Aonghus

Drain the swamp? Is that some kind of troll? Look at Trump's cabinet picks so far: Secretary of State - Rex Tillerson, CEO ExxonMobil Corporation Attorney General - Sen. Jeff Sessions Secretary of Health and Human Services - Rep. Tom Price (the ACA will be defunded immediately) Secretary of Commerce - Wilbur Ross (aka "King of Bankruptcy") Secretary of Defense - Gen. James Mattis Secretary of "Department of Homeland Security" - Gen. John Kelly Secretary of Energy - Rick Perry (think fracked and permanently polluted Texas) Etc. Trump is draining the swamp directly into the White House. Simply watch what happens. As mentioned elsewhere I give Trump six months in office before impeachment proceedings begin due to incompetence and/or legal scandal, and if he starts getting in the way of the machine's agenda it will happen even sooner. IMO we've been electing outright despots to lead our country since Nixon, regardless of party, and I can think of nobody more appropriate to see a failed, bankrupt and now outright fascist federal government to its final demise than the very king of the prostitutes. If that sounds extreme, Ben Franklin predicted exactly this eventual fate, well over two centuries ago. Our corrupted political system allows for no option other than electing despots and traitors. So imo the only option is to abolish our Executive Branch entirely. Again if it sounds extreme, according to history it's a natural progression in government that countries from Britain to China have gone through. It had an essential function during our revolutionary years, in absence of formal declarations of war from Congress it's become nothing but a playground for fascism, military adventurism and special interest corruption. Yes, because top people in their fields must have gotten there dishonestly. /sarc/ For the first time in my lifetime, we have an incoming administration that is filling the cabinet with top people from the private sector rather than career politicians (with a few notable exceptions.) I, for one, have gotten sick a tiered of the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the left side of the aisle. Trump won because of a rejection of the liberal ideas that have been shoved down the American people's throats for the past eight years. You mentioned the ACA? Also say goodbye to Obamacare, police consent decrees, the war on energy in the name of AGW, and (I strongly suspect) a large portion of the current civil service. To me, this looks like a return to 1980, but without an obstructionist congress to clog up the works. As the current president so infamously said, "Elections have consequences." Go back to your "safe space" for the next four years and let Trump get on with the Herculean task of undoing the damage the left has done over the past fifty. You can try to vote him out in 2020, but I have a strong suspicion that will not happen. -A

Also imo the first step to rebuilding America's political system is to rehabilitate the intentionally corrupted terms liberal and conservative. We've had a century of intentional polarization on virtually all issues by a two-party cartel that has maintained its power almost exclusively by keeping us pointing fingers at each other, instead of where the fingers of blame belong: the two-party cartel itself. Runaway, tax-and-spend government is not "liberal", it's socialist. And borrow-and-spend bankrupting of America's federal government, by pretending fair trade with enslaved Communist countries is even possible, is not "conservative", it's treason to our Constitution. Have you actually listened to anything Trump has said, or are you just relying on other people telling you what he said? I ask because you condemn him in one paragraph, and then come out with this in the next. A paragraph that could have been lifted from one of Trump's many speeches. The man will not take office for another month. His announced cabinet picks give me great hope that he really does mean to "drain the swamp." Remember, for the first time in more than a century we have a President elect who is not beholden to either political party or to a special interest. I was a reluctant Trump voter (I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but I was almost certain what Hillary was planning to do,) but given the six week temper tantrum the left has been throwing since the election, I'm still shaking from how big of a bullet the country just dodged.

I always heard it as a conservative who won the lottery, but that's another one of my favorites.

To jump in and try to answer the original question, I think the reason Trump won was Hillary's "...Put a lot of coal miners out of work." comment. I know we've had a West Virginian explain to us that coal is dying anyway, and she promised retraining, but that is missing what actually happened. Hillary never had a chance to carry coal country, not after eight years of Obama's war on coal. What that remark did do was send a message to everyone employed in any type of manufacturing that their industry might be next. We've had a decade of government job retraining, and people now have a pretty good idea of exactly how useless that is. Hence the Rust Belt suddenly turned a little redder. "To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth." - Theodore Roosevelt

Oh, that's cute. I was deliberately not taking sides in a race I don't have a horse in. My point was that both sides in this debate are up on moral high-horses trying to save us from nonexistent problems. If the past couple of years have taught us anything it is that the left wing can be just as dogmatic and intolerant as the worst of the moral majority. -A

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”- C.S.Lewis

Icelandjedi, This sounds like a problem with a missing mesh/tetures. What mods are you running?

