gpstr1

In all honesty, I'm just thrilled to even get a suggestion from the person who brought cats to my game. ATM, Echo lives in the Bruma house, Cleo adorns Rosethorn Hall, Misty moved into Benirus Manor, Pepper relaxes in the Cheydinhal house, Jazz prowls the IC waterfront and Oscar travels with me (from house to house at least-- he's not much into dungeon crawling). But anyway, obsessive cat-person stuff aside, I look forward to trying out your house, and thanks. :biggrin:

oh my gawd...... I just happened on, downloaded and installed this little gem-- hilarity I laughed so hard I couldn't even see. Hell-- I was already laughing before I even started the game up, just from the description of one of the spells-- "FREE PONY - This spell gives the target a free Pony. The catch is the pony starts high, high above the targets head." So I went to Edgar's (and it's so perfect that the book that contains all the spells is in Edgar's) and got the spells and went to work on the Market District. First, just because I had to see it, I cast Free Pony on one of the guards, and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. It was sort of reminiscent of Tarhiel in Morrowind, except, you know, it's a horse falling from the sky and, in this case, a guard that he lands on. Still makes me laugh just thinking about it..... Then I cast Gnomize (shrinks the target to one half size) on another of the guards, which was funny enough, then even funnier when he got into a conversation with one of the beggars. Wanting to liven things up a bit, I cast 1.21 Gigawatts (1,000 points shock damage on target) on the beggar, which blew her backwards satisfyingly, but the guard of course knew that I'd done it, so I found myself being arrested by a 3 foot tall guard. So, thinking fast, I cast Long Riot (Frenzy up to level 50 in 100 ft for 300 sec, Rally 200 pts in 100 ft for 300 sec, Restore Health 20 pts in 100 ft for 300 seconds and invisibility on self for 300 seconds) on him, and all hell broke loose. The beggars got in on it, and Palonyria, and Claudette, and Maro, and one of the Verus brothers and a whole bunch of other random NPCs. At one point, I cast Let's Play Catch (drops a pile of boulders on target) on a guard who was attacking my companion (no way to keep her out of it) which nullified my invisibility, so I had to cast Polymorph Sheep (just what it sounds like) on a few guards, then cast 100% Chameleon on myself so that I could play some more without that happening again. Tried out Summon Titan Ogre (summons a giant ogre), which was quite satisfying, and pretty much finished things up. The only survivors were me, the sheep, my companion Sara (she's essential, so I wasn't worried about her, but she's also badass, and didn't even get knocked unconscious) and, curiously, Calindil, who was stalking around in a bound helmet. And just as I was standing there, surveying the wreckage, Varnado walked out of the Merchant's Inn and struck up a conversation, as if the street in front of him wasn't littered with bodies and rocks and sheep...... Ah... it was glorious. And I've got the autosave from when I walked out of Edgar's door, so I'm going to go do it all over again. This time I think I'll summon some bandits and marauders to add to it, and try out that Failed Levitate spell. And maybe see if I can start it all off by casting Pickpocket on a guard-- see what happens if he tries to pickpocket another guard..... I've been trying some animations too, so I can already see starting another riot, then right in the middle of it casting Stark Reality on someone and making him/her umpa dance....... Makes me laugh just thinking about it....

I'd feel that I was in debt to them, no matter what they said about it. That's just the way I am. I can ask for something simple (like a link to an already-existing house) just because this is a forum and doling out information is part of the point. I can thank the person who gives me the information and feel content with that, and maybe even someday get a chance to give them some information they want in return. But actually doing something like making a house, and making it to MY specifications-- that, to me, is just too big of a thing. It's not something that I can pay back with a simple thank you, or at least it feels that way to me. But hell-- all I've managed to do by trying to avoid that situation is make you mad, so I don't know what else to do or say.......

