MarkInMKUK

Pretty good. I might suggest an amulet for the mage in place of a helmet, plus maybe a three-alternative unique robe & gloves & hood or light armour & mask or heavy armour & helm set to be collected on the way depending on class. Don't make them overpowered, but create unique textures - maybe have runes spelling out "Talin of the Chosen" on each item and add a "hidden" enchantment if all parts are worn together specifically aimed at protecting against Mekörfund in some way so the final boss battle is easier if the item is worn.

A few more thoughts: I've taken another look at the backstory file. and what you mention as the concept. Currently it's (stripped of the story) a fairly linear quest sequence - mostly consisting on "go there ... do this ... find this ... move on" sequences. May I suggest that you look at what each style of player can bring to the mod, and what each style might, in turn, receive from it? There's also no obvious difference between "good" and "evil" paths, which would make it a better RPG experience, and add to replayability. Maybe whole sections of the mod might be tuned to specific classes of player - some sections suiting a 'thud and blunder' warrior, some suiting a sneaky thief/assassin type, other requiring devious mage skills. There are, inherent in your description, npc clan members who could be of any class needed - maybe if (for example) the player is a mage, then the quests given could include a couple of mage-specific ones while the "clan members" handle other quests more suited to sneaks or warriors. Then if you replay as a thief, the sneaky quests would be given to you and the mage ones "handled" by the clan. Instantly the mod gains three playable paths, and more interest for different character types. Of course, for those who are an all-rounder, the chance to do all the quests COULD exist, but the player might need to be a higher starting level to make it possible. Another alternative is making different paths through the dungeons which will be opened up for different characters - with unique items along each path so that you have to play a different style to gain different (and mutually exclusive) items. Also - is there a reward other than level gains and knowledge? Class-specific final rewards might also make each playthrough more "unique".

I like the synopsis - a great tale for the bards to tell in the taverns. I'm not a modder (yet), but if I ever reach any kind of competence at it, I'll be tracking the project. Good luck, and it looks like a fascinating quest.

No idea on the mod to change Khajiit faces, just a comment - you might find the KATS mod interesting if you are a Khajiit fan

Seems you missed the relevant line of the OP entirely. There are open chest modders resources, and at least one of those includes a "full of gold" variation. However, I don't know of a mod that would give you an empty chest which you fill with visible gold, let alone any with a limit on amount of gold and with the other features requested. Would you also want precious stones to be stored/visible, or just gold?

Re the Chapel - I think the Weynon Priory chapel would be the largest that the mod is likely to require - the cathedral sized ones would probably be overkill. I do need to learn 3D modding, and maybe a kit-form chapel building would be within my capability once I learn - I don't know til I try. One thing I hadn't considered is the number of services needed, and who would officiate? With nine divines, that implies either some very generically ecumenical services, or nine priests and nine separate events per week. I must admit I haven't looked into what happens at the moment in the city, let alone in the smaller chapels, etc. Or will the chapel be dedicated to just one of the nine, and individual households have their own "family shrines" set up?

Another thought on farming/fertility ... a fresh water source such as a river would be useful. Rivers tend to flood seasonally, helping to fertilise the soil. There are mods which allow "higher" water table effects to make raised lakes, etc - I don't know how well these could be adjusted by scripts to mimic flooding and receding waters seasonally. Of course, if nobody spotted the evidence of seasonal flooding, some of the population could find they were living in the middle of a lake in the spring :smile:. A dam, and proper water management, would deal with that - but only once the colony was properly established.

