Quirkyblonde

So I may be the weirdest gamer on the planet. I probably spend more time arranging my hard-won trophies in my house than I do actually earning them. What can I say? I'm a decorator at heart. This weirdness has led to a useful discovery. On the bottom of the Dragon Claw keys used to open the puzzle doors is the solution to the door it opens! When I first noticed the symbols I thought, 'surely not. it can't be that easy.' But I tried it out on the next puzzle door and voila! it worked! So here's my question, I'm the first person nerdy enough to notice this? Or is this discovery passe and already discussed. In case I'm the first to bring it up, you should know that manipulating the keys to actually get a good look at the bottom is not easy. I recommend using the telekinesis key (or button if you're a console gamer) to place the key on it's side on a waist high surface, then dropping into sneak mode. That's the best way to look at it.

bummer, well maybe some brilliant modder will come up with some cool ideas for other time wounds. :) Maybe we can see dwemer working or Tiber Septim battling some evil elves or something.

I believe it all goes back to the White-Gold Concordat, which (among other things) outlawed Talos worship. If you talk to the Thalmor, you'll see they're just as cracked as Ulfric. They're bound and determined to root out all Talos worshipers and punish them for their heresy, and the Empire is just going along with it in order to avoid being destroyed by the military superiority of the Thalmor. I expect that there will be a DLC or even TESVI revolving around a plan by the Thalmor to reinstate slavery and make things the way they were during the Ayleid days. But that's neither here nor there. Ulfric's whole racist thing aside, he's all about restoring Talos worship as well, which makes it a little bit more of a grey area. Freedom of religion and racist leaders or racial acceptance and a state religion.

if you get smithing perks, you can upgrade your own armor and it's much better than the ancient DB armor.

So here's what I'm wondering: You know how you can use the Elder Scroll to look back in time at the Time Wound on top of High Hrolfgar? Well, while wandering a Dwemer ruin I noticed a similar effect in an area and began to wonder if there are other places in Skyrim you can use the Elder Scroll to look back in time? I tried it in the area I mentioned and got nothing. But I'm curious now, so fellow gamers I challenge you to look for areas where you see a similar effect to Paarthurnax's time wound and see if you can use the Elder Scroll that's now stuck in your inventory (until some wonderful soul creates the "no quest items" mod for Skyrim) to look back into the past. Let me know your results!

I still maintain that the Elder Scroll found in the Tower of Mzulft (or Mzark - whichever one it was) had something to do with it. Think about it, if an Elder Scroll can be used to cast a being as powerful as Alduin out of time, what might it do to the Dwemer? Considering where you find it, it was clearly being worked with at the moment they vanished. Don't the Elder Scrolls trump the Daedra and Aedra themselves? Whatever the last Dwemer felt, I think it had as much to do with the scroll as it did Lorkhan and his heart. Whatever the final cause, it was clearly hubris that led to the disappearance of the Dwemer.

yep. I solved the problem though. I just killed the crazy dude and picked up the book. Easy as pie.

Ah, but then the Dwemer would lose some of their romance, you know? People weren't nearly as into Ayleid ruins as they were Dwemer ruins, cause we know what happened to the Ayleids (At least that's my theory - it might be the lack of cool machinery too). Oh, but have you all discovered Blackreach yet? WOW. As soon as the creation kit is released, I'm totally building myself the world's coolest house there! **edit** (I forgot to mention this) I agree with your theory though. They even had an SPOILER elder scroll hidden in Mzulft. Since it was still there when you retrieve it, it clearly was there when the dwemer poofed. Maybe they screwed with it at the exact time Lorkhan's heart was being messed with and the combination of the two sent the entire race spiraling off into Oblivion or the time stream or something else weird.

No, I cannot do anything with the book. I activate it and nothing happens. I'm playing on the PC, is there a console command I can use?

I didn't even realize there was a college of the voice. Um, the game does point out that people who master The Voice are pretty rare. In face the only ones who use it in-game are the monks, Ulfric Stormcloak, you and dungeon bosses. Maybe it's becoming a lost art and the college has fallen by the wayside?

Okay, so I'm doing the side quest Discerning the Transmundane, with that crazy guy Septimus Signus. I've gotten to the point where I've collected all the blood and given it to him and he's unlocked the giant dwarf cube and run inside. I follow him and he says, "it's just a book!" and theeeeeeeeeeen nothing. He just stands there! I can't talk to him because it says he's busy. I can't pick up the book. I've tried leaving and returning. I've tried exiting the game and restarting it. I've tried waiting. So what's up here? Do I have a random glitch? There's a choice you make midway through the quest and chose to not join Hermaeus Mora, does that make a difference? Someone please unstuck me! :)

I agree with James 009. Modding extends the shelf life of games like Oblivion and Skyrim, and adds to their popularity. Not to mention, it makes it much easier for developers to see first hand the kinds of things players are interested in. How many Oblivion mods came with all sorts of neat little features that let you cook food or brew wine or stuff like that. Now look at Skyrim! You can cook your own food, brew your own wine, tan your own leather, sharpen your own sword, and who knows what else! Crafting things in-game was a big part of Oblivion modding and now it's a part of Skyrim itself! That alone should speak to the value modders have for developers! They're planning on releasing the Creation Kit soon and are working on it as we speak according to the last article released about it yesterday. They hope to have it released before December. Be patient! **edit** I get the excitement for it's release though! I keep wandering all over Skyrim and finding neato places where I'm DYING to build a house mod! And I can't wait to create a faster horse with more interesting skins! Hurry Bethesda, lol!

if you talk to the proprietor in the Hag's Cure, she'll give you a potion to take to someone that works for the Jarl. That counts toward one of the 5 things you need to do.

