65 replies to this topic

[zixi]

@shumkar At least I get past the introductory vid!

 

@mkienenb

Re Oldrim SkyrimSE - I think I'd do what you're doing and get Oldrim to work first before giving Bethesda some more cash... It is more stable and there aren't the complaints about audio issues which I'm seriously impressed you haven't had... I didn't pay for SE, as I'd bought Oldrim via Steam I was given it.

 

Anyway, I felt all feeble after listening to you two flexing Linux muscle so I did the symlinks to Vortex for Oldrim... My husband tried to help out but by then I was almost there and eventually completed it. We all danced... the dog barked. It was loud. However, the bad news is that SkyUI won't run and I think SKSE has a problem...  The game runs fine though. And I managed to add Live Another Life so onwards and upwards... I'll have another look at SKSE and try to figure what its issue is. I apologise in advance if I 'disappear' we're having a roof put on and some building done... it's a bit like a rehearsal for a film about trench warfare...

 

Totally OT - Re Might and Magic - I think I had something called Heroes of Might and Magic which shumkar mentioned - is that the same Might and Magic?

 

Take care both!

[mkienenb]

 

Interesting! Though, I haven't played Might and Magic. But I played (for a very long time) Heroes of Might and Magic 3

 

I didn't reply when I read your message (already had spammed the board enough for the moment), but at the exact time I was reading it, my youngest boy was downstairs playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 -- I could hear the game music and sound effects from upstairs.

 

 

Totally OT - Re Might and Magic - I think I had something called Heroes of Might and Magic which shumkar mentioned - is that the same Might and Magic?

 

No, Heroes of Might and Magic is a turn-based strategy game, although it's based in the same world/lore.   Might and Magic is an RPG game in the same style as the Elder Scrolls.  I haven't played much of 1 through 5 (although the combined 4&5 "world of xeen" are supposed to be really good), but I've played 6 and 7, and to a lesser degree 8, many times.   Your character types are chosen at the start, but you have 4 characters to use (well, the more die-hard players kill off all but one at the start of the game to up the challenge).   The graphics are "mostly 3d" -- the terrain and movement is 3d, but the NPCs and dropped items you interact with are animated sprites.   It's not as bad as it sounds    As long as you are not a graphics snob, you will find MM6 through 8 to be a game similar to Morrowind and Skyrim in gameplay..  You can generally pick up it on GOG for a couple of bucks a few times a year.  MM6 came out 4 years before Morrowind, and 7 and 8 use the same 1998 game engine and graphics.  It's a toss-up whether MM6 or MM7 is the better game.  MM8 is not as original or interesting but it does provide diversity for getting more of your MM6/7 fix.  MM9 had a true 3d engine, but is a horrible game and is to be avoided.

 

You don't micromanage your attributes in M&M the way I always seem to be min/maxing them in TES.   There's only 3 potion ingredients (but you can combine potions).  The game is real-time, but you can alternate at will between real-time and turn-based when fighting something.

 

Every once in a while I consider going back to try 4&5 due to the high reviews, but it's not 3d but the old-school wizardry turn-based look-at-the-wall-you-are-facing type game.  Sometimes those are fun, but I've started to become spoiled.

 

My wife plays/replays MM6-7 occasionally, and that's probably the only RPG game she's ever played.

[shumkar]

@shumkar At least I get past the introductory vid!

 

You have Oldrim now, right? Which are the current issues with your Oldrim/Vortex?

 

I've read that your Vortex doesn't recognize Oldrim, and you believe, it's because you installed Oldrim after Vortex. You could try to re-install Vortex and will see if that will fix the ussue.

 

SKSE - did you try the "manual install"?

 

Something else?

 

I've recently rebuilt the OS putting Home on the main drive and the OS on the smaller drive. I wanted to avoid having to reinstall everything every time I did something drastic to the OS...

 

Yes, having /home on a separate partition is very useful! Though, a separate partition is not the only way to "separate" a folder: there are also bind mounts. Can be useful when one can't make a separate partition / a free space on a partition is ending.

 

I'm waiting until April when I'll move to Ubuntu 21.04 and I'll deal with the fallout (if there is some).

 

After 12 years in Gentoo I don't understand why people are using Linux distros with the "fixed" (not "rolling") release cycle - it's so inconvenient to re-install the whole OS every year or two. It is usually said, the main advantage is stability... But Gentoo is rolling and at the same time perfectly stable. I've been running few servers on Gentoo - and no problem with stability. Not to mention desktops/laptops... With a rolling distro, you will always have fresh, modern versions of all the software, no need to wait for a new release.

Edited by shumkar, 22 January 2021 - 08:07 PM.

[shumkar]

I didn't reply when I read your message (already had spammed the board enough for the moment), but at the exact time I was reading it, my youngest boy was downstairs playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 -- I could hear the game music and sound effects from upstairs.

 

What a coincidence!

 

Also, totally OT: I remember, my favourite player was Solmir, with Chain Lightning...

Edited by shumkar, 22 January 2021 - 07:57 PM.

[HeyYou]

 

I didn't reply when I read your message (already had spammed the board enough for the moment), but at the exact time I was reading it, my youngest boy was downstairs playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 -- I could hear the game music and sound effects from upstairs.

 

What a coincidence!

 

Also, totally OT: I remember, my favourite player was Solmir, with Chain Lightning...

 

Ah yes, HOMM3. I always play Tower city to start, and Solmyr as my main dude. Chain lighting at low levels is awesome. I also modified the skills table, to make sure my Wizards get useful skills, and not some of the waste-of-slot fellers. I am still trying to figure out how to do the same for spells in the mages guilds. Town Portal plus Advanced/expert Earth Magic makes you pretty much unstoppable.

