I'm not sure which forum to post this on so im posting it in here too.

I'm somewhat 50% into the game. I've done a good portion of the main quest and have done a lot of side quests in major cities as well as completing the Thieves Guild and Companions. Now i'm stuck, im not sure if I want to finish doing all of the side quests first or finish the main story then do the side quests.

I remember in oblivion, I did everything there was to do in the game including expansion packs and then finished the main quest last and regretted waiting because i didnt even use the armor in the end because it was weak.

I wan't to go ahead and finish the main quest because its getting really good now but i'm afraid i might end up voiding certain quests if I end up finishing it. The same thing can go for the civil war. I know certain events in the main quests can end up changing things in the game
basically what i'm asking is there anything i should do first before going into main quests and civil war. I dont want to end up finishing them and end up regretting it because i can't do a particular quest anymore. thanks for the replies.

seriously nobody knows?

I think you should complete the main quest right up to the point that the Jarl says the Civil War should be dealt with because it's awesome.

I also suggest you attempt to do the main quests for as many holds as possible.

Because the Civil War changes the rulers of many holds.

They don't affect anything. There are usually a few threads going with lots of complaining about how nothing affects anything in this game; kinda funny there aren't any right now.

Also, you don't get any great gear from the main quest (and what you get from the civil war quests isn't anything you couldn't have made yourself, I believe), so don't worry about that. I'm pretty sure all the unique gear comes from side/faction quests and dungeons, but I haven't actually done the civil war stuff so I won't say 100% does... but if it isn't 100% it's really close to that.

The main quest ending grants you some new abilities, though, which some people love and others don't, so you might want to do it early enough to play around with those. The peace treaty doesn't actually end the civil war. It's actually more of a temporary cease-fire agreement where they agree to stop bickering for awhile and help you sort out the dragon problem. If you haven't picked a side in the civil war by the time you do the peace negotiation, it's not too late to do so. The war will continue after you finish the main quest.

The ending of the civil war changes who rules certain areas, but the old jarls will still be available and do not die. They'll be in a basemant somewhere, either in Solitude or Windhelm. I know that sounds like a joke but I am not kidding, that is where they end up.

Really, truly, almost nothing is affected. Citizens don't even really comment on it much.

get all the shouts askin the greybeards for their locations and then kill patronaux. if you kill patronaux before finding all shouts they greybeards won't locate them for you and if you finish the main quest without killing patronaux he will fly away and the quest to kill him will disappear.

I suggest going far enough into the main quest to get the other words to Unrelenting Force, then do whatever the heck you want. The weapons should scale with you as you level, and your rewards from the missions as well if I am not mistaken.

Sell your soul to some daedric friends. It's cheap.

I just found out I can't finish off the Dragon Research misc quest because I already finished Alduin's Bane and the Blades refuse to give me the quest start because i dont wana kill you know who. This is exactly what I didn't want and now im stuck with an quest i can never complete.

You don't need the Greybeards' help. Just use your shouts regularly in dungeons and cities, and a courier will hand you a letter pointing you to the next wall as soon as you approach any settlement. It's a better system for those of us who want to minimize fast-travel. Parthy's soul tastes good with ketchup.

i would not finish the mq till the very end of your journey. somehow, the game just loss urgency and focus after i finished the mq.