If you click "help" in the GECK, it will take you to the GECK wiki, which contains a complete list of functions available for scripting (including NVSE functions.) You may also find this Utility handy: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/17404/?. It doesn't have a list of functions you can look up, but if you start typing a function, it will start to auto-complete the function (much like Excel does.) I haven't tried it with NV only scripts, but there are relatively few of those.

Other than not placing the entire structure within C:\program files, where you make the folders is immaterial, as long as you make them and can remember where you put them.

My experience with scripts is limited, but have you tried moving the assignment of the randone variable outside of the nested if statement? (i.e. assign a random percentage to the variable before you check the quest stage,and then use that variable only after you've checked the quest stage.) It should mean an additional call every time the script is run, but the hit should be minimal.

First of all, before you do anything I talk about here, make sure to make backups of your mod files. That way, if something does go wrong, you can revert to your current status. Secondly, if you're using Lings, you've got quite a large selection of female hairs to choose from already. Try setting Lings.esm as a master to NVWillow.esp (Open Willow in the Geck, but also check Lings.esm in the "Open File" dialogue. Finally, it's not enough just to have the hair in the game, you have to edit the custom race so it knows to use the hair you want Willow to have. Under the Character menu in the GECK, you need to open the Hair submenu (this will bring up a window) and then go and open Race in the same menu. Down near the bottom of the Race listings, you will see an entry for "WillowRace". Select this entry, make sure the check box is set to female, and navigate to the FaceData tab. Now, select the hair you want Willow to have from the List in the "Hair" window we pulled up earlier and drag it to the "Hair Styles List." Almost done, now we need to assign the new hairstyle to Willow in the game. Close the Race and Hair windows out with the "Okay" button, and navigate to the Actors/NPC entry in the tree on the left of the object window. If you click the + sign next to the NPC entry, it will expand and show you all of the installed races. Again, near the bottom, you are looking for "WillowRace". Expanding with the + sign and selecting "Female" from the newly expanded list should show only one entry, Willow. Open her record by double clicking, and navigate to the "Head Parts" tab. Here there is a drop-box labeled "Hair" that should allow you to assign Willow her new hair style. (Clicking the "Head" preview box at the bottom of this window will allow you to confirm that she's now using the hair style you want her to use.) You can also change her hair color, on the "Face" tab. (Don't bother messing with the "Hair Length" slider, it appears to have no effect on the game. Hope that helped.

Yes, to avoid confusion, make those folders in the GEMM directory.

And you definitely want to include Moose's work in your game. IMHO, he's one of the best adventure writers in the Nexus community.

You'll need to manually insert the "actor effects" information into your merged patch. The FO3Edit training manual: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/8629/? starting on page 40. The procedure is simple. Just drag the info you want to include in your merged patch into the corresponding field in the patch. In this case, clicking on the blank field next to "Actor Effects" in FWE's column and dragging the information into the corresponding field in your merged patch's column should do the trick.

And I apologize for using computer terms you're not familiar with. In a way, you could think of this as an education in computer terminology. (Although I suspect you're much more interested in getting your game running) Older versions of FOMM are available on the Nexus download page for the mod. Just scroll down past the current versions section, and you'll see a list of older versions of the mod. You are spot on in interpreting what root means. C:\GEMM is said to be "Off the root" or root for short. Likewise, if you create a directory within GEMM, say for instance C:\GEMM\mods, the "mods" directory is said to be off GEMM. BTW, you may want to create to subdirectories ("Off GEMM", as we just discussed,) C:\GEMM\mods and C:\GEMM\Fomods, and using these to store your mods list and fomods when you install FOMM. (Don't worry about having to move anything into these directories, FOMM will take care of that automatically, we just need to tell FOMM where to put things. This way, you will have everything related to FOMM's operation contained in the single "GEMM" directory. This could save you on headaches down the road if you run into a "Where did I put....?" question.)

