okappa

So I've been using the "Alternate Start - Live Another Life" mod for a while now with complete success, but recently I somehow managed to screw it up and glitch myself out of the main quest entirely. Is there a console command that I can use to START the main quest, specifically MQ101 (Unbound) or MQ102 (Before the Storm?) SetStage isn't working, and CompleteQuest just clears that specific quest without letting me access the next one in line (talking to the Jarl and the mage guy, they act just like I had never met them before and don't even react according to their instructions for the main quest at all.)

(Original post: I deleted Skyrim - Interface by accident and then my entire Interface folder trying to uninstall an old UI mod, and briefly couldn't start the game.) EDIT: Hurr. Recycle Bin is a thing that exists. Sorry everyone. Now there's a new problem though. Everything's working again (except my font replacer, which I'll obviously need to re-install,) but now there's a dollar sign ($) in front of everything that counts as an option or variable name (i.e. $Save, $Load, $Favorite, $Level 18, etc.) How do I get rid of that?

Definitely. Your voice acting needs lots of work. It's too deep, too quiet, and too dull. Your microphone quality is terrible, too, and that really ruins it further. It sounds nothing like Mr. Burke if that was your goal, and even if it wasn't it won't pass for a decent voiceover. You need to get a better microphone, and then study the way Br. Burke, Lucien Lachance, and similar characters speak -- dark and menacing, but also bombastic, as if they were over-the-top villains in a play. I'm not trying to be mean, mind you, just telling the truth.

Yes, thank you. :) I'm just trying to show the difference, but it's kind of tough when as far as I can tell I can't actually go back to Vanilla graphics without a reinstall. Derp.

Yeah, I liked Fallout's system a lot more, where merchants accumulated gold from the purchases you made and lost it from buying your items -- you could basically hold on to valuable items as "credit" to help with huge purchases. I think Living Economy tries to follow that system, but it doesn't really do a great job as the merchants start with a lot less money (and, since there are no guns in this game, you tend to spend less money anyway by not buying ammo and stimpacks and such.)

Wait, you mean that with good enough Charm spells you could get out of going to jail? Badass.

I love Tobuscus's literal trailers, the lyrics are actually really clever. Anyway, when he says "And a werewolf," is that actually what that clip's supposed to be? I always thought it was some kind of yeti thing, but if it's really a werewolf it'll be awesome to see those return.

Skingrad for me. It's just the right size -- not as cripplingly big as the Imperial City, but still large and busy. I love the bridge to the castle at night, all lit up with torches. I like the way the city is set up so that the major buildings surround the road while still allowing travelers to pass through unhindered. I love that it's the birthplace of all the best wines in Cyrodill. And, of course, I love the fact that it's full of some of the most insane characters in the game -- like Glarthir who kills everyone with his axe (I usually refuse to help him now) and Falanu Hlaalu the necrophile. There's just so much more crazy stuff going on in Skingrad than even in most parts of the Imperial City. And I mean, the count's a vampire. And he likes it. Seriously awesome.

Well, maybe you could somehow modify it so the bow temporarily gains Soul Trap on Strike during the shot? It'd be some complicated scripting, though... The mod sounds really cool though. One of the characters I'm writing for was going to work on a concept similar to this, so I hope the mod comes out so I can play as her. (Another thing she does is dual-wield bows by using Telekinesis to pull the strings back, but that'd probably be even harder to do. :P)

Well, from that page: "setav <attribute> <nn> -- Sets value of attribute" And I haven't tested it, but I'm pretty sure that means, for example, setav blade 100 would set your Blade skill to 100 without having it count as a level up. Just replace <attribute> with the name of the skill you want and <nn> with the desired level. This works on other attributes too, like stats and health. Make sure to use this page to ensure you're doing it right. You MIGHT need to replace the skill name with a number instead.

I feel like a mod is unnecessary -- you could probably handle this all in the console. Not sure of the commands, though.

Oh wait. "Durin's Bane." I get it now. Clever name.

