Maigrets

I'm sitting here reading this thread while having a cigarette (yes, I know) and although I could think of a lot of things I'd like to go back and change, I would go back and scare the pants off Christopher Columbus and tell him not to bring tobacco leaves and seeds back to Europe from the Bahamas. Having read that tobacco was used for ceremonial and medicinal (obviously questionable) reasons, I have to wonder who was the first to think inhaling the smoke of burning leaves and hallucinogenics was a good idea. That wouldn't stop someone else from starting the noxious cycle of course, but maybe I could also induce a mass hypnotic block and expunge the existence and possibility of tobacco or other substitutes used as inhalants from human history. And this is coming from someone who hates smoking for all the known reasons, and enjoys it at the same time.

I didn't mention graphics because I don't care about graphics as much as actual quality gameplay, so yes, you're correct, I didn't mention them for that reason. I've seen comments that talk about the graphics and how bad they look. So what? A pretty game doesn't equal a quality game. True, we know what we're getting and have the choice whether or not to purchase. As with all Bethesda games they virtually give us (modders and users) a base from which to create a finished game. Bethesda aren't the only culprits these days either. Most AAA games the past few years have been riddled with bugs or even unplayable. Dragon Age Inquisition is one that come to mind and they are still trying to patch it. The thing is Bethesda are the only developers who create truly open world games where you can be anyone, or do practically anything, so if that's the type of game one likes there aren't many other choices. They have a monopoly and they know it. So, actually, no. I won't necessarily like this one, bugs and all. There comes a time when game developers need to realize their customers are the reason they still exist, but that's a pipe dream.

This has crossed my mind as well. Even to this day many people believe the Creation Engine to be a different Engine completely than Gamebryo, and when directed to the correct info some still don't believe it. If it's possible to hate a video game and never intend to have it so much as cross my mind again let alone play it again, then Skyrim is the one for me. Even before mods were released I had my first character who reached 110 hours ruined by a corrupt save for no discernible reason. I was playing, had to exit for a reason I can't remember now as it's too long ago, then later started up the game to find all my saves were corrupt. How can that Happen in a space of hours? I save a lot so I had quite a few saves to try, but none of them would load. I hadn't even progressed very far into the main quest, mainly just exploring the world and doing side quests as they presented themselves. Safe to say I was extremely annoyed. From there on it never got much better at least with the vanilla game, and there was the patch that gave us backward flying dragons and a few other added bugs with magic. Mods like the Unofficial Patch, Seson's Memory Patch and a few others were life savers to an extent, but the game is faulty at it's core and modders cant fix everything. I know a lot of players say the opposite and say they never had problems, but I wonder if they are more tolerant of bug riddled games than some of us are. All of Bethesda's games have a faulty saving system so unless you disable all autosaves you're asking for trouble. The so called new scripting system is slow and is problematic with mods and these games are meant to be modded otherwise we wouldn't have the tools. I have many 100's of hours in Skyrim, BUT most of those come from starting over, reaching a certain level of play and having something happen that made it impossible to continue. Looking back I wonder if I was crazy for persisting. However, I might have continued if it wasn't for the fact that for me, at it's heart it's a boring, uninspired game, but I did like the actual world as an exploration walking simulator. Plus, there are a lot of excellent mods made by very talented people that I do miss. Oblivion had it's issues, but even heavily modded it was always more stable for me. I'm not inexperienced with these games and even made mods for Oblivion, some released, some not. I was always able to fix any problems myself, or find a solution somewhere, but with Skyrim it was the last straw. The Creation Engine is still a 32bit engine and doesn't handle memory very well so I imagine we'll have the same issues with Fallout 4. I've played other rpg's that use Gamebryo and they don't have the same problems. It seems to me that Bethesda don't really have a full grasp of how to manage their own "creation." Yes, I know they don't own Gamebryo, but they have tweaked it for their use. A lot of people like to criticize New Vegas for it's bugs, but they fail to realize that Obsidian was rushed into releasing the game by Bethesda and given a very short time frame to finish it. Even then it's more of an rpg than Fallout 3 is, or TES games for that matter, with real branching quests, choices and consequences. Bethesda don't seem to be able to make games with any depth although Morrowind and Oblivion, to an extent, were exceptions. I'm currently playing through New Vegas again, fairly heavily modded and have not had a single CTD or other problem in 150 hours over two characters. Fallout 4 is going to require me to upgrade my PC which won't be happening soon so that will give me time to hopefully be able to play when it's been patched a few times. In the meantime I'm looking forward more to Dark Souls 3 to compliment my 1000's of hours in both previous games of the series.

