Elder Scrolls V Bugs

[DoPo]

Even "qqq" is slower to close down the game and everything.

You sure about that? I tend to use qqq to quit out of the game normally because it's near instant.

Yes, I get a (minor) delay with qqq - a half a second or so. A CTD doesn't get that, you can literally miss it if you blink at the right (wrong?) time. But what really annoys me is that there is no indication whatsoever of something going wrong at any point before or after the CTD, aside from suddenly staring at something that's not the game.

So far, I haven't seen a single convincing argument for TES leveling vs. selecting skills at level-up.

Because there isn't one. I mean, the idea behind the TES levelling is cool and all but the actual execution is beyond horrible. I'm fairly sure it is possible for the concept to work in a video game, but certainly not in the way Bethesda have been tackling it so far.

 

[Dr Jones]

There's that one basically game-breaking bug where instead of leveling normally you have to grind every single skill individually. Oh, wait, that's just the leveling system.

I like that leveling system :C

 

[Jynthor]

I've had plenty of bugs, but to be honest, I don't mind that much thanks to the modding community and the console.

But yeah, sometimes they're funny.
There was this one time when I killed a dragon and when I returned later, its skeleton suddenly lied on a different place with its legs in the air.
Or this time when Lydia glitched out and started spinning around.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

There's that one basically game-breaking bug where instead of leveling normally you have to grind every single skill individually. Oh, wait, that's just the leveling system.

Hahaha, yeah, that's the bug where you increase your level by actually getting better at the things you do instead of getting arbitrary levels just because you killed X number of wolves.

Oh, wait, that's intelligent game design, not a bug...

Stupidity aside, OT:

I keep having issues with Dragons not giving me their tasty, tasty souls when they die, and not skeletonizing like they should.

So it's intelligent to have to build 1,000,000 iron daggers before you can make more stuff? Because that's great fun! Same with enchanting and alchemy. Not so much alchemy. It's fine for the other skills, but it really should have been done differently for those three. Practicality and gameplay should always trump that kind of nitpick.

Except they fixed Smithing in Patch 1.5 to increase your skill proportional to the value of the item you create, so now forging better equipment levels you up faster. Which is right in line with Alchemy and Enchanting, so if you feel you're levelling too slowly, make some more valuable potions or enchanted items.

That patch hasn't fixed it at all. It still takes just as long, no matter what you make. You should not have to grind at all in any game. Alcheemy is slightly different, because you always need more potions, but for enchanting and smithing, you have to make a lot of pointless equipment and enchantments to create the better equipment and enchantments to level up quicker to build the better equipment and enchantments. It's just a boring pointless grind.

I'm sorry, who said you had to grind? Did Bethesda include a person to hold a gun to your head in the collector's edition of the game? Who says that you even have to touch Smithing or Enchanting at all? Given how much loot the game hands to you, you're never hurting to find something with awesome enchantments. If someone wants to minmax like a good little twink, they have to put in the extra effort.

Wow, the passive-agressiveness.

No, but maybe I WANT my character to smith or enchant. I now cannot do that unless I grind the hell out of it. Nobody says you actually have to be able to use magic or melee or ranged in Skyrim, but if you had to attack a dummy with those skills for hours to improve them, you would sure as hell be complaining.

If you want your character to smith or enchant, then you have them smith or enchant. If you want to smith or enchant better things, you work on getting better at smithing and enchanting.

Saying you want to smith or enchant the best gear in the game without having to work for it, is like saying you want to be able to kill Alduin right after leaving Helgen.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying I want it to be FUN to work for it. Not pointless. Did you completely miss the whole dummy analogy?

 

[Starke]

Even "qqq" is slower to close down the game and everything.

You sure about that? I tend to use qqq to quit out of the game normally because it's near instant.

Yes, I get a (minor) delay with qqq - a half a second or so. A CTD doesn't get that, you can literally miss it if you blink at the right (wrong?) time. But what really annoys me is that there is no indication whatsoever of something going wrong at any point before or after the CTD, aside from suddenly staring at something that's not the game.

Huh...

I know that calling faulty data from the database (the .esm file) will cause an immediate process termination in some cases, but it should be exactly the same speed as a qqq.

There should be an unofficial patch out there that deals with these, I know there's one for New Vegas and Fallout 3, and I believe the same team put one together for Oblivion. (And, no, I don't mean the Unofficial Patch mod.) I'll see if I can dig up the Nexus link.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Because there isn't one. I mean, the idea behind the TES levelling is cool and all but the actual execution is beyond horrible. I'm fairly sure it is possible for the concept to work in a video game, but certainly not in the way Bethesda have been tackling it so far.

I could possibly see it working if it was much more general - like improving your magic would also increase alchemy, and improving your axehandling would also increase smithing. Much as it pains me to say this, maybe Fable had the right sort of idea with an XP pool that could be spent on all skills and XP sub-pools that could be spent on specific sorts of skills. I dunno if that would actually work at all in practice, though.

 

[PinkiePyro]

I am lucky and Haven't seen anything game breaking yet..

mostly i just see the occasional mammoth/elk launched randomly in the air but I have seen a few funny ones

I have had a dragon skeleton teleport about 20 feet, a bowl spawn randomly in a river, a bandit got stuck in the wall once when I shouted at her, I saw a spider corpse fall though the map, and this npc was chopping wood and some pieces "stuck" on his arms

but here'sa great video of glichces



personally I like glitches they add a bit of random humor to the game now I admit if they break the game or are too many in number they should be squashed but leaving a few harmless onces like flying mammoths is fine by me XD

 

[Emiscary]

Dragons hovering on the edges of my peripheral vision, backing away slowly if I advance towards them.

Mammoths falling from the sky.

The spout on the Sleeping Tree falling off and floating around the pond it sits in.

Items in my house (I collect pretty things compulsively) randomly rearranging themselves/falling on the floor.

The inability to kill whoever the hell I want whenever I could succeed in the attempt. (I'm talking about plot armor.) Not technically a glitch, but when Delphine looked me in the eyes and said: "You'll come back. You *have* to." -and I somehow got locked into a perpetual loop around the 3/4 mark of beating her to death with my bare hands- I got confused. It broke immersion for me. I based my main Skyrim character off of Ramsay Snow/Bolton. So when an uppity whore: manipulated me, threatened to kill me, and then gave me *orders*? I snapped. And I don't feel I was unjustified in my reaction. IMO the *only* plot essential character outside the Dragons/Greybeards is Esbern. So the snot nosed kids, faction commanders, Delphine, Ma'ik The Jabberer and EVERYONE else Bethesda decided was beyond the reach of death can go fuck the business end of a hatchet.

Those are the main problems I had with Skyrim. Besides the petty stuff anyway. Meaning: voice actor recycling, forgettable characters, non romances, etc.

 

[kingthrall]

smithing and enchanting skills are totally broken, you can just spam enchanted daggers, steal the ingots from under the tables of blacksmiths and end up with the best armors in the game.

This is what needs fixing, thats why I only use the ore I mine and nothing else. The rest of the game is alright.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

The only significant bug I've come across in Skyrim is the quest Blood on the Ice in Windhelm. At a later stage in the quest when you catch the murderer just as he's about to claim his next victim he just stands behind his target and does nothing, it's happened to me on both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game. Luckily there's two ways to end that quest, you can either stop him before he kills his target or you can let him assassinate his target and chase him back to his hideout and fight him there.

As for your bug on Marmal, have you tried the Bee and the Barb and the Temple of Mara? If he's not in the Bee and the Barb he's usually in the Temple

 

[saluraropicrusa]

This was at the point when I was messing around with mods and the console, so I'm not sure what caused the bug.

I was wandering, when I was set upon by not one, but TWO dragons. So I got into the battle, and out of nowhere I absorbed the soul of one of them... while it was still alive. So I was fighting one dragon that was just a skeleton.

Spoiler

Then, once that one was dead, I realized the other dragon was invisible. It stayed invisible even after it died.

Spoiler

That's not the best bug I've seen though. This one happened to a friend who was playing Skyrim at my house.

She had gotten married to Farkas, but he'd gotten killed during a dungeon run. Well, everything was normal, she'd looted his body (and tried unsuccessfully to revive him), then sold his wedding ring and gotten herself a new companion. She and her new friend were wandering Skyrim when suddenly she saw something coming down a mountain at her. It was Farkas, back from the dead and stuck halfway in the ground.

Spoiler

He seemed fine, and even agreed to follow her again. After fast traveling, he was out of the ground and a full character again. Before being killed shortly after.
We laughed about that one for quite a while afterwards.

 

[doomspore98]

the biggest one for me was when I was supposed to go to the dig site for the mages guild quest, and after waiting 10 days no-one showed up. I then searched around and found that the chick mage was beset upon by three frost trolls, I killed them and she went along to the site. Unkillable old guy doesn't show up either. I search for him and he's stuck in the terrain. I rush him and he backs away out of the terrain. I have to do that about 5 times.

Another one is where after I make ulfric high king and I find imperial encampments, I can't kill the leaders. I don't know if it's a glitch or on purpose.

 

[Link55]

I was fighting a dragon and it seemed intentional but the dragon swooped down under a mammoth and picked him up. They went pretty freakin' high before I watched that mammoth plummet to his doom.

Now that I want to see.

 

[Link55]

Although to me I thought that Skyrim was really fun and cool but what I didn't like the most about it is the enornous amount of bugs it had. For example I wanted to get married, I went to the city and they told me to talk to a man named Marmal, so I went there and he wasn't there for the whole time I have been there. Also the time when I went to pick up my sword and it just dropped.

You have to meet Marmal in the bar in town first before he appears in the temple. Confused me for awhile too

Now why would they do that. That is stupid, now who would know that besides the creators.

 

[DoPo]

Because there isn't one. I mean, the idea behind the TES levelling is cool and all but the actual execution is beyond horrible. I'm fairly sure it is possible for the concept to work in a video game, but certainly not in the way Bethesda have been tackling it so far.

I could possibly see it working if it was much more general - like improving your magic would also increase alchemy, and improving your axehandling would also increase smithing. Much as it pains me to say this, maybe Fable had the right sort of idea with an XP pool that could be spent on all skills and XP sub-pools that could be spent on specific sorts of skills. I dunno if that would actually work at all in practice, though.

Yes, something like that. The Fable one is really more preferable (now, if only killing stuff wasn't the only way to get smarter and so on...). But to have the TES one working better, perhaps the key is to massively scale it down - instead of 100 ranks, go down to, say, 20 (or they could even be 4 if you wish). In addition or instead, don't tie the player levels to that, maybe even remove them altogether - raw skills is just as good. Moreover, the only thing you actually need levels for in Skyrim is perks - the advancement of health/magicka/stamina can be untied from levels. Actually, the same holds for acquiring perks.

But that's just trying to hack the current one into shape - a better overhaul can be made if we start from the ground up. Even then, an XP system with something like a Fable-like idea (you get bonus to what you use, basically) would go much more smoothly.

 

[neverarine]

how about the bug where the bound battle axe starts to summon then doesnt appear? your only option is to save and reload or your stuck only able to use shouts, both hands are stuck in limbo

 

[Soopy]

There's that one basically game-breaking bug where instead of leveling normally you have to grind every single skill individually. Oh, wait, that's just the leveling system.

Hahaha, yeah, that's the bug where you increase your level by actually getting better at the things you do instead of getting arbitrary levels just because you killed X number of wolves.

Oh, wait, that's intelligent game design, not a bug...

Stupidity aside, OT:

I keep having issues with Dragons not giving me their tasty, tasty souls when they die, and not skeletonizing like they should.

So it's intelligent to have to build 1,000,000 iron daggers before you can make more stuff? Because that's great fun! Same with enchanting and alchemy. Not so much alchemy. It's fine for the other skills, but it really should have been done differently for those three. Practicality and gameplay should always trump that kind of nitpick.

Except they fixed Smithing in Patch 1.5 to increase your skill proportional to the value of the item you create, so now forging better equipment levels you up faster. Which is right in line with Alchemy and Enchanting, so if you feel you're levelling too slowly, make some more valuable potions or enchanted items.

That patch hasn't fixed it at all. It still takes just as long, no matter what you make. You should not have to grind at all in any game. Alcheemy is slightly different, because you always need more potions, but for enchanting and smithing, you have to make a lot of pointless equipment and enchantments to create the better equipment and enchantments to level up quicker to build the better equipment and enchantments. It's just a boring pointless grind.

I'm sorry, who said you had to grind? Did Bethesda include a person to hold a gun to your head in the collector's edition of the game? Who says that you even have to touch Smithing or Enchanting at all? Given how much loot the game hands to you, you're never hurting to find something with awesome enchantments. If someone wants to minmax like a good little twink, they have to put in the extra effort.

Wow, the passive-agressiveness.

No, but maybe I WANT my character to smith or enchant. I now cannot do that unless I grind the hell out of it. Nobody says you actually have to be able to use magic or melee or ranged in Skyrim, but if you had to attack a dummy with those skills for hours to improve them, you would sure as hell be complaining.

If you want your character to smith or enchant, then you have them smith or enchant. If you want to smith or enchant better things, you work on getting better at smithing and enchanting.

Saying you want to smith or enchant the best gear in the game without having to work for it, is like saying you want to be able to kill Alduin right after leaving Helgen.

You can kill Alduin at level one...

How does it make sense, that you can craft Daedric armour after having made nothing but daggers? It doesn't!

It's an arbitrary grind and makes no more sense then an EXP system.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I actually haven't encountered that many, except of course for the hostile spastic Breton embedded waist deep in the ground.

 

[[REDACTED]]

I have had a serious problem with suicidal mammoths. I imagine that it can get pretty boring being stuck in a giant camp your whole life, but is flying 300 feet into the air and crashing back down to your death really the answer? I think not.