Yes, I’m still playing Skyrim. At this point I’ve played through the main plot as a fighter, going up to level 30, as a thief/assassin going up to level 40 (at a higher difficulty), and I’m presently playing as a mage. My character level is 51 and I’ve maxed out the Destruction Magic, Smithing, and Enchanting skills. I haven’t decided whether to play through to the end of the main plot or not.
At this point my conclusion is that playing Skyrim as a fighter is tremendously easier than as a thief or a mage. Playing as a mage is the most fun, though. My mage is powerful enough at this juncture to shoot dragons out of the sky with thunderbolts.
I haven’t decided whether to complete the main plot as a mage or not. Now that I understand the game better than I did the first time around I’m tempted to crank the difficulty all the way up and start over as a fighter, concentrating on two-handed weapons and archery.
Two bits of advice: you’ll improve your enjoyment of the game substantially if you pick up some lockpicking skills early on and you can make (or improve) better equipment than you can find or buy. That means that smithing, enchanting, and alchemy skills are darned handy.
Are you going to acquire Dawnguard?
If I get bored enough, I might. Unfortunately, it’s received less than glowing reviews.
I certainly won’t go for it until a month or so has elapsed. Skyrim as-is is buggy enough.
Still haven’t got back to Skyrim unfortunately.
Dave,
The game is almost trivial for a Breton mage with conjuration, sneak and silent casting. You can continually summon two of the big guys and they never know you’re there. Breton to get magic resistance for splash damage.
Roy
Dave, when are you going to try something like Eve Online. Warning the learning curve is…well here you go.
I started up Skyrim again and learned why I quit playing my stealthy archer. I’m level 49 and I’ve out-leveled my gear. Grinding to get the skills necessary to get the gear I need isn’t much fun (I’m looking especially at enchanting). Plus, almost any small town I go to I get attacked by a dragon which takes a lot of time and health potions.
I probably should start a new character, but I’m kind of stubborn.
Steve,
I’ve looked at Eve Online several times and to me it seems to be too realistic. Based on what I’ve read it takes an extraordinary amount of time to be competitive (ie. just like real life, it favors established players). From the post you linked to:
From another review:
A hyper-addictive game that sounds like a second job – Maybe if I was younger and had more free time.
My first Skyrim character was, essentially, a tank. Very little stealth or lockpicking. No archery. Dual-wielding. The only blocks were attacks.
I did recognize early on that I’d need to be able to produce some pretty good armor and weaponry so I practiced my smithing all the way up to 100.
At high levels the game was incredibly easy with this character.
Well, if you are going to try to go solo, then yeah…but that is not very much fun and a heck of a lot of work. Going with an established alliance on the other hand allows you to do much, much more.
The other night I was in small gang roaming around hostile space killing stuff and pissing in people’s cheerios. Turned out the FC (fleet commander) had half the skill points I did. FCing isn’t a skill based thing as it is a personality/outlook thing. Can you deal with different streams of information and make a decision…a good one. I’m not that good at that, so I’m happy being the experienced grunt. Not that having lots of skill points isn’t helpful…after all, the FC can put me into a wing command position so the guys in my wing get max bonuses. All other things equal (i.e. we are at optimal range, same transversal, etc.) I’ll out damage a player with less SP. I can also get into different ships and fill niche roles when needed, and having been in many, many, many engagements I’m going to respond a bit better than many younger players when things get tough. And when it comes to defense my ships will be marginally harder to kill. So “age” helps, but it isn’t the only aspect of the game that is a factor.
As for it being a bit of a job…well here are a couple of the “jokes” us bitter vets use:
“Why yes, I play spreadsheets online.”
“You win the game by not having to log in.”