I completed the survey and I'm a female gamer, 60 years old and started out with the Commodore 64 way, way back in the dark ages of gaming. It doesn't surprise me that a section of male gamers would like to think that females only play casual games, and couldn't possibly like anything with challenge or a sense of danger. It seems to me that some male players become defensive when the subject of female gamers comes up, especially in the domain of FPS, adventure, RPG or horror games. My favourite games of all time are the Gothic series which don't hold your hand like many recent games, most other RPG's, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and more recently Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2:Scholar of the First Sin. I've played the original Dark Souls 2 and Scholar for over 1000 hours combined according to my Steam profile and will continue to do so even though I'm taking a break and revisiting Fallout 3 and New Vegas while waiting for Fallout 4. Tell me those are casual games. I modded for Oblivion, played the game to death and still have it installed. I also recently replayed Morrowind and thoroughly enjoyed it. To be perfectly honest though Skyrim was a big disappointment to me for many reasons. I have a lot of hours played in Skyrim, but many of those were starting over for one reason or another. On the subject of skimpy armour and nudity - I don't mind either considering the history of art, ie painting, and sculpture etc and human history in general. I don't see a reason for me to block them. I use body replacers in my games after all. As someone else mentioned blocking these mods can also lock me out of more good ones by the same authors. I don't even really care about the prostitution mods even though I don't use them. I am however offended as a female by the obvious porn mods, here and elsewhere, that make a mockery of the female form and in some cases reveal the creator's hatred and fear of women as equal humans. After all, how many of these mods do you see ridiculing males to the same extent, and I wouldn't want that either. Mods like a certain "Nympho" mod on the Skyrim Nexus is a "fine" example of this, not to mention others like Estrus. We've been told these mods are not going away from the Nexus at least, so my opinion as one of those "rare" female gamers who visits here doesn't matter. :sad:

You could also try one of these SweetFX Presets that use MasterEffect or ReShade. https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/game/924/ The before and after comparison screenshots look pretty good, and most add real darkness so you absolutely need to use a torch.

One I know of is Summon Shadow Merchant. He has a spell that allows you to have a crow or raven on your shoulder. You can unsummon it if you want to remove it. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10166/?

As the "notmyhome" mentioned above, I've also downloaded 1000's of mods and I do endorse the ones I've actually played and can recommend. However, every time I download a mod now I get a reminder to endorse mods that I haven't endorsed. There are several reasons for that. I either haven't had time to try it in game, I changed my mind and decided not to for whatever reason, or I'm mid game and as we all know Skyrim doesn't like adding, and especially removing mods in an ongoing save. In good faith I cannot endorse a mod without having used it and I personally think the endorsement system is broken. I wouldn't like to guess how many mods are endorsed just because they look good in screenshots and for other reasons, and it can be done a short time after downloading. I have downloaded a lot of mods that look great in screenshots myself, but later for one reason or another don't get around to using them and I cannot endorse in that case. Now I know I could make a save before adding a mod to a character I do not want to lose, but often a mod is something that can't be accessed immediately and takes time to evaluate. I don't have time for that, especially as I said with an ongoing character. Skyrim is unstable enough. I'm a modder myself, albeit with Oblivion and not Skyrim and I couldn't care less about endorsements either as mentioned by Valkasha. If I did I would have stopped a long time ago. I mod for myself first and if others like what I've done that's nice, but I'm not particularly looking for recognition. I also personally don't want donations. I just share what I've made for myself. That's not to say I don't appreciate the mods others have provided free of charge because I do and I endorse the ones I use as soon as I remember and have actually tried them. Many of the mods for Oblivion, Skyrim and other games have amazed me with their creativity and show what can be done with an aging game engine that even the developers can't be bothered to do.

I play the PC version and it's community certainly hasn't died. Except for a couple of nights I've played every night since the game was released. I have characters at various stages of the game and always see phantoms, plenty of summon signs, and I can always be summoned myself without delay...sometimes immediately as I'm placing my "Golden" sign. Dark Souls 1 was on sale recently, on PC anyway, (I don't know about console versions) so probably a lot of people are trying that out. I don't have a PS3 so can't comment on Demon's Souls, but have watched some videos. It does look challenging. I played through DKS1 a few times and if I had to choose I much prefer Dark Souls 2. Neither game is perfect, but a lot of people have rose coloured glasses when they talk about how great DKS1 is or was. Backstab, backstab, backstab to win, no strategy needed. Most of the last 1/3 of the game was cheap and tacked on, especially the Lost Izalith levels. But I digress...I could talk about the pros and cons of both games for ages, but not here.

First of all I want to say that I agree with HeyYou and the Op and I have read the entire thread so I don't need to enlarge on the points made except to say that your idea of choice and consequence is very different to the real meaning of choice and consequence. One glaring point in your scenario is how are new players supposed to know these things? That's where the first impressions of a game come from. The first play through. It's only after playing through the game and either doing everything you want to do, or not, including the railroaded quests, (and many are no matter what you say) that you can make those decisions. I know which situations and NPC's to avoid, but that's not always possible unless one stays well away from cities and the possibility of being railroaded. In fact I'm well past the stage where I run through cities avoiding contact wherever possible so it doesn't happen. Example...Markarth and the House of Horrors. I always give that guy a wide berth because I will talk to him or any NPC IF I choose to, not be force greeted and be interrupted in whatever I'm there to do in the first place. Another example. Being accosted by Brynjolf when I enter the Riften Market Place is an annoyance to say the least. The fact he "knows" the money or items I have on me are ill gotten gain is ridiculous particularly when I haven't stolen anything, whether I intend to in the future or not. He's not a mind reader I assume, but he seems to think he knows what I'm up to when we've never even met. The player should not have to run away from an NPC or learn to avoid situations to avoid another quest being added to the log. That's just ludicrous, as is pressing TAB to exit conversations when there is a lack of options to do it properly. That's nothing but a bandaid because Bethesda lacks the skill to write good dialogue with choices that are permanent and don't forever nag you. There's also another very important point about having a quest log full of quests one may want to do some time down the track, or not at all. The more quests and scripts that are running, the more the game has to keep track of which can very quickly lead to instability, save corruption and bugs. That is a fact, not an opinion. All quests and their scripts are constantly running forcing the player to either clear their quest log or potentially end up with problems, sooner rather than later, particularly when quests overlap like the main and guild ones do at certain points.