I'll hop in as well! :) Liked: The water - wow! It's so detailed and it has actual force and volume to it! if you jump into a fast moving river, you get pulled by the current! Amazing. This was the first thing that struck me about the game. It no longer looks flat and one dimensional, and it looks like if you were to put your hand in it, it would be freezing cold. (It would be, the land of Skyrim is comparable to Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden and unless it's a hot spring, rivers and streams are always ICE cold.) The animal diversity - this is one way that it's clear the developers were paying attention to the modding community. They saw all the mods for additional wildlife and took it to heart. companions - again, you can tell the developers were paying attention to what people wanted. There were a bajillion companion mods for Oblivion. Landscape detail - it's beautiful! Landscape in Elder Scrolls games always tends to be gorgeous, even way back in Morrowind. But they really outdid themselves this time! The atmosphere - It's a grittier game than Oblivion was. In Oblivion Cyrodiil looked almost like a fairy tale land with it's lush grass lands and beautiful forests, and the alternate dimension of Oblivion was disturbing and visceral, like a twisted fairy tale, oh and the wonders of Sheogorath's realm! That was great for that game. Skyrim is much grittier, the story line is more convoluted and darker. In some parts of the story, no matter what choice you make someone is gonna get screwed. The line between good and evil is not as clearly defined. The landscape reflects that. Characters: The people in the Elder Scrolls game just get better and better looking. Not necessarily more attractive (though those blocky people in Morrowind were pretty ugly to me, lol). I like the more natural dialogue as well. I also enjoy listening to the bards when I go into an inn. Very nice detail Bethesda! And, so far as I can tell, there is more than one voice actor for each race and gender of character! Or if there isn't, it's not as obviously the same person as it was in Oblivion. Disliked: Character design options: Granted, my computer is a dying beast with a damaged motherboard than can only run Skyrim on it's lowest settings (Just wait until February when I get my new one *SQUEE*) but I was unimpressed with the lack of freedom in character design. Of course, they may have done that to give us modders plenty of room. Horses: There's not really a lot of variety there. You can get horses with different colored coats and that's about it. They're all the same speed (I checked) and same stats. But again, Bethesda might have done it on purpose to leave it open for modders. Horses were something modders liked to work with a lot in Oblivion. AI: The companion AI needs a bit of tweaking, I'm always getting stuck behind that damn dog of mine! Naming: I want to give my horses and dog names of my own, but I cannot! So, overall there wasn't really a lot that I disliked thus far. I must say, it's really been worth the wait and I haven't even started on the side quests for Mage, Fighter, Thief and Assassin. Kudos to Bethesda!

I'd like to see a little more variety to the canines and equines of the game. Maybe you can purchase a different breed of dog at every stable. But not wimpy pets like shih tzus and poodles, real working dogs like collies, german shepherds, Irish wolfhounds, labrador retrievers, Newfoundlands, etc. And make them tough battle hounds that will follow you loyally into hell itself! As for horses, I'd like to see more than one body style, and more than one speed! The default horses look bad ass, but I'd like to see some long legged runners too! Something that would let me race across the vast landscape that is Skyrim. (Have you noticed how much BIGGER it is than Oblivion? wow!) And I want to see something in the skies besides dragons. You can harvest birds eggs, but you never see any actual birds...except chickens, but they don't fly. On a partially related side note, you should have heard the sound I made when I saw my first mammoths. WOW! I want to ride one of those around!

Did you try to buy the house from the steward? It's not a prize, you have to purchase it! Then you get declared Thane and you get you housecarl. :)

....I think it's a great idea, a tiny little companion that float around behind you, avoid combat and shoot healing spells your way! Maybe even the way of your horse, dog, companion, etc., as well! It would be super cute! Do it! :)

a hah! Thanks, I wondered what caused this. I'll try to fix it with the tool you mentioned wetblanket, thanks. :) if there are any other tools to try and fix the LOD problem, I'd be grateful to know of them as well! Not to mention, I'm worried that if I release the mod it will have this glitch for other people.

no, it happens when there are no mods running at all, not even DLCs.

I don't think it's a mod conflict, it seems to occur whenever I do major "landscaping" in a mod. I've scrapped so many because of this issue and I just can't figure out what causes it. It's like there's a ghost ground beneath the actual ground.

okay, I may come off as a total noob here, but I have this problem with the ground in a mod I'm creating. I did some medium-scale landscaping to build a little village in a hilly area and it looks great in the TS but when I test in-game I get a sort of "ghost ground" that you can run right through. Here's what I mean: Back a bit: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/coreinha/Oblivion%20Screenshots/ScreenShot329.jpg Forward a few steps: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/coreinha/Oblivion%20Screenshots/ScreenShot331.jpg In between: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/coreinha/Oblivion%20Screenshots/ScreenShot332.jpg See? I'd rather not have to start all over if I can avoid it, any idea how to prevent this problem?

you guys are awesome, this is more than I ever expected, thank you all so much!

you guys totally rock - I'll try to remember to credit all of you when I release my mod. (incidentally, you can find a preview of it here.)

thanks Alex!

you rock Kura, thanks :)