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I'm currently using a large assortment of texture mods, including my own series of city mods, with pieces I pick and choose to tailor the game to my liking. I've got Skyrim HD stuff out "in the wild", a totally different mod for rocks, flora, and fauna, my Sexy mods in the cities, and then a buttload of awesome toon mods, like Beautiful Faces, Caliente's, etc. I installed the bloody HD textures from Bethesda and my game looked like a hobo's butt. The textures didn't look very hi-res to me at all, and, for anyone who's been fine-tuning their game for the past few months using all of the great mods here, I think what little improvements it may offer over the few vanilla textures one might have kicking around are negligible at best. Personally, I've no problem taking the few extra steps to export my mods in a format that's future-proof and CK friendly, but I hate the idea of users not being able to pick bits and bobs from them as I know a lot of the people who use my mods opt to combine textures from others to suit their needs. I'm going to put a link to the above referenced .ini tweak on my mod's pages until something more user friendly turns up! Thanks for all of the great info, follks! :)

Oops! Sorry. Just checked back. Here are a few others I use.... Map w/ Roads: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4929 Realistic Water Textures: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=711 Skyrim Sunglare: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=116 Skyrim HD Textures: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=607 Better Females by Bella: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2812 Improved NPC Clothes: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2674 Skyrim Flora Overhaul: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2674 Serious HD Retexture Ladnscape: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2146 Nude Females: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=70 Retex (for Nude Females): http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1232 Realistic Smoke and Embers: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=836 Enhanced Distant Terrain: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1598 AOF Believable Hair: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4307 Better Beast Races: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=944 Nude Males: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1947 Silly Level of Detail Potions and Poisons: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4259 Bellyaches Animal and Creature Pack: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3621 That's all I'm using now, in addition to the ENB! :)

I added all of the 2K retexture stuff, the excellent flora and fauna mods, a sun flare mod, and ENB. I've got my game looking like a sort of dark and dreamy world, with nicer textures and really cool ambient light effects which, when compared to the vanilla game, looks quite good imho. I'd definitely recommend at least getting ENB as the lighting and shadow can have a drastic effect on how the game looks all on its own. :)

Hahaha. I was going to post something like this but I didn't want anyone to flame me. :P Yeah, it seems that every time I come back to the Nexus (which is, like, 10 times a day, easy!) there are maybe four or five actual mods and 10 ENB/FXAA settings things ranging from "so dark you can't even see! It's amazing!" to "I made the game look like Adventure Time threw up". I have my own ENB settings that look pretty fab to me, but I wouldn't feel right sharing it as it's not exactly like I did anything other than blindly change values (and I mean blindly! I had no idea what half of them did). I mean, no offense to the folks who contribute them - it's more than I do - I just wonder if, maybe, some of them might be sharing something just for the sake of sharing it rather than actually feel as though they've something truly decent or useful to offer. :unsure:

Hell, it'd be nice just to be able to swat a bear or one of the myriad "lone wolf" attackers who bog down your follower (and, speaking of followers, they could use a mount, themselves). I'm sick of having to hop off of my horse just to play whack-a-mole with a a trio of wolves so Lydia doesn't end up two miles behind me! :wallbash:

Try going back in there at an appropriate time. Sometimes you get told that, only if you're inside a place when it's considered to be "closed" Yeah, I'll keep trying! I've gone in the day, at night, afternoon, morning. I don't think these folks ever plan to leave this boat! :P

I've got a sort of reverse problem with one of the College radiant quests. I was asked to retrieve an item for enchantment but the guy I'm supposed to get it from is in a boat in Solitude Harbor. When I go inside, he and everyone on board will only tell me that I "don't belong here!" I've waited (days!) and he never comes out, so now I can't do anymore of those quests. :wallbash:

Actor Name: A few of the NPCs in the Thieves Guild Actor Location: Ratway Cistern Speech in question: Whenever I return to the Cistern, I get all sorts of smack talk from various thieves. One of them addresses me with something like 'Not you again. Haven't you caused enough problems?" or something to that effect. Others give me sort of grunts or "Whattya Want? I'm Busy!" type replies. It's like, "Ummm, I saved the thieves guild and am now the leader. How about some respect?!" Suggested Alternative Speech: More along the lines of "Hey Boss!" or "Welcome Back Boss!". A few know I'm Dark Brotherhood, as well, so it'd be nice if they addressed me with some fear/reverence rather than "Hey, you're not supposed to be in here!" when I'm walking around the training room with the locked chests!

