lordrichter

Just letting you know that whatever "browser check" is being done before getting to the login screen is looping several times. Something new since last time I logged in.

That'll be the reason. The only way it can keep track of whether you've successfully completed captcha already is if you allow your cookies (at least from them) to remain. Same for Nexus Mods. If you don't delete the Nexus Mods cookie, you won't be logged out for a month, ergo you won't need to do the captcha again for at least a month on that computer. I was just noticing that reCaptcha was coming up a lot more frequently than I remember after clearing my cookies. That's all. Wondered if something changed, since it is more annoying. I usually don't bother with the humanity challenge. It is actually faster to press F5 and try again, or just try again in a little while, than it is to pick all the bicycle, parking meter, or small dog pictures. I just prefer to log in when I hit the site because y'all don't like my ad blocker. :-) Sorry for stirring the pot.

Is it my imagination, or is reCaptcha coming up more frequently, now? I close my browser and clear cookies while playing games, so I am constantly having to log in again. My humanity is regularly challenged. It would not be so bad if it was more accurate.

I would prefer the user ID and password fields to be visible on the first Nexus page that I see (*.nexusmods.com) rather than having to press a twisty to get a drop down. The twisty might look cool, and maybe it was fun to program up, but I think it reduces the usability of the site. Of course, I might be getting picky. The site might be perfectly usable for me without bothering to log in. I will have to check that out.

I applaud the attempt at transparency. I ran a successful multi-line dialup computer bulletin board system for many many years back before the turn of the century. While the scale is different, the issues are the same, and the biggest issue, as I observed over time, is not the malefactors who visit, but the admins who run the place. More specifically, the user perception of the admins who run the place. This perception is borne out of the behavior of the admins, and the people the admins trust to do their bidding, in how they behave, how they respond to others, and how they handle the people who break the rules. After all, how do we really know that the people running the place are any better than the people who they are passing judgement on? Transparency will help. However, not all is peaches and cream. I was not encouraged by the way that some people responded to the "enthusiastic posts" in response to the blog posting. I am an independent person with my own thoughts, so I read this thread with interest and amusement. I was not as interested in what the "enthusiastic posts" said as I was in how the admins responded. The Vampire Dante posted ":rolleyes:" when a more proper action would have been to simply stand down and not post anything. Even Dark0ne, “the law”, got caught up in the fray ("I never realised the Nexus had some(sic) many psychology professors") and I guess I expected more from that quarter. No matter how much I agree or disagree with the post they were replying to, or the sentiment that TVD and Dark0ne expressed, I should have never actually seen them express it in that manner. I think that this reflects on the character of both. Certainly not fatally, but definitely not well. Now, I realize that people have their own opinions and may or may not agree. I'm not stating absolutes here, just opinions. What I am observing is not exactly unfamiliar to me. My point for bringing this up is that, given the language in the Terms of Service, the transparency and the warning system is not only a good idea, it is absolutely required. It would be very easy for moderators, admins, and particularly Dark0ne, to abuse the Terms of Service. How the Terms of Service are applied depends on the character of the people applying it. This statement applies whether or not you are aware that the material violates it. I am not saying that it will be abused, but it certainly can be abused. The statement is absolute, meaning that posting a false or inaccurate statement, or posting anything that is in violation of a UK law, even if you are completely unaware that it is false, inaccurate, or illegal (in the UK), is a violation of the Terms of Service. I, for one, am not an expert on UK law, and there is no way that I can tell whether something that I am not aware of makes a statement false or inaccurate, or even whether a mistake in typing or a misinterpretation made by the reader could result in the perception of a violation of this statement. In fact, the only prudent action for this very message would be to not post it since I cannot be absolutely sure that it does not violate this statement. Therefore, should you never see this post, you will know why. Of course, a reasonable interpretation would not hold someone accountable for information beyond their knowledge, but whether that holds true on Nexus goes back to the character of the person judging. However, the reason that you are likely to see my post lies in these two Terms of Service items: The first statement says that any undocumented etiquette can catch up the unwary poster. The second one says that Robin can toss anyone out just because he dislikes the cut of their jib. Both of these are entirely dependent upon the character of the people judging and any such ruling would appear to be completely arbitrary. Were this post to catch me up in some way, it would not matter because here would likely be a place I would not want to visit. So, yeah, I welcome the changes in the blog for transparency and warnings. However, I am not under any illusion that it means anything. There is nothing in the terms of service that actually says that they have to follow said policy. Quite to the contrary, Robin can specifically decide not to on a mere whim. Not that I think he would, routinely, but then that comes from my reading of Robin's character, and all I know about that is what I read here on Nexus. The opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own. No harm, slander, or harassment is intended. All statements are factually accurate, to the best of my knowledge.

Hello, I am checking back in here after playing Vilja for a while now. This note is going to end up sounding like a comparison of Vilja and Cerwiden, but now that I have played with an extensively written companion/follower that does not use the framework, I think it is important that I revisit what I said above. I want to make it clear that my intention here is not to create conflict, should there be any Vilja people reading this, but to show the problem that I see with breaking from the framework. From my previous statement: Vilja uses language that reinforces my concern with fragmentation of the "command language" used to instruct followers. They have invented a language that is somewhat different from others to control how Vilja interacts with the player. For example, when I want to talk with Cerwiden, I can select "Ceri, I'd like to speak with you ...". The ellipsis at the end tells me that I will have more options. The rough equivalent for Vilja is "Let's just talk for a while." The period at the end does not indicate that more options await. The Vilja team made other decisions about how to address different features and the design of their nested options reflects a very custom interface. There are two different places to tell her to wear, or not wear, armor, and a third place to teach her what armor you want her to wear. Contrast this with Cerwiden, who has a single custom menu dealing with what she wears. I am kind of picking on Vilja here, and I am sure that there are reasons for what they do, but the purpose of mentioning this is to illustrate the fragmentation of controlling language. If you decide to break from the follower framework, I at least want to register a desire that the advanced companion and follower modders get together and decide on a way to talk to them. As a matter of fact, I see room for another follower framework that could be the basis for followers who have split from the vanilla framework. This could be a framework that could provide the basic background functionality, like what to wear, when to wear it, whether to follow, ride horses, etc, while allowing the modders the freedom to craft behavior that is different from everyone else. At minimum, I think we (players) need an agreement between advanced follower modders where they can agree on basic ways of interaction that is common to all followers? I also talked about other mods that work with the follower framework and the need to replicate the functionality of these mods into advanced followers. I use Convenient Horses, and an early version of this had an annoying problem where followers on horses would plow into my character when stopped. Or, maybe it was Better Horses that had this problem. Anyway, at some point this was fixed, and Cerwiden does not plow into my character. Serena, does not. Vilja, on the other hand, does. Whatever the fix was to prevent this, and whatever fix Bethesda included in Serena, is not something that is part of Vilja 1.0. I have not tested Vilja 1.1 or 1.1.1 to see if they fixed this. This is another thing, and not limited to just horse behavior, that I hope you are prepared for if you strike out on your own. As far as behavior, framework vs non-framework, it is rather interesting in the Cerwiden seems more free-willed at times. I think that there are idle behaviors built into the vanilla game (or maybe it is EFF) that take over and Vilja does not replicate this. When in an inn, Cerwiden will join in with whatever is happening. Vilja will follow me, never more than a couple feet away from me, until I instruct her otherwise, like getting her drunk. Yeah, she will pace around a bit, but always within an invisible fenced in area. On the other hand, when in a player home (vanilla), both will stand there unless dismissed, so it is somewhat of a wash. Serena wins over both Vilja and Ceri when to comes to finding something to keep herself busy. But, beyond the idle behavior and the command language, I actually cannot tell much of a difference between framework Ceri and non-framework Vilja, as far as they go. They each have a personality, where most vanilla followers do not, and they are separate personalities, mostly opposite.

