I am only 23 hours into the game. Already level 13. I am to the point in the main quest where I am looking for the Elder Scroll in the Dwarven ruin (takes me back to Morrowind days). So far I had no CTDs, lags, stuttering, or any major glitch.

The only issue which has seemed to develop is the menu. Sometimes when in a dialogue, I click on a line but a different line is chosen. or when in a barter menu, I click Misc and the barter menu closes. This started to happen about 20 hours into the game.

So can I expect the CTDs and stuttering to appear in the near future?

I have used the high rez textures from the start, the high rez character maps, the high rez lod, lush textures, and the improved shaders for darker nights.

I do not use and performance mods, just using vanilla.

Still can't get used to the menu and keys. Maybe I need to try remapping them.

I'd say about the 90 hour mark if you are sloppy, but there are plenty of mods that can keep this forom happening. TESVAL, SKYBOOST, and No more lazy corpses and shy nirnroots, will keep your save game size way down.

Hopefully never. I've noticed most bugs appear for me when my save game becomes around 8 to 10MB's in size. But that isn't the case for everyone.

The menu thing I've always had, incredibly annoying and the reason why I no longer use my mouse to select dialogue options, but always use the keyboard to go all the way to the top first and then to the option I want to select. Anyway there doesn't seem to be a set point in which the game starts crashing more often for everyone, at least not from what I've seen.

Then I will trudge on as is and see how it goes. Perhaps will look at TESVAL and SKYBOOST.

As for getting used to the game, I have almost accepted the dreariness of the world, even though it is stunning in places.

u can avoid this by clicking on the empty space to the right hand side of the word

Yeah, that clicking thing is happening to me, too. sigh.

Otherwise, from reading the forums, things can happen at any time. So, enjoy the game, and don't worry about what may/may not happen.

If you can, use a different save each time you save the game. The quick saves usually overwrite previous saved games, and I remember reading a few weeks ago that Bethesda thinks that could cause problems down the road, they were also looking at the size of the saved games. But, I haven't seen anything since, so who knows.

Good luck.

I've seen people who couldn't get past the intro sequence on the carriage so...idk, always?