ManleySteele

I was onboard until you said Skyrim is too empty. I feel the opposite when I play. Granted, the cities are under-populated and under-developed. Out in the supposed wilds of Skyrim, you can't turn around without something being in the way. A dungeon, a cave , a shack, etc.. Did you see the places the programmers chose for the Hearthfire houses? They're on top of other, problematic content that re-spawns. Hard to believe they couldn't do better, but where would you put one, otherwise.

It varies from mod to mod. What you need to determine is if the new version is complete. Does it have all the necessary files for the mod to run. In that case, you can just download the new file and either method one or method two should work. Pay attention to your load order before doing either. If it is an update only, you still need the original files. In that case, I always use method three. Once again, check your load order before and after installation. Edit: It occurred to me after I posted this to remind you that straight mesh and/ or texture replacers, without ESP's depend on install order for their effectiveness. To check your install order, in the mod view, left click on the install date header to sort by install date. Pay attention to the install order of all texture replacers.

A lot of teams pass the esp back and forth. Only one person has the live esp at any one time.

When you are in the mods tab of NMM, you can sort by install date. NMM retains your sorting when you change from categorized to uncategorized views. Just left click on the header for install date to sort or resort (first installed or last installed) your mods. When you are done looking at them you can resort by mod name if you like.

What I have done to amortize rendering and detail conflicts is to make conscious decisions about where I am willing to have hi-rez textures and heavy scripting and where I am not willing to have them. My hierarchy starts with my own character. I want my PC to look as good as possible within the confines of good sense. My next item is my companions. I'm willing to have some fairly heavy scripting and textures for a good companion experience. After that, comes all NPC's. I don't get to the world until all that is done. Remember that your house interior is independent of the larger worldspace. You can mod the heck out of it as long as it is separate from the world. Same with towns to a lesser degree. The last place I am willing to put heavy scripting and textures is the open world. The open worldspace is very sensitive to the amount (quality and quantity) of textures. At least that is what I have found. It is also sensitive to the number of simultaneous scripts being run. In the open world, I limit myself to 2-3 heavily scripted mods at any one time. The vanilla Hi-rez textures don't bother me. I know that some people have a different hierarchy and I wouldn't expect them to change because of my opinion. I'm just writing this for information purposes, not a s a recommendation. My game playthroughs are usually stable. I can break them almost any time, but I usually know how I broke them. lol

I have almost the exact same setup as yours. The only substantive differences are that I don't overclock, I have 16GB ram and I have a 120 GB SSD. If I had it to do again, I would get a bigger SSD. Skyrim is not particularly disk bound. The program should be able to stay ahead of most disk access problems with a hard drive. SSD's are much faster than platter drives. Practically speaking, any speed over apparently instantaneous is invisible. You will notice big differences in initial loading and setup. They are worth their price for that alone. I hope this helps you.

Eat some ingredients. There are much handier ingredients for making health potions. Eat one of each, then check your recipes.

A Loremaster, an Advocate of Realism and a Role Playing Purist went into a bar. The bartender was a very cute anime toon with pink hair and no belly button. The Loremaster said, "I can't stay here. It's not lore friendly." The Advocate of Realism said, "I can 't stay, either. The bartender doesn't look real." They were walking out when they noticed the Role Playing Purist wasn't with them. "Aren't you coming with us.?" they asked. "No," he answered. "I'm just going stay and check her .fuz files to make sure they are well formed."

If you're playing a warrior, why choose? I use them all in the same game, but to do that effectively, you have to start the game using all four types of attack (I also use a bow extensively) The only places I put any perks early in the game are one-handed, two handed, shield, both armor types and sneak. I take steel armor from smithing and basicly nothing else but speech. I only take speech when there is nothing else available from my list. It works fairly well most of the time. I don't enchant or use enchanted armor or weapons, so my game stays balanced fairly late into the game. Eventually you will need to advance your smithing, but otherwise, I have a lot of fun. Not saying it's for everyone, but it matches my personality pretty well. Don't know what that says about me.

In response to post #9033191. #9034321, #9034367, #9034576 are all replies on the same post. I looked at every comment by Dark0ne to see if there was anything that could be remotely misconstrued as flaming. Nothing. The only comment that flamed anyone was yours. A background in writing is no excuse. Writing and reading are both skills. While habits of though may lead a person down a wrong path, habits of thought are not destiny. And since we are discussing English, yes, you did openly and aggressively accuse Dark0ne of wronging someone. If your English comprehension is as precise as you claim, you did so without any justification. Your apology was mealy mouthed and self serving. Try again. (That was a rhetorical device. I'm not really demanding that you apologize again. lol.)

In response to post #9033191. #9034321 is also a reply to the same post. Maybeso you should try to figure out who DarlOne actually is. lmao.

I guess my view on all this is so different from most of the posts below because of generational differences. I have a premium membership for the features. In my opinion they are worth every dollar. The site runs fine, speed-wise, for me. My download speeds are good, too. The fact that my "donation" helps support the site is just an added feature. When I get something, I expect to pay for it. All the poor-mouthing comments left me unmoved. I've been seeing those for 60 odd years. I have three blogs of my own and host two for my wife. Nothing fancy, but believe me, web hosting is not cheap. All of you people who are complaining about the speed of the free service are the ones who need to take a moment and think. You are using a free service. It's worth more than you are paying, since you are paying nothing. Not sure if it's worth more than your time, but judging by the comments, I would guess that's a yes. Just my 2 mils worth. (A mil is a tenth of a penny, for those that don't know.)

This whole line of reasoning and re-reasoning reminds me of something I learned a long time ago playing any of these kinds of games. Save early and often. For those who can't seem to avoid such and such quest, just go back to a previous save and don't do the quest. As for junk in your journal, get "The Choice Is Yours" and don't look back. I do agree with the OP that it is frustrating, trying to do the right thing in these games. The writers and programmers seem determined to make our lives a misery if we don't want to do exactly as they have scripted. I can't tell if they are incompetent or just hate most of their customers. lol. There is a mod to destroy the thieves guild. Unfortunately, many mods that attempt to address one inequity, introduces another. If I were a better scripter, I would make some changes other than the lightweight stuff I do now. Maybe I'll be up to speed by the time the next elder scrolls comes along. In the meantime, we all do the best we can. I will say that playing the game is still fun for me.

I played Skyrim for quite a while on the 360 before I moved to the PC. I played Skyrim first on the PC as well. I actually built the computer I play on to play Skyrim. I made the switch to FNV for almost 8 months. My problem with Skyrim a year ago was that I didn't know enough about choosing and installing mods to be a success doing it. I was constantly introducing faults into my game. I picked up FNV on a whim. I learned most of what I know about selecting and installing mods playing New Vegas. I don't know that I would be better off now in Skyrim if I hadn't played New Vegas. There is something to be said for sticking to a problem and learning the hard way. lol. I don't know if this helps you as FNV is not exactly easy to successfully mod. It is an excellent lab for someone who wants to learn to select and install mods. Skyrim modding has come a long way in a year. It doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon, either. Just pick one and go through the process is my advice. Either one should be fine. Don't forget, "Free advice is usually worth less than you pay for it." Anonymous. BTW, could someone please put Skyrim in the spellchecking dictionary? lol

This is an interesting question. I admit, I had never thought about it. In thinking about it, I couldn't help but consider alternatives. The first is the easiest. Never use any enchantments or enchanted gear. Don't trade in them. Don't sell them, don't buy them and don't make them. I feel that exceptions would always work their way into the game if I took this avenue. For instance, what about your wedding ring? That exception leads directly to the next alternative. Items directly enchanted by the gods. In my opinion the problem here is not good or evil, but deciding what is enchanted by the gods and what isn't. Of course some things are obvious, but others are fairly borderline. For instance, Dawnbreaker is a daedric artifact. Can a good character use it because its enchantment affects "evil" characters? There are several items in this category. Should temples sell "blessings" for armor, weapons, etc. How about dragon souls and daedric souls? Should daedric souls be the new "black" souls? Should enchantment by the player be limited to dragon souls? I'm not a fan of mods that limit choices. I prefer to set my own limitations in the game. That's why I won't consider a mod that eliminates fast travel, although I don't fast travel in a "real" game. It's all about choices for me. I want the ability to be evil. I just don't want to do it. What do you think?