Oooh look-- an ad hominem. Not like you see many of them online, hmm? If you wish to dispute my analysis, feel free. Simply hanging a string of insulting characterizations on it, however, does nothing to advance your argument. I might well say that your response is little more than predictable, priggish apologism, but that would be equally without merit. Though if you compare that assertion with what you perceive to be the reality of yourself and of your opinion, you might-- just might-- gain some understanding of how shallow and offensive your response, however intended, really is. Now then: First, I don't "seem to forget" anything, and again, you can kindly leave your opinions of me or my reasoning abilities or the depth and breadth of my memory out of this. The opinion expressed should be the only point at issue here. Second, 300 years is but the briefest moment in the history of the human race, which history is, itself, but the briefest moment in the history of the world. It's such a tiny sliver of time as to be essentially meaningless. And even were that not the case, the fact that something has stood for some period of time only proves that it has stood for that period of time. It in no way proves that it will continue to stand. Though I do agree that, come what may, there's a rather good chance that at least some humans, in at least some form, will survive. We're remarkably adaptable animals. But I maintain the opinion that our civilization will fall. I'd go so far, as I already have, as to assert categorically that, sooner or later, it must. The vast majority of civilizations that have ever existed on this planet have already fallen. It's just the way it works-- they're born, then they live, then they die. But it's okay. I'll hold to my opinion and you're free to hold to yours. Just don't insult me because you don't agree, mmkay? Thanks.

Ah jeez.... just too little letters. The closest things I could find browsing through the console commands were getpos and setpos but those only seemed to work sporadically and it was too time-consuming most of the time. RA....... Reset.... AI maybe? Off to the wiki-- thanks. *edit* Ah.... Reset Actors. Yeah-- I remember that one now. I was wary of it because it says in the description that it resets every NPC, and I wasn't sure what that would do. Still not sure what that would do.....

Yowp..... Much though I appreciate the offer, I really don't want someone to make me a house. That wasn't the point of all of this and I hate being in debt to anyone. I just figured that, somewhere in the 91 pages of house mods listed here, there was one that was most like what I was looking for, and I thought maybe it would be easier to just find somebody on the forum who had seen such a house and could point me at it than to not only wade through all those pages, but to do so and run the risk that I'd miss the one I was looking for anyway, since so many of the partial descriptions on the browse pages don't contain any really useful information. Damn. I don't know at this point if it's more offensive to accept an offer that makes of me a debtor or to turn down an offer freely made..... *sigh* What I was looking for is a house outside of any city in a pleasant setting, relatively centrally located (north, south, east or west of IC doesn't much matter, so long as it's not all the way over on one side of the map, though the two I've added since yesterday are to the north and to the east of IC, so maybe south or west would be best), with maybe a front porch with a nice view. A pond and waterfall(s) would be a bonus. The interior is all one cell, maybe a half dozen rooms on two floors at most. There's plenty of storage in a variety of containers so that I can keep track of what's in what without having the containers labeled. There's a bed, of course, and maybe a few other pieces of furniture, but furniture really isn't that important-- mostly it just gets in the way. Tables were nice in Morrowind, but in Oblivion it's a chore getting stuff laid out on them and then if you happen to run into them, the stuff flies across the room, so I just don't use them. The doorways between the rooms should either have no doors (my own preference) or the doors should open against the wall. I loathe doors that open out into the middle of the room, just because you open them the first time you come into the house, then they're just in the way from then on. The floorplan should be simple and obvious and as open as possible, without a maze of rooms. My favorite vanilla house is Bruma, by far. It could use a few more chests, but that's about it-- other than that, it's just what I like. Don't feel pressed. Dont worry about updating me. Don't concentrate on what you think I want. If you make something that's something like that, that'd be great, but you have to do it because it's what you want to do-- not because some yutz on a message board asked for it. Especially since I'm that yutz..... :biggrin:

You didn't know that?! How could someone who gains so much pleasure from death and destruction not know that you can drag corpses around? Though I imagine you're off happily dragging corpses around, so I won't expect an answer for a while now...........

Well-- there's a simple fact underlying all of this-- simply that all that lives must one day die. That not only applies to individuals but to tribes, civilizations, species and even the planet itself. That is simply a fact, and entirely unavoidable. So the question isn't whether or not our civilization or even our species or even the planet will die-- they absolutely will. The only pertinent question, for the purposes of this thread, is 'when?' Modern western civilization is fast approaching a breaking point. I wouldn't presume to predict when it will fall, but I would quite comfortably stake everything I own on the prediction that it will, and that it will do so in at most not many more generations. It's simply too foul and too corrupt-- too ignorant and too easily misled-- too bloated at the top and weakened at the bottom. The politicians and powermongers and their patrons and cronies WILL pull it all down around their, and our, ears. The only-- the ONLY-- thing that might head that off is a pandemic or war or other massive loss of life, which will merely bring the collapse about in a different way. There's simply no other choice. Our civilization was born and it has lived-- it will one day die. That's just the way of the world. Speaking of "the world" though-- it will survive. This planet is far stronger than we are, and there's really nothing that we can do that would actually destroy it. We might well alter it to the point that it won't support us, but that just means that something else will come to dominate it. It will live on, with or without us. At least until the sun goes nova.....

