dcinroc

I don't think anyone has said that Skyrim will "fail". All that people are saying is that pre-release hype shouldn't be taken at face value because historically developers rarely deliver everything they promise. Even if Bethesda "fails" to deliver everything that people expect, it could still end up being a great game. The point is that we simply don't know, and past experience has taught some people to be skeptical until the finished product is actually released.

You might find this guide helpful. It helped me a bit. http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html Just speaking for myself, I don't really notice much difference until my fps drops close or into single digits. As long as it stays in the 15+ range everything seems fine. Indoors, of coure, I typically get much higher fps than outdoors. Cities are the worst (especially Leyawiin and Bravil, for me). Tweaking the grass setting in the .ini helped some outside. Of course, if I were playing a shooter then I'd be more concerned with maintaining a higher fps, but Oblivion combat just doesn't demand the same precision. In a nutshell, I'd say not to expect or demand the same fps as you would from Duke Nukem. Very different styles of play and you'll enjoy yourself more by not stressing out over that little number in the right-hand corner. ;)

The first thing I do is go the shivering isle go the gates of madness and watch those poor adventures get slauterd then get my self a full suit of STEEL armour and weapons. shivering isles is awsome lots of more side quest new armor and weapons crazy people new plants, animals, dungeons, and enviorment defiantly worth the money You can get steel armor at the Leyawiin Fighter's Guild. Steel weapons, too. Though you can grab fine steel longswords at the Chorrol guild. I prefer to put off SI, since the quality of the Madness/Amber stuff is level dependent, but that's just me. :)

I'm sure dual-wielding will be there in some form. It's too popular a feature and has been successfully modded into Oblivion, so I see no reason for them to leave it out. Now, how it will actually work is an open question. Until there's a demo with actual game-play controls, it's just pointless speculation.

I have used Stoker Wolff and Valtierro. Both are quite good. They do have romance, but it is optional. If you don't want to pursue a romance, then simply avoid that dialogue option. Another one that has gotten a lot of praise is Fergus, but I haven''t tried that one yet. Unfortunately, it seems that all the heavily scripted male companions are human.

Yeah, it does count as a murder. In the past I replayed it to verify. Killing Agronak and that suicidal dude in SI are the two most depressing deaths for me. Although the SI one is at least somewhat amusing, killing Agronak seems like such a waste and destroys any satisfaction I may have gotten for being the Arena Champion.

Go to IC Market to sell stuff and buy a few low level spells (one for each type of magic), then off to Weynon Priory to drop off the Amulet. After that I hit the Chorrol F & M Guilds. From there it's all about making money and finding/buying a place to live so I can do some training and have some storage space. If I'm feeling lazy then I loot all the guild houses. :biggrin:

I think your melancholy over the inevitable decline in the Oblivion community is understandable, but misplaced. The community will not "die"...but it WILL shrink. That is not necessarily a bad thing, since typically one is left with those who have a real love for the game, plus some new faces who are just discovering it. Realistically speaking, the bulk of the truly quality mods are made and maintained by a relatively small group of people. People with talent and love for what they do. Some popular modders have moved on to other projects, but others are still around. No doubt there will be new ones popping up as well. When a game builds a loyal following it is never really abandoned. Just look at Morrowind. Hell, check the Knights of the Old Republic mod pages. People are still cranking them out.

When we read the journal, all we get are the entries that are relevant to the quest. Perhaps the writers assumed that nobody would wonder about Lady Lovidicus and therefore just didn't include her in the entries we are shown. Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Considering how long Lord Lovidicus has been locked up, I'd assume that there is a LOT more in the journal than we are shown. Perhaps Lord Lovidicus never cared for his wife so saw no reason to write about her. I pretty much take Agronak's story at face value. It would have been interesting if there had been an option to help Agronak come to terms with his past and reclaim his inheritance. Then we'd probably learn a lot more about the details.

I've been looking over your mods and am impressed. I have downloaded a few of your houses, but have only gotten a chance to use Lakeview in-game. Still haven't seen the inside, since I am using a new character who is too low level to kill that blasted witch at the moment! In any case, it's a great location for a house. :thumbsup: Thank you :). Just to clarify... I'm thinking you might be mixing up my Lakeside Home and Lakeview by Vince Bly, as I never have made anything that includes a witch but I know that his mod does... Vince Bly's Abandoned Mountain shack is companionfriendly, but I *think* (although I'm not sure) that Lakeview only has a single-bed. Well, you'll find out after killing that witch... EDIT: I have looked at his screenshots and it appears that Lakeview has a double-bed which hopefully can be used by companions. I do not know if the abode is pathgridded etc. Oops! Mea culpa! I did indeed confuse the two. DL'd both at about the same time. :wacko:

slof hosts Roberts Male V5 and has some great custom textures for it. Those are probably as seamless as you can find for males. http://www.slofslair.co.uk/index.php?page=mods EDIT: sorry, Lehcar already posted that. :whistling:

Thanks guys! Some great suggestions. I've been looking over your mods and am impressed. I have downloaded a few of your houses, but have only gotten a chance to use Lakeview in-game. Still haven't seen the inside, since I am using a new character who is too low level to kill that blasted witch at the moment! In any case, it's a great location for a house. :thumbsup:

Impossible unless you make the mesh/texture its own piece of clothing (in the CS) that you can equip manually. Otherwise, the tat is generic to the race. Ah, thanks! That explains why my search came up empty. :tongue:

I have installed some body mods and textures and I was wondering how to make certain textures (such as a tattoo) specific to my character rather than have very guy inTamriel with the same tattoo.

