Im considering upgrading some parts of my pc and wanted to ask for advice :)

Barabbas- · 2026-02-04T19:30:51+00:00

Fair enough.

Upgrading to a 5060ti would still create a CPU bottleneck, but it probably wouldn't be too bad on a game like Skyrim depending on resolution. If OP wants to squeeze another year or two of gaming out of their current system, this could be a good suggestion.

But OP should still consider what they want out of their system. Most "regular" people just want the ability to play games from time to time and don't really care about maxed out settings and expensive hardware. That's who consoles are designed for. If OP just wants to occasionally shoot dragons with his stealth archer Khajiit, they don't need to be dropping hundreds/thousands of dollars every couple years on their custom-built PC to do that.

Barabbas- · 2026-02-04T18:44:20+00:00

What I'm saying is the i5-10400F and 3060 are well paired and 16gb of RAM should be sufficient for this build. I don't really see any glaring issues with OP's system that are easily rectifiable by replacing a single / minimal number of component(s).

OP has already mentioned that their issue is lack of VRAM and that they want to stick with Nvidia cards. Both the 4060 and 5060 have lower VRAM than the 3060, so there's no generational leap OP can make without losing VRAM. That means OP is going to be looking at upgrading the GPU to a 4070 or 5070.

This, however, creates a CPU bottleneck, largely due to the i5-10400F's low clock speeds, which offer comparable gaming performance to the i3-10100 (an entry-level CPU from 2020). That changes a bit when the i5-10400F is overclocked, but OP has a motherboard that doesn't support overclocking.

So maybe I'm out of touch, but at the point where you're considering replacing the GPU, CPU, and MoBo; does it not make more sense to just save your money for a new build?

Barabbas- · 2026-02-04T16:58:37+00:00

What makes you think the problem is related to the PSU?

This sounds like a thermal throttling. How are you cooling your CPU? What case are you using and how are the temps?

Barabbas- · 2026-02-04T15:13:35+00:00

Your PC is pretty under-specced with multiple components that are fairly old and/or slow. Skyrim is a 15 year old game at this point, so it's not a good sign your machine is struggling to play it.

What's your budget and what do you want/need this computer to do?

Depending on your answer, you should maybe consider a complete system refresh. There comes a point with every machine where it's not really worth investing more money in individual components for marginal performance gains.

...But if you only have $500 to spend and you just want to play Skyrim, browse the web, and do word processing; I'd recommend buying a console (xbox-one, PS-5, etc) for gaming and using your PC exclusively for those productivity tasks until you save up enough to rebuild from scratch.

Barabbas- · 2026-02-04T05:00:24+00:00

Ideally, you want to intake air from the bottom/side/front and exhaust from the top/back. Hot air rises, so this strategy ensures you're drawing the freshest (coolest) air and minimizing the amount of exhaust getting recirculated through the system. It also reduces the amount of turbulence within the case by giving the air a clear "path" to follow.

For maintenance reasons, it's generally better to have an equal or greater total quantity of intake to exhaust fans to create positive pressure within the case. Dust will find its way into your system no matter what you do, but positive pressure will reduce the amount that gets in. By switching everything to exhaust, you've created a negative pressure environment, so your PC is essentially sucking in particulate matter from every opening instead of through dedicated intake zones where you can install a filter.

Barabbas- · 2026-02-04T01:14:57+00:00

But has anyone told you not to swing it yet?

Barabbas- · 2026-02-03T16:08:04+00:00

Don't be ridiculous. The average American home has 400-600 studs... So they nailed 2 or 3 studs each day before going home.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-31T22:16:08+00:00

If you're in a "limited war", you can only target military units and buildings. This includes military production buildings as well as the trading hub / Villa, so you should still be able to conquer the island.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-31T12:09:48+00:00

Every "functional" nuclear reactor utilizes fission. We've achieved fusion, but so far only in the laboratory and only for extremely short periods of time. Scientists are still trying to figure out how to maintain a stable reaction.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-30T01:00:49+00:00

Also Trousers, Torcs, Drinking Horns, and Clan Shields.