Broadly-- over the long term, the races that appear to be the best for a particular class are actually not, and the ones that appear to not be the best actually are. You actually gimp yourself more (again, in the long run) by choosing the race that seems to make the most sense-- not the one that seems to make the least. In your example-- if you choose, say, a Breton for your mage character, then s/he starts with relatively high numbers for intelligence and willpower and relatively high magicka, which seems perfect for a spellcaster. The problems though are: 1) S/he will have lousy numbers for endurance and strength, and thus low hit points, encumbrance and fatigue. 2) You'll be using your magic skills the most, so you'll be increasing intelligence and willpower the most, and since s/he already has high numbers for those attributes, you'll max out sooner. 3) S/he will get killed in a hurry by anyone who makes it through his/her spells with a melee weapon, since s/he will have lousy fighting skills. The only way to compensate for those weaknesses is to go out of your way to train fighting skills and thus raise endurance and strength, and you generally have to play out of character to do that, which spoils the immersion. If, however, you pick something like a Nord or a Redguard for your mage, then you start out with probably all the fighting skills, strength and endurance you're ever going to need, so you never need to worry about deliberately training those things. Yes, you'll start out with relatively low numbers for magic skills and for intelligence, willpower and magicka (though you can bump them up a good ways by carefully picking favored attributes and birthsign), so yes, you'll have a bit of a hard time for the first few levels, but the thing is that those are the skills and attributes you'll be using the most anyway, so they'll go up in a hurry. By the time you've gone up a few levels, you'll have plenty of magic skills and the appropriate attributes AND you'll have more strength and more endurance, and thus more hit points, more encumbrance and more fatigue than one of the theoretically more appropriate races. In the long run, you'll be a stronger character-- not a weaker one. This works especially well with spellcasters, since raising most of your magic skills (and thus your intelligence, willpower and personality) is just as easy as standing somewhere and casting a simple spell (bound helmet or minor life detection or starlight or protect) over and over. At lower levels, you can cast them enough times to level up with nice bonuses in a few hours of game time, which is only a few minutes of real time. The only schools that doesn't work with are restoration and destruction, because both require that the spells actually accomplish something. For instance, you only get points toward your restoration skill if you cast heal minor wounds when you're actually wounded, and only get points toward destruction if you cast flare (for instance) on a creature that then suffers damage. It also works nicely with fighters though, which is why I favor Breton fighters. I'll put one of my Breton fighters up against a Nord or a Redguard any day of the week, just because he not only has comparable numbers for all the fighter skils and attributes but has MORE useful magic and higher magic resistance. In the long run, a Breton with maxed fighter skills will ALWAYS be a tougher opponent than, say, a Nord with maxed fighter skills, just as a Nord with maxed magic skills will be a tougher opponent than a Breton with maxed magic skills. That's the truth.

Mmmm.... I was just looking at Abandoned Mountain Shack last night, but didn't dl it, mostly because it's a big file and I'm on a slow connection. But it's right at the top of my list when I've got the time and the patience to sit through the download. I've even got its page here bookmarked. Thanks.

One sort of funny moment that comes to mind right off-- I downloaded and installed the topless mod (removes all upper clothing and armor from all female NPCs) shortly after I first started the game, though after I'd already installed Robert's bodies. My most recent save was in IC Market District, but when I restarted it, there were no female NPCs around. So I looked around and saw that I was standing in front of Jensine's, and figured I'd go in there. Not the first NPC I wanted to see topless, but still.... And there she is, standing behind her counter, topless. And as I was standing there, thinking, "Hmm.... this mod isn't half bad....," she said her standard greeting: "See anything you like?" Well.... I thought it was funny anyway.....

