Stemin

Which is just another thing I find irritating about these forums. Everyone here runs mods like crazy and then they complain that Bethesda's game is buggy. Bethesda didn't write the game to support your mods. Case in point they're complaining about bugs and how many people in this thread are complaining because they didn't want to update to 1.8. An update Bethesda put out to fix bugs. Facts are facts and if you go to any non PC modding forum you'd find that most of the stock bugs have been fixed. Even the guys playing on PS3 are saying that and they had the most issues on that platform. Here's a suggestion. If you don't want your game to break, don't mod an unfinished game. There are gonna be changes. It makes my head ache when people spend hundreds of hours on a game and then complain there's something wrong with it. It's like sitting through an entire movie and then demanding your money back or eating an entire meal at a restaurant and doing the same. I for one was dreaming of games of this quality when I started playing games growing up. The only games we had like these were text based MUDs.

That statement could only be true if there are other games out there that have met this level of content. So let me ask you again. Where are they? I have played other adventure rpg's that have been good and interesting, but none with the open world setup that Skyrim has. Either way, declaring that all the games of this genre are mediocre doesn't dispute exactly defend your position. Clearly Bethesda is doing as well as anyone else if that's the case.

Really? Who's doing it better? Point me at these games so I can play them.

We buy them because they have no competition. When you have an effective monopoly - as Bethesda does in the open-world, live-action RPG genre - there is no need to innovate, or even release working products. And it never once occurred to you that they have no competition because they're actually the best at what they do? :rolleyes: It's not like other games haven't tried.

Doesn't matter. At the end of the day all the weapons are still at 100. Seriously. This is a thread about positives in Skyrim.

But amusing yourself doesn't necessarily equate to creating more culture. It was the truth back in the days of the vikings, and its the truth now when working class americans spend a good deal of time just hanging out in bars watching football and chasing girls. Not much "art" going on there. I'm no historian to know the truth of things, but a lot of viking culture is portrayed similarly, just drinking in mead halls while having massive orgies in between plundering and looting. It's no secret a lot of Nordic culture was modeled after the Vikings.

The Falmer for one thing. Of which there are very few, for supposedly their main city. At least that's the way I understood the lore, was the Falmer took over and inhabited Blackreach when the Dwemer disappeared, and yet there's more Falmer huts in the Forgotten Vale than there are in Blackreach. Probably more Falmer as well. And if this place is so hidden that so few people knew about it, how are these creatures getting in in the first place? There ought to be at least one entry to the "overworld" if these things are getting down there. And why does the dragon behave as he does? That doesn't explain why they would defend the Falmer. In that one part of the Silent City, they appear to be listening to a lecture by one.

I didn't get the impression he knew you were coming, I got the impression he just knew that at some point, someone was going to take a shot at him. He wasn't surprised and he accepted that you already beat his defenses. I mean you were able to enter a ship in the middle of the harbor undetected and then presumably either sneak or battle passed all of his elite guard, so there would have been nothing in it for him except humiliation if he were to try anything against you so he accepted his fate. This place is getting pretty predictable. Another Brandy post another pot shot at consoles. Another s9000 post another argument. Glad the ignore list exists. I don't see issues with the Mage's guild the way everyone else does. Everyone complains on here about being locked into a certain path, and here they give you an option and you guys are complaining that you don't have to use enough magic. The Archmage position is a position of leadership and being representative of the guild. The day to day is clearly handled by the Master Wizard, which is pointed out a bunch of times by Mirabelle and later Tolfdir who specifically has the dialogue option to ask "if there's anything I should be aware of?". You can choose to study magic, or not, but the bottom line is, you saved the world, saved the guild, and dealt a huge blow to the Thalmor as well as being somewhat prophesied to do these things according to the Psijic Order. By the end of the quest line, you may not be the best at magic, but you definitely earned your position. I also found the mage's questline to have some of the better areas in the game... the midden, the labyrinth, even sarthal, as well as being the kicker to the Gauldur Amulet quest, and a pointer to Black Reach. I have a bigger issue with the town of Winterhold itself. I thought the guild quests were by far and away the best in Skyrim, even if they weren't incredibly long, with the exception of the Bard's guild, which is by far and away the dumbest concept for an adventurer class I can think of off the top of my head and barely deserved the few quests it got.

