1641

Another chicken story: when I started playing Skyrim I was amazed at the game but at the same time a part of me was wondering whether this was really an Elder Scrolls game, everything seemed so…polished and sensible. It was breaking my immersion by not breaking my immersion. Then I killed a chicken on my way out of Riverwood to the first major dungeon. I got a bounty notification but nothing else happened. On my way back into town to turn in a quest I was greeted by an elf firing arrows at me and 3 burly Nords with warhammers. So that is when I learnt that chicken slaying is a capital crime in Skyrim. I then had to run all the way to Whiterun because there were no official guards in Riverwood and so I had no way to pay off the bounty.

An Elder Scrolls game wouldn’t be Elder Scrolls without the cracks in the game world that give it those surreal moments.

1642

Can someone explain the Lydia meme to me? I’ve had her as a follower a few times, but she didn’t seem particularly different than any of the other interchangeable, soulless NPCs in the game. What makes her so special?

1643

Lydia: I think it may be a matter of many of us having her with us from very early in the game, thus having gone through a lot together, and thus a projected “relationship”.

Plus she has pulled my ass out of the fire quite a few times. ;)

1644

What meme? I think she gets mentioned more often than the other followers simply because she’s likely to be the first one you get, and is automatically attached to you upon doing a certain quest without even having to hire her.

Though she can be a bit dim at times. “Hey look, a cave. Wonder what’s inside.” No Lydia, that’s a lighthouse…

1645

Ah, it just seems whenever there’s a story about a follower in Skyrim (either in the forum or on the front page), it always seems to be about Lydia. If I didn’t know better, I’d have the impression that she is the only NPC in the game. I figured there was some in-joke I was missing.

1646

Is it normal that the sound level in this game is very low (PC)? I have to crank up my volume slider to maximum levels to have normal sound levels comparatively to everything else on my system. Anyone else having this problem?

1647

I am. Also, when using my headset if I’m looking at someone I tend to lose them when they enter the center channel (Logitech G35).

1648

Either that, or it’s the cave from which we just exited after having slaughtered and looted all the inhabitants.

Yeah, Lydia is special.

1649

Same here. Extremely low volume compared to other games.

1650

I got her at level 55, until then I had a bard I met early on, and an orc. I had to tell her to stay at home while I went out making money as she was unreliable in combat.

Yea, I had to 3x the windows volume for skyrim, which resulted in pretty much everything else was loud as f… so now I have to do it every-time-i-start-the-game.

1651

Lydia vs. Gate

1652

Yes, the sound in the game is completely screwed up for me. I find myself constantly adjusting it.

1653

I’ve used three followers so far. Lydia is at the house, Uthgerd is back at the inn, and now Anneke follows me around. But she is getting pummeled a lot lately, making me think her light Elven armor just isn’t enough for a tank. She’ll wear heavy armor, but in theory she should be best in light armor since training in that is what she offers you when you do the quest that unlocks her as a follower.

1654

I’ve read that people have improved the volume issue by changing the following property in SkyrimPrefs.ini:

fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000

Change 1.0000 to 4.0000

1655

I will try that immediately.

1656

My followers have very bad luck. So far Lydia has died for two of my three characters (she’s stuck at home on y third character). My Orc has managed to kill both her followers from the Orc encampments, and I even managed to get a dog killed by some undead Lich Lord.

So far the only follower that has survived for any amount of time is Jenassa, a Dunmer Assassin. I picked her up around my fourth level with my Thief/Assassin, and she managed to stay alive up until I beat the main quest at level 32.
Stuff that happens after you win the main quest

[spoiler]Then when asked by The Blades if I wanted to help recruit members for them, I sponsored Janassa’s induction into their organization, and bid her farewell, replete in all the best glass armor and weapons we found together.

I then journeyed out into the world alone, for the first time since my days chopping wood for gold in in Riverwood.[/spoiler]

I’m noticing that when I hire followers though that my armor & block skills don’t go up as fast as I feel they should (compared with my melee skills anyway), because I end up getting hit so much less. I may not recruit anybody for my tankish characters in the future.

1657

Companions are fixed at the same level you were when you got them. Since people often get Lydia at like level 3, she starts to get pretty fragile at higher levels whatever gear you put her in.

1658

Really? That sounds pretty dumb. So does the game give you a steady stream of new companions and expect you switch them out regularly?

1659

I didn’t know this. What if you fire and rehire them? I did that with Janessa by accident, and it would make sense why she still did so well in my 30s when I hired her at 4.

1660

I love spoiler tags.