Re the chapel / church / cathedral In the "real world", buildings such as churches are substantially modified over time, and sometimes relocate. Frequently, the basic chapel is a small structure, but designed in such a way that additional architecture can be "bolted on" (sometimes literally) to make a bigger structure. Let's suppose we start with a timber frame building. First stage is a basic small square barn-type structure, consisting of two end walls, a "frame" half-way between the end walls to help support the roof, two side walls and a roof - just imagine a typical mid-western barn-raising to get the idea. The "back" wall has the entryway, the "front" wall is where the altar would sit. To expand the basic structure, an identical end-wall is constructed and placed parallel to the first "back" wall, complete with a new entry door. Side walls are created. The roof is extended to cover the new area. THEN the existing original "end" wall is "unfilled", leaving just the timber framework, and then most of THAT timber is removed leaving just the outer frame and the roof trusses, which is then identical to the original buildings "frame" Repeat this process until you have a building with several "bays", and you have the evolution of a typical frame-built chapel. The original square section building would, at some point, be likely to be extended upwards into a tower by adding a second floor, usually with a bell and/or clock. Now, in Christian tradition, the chapel would then be expanded into a cross shape, by adding one-bay apses to either side of the square original building, and a new altar position by extending the alter-end by one bay. So, so far you have a modular expansion of an original building, with minimal remodelling needed - just a range of logical stages. But then you get to stone, and a "better" chapel. At this point you seriously consider the needs of your population. They still need someplace to worship while the new chapel is built, and you are not likely to re-use the old timbers. What often happens is a second site, or a second area of the first site, is developed into a stone-built church (and in some cases, pre-existing cellars are re-used - there are several churches where the cellar structures predate the church by decades or longer - maybe the church crypt could accidentally be attached to an existing unknown Ayleid complex?). Stone foundations are put in, and a similar design strategy is used - bay-type construction allowing a modular build. Often the church is then widened by the addition of aisles on one or both sides of the existing main church body, constructed in such a way that they are finished and THEN the wall between is removed (sometimes partially, creating attached-but-separate small chapels). Because of the weight of the roof and tower structure, buttressing had to be used to give the typical English church look. The old timber building, once the congregation moved, might be retained as a church hall. Cathedral? That's a major project, and VERY seldom related to an existing church site. Normally a wealthy landowner would donate the land "as a ticket to heaven", and fund some or all of the construction, often a 50-100 year project. Or sometimes a monastery/abbey church would achieve cathedral-like status. Again, no need to take an existing plot - in fact the original church may stay operative as well, or fall into disuse and be torn down as building material - recycling that nice stone.

i hope you'll include Foul Ol' Ron, the Duckman, and the rest of the crew, plus Gaspode the Wonder Dog. ... and Angua should fit in well with the Nordic accents from Skyrim :)

A couple of comments. Many years ago, in the bad old days of the Roman empire, they tried setting big cats on bears in the arena. Result? nearly always Bear 1, Cat(s) 0 - they are far too fragile and have skulls that crush with one good bear-paw swipe. A big cat is inherently a relatively fragile creature, and even the stockier sabre-tooth variants were never going to take down a healthy mammoth. A baby mammoth, however, might be a possible target if a group of them could separate it from a herd. However, they have no great areas of tough hide and/or fat to act as an absorber of arrows, so a one-shot should still be an achievable feat in several areas on a big cats anatomy. Also remember that sabre-tooth cats were basically ambush not chase predators, so they don't have the speed advantages that a modern big cat would have when trying to chase/dodge prey. So maybe the one-shotting isn't TOO far fetched. Bears? Generally aren't the same KIND of predators as cats and canids, they tend not to be hunters. So they are unlikely to be taking down mammoths or deer except by opportunity (some silly moose with its antlers stuck in a tree would be a good candidate). However, unless you can guarantee a head shot, ideally through an eye, your average grizzly is going to be a very annoyed pincushion and you are going to be a very dead player if things were real. So, in the case of the bears, I tend to agree with you that they are too easy to one-shot at high levels.

The Unofficial Patche projects are always good places to report bugs. Either they don't know about them (in which case they need to), or they do know and haven't fixed/can't fix them, or possibly they can identify them as coming from another mod or combination of mods. Whichever way, they are a great team of people and are by far the best way to get a genuine bug fixed.

I suggest you check whether this is in the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch. If not, then adding it as a bug report (NOT a whining nag) to said patch project would be a good idea, as that's the most likely place to get it fixed.