I didn't really want to go too far off topic and mention it, but to me it speaks of nordic culture in general. The whole of Skyrim is a run down ruin except for Imperial run Solitude and the Jarl's don't really seem to care. That's what makes it all the more laughable to me that the Stormcloaks think they'll do a better job going back to archaic ideals. Look for example at Winterhold. What did they call that disaster? The great collapse? And all the Jarl does is sit there placing the blame on the Mage College instead of attempting to rebuild. Even a thriving city like Whiterun is surrounded by a crumbling wall. The whole battle of Whiterun was such a farce when you can literally walk over the western side of the wall right onto the battlements from Whiterun plain. Maybe you can call it Bethesda being lazy, but when you look at the themes they put in place and the NPC's, it seems to me they went out of their way to make Skyrim a rundown ruin.

I thought Blackreach was highly overrated. I had heard so much about it from fellow gamers and it didn't really live up to the hype visually, and lore wise, there's so much down there that doesn't have any explanation or background. The creatures are so random too. There's a colony of frost spiders, a frost troll, a Giant, a Wisp Mother, a dragon, all without explanation. There's no explanation for the human slaves, why they serve the Falmer.. And that's ignoring all the dwemer areas.

The foresworn could be said to be bias, but they confirm pretty much everything in the Bear of Markarth. Nepos says it, so does the guy in Cidna Mine when the king and rags forces you to speak with him. As for hating both sides, you should look up the word hate. I'm sure they want to take the Reach back from the Empire, but most of their anger is clearly directed at the Nords and Ulfric was hired by the Jarl, acting on his own, not sanctioned by the Empire. The empire didn't become involved with that little debacle until after Ulfric had already subdued the Foresworn.

I wish the "female falmer" head pieces looked more like that. They wouldn't be so ridiculous. I'm still not sure if that's supposed to be hair or not.

I've been itching for a new laptop for months. My desktop runs very well, but my current laptop is a Celeron. IIRC it's a 1.65 with only 2gb of ram and an integrated intel graphics card. Just browsing the web is taxing it with the amount of tabs I'm used to using. I don't need a traditional gaming laptop, but I would like one that's beefy enough to run Skyrim well (like high or better) and will run 3ds max. The problem is, anything like that is going to run me $1200 or more and while I can afford it, I don't want to shell out that kind of money since I'm saving for a house and work is slowing down. While browsing Craigslist I found a used laptop for $500, that has an i7, 4gb of ram (upgradable to 8 ), and a geforce 630m. If I have a good understanding of that card, it's going to be an upgrade over the 550ti I have in my desktop, but I have 3 questions... 1. Is a 630 upgradable to say a 670 if I choose to upgrade down the line? 2. Can the 630's video ram be upgraded? 3. Am I correct in believing that video ram is now the same as regular memory, i.e. ddr3, ddr5, etc?

The entitlement is pretty thick here. What do they need to apologize for? Because the other platform's got Dawnguard and you didn't? At what point did you decide they owed you DLC's because the other platforms got them?

You're missing the point. Cicero clearly plotted against them before he even set foot in the Sanctuary. Again, from his journal: 30th of Sun's Dusk, 4E 200 I have written the letters. So polite. So official! To Astrid, in Skyrim. Her Sanctuary still stands. Still operates. But how? No Listener means no Black Sacrament, no Black Sacrament means no contracts. Her family can abandon the Old Ways, and still survive, still kill, but is that family still Brotherhood? Or something else? Something new. Something different. Something wrong? Something wrong. Still, we must go! Tomorrow, we set sail. Float on a boat through the moat called the sea her and me! 22nd of Evening Star, 4E 200 Sick sick sick of the rocking tossing rolling throwing upon the gray gray waves! I've been reading of Skyrim, of the good days, the old days, of the Old Ways. There was another Sanctuary once. A Dawnstar Sanctuary. Good, ancient and strong. Blessed by Sithis. Cicero will go there! No need of Astrid! The Mother and I will settle, and she will speak to me, finally, and we will build the Old Ways anew, together. It could be argued that he broke tenets 2 and 3 long before breaking number 5. Cicero is all or nothing. That's what it comes down to. Which again.. means if you put your loyalty into the Night Mother, then you might feel he's justified. I find it a reach to consider it justified that he has condemned Astrid and ignored her entire family based on what? Rumors? A letter from her? Then again, if you prefer logic over a dead woman in a casket that allowed all her sanctuary's to be destroyed......