Though admittedly fun. :3 I keep having to switch between OOO and Vanilla because I still enjoy how much planning Vanilla builds take. In OOO it's just like "Okay, I want these. Build done." Really, Destruction rises far faster than you'd think. If you play an Altmer or Dunmer, you can even tweak your class so that it starts somewhere around lv.15-20 as a Minor anyway. :) And you don't want to be in that difficult spot where you're bludgeoning Dremora with a rusty hammer just to avoid leveling Destruction too soon. If you're not using a birthsign that increases your Magicka, then yes, I'd say you need some Int. Not a ton, but enough so you can cast a sea of Destruction and not be sitting there dead after a few spells. For a perfect character, you need +5s every single level, yes. Realistically (and don't let any OCD controlled levelers know I said this,) it's not totally necessary. I mean, I went 30 or so levels with +4 and +3 stat boosts and I was still doing pretty well. There are lots of ways to balance out that stat deficiency, like enchanting equipment, becoming a vampire, etc. It's really not nearly as bad as people say -- though I assume it gets worse around the 40-50 levels? The fact is, the game was not really meant to be played with +5 x3 every single level. It's still totally possible to play it normally, and if you make the build well you still get good enough stat gains to compete with the leveled enemies the game throws at you. Bethesda wanted players to figure out how the leveling system works, not necessarily how to break it. They won't be... egregiously unfair, at least. TL;DR: If you want to fly through the game and find every item, every nook and cranny, etc, then yes, you need +5 x3 every level. If you're just looking for a nice, normal playthrough, then no. Yup. Both make good minors. Acrobatics especially, since it gives you a good reason to spontaneously play "the floor is lava" in the middle of the city.

It appears that, the way I installed OBGE and QTP3, they will be quite difficult to turn off. Which is fine by me, I'm happy with it. But I want to display the difference it makes to a friend, and I can't take screens of vanilla Oblivion anymore without way too much work. So I wanted to ask -- Can anyone please take a version of this same screenshot in Vanilla? If you can't tell, it's right inside the Cheydinhal gate next to the Bridge Inn. http://www.imgjoe.com/x/screenshrvr.png

They probably want weightless Drain Health armor to pickpocket onto NPCs?

Basically, Liquid Water is the prettiest, and Realistic is the most technically sound at the moment. So choose whichever's more important to you. Personally, the breathtaking views Liquid provides are worth slightly longer loadtimes and a few glitches here and there to me, but everyone has different preferences.

I've never used Realistic Water -- it doesn't seem to work right on my system, I end up with something that's not Vanilla but that looks nothing like the screenshots. OBGE's water looks incredible. It draws its color from the environment in the beautiful way that real water does, and allows you to add tints of blue or green wherever you want to make it look even better. However, probably because it uses some technology beyond what Vanilla provides, it SEVERELY increases the time it takes to load and start Oblivion. Plus, after loading a new game, the water takes a few more seconds to appear. You'll also need to download the latest version of DirectX, if you don't already have it. My biggest problem with it is that it doesn't change in response to the weather like Realistic's does (Realistic even does this in my game, despite being otherwise broken.)

I've already got OOO installed and it works fine. I'm happily playing two characters on it, no problem. The question here is -- if I want to test a vanilla build, can I... Turn off OOO Make a new character exclusively for Vanilla Only play that savegame in Vanilla, and my other saves only in OOO If I keep the saves exclusive to their own version, will things still get screwy? Is it even possible to properly "switch off" OOO?