StayFrosty is right about the division. When you start the game as a one or two handed warrior or both, as I do, you need both health and stamina desperately. After about level 6 or seven, though, I use the 2 for 1 split he mentions from then on. Like most slash and bash games, Skyrim has a hierarchy that goes, damage, armor, health. The problem is damage is very easy to come by in the game. Armor is a close second. I used to train in this and that but, I never use trainers any more. My favorite playthrough as a warrior, so far is the one where I kept all three weapon types as up to date as possible, and kept all three armor types current. No enchanting, limited smithing and limited alchemy. Only simple novice spells, like healing, healing hands and a couple of other novice spells. The only other trees I invest anything in for most of the game is sneaking and speech. I don't start enchanting armor until I hit 60 smithing naturally as a result of game decisions. I make healing potions sometimes, but really, I don't do much alchemy until the rings and necklaces, etc. kind of pile up. There are Smithing potions lying around everywhere, so if you can show a little discipline you can use plain steel armor deep into the game. Same with weapons. If you like the light armor, you can get good light armor easily from the game. You will need to take the light armor smithing tree to advanced but after that, it's just another choice. I hope my rambling helps. The bottom line I think, is that you can have a lot of fun, whatever you decide.

Mesh and texture replacers that don't use esp's stay in the game from start to start. I don't know if that's your problem, but just pointing out that some things don't leave the game just because you start over. Also, when you uninstall a mod, you are trusting that the mod author's uninstaller works correctly to uninstall everything installed by a mod. Most are good about this, but not all by any means. That's why mod author's always tell you to back up your textures before installing a texture replacer.

Press "Print Screen" on your keyboard. It will take a full resolution image of whatever is on the screen. My screen is 2560 x 1440 so the image file sizes are large. You'll have to do some serious cropping to get under the 1.5 Mbyte limit if you want to post the image.

There is a fat woman mod. I don't remember the name or where it was, but it's around. Haven't seen any fat men mods, but I'm not looking. They could easily be out there without me knowing about them. If you want to look, you will need to wade through the models and textures category file by file. I know it's a lot of work, but there are a lot of obscure mods that deserve a look.

@kleinstaff. I'm with you. Not going to happen, but I'm onboard 100% with that sentiment.

