Hi

I've started to dip my toes in the waters of Skyrim (at last ) and have made it out of the Keep.

BUT only by letting my companion do all the fighting

I've found out how to equip a weapon alright but not how to use it !! And I can't find any "suitable for a child" instructions anywhere.
[Mouse clicking certainly doesn't do it.]

Can someone help me out, please ??

I'm playing the PC version.

Thanks.

Mad

Are you sure that you have the weapon equipped? If you are in the 1st person mode then your weapons will show prominently 3d person you will see you character with weapon in hand. Right mouse controls the right hand and left mouse controls the left hand.

You character should swing their weapon when you click on the mouse key. If not then maybe you should check your key mapping.

Yep Mad, what Oldman said

Yes. I am holding my sword and am wearing all the armour I've acquired to date, oldman.
[ I've looked at myself in 3rd person mode ]

However, on meeting an enemy who I hope to fight, mouse clicking of either button just brings up a sort of star shape on screen with the options of Skills, Magic, Items or Map !!

And I have no idea how to map keys

Can you help at all, please ??

I never had this problem with Morrowind OR Oblivian.

[ Hi looney4labs ]

Mad, that sounds like a selection screen where you have to tell the game which attack you want to use...I think I remember having problems with that too. It is something simple, which I don't remember.....and I don't have Skyrim on this computer. However, son has it on his. He is not home at the moment, but I'll ask him tomorrow and I'm sure he will be able to show me how to pick.

Would this page possibly help?

Hi Mad,

Try this.

While playing the game hit your esc key, then select controls you will see all your keys in the game. Look for Left hand and it should show M1 and then Right hand which should show M2. If they don't then click on each of them with your mouse and it will say enter key and click on the appropriate mouse button.

If it is showing M1 and M2 and you are still getting the strange response then the game is acting weird. You could try hitting the T key while in the control setting which is to reset everything to the default setting. If none of this works well..... it's either tech support or just uninstall and install again.

I've never known this to happen to anyone and I have a lot of hours logged in to all 3 of the elder Scrolls from Morrowind to Skyrim.

I have a feeling that this may solve your problem but let us know.

Thanks Marian

Thanks Oldman

Mad, what Oldman says sounds like what I had to do when I was having a similar problem to you. Will check with son when he gets up and I get back from the vet

Hi.

to you all for responding and I have made some small progress at last.

Following your instructions, oldman, I went to controls (in-game) and meddled !! And I altered L Mouse Button to wield my sword and R Mouse Button to my other hand. And in 3rd person mode combat I can now see my character fight - but he just deploys a useless short swing of the weapon close to his own body and never strikes the opponent

So is there some way to alter that ??

[ Even though my RPG playing standards are definitely not the best, I never had such frustrations with previous Elder Scrolls games !! ]

Cheers.

Mad

Your sword and/or your character may not be powerful enough yet for some of the enemies.

What may help is to equip some magic in your right hand. To do this hit the tab key then magic then destruction and right click on whatever is there usually it is flames. This will allow you to use magic with your right mouse and sword with your left mouse.

Also you could try to hit the "w" key as you hit your right mouse button which allows you to attack. All this uses up vigor and it will reduce rapidly at this early stage.

In the event that you need to build up your character more and are not yet strong enough then you could use a cheat to get you through. God mode is ~ then tgm.

Also have you leveled up yet? If not when you hit the tab key you can also open skills and increase your stats.

What sort of weapon are you using? Dagger? Long sword? Are you near enough to the enemy to hit him? When I started Skyrim after playing Dragon Age II, I had to get used to basic real time fighting all over again--learning to get "up-close and personal" with enemies.

Also, remember you're only at a low level, so your character's skills are not at their best. So it's not all "user error."

I think the Tab key is what brings up that menu you were describing. Maybe you were hitting that key accidentally while trying to fight?

EDIT: Oldman beat me to the post!
If you don't want to do God Mode, you can always just lower the difficulty level in the options until you get used to fighting.

Oh .... I went for the easier combat difficulty level right from the start.
I know my limitations !!
[And I also have every intention of utilising God Mode should I need it ]

I am currently using a sword that I purloined from some poor unfortunate deceased but maybe I'd better go for a lesser weapon then, I'm sure I have at least one other in my inventory.

And I will certainly see if I can allocate some magic to my "spare" hand.

Thank you both VERY much

EDIT :
Using a lesser weapon worked !!
I haven't managed to get magic allocated to a "hand" yet so I'm holding a shield in my "spare" hand for now.
But again, a HUGE thank you

Have you ever thought what it would REALLY be like if you stripped the bloody armor and clothes off some guy you just slaughtered ... then actually put them on! Yuck!

In my current game, I'm playing a male Redguard. When I started out, it was pretty humiliating to find myself spinning in circles and ramming into walls trying to hit an enemy! Very embarrassing in front of minions, especially for a Redguard famed for their fighting ability.

EDIT: Congrats on the sword change success!

Congrats Mad. You have many hours of enjoyment ahead of you. I got hooked and, even though I have the DVD version, it is still on steam.

Anyway, the reason I mentioned that is that steam keeps track of your hours played and I have logged in 1010 hours played. I'm not sure if those are actual hours or game hours but it is a sizeable amount in any event.

Wow oldman 1010 hours and I thought my 550 was a lot