pass up the opportunity to have the option of throwing Elenwen out of the room. :O:

I just have to say., looking over the beta update forum on bethsofts boards,........ people are idiots. Patching over a modded installation, and running mods for a different version of the game, over a BETA patch, and then they bitch because their game wont work right. Well.. .DUH!!!!!

I pity the developers.

News at 11. :O:

But yes, I agree. Always bewildering to just play a game for a good bit, enough to form a proper opinion on it beyond first impressions, and then having a peak on the game's forum. Usually I'll have been having a good time, only to find a "this game is broken" topic right at the top of the board.

Same, usually quite entertaining to see that people can gripe about the most trivial of things..

Anyways, if I'm enjoying a game who gives a crap what others think.

^^This. Now, if we could only get some others on the SH3/4/5 boards to listen to you. :haha:

Everybody think's "their game" is the best, and aims to prove it. :haha:
(hell, i did too at one point)

Protip: do not spend half an hour rearranging the decor in your newly purchased and furnished home and then accidentally hit 'Z' when you have the Unrelenting Force shout equipped. :haha:

It made such a mess that I ended up just picking up half the stuff and selling it to the nearest merchant because trying to put it back in some kind of orderly fashion was just too much work.

The really odd thing - the housecarl just sat there and continued munching a loaf of bread like nothing happened. OTOH when I walked over to the table to scootch a piece of fish back into the middle of a plate, I got a very curt "WHAT ARE YOU DOING THAT FOR?"

The sense, it makes none. :O:

:har:

FUS-RO-
http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...amerdudexi.jpg

:har:

I know and it just had to be the place in Markarth that is positively loaded with pretty, pretty clutter and open enough so that the force of the shout pretty much plows right through the entire space. I swear I found stuff from the back of the house piled up against the door in the front entry hall.

On another note, I must say again that I am really loving the new slower timescale. No more dragons turning up everywhere I go because so much time is passing getting from one place to another. When an attack occurs, or I get a "tip" about a possible dragon location, it's actually exciting again. I've even come across dwellings at the foot of some mountain that were burned out with crispy human remains scattered around, kinda gross but it really contributes to the "uh oh there's a dragon around here somewhere maybe I should look into that" feeling. And then I find a note that got written to the authorities but never sent, warning them that someone saw a dragon nearby. With dragon encounters being less frequent overall, I'm more inclined to interrupt whatever I'm doing and investigate immediately instead of saving it for later.

Even fast travel and the carriage rides seem "safer" with respect to causing constant dragon encounters, altho I still try not to overuse them. OTOH I'm trying to finish out the Companions stuff and seriously how many animal exterminations and escaped criminals do I have to deal with before I get to finish out the more interesting stuff with them? And they keep sending me to the far corners of Skyrim for that stuff too, like, there's not a single solitary warrior already in The Rift or The Pale who can handle it? :shifty:

Anyway when they keep sending me all over creation just to kill doggone bears and big cats and I've got all this gold on hand and nothing to spend it on, screw it, I'm hailing a cab. I just consider it one of the perks of being independently wealthy. :O:

One sort of odd thing, I was coming back from another escaped criminal hunt in The Reach which took me northeast of Markarth so I came back down the road through Rorikstead. As I'm approaching the village I can see the telltale glimmery column shooting into the heavens that means Alduin is at the nearby dragon mound trying to resurrect one of his buddies. So I find the path up towards the mound and I'm trying to sneak but I can hear Alduin doing his magic chant thing and the crosshairs show "Detected" which he always does know I'm there when I get close enough, but doesn't care so whatever. (The last time it happened he stopped what he was doing for a moment and switched out of Dragon Tongue and TALKED TO ME DIRECTLY and boy did that send shivers down my spine!)

Anyway he finishes (I assume) and flies off and I'm hunkered down behind a rock waiting for the resurrected dragon to emerge so I can kill it and... nothing. The glimmering column just keeps glimmering and humming but no dragon. I even went all the way back down to the town a couple times, ran around, got closer and farther away, waited a good long while, and still no dragon. The glimmer only disappeared when I got far enough away from the area that it would've been gone anyway, if I went back it was still there.

So... was it a glitch, or did Alduin not finish the job (and why?) or is there something special about that mound that means I'm not supposed to be in a position to fight the dragon that comes out of it just yet? I don't know. I've come upon Alduin doing that at other mounds and he always finishes up and the dragon always emerges. :hmmm: Don't know why the game would generate the scene and then just leave it with no dragon coming out. But I felt really bad when I finally gave up and headed back to Whiterun, like I was leaving Rorikstead undefended against an imminent dragon attack.


Edit: Oh and I've gotten really tired of the Thief who just runs up on the road and demands all my money and then we have to have the silly conversation where I persuade him that I don't have any which, at this point, usually works but you know what? He's just gonna try to rob the next poor sap that comes along, and maybe the next poor sap doesn't talk as pretty or look as scary or have such wonderful weapons at his disposal, and as I said I am *really* tired of having that conversation over and over again. So I have found what I consider to be a truly elegant solution to the Thief Problem: an arrow in the chest before he gets close enough to say anything. Sure the first one may not kill him, but that's why I have the Magigolo. :woot:

As a TES lore junkie, I'm a wee bit disappointed in the depth of the lore in Skyrim. There's just enough to make the story go, but not enough to satisfy someone who likes to read about CHIM and dragon breaks and the divinity of Vivec and the Earth Bones and the differences between the Aedra and Daedra.

Kinda makes me sad that I feel like they're dumbing it down for mass consumption. It could just be me though.

I donno.. I've been amassing quite a lot of books, almost enough to rival the library at the Mages College in Cyrodil :haha: and gotta say reading through some of them there is quite a lot of info on the Lore of Skyrim.

The history of the land of Skyrim, yes, but not as much metaphysical stuff as before. I guess I'm just being picky.

Yea I like to read the books I spend to much time in dungeons reading than fighting at times. If Bethesda published all the Skyrim books and sold them for a few $$ each I am sure they would make a killing I would buy them and have my very own Elder scrolls library. :rock: