hmm, while im at it, ill leave some tips (for real roleplay, not guides)
Tips:
- The game has no strict classes, but if you want to build a mage, there is another thing you must do, besides improving the mage tech trees. You must prioritize magic related quests. This goes to the other "classes" too: you wana be a good thief? Finding the thiefs guild is your main objective;
- before you sell something magical, see if you can break it down it first in the enchanting device.
- you can actually make a lot of money just by buying/smithing, then improving weapons/armor, and then enchanting them, at the cost of becoming weaker in other trees, if you dedicate perks to this;
- so far, the most cost effective (for selling) enchantments are "fortify destruction", and "increase carry weight". In other words, before you improve something, see how much it will improve its worth;
- steal a lot of soul gems + enchant your weapon with soul stealing = never run out of enchanting material;
- alchemy improves a lot if you mix up potions successfully. The best algorithm to do this is to pick two ingredients with the same property (the interface makes this easy), and then randomly selecting a third ingredient. Make sure you pick the ones with the largest quantity first. This will give you a fast growth on alchemy, a large number of potions to sell and use, and will allow you to discover most ingredients' properties. This is more effective than tasting the ingredients;
- make sure you train fully every level, so dedicate some time on each level, to making the money necessary for training cost;
- craft some 4 sets of light armor, full set: head, body, ring, etc. Enchant each set with strong alchemy improving, strong smithing improving, strong enchanting improving, strong speech/bartering improving. Keep them in your house and wear them for your money making sessions.
- for goodness sake, please focus hard at least on one offensive perk tree, and one fighting style, or you'll get raped at some point. Also note that the first point on each tree is very cost effective (you must consider taking those).
- for traveling around, use the traveling salesman quick algorithm: everytime you go somewhere, unless you are carrying too much, go to the nearest objective and do that. Repeat;
- walking is best. But fast travel on your horse, if its an option;
- make a lot of mistakes! have fun learning.
i have more, but this will do for now.
Criticism so far:
- the game doesnt let you break it. You cant kill the king if you feel like it. That sucks.
- the interface is broken. Mainly because it doesnt have a configurable "equip left hand" key. Thats the main problem. Oher than that, hot keys for curent equipment would be greatly appreciated.
- On the other hand, the previous point is what makes losing your weapon/shield in battle such a painfully fun experience.
- Horse riding is no good if you want the random events and the ingredients.
- i would really like to see what my companions want to equip, or some glimpse of their attributes. They seem to all like the same: powerful magic staffs, double handed weapons, and heavy armor. That doesnt make much sense if they claim to be a rogue archer.
- fighting dragons is a bit too easy. But their motion and AI are marvelous.
- eating and sleeping, at least on normal mode, is something you dont need. But you find a lot of food. And can even cook it.
Praise:
I love that the game isnt about numbers. Number are sided by a scale of nouns and adjectives. Normal, great, greater or iron, steel, plated. It's also highly immersive, both in depth and width. The Daggerfall formula that was so highly cherished in its own game manual is back. You are what you do. That's really the best part of this. Transposing personality into this game is easy as balls.
and here's a tldr.