A variation of this debate has been going on for as long as I can remember. Each new generation arises and naturally rebels against the generation that came before. "We're not going to make the same mistakes as our parents!" Becomes the rallying cry, and things do change, often for the better. The problem boils down to attempts to re-invent the wheel. Without a firm, dispassionate knowledge of history, it is impossible to know what mistakes were made before and therefore avoid making them again. It has been said that history repeats itself, first as a tragedy, then as a farce. SPZ2, you make an impassioned argument for a benevolent dictatorship based on his thinking on the subject. (just a note, time will teach you you're not nearly as intelligent as you think you are. A lesson I learned at great personal cost,) At the same time, he totally ignores the fact that such a system has never worked for long throughout recorded history. Compounding the problem is an attempt by some individuals to put their own particular "spin" on historic events. On another board I frequent, there is a long-running, and often contentious debate on the merits of the AGW theory. Those of us who are old enough to remember the 70s point out that the great fear of the time was that man's pollution was bringing on the next ice age, and the only possible way to save the planet was to totally abandon fossil fuels (which were all going to be depleted by the year 2000 in any case.) On mentioning that fact, I have generally encountered denial that such a theory was ever held, or if it was it was, it was a fringe theory that never gain widespread scientific acceptance. Yet I have clear memories of the constant drumbeat of warning throughout my years in grade school that we had to reduce pollution, lest the glaciers return. All this is in way of saying that any historical sources other than primary are at best suspect, and at worst attempts to propagandize. Just prior to WWI, then president Wilson said, "We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks." It was a statement totally in keeping with the newest political theory on the scene. Facism would be the wave of the future, with all the happy workers lead by a benevolent and magnanimous elite. It took less than forty years for Germany to demonstrate just how wrong that thinking was. In the early part of the 20th century, the idea of eugenics was quite popular. President Roosevelt (Teddy) and H.G. Wells were great proponents of the movement. Margaret Sanger founded the organization that would become Planned Parenthood in an attempt to control the growing population of immigrants and minorities in the country that was less harsh than euthanasia. (A fact that she unabashedly acknowledged in an interview shortly before her death.) Again, before the middle of the century, the true horror that lay behind taking the theory to its logical conclusion became apparent. Lacking a knowledge of the past, there is no way to know what wonderful theories led to the horrors of the mid 20th century. A lack of critical thinking and reasoning skills robs one of the ability to see that no matter how wonderful a theory may sound, the unintended consequences can be horrific. Lack of knowledge of philosophy robs one of the ability to discern the difference between good and evil. Wilson may have been right, and the majority of a countries citizens may lack the intellectual fortitude to benefit from advanced education (after all, by definition, half of the population is below average in intelligence.) Given where governance by elites, with no input from the masses, has historically lead us, I am leery of any system that proposes such a system of governance, no matter what method is used to select those who are the elite. The western system of democratic republics has been around for quite a while, and may, someday, cease to be a viable alternative. My sense is that day has not yet arrived, and will not arrive for some time to come.

A crash on startup is usually due to a missing master file, but can also be caused by a esp trying to load before a master. Get and run BOSS, and it should probably fix your problem. (Just on a quick perusal, you have way to many mods trying to load before the DLCs.)

It's a known bug with FOMM, (and something I was hoping to avoid, but oh well.) The work-around is rather involved. 1) Unistall FOMM. 2) Re-install an older version of FOMM (Before version 12) making sure NOT to allow it to install in the default directory, (C:\Program Files...) but instead placing it off your C:\ root. 3) Run FOMM, but do not allow it to update itself. 4) Close out FOMM and install the current version over the top of the install you just did. You should now be functional, with the added bonus that the initial problem we were working on should go away (Provided you set you Fomod and Mod directiories as was discussed above.

