DiabolusUrsus

Glad to see this article. I've had my adblocker on for a while on this site because of the number of ads that were tripping my antivirus. As a rule of thumb, if you've got "clean" ads and I use your services a lot I typically disable adblocking to help support the site with my traffic. I was disappointed when I felt the compulsion to switch it back on, but my PC comes first. Here's hoping we see some improvement going forward.

If someone would be kind enough to do a retexture of the Painting Guardian Set rendering it in shades of dark blue and/or black, that would be very much appreciated. I like the stats on the set quite a bit, but when mixing and matching armor pieces, the Painting Guardian Set is one of the most clashing compilations of armor I have come across. Off topic, it occurs to me that for anyone familiar with or fond of Wiki pages, it might be a good idea to include the image file names for different textures on their respective pages. This way people who aren't doing retextures for the first time won't have to sort through the torrent of results accompanying any attempt at using DSFix's tex_dump function. Provide a sort of... index of textures, of sorts.

I may be resurrecting a dead topic, but anyone who might see this - please, please, please do this if you can. For the Lord's Blade Waistcloth, even just rendering the toe-blades on the boots invisible with alpha-channel would be appreciated.

Okay, thanks for the clarification and thanks so much for the download link! I really appreciate it. Sorry if you posted it earlier and I missed it somehow. Lifesaver!

Ah... right when I had the time to get around to downloading this, (post finals week...) it's gone. I read the rest of this thread, and it's kind of hard to tell what's going on. I gathered three possible conclusions- The mod author accidentally deleted the mod page, and for some reason Nexus isn't letting him re-upload it. The mod was forcibly taken down as a result of its connection with Ambient Music Overhaul, which as far as I know, was removed because the user was banned. Nobody has a copy of the mod left that they can distribute. I would really appreciate it if I could somehow get my hands on the songs from this mod. It sounded great, and I was looking forward to trying it out. Unless there's some sort of issue attached to re-distributing it, could someone upload the mod to some sort of download mirror or something? I saw something similar was done with the predecessor AMO, but it's only on *not allowed* and I refuse to go to that site for anything, ever. If re-distributing the mod is impossible at the moment, would it be possible to get a list of the tracks used in the mod (from their respective creators' sites) and what kind of track it was used for? I want this music enough that I'd be perfectly willing to go through and download each of those tracks and convert them to .xwm files for use with the Personalized Music mod. I'm trying to populate a no-vanilla setup of that mod, and this mod fits the bill very well as far as I can tell.