Dragon Age was a really solid RPG/Adventure game that was completely gutted and turned into the hideous console-friendly button masher that was Dragon Age 2. A game with zero depth, zero characterization, and laughably lazy design where every dungeon, road, cave, tunnel, etc, looked like the one before it. It was a damned shame is what it was. :facepalm: I'd love to see BioWare expand the world created in the original and do something "open world" with it (I'd also love to see the same thing happen with The Witcher games, but that series also seems to be leaning toward the consoles, with simplified mechanics and zero mod support for PC players), but, as others have noted, EA isn't known for giving teams a lengthy period to craft great games.

Meh, the whole "you can only learn when you are young" thing is somewhat true, but a little over-blown. As with learning anything, you just need to make the time commitment and make babysteps. When the mod tools come out next month (hopefully!), I would just fiddle around with it for a while. Anywho, I like where your idea of making cities deeper is going. When I go to solitude, I immediately notice some places that are boring, empty or just need something more. For instance, there are some market stalls just past the first few buildings inside the city, but they seem boring and alone. A market is supposed to be a lively, colorful place. Lets add a music player that takes tips, a few more specialized stalls and perhaps a small side alley with a fence for thieves. On the subject of adult material, its not terribly hard to make mods modular. I love adult material, but would make it an optional component, or possibly something that needs to be downloaded separately and uses the main city file as a base. Cheers, man! I think I will give the CK a whirl, just to see if I can get my head around it. I've never had much luck with the 3-D modeling stuff (save for Poser, which I occasionally have to use to create bodies for comp work I do), so I don't know how much I can really achieve, but nothing ventured, nothing gained! Yes, I agree wholeheartedly about the markets. They're so lifeless! Three little kiosks with a drunk and a guard just standing around doing nothing. I know it may mean a performance hit, but how about adding some bustle to these places!? There's a post above me that mentions a grocery store. That's a really good idea, as would be some sort of dining establishment; maybe an outdoor area with tables and the like, with a bunch of folk just gathered around eating, drinking spiced wine, and watching the street performer you mentioned! I'd also like to see some more ethnic "neighborhoods", like the Dark Elf district in Windhelm. Imagine a Redguard neighborhood in Morthal, or an Argonian neighborhood in (a slightly bigger) Riften, replete with outdoor market, banners, and designs (and maybe a small piece of architecture, like a restaurant or store) reflecting their heritage. Like other folks have said on these forums, however, 'anyone can have ideas", To actually incorporate them....well....that's another thing entirely! :biggrin:

+6 for: Awesome Idea(+1) Well defined(+2) Immersion enforcing(+5) Extremely difficult and would be a huge undertaking(-2) LOL! Yeah, maybe all of that would be a little on the difficult side to implement. I'm a writer and graphic artist, but I don't know the first thing about modding (although I've just started dabbling in retexturing, which is quite fun!), so I guess I just sort of shot for the moon with those suggestions/ideas. I just see how they're already implemented in games like Fallout 3, so I wonder if there's some way of copying that without violating any of Bethesda's rules about porting over code/elements from other games. I wish I had the head for programming! I'd love to be able to contribute to this awesome community and game. Sadly, I'm 42 and I think my brain is "full". :wallbash:

Rather than make them larger, how about just giving us more of a reason to hang around a city. Give me more things to do, things to watch, events to attend. How about some concerts at the Bard's College? Maybe some short "plays" in the city center, or a traveling carnival (like the one in WOW, but not quite as lame). Add some culture to the places so we can spend our downtime doing something else besides sleeping. Talented modders can do these things, I'm sure, and, judging by what I've seen on here, there's no shortage of them! It'd be great to tie in some quests to these, as well, along the lines of the College Quests, but with objectives like "The lead actress in the play has been kidnapped" etc. I'd also like some more "off the beaten path" establishments, like "dive bars" similar to the one in Windhelm but more fleshed out. Imagine a rowdy, dimly lit tavern filled with unsavory NPC's hanging about, drinkin', fightin', and whorin'. Mod in a variety of mini-games (ala Fallout 3 or The Witcher) to play with the patrons. Card games, dice games, darts, arm-wrestling, bare knuckle boxing, drinking contests. You know, fun stuff that happens in dive bars! Give us some ways to spend our gold in the cities beyond buying weapons and potions. Add some good and easily implemented Poker style games. I know I gambled like crazy in Fallout 3, and, if we take a page from The Witcher games, quests can come of that, as well, where you have to work your way up to face better competition scattered around Skyrim, or have to fend off debtors or folks you fleeced. Obviously, the more up-scale cities like Winterhold and Solitude wouldn't tolerate any sort of establishments like that, but how about a dive bar outside of the gates, a little ways down from the Stables? Maybe a sort of "speakeasy" type of place down by the Solitude and Windhelm docks? Brothels near Dawnstar and Falkreath? And, while on the subject of brothels, why not inject a little adult material into the game. I know there are folks who are against it, but I like mature themes in my RPG-style games as, to me, it adds to the immersion level. Let players visit brothels, pay for the services of a woman (or man), and occasionally deal with the fallout from said liaison, whether it be an angry spouse or a brothel that's actually a front for a coven of vampiresses. I'm not saying we have to actually SEE anything, obviously (save for the occasional nudie bits), but, rather, suggest the act. And, once again, it gives us something to spend our gold on once we're up to 300,000 pieces like I am! :P Another way to expand some of the cities would be to add an underground level to them, ala Riften. A sort of Ratway, but with merchants and taverns, some hole in the wall housing, and a variety of various scum and villainy living beneath the cities. Wouldn't work for most of Solitude, seeing as how it's perched above the sea, but it could be implemented in Windhelm and Whiterun. I'm all for increasing the size of the cities so long as that size is put to good use, but if it's just a matter of throwing in a bunch of empty farmhouses or a few more NPC's to steal trinkets from, it's a bit of a waste, no?

Oh my god. You are an absolute STAR! Thanks so much for that! I couldn't find the cell name for the life of me, but that link to all of those cells...priceless!!! You made my day (which is really sad, all things considered! LOL). :biggrin:

Hey Folks! Before anyone asks, I've done a forum search, and only found one other topic like this from a few weeks back that was unresolved. I'm up around 190 hours into the game, with a lvl 61 sneak-thief. I've just started going to the Greybeards to find the words of power I couldn't find on my own (a bunch of them, it seems), and, infuriatingly, they've sent me to Volunruud. I had a problem with Volunruud early on, where, despite having both ceremonial weapons (axe from the plaque, and the sword from the coffin), the door wouldn't open no matter how I approached it. I equipped the weapons, dropped them on the table, kicked 'em, you name it. I came back, hoping Bethesda may have sorted out whatever glitch I had in the most recent patch, but, alas, that is not the case. The ceremonial weapons were back in their original locations (I'd previously left them laying on the floor in front of the door), so I retrieved them, went back to the door to Elder's Cairn, and....nada. Still can't open the door. I've spent like three hours Googling this and can't find any fixes. I was wondering if anyone here knew any workarounds, console commands (I've tried loads, including the setstage stuff, to no avail). I also tried the movetoqt Anything so I can get this word and get more quests from the Greybeards. I've done the "showquesttargets" console thing, but I get a variety of Quest Targets that don't correspond to this particular quest. Any help would be VERY MUCH appreciated!

I'm not sure I'd want six followers, especially in a dungeon. It's bad enough I have to "shout" Lydia out of the way half the time! LOL. Also, the game, even at expert level, is too easy as it is. Six followers would make it kind of pointless, no?