I put the nifplugins.dlu file in the directory after backing up the old one and it gave me a slew of errors that all look similar to this first one:

Well, I have to disagree. It's pretty much laid out in the journal. His sole duty would now be taking care of the Night Mother. He even had to fulfill his final contract before taking on his duties (the jester). He doesn't say anything about being forbidden to kill, in fact he says he would be lucky to lift a blade, implying that it isn't likely, but possible: 24th of Morning Star, 4E 189 It is a new year, and two months since the Night Mother first arrived here at the Cheydinhal Sanctuary, and still the Unholy Matron has not seen fit to speak to any one of us. And so, Rasha has decided to revive an ancient Dark Brotherhood tradition - the appointing of a Keeper, a guardian whose sole duty is the safeguarding of the Night Mother's remains. The remaining members of the Black Hand will make their decision tomorrow. 25th of Morning Star, 4E 189 I have been chosen. By some incomprehensible twist of fate, the Black Hand has named me the Night Mother's Keeper. In all honesty, I am both incredibly honored and deeply saddened. This means the end of my contracts. I'll be lucky to lift a blade again. Thankfully, Rasha has promised me one final contract before I accept my new duties. 30th of Morning Star, 4E 189. The jester lies dead. My final contract has been completed. Oh, how he laughed and laughed. Until he didn't. 3rd of First Seed, 4E 189 I have settled well into my new role as Keeper. It is my duty to not only keep the Night Mother's shrine clean, and the candles lit, but to tend to the body as well. The Night Mother's crypt was a consecrated place - shroud-kissed, absent of sunlight, and safe from the world above. Removed from there, the remains are subject to the filth and corruption of the living. The body is perfectly preserved, so the concern is not physical, but rather spiritual - the remains must be sanctified regularly, so that they may continue to serve as a conduit for the Night Mother's soul. Our Matron's eternal spirit may travel the Void freely, but it is through her own earthly remains that she communicates with the Listener. And so, I wash the corpse weekly with the requisite oils, recite the ancient incantations, and personally see to the extermination of any insects or rodents. If the Night Mother does not speak, it will be because she chooses not to - not because she is unable. This is my responsibility. This is my vow. 12th of Mid Year, 4E 189 Months and months and months and no Listener. Why won't the Night Mother speak to me? I am worthy as Keeper, but not as Listener? I protect our Lady, keep her sanctified, but still she will not grace me with her voice? 4th of Sun's Height, 4E 189 So long since I worked my blade. So long since I saved a soul. But I am now Keeper. No longer a taker. I think back fondly on my hours with the jester. His laughter, his screams, his pitiful cries. And then, as the end drew near, his laughter once more. Merry in death as well as life. I was honored to know him. Unless he's just an insane, treacherous little bastard. The above passages about the jester certainly convinced me.

Has anyone actually played the game at all before answering? Nepos the nose points out during the Foresworn conspiracy that the Foresworn hate Ulfric Stormcloak for taking the Reach away from them and butchering anyone, women or children who were associated with the Foresworn whether they lifted a sword or not. There's no way in hell they join the Stormcloaks.

Right. Because he was appointed Keeper and now his duties were to always guard and take care of the Night Mother. It has nothing to do with giving up killing.

That wasn't an assumption. I wasn't passing it off as fact. I was passing it off as a theory. There is no evidence one way or the other beyond Maro's assertion that someone in the dark brotherhood approached him. Again, it's UNreasonable to believe that Astrid would have given him the pass phrase, and she really had no reason to turn in the dragonborn when it's Cicero she was really after and presumes dead at this point. So you have to try and figure out her motivation for doing such a thing. The only thing is to protect her family. Why would she believe her family was in any danger at all unless Maro indicated it? The game script alludes to her thinking you are usurping her power, but the facts are the game also guides you to do everything she asks, so there is no indication at all that you're not playing along being a good little db soldier. None of this is "besides the point". The fact is, Cicero from the word go caused nothing but conflict and had no intention of even trying to see what these members were about. At the slightest provocation he started plotting treachery, and it wasn't the first time either. If you read his journals, you would know that in the past, someone claimed they were the listener, but couldn't give the proper response to prove it. Now by your Dark Brotherhood rules, Cicero would have been right to punish (kill) this person, but instead, he plots treachery, tricking another member into killing him. None of that is true. I don't have to know how a computer works internally to use one. I don't have to know how an internal combustion engine works to drive a car. And again, assuming things is just plain bad policy. Yes. You are.

