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.

To save myself from having to type out the problems I'm currently having I'm linking to the rant I posted on my blog about corrupt saves and not being able to save at all. However, I haven't been able to find any info about it anywhere except that others have had the same issues, particularly since the 1.4 patch when my problems started. http://maigretsheadspace.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/skyrim-i-now-cannot-save-my.html I have used Showracemenu a number of times myself without problems and have only been using some very basic mods so far, until I had a CTD in a cave a couple of nights ago. From then on I could load the game and play until I wanted to save and then game immediately CTD"s. Every single time, whether it's a hard save, console save or a quicksave. I have all autosaves turned off as they have always been known to cause issues in previous Bethesda games. Anyway it says it all in the link. I never thought I'd say this about any game but if I have the same problems when I get around to reinstalling, this game is going in the cupboard until and if it ever gets patched properly by the people who actually created it. I have two characters and 260 hours between them and then this happens after a CTD and the first one I've had for ages. I had no issues with the 1.3 patch and played most of those hours with it, and had also used "showracemenu" several times without problems, but unfortunately I can't revert because I didn't back up that exe. Even starting a completely new game with all mods removed it still happens after saving successfully a few times. I can initially save normally until after a certain point and I have no idea what that point or cause actually is, except if the game CTD's and it eventually does, I cannot save again. I wish I had an answer. I never had these awful problems with Oblivion, Fallout 3 and NV and if I did have any issues I could fix them myself or find the info to do it. This game seems to be a mystery of bugs and glitches that compound themselves until finally it fails completely.

If your comments were in any way directed at me, well yes, it's just as annoying as the fanboy posts isn't it, and that car analogy is way overused, utterly ridiculous and not even relevant to this situation. If you're going to use a quote from someone else to describe how you feel at least make it relevant. A car is not a game and would in fact be recalled if there were safety issues, and if the user did something to cause their own problems such as the tyres, it's up to them to fix it. Warranty voided. However, in this case it's a computer game and yes, Bethesda are in fact responsible for fixing the bugs, especially the ones they knew about and admitted to before release. I agree the hate posts and the stupid "Bugthesda" tag is way over the top and unnecessary, but people are also getting very frustrated with this game, it's broken patches and enduring problems. Many people, not just the "haters for the sake of hating" have good reason to be annoyed. @ Morwyn Kelm I did delete my ini's and generated new ones with the same result. I've been around TES games long enough to know what I'm doing. Thanks anyway..that's also in case you were responding to my post and not generally. :) A newly generated ini will do nothing as far as the Riften issues though as they've been there through many ini changes and several patches. It's either a bad script or other internal function causing the problem and is not specific to me. Google Riften crashes and you'll get a lot of results.

Well, I hate to have to say I've never had so many silent and not so silent CTD's since the 1.4 patch. I've also had a weird issue at Falkreath where the game started freezing for several seconds, continuing and eventually having to be shut down via Task Manager because it stopped responding. That took more than five minutes to accomplish as well as whatever caused it was obviously a serious error. :wallbash: Strangely, I'd been back and forth to Falkreath and surrounding areas several times in the same play session doing quests. The only mods I'm using are SkyUI, Categorized Favourites (all updated as well as SKSE although I see there's a new version since last night,) Weapons of the 3rd Era, a few tweaks like NoNPC Greetings and Essential Companions and a lot of texture replacers, but not world textures. Something I did notice and may be co-incidental is the CTD's, except for the Falkreath issue, happened when I encountered enemy mages and or vampires. I have Marcurio with me and he's a mage, but haven't had issues with him at all and he's pretty aggressive magically speaking. :) I did also notice at least one CTD was when a mage cast Ice Spike. Their other spells, and they have quite a selection, don't cause any problems and I've never encountered this before. The only constant annoying issue previous to this patch and which is probably still present, is freezing in the surrounding areas, south of, and inside Riften, but I haven't dared to try it with the new CTD issue. I've had that from the very beginning on both of my characters and it only happens after visiting the town, completely random and requiring hard resets. I'm just about ready to give up this game until and if the Unofficial Patch team do their excellent thing because it's just not enjoyable as it is and I'm sick of having to spam SAVE so i don't lose too much progress. I will give it a go with the latest version of SKSE and see if that improves things though. I currently have 1_04_08 (non beta.) I would have stayed with 1.3 but since I want to use the CK when it's released I didn't have much choice but to update. :(