Yeah-- you run slower with heavy armor, pretty much no matter what. The game bases your speed and movement on what you're wearing rather than, or at least more than, what you're carrying. So you can be carrying your max encumbrance, carrying light armor and wearing heavy and you'll move slower than if you're carrying the exact same things but wearing the light armor and carrying the heavy. And you'll move fastest of all if you're wearing nothing and carrying everything, though bandits and creatures might pose a bit of a problem then...... At expert level in heavy armor, you get a 50% reduction to the encumbrance of the heavy armor you're wearing, which helps a bit, but at the same level in light armor, you get a 100% reduction, so light armor still remains lighter and thus faster. Since it's always lighter, you've got more encumbrance left over to carry weapons and loot and it makes sneaking easier (at least until you get to journeyman level in sneak, at which point weight doesn't matter any more). Ultimately, aside from the lighter weight and lower encumbrance, there's no real advantage to light armor, and at higher levels even those advantages tend to fade. But by the same token, the 50% armor bonus for wearing all light armor at master level makes up for the protection advantage that heavy offers, so it all balances out and it really comes down just to personal preference. I put stealthy characters in light armor just because, even though it doesn't make any difference once I'm past journeyman level in sneak, sneaking around in a full suit of Daedric just seems wrong. Similarly I put warriors in heavy just because standing toe-to-toe with a Dremora while wearing a suit of glass seems wrong. And yes-- equipping a heavy shield with light armor cancels the 50% master level bonus for light armor, though at that point in the game it can potentially be worth it anyway, especially if you've got good armor and are pushing the 85% protection maximum already and the shield in question is especially nice, like the Escutcheon of Chorrol.

While there's something to be said for fighting highwaymen ("That's the way this one likes it" SMACK! Thud.) and for sneak attacking rats (with a bit of practice, I think you could play golf with them), I think my favorite things to fight are the higher ranking Dremora warriors (Kynval and up) just because they're a challenge and they stand and fight. They block relatively well and swing well and move fast, but if you fight smart they're not that hard to beat, really.

I've been pondering this one for days now, and still haven't come up with a good answer. There just really isn't anyone I hate. Most of the overtly hateful characters are pathetic enough that it's not worth hating them or they get their just desserts later in the game anyway (adoring fan is obviously pathetic, Mazoga gets all giddy and silly when she's made a knight-errant, even though she's not quite sure what that is, Countess Caro is a shallow prig with dirty secrets, Falwil Indarys is a weasel (huzzah!), Glarthir gets his pretty much no matter what, as does Falcar and pretty much every other really nasty character). I guess the NPC that irritates me the most is Claudette Perrick at The Gilded Carafe, just because she's so cheerful and so perky, and also so cheap and so rude about it. She pays less than virtually any other vendor in the game and almost all of her responses when she turns down a deal are the rudest possible. Then she's all perky and cheerful again. Phintias at First Edition is even cheaper and even ruder, but he's rude pretty much from the minute you walk in the door, which somehow makes it more tolerable for me. And I really can't think of anyone else....

Don't sweat it-- exams and papers are more important than this game any time. I appreciate any and all suggestions and don't demand anything. And by the bye, Tobe's house is a nice one-- just about exactly what I was looking for. I think I'll probably swap the weapon racks for chests, but other than that it's fine just the way it is. I'm curious to see though-- there's a very dependable bandit spawn point on the road right in front of the house, and I haven't checked to see if it's been eliminated. Could be sort of convenient to just step out the front door, whack a bandit and maybe upgrade my armor a bit. Thanks again for the links and I hope the exams went well and the paper goes well.

