Help me enjoy skyrim

[octafish]

Avoid melee combat, bows and magic are much less awful than the vanilla swordplay. Skyrim is the first TES game I've enjoyed since Daggerfall. Morrowind was tiny and Oblivion was ugly (Shrek Orcs, potato people, and clunky mechanics) but Skyrim is...passable. I don't love it, I love New Vegas, but I still have fun with it...as long as I avoid melee combat.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Why do you need to enjoy Skyrim?

If you want you can try http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9286

Skyrim Redone. You have to be sure to get the right file though, the latest version requires Dawnguard.

Skyrim's problem is that it's super unimaginatively done. The cities are archetypal medieval cities. The quests are linear so there's no real creativity the player can apply beyond do I want to shoot stuff with bows, slice stuff with swords, or zap stuff with magic. Most of the characters are very one dimensional and the dialogue they present is mostly boring and matter of fact.

There's no mod that can really fix any of that without literally going to the effort of practically recreating the entire game.

 

[Something Amyss]

Is there a reason you're being confrontational?

You're reading too much into this.

wasting everyone's time in the process.

Yeah, being potentially helpful instead of ignoring his request and redoubling what he already obviously knows about is far less wasteful.

 

[Something Amyss]

There's no mod that can really fix any of that without literally going to the effort of practically recreating the entire game.

I wouldn't mind seeing someone take the concept of Skyrim and create a much better game. Unfortunately, that would be completely unfeasible.

 

[Fluffythepoo]

try jumping into a river naked and catching fish with your bare hands, while letting the river take you whereever its going to go (also refer to the practice as "golluming")
..how i spent my first 3 hours playing skyrim, and i loved every minute of it

 

[A.A.K]

Bah. I just think people care too much.
Gaming doesn't mean a thing to me. So when I've enjoyed doing stuff in a game, I'm pleased.

I expect absolutely nothing out of games except a time sink between training and Uni.... and I've loved every second of Skyrim.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I dunno, man. I thought the combat was really enjoyable and the major side-quests were, on the whole, pretty damn fine. Ever consider that the game might just not be for you?

 

[rob_simple]

Bah. I just think people care too much.
Gaming doesn't mean a thing to me. So when I've enjoyed doing stuff in a game, I'm pleased.

I expect absolutely nothing out of games except a time sink between training and Uni.... and I've loved every second of Skyrim.

What was the actual point of your post? In what way did that help with the OP's request? Saying you just play games for something to stare at, slack-jawed, as you count down the hours until the day you die is fine if that's what tickles your pickle, but some of us play games to actually feel something and become immersed in an experience.

OT: As someone who absolutely hated Skyrim, the only advice I can give you is really get stuck into the world and soak it all in. I was playing purely to platinum the game, so after a while everything became a blur of fast-travelling and fetch-quests; it was only a long time after I finished the game that I realised how intriguing the world actually was, particularly an abandoned lighthouse I stumbled upon filled with corpses and the torn out pages of a diary.

I never found the quest attached to that incident so I always wondered what had happened to those people and, in the end, I made up my own version of events. It's little moments like that that make Skyrim utterly absorbing and enjoyable.

As to the combat, all I'll say is I enjoyed it a lot more after I set it to the lowest difficulty and started mowing down enemies like a tidal wave made of swords.

 

[Lunar Templar]

snip

now, keep in mind for the following i nether own, will own, nor desire to own a Bethesda game, all of them are pretty much crap far as I'm concerned.

however ....

I'd consider the fact your ask for people to 'help make you like' a game as a sign you should probably just move on to something else. I tried adding mods in my own attempts to understand what people find appealing about these games, still couldn't tell ya, but I did learn if your forcing your self to 'have fun with it' your not having fun with it.

just move on is my advice

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

I think to enjoy Skyrim you have to enjoy Roleplaying, because that's the main strengh of Skyrim.

Come up with a backstory for your character, give them a short history and a summary of personal feelings, prejudices, etc. (I once played a Kahjit with a fear of water, for example, so anything that involved travelling through water was out of the question unless there was no other option.)
Giving them a D'n'D alignment [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29] or roleplaying as a character you know well helps (e.g. play as Batman, or Kratos, or Zoidberg (Why not?) )

Don't use your knowledge of the game to influence your character's actions, let them choose based on the personalities you gave them.

The greatest character I ever made was a wood elf, he was supposed to be a Robin Hood type character; Chaotic Neutral, who had a personal bone with the Thalmor and no Imperial/Stormcloak leanings.
I began by not following the guy at the start, but by going my own way, since I was very independent, and ended up in Falkreath, where I was immediately lambasted by a stormcloak for being an elf, I stole all his possessions and littered them around the town, did some more petty stuff and ended up getting run out of town by the guards.
Went to Whiterun (still hadn't begun the main quest at this point) and met with the companions, joined them because they looked amoral and cool, and ended up getting embroiled in their questline, which led to a lot of massacres of people for very thin reasons, which was quite an evil thing to do. On the search for coin I ended up in Markarth, and helping out a poor dude got lambasted by the stormcloaks (again) so at this point I decided my character didn't like them, ended up killing a guy in self defence and became accidentally complicit in luring a monk to his doom, was told by a possessed lady how much I loved eating people (and I was a Wood Elf, so her prophetic insistence that this was true convinced me I had cannibalistic tendencies) Then I was thrown in jail and had to break out by "becoming an animal" and killing others without provocation, allying with an insane wildman.