I guess my role here is to be the "stay with the follower framework" person. I do not fully understand the limitations of the follower framework and the various mods that have improved upon it, but I do know that the limitations can be binding. A powerful advantage, and equally powerful disadvantage, to the framework is that it enforces a certain level of consistency across the game. If you have only one follower, this is not an issue, but I use followers like employees. I station them in my houses as live-in servants, ready at a moment's notice when the Dragonborn needs a little extra muscle. I can speak to them all using the same terms, and because follower-friendly mods build upon the framework, they all pick up the same capabilities from other mods. The disadvantage to this is that other than appearance, virtually all of the framework companions out there are basically clones of each other. I accept the disadvantage because the alternative is akin to having each follower speaking a different language, one where I am the only other one who knows it. With the framework, I may tell the follower to "wait" or "follow" or "relax" and they each understand this. If each modder was deciding what language to use for these simple commands, I might have one follower respond to "will you please follow me" while another uses "if you are not busy, I could use your help" and a third one uses "join me." I will agree that the framework mods tend towards utility instead of immersion, and selecting Command followed by Relax is about as non-immersive as one can get, the simple matter is that it is an adequate trade for the chaos that could come about if people generally abandon framework mods and simply invent their own language and way of doing things. I have gone into my rant against Bethesda about the shortcomings of the user interface already. (Basically, it is that "mouse-nears", which is like a mouse-over but the mouse does not have to actually be over anything, can change the highlighting so that the smallest movement of the mouse, deliberate or accidental, anywhere in the selection panel, can change the item selected) Scrolling through a list of options increases the possibility of a mistake when selecting. On top of that, I know exactly what I am looking for and it is the same for each follower, so I rarely have to page through the list in order to find what I am looking for. Naturally, if someone knows of a fix for this UI issue, please let me know. I have not seen one, yet. My game is a lot more than just follower mods, but I do have mods in place that benefit followers. These tend to be written for the framework, and while they may conflict with portions of the framework, they do understand it. Other mods do not natively recognize non-framework followers, which leads to a "custom follower patch" situation. Mods that step on other mods tend to have compatibility patches. I hate compatibility patches. It is yet another thing that I have to keep track of when I play the game. Other than remembering to check both mods, it is not a problem as long as both modders remain active, but we are now 1 year into Skyrim and several of the mods that I originally installed are abandoned. Some had to be removed due to incompatibilities. Many still work as intended. I tend to forget about dependencies between mods when I have not played the game for a while, as has happened with my Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 games. Each Cerwiden Compatibility Mod that I have to install adds to the probability that an abandoned mod will no longer work with Cerwiden and when I come back to play Skyrim in a couple years, the chance of me remembering, or even finding, all the latest compatibility mods is significantly reduced. I know that Bethesda made the decision when they invented Serena for the Dawnguard DLC, and while they may have accomplished whatever goal they had for doing it, I think that the modding community paid a price for the decision. Unless every follower friendly mod that needs to know about Serena explicitly includes Serena, Serena cannot benefit from everything the modding community has to offer. This will probably get worse when the next DLC comes out and Bethesda invents yet another follower that does not use any known framework. In the end, this circles back to two questions that really form the basis of the discussion. 1) Are the changes in Cerwiden that conflict with frameworks and other follower-friendly mods actually critical to Cerwiden, or are they nice-to-haves where the investment of effort really exceeds the payoff? 2) If the existing framework is so inconvenient, is there the possibility that maybe the community needs a new general follower framework that is better designed for use with advanced followers? Something that is backwards compatible with the vanilla framework but allows for better customization? I do not deal with the framework, so if this makes no sense, forgive me, but it seems to me that maybe what Cerwiden, and the 'intelligent' followers of the future, need is a new common framework, not the creation of a special one just for Cerwiden.

Thanks for the thought in this TT, but the "SetStageMS09 100" to recomplete the quest didn't work out, though the rest did. I will see if I can find a code for that that works to fix the completion and go from there. set MS09.ArefuDead to 0