When you level, yes, it's best to concentrate on three attributes in the beginning. Ideally, you'll want to get +5 in each of those attributes every level (meaning 30 skill increases total, 10 for each stat. Or, with a Luck build, 20 increases, since no skill relates to Luck.) If you can't do this, then you should at least be sure to get +5 in the most important skill (Endurance for Warrior, Agility for Marksman.) Alright, this post'll take some time since I pretty much always play mage and thief characters. I've never actually made a solid Warrior in Vanilla so I can try but other users might have a better one. --------------------- Defensive Warrior (Vanilla) Race: Orc or Nord Sign: The Warrior (or, alternately, the Atronach if you want to focus on magic resistance. Both are good.) Specialization: Combat Preferred Stats: Strength and Endurance Stats to level: Strength, Endurance, Willpower/Luck Major Skills: Blade/Blunt (Strength, main weapon. Redguards and Nords should go Blade because it's universally better, but an Orc will prefer blunt.) Heavy Armor OR Block (Both are endurance -- Two-handed weapon users should go Armor, while anyone using a shield will need Block.) Armorer (Endurance, making it major will allow you to fix enchanted items sooner) Athletics (Speed, but it levels slowly and without it you'll be ridiculously slow) Alchemy (Intelligence, levels slowly and allows you to make your own health potions) Restoration (Willpower, levels incredibly slow and is obviously useful) Mercantile or Illusion (Mercantile helps you get more gold, Illusion lets you pull off some interesting tricks) Notable minor skills: Heavy Armor or Block (whichever you didn't choose will be pumping your Endurance) Blade/Blunt and Hand to Hand (can be used in a pinch to make sure you got enough Strength) ------------------- Pure Marksman (no Blade)(vanilla) Race: Bosmer Sign: The Thief Specialization: Stealth Preferred Stats: Agility and Luck Stats to level: Agility, Speed, Luck Major Skills: Marksman (Agility, main weapon) Light Armor (Speed, needs to be a major skill because you shouldn't be getting hit too often anyway.) Alchemy (Intelligence -- in this case, you're using this skill to make poison for your arrows, not potions.) Acrobatics (Speed, allows some useful maneuvering skills) Illusion (Personality, lets you do incredibly useful things like become invisible mid-fight. Can allow you to avoid ever playing close-range.) Restoration (yeah, pretty much every build has this as a major skill. Alteration is another option if you don't plan on using this, but...) Mysticism (allows you to Detect Life, reflect damage, and recharge your own enchanted items.) Notable minor skills: Sneak (You'll be doing this all the time, and it will influence your Agility so much that you're pretty much guaranteed to get +5 there.) Security (Also pumps Agility -- since lockpicking is a rather simple minigame, you don't actually need this skill for any reason.) Conjuration (Being able to summon tanks will help in a few situations, but it levels very quickly, so it should stay minor.) Athletics (very natural Speed increase) ------------------------- Keep in mind that neither of the builds above is designed to be the "greatest possible character ever." They should just allow you to gain favorable stats while playing naturally, rather than obsessing over controlled leveling. And like I said, I almost always play as a thief. I probably did a much better job on the archer build than the warrior one. :/

Oh, that sounds great. I'll try it out later. Thanks. :)

Well I managed to make an attractive enough character. I just wish vanilla Oblivion made this easier... And, er, she's Bosmer. Hence the alien-ish eyes that are associated with Bosmer in the mod I'm using. Also I'm obviously no face artist, I just wanted a decent looking character. And yes, she's supposed to look detached and depressed. That's not a mistake or anything. The forehead skin tone trick helped a lot. And as for facegen modeller, I really don't want to get into that much work if I can avoid it. http://www.imgjoe.com/x/screenshctc.png Sounds weird to hear her scream in Methredel's voice... I may have finished Loren, but if anyone has another answer I'd love to hear it for future character making endeavors.