I'm assuming that you are kicking off FOMM from a desktop icon. (If you are running from the start menu, the same procedures apply, it's just a little trickier to keep things lined up.) Start by right clicking on the icon you use and select "Properties" from the menu displayed. This will bring up a window that will be titled something like "Fallout Mod Manager Properties." What you are after is the tab that says "Shortcut." (It should come up automatically, but in case it doesn't, this is the tab you are looking for. On that tab you are looking for the section that references "target" In particular, there is a line with a text input box that says "Target" and should contain the location of your FOMM program file. In my case (and this is only my case based on where I installed FOMM) it reads: "C:\FOMM\FOMM,exe," but yours might be different, depending on where you installed FOMM (this is the command line call I was talking about before. It is telling your machine what to run when you click on the icon.) What you need to do is insert a space after the .exe followed by "-setup" (without the quotes.)(This is the argument. They are also referred to as command line modifiers.) Hit "Apply" then "OK" and now when you run FOMM you will be taken to the FOMM Advanced properties screen. Make your modifications, close the program, and undo all of the changes to the shortcut we did above. You should now be able to run FOMM without problems. Please note. As was said above, the Directory structure I mentioned is what I have set my machine up to do. You can choose any directory you want, and even create a brand new directory or subdirectory by typing an address into the appropriate text box or adding onto a directory that was selected by the browse button. Make sure to add a "\" after any directory if you want your new folder to be a subdirectory. Hope that cleared up some of the confusion.

If you've got an overide, have you confirmed that the new mesh/texture is indeed present in the folder it's supposed to be in?

First off, congrats for coming back to the light. Secondly, you are correct that the first two directory settings in the screenshot above are incorrect. Install information and Fomod information need to be stored in a directory other than the game directory (although they can both be stored in the same place, I personally use a directory c:\FOMM\mods.) So they need to be changed, but the changes cannot be made while FOMM is running. Fortunately, the program has a fix for this. You need to add the argument "-setup" (without quotes) to your command line call of FOMM. This will bring up the window that will allow you to change these settings.

I would like to make a small, but important, distinction. The US was set up not as a Democracy but as a Republic. In fact, at the time of the founding, democracy was a synonym for anarchy. Yes, we choose our representatives via a democratic manner, but their actions are (at least in theory,) constrained by the Constitution and the rule of law. I can remember when the talk of the decline of the West (and our particular form of Government) was last in vogue. I was a child in the 70s, but this sort of talk was rampant then. The buzz was that 200 years was a good run, but America was headed for the drain, and we'd all end up working for Japan Inc. before too much longer. Before that, I have read that a similar view was prevalent in the 30s, and the rising tide of socialism (including fascism,) would sweep away the democratic experiment. I do agree with Lisnpuppy that the greatest threat to the US is an ignorant electorate. I can however, provide a concrete example of at least one district (mine) where a congressman got bounced after a single term. Please understand that I live in rural Appalacia, and my district is not particularly wealthy, nor is an advanced education a common commodity. During the 2008 elections, the long-time Republican incumbent was defeated. (He richly deserved it, having apparently died in office several years before, but nobody bothered to inform him. If the local Democrats had bothered to run anybody who wasn't slightly to the left of Karl Marx, it would have happened years before.) During the campaign, accusations that the new incumbent was a carpet-bagger (having only recently returned to the region after almost two decades living and working in NYC,) a charge he hotly denied. On getting into office, he proceeded to vote party-line 98% of the time, often over the vehement objections of the residents of the district. Come the 2010 elections he was summarily shown the door. His replacement has made it a point to regularly meet with those of us in his district, and I have yet to see a local town hall meeting of his that was not standing room only or worse. The unspoken agreement is that as long as he keeps receiving input for the voters of his district, and providing explanations of why he votes against the popular will, we will keep sending him back to congress. So rather than lament low citizen participation in elections, the more productive path is to take an active part in the political process. Realize that the opinion you hold may not be in-line with what the other voters in your district believe, and if they don't agree with you they may be disagreeing with you rather than not listening to you.

Mot complete manual for fo3edit available: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/8629/?. It's by no means exhaustive, but it should get you started.

There is no need to re-install the vanilla assets. They are still there, contained in the bsa files. Simply removing the updated assets will make the game default to the originals. PLEASE NOTE: Do not just delete the assets! You must remove the mod entirely.

Dakier, you should always put the new mesh in the same folder that it was contained in the bsa. Rather than selecting only the mesh you want to install and extracting that, try extracting the entire bsa. In the case of the alien epoxy, the proper path is ...meshes/dlc05/clutter. If you look at the Zeta.esm in FO3Edit, you'll find the epoxy under the heading of Ingestible, and it should show you any and all mods that make changes to it.