With my healthy Radeon X1950 Pro, I have the same problem with Morrowind, and I guess that counts as one of its (few) flaws. Oblivion is not only prettier, but it runs more smoothly. Though it appears to me that a good part of the slowness of Morrowind isn't the graphics at all, but the AI. I know that I generally get more pronounced changes in the smoothness (or lack thereof) of the game by changing the AI distance than by changing the view distance. The only problem with that is if I turn the AI distance down too far, then creatures appear frozen when I first see them, and only start to move when I get closer to them. Sort of disconcerting...... I never installed many mods on my Morrowind (bit of unexpected alliteration there). Book rotate, real signposts, correct UV rocks and ore veins, merchant unequip, bitter coast sounds and improved no glow are all must-haves, as far as I'm concerned. I tried a couple of armor balancing mods and didn't really like any of them, so I made my own. Added some birthsigns and tried Galsiah's Character Development (seems to be set up to provide the most benefit to spellcasters, which I guess is okay if you want to play a spellcaster), use Better Bodies, though I don't care for Better Heads (makes all the races too similar, IMO) and not much else, other than a smattering of armor and weapons (Shalk Armor, Silt Strider Armor, quorn's full dreugh set and full studded leather set, khan raider's oriental weapons pack...) and that's about it. I know there are a bunch of full quests and such out there, but I have plenty of fun with the quests that are already in the game. Maybe after I play it a couple more times I'll start to get bored with it and try some of the mod quests. And aside from the irritatingly poorly balanced, placed and utilized armor in the vanilla game (which I already fixed) I don't have any real problem with the way it has much of anything set up. Would like to see a good leveling mod though-- something like Kobu's Oblivion mod. See.... I should be playing Oblivion, but here I am, posting on a forum about Morrowind instead. I'm just in no big hurry to go to Sancre Tor and I'm tired of closing Oblivion gates and slogging through unnecessarily maze-like mines and caves and forts and ruins so I can waste seven lockpicks opening up chests that contain 53 gold pieces, weak potions of sorcery and the occasional flawed topaz..... Eh.... got another post on the Oblivion board to catch up on before I (maybe) go back to playing the game........

Not "still," but soon "again." I played Morrowind on the Xbox (finished it once) until my Xbox died, then borrowed a copy of the original release and started I-don't-know-how-many games on it and finished two of them (one sneaky Hlaalu/Thieve's guild/Morag Tong and one honorable Redoran/Fighter's Guild/Temple). Now, after much urging from a couple of friends, and after walking away from it in disgust a few times (first when I discovered the hand-holding "Now I should ______" journal, again after I discovered the map markers and yet again after I did the Kvatch quests then went off to try to do some other stuff, only to find those damned gates popping up all over), I'm finally playing Oblvion, and, those (and other) faults notwithstanding, it's an okay game. It's pretty at least. But it just isn't even a fraction of the game Morrowind is, so I'm certainly going to go back and play Morrowind again when I'm fully bored with Oblivion. And the really nice part is that I only played the original release, so I not only get to look forward to playing Morrowind again, but to getting the GOTY edition and playing content that's entirely new to me.

There are really very few things that bother me in Morrowind, especially after playing Oblivion for a few months now. Mostly there are things I miss about Morrowind. I don't even mind the cliff racers so much...... But the one thing I really hated in Morrowind, and that's fixed in Oblivion, is that NPCs seem to gravitate to doorways and stairs and then they cannot be moved. I can't even count how many times I pushed and jumped and turned and pushed some more to try to get past those dumb wenches in the first room of the Vivec mages guild. They'd say, "What can I do for you Dunmer?" and I'd scream "YOU CAN GET THE HELL OUT OF THE DOORWAY!" Luckily though, the amulet of domination I got from Uncle Crassius worked on them, so after I got it, I could zap 'em and make 'em walk over toward me, and at least get them out of the way for a little while. I once walked the younger one out into the plaza, but I felt sort of bad since she looked so lost and lonely out there, so I walked her back in. You have to talk to the Balmora guild guide (forget her name) from the platform side of the room, or else she continually moves closer and closer to the door until she blocks it, making it impossible to use. I actually taunted the NPCs in the Hlaalu stronghold into fighting me so that I could kill them, just because that was the only way to keep them off the stairs. There was no way I was going to run all the way from Balmora to that stronghold, only to not be able to make it up to my room because some moron selling lockpicks that were worse than the ones I was already carrying anyway was standing in the way. NPCs get in the way in Oblvion too, but at least you can push them and they just slide around. Other than that....... I can't think of much, again particularly as compared to Oblivion.

That sounds just fine, really. Simple, straightforward, no uber items, all in one cell, easy to find, easy to get around in, nice view-- that's really all I'm looking for. I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of someone else actually making me a house though, so I don't want to get too specific. Just make what you want to make, and if it's more or less the things I listed, I'm sure it'll be fine. And it'll definitely be appreciated.

