Any weird habits in Skyrim?

[Believe]

I can't help but murder anyone I find on the roads.

Even on my "good" characters it's so frickin' hard to just let them walk away unharmed.

[The Dread Lord]

I have the most irritating habit of collecting every piece of loot I find with a value of 5 and over. I also collect every book that interest me even if I have no house to store it in. Actually, the latter goes for every little thing that I find interesting. It's really annoying! I'm like a hoarder in Skyrim. I was also one in Morrowind but less of one in Oblivion. :-\

[DikaSmausha]

I do the same in early game, but once I get later into it, I use a ratio.

[moonsugarkind]

I kill and loot every skooma seller I find on the road and take their stock no matter what kind of character I play. Usually the skooma gets sold and the moonsugar is used for alchemy purposes.

[Mauin]

@moonsugarkind:

I do that, too. Those traveling drug dealers happen to be a good source of free Skooma, Sleeping Tree Sap, and Moon Sugar.
Assuming they don't use any, anyway. Engaging them in battle via the dialogue option results in them using some Sleeping Tree Sap when close to death.

I find that the best way to kill them without them using the product is to assassinate them. That maximizes profit. Assuming I don't mess up, anyway. I've gotten bounties from killing them before.


@The Dread Lord:

Oh, gods. The hoarding. That's a habit I have in every Elder Scrolls game I've played.
In Morrowind, I usually hoard alchemy ingredients, potions, scrolls, soul gems, enchanted items/weapons, books... It's a good thing I have a modded home (well, two, but I haven't managed to find the second yet), otherwise I'd have to sell everything. I think my main level 42 character has a few hundred potions. I don't want to know how long it would take to sell them.

It's basically the same in Oblivion, though I usually just hoard soul gems and alchemy ingredients. And lockpicks, I guess. I have several hundred lockpicks even though I don't break them that often.

In Skyrim, I'm more selective. What the characters hoard usually depends on their personality. Most still tend to gather book after book, and the usual alchemy ingredients and soul gems. I don't usually pick up armor or weapons, unless they're unique.
I'm pretty sure my characters have thousands of alchemy ingredients, thousands of soul gems, thousands of arrows, all the unique armor/weapons they buy or find, hundreds of crafting materials, and hundreds of books.


... If each of those items adds up to save size, it's no wonder that my saves wind up bloated in the end. All those hours spent hoarding.
I rarely ever sell stuff unless I want gold, so most of the stuff winds up cluttering my homes. Certain chests and satchels can lag with the amount of junk I have stored in them.

[Dohva.]

I kill and loot every skooma seller I find on the road and take their stock no matter what kind of character I play. Usually the skooma gets sold and the moonsugar is used for alchemy purposes.

My Imperial hoards moonsugar and skooma. More skooma since moonsugar hurts more when she takes it. She yelps a bit. So another weird habit? Yeah, Felina can't seem to get off the skooma. She tries but somehow it just keeps coming back into her life. She does take extra sweetrolls with her when she's aiming to stay clean though.

[moonsugarkind]

I kill and loot every skooma seller I find on the road and take their stock no matter what kind of character I play. Usually the skooma gets sold and the moonsugar is used for alchemy purposes.

My Imperial hoards moonsugar and skooma. More skooma since moonsugar hurts more when she takes it. She yelps a bit. So another weird habit? Yeah, Felina can't seem to get off the skooma. She tries but somehow it just keeps coming back into her life. She does take extra sweetrolls with her when she's aiming to stay clean though.

Yeah, Jarna can't seem to get away from it either. It all stemmed from when she cleared out that skooma den in Riften or the Thaneship and hasn't left her since.

I also tend to hoard food. I have the eat, sleep, drink mod but I don't need nearly as much food as I always gather from houses and hold keeps.

[Rook]

I hoard food and ingredients too, especially salt: I swear, that stuff is hard to find sometimes.

Another habit is that I will always kill the hunter by the Guardian Stones, no matter what. It's just so tempting. Same thing with the Legion patrol that you almost always meet on the way to Whiterun.