From there I realised that my supposed Robin Hood character was actually full on Chaotic Evil. He had killed in cold blood so many times, had massacred large groups of people for very little reason, was cannibalistic and just downright crazy. This happened because I let the character make those choices, and they all turned out to be awful choices. He became my evil playthough even though I had no intention at all of playing a bad character when I made him.

Totally this. The last character I made was a female Breton who had never had an ounce of combat training in her life, and found herself lost and alone is Skyrim (fyi, I was using the 'Live Another Life' mod, which let's you start out somewhere besides Helgen). And it was, by far, the best damn character I have ever played in an RPG. I essentially put her on autopilot and watched her develop on her own from a weak little pissbag to an extremely capable warrior...a warrior who drank herself into depression because she became wrapped up in a war that she never truly wanted to be a part of. And the backstory I gave her added a whole new layer of depth to the game. I'm not going to bore everyone with it, so I'll just sum it up: she was VERY pissed at the bandits in Mistwatch. Despite her lack of training, she wanted to see them all dead by her hands.

Now think about this for a moment. On an average playthrough, Mistwatch is just your typical roadside dungeon that you wander into out of curiosity and finish in five minutes, never to think of it again. But this time? When I finally saw her standing in front of it, fully armored and wielding a large warhammer, knowing full well that this act of vengeance might take her life? (Incidentally, I had decided she was a perma-death character. As in, dead is dead, no reloading) Mistwatch had gone from being an average dungeon and was now like the terrifying last level that the game had been building up to for hours on end. It was far more meaningful and impactful then the main storyline could ever hope to be.

And that's just the tip of the ice-burg. I could gush about a huge life-changing moment that occurred a few hours in that shaped the character for the rest of her life (and ultimately led to her death), but I doubt anyone really wants to read a novel on my Skyrim RP.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

You should probably say what you specifically find lacking in it and compare it to some examples that that fulfill that aspect well. Otherwise, you will just end up getting generic answers like "I prefer X, you should try it" or "just try a different game."

 

[Hagi]

Get Requiem!

A hardcore conversion mod that basically removes all leveling of NPCs and adds in a whole number of old-school RPG features. It's extremely difficult to start with but oh so very rewarding.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19281

 

[Pandabearparade]

Think of Bethesda games more as pretty simulations for you to project fantasies onto, rather than traditional RPGs. Mods are generally essential to crafting the specific fantasy you want.

For example, Fallout 3 is so incompetently written that I literally have to avoid half of the quests in the game to keep my suspension of disbelief up, but I still find the game extremely fun. Fallout: Wanderer's Edition combined with Mart's Mutant Mod is a miracle combination that turns a rather lackluster experience into an incredible survival simulation.

Find an overhaul mod that suits you. I can't tell you which one that is because I don't know what you're after. I like SkyRe, but you might not. There are a few out there, shop around. Make your own quests and stories. Yes, it's doing Bethesda's job for them, but you are not going to get Bioware or Obsidian level quests or characters from a Bethesda game. Sorry, it's sad, but it's true. Instead of relying on the bland quests provided by the game itself (there are a few exceptions, I have to admit), give your character a backstory, a skill set, and goals outside of the guilds.

For a simple example, you could have a character who has a crippled or sick daughter/lover who requires a ridiculously expensive medical procedure to be cured. This provides your character with a strong motivation, and both long and short term goals. In the short term you periodically dump gold, in-character sending it to your loved one, and in the long term you attempt to save up enough (the amount up to you) to pay for the cure, instead of just interim care.

Obviously that's just a super, super simplistic example, but that is how I tend to enjoy Bethesda games.

 

[YCRanger]

Bah. I just think people care too much.
Gaming doesn't mean a thing to me. So when I've enjoyed doing stuff in a game, I'm pleased.

I expect absolutely nothing out of games except a time sink between training and Uni.... and I've loved every second of Skyrim.

What was the actual point of your post? In what way did that help with the OP's request? Saying you just play games for something to stare at, slack-jawed, as you count down the hours until the day you die is fine if that's what tickles your pickle, but some of us play games to actually feel something and become immersed in an experience.

OT: As someone who absolutely hated Skyrim, the only advice I can give you is really get stuck into the world and soak it all in. I was playing purely to platinum the game, so after a while everything became a blur of fast-travelling and fetch-quests; it was only a long time after I finished the game that I realised how intriguing the world actually was, particularly an abandoned lighthouse I stumbled upon filled with corpses and the torn out pages of a diary.