Warning - I've been thinking again :smile: Thoughts on the mod start. When you initially start the mod, you mention there's yourself plus an agriculturist/farmer/herbalist, a stonemason and a carpenter/woodsman. I think you might find a different mix more useful (I'm ignoring your own area of specialisation, which may cover one of the other areas anyway): Try an agriculturist (flora specialist), a hunter/fisher (fauna specialist) and a handyman (building specialist). Reasoning? Initially you have nothing, apart from wreckage and driftwood, plus whatever hand tools you have and the surrounding unmaintained area. You will need an agriculturist to identify safe plants to eat, a hunter to get protein/fight off predators, and a handyman to construct the dwellings / start to build infrastructure. Having both a stone specialist and a wood specialist is unnecessary at the start, you won't be working in stone for quite some while and you can import a mason later. Wood you'll need PDQ so a woodsman makes more sense. Once you have someplace to live and a foraging routine set up, so food and shelter are covered, THEN it's time to start with agriculture (I suggest Qarl's harvest might be a useful pre-requisite mod too). Once ground is cleared, and planted, plants take time to mature, so the agriculture can only slowly replace foraging. Initially it'll be the handyman creating shovels/rakes/hoes/whatever, and building irrigation tanks, then an "all hands" session to plant up crops, and then wait. However, there will also be defending the crops (the local wildlife will see "free food") and choosing where/what to plant. Starting on a (presumed sandy) beach, the soil will be crap and you may get one, poor crop. Clearing forest or grassland will give more fertile soil and better yields, but will involve more prep work. Animals - look around the world to see what people have managed to domesticate. You don't have horses or cattle automatically, so you may end up breeding deer to give a meat source. That may mean fencing in forest areas instead of clearing more conventional pastures. Ploughing is a pain without draft animals, so the animations for crop making will change once a horse or cattle can be imported later - until then it's manual digging. dibbing out plants, and probably manually watering them (incidentally, horses require a horse collar to plough, cattle require a yoke. Different windpipe positions. I've never seen a deer used as a draft animal. Elephants, pygmy hippos or tapirs are your own best guess!) Crop rotation. Especially while trying to grow on poor soil, you're going to get worse yields the second year with the same crop in the same place. Rotate on a 3/4 year cycle - the usual rule for a full rotation is Legume (peas/beans) > Root crop (potatoes) > Fruit crop (Strawberries) > Leaf crop (cabbages), possibly with a fallow period. I'd suggest clearing land, then a year of grazing animals to drop fertilizer, then starting crops. Also compost (collect grass / cuttings and put in heap, then leave to "cook" for a few months)? Herbs like comfrey would traditionally be used to enhance the quality of the compost. There's also manure - pigs in particular convert almost anything organic into fertiliser. Of course, making the mod playable means that real growing cycles will have to be compressed. Even in tropical settings with no seasonal growth variation, you are unlikely to get more than 3 crops in a year. It goes against the original mod a bit, but how about starting off on the site of an abandoned colony? You'll have a series of "gone wild" crops to get you started then, and possibly previously-domesticated animals in the vicinity, maybe also repairable buildings to give you a foundation. Edit: I finally found the Vox Populi forum so will be joining there later on. Meanwhile, you'd mentioned the need to "force" the layout of the original site / main city - maybe rebuilding on the foundations of an old town to set the "logical places" for certain buildings would be a good idea. You could maybe have buildings with the same foundation footprints where it didn't matter which alternative was chosen, and have unique footprints for unique buildings. re-using existing stable foundations makes sense in real world terms.

I believe that BOSS has had an update, and the Masterlist is now provided from a different source. If you get the latest BOSS and install it, it should correct the problem that stopped it downloading three months or so back. That may well solve the other errors too.

This was recently posted - New Animations for Day-to-day Activities - looks potentially useful

Yes, that's one of the ones I remember, there was also one with rotating wheels on the cart. Another itinerant group might be a small troupe of mummers - actors - maybe putting on a play about the assassination of the Emperor, or (if you've done the main quest) the result of the game. Bards - there are already Bard mods out there, but with so few songs. Maybe you could post on the rec.music.filk newsgroup to find people who could provide voice+guitar pseudo folk some recordings for a mod - "Sir Jock of the Sword" springs to mind as being FAR better than the ones in Skyrim. When it comes to characters, I might be able to do a couple of voiceovers. Natural accent - British Home Counties (like BBC Standard but not-so-posh), but I can manage a couple of rural accents too, and in a couple of distinctly different voices (doddery old wheezing geezer is a speciality!)

Runs fine on Win7 x64 for me, both Steam and Non-Steam versions. The Steam version SHOULD be the fully patched version of code, but if you only got Oblivion and not the Shivering Isles version, it may not work with OBSE as the SI version overwrites the Oblivion exe file. You should also be using the STEAM loader dll with the Steam install, which you have to specifically copy over from the OBSE installation archive. As for LOOT ... currently it's not too good on Oblivion on my setup either, but it improves with each update. it IS still a Beta as far as I know. I stick to BOSS and Wrye Bash.