The same thing that gave us the right to do pretty much everything else we've done in the entire history of the US: We're the US, and who the - is going to tell us what we can and can't do? I do hope that was a joke and that you didn't emphasize the fact RZ1029, otherwise that comment and attitude earns you and like thinking people no respect and a lot of enmity. @Maigrets I am sure that RZ is referring to the concept of enacting copyright legislation for the US, but since we already know how much respect you have for us I don't think we are risking much at all. RZ is correct in the essential matter, it's a bill on the table in our Congress not anyone else's. So the bottom line is that the only opinion that matters is on Capital Hill. Nice convenient misinterpretation of what I said Aurielius. Nowhere did I say I anything about me or anyone else having a lack of respect for the US or it's people and your belief about what I think is so far off base it's laughable. The way RZ1029 worded his comment sounded quite abrasive and mentioned nothing about the Bill itself. I do believe he was replying to Sync182 though in what came across as a snide and arrogant manner. The US as any other nation, has the right to do as it pleases, as long as it's internal and doesn't knowingly adversely affect other countries. I'm not suggesting that will happen with the SOPA bill, but it's highly likely it will and that's what this discussion topic is about. It's not a debate when either side tells the other what to believe is it? My comment about respect and enmity was aimed at RZ1029 and people who think the same as far as rights and who is mightier, not at the Unites States or it's people in general. I'm quite sure he is able to defend himself quite adequately though, however what he has written, without clarification comes across as arrogance and your comment isn't helping. If I misinterpreted what seemed to me to be a very clear sentence then perhaps he, or you would like to clarify what these rights actually mean. "We're the US, and who the - is going to tell us what we can and can't do?" Really? In your country yes, but not in others whether they want it or not. But, as you yourself said about me, and you are so wrong, it's pretty clear what your opinions are as I've read plenty of them, so you need not bother. Please read his sentence again and consider that someone who is not a US citizen may be offended by it. I'd also ask you not to put words in my mouth or pretend to know what I think. I read enough of your derogatory comments to other members to have an idea what your thoughts are towards anyone who disagrees with you. You need to get off your high horse occasionally and consider other people's viewpoints Aurielius, because they are allowed to have them without being looked down upon. With regards to SOPA, if the US wants to enact a bill like it or any other kind of legislation for that matter, it's their right to do it and goes without saying, but it will have an ongoing effect on the rest of the world just because of the type of legislation it is. It is SOPA and it's possible ramifications this topic is about not other US government or internal business. The movie and music industry is world wide after all and governments everywhere can be quick to jump on the band wagon when they think it might score votes in certain targeted sectors or when money or pressure is involved. We very nearly had a bill much like SOPA, (yet more insidious), creep in behind the scenes a few years ago (2008-2011) and it wasn't until it was exposed and made more public than our government liked that there was a huge reaction to it, people protested and it was shelved. It was more likely to do with the "forced" change of Government at the time and the ousting of the Prime Minister who supported it and the Senator who was determined to have it pass despite a massive backlash, than voter opinion though. It was also found that there was more to it than the piracy issue which was actually a secondary consideration in it's presentation, and there were plans to censor books, movies, games and of course the internet. Until it rears it''s ugly head again some time in the future and they try again we can rest easy. Maybe. Hopefully that will be after I'm gone or too old to care because I believe in self censorship and one's own sense of what's right or just wrong, not having it forced on us according to what someone else in power thinks is good for us.

I have no idea which mods Bethesda would like if they even play their own game after such a long development time, which would be understandable considering they should know every square centimeter of the world and what's in it. There would be no surprises anymore. Work isn't great for playing really and the game development was their work. Anyway, I do know which ones they liked from Oblivion as they took the very obvious concepts of a lot of mods and used them in Skyrim, which in itself is a big kudos to the original modders.