First make sure you have OBMM, then get EVE's mod here. It will change female clothes to properly fit the HGEC bodies and be more attractive. As for textures, I wouldn't know. I don't really play nudity mods, I mostly use the aforementioned mod to just make girls look better. And believe me, it does. :) I don't know why this isn't on tesnexus, but Qarl's Texture Pack makes the environment look delicious.' EDIT: Oh, you already said this. :3 The two don't really combine well, so the builds will be different based on a number of things. For a Warrior, pretty much any non-elven, non-beast race works. Orcs, Redguards, and Nords make good non-magical warriors, if that's what you're into. For an archer, Bosmer (Wood Elf) is hands-down the best, but you can also use Dunmer (Dark Elf,) Khajiit, and male Argonians effectively (yes, stat bonuses differ from male to female.) Especially if you want to use swords along with your bows as a marksman, you might prefer Dunmer over Bosmer. Sadly, Imperial is pretty much the worst race in every regard, but since they're universally not great you can still play pretty much any role EXCEPT archer with them. It's not as tough as, for example, trying to play a paladin role with a Khajiit (whose stats, with -10 to both Willpower and Endurance, will deliberately get in the way of that strategy.) Your sign should either be The Warrior (for a warrior :wallbash:) or The Thief (for an archer.) Now for the tough part -- class. First of all, vanilla Oblivion has a leveling system that many would describe as "f**kin horrible." If you don't like that, you should download a mod called Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, which changes the game in a ton of great ways, and makes it so that you can actually specialize in your MOST used skills, not your least favorites. But OOO makes the game harder too, so if you use it, don't be adverse to turning the difficulty down 5-10 notches so you don't die all the time. :) In vanilla Oblivion, builds take a lot of thought. When you level major skills 10 times, you level up. But since the enemies level with you, this is bad if you aren't getting good enough stat boosts. Since stat boosts are determined by skill leveling, you need to make sure you have minor skills which you'll use frequently that are related to the stats you want. What you want to do when picking major skills is choose ones that you don't expect to use much, but which will upgrade the stats that you want. The exception to this is the skills that take ages to level, such as Restoration or your preferred weapon. I would say there's no danger in having Blade or Heavy Armor as a major skill, for example, but then you'd want to keep Block as a minor skill so that you can level Endurance by defending a lot. Or as a Marksman, for example, since you'll be Sneaking a lot and Sneak levels quickly, having Sneak as a major skill could be suicidal -- keep it minor, and you'll gain Agility like a beast. Aside from your primary weapon and armor skills, you'll need to make sure to make your other major skills things you don't expect to use frequently, but that it would be nice not to have to level as much (Alchemy and Acrobatics are common choices, for example.) The biggest, worst mistake you can make is making ALL the skills for a certain stat Majors -- that way, if you're coming up to a level and you don't think you got enough in a certain stat, you can't use the minor skill to pump that stat a bit. In OOO, it's much more intuitive. Your major skills can be whatever you think you'll use most and things that will pump your stats better, since enemies no longer level with you. Of course, the downside is that now you'll have a lot of trouble with weaker enemies at the beginning. :confused: I recommend trying vanilla Oblivion's system first, and then switching to OOO if you don't like it. As for which skills are controlled by which stats, I think it says it on the selection screen. Otherwise, it's in the game manual. Whichever way you go, a Warrior will like Strength, Endurance, and Willpower. A Marksman wants Agility and Speed, and probably some Luck (which you can't actually deliberately pump -- it can only be raised by one every level, but if you specialize in it and keep the Thief birthsign, it will begin at a nice 65.) You could also put Strength on a Marksman if you plan on using a blade in tandem with the arrows.

Kind of a reverse question, but... I'm using a few mods in my new games, among them OOO and Cosmetic Compilation. For some reason, my female Bosmer character is taller than even some Imperials in the game. This bothers me, since I thought wood elves were meant to be short. What causes this, exactly? Is it somehow related to the Mystic Elves that come with CC? If so, I'd like to get rid of it, but preferably without removing the pretty Bosmer eyes. Or is this some aspect of vanilla that I overlooked? EDIT: Wow, nevermind, it looks like this is totally vanilla. XD I'm an idiot. Enjoy laughing at me.

Awww. Well at least that's reassuring... At least it exists. It's tough to find mods related to vanilla character gen when most people just play custom races now. But I love the vanilla races -- they're just so ugly. :/

I'm sure a mod like this probably exists but I couldn't find specifically what I wanted. I'm not looking for major cosmetic changes, and I'm not looking for a new race. I simply want Character Creation to stop making everything look stupid. The way vanilla character creation works, you make two or three small changes to the chin, cheeks, etc. and suddenly the entire face is weird and puffy like a chimpanzee. Each slider that you move changes several other parts of the face, including what seems to be several parts that don't actually have sliders of their own. Moving the mouth inexplicably creeps the cheeks forward and puffs them out, yet there's really only sliders for the cheekbones. Skintone is no different -- for example, removing all facial hair from a character randomly darkens the top half of their face and gives them dark lipstick, and doing ANYTHING to the eyebrows leaves your character looking like a patchy dark mess. It amounts to a bunch of guesswork and frustration. What's worse, when you've made significant changes, touching the Age or race in any way whatsoever will cause the face to regain certain aspects of the original default you were working with -- for example, changing a Wood Elf's age will puff out their jaw and fuglify their nose again. Is there a mod that either simplifies or removes these aspect of character creation?