In other news, Argis sure is a mean SOB.

Last night I picked up a Staff of Paralysis somewhere and being on a bit of a magic kick *and* traveling with the aforementioned 3rd Skyrim Panzer Division which pretty much takes care of all your close action needs, I decided to equip it with my shield instead of the usual sword just for gits and shiggles. I have some other staves on hand but hadn't tried this variation at all.

So we run into this group of Imperials with one Cloaker prisoner outside of Winterhold, I don't know if it's because I've just been running up and freeing the prisoners lately or what, but now when we encounter them they aren't marching along quietly any more but usually the Cloaker is trying to escape and they are all fighting him and the Imperials are immediately hostile once we get close enough. Sadly they killed the Cloaker before we could intervene but Argis got two of them meanwhile I finally get a good hit with the staff on the third Imperial who is an archer and dodging around all over the place.

So he goes down flat on the ground and stays there. Argis finishes up his hack and slash and turns around and... fires an arrow right into the guy. From, like, three feet away. :haha: He didn't even have time to get up before he got a second arrow which finished him off.

We were on our way to get some staff for Enthir so he would give me something I needed to get for Arniel and when we finally got to the designated location there was a magic-type female outside the entrance who started attacking as soon as we revealed ourselves. I had my bow equipped but I never even got a shot in cuz Argis plowed right past me and I don't think he even got her with a weapon, all I saw him do was bash her three times with his shield. She went into the "ow I'm hurt bad" kneeling posture and he just stands there until she gets back up at which point he smacks her *again* with the shield and that was all she wrote.

I've never seen anyone killed with a series of shield bashes before. Argis is getting some really awesome enchanted Dragonplate armor tonight as a reward. I think I even found a red/black retex for it so he matches up nicely to my Daedric set. :yep:

Mmm.. wonder what happens when the next patch is released.

Seeing how Steam likes to automatically update your games, sometimes even if
you tell it to not update. I'd imagine a lot of mods will be broken and in worst
case save games corrupted. :hmmm:

I run in Offline mode. That seems to keep it from downloading anything until I tell it to restart in Online mode, even official game patches. I know I had to restart Steam in Online mode to get the last patch and it was out several days before I knew it existed... in the meantime I was starting up in Offline mode every day without Steam updating anything.

Yeah, well I use Steam to keep in touch with mates and people from Subsim, so
running in offline mode isn't really an option. :hmmm:

Well he was a example! Just like every other follower I have could be... yea, its not a good idea to be my follower.

Well, it's not always a good idea to be mine, either. I've killed them accidentally way more times than they've been killed by enemies. :O:

Perhaps the most epic incident was in Nzbadusmell or whatever that Dwemer ruin is under Markarth. My previous character, when I married Vilkas and had him tagging along. Both of us primarily 2H melee fighters which probably wasn't the best combination. Hadn't really figured out the advantages of Sneak and Archery when dealing with Falmer yet.

So, got in a big fight with a bunch of them and I still had my Skyforge Greatsword then and I had rushed in and was hacking and slashing and I hear someone running up behind and turn and strike and... got a long, drawn out animation clip of me just flat out skewering Vilkas. I mean, the whole thing with lifting him up in the air impaled on the blade and the sound effect when I pulled it out and everything. DUDE DO NOT RUN UP BEHIND ME LIKE THAT IN A ROOM FULL OF FALMER. :haha:

And then just recently I beheaded Argis with a warhammer. And that was *after* I hit him once with it and he told me to stop. I GET CARRIED AWAY SOMETIMES. :shifty:

Had to go all the way back to Windhelm and reload to get him back and we were halfway to Riften when it happened. We, uh, took the carriage the second time. :O:

Can't you tell it not to automatically update? :hmmm:

Yes but apparently it doesn't always follow that particular order. :nope:

Set your Steam account to offline, and check for news on patches every couple of weeks, manually.

For me, in Skyrim the offline mode seems to work. In Shogun 2, it did not, and messed up the whole installation time and again. Blocking it via firewall when the steam-option failed to function, also did not work.

Steam will not get any love from me, never, even if in Skyrim it so far works. The moment they release a steam-free Skyrim is when I would buy it, immediately.

steam free skyrim, I dont see that any lightyear soon.

Im good at that too, Oh hello companion, follow me into this dark creepy cave that mods I am using has made pitch black dark!

(in a fight) HACK HACK HACK HACK H... oh, hello companion... And its always when they're low health and Im doing a power attack...

Completely agree, Steam has grown to a point where its bordering on being the exclusive provider of PC games, minus its war with EA and Origin.

Further more Beth has nothing but lovely things to say about Valve and from what it appears they have snuggled up quite lovingly with one another.

Also I have no issues with Steam, not even with Total War Shogun so I'm not entirely sure what sorts of issues you've had. Also if I ever lose internet or anything I can always play in offline have done it several times with no issues.

I support steam and I like the idea of having all the games I ever bought stored in one location with access from any computer.

Origin however I dislike, as well as EA... which hurts a little in my heart because I loved Bioware, and with Mass Effect coming I do want to finish my playthru as I've taken the same character from the first one all the way to this point. I just can't do it, I know with the multiplayer and the EA ideas of what a game should be they have ruined it. ie: Dragon Age 2.

As this is the skyrim topic though.. umm Skyrim rules!! Anybody on the beta patch right now?

...Dwight.

When it's dark in a cave, Dave.

When you just can't see, Lee!

There must be... 50 ways to kill your follower.

Your index finger gets stuck, Chuck.

And you strike strike strike, Mike.

You both lost your heads, Ted!

There must be... 50 ways to kill your follower.

:O:

@Oberon

Usually it works, but for example my install of IL2 1946 was ruined twice due
to Steam updating it against my will so I'm not really confident about it. :-?

@Skybird

Like I already said: I use Steam also to chat with quite a few people, so offline isn't really an option.


In other news, I just beat the main storyline and now I feel a tad empty. :wah:

Look, just because they have a Chinese buffet in Sovngarde doesn't mean you have to eat there. :O:



But seriously folks... that's why I keep putting it off. I like my current character even if she is a tad overpowered ATM... and I feel like if I finish the Main Quest everything else will be anti-climactic. Probably not true, but still. And then I'll want to start over with a different type of character entirely. I've got the Elder Scroll so altho there's a lot of heavy duty action ahead in the main quest, the storyline is almost over unless I choose to go do more different stuff before setting the trap at Dragonsreach. I can't see catching Ohdahviing and then saying, well, okay, I'll be back later to finish up here, mmmkay? Gotta go collect a bounty on some bandits in Morthal. Or whatever.

OTOH it may be better to finish the MQ and start over before I've explored every last inch of Skyrim that's available, so at least I'll still have a few surprises.