Itinerant traders. One characteristic of an "evolving society" is going to be the lack of support for a full-time tradesman in many trades - such as pot/pan repair, blacksmith, woodturner (bodger), charcoal burner, etc. Many of these trades were performed by itinerants, who would arrive, set up shop, trade for a few days, and move on. You would also get itinerant bards (and maybe other entertainers), food/goods traders (hunters/fur traders, and fish-traders if inland), and gypsy-types. Saves on the need for buildings, just a village green area and a pitched tent & campfire would often suffice. Also allows for bringing in news of the outside world events, or quests, or whatever. So ... maybe a good starting point would be (like Riverwood) to have an area on the outskirts of a village that shows signs of being an occasional campsite (cold campfire area, maybe a bedroll, signs of having been cleared), and for itinerants to set up their trading pitch at that point of nearby (a bodger might need a local sapling or two to make a lather, some traders might need a parking area for a wagon, etc). (I know I've seen proof-of-concept wagons for Oblivion ages back - no idea whether they ever got used though)

I've restarted Skyrim a good few times recently, setting up S.T.E.P. And after a while, things began to bug me about the darn wagon I was sitting in. Like: Why was I looking at the end of a plank of wood, and it was showing standard grain, not end grain? And why do the sides of the wagon stay on, instead of rattling around - after all, the leather thongs don't exactly look like they are fitted in the correct places. Finally, this is an old, worn wagon that must have had myriad loads over its decades of life. So why does it look like it's freshly made out of driftwood, not worn smooth by goods sliding over it daily? So: I have a computer which, while not cutting edge, can successfully run a heavily modded Oblivion and a STEP-modded Skyrim without freezing up. Can somebody guide me, step-by-baby-step, through how to modify a simple 3D assembly of objects (a wagon), with the aim of ending up with something that improves the game. I'm certainly no 3D specialist - I have never progressed beyond 2D CAD experience which dates back to AutoCAD v2.03, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Where do I start? What (free) programs do I need? And how big a mess can I make of the process? The answer, dear reader, is yours!

Given the large part that religion/beliefs play in Oblivion, it would make sense for there to be a system of spontaneous prayer. Not everyone would be able to make a trip to the main temple for their chosen deity, and the Daedric shrines are too small for any serious group. So... ... what if the usual form of sacrificial offering was to burn an item in a campfire? By making campfires (and possibly temple fires) into a form of container, an item could be deposited as a sacrifice, and a script could either remove it, or transform it, with possibly an attendant increase in an associated attribute. Adding such an activity into the player's options would be a suitable immersion boost, I feel, and possibly some of the NPCs could have a script to mimic this action added to their own activities within a campsite mod - in the past many hunters have used prayers for the success of the following days hunt.

Most of my problem is, now, that I want to run far too many mods, and hit the darn ESP limit. Time to learn about mod-merging and try to understand the Userlist.txt in BOSS I guess - merging all of Duke Patrick's combat mods would save a few slots to begin with...

First thing to check - if you used a No-DVD crack that can, and often does, cause problems with OBSE.

(Mogic? ... try Magic or Logic - no idea where my fingers were when I typoed that heading!) I spent a little time with a new character grinding out some potions - and while I did so, I got to thinking about how Alchemy didn't really make sense in Oblivion. Let me give an example... Let's assume a character wants to make a potion to restore health, and is limited to cheap / easy to find ingredients. In and around the tutorial, the likely ingredients to be used are Cairn Bolete Cap, and possibly Venison if you are lucky with a shot, plus a few items from the local alchemy shop such as Boar Meat, Lady's Mantle Leaves & Mugwort Seeds. OK - these ingredients have the following effects (if we list ALL effects) - Primary effect in Bold, negative effects in Italics: Cairn Bolete Cap:Restore Health, Damage Intelligence, Resist Paralysis, Shock Damage Boar Meat: Restore Health, Damage Speed, Fortify Health, Burden Lady's Mantle Leaves: Restore Health, Damage Endurance, Night-Eye, Feather Mugwort Seeds: Restore Health Venison: Restore Health, Feather, Damage Health, Chameleon Now, the general rule in real life is: The amateur is likely to fail to produce a clean result, so one would expect whatever is produced at first to have the most possible adverse effects, as well as the desired one. Taking the ingredients above, it's obvious that they all have Restore Health as a primary result. But in "real" life, you'd also get negative effects, whether you knew about their details or not - it's how you would learn. So, a potion brewed from (for example) Cairn Bolete Cap and Boar Meat might produce a potion with Restore Health as a Primary effect, but also slight Damage intelligence and Damage Speed effects, maybe also Shock Damage & Burden. A true Master Alchemist should know what else to add to the potion to counteract these effects, adding ingredients such as Lady's Mantle Leaves which SHOULD boost the primary Restore Health effect, and adds Feather to counter the Burden, but instead brings in another unwanted effect of Damage Endurance. Venison might be a better choice, as its only negative effect is Damage Health which should be counteracted by its own Restore Health effect leaving the Restore Health values unchanged compared with the original potion, rather than boosted. The Alembic should also reduce negative effects, but until it's Master level should not remove them entirely By applying the principle that unwanted effects must be cancelled out by an opposing effect, Alchemy would become far more interesting, and the increase in rankings and quality of equipment should lead to better, "purer" potions worth more money and with less drawbacks. Comments?