[Derp53]

I hoard food and ingredients too, especially salt: I swear, that stuff is hard to find sometimes.

Same thing with the Legion patrol that you almost always meet on the way to Whiterun.

This, and I'll store any alchemical ingredients and materials regardless of need or rarity, because the need always arises for things you don't have at the worst times. That, and I always leave the best equipment for my followers and always keep my housecarls alive.

[Dohva.]

For sure. Housecarls and husbands have the best gear my characters can afford, since someone has to defend the homestead while Dovah is away.

[Derp53]

I always craft housecarl gear and enchant it myself. Same with followers, Mjoll is probably somewhere in Riften strolling around in steel plate with an ebony warhammer on her back and Argis probably sleeps in orcish armor.

[DikaSmausha]

Another habit is that I will always kill the hunter by the Guardian Stones, no matter what. It's just so tempting. Same thing with the Legion patrol that you almost always meet on the way to Whiterun.

Last time I went there on the way to Whiterun, there was a Dunmer in full Dwarven just shooting firebolts at me.

[Snail's Pace]

Re: Hoarding and Mauin's post mentioning how it might affect game performance.

First, I am the opposite of a hoarder. I don't keep most loot for long, and occasionally purge loot from my characters' houses. Maybe it's because my parents keep too much stuff, so I want my Skyrim characters' houses free of things they don't need. Even most rare items are eventually sold. I only keep a few trophies that have real significance to the characters.

Spoiler:

The concept for my Redguard character is partly based on my habit of getting rid of even rare artifacts, as she is establishing a business which will involve using Khajiit traders to "smuggle" rare artifacts back to her people in Hammerfell (this is actually a lengthy home-made quest, and you have to use your imagination a little).

I do like to keep one copy of every in-game book I find, though.

As for game performance, I have a habit that might improve it: I am dutiful about reducing the amount of litter in Skyrim. When fallen enemies drop weapons and shields that I don't want to take, I place the items inside the corpses or in respawning containers so the game will eventually delete them. I also search for and pick up arrows from missed shots (and people wonder how I can play a thousand hours and not start the MQ... those arrows can be hard to find! ). I figure that getting rid of litter gives the game less to keep track of and might help it run more smoothly. I don't know how much it actually helps, but it fits my "Keep Skyrim beautiful" rule, so I do it anyway.

[Mauin]

The unofficial patches help that for PC players by preventing opponents from dropping their weapons upon death and whatnot. Although they don't prevent my bloat issues (seriously, my 27 hour save is at 11MB). Nothing can fix that aside from a full reinstall, then adding my mods back one by one to ensure it isn't being caused by some sort of script issue.


I just noticed earlier that I like to jump around in third person and watch NPCs headtrack my character. It's oddly fun watching them bob their heads up and down as they try to watch my character.

[baratron]

As for game performance, I have a habit that might improve it: I am dutiful about reducing the amount of litter in Skyrim. When fallen enemies drop weapons and shields that I don't want to take, I place the items inside the corpses or in respawning containers so the game will eventually delete them. I also search for and pick up arrows from missed shots (and people wonder how I can play a thousand hours and not start the MQ... those arrows can be hard to find! ).

I do this too. Since one of the recent patches, 1.8 or 1.9, corpses of people disappear far faster than corpses of creatures (sometimes, as quickly as going into a building and coming out; certainly within 24 game hours, whereas creatures stick around for at least 3 game days). But weapons and shields don't always clear up, even if equipped. So I loot literally every corpse and remove the weapons and shields, then either sell them or stick them in a barrel. This is how come my extreme hoarder 400+ hour save game is still only 15 MB.

Friends think I'm nuts for cleaning up the game manually, but this character is very important to me, and I'm on Xbox, meaning that I don't have access to the console.

[Dark Spark]

As for game performance, I have a habit that might improve it: I am dutiful about reducing the amount of litter in Skyrim. When fallen enemies drop weapons and shields that I don't want to take, I place the items inside the corpses or in respawning containers so the game will eventually delete them. I also search for and pick up arrows from missed shots (and people wonder how I can play a thousand hours and not start the MQ... those arrows can be hard to find! ).