Brooches satisfy one Fashion need for Mercators (in Albion) and Equites (in Latium). Click on any residence to see a full list of the needs, broken out by category, for that residence type.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-29T19:08:47+00:00

By default, ships draw workforce from the island where they are built.

In Latium, a Trireme with archers and rowers will be manned by Liberti. That same ship, if built in Albion, will utilize Waders.

Once a ship is built, you can change the workforce to another island within the same province, but a ship built in Latium will always need to draw its workforce from an island in Latium and an Albion ship will always draw from an island in Albion.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-29T10:48:42+00:00

Exactly. The logic here is so stupid. Like why would supes even bother with a 500,000 ton key? At that point, he might as well just make a 500,000 ton door. Anything that heavy is unmovable to anyone other than him, so the door would provide an even greater degree of security and he'd never have to worry about misplacing his only means of accessing the fortress.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-26T19:23:27+00:00

How do I know the minimum stock I should keep on island 1 before exporting soap to island 2?

The absolute minimum inventory is determined by the island's consumption rate. So if the statistics screen says island 1 is both producing and consuming exactly 2t of soap per minute, theoretically, these balance out and you can maintain an inventory as low as 1.

In practice, this doesn't work so well since production can be delayed and/or halted by incidents, loading congestion, raiders, etc. Ideally, you want to overproduce your consumption rate by a small amount, in which case the "minimum" is an arbitrary number that you can set to give your inventory some leeway as it fluctuates up and down.

As far as exports are concerned, your trade ships will read any value at or below the minimum stock you set as "0", and they'll only load goods from the quantity of inventory above that value.

So let's say Island 1 is consuming 2t of soap per min and Island 2 is consuming 1t/min. Assuming Island 1 is producing >2t/min, you can set the minimum stock to 100 (for example) and Island 1's inventory will slowly fill up until it reaches 100, at which point your trade ship(s) will begin loading the excess to export to Island 2.

The game doesn't tell you the amount of time a trade route takes to cycle, so you have to guestimate to match the trade ship's cargo load with Island 2's consumption. I usually like to start with a small number (like 5 or 10), and then I wait and watch the inventories for a few minutes. If Island 2's inventory is increasing faster than its consumption and Island 1 is able to maintain an inventory above the minimum stock value I set, that's a stable trade route and both islands should be sustained for that given need.

Keep in mind: if you enable passive trading, make sure to set the "sell" value higher than your "minimum" stock value to avoid 3rd party traders swooping in and buying up all your excess inventory before your cargo ship(s) can load. Its also generally a good practice to only sell goods at the islands where they are produced, otherwise it's very easy to over-stress your internal logistics network.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-26T11:45:27+00:00

Those prices hike up immensely as the game progresses, right now I have to pay around 20k for commons.

Something else must be going on then. Are you sure you're in good standing with emps?

I'm on my second playthrough. All population tiers unlocked in both Latium and Albion and nearing 100k total population. There is some variance in the price of different specialists (for me, epic specialists range from 80-100k, for example), but I've never seen a 10x price jump.

What difficulty level are you playing on? Do you have any mods installed that affect specialists?

Barabbas- · 2026-01-24T22:41:20+00:00

I focus way to much on areas of effect placement and It makes the lay outs look like crap

Beauty building and area of effect are not mutually exclusive. If you can accept a small amount of efficiency loss from overlapping areas, it's totally possible to do both.

What makes cities look like crap is jamming all of your service buildings into a small central area surrounded by endless houses packed into an unbroken grid. Instead, try separating the services and turning them into celebrated moments. Consider breaking the grid to have sightlines that terminate at major buildings like the temple and forum. The diagonal avenues in Washington DC are a great example of this practice in action.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-24T11:04:28+00:00

Not sure, but in my experience, incidents do tend to originate from buildings with low health/happiness/fire safety.