[shumkar]

Hi HeyYou,

 

Nice to see you agian too,

 

If I remember well, about a year ago you said something like that moving from Windows to Linux is inevitable for you... Did the inevitable happen?

 

Ah yes, HOMM3. I always play Tower city to start, and Solmyr as my main dude. Chain lighting at low levels is awesome.

 

I remember, me and my friend were fighting in HOMM3-Multiplayer by nights, me - for Solmyr, he - for undead (a lot of troops resurrrected), and the results were 50/50, we were roughly even

 

I also modified the skills table, to make sure my Wizards get useful skills, and not some of the waste-of-slot fellers. I am still trying to figure out how to do the same for spells in the mages guilds.

 

Eh, I was only starting to learn programming languages in times of HOMM3, and didn't think to mod games...

 

 Town Portal plus Advanced/expert Earth Magic makes you pretty much unstoppable.

 

Good... But you didn't mention the Dragon Utopia

[HeyYou]

Hi HeyYou,

 

Nice to see you agian too,

 

If I remember well, about a year ago you said something like that moving from Windows to Linux is inevitable for you... Did the inevitable happen?

 

Ah yes, HOMM3. I always play Tower city to start, and Solmyr as my main dude. Chain lighting at low levels is awesome.

 

I remember, me and my friend were fighting in HOMM3-Multiplayer by nights, me - for Solmyr, he - for undead (a lot of troops resurrrected), and the results were 50/50, we were roughly even

 

I also modified the skills table, to make sure my Wizards get useful skills, and not some of the waste-of-slot fellers. I am still trying to figure out how to do the same for spells in the mages guilds.

 

Eh, I was only starting to learn programming languages in times of HOMM3, and didn't think to mod games...

 

 Town Portal plus Advanced/expert Earth Magic makes you pretty much unstoppable.

 

Good... But you didn't mention the Dragon Utopia

I am still running windows. Recently rebuilt my machine, and was forced to go to Win 10. Of course, I have been dealing with win 10 at work for several years now, so, I know most of the tricks to turn off the telemetry MS is attempting to gather. (for the 'typical' user, that just accepts the defaults at first boot/installation, windows 10 reports EVERYTHING you do back to mother MS.) That and the forced updates are a couple of the (many...) reasons I don't like win 10. But, it works reasonably well, and I can generally beat it into submission to do what I want. So, I'll likely stick with it for a while yet. I am still waiting for some flavor of "ix" that will natively support DirectX.

 

Modding HOMM3 is just editing various tables that establish the base chance of anything in particular happening. What skills you are offered, what spells show up when you build new levels to the mages guild, etc. Took me a bit to figger it out, but, turned out exactly the way I wanted. Which surprised me. Rarely does that happen.

 

Dragon Utopia can be a real killer in the early game..... and I don't wanna sacrifice a significant number of troops that early. So, I usually hit 'em about mid-game. I think it would be cool to set them up so they also have the artifacts from any other heroes that have fallen prey to their lure. I would also like to 'inherit' the money/resources from any players that you eliminate. Or at least pick up some from taking over towns. But, I have no clue how to do that.

 

Yes, I still play the game. With a bit o' tweakin' it runs great on win 10.

[zixi]

@shumkar - correct. Vortex doesn't recognise a game installed after you've installed Vortex. You have to set up symbolic links which is no great deal once you find where the games are and where Vortex thinks the games 'should' be in 'pretend Windows'.

 

@mkienenb - re M&M - you sound over that just like I sound over Baldur's Gate! If you ever do try SkyrimSE then there's a mod for Daggerfall.  It's very clever as it feels just like the original looks... The story is really good despite the graphics but it was story that made BG...

 

@Hey You. My husband ran Linux when everyone around him was running Windows. However, like you I put up with Windows for your same reasons. I liked 7 in any case. I got Windows 10 during chemo but even in the haze realised it was gathering data. I switched off as much as I could but Cortana was very persistent and I found it hard to be methodical.  I'd notice it running in the background and it drove me to despair. I feel the same about Google and Youtube. I don't use either but every so often I notice they've managed to stick a cookie on my PC and I get really, really fed up. I feel that this is my machine and they've come in without being asked... With Windows 10 I always felt it wasn't mine and as Bill Gates didn't pay anything towards it, it really annoyed me! You should see my Android. I've switched off as much Google as I can and once the guarantee runs out, I'm going to try turning it into Linux... That'll teach it!

[shumkar]

@HeyYou:

 

Re Win

I see... I thought I can congratulate you on joining the world of Linux users Are you looking for "*nix that will natively support DirectX"? But AFAIK there is no such thing. DirectX is supported via wine (proton) only in *nix. I think you could make a list of Win apps (games etc) which are important for you and then check if/how they are supported by wine (proton) in https://appdb.winehq.org/ and https://www.protondb.com/ - that will give you understanding of what should work OK in *nix, what - not, and what - yes, but partially (with which limitations). And https://lutris.net/games is also helpful.

 

Re HOMM3 modding

So, it is not difficult technically, the point is in finding the proper place to edit? Good to know!

 

Re Dragon Utopia

I have always loved Dragon Utopias but your suggestions remind me descriptions of Ultima Online, where all the loot of a player is being lost after his death - it's a little bit "hardcore" for me, I've always liked to keep my loot, because I am not such a "hardcore" gamer For this reason I never tried Ultima Online; WoW / TESO are more forgiving in this sense. And when fighting in HOMM locally, not with a player (or in Skyrim), and dying, I've always re-played from a save

Edited by shumkar, 23 January 2021 - 02:20 PM.

[shumkar]

@zixi:

 

Yes, you could use symbolic links. Or, I think, you could try to install Vortex in the way I did ("custom install location"; pointing where the game is) - in this case, theoretically, it should not matter (?) when the game was installed...