Thinking of actually buying Skyrim Options

[SubRosa]

I am giving thought to buying it. I have been researching the options of playing Skyrim without Steam, and my understanding is that you only have to log onto Steam when you first install the game (and you have to go through the acrobatics to make sure it does not try downloading the entire game rather than installing from the disc).

What I have read is that afterward you can simply start the game through TESV.exe. So I should be able to delete Steam after that first install and patching. I know you need the regular launcher to change mods, but right now there are no mods in .esp format anyway, as there is no construction set. Besides, once a CS does come out, I expect one of the first things we see will be a utility like OBMM that lets you sort your mod order. I know there is already SKSE, which like OBSE, also skips the game's launcher and uses its own. Since the UI fixes and the TESVAL performance fix use SKSE, I see this as the only way to go any way.

So has anyone else tried simply deleting Steam after the first install? I know you can play in offline mode. It seems to me that just blowing away the entire thing would be much the same thing, but of course with the added bonus of removing malware from your computer.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 29 2012, 08:18 PM

[SubRosa]

I have found manual patches out there, so that should not be a problem. You just have to get creative in looking for them. The biggest issue I see is changing the video options in the launcher, things like screen resolution, AA, AF, etc... But I think you can get at all of that through the .ini files. Or I could use the Nvidia Control Panel to override the game's settings.

I am not sure about how the Construction Set. I know they want it integrated into Steamworks. So there is a good chance I will not be able to use it this way. Unless someone comes up with a workaround to use it locally.

Right now though, I guess my biggest issue is that the old .exe is only using 2gb of memory space. The patched .exe uses 4gb. Trouble is, now I cannot find the LAA patch to take the old .exe up to 4gb. Granted, it is not a huge problem. I did a test last night and turned the FPS counter on. It never dropped under 60. That was only in the area around Falkreath though. I understand there are some cities where you take a massive FPS drop.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 30 2012, 07:09 PM