RatcatcherOfKvatch

Updated. Writing is hard. :P

I'll give another plug to HiAlgoBoost. The new hotkeys that let you choke down the pixel density when you really need the frames lets me use less-aggressive settings while just walking around enjoying the scenery, but in a card-crusher like Illinata's Deep -- or in combat with vampires and guards and civilians all running around where you really need to be sure of your aim -- going full-choke is a great option to have. They've also changed the algorithm so that larger mouse movements get lower pixel density than fine adjustments, so if you're carefully picking through a shelf full of stuff you don't get the constant fuzzing and de-fuzzing of previous versions.

Hadvar's your friend; Ralof's your bro.

This may sound sexist (I'll admit it sounds sexist because it is) but there don't seem to be a lot of male marriage candidates of the sort that real women actually fantasize about. All the Alpha Leader types are off-limits, like the Archmage of Winterhold, the Jarls, the Orc Stronghold dudes (though I think polygamy is a turn-off) or, if the bad romance novels my stepmom used to read are any clue, "King in Rags" Madanach and decidedly non-sparkly Lord Harkon. (Yes, many women have terrible taste in imaginary men; the "ravaged by shirtless pirate" scene doesn't make it into every romance book ever written for no reason.) A Skyrim character aimed at the romance novel demographic would for obvious reasons have to forego any hint of the non-consensual relations typical to the genre, but if you want a challenge there you go. And could someone explain the whole Farkas thing? He's not a "bad boy", he's not smart, he's not a leader, he's not artistic, he's only about as athletic as the other Companions, he's not witty, and if my daughter brought this guy home I'd be disappointed enough to hope it was just a phase she was going through, though I admit she could do worse -- I mean at least it's not that drunk guy. Still I don't get it ... what's the deal? Why Farkas?

The great AI debate is how much a 'bot should use its omniscient detection to cheat in order to increase its apparent intelligence as if it weren't cheating. An AI that could sneak up behind you would be pretty cool, but an AI that could always sneak up behind you because it always knew your exact position and facing would maybe be not so fun. So in unrelated news I've been away playing X-Com, for no reason other than I mentioned it in another thread and remembered how freaking cool it is. I just saved every civilian in Singapore with no casualties AT NIGHT without using any alien technology. (The rocket troops had plasma pistols but never unholstered them.) I'm thinking I'm probably done with X-Com, but in a good way, kind of like Skyrim. There is only one mountain left to climb: Lord Garon's "Legendary Permadeath Pure Mage Challenge". Is the new X-Com any good?

Ahh the search for companion intelligence ... Skyrim's Fermi Paradox ...

Well I've just brought a Legendary / No Fortify Restoration / Permadeath character up to "probably will survive" status (~40). It's immensely rewarding. Without Fortify Restoration supercharging your equipment there's a strong incentive to go out into the world and squeeze every marginal advantage for all it's worth, so excavating Kolbjorn and getting the Sallow Regent book both became very important tasks. I have to admit it's more fun this way.

re: conspiracy theories: Conspiracy theory + video game = $ profit $ "The X-Com Equation" The coolest thing about conspiracy theories is they're part of the common culture and freely available to authors of fiction. Having a conspiracy theory for background allows a great deal of exposition to be skipped; posit some dead aliens stashed at Roswell and the audience fills in the rest from stuff they've already heard. Most of the work's been done for you; you might as well be writing a fanfic. That's basically what X-Com is, in game form. X-Com didn't use Roswell but they used just about everything else, so from the very first day you already sort-of know you're supposed to send your jets out looking for flying saucers and bring back lots of advanced technological artifacts. The one biggest thing you have to figure out for yourself is that saucers that land on their own power are valuable in the most important way possible compared to crashed wrecks -- undamaged saucers are almost your only source of alien fuel -- but it doesn't exactly take giant-alien-brain-level genius to figure out intact saucers should be more valuable than smashed-up hulks. If the best thing about conspiracy theories are that they entertain I hope at least one person found my Ann Marie "Mythic D'oh" conjecture worth a chuckle. "Wait, you put the wrong Oblivion expert in the escape cell?" "D'oh!"

When the loading screen lasts long enough to bounce during zone transitions things are getting messy. (The loading screen shows a 3D image that slowly moves toward you. If the load takes long enough it will "bounce" and start receding. This is your clue that things are starting to go haywire: unless your machine is chugging on some other task loading is taking way too long.)