So I put up a request a while ago for a rather specific Block skill tree... and nobody seemed to take an interest in it. I floundered for a bit, then decided that I really liked the sound of what I had come up with, and that I really wanted to try playing with the changes. So I bit the bullet and got started on making the mod myself. The problem being, I have absolutely no idea how to accomplish all of the effects or what else needs to be modified in the process. I would be extremely grateful if someone with the know-how could assist me. Parry is completely finished. Elemental Protection is completely finished. Deadly Bash is completely finished. Quick Reflexes is completely finished. Warding Flames is completely finished. Defensive Alacrity is partially finished: I've modified the perk name (was Block Runner) and description, but I'm not sure how to go about editing the movement speed, or how to set different speed multipliers specific to whether or not a shield is equipped. The Block Runner perk uses some weird function like Mod Boolean *blah* that I don't understand. Deflect Arrows is in a weird spot: I've toyed around with it, and I have no idea how to apply the perk over the whole body, or if this is even possible. I thought I saw a mod somewhere that did something similar to this specifically, but that might have been my imagination. If it's impossible, I'll settle for leaving the perk as-is. I have even less of a clue as to how to go about the rest of the perks: Counter Blow Disarming Impact Power Bash Violent Impact I'm GUESSING I'll have to work a bit with various magic effects as I did with Warding Flames, but I'm not sure which effects those would be (if they even exist and I don't simply need to create new ones,) and I haven't had the time to search for them just yet. Other Tasks I Need to Complete: Test the perks and their effects to make sure they work as intended. (Warding Flames, specifically, to figure out whether I created the magic effect properly.) Find a way to ADD perks to the Block Tree. (Warding Flames doesn't appear on the tree, and seems as though it is acquired as soon as the requirements are met. Learn how to re-arrange the perks into their separate branches on the actual Skill Interface. If anyone considering helping me out with this would be so kind as to either drop me a PM or reply here, that would be superb. The full details of my proposed changes can be found below. Anyone who wishes to simply COMPLETE the mod and release it as their own is welcome to do so at any time before it comes out of WIP status. I'd just ask that you please TELL me when you release the mod, so I can use it for myself. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28089 Parry (Shield Wall): Five levels, at 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 block. Basic damage mitigation at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%. The basic block perk, and the starting point for all branches. Shield Branch (These perks require a shield to be equipped to function.) Elemental Protection: Two levels, at 25 and 50 block (Requires at least one level of Parry.). Level 1 reduces incoming fire, frost and shock damage by 25%, level 2 reduces it by 50%. The bane of any pure-warrior type character early game is enemy magic, especially lighting spells. By making elemental protection available a bit earlier, it helps make confronting mages a bit more manageable, and the lower percentage hopefully prevents the resistance from being too overpowered. Deflect Arrows: Two levels, at 30 and 60 block (Requires at least one level of Elemental Protection). Level 1 has a 75% chance of mitigating all damage from arrows, level 2 has a 100% chance. The increased perk investment required will be used to compensate for a modification of the perk that applies the chance to your whole body as long as you are blocking with a shield. This is because while it makes sense that arrows should have to hit the shield to be blocked, Skyrim collision detection makes ensuring that arrows hit the shield a near-impossible task. Removing the requirement of hitting the shield makes the perk less frustrating to use without making enemy archers obsolete right off the bat. Deadly Bash: One level, at 50 block (Requires at least one level of Deflect Arrows). Bashing does 5 times more damage. I really like the idea of the shield being a respectable weapon, but I don't think it's a good idea to make it equivalent to or more useful than your main weapon. Weapon Branch (These perks require a shield NOT to be equipped to function.) Counter Blow: Two levels, at 25 and 50 block (Requires at least one level of Parry.) Level 1 deals 20% of MITIGATED damage from a blocked attack back to the opponent, level 2 deals 40%. The point of this perk is to add a bit more flavor to a lack of a shield, as well as compensate for the lesser amount of protection. It isn't intended to make blocking with your weapon safer and equally effective than simply attacking. It also fits that you should be more skilled at blocking attacks to deal more damage with counterattacks. For example, with a maxed mitigation of 85%, an attack dealing 100 damage would result in a counter dealing 17 and 34 damage, respectively. Disarming Impact: Two levels, at 30 and 60 block (Requires at least one level of Counter Blow.) Level 1 gives a 15% chance to disarm an opponent of any level when bashing with a weapon, level 2 gives 30%. Disarming an opponent is an extremely potent benefit, and I'm hoping that these percentages are acceptable taking into account the amount of stamina bashing requires. That being said, I don't have the best feel for what percentages would be balanced, so this would take some testing to finalize. Quick Reflexes: One level, at 50 block (Requires at least one level of Disarming Impact.) Slows time for 2 seconds when an enemy power-attacks. This should be the same as the vanilla perk, though if it could be made a bit less buggy that would be ideal. (No infinite time-slow, etc.) I know there are some out there who think Quick Reflexes is overpowered, but I personally really like the perk and love using it for my swordmaster type characters. I do agree that it is a bit powerful, especially as a perk with only one perk prerequisite and available at 30 block. Hopefully moving it to the more advanced tier of blocking perks and restricting it to the lack of a shield will help balance it out a bit. Utility Branch (These perks work regardless of whether or not a shield is equipped.) Defensive Alacrity: One level, at 30 block. Increases movement speed to 75% that of normal speed when a shield is equipped, 100% normal speed when no shield is equipped. I never understood why increased movement speed while blocking was set so high on the vanilla block tree. Sure, it made it easier to avoid some enemy attacks, but not reliably so. It's more of a convenience perk than anything else, so it appears earlier and helps emphasize the speed difference between shield and pure weapon configurations. Power Bash: One level, at 60 block (Requires Defensive Swiftness.) A power bash costs more stamina, but doubles the effects of bashing provided by other perks. For example, Deadly Bash will deal 10 times damage, and Disarm will have a maximum chance of 60% to disarm. This is a powerful perk, so balance is again iffy. Perhaps the improvement should be reduced to a 150% multiplier instead of 200%, but again, testing will finalize this. Violent Impact: One level, at 100 block (Requires Power Bash.) Bashing with a shield or weapon has a 10% chance of knocking an opponent down. Percentage chance is affected by power bash. Shield charge was a very powerful perk, but it was buggy and overpowered. By attaching it as a low passive chance to bashing rather than a guaranteed chance while sprinting, it should hopefully remove most of the bugs and balance it out a bit. Torch Specific Perks Warding Flames: One level, 0 block (Requires at least one level of Parry). Applies a fear effect for two seconds to non-human, non-dragon enemies of any level. In compensation for no level restriction, this perk effectively allows you to hold enemy animals and monsters at bay. This should allow lower-level characters to survive attacks by powerful animals and monsters without allowing them to overpower them in melee or get enough range to attack with bows. This adds a benefit to lugging torches around over spells like candlelight and magelight, and compensates somewhat for their temporary nature as light source in dungeons. I like the image of animals and monsters running to just outside torch range when painfully set on fire. I think it adds a sense of realism.

