Since the 1.3 patch and the unlisted stability fixes as well as the multi core support (and fixing the previous patch issues) my game has never been more stable. No freezes....NONE in over 12 hours since I started playing again. Last night I had one CTD after several hours and I restarted and played until the sun came up (several more hours) without a sign of a problem.
This is all on Ultra with a heap of added texture packs, but no other mods at all.
A few things I really notice are some balancing issues. For example...once again last night a cave bear was in the area when a dragon attacked. In fact the dragon aggro'ed it and sent it my way as in the last dragon encounter. I killed the dragon solo in a couple of minutes with magic (shock), yet the bear almost one hits me even after using my entire mana pool on it, and summoning help. I'm starting to think bears and dragons are in league with each other.
Another thing is the various companions one can hire. Oh, and horses. I have a dog which dies from one bandit encounter so I left him home at Whiterun and now he's gone back to where I bought him according to a screen message. I assume I have to buy him again. My horse zeros in like a kamikaze and attacks anything that looks remotely hostile including dragons, even when I've left him a long way back and far from the action. No, he can't just stay out of it, he has to gallop up the road and get himself roasted, frozen into horse steaks by dragons or sliced and diced by bandits and other assorted sharp things.
Why can't human companions use health potions like they could in Fallout 3 and New Vegas (IIRC)? I picked up a fighter in Markarth who isn't nearly as patronizing as Lydia and he died too easily fighting a dragon with me. I resurrected him but he didn't have all the gear he was carrying for me so I reloaded. This time I spent as much time making sure he was alive and using a heal other spell, as I did throwing fireballs at a frost dragon trying it's best to turn me into an ice cube.
He managed to survive, but as soon as I get to town where I can sell the gear he's carrying I'm letting him go. Pity, because he's actually quite good looking in a rugged kind of way which I actually like, and the comments he makes aren't at all annoying. Anyway, he wasn't working for free. He charged me 500 gold coins for his sword arm and skill. He's just not rugged enough for the wilds of Skyrim no matter what he says...XD.
In Oblivion I hated all NPC companions, modded and vanilla (also useless cannon fodder) except for my own creature mods, because they had stupid AI mainly due to game engine limitations, needed too much management or were just there for eye candy with no personality. I believe later companion mods were more advanced but I was hardly playing the game by that stage.
In Skyrim they try to put the emphasis on companions and not being alone, but it doesn't work very well. They should at least be able to survive a lot better than they do, use potions and use strategies like companions in Fallout 3, which ironically is made by the same developers for goodness sake. It seems to me the companion system is another thing that wasn't finished.
It is functional, but I'm finding it easier to just go it alone rather than have them set off traps, get lost, disappear randomly and get in my way, especially in doorways with no way to tell them to move. That is really aggravating...getting stuck in a small room and not being able to get past the companion. Having to clip through them via the console is just so ridiculous.
Addit: Well, I'm a moron and I did read the manual believe it or not. I didn't really notice the option where it says something like "I want you to do something for me" where you can tell the companion to move to another spot. Haven't tried it with the dog though and he got sick of waiting for me anyway and went back home. His, not mine in Whiterun.
A lot of the survivability problems I believe are due to the level scaling which is still very much in evidence and I eagerly await the mods that will deal with that when the CK is released. I do hope so anyway. Companions don't seem to level with the player making them useless as fighting allies.
Then there's the leveled loot. Why, oh why have leveled loot? It was bad enough in Oblivion without bringing it to an epic game like Skyrim. The mix of leveled and non leveled areas doesn't really work properly either. If a player has the skill to get into a high level area and take the loot by possibly killing a boss legitimately and not cheating, or sneaking and stealing from a chest etc, they should be rewarded appropriately, not with low level rubbish if the player level is not scaled to the particular enemy or dungeon. Mods will hopefully fix that....again.
Anyway, despite those niggles and knowing the quest and other fixes will be coming, I'm thoroughly enjoying the game now. The quests doesn't bother me too much as I'm just wandering and exploring mainly....and getting distracted by anything and everything.....as it should be in a game like this.
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