You are absolutely right about the size of the "map". It is pitifully small. Even if the map included all of Tamriel, it would still be small. In some future game, we need a continent, instead of an island. I've been thinking a lot lately, about America before Columbus as a game setting. If such a thing were going to be started, I would want the entire Mississippi Watershed for my stomping grounds. Crazy, I know. It would take a separate hard drive array just to hold the environment. That's without any people. Don't know what it would take, storage wise, to populate it. The first game to require one of the 300DVD changers just to run. lol. I suppose we could start with just Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, then add as needed. But that, of course, would get us back here, argu.......discussing which states to add next. They could just start off with two holds, Falkreath (since Helgen is in Falkreath) and Whiterun and just add in the others as needed. The could make each hold as large or extremely close if not more than the size they put in for the entire province. Since there are nine holds in Skyrim, that would overall increase Skyrim size by 9 times, which is decent. And don't even start if off the manner that they did. Just put in a minor cinematic opening up the player to the environment and world slightly (detailing events or the world in some manner) then just allow the player to choose his or her player in a sort of Oblivion manner as confronted by a fellow cell-mate and then with a bit of play with the player to make him assume with the sound and lack of interaction to make him or her feel that he or she is going to die, you go to sleep. You are awoken by the voice of Mara, which then proceeds to the "Start Another Life" mod, where you can choose your salvation by choosing who you would be. Then the story is unfold. They can limit it to roles specific in Whiterun and Falkreath, then expand. They could perhaps even call the game "Elder Scrolls V" and call the first edition "Skyrim," in which they are add-ons presented as you advance in the world. It is quite limited, but with a huge enough environment in two holds that it doesn't seem quite bothersome with the lack of story. There is another side-stories and side-quests and an easy enough modding environment that you can do tons with the expanse of the modding community to keep you entertained until their next release, expanding Skyrim with two more holds (probably Morthal and the Reach). This would allow even more latter. Of course I would perhaps even just change the entire world, adding more races, more lore, more culture and just setting the world up that you can change it by the actions you make. Perhaps even just start off in a single hold and advance from that hold into other holds with new dlcs. So you start off with Whiterun Hold and you advance to Falkreath, Hjallmarch, Haafingar, The Reach, Eastmarch, Winterhold, The Pale, and The Rift. So that makes eight dlcs and then you can add in The reason why I would even just start off with just Whiterun is that they can spend all of their effort that they would take in doing two "Skyrims" into just one hold that is the size of Skyrim but with so much content like Witcher 2, Witcher 1, and Kingdoms of Amalur and other such games including Dragon Dogma. There is so much you can do outside of the field of combat and inside the field of combat. If it is simply just in Whiterun and you get to choose your initial status, perhaps start off as either a Nobleman (like say a member of the Battle-born Family or the Grey-Manes), a commoner like a merchant or a guard, or say a member of the Companions in which there are four stories or possible major questlines available, the first which is partially available as the Dragonborn in which you visit the Greybeards and the second three which one you actually start off with that is quite lengthly and involves simply what is in the hold and is sort of half done intentionally to allow you to explore outside of the semi-linear major quest-lines that full of cinematics like the opening of Skyrim with the Dragon Attacks, except with greater AI and greater immersion with the cinematics that it feels like playing the Witcher 2, but better. :Edited: So you could conclude with Skyrim, ESV with the last of the Nine Holds, the adventure to Solsteim which should be as large as a hold (which of course is as large as what they put into skyrim). Then with each additional game you can adventure into or start off in each new province or re-adventure into Morrowind or Cyrodiil. Thereby, tying each province together into a massive Elder Scrolls expands from V to XIII. Of course it might be easier to just start off Elderscrolls remade outside of its continuim so that it isn't so confusing of V being the start. Anyways, it allows in each expanse to improve the engine, the graphics, and the gameplay as well as other features without needing to recreate everything from scratch. So maybe a good idea is to still call it the Elder Scrolls, but refer to this as the new Elder Scrolls I and others as Pre-I. Of course, since Skyrim is already done with. It might be wise to start off as The Elder Scrolls Adventures, a new title, thereby a new start for a large expansive world that features what the hardcore gamers want. An easy to mod environment that starts off big in a small area of the entire world. So like the hold of Whiterun as large as what was put into Skyrim like I had said and you expand in that single game to the entirety of that province. So that puts like eight expansions in each game and ties each game together with improvements to better graphics, gameflow, engine, gameplay ect... with each new game in the environment you are already accustomed, it just allows you a new territory to explore like Bruma for instance. And you can like charge the game at 59.99 and each addition or expansion as 29.99. And they can even make DLCs from the most popular mods that both they like and a good number of people like (say anything brought up on their own site which allows people who had played the game to vote and like) and if it shares a certain quota, it will be put into the DLC at 1.99 to 5.99 depending on the extent of content of course it has to be more than a single article of clothing like say improved AI better than the programers had allowed could be set at 2.99. A new world as larger as what they had made or larger could be 5.99. A whole dozen of new armors that fit male and female characters or are scripted without errors for a single sex (given an algorithm and message prevents its use by the other) are sold for 1.99. The profits for such are made at 50% for the contributor(s) like say you guys who make the mods and the other 50% is for Bethesda. Of course you can download the stuff for free, but the established DLC is set to work in everything in the world to prevent any errors or future errors as well as allow mod immersion over the DLC. So it can be easier to avoid the problems of two mods not working together. It is also officially part of the game and the lore with the possibility of new books and stories in said books featuring the information made in said DLCs. So you have more books and content along with the content you could have downloaded. Of course, if it is just a DLC about a book or a set of books, then that can be made free as any mod put into a DLC in which the modder wants no payment for his or her work. You just also get nothing additional that Bethesda could make alongside the mod in the DLC to offer more to the gamers than just a mod that people want to play. Good, constructive ideas. I didn't really follow the pay model but, I'm a simple man who likes simple problems. I have always thought that the choices made at the start of the game should have far-reaching consequences. I play a mod now that does some of that, but mostly it requires self discipline on my part. I see a lot of people who want a mod to disable fast travel, as if the game requires them to fast travel because the ability is there. What I don't get is there are mods to disable fast travel. Why don't they just use them and STFU? Is it because they want to limit everyone else to their narrow view? I don't know and I don't care. I don't use a lot of things in Skyrim, but I don't want the world changed to make it impossible. If it weren't for the open-minded world made for us by Bethesda, the mods couldn't be so diverse. I really like your idea about making each hold the size of Skyrim. I might want to one-up you and make each hold the size of Tamriel, but that would limit a lot of players on older machines. That's not a good thing. I built this computer just to play Skyrim. I want it to be relevant, at least for a few years. lol. I have bought the last case I'll ever need about a dozen times, the last motherboard I'll ever need, too many times to count, etc., etc., etc. I would like an elder scrolls engine that takes advantage of modern machinery. I still can't see any reason why there is no 64 bit Skyrim, other than corporate inertia. Even if it had a few warts and blemishes to start, the gaming community would support the effort. In my own, not very humble opinion, the problem for a bigger world is almost totally a question of being storage bound. I have a 3 terabyte drive. It was cheap. There are bigger ones available. Problem solved. Of course that would mean they wouldn't be able to sell it as a download, the single most asinine business model for a game that has ever been tried. Whoever thought that would work in the long run (cough) Microsoft(cough) was an idiot. Eventually, if they want to advance the scope of games, they are going to have to sell them on a medium that has some storage space. If the present knotheads don't get it, someone else will. I can't wait. Well, I guess I've whined enough about the status quo. Let the good times roll.