Looking forward to seeing where you go with this! Love the mod, as always, but it always a bit... tedious to have to go to specific vendors to buy awesome spells. It made all the other ones seem a bit less useful. Not complaining, but the changes being implemented sound well thought out, as usual. Nice work with the visuals!

Look up TK Dodge on the Nexus... it requires Script Dragon, though. I'd love to see a version that just uses SKSE (I don't think it's possible to implement without one or the other...) and is carefully integrated so that it's useful but not a no-brainer maneuver.

If it's possible... even if it requires SKSE or some other implementation, I'd love to see this. Especially where mods come into play... I love the image of stealthily dropping onto my victims and killing them as I fall onto them, not AFTER I've hit the ground behind them. It's also kind of lame that once you've fallen off of a cliff or other precipice, you can't do anything but wait for your demise. I mean, the vanilla game has a shout that essentially gives fall invulnerability, so why can't you use it before you hit the ground? There are other mods that would be advantageous to use mid-air... like teleports and spells for swapping places with your enemies. There's all sorts of application for this, and other than its potential infeasibility, no real reason why it shouldn't be implemented.

It's also 'Wakizashi,' not 'Wakazashi.' I don't mean to nit-pick, but this one seems to be prolific, and you seem to actually care whether or not it's spelled correctly. The weapons look good, by the way.

