Hi

Firstly, I feel that I should apologise for this burst of posts - please bear with me, they are just fundamentals that once I know I can get on with the game! I'm using wiki and Google for specifics, it's more game-mechanics that I need the help with.

Like weight!! I've just got back from a quest to Riverwood, and thought great, I can sell a bunch of stuff and get my weight down. But I'm still at 306/310. All the apparell I am wearing, and all weapons I am using. I have some dragon scales/bones that are heavy, but I really don't want to sell these as I intend to craft some dragon armour when I have the skills. And I have ingots/ore/leather etc but again, I want to keep them for future

creations.

Plus, I have TONS of potions and ingredients, but they don't really weigh that much.

Any thoughts on this? I am in Riverwood at the moment, and with the links you chaps kindly gave me, there is nowhere safe here to store stuff. If I just find some out of the way spot and dumped it there, would it disappear?

Oh, and while I'm here; selling stuff. The item price that shows is meaningless I guess, because I get nowhere near the price that is shown. I understand that skills etc come into play, but the price shown and what is offered is massively different. Also, do different traders give different prices?

Thanks for all your patience, I really do appreciate it

D

Ingredients weigh more than you think.... when you unload them all someplace, you can drop a of of weight. I keep all of my ingredients and any alchemy fortifying gear very close to an alchemy table rather than carry it with me. You need to find a place to put those dragon bones and such... Soon you will have so many that you won't know what to do. I sell most of them, and I always think that I will still have plenty by the time I can work with them at a forge. It takes a while to build smithing to that point.

Eventually, you will a couple of hundred potions, at half a pound each, so you need to root through them occasionally. As your level goes up, the usefulness of many potions will go down, simply because their effect is too small to really accomplish anything. If you're running heavy armor and a two-handed weapon or a weapon and shield, you will probably want to keep your weight around 200 or so at least until you have built up your stamina or acquired gear that helps you carry stuff..

One of the minor pleasures of the game is the strategy of deciding what to keep and what to leave behind. I like sorting through my character's inventory. I find it relaxing after combat. As I mentioned in your other thread about weight, I halve my character's Carry Weight to 150 to make the decision-making process even more critical.

After you have played the game for awhile you will probably come up with your own system of assigning weight-to-value ratios. Many of us try to concentrate on keeping items that are very light and very valuable. Scrolls are a good example of this. They bring in a decent amount of gold for the weight.

Some of my characters only loot certain items and leave the rest behind. many of my characters do not loot any weapons or armor. Some of my characters do not loot potions. Several of my characters never gather Alchemy ingredients (you'd be surprised how fast these can add weight to your inventory).

There have been a few times when I left loot on the ground and went back for it later. I'm not too interested in amassing a lot of wealth when I play most characters. So most characters do not loot everything that isn't nailed down.

Have to say, you guys (and gals?) are so cool...

Use your ingots and leather. You'll find more. They're everywhere.

When you say 'use', do you mean sell?

He means smith something with them.

And what about my dragon bones/scales......I'm guessing they don't come around too often?

Usually you get those every time you kill a dragon. So, that kinda depends on how many random dragons you encounter, and how many you kill as opposed to "placed" dragons that are always there til you kill them. ...and of course the respawned dragons...

Actually they're very common, once you start getting dragon attacks. Every dragon you kill will drop at least one bone and one scale, and often drop three of each.

It sounds to me like you need to find a place to store some of the stuff you're carrying. You can buy a house if you have enough gold to do so, or find a location on the map, such as a shack, that has safe* storage.

* - "Safe" storage means a container, such as a dresser or a table or a chest, that does not respawn its contents after a certain number of game days have passed. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Homes will give you some hints on places where there are non-respawning containers.

ETA - I just noticed your previous post about being near Riverwood. If you don't mind "taking care of" its current owner, Anise's Cabin is nearby and has several safe containers for storage.

WRT prices you get from selling items, those are dependent on your Speech skill and perks you take in Speech. As your skill increases, you'll get more money for items you sell, and pay less for items you buy. There are also enchanted items and potions that will boost your Speech skill.

Smithing can take a long time to get to 100. It also requires alot of cash, so you better sell those materials now, so you can build up to them later.

Bugger it...dragon stuff is goin'!! I just did another dragon in, so I'm fast travelling to a town, sell off my dragonny items, fast travel back to the dragon to get other dragon bits 'n' bobs, then back to town to sell them - got it? geddit? good!!!!

By the way, it was me that gave the killer blow, using 'Ice Spike' - love that spell!!

Doh - bugger it!! After all that, got back to the dragon corpse, and the bones/scales I had left....are gone!! Are they taken or just disappear? I should have not looted the dragon and left the corpse alone instead of looting it and leaving the objects on the ground. Ah well, live and learn. At least I got some weight allowance now.....255/310. Not great, but much better than 306/310!!

Honestly, most of the stuff you're hoarding can probably be used/sold and regained at any time.

And by "used," I mean that you can use it to craft into valuable items.

Can you highlight what you're carrying?