Here's a zinger for you: just like Alduin screwed up and saved the Dragonborn by trying to kill him at Helgen, the Mythic Dawn likewise screwed up when they planted the wrong person -- Ann Marie, civilian expert on Oblivion -- instead of the agent that was supposed to be in that cell as part of the plot to kill the Emperor. The evidence for Ann Marie being an Oblivion expert is pretty solid: who else knows how to turn Sigil Stones into usable equipment? (She knows this from Day 0; it must be part of her background story whatever that may be.) The only others I know of who can use Sigil Stones (besides Phinis Gestor who wasn't born yet) are Martin Septim, certain members of the Mythic Dawn including the Camoran Family ... and Ann Marie. This explains how the Dawn confused her with their agent. It makes a later event a much closer call: just as the Blades [mistakenly] figure out you're the one sent to kill the Emperor, the Emperor saves you: "No, she can help us ..."

Can't believe I missed this. "Hello Ralof, my old friend ..." will go through my mind now every time I hear him say, "Better take Gunjar's gear. He won't be needing it any more." "And the Words of the Dragons were written on the glowing walls ..."

That's kind of a bit weird for me... :tongue: ...considering I'm a female playing a male Dovahkin, big grunty dude with a sissy voice... :blink: ... :D Since The Voice matches the Dovahkin wouldn't that mean you would have the big, grunty voice?

There are separate enchants for Fortify Sneak and Muffle, but Dark Brotherhood Muffle is un-learnable. The learnable Muffle is the most difficult enchant to find in the entire game.

The second lesson of Conjurer school is "Summon Familiar: the Best Way to Deal with a Rogue Atronach". Works for door-blockers, too. Using Expel is just showing off. As for "Let Me Show You", no one here seems to have gotten it right, but I have no idea yet how it works, either, despite managing to make it happen a second time, so I can't really complain.

The professional singer who does Karita's voice was very brave to make her character so adorkably bad. Unless she didn't do it that way on purpose in which case ... ugh, what genius director allowed that take to go anywhere but the burn pile?

There is a certain stylishness to your only voice being The Voice.

I can't not try it.

Grab a husky from the Dawnguard, wear leather armor, and carry a crossbow with exploding bolts (closest you can get to a shotgun). Of course your name would have to be "Fallout Boy", "Vault Dweller", or "Lone Wanderer". Unfortunately you can't name your canine companion "Dogmeat", but "Bran" is a kind of food so maybe that's close enough ... Ever notice how Dwemer ruins look a lot like ruined Vaults? Except Vaults are less dangerous but way creepier. Vaults are just plain scary, despite the fact you almost never actually die in them (fear is your friend -- you're not going in that dark, scary hole without a small arsenal), but opening a trapped door in a Dwemer ruin can mean instant death, however careful you were being up until the fateful lapse. The Vault Experience: "Reactor room's ahead. Better check for radiation. Sure is dark in here. Man my pulse is racing. Better make sure my gun's fully loaded ..." "A-ha! Found you puny huma ..." *rat tat tat tat tat* "Okay deep breath ... you're alive ... man these Vaults sure are scary. That one almost got to me before going down in a hail of bullets. Better make sure my gun's fully reloaded ..." You might need to change your shorts but at least you lived. You probably didn't even get hit -- 137 stimpacks enter, 137 leave. The Dwemer Vault Experience: "I think I hear a mechanical spider up ahead. Oh well, I'll just hit it with lighting and let Lydia pick up the pieces. This is fun!" *clank* *zap* *clatter* "Since the Dwemer have all disappeared except their noisy, clunky machines what could go wrong? Oh, look, a side door! I bet it leads to treasure. I'll just pick the lock ... oh, lucky me, it doesn't have a lo ..." *click* ... *chop* *chop* *chop* *chop* "AAARRRRGH!" "We'll meet again in Sovngarde, brother."

So this is a shortcut to the "I need you to do something" menu conversation option when not in conversation? Is there a hotkey to trade items? That would be so cool ...