Use the hot key to equip a one handed weapon of choice. Press the hot key. This should disarm you. In fact, it should leave you with your fists up if you had a weapon drawn. BTW, If you attack someone with bare hands, it does not start a brawl. They will use weapons. Just a reminder.

You are absolutely right about the size of the "map". It is pitifully small. Even if the map included all of Tamriel, it would still be small. In some future game, we need a continent, instead of an island. I've been thinking a lot lately, about America before Columbus as a game setting. If such a thing were going to be started, I would want the entire Mississippi Watershed for my stomping grounds. Crazy, I know. It would take a separate hard drive array just to hold the environment. That's without any people. Don't know what it would take, storage wise, to populate it. The first game to require one of the 300DVD changers just to run. lol. I suppose we could start with just Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, then add as needed. But that, of course, would get us back here, argu.......discussing which states to add next.

I recently started playing Skyrim again. I had taken about an 8 month break because I was playing another game. Playing Fallout - New Vegas for 8 months made me much better at selecting and installing mods. I have never found the environment in Skyrim to be objectionable. To me, the gameplay system in Skyrim is just another system to learn and exploit. There are mods for almost anything a person would care to change, so I change what I don't like. I only fire up the CK when I see something I don't like that doesn't have a mod already. I have my own tastes about the appearance of the player character and certain NPC's. I couldn't care less about most of them, though. When it comes to playing the main quest, I don't mind starting it right off the bat. Once I get the golden claw mission, though, I do as I please and control the pacing of the MQ, myself. I guess I can do that because I know what everything is and where it is, as well. When I first played, everything was new and shiny, so that was a completely different experience than the one I'm enjoying now. I sleep every night, got to temple every morning, eat at least two meals a day, never fast travel, yada, yada, yada. By the way, I am a milkdrinker, in and out of the game. I remove the healing components of milk and spring water, because I didn't need or want them. If I were going to have milk and water do anything, it would be stronger bones and whiter teeth. lol. My point is there are as many ways to play the game as there are people playing. The guilds are problematic for me. Some of them, I don't care if the entire bunch falls into the sky. Others I would like to see better, just not enough to get off my fundament and fix. For instance, I would like an option to force Aela to take the cure. Just not enough to code it. If I were going to do anything on a grand scale, I would weave the Companions and the Blades together and into the Main Quest and Civil War. The rest of the guilds, I can live with a casual relationship if not a straight antagonistic relationship. I have "Kill the Thieves Guild" downloaded, but have never activated it yet. I usually do the things that lean towards destroying certain bad actor's that I won't name because this is a non-spoiler forum. The one thing I would change in the game is the way the player gets an evil or nothing when dealing with the Daedra. Given any choice, I would hunt them all down and kill them. Now there's a mod someone should code. I don't care if they don't die forever. A thousand years seems reasonable to me. There are other little things that I would have done differently, but I enjoy the game too much to get very bent out of shape over any of it. I'm not much of a predictor, but I predict I will enjoy the next one, too. That's my two mil worth ( A mil is a tenth of a penny, if you didn't know.). In other words, it is worth what you paid to get it. Or less.

I usually play as Harald Pendragon. I know it's not lore friendly, but I don't care how the name got to Tamriel. In my mind, it's there now. I usually think of him as a Nord whose family has lived outside Skyrim for a long time. The Pendragon name is a nod to his dragon blood.