I would really appreciate a mod that improves the Block skill tree in a modular manner similar to that of ACE. There are any number of mods out there that overhaul the combat system, and there are plenty of mods that re-do the skill trees not touched by ACE, but there's hardly anything for Block. Those that do exist are mostly overdone or adjusted for playthroughs using substantially higher skill caps. I'm hoping for a mod that improves the usefulness of blocking to a reasonable extent, allows for a greater amount of freedom in terms of blocking configurations (e.g. Onehanded weapon only, onehanded and torch, two-handed) and adds a distinctive flavor to each style. I propose splitting the block tree into three branches: Blocking with a shield, blocking with a weapon (both one and two-handed) and general blocking utility. Blocking with a shield provides greater overall defense in terms of slightly higher damage mitigation, additional armor (inherent to the shields), protection from arrows and magic, and increased bash damage, but is slow. I'm suggesting these traits because shields are easier to block with, they should help protect against arrows, and I think everybody likes the image of enduring a gout of dragon's fire behind their shield. Furthermore, it makes sense that deadly bashing should accompany a shield. If you're just using a weapon, you'd be better off striking the opponent than shoving them with it. Blocking with a weapon is faster, can deal damage to attacking enemies, bashing can disarm enemies, and quick reflexes is exclusive to the lack of a shield. It makes sense that someone should be able to move faster when not weighed down by a protective slab of metal or wood on their arm. As far as the dealing damage upon successful blocks goes, it makes sense that an animal or monster coming into physical contact with a blade should be injured a bit, and enemies wielding weapons can be incorporated with the explanation of a light counter-attack. I think it makes sense that using a weapon should be able to disarm enemies, since you can apply more directed force towards getting an opponent to lose their grip on their weapon than you would be able to with a shield. Quick reflexes is reserved for a lack of a shield, since it helps balance out the pros and cons of blocking with a weapon, and I personally think dodging enemy attacks better fits the image of a more agile fighter. Blocking utility is a much smaller branch intended to complement the benefits of blocking with either a shield or weapon, as well as incorporate some traits that either fail to fit into either category, or suit both categories. This branch includes things like reduction of bashing stamina, improvement of movement speed, a modification of the Shield Charge perk, power-bashing and possibly a torch-specific perk. To paint a more specific picture: Parry (Shield Wall): Five levels, at 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 block. Basic damage mitigation at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%. The basic block perk, and the starting point for all branches. Shield Branch (These perks require a shield to be equipped to function.) Elemental Protection: Two levels, at 25 and 50 block (Requires at least one level of Parry.). Level 1 reduces incoming fire, frost and shock damage by 25%, level 2 reduces it by 50%. The bane of any pure-warrior type character early game is enemy magic, especially lighting spells. By making elemental protection available a bit earlier, it helps make confronting mages a bit more manageable, and the lower percentage hopefully prevents the resistance from being too overpowered. Deflect Arrows: Two levels, at 30 and 60 block (Requires at least one level of Elemental Protection). Level 1 has a 75% chance of mitigating all damage from arrows, level 2 has a 100% chance. The increased perk investment required will be used to compensate for a modification of the perk that applies the chance to your whole body as long as you are blocking with a shield. This is because while it makes sense that arrows should have to hit the shield to be blocked, Skyrim collision detection makes ensuring that arrows hit the shield a near-impossible task. Removing the requirement of hitting the shield makes the perk less frustrating to use without making enemy archers obsolete right off the bat. Deadly Bash: One level, at 50 block (Requires at least one level of Deflect Arrows). Bashing does 5 times more damage. I really like the idea of the shield being a respectable weapon, but I don't think it's a good idea to make it equivalent to or more useful than your main weapon. Weapon Branch (These perks require a shield NOT to be equipped to function.) Counter Blow: Two levels, at 25 and 50 block (Requires at least one level of Parry.) Level 1 deals 20% of MITIGATED damage from a blocked attack back to the opponent, level 2 deals 40%. The point of this perk is to add a bit more flavor to a lack of a shield, as well as compensate for the lesser amount of protection. It isn't intended to make blocking with your weapon safer and equally effective than simply attacking. It also fits that you should be more skilled at blocking attacks to deal more damage with counterattacks. For example, with a maxed mitigation of 85%, an attack dealing 100 damage would result in a counter dealing 17 and 34 damage, respectively. Disarming Impact: Two levels, at 30 and 60 block (Requires at least one level of Counter Blow.) Level 1 gives a 15% chance to disarm an opponent of any level when bashing with a weapon, level 2 gives 30%. Disarming an opponent is an extremely potent benefit, and I'm hoping that these percentages are acceptable taking into account the amount of stamina bashing requires. That being said, I don't have the best feel for what percentages would be balanced, so this would take some testing to finalize. Quick Reflexes: One level, at 50 block (Requires at least one level of Disarming Impact.) Slows time for 2 seconds when an enemy power-attacks. This should be the same as the vanilla perk, though if it could be made a bit less buggy that would be ideal. (No infinite time-slow, etc.) I know there are some out there who think Quick Reflexes is overpowered, but I personally really like the perk and love using it for my swordmaster type characters. I do agree that it is a bit powerful, especially as a perk with only one perk prerequisite and available at 30 block. Hopefully moving it to the more advanced tier of blocking perks and restricting it to the lack of a shield will help balance it out a bit. Utility Branch (These perks work regardless of whether or not a shield is equipped.) Graceful Force: Two levels, at 20 and 40 block (Requires at least one level of Parry.) Level 1 reduces the stamina cost of bashing by 15%, level two reduces it by 30%. The stamina cost reduction should make bashing less restrictive for lower level characters. I find that bashing cost is irrelevant when you reach higher levels anyways, so hopefully this perk will have the most impact early-game and for characters with a lower stamina attribute. This is another one of those perks that I'm not entirely sure on how balanced the percentage values will be. Testing should help with this. Defensive Swiftness: One level, at 30 block (Requires at least one level of Graceful Force.) Increases movement speed to 75% that of normal speed when a shield is equipped, 100% normal speed when no shield is equipped. I never understood why increased movement speed while blocking was set so high on the vanilla block tree. Sure, it made it easier to avoid some enemy attacks, but not reliably so. It's more of a convenience perk than anything else, so it appears earlier and helps emphasize the speed difference between shield and pure weapon configurations. Power Bash: One level, at 60 block (Requires Defensive Swiftness.) A power bash costs more stamina, but doubles the effects of bashing provided by other perks. For example, Deadly Bash will deal 10 times damage, and Disarm will have a maximum chance of 60% to disarm. This is a powerful perk, so balance is again iffy. Perhaps the improvement should be reduced to a 150% multiplier instead of 200%, but again, testing will finalize this. Violent Impact: One level, at 100 block (Requires Power Bash.) Bashing with a shield or weapon has a 10% chance of knocking an opponent down. Percentage chance is affected by power bash. Shield charge was a very powerful perk, but it was buggy and overpowered. By attaching it as a low passive chance to bashing rather than a guaranteed chance while sprinting, it should hopefully remove most of the bugs and balance it out a bit. Torch Specific Perks Warding Flames: One level, 0 block (Requires at least one level of Parry). Applies a fear effect for two seconds to non-human, non-dragon enemies of any level. In compensation for no level restriction, this perk effectively allows you to hold enemy animals and monsters at bay. This should allow lower-level characters to survive attacks by powerful animals and monsters without allowing them to overpower them in melee or get enough range to attack with bows. This adds a benefit to lugging torches around over spells like candlelight and magelight, and compensates somewhat for their temporary nature as light source in dungeons. I like the image of animals and monsters running to just outside torch range when painfully set on fire. I think it adds a sense of realism. Oil Fire: One level, 30 block (Requires Warding Flames.) Triples burn time and increases fear effect to 5 seconds. I don't know for sure, but I never notice torch burn doing much damage, so this is a flavor perk more than anything else, and the increased fear should help anyone who is going to be using torches a lot. Quite frankly, this perk is balanced out by the necessity of sinking another perk point into torch specific utility, so it's a matter of preference. I would do this mod myself, except I have no idea how to go about editing perks with the creation kit, so if anyone would be willing to give me a bit of help in that respect I'll get started on it. (I'll start experimenting in the meantime regardless.) However, if anyone else wishes to use this mod as a basis for their own, I would REALLY appreciate it if they could provide me with a version that more or less matches what I'm looking for. Here's hoping people like the sound of the changes I'm proposing.

