Little details I've just noticed

[GratuitousViolets]

I was walking around Skyrim on my character, just not really "looking" for something or participating in a quest and I just started noticing a lot of the things I generally take for granted. Tiny details that aren't supposed to really be important or relevant yet are there just to make the land of Skyrim seem all the more real.

How much do we really notice and appreciate all the little things in this game?

Things I've been noticing:

• In the snowy mountains, sometimes there's wind that moves the snow about on the ground and you can see it drifting about.
• The clouds up in the sky as they gently float around.
• The way the shadows of NPCs, objects and other things are cast when candles/fires are flickering.
• Your characters feet disappearing in the snow
• Bats appearing in some caves (like when you go to get your first shout in Bleak Falls Barrow
• The way water ripples around your character when you're in the water.
• The way sometimes lightning reflects on the glass of windows.
• The Northern Lights at night!
• Salmon swimming upstream!
• NPCs doing their jobs independently outside (like the guy who chops firewood and delivers it to Warmaiden's in Whiterun).
• The way the seaweed and plants under water sway.
• The sound of the wind or the rain.
• The way the shadows change when the sun rises or sets/day wears on.
• The way you can see if it's day or night through the skylights/tiny little windows in buildings.
• The way you see beams of light inside buildings and can see smoke/dust motes floating in it.
• The way a lot of NPCs have a book beside their bed on their tables/cabinets.
• The way you can see the fumes from the fire distorting the view slightly.
• The way the voices of shouts are different depending on race.
• Finding random huts and houses that have been ransacked by bandits, or destroyed by dragons or war.
• The way all the guards of each hold have a different colour of uniform.
• Birds flying up in the sky (and their shadows as they pass overhead).
• The tiny little designs and details on weapons and armors
• All the little offerings you find to the deceased in the halls of the dead in each hold.
• References to old characters from other Elder Scrolls games in all the books (some of them wrote them, some of them feature).
• The way sometimes NPCs hum to themselves.

There's just so many things that make this game so rich and alive. It's just insane how much thought has gone into it all and how much I overlooked it before.

 

[TheHrdee]

I also noticed as I was reading this, when blacksmiths are using the forge and they pull the rope to adjust the heat more flames are added. Can't believe I never noticed this. This game is so detailed

 

[GratuitousViolets]

Or the sparks that appear when the smithies are grinding blades on the grindstone

 

[TheHrdee]

and how the clouds light up in a storm

 

[TheHrdee]

Also how the NPCs develop with the storyline

 

[GratuitousViolets]

* That mudcrabs appear to move in little families sometimes
* When bearded characters are speaking sometimes you can see the individual hairs of their moustache coming over the top lip.
* The details of veins in male characters hands
* Chest hair on male characters!
* The way the floors in some homes are full of cracks and holes.
* The details on furniture (the Nordic accents for instance).
* Patterns on jugs and plates and cups!
* The sounds of monsters that you generally hear before you see them.
* The different types of animal for different landscapes and areas.
* The two moons!

 

[Chadonraz]

* The way the floors in some homes are full of cracks and holes.

I fear that Breezehome's upper level is going to come down sooner or later.

It only recently occurred to me that the flower carvings in the doors of the buildings in Whiterun are most likely a reference to the Gildergreen.

The little yellow flowers that grow all over the place, but which you cannot interact with. I can't believe it took me nearly three months of intense playing to notice them. They're just cardboard cutouts compared to the harvestable (is that even a word?) plants, but pretty nonetheless.

The existence of clams became known to me only a couple weeks ago. Guess I should spend more time wandering along the northern shores.
I've since discovered a clam "farm"; a rock literally covered with clams. There was a campsite right next to it, but no camper/clammer in sight.

 

[DrunkenMage]

A spiral patten is on many things and creatures, such as giants, spriggans, certain nordic armors.

Giants are a race of elves, they have pointy ears and little bumps on their heads like certain Orcs, they also have their own language.

 

[orca45]

I usually get under the water and it is still very detailed and beautiful .. especially in the morning ( around 11 ) and you can see from bottom up, the sun rays getting thru the water .. it is simply awesome ...

 

[Ignami351]

The bridge to the mages college has no support, but still flies up there. magic?
the way that deer run away before you even have a chance to be detected.
The giants actually decorate their rocks and stuff that I never noticed before, and there's a special giants decorated cow.
for some odd reason a goat runs out at you while you're stalking Golum ei inside the east empire trading company building.
\


oh and don't even get me started on the sunsets! they're beautiful!! if you overlook all of skyrim from a outcropping on a mountain and watch the sun slowly set, its amazing...
also the sunsets in the Rift are beautiful. the golden brown colors of the leaves melds with the orange lighting..

 

[GratuitousViolets]

Am on my way to Saarthal and I saw a mammoth in the distance. When I got closer, I found it was standing up and is embedded into the ice of the mountain it's next to (looks like it's been hunted, as there's arrows and spears and stuff sticking out of it and an ebony war axe in its back lol). Such a cool little detail though!

 

[GratuitousViolets]

Few more things I noticed/appreciate to the realism of the game.