Is this post missing a link? You mention my "home for the time being" (and yes, I have no doubt that I could work out how to add a map marker in the CS if I were to decide it's really important to me), but then include a link to another one, before I make my final answer, then a (much appreciated) link to ORE. It would seem that there was supposed to be a link in there somewhere to that one house that you saw on ORE that's posted here on Nexus..... Thanks for the response and the links-- off to see what I can find.

Hognut's is fairly nice, really. It's got nice storage and a nice layout-- the only real problem is that it has a chest with three painfully uber items in it. Sort of a digression, I know, but I really don't understand uber items. It's not like this game is hard, so why on Earth does anyone need, for instance (as this house contains) a katana that does four times the base damage of a normal katana and has a speed of 1.6, PLUS: damage health 25 pts in 5 ft for 12 sec damage magicka 25 pts in 5 ft for 12 sec disintegrate armor 25 pts in 5 ft disintegrate weapon 25 pts in 5 ft, and paralyze in 5 ft for 5 sec? Or a robe and hood BOTH of which do: reflect damage 25% reflect spell 25% resist disease 25% resist paralysis 25% fort. health 50 pts fort. magicka 50 pts, and fort. blade 25 pts? What's the point of even playing the game with items like that? I took the katana out just to see, and at my current level 11, killed a minotaur in three hits. I hit it once and it flew up into the air, then I hit it twice more before it even hit the ground. It never even got a swing at me. I might as well have just opened the console and typed "kill." I don't know.... maybe it's just me, but I don't get how playing with items like that is even vaguely fun....... Anyway-- thanks for Hognut's-- it really is a nice house and pretty close to what I was looking for, and I can just ignore those bizarrely uber items. Y'know..... I wonder what would happen if I went back to an early enough save and reverse-pickpocketed them onto Aldos Othran.....

Oh, it doesn't have to be stoic-- I don't mind some frills and nice decorating and such (though I do sort of like the Hermit's Cave, and speaking of the Hermit's Cave, that's what your most recent post also links to, instead of Hognuts Haven). I just have no interest in an 18 room mansion with a bunch of uber items and that seems to be what the majority of house mods are. The game's easy enough as it is-- I don't need my own enchanting altar or a set of teleport doors or a private army. I wouldn't mind a farmhouse actually-- horses and sheep and such. I just want a place that's not in any of the cities and has a bed, some practical storage and maybe a nice view from the front door. Gad.... I'm probably starting to sound like one of those people who respond to posts of new weapons with something like, "culd u maek the sword mor powerful n like black with big silver stud things on it? that'd be kewl!!1!" Like them, maybe I should just make it myself. But I KNOW there's a house out there somewhere that's what I'm looking for, and I already know that if I try to do it myself, I'll spend hours moving tables back and forth and rearranging lighting and putting walls in and taking walls out and never be satisfied with it..... I started at least four different houses in Morrowind and never finished any of them. :biggrin:

I can't bring myself to use mark and recall-- they're just too uber. I don't even really like using fast travel, and pretty much just use it when I'm already approaching my max encumbrance and know I'm going to pass at least two or three bandits between here and there, and that just because I hate to miss out on their loot.I probably wouldn't mind if it didn't have a map marker, so long as it was relatively easy to find. Thanks for the link-- unfortunately, I have little interest in installing COBL and don't have SI, so I can't use the mod. And yeah-- I knew why I had a set of portable exclamation points-- I just thought (hoped?) it was sort of funny to refer to them as a set of portable exclamation points. I've been tempted off and on to dl the portable bedroll, but it hasn't been a priority. Thanks for the response.

Ummmm.... no. Just because of the linkbucks spam link. Sorry. It looks like it might be a nice house, and I like Cropsford and all, but I have absolutely no patience for spam and no use for those who post it. Thanks though, I guess......

Well.... it's not bad. Close at least to what I was thinking of, though it has a few problems. But now that I've moved the house out of the way long enough to get the key out from inside the front step, I guess I'll keep it and maybe someday fix that hole in the fireplace. And, as I think about it, I might even be able to sell the set of portable exclamation points that came with it...... Thanks for the heads-up-- it's a nice house, all in all.