Transparency is an excellent policy. Having things be opaque, or putting protections for the persons involved into place really only allows for the authorities to find ways to abuse the system, from my personal experience. It encourages capriciousness and pettiness, and is only really necessary where people's lives are potentially on the line. The fact that you guys have implemented a policy of transparency merely helps to reinforce the notion that you all approach the issues you are presented with in a judicious manner.

Check out the Ashen race on Nexus for a good Asian-themed playable race. I've been using it for quite some time. It might not be precisely what you're looking for, but it's about the closest you'll get at the moment with the highest quality. I think there's another Asian-themed racial appearance on the Nexus, but the last time I checked it wasn't nearly as polished. I've got an .esp file containing the beginnings of a player home with a distinctly Asian architecture, which I can provide if someone with the time and skill to finish it is interested. (I created a shoji screen styled wall out of a wall from Breezehome and prison grating, and a wooden outdoor porch that I intended to function as seating for the player. ) I can't vouch for how good it looks in-game, but from the CK it looks decent. I started it with the intent of creating a tranquil and secluded player home for my ridiculously powerful Ashen character to retreat to and live a simple life when he got tired of slaughtering monsters and outlaws, but I've been too lazy and preoccupied with other things to finish. I'm also stumped on how to decorate the interior, as many of the vanilla assets don't fit the theme very well at all. If someone gets around to finishing the home, they're perfectly welcome to release it as their own mod, but I'd appreciate it if they'd give me at least an ounce of credit for the initial architecture ideas, and let me know so I can download and use said home.

I would really appreciate it if someone with the necessary knowhow could make a mod that adds a very subtle up-down shake to the first person camera as the player moves around. I'm not talking anything as drastic as the "Real First Person View" mod that is already in progress... I don't really care about being able to look down and see my body in first person, nor do I care about camera height correction. However, I can't get past the feeling of gliding along when running around the game world. Walking is fine, and sprinting already has a bit of what I'm talking about. It's that camera movement that actually feels like you're MOVING. Realistic running speed mods help with the 'gliding' feeling to a great degree, but they don't quite get rid of it. What I'm looking for: A very subtle vertical camera shake when moving via the standard run: Less pronounced than sprinting, but perhaps just a bit less pronounced. Depending on how close the implemented camera shake is to the sprinting effect, perhaps a bit of a STRONGER sprinting camera shake to make the difference a bit more noticeable. Ideally, these effects will not detract from gameplay. That was one of my main issues with the existing first person camera mod... it makes it impossible to participate in combat and the like effectively while in first person. I would do this myself if I had any idea of how to go about it, but there aren't (to my knowledge) any comprehensive and understandable resources for how to change this particular aspect of the game. So if none of you are able or willing to go about making this mod a reality, any pointers regarding how I might do so would be greatly appreciated.

I'd like a simple retexture of the Blades Sword that features a nicely defined hamon (the wavy pattern along the edge of the blade) It's one of the most beautiful parts of the sword to me, and I'd really appreciate a nicer looking one. Clean blade, clearly defined hamon, and perhaps even a removal of the blood groove, and it'd be awesome. In terms of actual mods... - Wyvern mount (smaller than a dragon, not as powerful, but fast.) - Mounted combat including special horseback weapons so that you can kill s*** without getting off of your horse. - Horse overhaul (horses include saddlebags and a reduction of horse aggression. it is annoying to have your mounts get in the way all the time, especially Shadowmere.) - Dragonshout modifications so that Fire Breath and Frost Breath are as impressive as the dragon versions, or at least have reduced cooldowns considering what they do. - Better hairstyles! Not anime-status, physics-defying insanity, but not scraggly, oily mops either. (Again, not to suggest that either of these extremes is any better/worse than others, they just fall outside of my preferences.)