I do this too. Since one of the recent patches, 1.8 or 1.9, corpses of people disappear far faster than corpses of creatures (sometimes, as quickly as going into a building and coming out; certainly within 24 game hours, whereas creatures stick around for at least 3 game days). But weapons and shields don't always clear up, even if equipped. So I loot literally every corpse and remove the weapons and shields, then either sell them or stick them in a barrel. This is how come my extreme hoarder 400+ hour save game is still only 15 MB.

Friends think I'm nuts for cleaning up the game manually, but this character is very important to me, and I'm on Xbox, meaning that I don't have access to the console.

Given the repeated instances where I have found the discarded weapons of my seldom many victims floating in the air several days after encountering them, I too stash the unusable weapons of my fallen foes back upon their bodies now.

[Finn Wolfshorn]

^Me too.
Another thing that just occured to me: if I'm not in the Dark Brotherhood and don't have Shadowmere I always buy a horse from the Riften stables for myself. My followers can ride the other colours, but that dappled grey is always mine.

[Elune]

Depends on the character. The only persistent habit I have that isn't invented by me for roleplaying purposes is the need to get as much loot as possible and sell it all even though I rarely if ever use gold.

[Aarah]

I sneak nearly everywhere that isnt inhabited and Throw Voice shout every so often. I just dont like surprises. Lol.
Also like to knock off the goblets and wine bottles from the windowsills and walls (like those in College) using shock spell.

[Linkuya]

Books. I hoard books. All books, every kind of book.

[Evileer]

I always start the day with a bottle of nord mead and an apple, or perhaps a couple of tomatoes - breakfast is the most important meal of the day after all! I also like to have a celebratory drink or two in an inn or tavern after completing a quest, just to wind down after a hard day's fighting.

I also like collecting gems. I don't use most of them, but I can't resist them if I see them anywhere. I must have hundreds of amethysts lying around in several rooms in several houses.

[Lethandhrel One-Eye]

- Keep everything interesting/unique
- Let the NPCs finish their sentences when I talk to them
- Avoid Fort Greymoor like the plague
- Never sprint if with a follower
I'm sure there are others that I do, but they're so automatic that I don't really notice myself doing them...

[baratron]

What's wrong with Fort Greymoor? I can understand avoiding the bandit forts around roads because they're a pain in the backside, but you made it sound as though you *only* avoid Fort Greymoor.

The place I habitually avoid is Fort Kastav, because the mages that spawn there are ridiculously tough. I was rather sad when I went there with my high level character after 400 hours of avoiding the place, and found it was full of Imperial soldiers because I'd given Winterhold to the Imperials in Season Unending! I wanted to test my character's skills . Season Unending was about 200 hours ago - I don't think I want to go that far back in time!

[Torapa]

and use a dwarven oil to keep the armour form rusting

You just gave me an idea for a new restriction I can place on my characters (on topic: my weird habit is restricting my characters).

Effective immediately, tempering armor and weapons of steel/leather quality or higher will require Dwarven oil. This is in addition to requiring the relevant Smithing perk, which was already a restriction (leather armor requires the Steel Smithing perk, in my Skyrim).

It will have only a minor impact on my current characters, but should significantly affect future characters. Dwarven oil will become a highly sought-after substance.

Characters will need to have the Dwarven oil in their inventory in order to temper armor or weapons at a forge. When they are done, they must dispose of the "empty" Dwarven oil containers in a nearby respawning barrel.

I'm thinking that the required amounts of Dwarven oil will be something like this:

Spoiler:

3 Dwarven oil per:
Heavy armor cuirass

2 Dwarven oil per:
Light armor cuirass
Heavy armor helmet or shield
Two-handed weapon

1 Dwarven oil per:
Light armor helmet or shield
One-handed weapon
Bow
Heavy armor gauntlets or boots

0.5 Dwarven oil per:
Dagger
Light armor bracers/gauntlets or boots

Are you sure you're only using all that oil on weapons and armour?

[Finn Wolfshorn]

^According to Lifts-Her-Tail, there's nothing better than Dwarven oil for polishing spears...