I hit a wall a couple days ago with Skyrim. I’ve previously shared my joy at acquiring the house in Hendraheim; in fact, all my in-game stuff is there with it’s many storage places and all the other joys of a home base in a role play game.

I started noticing things like if I put weapons in the weapons racks, some of them would never let me access them again. Then came the mannequins. It’s really great to put you latest armor pieces on mannequins to get a sense of how the attire looks and to help you decide what kind of magic spells you want to attach to it. However, the mannequins are literally infested with defects.

I believe the defects are triggered when you start dressing out the full complement of mannequins. I’ll probably continue to try to figure out the cause, but this is a great disappointment.

Naturally, I didn’t think to check to see what other players have encountered, but when I did I found this on Reddit…

Hendraheim is a Creative Club feature. It is such beautiful craftsmanship, but I haven’t even encountered all the defects this place has to offer. It has taken the joy out of the game for now. I’ll be back during the weekend.

All games I’ve played have some defects, but it’s always disappointing when you find yourself trying to find a hack to fix it. And BTW, this is no longer just a Bethesda problem, it’s a Microsoft problem.

SPOILER UPDATE 03-20-2023

I stopped playing Skyrim for about a day then realized, I can use the problems at Hendraheim to my advantage. Hendraheim’s mannequin problem created a big opportunity for me because it was duplicating some expensive armor pieces, namely Golden Saint armor pieces (boots, gauntlets, helmets) plus costly mage robes, vampire armor and other modestly valuable items.

SO, I EXPLOITED HENDRAHEIM. Yes, gaming purists consider that cheating but I’m not playing for the record books. And I really didn’t understand all the magic, alchemy, crafting, blacksmithing stuff. I decide to abandon plans to restart the game and just take the money to the bank so to speak.

Every time I went to a city to sell the loot from my mannequins, I’d have a new batch when I returned. So, I spent hours getting rich. I bought soul stones, ores, ingots, ingredients, all kinds of stuff to experiment with and as my wealth grew, I even bought the Tundra Homestead as a replacement home, then I bought a horse. Yeah, when the world hands you lemons, learn to make the most of your armor, weapons, potions and everything else.

I feel like this playthrough is really tainted but I’ve probably learned more about the quiet aspects of the game that I would have spent a year in the learning.