Balakirev

There should be a readme included with that mod, and it's always, always a good idea to read those. Not only do they include the requirements for that particular mod, they usually tell you if there are any conflicts with other mods, how to uninstall, specific and unusual points to keep in mind, etc. I'll tell you in advance, though, this one only needs Bloodmoon and Tribunal. ;)

I just checked the Viconia page at Nexus, and it doesn't have a download in German. I'm running the latest version, and it's in English. I'll bet you downlaoded this, accidentally. When a mod has DV in its title, that means its in German. Try going to the first of the two links I listed here. Then download the English version, and install it over the German one. That's the only thing I can think of to solve your issues.

Darklands Hidden Agenda Ultima IV The Magic Candle Excalibur (Chris Crawford's) Bandit Kings of Ancient China

Too bad. It's a useful feedback mechanism, and can tell people when something hasn't worked, as much as when it has. But if the system doesn't do this, there it is.

Tough call, this. Let's see. In no particular order: Hidden Agenda Morrowind (modded) King of Dragon Pass Planescape: Torment Darklands

I haven't got any screens to put up, but you can check out screens in the UESP Wiki for Anvil. The few screens it lists unfortunately feel much smaller than the city looks when my characters walk through it, though I kind of like the one called Dawn at the Harbor. I always liked the wilderness in Morrowind best, but the cities in Oblivion more because of all the quests, the sewer activity (again taken from Morrowind mods), and the thiefly opportunities. ;) I think what made Morrowind's Balmora feel large was a combination of a) clever use of geography (both water and height differential), b) narrow, tall buildings, and c) breaking the line of sight down a street. The Imperial City did all of this and more, but Balmora certainly feels immense in Morrowind terms. Skyrim: none of its cities feel even moderate-sized, to me. They feel...empty. That's just my perception, of course, but I keep expecting to see the traditional guilds, a wide range of stores, a good-sized population, etc. I guess Bethsoft simply put the people who would have developed these aspects in previous ES games to other tasks--perhaps DLCs. Who knows?

You may be thinking of only one of Anvil's districts. It has five. It's a very large place. And as I pointed out, there's the Imperial City; I could have added Leyawin. The cities of Oblivion are in general much larger than the cities of Morrowind. They were planned to be very large, and were advertised as such at the time. They were also intended to provide a much greater experience for thieves, who had a lot more places to steal from. In what way? I'm not looking to argue with you, since we're discussing opinions in this particular case based on personal "feel," rather than anything else. Just curious about what you find that makes Skyrim cities "better." :)

I wasn't aware the mod had been translated into German. Because here at TES Nexus, it's in English. What site did you download it from?

Hint: he's not serious. I think we should all record the accidentally deleted line of a guard: "You may be the savior of us all, but I can't tell whether you're a warrior, thief, or mage, your gender, what specific quests you've solved, whom you've helped, what you're wearing, or what you need. And I'm going to keep my eye on you!" On the matter of American accents: There are over 30 major groupings. So when you want a Southern accent, it helps to point to an example. A coastal or interior Georgian accent is very different from an Alabaman. Same with a "broad" American accent. Usually people mean a "Midwestern accent," which in turn means Missouri/Nebraska/Kansas/Illinois. I was born in the Bronx in New York City, but worked in radio professionally for over 20 years. Studied and learned that Midwestern, though I can do a few others just from living in different US areas. I always thought the male Khajits in Oblivion were voiced by one Hungarian. Had a nice accent, too.

I sent 3 reports, Myrmaad. And I got no feedback from the system on any of them coming through at the time I sent them. With two of them, I was able to post immediately afterward in the forum. Only the third prevented me from posting at once with the message that I had posted too recently for that.

Before, I reported it twice, and then immediately posted. in the forums This time, when I reported it again, I was unable to post here within 60 seconds.

"Medium sized" cities in Oblivion compared to "small to large" in Morrowind? Oblivion's Imperial City? Anvil? Far, far larger than anything in Morrowind or Skyrim. At least 5 times the size, probably more. You'd better check the games, again. As for the reason for the reduction in size in Skyrim: cities weren't reduced in Skyrim to provide more "interesting NPCs." Some NPCs have as much detail in Oblivion and Morrowind as in Skyrim, and plenty of examples can be provided in support of this. What's more, than are quite a few of the typical Bethsoft "support NPCs" in Skyrim who have one or two comments to make, and nothing else to add. Skyrim also has far fewer merchants, temples, guild locations, etc. We don't know why Bethsoft chose to make cities much smaller in Skyrim, in other words. I will take a shot at a guess, though, without any claims to authority: every comment in Skyrim is voiced. This takes a lot of memory resources to run. My guess is that the development team decided to cut back on the amount of time spent on building cities and populating them so they could have the resources in any given area to run each vocal comment. And they still overused a small number of actors.

