I am really get into this game or wanting to. Im going full content on this game so am trying to play it as well as possible.

1. I played through {riverwood} > {whiterun} [doing all missions]. I see missions appearing all round the map but want to try and pick them in some sort of order. Pref closest then furthest ones last.

I saw a main quest in the mountain so did that. Anyway to try and keep this short and to the point. I thought {Morthal} i'd checkout as was close to Whiterun which i have just finished.

Morthal was fun, done this place NOW.... I read in a thread yesterday that you should become thane in places before starting the imperial quests-cos main quest givers become obsolete??

Question) Is this true!! Anyone can comment on this?

2. So being a mage im thinking of going to {Winterhold} college, i see {Dawnstar} is on route. Which makes me think to sheck this place out before?? I think my point is here now.
At the south of the map theres a place called {Falkreath}, tempted to check this place out to BUT

Question) What id like to ask is, does the game naturally take you round to all locations or if say you play the game a certain way. It is actually possible to completly miss a location in the game? ? ?

Round up. So im in Morthal and am thinking of going to wizard college. I see theres a Dawnstar on the way there. Should i skip Dawnstar, go straignt to winterhold. Go somewhere else. To many choices!!! arghhh lol.

Hope to read some great advice and answers to my questions. thank you.

I can understand, why you would like to do that (play in a certain order), it doesn't really make sense to me. My characters just float from one point of interest to the next and my mage set food into the College of Winterhold at lv. 14, although the College was her destination since she was told to go there to study the arcane sciences.
As you have played Whiterun, you know that there is a certain quest that requires you go back to the area of Helgen in order to get an important item you need later. When I was there, I suddenly found some camps, a mine, an interesting encounter en route and so on.

In short, I don't see any reason to optimize the path any characters take in this game, though I agree that eg. the College of Winterhold is essential for mage characters.

Just have fun, because Skyrim is able to deliver so much of it, when you don't spoil yourself.

I think that's one of the biggest draws to skyrim, in the fact that there is no optimal route. You can pretty much go anywhere, and that is the way it should be. The beauty is in choice. While en route to a place, you might discover a mine or cave, or some ancient lost forgotten ruin, that you inevitably will explore.

That's what I love about the game. Somedays you want to explore, somedays you want to progress on a quest chain. Do what you want, when you want.

I recommend doing the guilds first because you can get good gear that will help with other quests.

Let me illustrate this....
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/6262/rpgproducersgraph.png

There is no particular order in which you should visit locations. Quests will take you to places all over the map and it's totally up to you which ones you do first. Some players like to focus on guild quests; others walk straight ahead and do quests along the way. I usually wait until I collect several quests in the same region and then do them all together.


During the Civil War questline some Jarls are replaced with new ones. I've heard that this might be a problem (new Jarls don't give you quests you need to complete to become a thane). I don't know how it works in practice because I haven't started this questline, but for safety you might delay participating in the Civil War until you become Thane in most holds.

Depends on what you call a location. The quests will eventually lead you to every major town, but you will most certainly miss some caves and such if only follow quest markers and never explore on your own.

Doing Dark Brotherhood pretty far into it can get you a certain ghostly companion and a horse that helps a but[censored]tonload.

Just go whatever place you feel like. When I started I went totally random until I settled and got to used to a few places. I`m the kinda guy who`ll test a game by going `left` instead of `right` if `right` seems like it`s trying to lead me into something. Good way to avoid ambushes and traps in dungeons too.

It didn`t break the game.

I just go wherever I want.

For me, I found that completing the Main Quest first made playing Skyrim much more of challenge when I finally started in on side quests and guilds.

If only for making fights with dragons easier.

You could just skip it, and not even see a dragon until you're ready, but they are such a large part of the game it really would be a shame.

Just always pictured the most imminent threat being taken care of first and the Dovahkin spending the rest of his days wandering the realm and spreading his legacy.

.....