* The random wandering merchants
* Sometimes occasionally finding blood trails/splatters that lead near to caves in the mountains.
* Different types of bugs and insects turn up at different hours of the day. Butterflies and bees in the morning, lunar moths and torch bugs at night. I can't be positive but do dragon flies also turn up at night, but only over water? So very detailed and realistic!
* Finding certain alchemical ingredients in certain and specific places only (such as the glowing mushrooms in caves, or certain mushrooms or fungi in dark dingy caves and swamp areas). Very realistic and makes the world feel slightly more real that you have to go to certain lengths and certain areas to find what you need (as would a real alchemist).
* Random things like corpses or skeletons being found in strange places; such as the skeleton floating in the water right beneath the bridge of Dragon's reach (perhaps an intruder who was shot down or killed and tossed in?), or the skeletal hand and the sword that comes out of a murky pool in the moors not far from Whiterun.
* Hidden treasure chests beneath waterfalls, hidden behind walls (like behind the walls where you find Words of Power), etc. As if someone put the chest there to keep it out of sight to come back later for.
* Dead enemies strewn about caves revealing battles have taken place outside of the Dragonborn's entry (like walking into a cave and finding dead Vampire thralls and dead Draugr together showing there was a fight between them before you even got there), or when you're looking for the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller and find two dead Draugr near here the note is found (because Delphine already killed them).
* Camps strewn around, not necessarily ones that you can fast travel to, but just ones where you find random hunters, fishers or merchants hanging around. Sometimes the ones that don't have any NPCs attached where you can rest for the night.
* Wolves hunting in packs! Occasionally you get targeted by only one, but most of the time it's at least two or three at a time (sometimes even twenty steps away there's another three somewhere up the road).
* The way Giants just wander around.
* That you can find members of The Companions in random places hunting animals, not just near Whiterun, but far up north. I happened upon a few earlier hunting snow sabre cats! I was quite surprised to see them that far out.
* The set schedules NPCs have in the game, especially when a lot of the NPCs have vastly different schedules (such as some NPCs will go to bed at 9pm while you'll find other NPCs leaving inns after 1am, lol). It makes it more realistic and makes them seem strangely more individual from each other.
* The different types of food and provisions you can make in the game. It's a pity that most of these recipes do very little to aid healing, but they add a lot to roleplaying.
* The way your character can actually sit down at a table or in a chair and still converse with a nearby NPC and that an NPC doesn't necessarily need to be standing to be interacted with. I like this nice touch as it annoys me in some other games where your character can only stand and talk (and the NPC has to be standing).
* That certain merchants have different operating hours. Just because one merchant shuts shop at 6pm doesn't necessarily mean his neighbour will too.
* The way some NPCs will actually replace other merchants if they die. After about three weeks of Belethor being dead I suddenly found Ysolda running his shop once. Another game, I found her running the Bannered Mare (after I accidentally killed the innkeeper).
* Bounties or retaliation from NPCs you've wronged...I actually like this feature as irritating as it is at times lol. Even when you've crept into someone's home without witnesses and still ended up with thugs out to get you afterwards, lol.
* That NPCs are quite willing to let you help yourselves to their almost entire alchemical stock as long as you're a valued customer and good friend (seriously, all I have to do is carry some frost salts to Arcadia and I'm rich on alchemical ingredients every time she restocks!
* That NPCs restock their shelves (their actual shelves and displays) after a set amount of time and not immediately, almost as if they've had to order the stuff in and wait for it to arrive).
* That NPCs have certain attitudes towards your character and each other (Nazeem for example picking on people).

There's so much more and it really makes me appreciate how much detail and thought was put into this spectacular game.

 

[tx12001]

you just noticed? what about important NPCs being found in the hall of the dead burial crypts if they are killed and if you kill a member of a family their relatives will then hate you, did you also know you can find animals in the wild such as sabre cats and bears sleeping instead of them just waiting for you to come along, occasionally you can encounter a drug dealer on the roads you ties to see stuff, Bandits will sometimes create toll roads asking you to pay them gold so you can pass, and did you know there are treasure maps found as random loot on certain NPCs that leads to buried treasure and the Vigilants of stendaar try to apprehend you if you are wielding a daedric artifact when you see them (However due to a bug in the vanilla game that is fixed with the Unofficial patch they don't") and that's not all there is much more.

 

[chizzbot]

How about the map shows real-time weather & clouds? Kill a dragon, and when he's burning up, go to the map and look at where you are. You should see a hint of smoke and flame.

 

[Twiffle]

The ants on the log in Riverwood.
There are hundreds ahundreds i see everytime i play but too many to mention, ,

however have a look at this quick video and watch what the summond Dremora lord does at the end, , , i tried it and it does happen, , cracked me up laughing, such detail brilliant.

 

[berzum]

funniest thing i've found 3was actualy out in the middle of the ocean. north of windhelm out in the ocean there way a boat upside down floating, me being curious, i swam up to it, hopped on top, and noticed it was floating slowly away from land, i then jumpd off and swam under it and there was 2 skeleton floating on the surface of water along with empty wine bottles and a few goblets....guess they partied to hard.

 

[GratuitousViolets]

Something I always notice but forgot to mention here was that in Embershard Mine there's a makeshift bathroom overlooking where the smithy is. Look for the small room near the sleeping area and there's a single bucket in the middle of it lol.

What's really funny is when typing makeshift I accidentally forgot the 'f' and I realise how appropriate that is lol.

 

[AJK]

just the other day i found some half naked hunters bathing in hot springs.

 

[Twiffle]

just the other day i found some half naked hunters bathing in hot springs.

oh ive seen them too, , i like chilling with them in the hot pool too, , the girl is seriously yummy too, , , , but then its only a game, , ahhhh the beauty of dreams, ,

 

[GratuitousViolets]

Lol I saw them too once.

Just noticed a book "A Gentlemans Guide to Whiterun" is by Mikael, the bard who was harassing Carlotta Valentia! Lol. I'd never read it all the way through then it dawned on me when the pages go on about how he'd conquer her lol.

I also just noticed there's a subtle musical cue when a hidden treasure chest is close by. Lol