Hi!

New to the game, and I just thought I'd pop in the forums and see what's up.

My original introduction to the elder scrolls was through Morrowind, and try as I might, I just didn't like the game - it felt to me like a hiking-simulator with intermittent bad combat and card-board cut out NPCs trying to walk through walls. Played it maybe 4 hours, after which the game just gathered dust on a shelf.

So... given that experience, I skipped on Oblivion.

I just got a new PC, and finally retired my old dinosaur of a system that I had updated to it's limit, saw Skyrim on a shelf at a reduced price, and bought it, thinking it'll probably be a repeat of my experience with Morrowind.

It was not! Yay!

I'm 14 hours into the experienced thus far, and feel like I've only just scratched the surface. The world seems more.... substantial and engaging than I remember Morrowind being. And I found the controls and the UI to be pretty intuitive, so the learning curve is pretty gentle. I fear I'm going to spend far too much time on this game than is healthy or sensible.

That said, are there things you wish somebody'd pointed out to you when you started playing?

(I'm focusing on magic with my first (Breton) character.)

Absolutely not. In fact, I wished I was banned from the forums when the game released. The best advice I could possibly give to anyone starting the game is...

Leave the forums and stay away form any WIKIS. The true essence of the game is exploration and finding things out on your own. Now, should you run into a particular issue, then, by all means come back and do a quick search for a similar discussion. If nothing hits on your issue, then feel free to ask and the many great members of the forum will be more than happy to help.

Until then... run away and run away fast.

^ Sounds like sound advice.

I'll cetainly try to stay away from any spoilers.

To be a but more specific, when you have trouble it cone across a bug, search the UESP or the Wiki for solutions, then by all means ask. A couple of the questions asked here are easily found on those mentioned sites.

I would also suggest that you specialize a character and not try to max out all the skills. Then only do things that are fitting to your character's personality. Before you do anything, ask yourself... "What would my character do?" before you go in a given direction, ask... "Where would my character go/"

Then... DO NOT try to do everything with one character. By adopting this playstyle, you will find the game to produce many, many, many hrs of entertainment across many characters and keep a large amount of new content available and add to what is already a high replay value.

I made the mistake of doing everything with a single character in Oblivion. I then spent the next year struggling to find new and inventive ways to play. I swore I would not make that same mistake with Skyrim.

I have now logged well over 3500 hrs and I still have a good 15% of the map left unexplored.

I fully endorse this message.

^ All good advice.

And I wikis are usually the first places I look if I run into a problem with a game.

I'm sort of a completionist with RPGs, so it'd be easy for me to go the route of trying to do everything. Though I already have gotten the feeling that there's been paths I could have taken that I chose not to, so I'm pretty sure they'll be more to experience on future playthoughts.

As for spezializing, I'm doing that with my char - I've been focusing on destruction spells, augmented with conjuring, and getting some single weapon experince, often wielding a conjured weapon.

...And SAVE. Manually. In a new slot. OFTEN. I don't know how many threads I've seen here where someone has run into a questbreaking bug, or just done something they regretted, and they ask here for help, and when they get the obvious answer (and often only solution) "reload an older save", it turns out they have relied on autosaves and maybe one or two manual saves they constantly overwrites... Then there's not much you can do.

Yes, that's something I've learned a long time ago, the hard way. I tend to save pretty frequently, and regularly in new slots too. It's good advice for any game.

You're first character is more than likely gonna be a mess, as far as play style, picking schools to focus on and perks as everything during the first play through will intrigue you.

Above all else, slow slow slow slow down take your time and enjoy it.

Welcome to the forums, first off. M'aiq wishes to give you a fishy stick, but sadly, M'aiq has none.

I would suggest that you follow everything listed above, and (if you're character is an adventure-y type) don't craft any weapons, armor, or enchantments. Makes finding them in chests that much better, IMO.

Oh, and don't reload saves. Well, you can if the need to is bug-related, but every other reason is not a reason to reload. Someone dies on you by accident? Live with it.

tom waits +1

Like any game, some spoilers can ruin something, but don't get so caught up as to not ask for help.

I had to, given I was at level 10 and didn't have a single dragon in my game in my first play through. I had to come here and realize, "Oh, so that's what I was supposed to do. Huh."

Yeah, when Ralof said we should "go our separate ways", that's precisely what the [bleep bleep] I did.

I didn't buy Skyrim to play a damn thief. I bought it to kill dragons!

Anyway, long story short: don't be afraid to ask questions, but realize the answer may come with spoilers.

Watch the skies, traveler.