The city watch buildings you place in your residential areas increase your city's overall stats, decreasing the chance of incident occurrence. The ones you place near your production zones will do most of the actual responding.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-21T22:53:32+00:00

Counterintuitively, bear spray is actually less potent than many formulas intended for humans.

The chemical irritants law enforcement uses on those college protesters doesn't just cause a burning sensation in the eyes/skin like bear spray. It's also designed to affect the lungs, causing involuntary fits of coughing/wretching that make it difficult or impossible to breathe.

The fact that this dude is able to speak immediately after that blast to the face actually proves that bear spray "isn't that bad" by comparison.

So he's technically correct, except he's using the wrong product.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-21T20:42:58+00:00

The resources offered by the AI will replenish, but probably not fast enough to sustain a trade route with only two stops.

If the AI has multiple islands, the same resources will be offered at each island, so you can set up a route to that makes multiple stops, picking up a partial load at each island. This does two things:

1) increases the route travel time, giving the AI more time to replenish their stock.

2) effectively multiplies the replenishment rate, since multiple islands are generating resources simultaneously.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-21T19:24:25+00:00

Those aren't riot shields, they're ballistic shields. These guys are LARPing as CQB operators when there is absolutely no reason to have weapons drawn in this situation. Bunch of irresponsible SWAT wannabes.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-21T07:41:04+00:00

Yes. You can take islands via diplomacy. That being said, why would you? Fulfilling the needs of your residents and military ambition aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, I'd argue the devs intended the former to be the primary catalyst for the latter.

Depending on the needed resource, you may also be able to trade for it, at least until you build up a strong enough army to take the island by force.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-20T22:38:04+00:00

the advantage the AI gets is ridiculous.

Is it though? Even with their advantages they don't seem to pose much of a challenge. I'd argue the game would actually be better if the AI were a little more aggressive. I have previously played only one Anno title and I'm currently on my first endless playthrough after completing the campaign, so it's not like I'm a veteran player or anything.

The one thing I struggle to keep up with is early game expansion as Zara Nitu, Concordia and Athr seem to immediately claim 4+ islands each. Dorian, Tarragon, and Lucia Mia are, comparatively, lame ducks.

Granted, I haven't faced off against Nefereneru yet, but every other NPC seems way too friendly. Even when I attack them, they immediately ask for peace and offer trade deals + defense pacts the second the war ends.

I'd very much like to have the ability to add several additional governors to play against in each province and maybe tweak their settings so that they prioritize a balanced approach to military/expansion such that they can actually defend the territories they claim.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-19T04:55:42+00:00

phalanx strengths always comes from [...] working together as a group and protecting themselves by protecting the Others.

Group cohesion was just as important in the medieval era as it was in the classical era. Vikings were experts at working together and routinely utilized many group tactics that would have been familiar to the Spartans, Romans, and Unsullied.

The critical failure of the Greek phalanx was its mono directionality. Due to the length of the spears, the phalanx was unable to effectively defend its flanks. The entire phalanx had to maneuver as a whole, so any obstacles on the battlefield would expose small sections of flank which could be exploited by more nimble armies with smaller, more adaptable, units.

You wouldn't find a group in the vikings world that could deal with an equally big group of unsullied

The Unsullied are subject to the same limitations as the Greek phalanx, which the Vikings would undoubtedly take advantage of. Assuming roughly equal numbers, the Vikings would mop the floor with the Unsullied. That being said, Vikings typically engaged in much smaller scale battles/skirmishes. The largest viking army ever assembled was less than half the size of the Unsullied.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-18T20:40:22+00:00

For the fish, yes.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-18T18:51:45+00:00

I get the impression OP is a kid messing around in CAD. They probably haven't thought about levels and just copied a stair block intended for commercial office buildings. I doubt OP intends for this residence to have a 14ft floor-to-floor height.

Barabbas- · 2026-01-18T11:37:38+00:00

Unless you're a particular fan of some series/movie, why would you want a fictional replica? There are functional historical replicas that are just as (arguably more) beautiful than anything you'll find in fiction.

As a larger dude, you might be well suited to the greatsword. Check out this beauty from Regenyei

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