The same thing that gave us the right to do pretty much everything else we've done in the entire history of the US: We're the US, and who the - is going to tell us what we can and can't do? I do hope that was a joke and that you didn't emphasize the fact RZ1029, otherwise that comment and attitude earns you and like thinking people no respect and a lot of enmity. @ Sync182 I'm also Australian. Unfortunately our Federal Government signed a Free Trade Agreement with the US which means we would more than likely follow suit with any inane legislation like SOPA because our Govt is so good at being independent and thinking "of" the people not "for" them. /sarcasm At least that's what I read on a reliable source page recently when someone else, also an Aussie questioned it and as it says on this page about free trade agreements and intellectual property protection between the participants. http://dfat.gov.au/fta/

I would suggest to try not to use fast travel depending on your style of game play of course, or unless absolutely necessary and time doesn't permit. You miss out on so many of the random events, Radiant AI and just the pleasure of exploring the beautiful world. You can also find quests with quite some detail that are not just fetch quests and that you may never find otherwise. Very often these quests have unique loot and are only found by exploring various locations, finding books and talking to seemingly random NPC's. Besides, fast travel triggers dragons to appear at my destination almost without fail in my game at least, even within cities, and that can get annoying sometimes when I'm just going there for a quick visit.

yes. people, it is just a video game, please dont forget that there is a big world out there in real life, and not just skyrim. You know you people who keep reminding us about the big wide world that exists outside of our computer screens need to take another look at this forum and what this thread in particular is about. I think we are all aware of real life and it's wonders and in some cases horrors outside our front doors, however we are talking about a game and it's editor here. If you have nothing to contribute other than rant because modders are waiting for and speculating about the CK, which we have been led to expect will be released soon, why are you even commenting? Yes, it's a single player game but with the potential to be much, much more than it is, and we would like to be able to talk about that, not to mention what's happening with Steamworks without these kind of troll comments. We're waiting for the editor to fix many issues with the game. Top of my list is removing level scaling, weapon, armour and NPC enemy balancing, quest fixes and many other things that I would bet Bethesda don't bother to address. The most likely scenario is they will fix the most glaring things that may break people's games and the rest will either be abandoned as with Oblivion, or left up to modders to fix. I am however prepared to be surprised and find they make some much needed changes, especially considering the bad press about the game's faults, but I'm doubtful. For one thing if we hadn't had an editor for Oblivion that game would have faded from most people's memory years ago. The very fact that Bethesda's games can so easily be modded is a huge thing. Many people use their modding experience to create amazing works from a simple but essential edit to a game mechanic to massive Total Conversions, others use the games as an expression of artistry, and others use it as an escape from the reality you are so fond of, since not everyone has such a great life. I use these games for modding purposes and for that escape from drudgery of real life because after all it is a role playing game, not some 10 or 20 hour shooter with no replay value. For myself I'm hoping that some talented people can fix the balance issues and other things I mentioned and I would like to make my own edits and I know many others want to do the same. I also agree with StanIsTheLaw to a large degree. I have logged 197 hours in Skyrim as of last night on only one character now at level 50 with only one quest glitch, and still haven't finished the main guild quests except for the Thieves Guild, and I'm around 2/3 through the main quest. But, I can't see myself playing the same character until level 80 because as it is I can kill almost anything now and dragons are just a pushover, particularly with a certain shout from partway through the main quest. There are so many things that need attention besides bug fixes to make this game truly epic, including followers, horses, the sameness of dungeon enemies (pathetically weak skeletons), level scaling, weapon balancing, unbalanced crafting system, magic system and a lot more. In the end we have no choice but to wait on Bethesda, but thankfully there are other options and eventually we may not need their editor at all. One would hope they are taking notice of the various threads here and elsewhere about the CK, but being a money making corporation I doubt it would sway their decisions. We will get what they decide to give us and that's it..