I never found the quest attached to that incident so I always wondered what had happened to those people and, in the end, I made up my own version of events. It's little moments like that that make Skyrim utterly absorbing and enjoyable.

As to the combat, all I'll say is I enjoyed it a lot more after I set it to the lowest difficulty and started mowing down enemies like a tidal wave made of swords.

So did you enjoy Skyrim or not? I'm confused. You absolutely hated it but found it utterly absorbing and enjoyable. Also don't know what you found so offensive about someone saying they play games to pass the time.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

I second everybody who says you should roleplay more. Don't just create a character - come up with a backstory and a personality for them, and base in-game desicions on what makes sense to your character, not to you!

Also, it has been suggested that you fast-travel as little as possible. This is a very good way to increase not only immersion, but also the odds of weird and wonderful incidents along the way. The best things Skyrim has to offer, tend to happen when you're trying to accomplish something completely unrelated. A routine job for the Companions [small](Go here. Kill something. Come back. Repeat.)[/small] could easily turn into an epic adventure from which you end up returning two years later - butt naked, married to an Orc and with no memory of exactly why Vilkas owes you a handful of coins.

Another effective measure, I find, is to try something different. No matter how you've been playing your previous character, take your next one in as different a direction as possible. Personally, after ending up with several characters who each owned at least four houses crammed with loot, I allowed my next character to own no more crap than she could carry. Even this little change made the game feel as fresh as it did on day one!

If you've been playing a tank, try a mage. If you've been playing an assassin, try a (non-murderous) thief. If you've been specializing in Destruction magic - why not try Illusion? The possibilities ARE all but endless!

 

[A.A.K]

Bah. I just think people care too much.
Gaming doesn't mean a thing to me. So when I've enjoyed doing stuff in a game, I'm pleased.

I expect absolutely nothing out of games except a time sink between training and Uni.... and I've loved every second of Skyrim.

What was the actual point of your post? In what way did that help with the OP's request

Just my 2 cents. "How do you enjoy Skyrim? How can I enjoy Skyrim?" "I accept that it's a time sink that has no value in my life aside from making 2 - 3 hours per night go faster. By that standard of 'is it a good time sink?' Yea. It's better than watching paint dry."

Everybody expects some legendary epic of story telling, role playing...some people want to role play as a given character, others want to role play as their own character. Some people don't care about graphics, others want photo-realistic graphics across the entire damn game map. Needs epic combat. Needs epic skill tree. Needs epic everything. Why? because it's a game and I'm a self-entitled shit-stained consumer who expects the world because I paid between 40 and 120 for the game depending where and when I buy the game.
Skyrim is the best all round fantasy game I've ever played - and I approached that game like I approach every single game.
If you don't like Skyrim, change it with mods, or change it for a better game. If you like Skyrim, play it then.
This guy didn't like Skyrim. Check a mod site - and he can cater the game to his personal tastes depending on what he dislikes about the game. If it's too hard for him, he can buy another game.
My post, is about as irrelevant as this thread. Take from that what you will.

 

[Beat14]

Get Requiem!

A hardcore conversion mod that basically removes all leveling of NPCs and adds in a whole number of old-school RPG features. It's extremely difficult to start with but oh so very rewarding.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19281

I have not played much skyrim, but if I remember correctly it has a difficulty slider. If I were to install that mod would you recommend putting it onto normal? Thanks.

(I normally play games on hard)

EDIT: I just saw that changing the difficulty does not do a thing with the mod installed. Sorry to waste your time.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I really want to enjoy Skyrim. But the combat, the quests, they are just so boring. Is there a better combat mod, or a total conversion mod? How does everyone enjoy vanilla skyrim? Halp.

Compared to Morrowind and Oblivion, Skyrim is crap. I haven't been able to enjoy it either and I have had it since day 1.

X'use me, WHAT? Mind elaborating on why Oblivion is superior to Skyrim? Morrowind I haven't played, so I can't say much for it, but vanilla Oblivion is just awful.

OT: Download some of the highest rated mods on Steam workshop, that's a good start. "Faster Vanilla horses", for example, makes a world of difference in making the game feel more immersive. "Lightweight potions and poisons" removes 85% of the frustration of inventory management so you can focus on other stuff. Then there are dozens of weapon and armor mods which (as usual) make the vanilla game models look like crap. The vanilla inventory of Skyrim is awful, I downloaded a better UI mod the day I got the game, so get yourself one too.

Use fast travel only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise stick to traveling by horse or the carriage.

Pursue the guild questlines, i.e. the Companions, the Thieves Guild and (possibly) Dark Brotherhood (I haven't played those yet). I found the Thieves Guild quests to be some of the best in the game, and very rare cases of making me actually care about the characters.

And I agree with the whole theme character thing. "Just playing" an Elder Scrolls game isn't going to cut it, you have to have a certain kind of character in mind. For example, my characters have been a dual-wielding, heavy armor and destruction focused mage, a rogue, and a two-handed - enchanting - heavy armor - alchemy based warrior.

 

[Darby]

Max your Pickpocketing skill. No greater fun exists.