I tend towards realism mods, on the whole. Firstly, there's the usual batch of stability tweaks, including the unofficial patches, FastExit 2 and Oblivion Stutter Remover. I also use the 4GB patch as I run on Windows7 x64, but as it's a Steam install i have to reapply that fairly frequently. As I have all the DLCs (all cleaned, plus a couple expanded), I also use SM Plugin Refurbish. I've installed the Dark DarnUI mod too, as the original interface is ... restrictive. I then turn the music OFF ... and tweak several settings in the bashed patch. Next, gameplay tweaks. I run most of Strategy Masters and Duke Patricks mods, to enhance combat, plus Enhanced Economy, Kurtee Inventory is a Backpack, Physical Throwable crates & chests, Real Sleep Extended, Realistic Ragdolls & force, Harvest Flora, Harvest Containers, BFGs Enhanced Armory and WEPON, plus MOBS and MOBS for SI. Next, characters and body replacers. I've installed Blockhead (to de-fuglify the starting points), the Robert male body V5.2, EVE Exnem/HGEC C-cup, and Oblivion Character Overhaul. I am intending to install K.A.T.S. and Argonian Beautification once I work out the best order to install them in. World expansions next. I prefer my world to be complex, rather than feeling as though I am the only character that matters. So, I've installed all of the Unique Landscapes packs, the full Open Cities Reborn / Better Cities, all of Arthmoor's village mods, and several "massive quest" mods such as Verona House Bloodlines, Lost Spires, Archaeologists Guild, Knights of the Nine Revelation. etc. plus the Shipping for Cyrodiil mod and the landscape tweaks needed to make the rivers navigable. Then there were a huge slew of compatibility patches :sad: I've also installed T.I.E. to add more NPCs to the world - the computer grumbles a little but they do make the Imperial city into a more convincing hub for the Empire. It's still got the Market area in a really silly place though - what idiot would put STEPS on the main entry way to the market to make it impossible to use wagons and handcarts? Maybe the Ayleids levitated the goods in... There were a few things I had installed, but de-installed for now. The Immersive Physics-Enabled Prison Exit seemed to clash with a landscape mod; Sundered Keep seems to have a bug whereby if you get arrested, you trigger part of the quest accidentally without having had the prerequisites; Malevolent advises not starting the mod until after the main quest (I do wish mod-makers would put starting requirements into the scripting so that mods started seamlessly). While there have been one or two niggling problems with the economy, plus making the tutorial dungeon a real challenge (yes, I KNOW Duke Patrick's mods are supposed to be installed AFTER the tutorial, but I like to try things myself - those goblins are BLOOMIN' fast and vicious now), and I still have to learn the required combat styles for swordwork, the game is now overall harder and more fun. I've left off cosmetic mods - those can be added later if I want to.

Don't worrk - I'll be here (barring more electromechanical mishaps). I'm busy reading up on the evolution of timber-framed houses in the UK, how they developed in architectural techniques over the years, and also boning up on "support jobs" - including the collection of dog droppings and human urine for various processes that ought to exist in a "full" mod - given that they haven't even seen fit to include a garderobe in the castles, let alone sinks and toilets in the dwellings, they might be a challenge to add. Of course, the water in the sewer systems has to come from SOMEWHERE - and there are no roadside gratings....