For example, I reported a few hours ago a new mod that isn't a mod, as it has no files, nor images, and just a gibberish non-word in the long description. I got no feedback that my report had been sent, and the "mod" is still listed. My concern isn't that the thing will remain uncaught, but that reports aren't getting through.

Yes, it was another case of a limited number of designs randomly chosen (in most cases) when you entered. I remember how shocked I was when my first character entered a dungeon. I spent about 30 minutes in there before it crashed. When I reloaded and entered, it was an entirely different layout, one I recalled from the last dungeon I'd tried. Great, sprawling things. You were never sure what lay behind the next door. Nowhere near as realistic as latter dungeon layouts, and certainly not as varied as Morrowind's, but great fun.

Tapping a plant to harvest alchemical ingredients, and see the plant change: that was from Morrowind mods. In Morrowind originally, you'd get a popup yes/no box confirming whether or not to harvest the ingredient (as if there could be any doubt), and after you did, the plant looked the same as before.

To stay on topic, those came from Morrowind mods. Two mods that specifically allowed you to tan hides, gather and smelt ore, etc, to make weapons and armor of various sorts. Cooking was in Morrowind mods, as well. Houses for players came from Morrowind mods, as did companions, noted above.

But nearly all the guild quests are a randomized series of templates. Eight, for example, in the Mage Guild. Save first; don't like the one you've been given? Quit, reload, and you'll get another. There was no sense of their being attached to a specific quest giver, nor any real variety beyond the eight. Compare the Mage Guild quests in Morrowind, for example. Finding those mushrooms for Balmora's alchemist--or swapping out a fake item for the one her rival had. These were relevant to the alchemist, helping to define her personality, and to explore both the land nearby and the guild, itself. This isn't an argument against an excellent game, which Daggerfall clearly is. But in the matter of guild quests, I'd suggest--speaking purely formyself--that the sheer number, specific character, and variety of those in Morrowind trumped Daggerfall's greater variety of guilds. What Daggerfall had, above all, was the sense of expansiveness that ES titles have never caught, again. Oblivion and Skyrim are less detailed than Morrowind, but they never got that sense of being able to locate yourself in a given city and start to build up your character the way Daggefall does.

Planescape: Torment. No question. Nothing else even comes close.

Which version of the FPS Optimizer are you using? 2.0 is very buggy, and causes problems. Get rid of it. If you've got 1.96, you should be fine. Are you running any mods?

No Dummer Temple? :confused: I chose Telvanni, in any case, given the variety and cleverness of the quests, and the ability to build your own house--with a few mods that make it much more interesting. But the Temple has a great quest of its own.

I'm unfamiliar with the 360, so I've no idea if you can run mods. But if you can, check to see whether there are mods that change racial bonuses and/or magical systems. There are many of both for the PC version, and at least some will ll allow you to take that max higher.

For those who want more combat moves and brighter spells, I'm sure mods already available in Oblivion that do these things will be ported to Skyrim once the CK is made available sometime next month. That said, I much preferred the physics model in Morrowind, where hitting somebody with a sword didn't necessarily send their body sliding 20 away and up to crash into a wall. Doesn't mean combat was better (the AI wasn't very good, for one thing), but at least I didn't feel that I was taking part in a funhouse mirror combat show.

However much Bethsoft's ability to put less effort into certain features (city size, environmental diversity, etc) is discounted as "realistic," the fact remains that thieves have far fewer buildings in which to practice their merchandise-sampling craft.

Breton or High Elf, with the Apprentice sign. Either way, you'll probably want a companion or two to come along, perhaps Stoker Wolff and Vilja. Both have quests, Vilja is the closest thing to a reallife character in the game, and each can become quite formidable in battle over time. Since mages tend to start slow, they'll form a good buffer. Also consider a magic system addon. My favorites are Supreme Magicka, and Less Annoying Magic Experience. They complement one another very well, and the former even comes with an INI file that lets you tailor how much that's new actually gets added into your game. Definitely makes it more fun to play a mage.

Shadowcrest Vineyards, by any chance?