Wow, you've actually coded for an Eclipse? I bow to you, good sir. I've only met one other person who's even seen an Eclipse, or at least the kind safe to look at without a pinhole camera. The library comments were an attempt at two kinds of humor that don't mix, a huge mistake. The last time libraries ran seriously afoul of the powers-that-be was the third burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. That was quite some time ago. In the centuries since no one has questioned what libraries do, even if almost nobody today actually uses them for that purpose anymore. But with today's crazy custody battles and food fights over copyright if someone proposed the idea of a "library" today it would probably provoke a fury of lawsuits, so burlesque humor seemed a perfect fit. On the other hand the Internet really has turned public libraries into porn dungeons, so that part of the joke was ironic, based on a sad and/or awkward reality. Unwittingly mixing the two caused confusion and made me sound ... far more excitable on copyright issues than is the case. Alas, I still have much to learn. :tongue:

"Helgen Honeymoon" -- take your spouse to the place where it all began. It's the Skyrim version of the "How I Met Your Mother" story (the kind where you start 7 years before the actual meeting.) Nothing spices up the big wedding night like juniper-spiced mead, which you can only get retracing your first steps in Skyrim. Pros: Existential Irony Privacy Cons: Leaky roof (if you can call those charred beams a "roof") "Hroldan Honeymoon" -- Start things off right in the historic "Tiber Septim Room". Pros: Ego. Nothing says, "You're with the Dragonborn now, baby," like the Legendary Dragonborn using the legendary "Tiber Septim Room" as a honeymoon suite. The scream. Luckily there was that commotion outside to distract everyone from your noisy spouse. Cons: Performance anxiety. "Well to be honest you're no Tiber Septim, dear ... but that's ok, I married you for your personality!" Lack of privacy. Seriously, dogs, kids, innkeepers, and even ghosts all running around and where's the friggin' DOOR? "Northwind Summit Spectacular" -- Dragon roost. 'Nuff said. Pros: Just fought a dragon. Tonight's definitely the night. Close to Riften. Cons: Falling dragon sometimes covers everything in dirt. Buzzkill. Charred corpses ... on second thought it's not like any Bridezilla who would honeymoon in a dragon roost is going to care. "Bee and Barb Beeline" -- just couldn't wait, could you? Pros: Real heroes take their time. "Closest horizontal surface" doesn't count as a "Pro", loser. Cons: See above. "Dawnstar Dawn" -- a picturesque beach camp with flowers, wine, sweets, and Mara just in case you didn't get the hint. Pros: Cozy Cons: Horkers. Any minute you expect them to burst into song.

I wish I could credit whoever figured this out, but I can't find it now. I had the same problem, nothing worked to fix it, then I read somewhere someone figured out if you're in bad with the Imperials it makes anyone friendly to Imperial hostile to you -- even after the 'Cloaks take over Whiterun Hold. The weirdest part of all is that you being a loyal 'Cloak means the guards go around smacking down the Loyalist townspeople for attacking you. It's brother-against-brother in an all-out Civil War, all because Officer Stormcloak (you) breezed into town after getting in bad with the Imperials. (My temptation is the unprovoked Thalmor attack. Why waste time talking them into making the first move when you can just start chopping? Well I can think of one good reason now ...)

I'd say of all the problems you listed the worst is the "temporary yield". There are a tiny number of opponents who will yield and mean it, like those people who insult you and you insult them back and they start a fight. They'll say something desultory like, "You're not worth it," then go about their business. But enemies whose factions make them naturally hostile, which is like 99%, if they're down begging for their lives (and rapidly regenerating) they'll bounce back and start attacking again like nothing happened. It's silly. We players have learned to ruthlessly cut down anyone who attacks us, to see surrender as deception 99% of the time. If a "true enemy", one who is hostile to the player at all times by nature (bandit, Forsworn, etc), is beaten to the point of yielding, they should flee in terror when they recover. A merciful player could then opt to let them go. They could despawn at some suitable distance from the player so there's no weird AI behavior loop. The AI actually does seem to maneuver against cover over short distances, which means if you have cover the AI is boned but if the cover is closer to the AI there's a pretty good chance the AI will maneuver around it. I've also noticed if you have cover AI archers will hold a bead on you until you break cover. As soon as you peek out the arrows fly. The archer AI isn't perfect but it isn't horrible either.

Miraak has a lot more staying power than Alduin with his dragon soul resurrection shout and better defenses with whirlwind sprint and become ethereal. By the time you face him you're probably ridiculously OP, but even so Alduin would be an easier opponent.

Silent Roll / Critical Charge combination sounds sweet. I'll have to try it out.