Summoning is very useful in both battles. Silence works very well against Mannimarco. He doesn't seem to have any great defenses, so just use your most powerful attacks and take him down. I pretty much just get in his face and beat him down. He can't block since he is using a staff. My summons can tangle with his summons or help me out against Mannimarco himself. I would hope that by lvl 29 you can at least summon a Clannfear, which should be plenty. If he starts running around, be patient and try to maneuver him into a corner where you can beat on him. I prefer to reserve my magicka for healing and summoning rather than damage in most boss battles. Mankar has good defenses and two annoying helpers. Ignore the helpers as much as you can and maneuver to get in Mankar's face. Much like Mannimarco, use healing and summoning as needed. Concentrate on the boss and forget everyone else. His kids can pack a punch, so using a staff is not a good idea since you can't block. I finally beat him by backing him into a corner to the left of the throne and just wailing on him until he died. I found Storm Atronach to be the most helpful summoning in this battle.

I've recently been getting back into Oblivion and hadn't tried any of the house mods before. With about 1400 files in the "Abode" category, I'm not sure what to go for. I was hoping for a place that is "comanion friendly" with places for them sleep and do their thing. Town or country homes are fine, though prefer not to be out in total isolation. Also, something that isn't too intrusive on the surrounding neighbourhood. I tried out one, but it seemd to mess up the pathing of the locals and they'd keep walking into the side of my house. Any suggestions?

@jmalkavian I think you are right about the workaround. Since I'm not planning on adding any new mod items any time soon, then uninstalling, running a new AAVD scan, then re-installing TWF without scanning is probably the best solution until there is a permanent fix. Hopefully my TWF items won't disappear, but I should be able to do it all using the same save, so I doubt it will be an issue. Thanks for taking the time to check it out. :thumbsup:

I only have a few mods installed that run scripts and TWF is the most recent. Also, the problem appeared immediately after installing TWF 1.04. When I run AAVD's scan, it'll show 1817 for regular items and 9890 for custom (562 files scanned). I expect the load times to be longer and the AAVD readme said that it could happen as more items are added, so not an issue for me. The vase is literally a giant vase that appears right on top of my toon, covering everythhing but his head. If I click on it, then the inventory interface opens with all of the TWF items on the left side, but no other custom items, except for Shadow Leather Armor. It's pretty strange. Maybe I'll try uninstalling them both and re-installing in opposite order. Uninstalled TWF and everything went back to normal. Re-installed and the problem returned.

Unfortunately, the issue isn't knowing where or how to get it, it's that my internet connectionn can't handle such a large file.

Thank you very much! Oh how I wish I could get my hands on the toolset.

Ha! Welcome to the one-size-fits-all Soviet economy. :tongue: Seriously, though, companies do and have marketed to "minorities" throughout their existence. Market segmentation is widely taught and studied in college business courses. Certainly the size and purchasing power of the minority in question comes into play, but if someone can turn a profit on it, then someone will try. The ENTIRE video game market is a "niche" market. Most people don't or rarely play video games.

Why does everyone hate on steam so much? I personally have never had a problem with it. Personally, I don't "hate" Steam. But I do know how it feels to spend $50 on game that turns out to be useless after countless attempts at activation. After one experience like that, I have never bought another "internet connection required to play" game again. A one time activation/registration process is fine, but having to download huge files that your connection may or may not be able to handle is too much. From a practical point of view I am not sure that it deters piracy any more than the simpler methods of on-line activation and it creates an unnecessary barrier to entry for those unable to access/afford high-speed internet. For someone who has never lived without high-speed internet and assumes that those who can't simply don't deserve it, then I guess that doesn't matter. (I am not referring to you personally) As an example, when I bought Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate, the activation process for the game and DLCs was quick and simple, just enter my codes into the Bioware site...instant activation. When I tried to activate my copy of Empire: Total War through Steam, it was a nightmare of resetting server connections, frozen screens and endless waiting without result or even knowing how/when/if the process might work itself out. In the end, I just gave the game away to a friend of mine ((who also gave up). No process is flawless, but the simpler and faster the better.

Good luck with the job hunt! And no problem with waiting. It's hardly a life or death issue. :tongue:

yes, the Add Any Item Visual Deluxe. Sorry, should've used the full name. I' appreciate the help. :thumbsup:

Get a better internet connection? Ummm...yeah, great suggestion. Internet in the US outside of major cities is often a joke. It is also ridiculously overpriced compared to the same services in other countires. A decent download speed in Washington, DC can cost $80-100(or even more) bucks a month, which is not affordable for many gamers. In many areas of the country the available network is primitve and slow with no other option. Some areas of the country don't have internet access AT ALL. Heck, one community decided to set up their own service owned and operated by the local government...only to be sued by ISPs hoping to force them to stop (and no ISPs even offered service to that area...they are jsut opposed to people getting something cheap and effective that is beyond their control). I lived overseas for 8 years (in Taiwan) and was shocked at how much better their internet service was. Cheaper, faster and more reliable. No outrageous "plans" to purchase, no overpriced extra hardware, no artificial limit on connection speeds. You could walk into a 7-11 and purchase a simple card with a with an activiation code for a month's unlimited service. Of course, other countires view the internet as vital infrasctucture and not simply as a device for gouging consumers.