OK. Long post so probably TL:DR and once again I was going to stay out of these discussions but.... I get exactly what Tidus44 is saying and it's to do with censorship of the internet as much as trying to stop piracy, which is more than likely a minor concern in the grand scheme, which I'm about to explain about our experience here. I haven't read the details about SOPA, (I will now though) but if it even comes close to what our government was trying to do back in 2008/09/10 and into 2011, I would have great concerns for where it might lead. Our government at that time, strongly backed by the Family First Party, was trying pass a Bill that would censor and block all websites that may or may not have had content related to child and all pornography in general, terrorism and other content it deemed inappropriate for people to view. There was and probably still is, a so called secret list of 1000's of sites that would be blocked via the ISP which would be mandatory if the Bill were passed and any ISP found not in compliance would be prosecuted. This was to be done via filtering software at the ISP level so the paying user would find it difficult, but not impossible, or so I read, to bypass. There are ways I believe but it was also mentioned that user traffic would be monitored and since it's going through the "paying' user's ISP they would be able to question it and deny all access to the internet. Without going into huge detail it was found that sites that contained information on health issues and other innocent content that may have key words like "breast" for example would be auto filtered. Sites like Youtube would also be filtered. There's a lot more to it than that, but I can find links to the proposed legislation if necessary. It all went very quiet after the ISP's threatened legal action against the government and the Bill because for one thing they were flooded with complaints and threats from users who were going to reduce their payment plans or leave altogether, which would mean a huge revenue loss But, knowing governments and their underhandedness, if they really want it to go ahead they will find a way whether it's soon or ten years away. It wasn't going to stop there either. Book stores and video rental outlets were going to be told to keep anything deemed "inappropriate" in locked cases and some videos, like Mad Max (Road Warrior in the US I believe) in plain paper covers. A number of games were also denied classification and banned during that period. Risen was one of those much to my disgust. The reason for that was references to drug use and prostitution which was only alluded to with a black screen and not graphic at all. Fallout 3 very nearly didn't make it either until the names of the drugs used were changed. One thing of important note is that torrent sites and piracy was low on the list of concerns this filter was meant to block and was only added as an afterthought to make it sound more viable. It all went suspiciously quiet when we had a "forced" change of government and there was such a backlash reaction to it, although the sitting Minister responsible at the time was prepared to forge on regardless. I wouldn't be surprised if it reared it's ugly head again in the future. For one thing it was not widely known until reports started popping up on protest sites. There was almost nothing reported in the TV or newspaper news, until it was brought to the attention of the public via the internet and even then it was only mentioned in passing. I kept a very close eye on this myself and couldn't find any mention in the mainstream media besides on the internet itself which is laughable in itself. Just to be clear, I am not having a go at the United States here, but our government tends to "follow the leader" when it comes to a lot of things the US proposes whether it's in the best interests of our country or not. This means (to me) that if the SOPA Bill goes through and it will if enough people can be convinced it's a good thing, not to mention people who don't really care one way or the other. These are usually select groups of people the legislators target directly via hard campaigning and who often don't have much understanding of how the internet works or the consequences of censorship. Once it starts there can be no end if the law is enacted and it can be changed and twisted in any way they like. If the Bill is passed and the US decides to block their internet users from viewing any site they deem unsuitable, I imagine there would be little that can be done to stop it especially if it's ISP based as was proposed here. That would in fact mean that sites like the Nexus would lose a lot of traffic and I fail to see how laws in other countries will affect that. Our country (read government) can't even stand up for itself and it's people when push comes to shove, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that the EU countries won't eventually follow suit with the US if enough pressure is put on them and SOPA is passed. People can protest as much as they like, but in the end the voice of the voting public is generally ignored especially when the information given is full of holes and their agenda is targeted to a particular section of the community. They just change the focus and spin, saying the same thing but in a different way. Voting is compulsory here by the way and despite that one can make an invalid vote as many do just to get their name crossed off the Polls, I always vote for what I believe in, not because legally I have to, but because I want to. As I said, if enough people can be made to believe policy promises no matter how flawed and backward they will win eventually. Something like internet and other regressive censorship should have been brought to a referendum, but so far, we hope, it's died and will never be revived. I don't hold out a lot of hope for that though. Edited for spelling despite the spell checker. :rolleyes:

My Khajiit would ride a horse if her Khajiit partner Kharjo could also ride. She does own a fine horse though, but it generally stays at the stable and doesn't get out much these days. Otherwise we run everywhere and usually only fast travel to unload gear at our houses or to sell when we are both overencumbered, which is most of the time. Khajiit need to keep in shape and running is natural. :laugh: Carrying all that gear is good weight training. Also as Red_Ice said, you miss out on a lot by fast traveling. Besides the random events there are hidden areas and loot to find. Edit for spelling.