I'm not sure how the nif tools work with Blender, but you don't have to use nifskope to edit the meshes in 3ds max. You do however have to mess with nifskope afterwards to get the textures to work properly because of problems exporting, although theru just came up with an update so maybe that part is fixed. Some items can be mashed up using just nifskope, but that depends entirely on how many pieces Bethesda made the mesh. For example, mage hoods can be basically cut and pasted on any armor. There are some tricks to doing it though that you'd have to learn. I played with it once, but I don't really remember how it works since I do most of my mesh editing in 3ds max. Editing in meshes is fairly easy for armors because they can be made up of several different pieces, where as weapons seem to be made of one single mesh, so you have to either build it from scratch, or figure out how you can weld all your meshes together, which I find to be very tricky personally. Overall, editing clothing and armor seems to be the most forgiving process when working with meshes. Making new creatures involve a lot more work with the bones and painting weights, and there's very little info out yet on it, although several people have done it. There seems to be even less information on creating simple static pieces from a custom mesh, where you have to deal with collision properties, and I have no idea how this is done. As I said, weapons tend to be one piece, which is a bit more tricky than armors. Armors you can create from multiple pieces and import them together or separately. You can use the attach feature in 3ds max instead of welding the individual vertices like you would have to if doing a weapon. I recommend Nightasay's tutorials to get you going. He just started his own website so I don't know where it's going to go in the future as he already has a pay section that doesn't seem to list the membership price until you sign up (which I have not done), but right now his free section is still the best thing going right now. As far as your other questions... You can keep the existing textures as long as you keep the meshes separated. I don't know for sure what happens if you try to make them one piece. I imagine there's still a way to use them, but you'd have to know a lot more about working with the uvw than I do. Regarding the 0 and 1 weight sliders, you do not have to recreate it from scratch. You definitely don't want to do this because you want both set of meshes to have the same number of vertices. What you do is you simply resize your mesh to fit the _0 or _1 body type you're working with. I personally think it might be easier to start with the _0 first, because when you load the 0 armor on a 1 body, then all you have to do is resize where there is collision, whereas if you start with the 1 weight slider and put it on the 0 body, you will probably have zero collisions, but you have to then fuss with the mesh to try and get it as tight as possible. Just a personal preference.

It's in the Cistern right in front of Mercer's old desk. I think I only bothered to check it one time and don't recall being impressed. I don't know if its set to respawn. Lore wise it should.

He's clearly not looking to duplicate Ysolda.

I'm not criticizing, I'm just trying to make sure I'm using it right. It's only logical to read the documentation before using something and I don't use the niftools forums since I only understand about a quarter of what they're talking about.

You just lost all credibility as far as I'm concerned when you declared it was ok to assume something. That's no logical way to reason things out and proves you're just trying to make events fit your version. I'm just going to snip the rest of that since you already pointed out its an assumption. I'm not going to open a debate about whether or not Tiber Septim is a god. I am going to apologize because you mistook what I said and I could see how that could be. When I said the people in Skyrim, I meant the people in Skyrim the game. The Thalmor are very much part of Nirn, and they very much prove my point. In edition we've seen evidence of people not knowing or supporting Nocturnal, the Night Mother, Meridian, etc. Hell, half the quests in the game involve you having to revive a dead god's sanctuary/worship/whatever. Conjecture. If all magic in Nirn were scientifically laid out and understood by everyone, there would be no mystery as to where the Dwarves went. There's also the fact that it's constantly changing as new things are learned and things are lost (dragon shouts, spell making, etc) Astrid never shows any ability to use magic at any point during the game, no matter which path you choose. I also wouldn't count Shadowmere as proof either since he/she is clearly a special kind of magic. No spells or incantations were needed to bring him/her out from the pool. Shadowmere simply showed up when you left the sanctuary as if it sensed Astrid's need. Proof of lore is a ridiculous concept when the series is constantly being retconned and things in the game contradict each other tall the time. (plot holes and such)