The data is on the DVD but sometimes Steam decides it wants to download the entire game. Go here for instructions on what to do so you don't have to go through this, plus lots of extra tips and info about Steam and how to use it. :) http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1258133-installing-from-disc-instead-of-steam/

This is great news indeed and thank you Dark0ne for doing this. I was looking forward to this game since I read about the petition and purchased the retail version on release day and I'm very happy with it. Luckily, I already had an Xbox 360 controller that I bought last year so I use it to play and haven't actually tried using the keyboard so I can't comment on that. I knew beforehand that it would be a straight port and had read about the graphics and 30 fps limit etc that people complain about even though FROM Software expicitly said they have little experience in PC development. Those things don't bother me in the least when the game is, obviously in my opinion, a masterpiece. The game runs smoothly without the framerate problems it had in some areas on the consoles, has extra DLC content that is not yet available on the consoles and which they will have to pay extra for, and other things that were changed for the PC version, like improved stats and other things. The fact FROM actually took notice and made it available to PC players is something that should be appreciated even though many now complain about what in the grand scheme of things are really not that important. Yes, perhaps they could have done more, but they gave us the game when they didn't have to consider it at all. It's perfectly playable and stable as is, unlike some PC only games. Graphics aren't everything if the game play and massive replayability is there, which it is. We, or at least I can hope they make their next game available to PC and optimized for it as they realize there's a market for these games, but with all the whining I wouldn't really blame them if they decided not to. I've been gaming for over 20 years and have seen and played worse games that were either buggy or had other real issues and didn't keep my interest like this game and to my disappointment this includes Skyrim which I've lost all interest in. Dark Souls makes me think, plan and strategize and the game rewards you for that even though I have had moments where I want to pull my hair out because I did something stupid and died, usually like falling off a cliff or getting reckless and over confident. Ever since the first versions of the graphics fix were released I've been downloading the updates and keeping up to speed on what's happening with mods, but I find myself starting the game up, playing for hours and forgetting every time to add the mod to my game. I will do it sometime though but for me the game is just that engrossing and enjoyable even out of the box. The only thing I could have done without is GFWL, but I haven't had any problems with it so far. I'm not into multiplayer games normally and I quite like the system this game has and it works on a P2P system. You can choose to use it or not and depends on game rules anyway, like having to be human. Unfortunately, it's already plagued with cheats using trainers and hacks, but there are ways to make them pay and avoid them if you know how. There are other issues with the Net Code which FROM are aware of which can make it unreliable and which may be fixed according to a thread on the Steam forums. This is a game that's not to everyone's taste, but all in all I couldn't be happier.

It must be nice to be perfect and never make a mistake. I don't have DG, but I've certainly read a lot about it, good and bad. Bethesda's tried and true tricks to fake more exciting game play is nothing but an annoyance, just like the Radiant quests, the thieves in Riften and the dragon attacks in towns. These vampire attacks, as described by many users here and elsewhere, do NOT make the game harder or more challenging. They are there as a failed attempt at making the world seem more dangerous, which gets really old, really quickly. Co-incidentally, I just came from reading about Dawnguard and it's price in Australia on the Steam forums (because I was bored) and I see you employ these circular tactics there in the thread I was reading as well as others. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2852205 Why can't you concede that you appear to play differently to others, stop dictating how they should play and recognize that everyone's experience is different, especially when it comes to random events and how they spawn.

You know what happens to games when set dates are given and deadlines have to be met. :whistling: Suffice to say things are progressing well, but there's no definite ETA. As they say "It's done when it's done" or something to that effect. :)

We've been working on this for some time and after a few stops and starts and other changes we're making good progress. I'm doing the writing and the guys are doing the tech stuff. They've got the hardest job :whistling: and it's all coming together as we hoped. :biggrin: I don't do FaceBook either except for this and I only have a basic account with no details. It's like stepping through a minefield in there.

So, if it's that easy we can expect you to be doing it then? :whistling: If it were in fact that easy it would have been done some time ago, but since animations are set up differently in Skyrim it may take quite awhile to get to the stage of Oblivion or Fallout pose mods. There are a couple of mods on Skyrim Nexus, but they are not yet as user friendly as you would probably like. It's good progress though.