CaptainPatch

The mouth doesn't seem to match. Left is more heart-shaped while Right is more of a horizontal ellipsoid.

Hmm. The Real Life version seems more playful/flirtatious while graphic rendering seems more thoughtful (and probably less spontaneous). Left: "What? Li'l ol' me?" Right: [thought bubble] Just look at that flirtatious tart. Why does the male of the species fawn on such vacuous bimbos? Left: [thought bubble] Because vacuous bimbos are more fun! You would know that if you weren't so uptight. Blondes are supposed to have more fun! Get with the program!

Apples; oranges; pears. FONV is a significantly older game which has had most of its issues sorted out. FO4 is still a mewling newborn that has problems, but hasn't determined just what is causing this problem or that problem, so just starts crying. (CTDs for who-knows-why.) FONV is set in stone, aside from the occasional new mod. (Bethesda certainly isn't introducing changes at this late date.) FO4 is still in flux, with both Bethesda and modders constantly introducing changes. Everyone is anxiously waiting for the Creation Kit to be released, which WILL drastically accelerate the rate at which alterations and changes are introduced. In short, it's safe to present an analysis of FONV as it is NOW because that's unlikely to change. And analysis of FO4 will be obsolete faster than you can hit "Submit".

It is about twice as difficult to program a four-legged creature as it is a two-legged one. Standing upright, the figure has to smoothly interact at the points where the body intersects with the background (underfoot) environment. Moving over uneven terrain gets even more complicated. You may have noticed how often brahmin end up floating above the terrain as they walk around. That's because Bethesda DID give up on making the interactions between animal and terrain. I have no doubt that they sunk A LOT of programming hours into brahmin (as an integral part of the settlement system and Supply chains) and then decided they didn't want to -- or couldn't afford to -- mess with the mechanic any further for mounts. While the basic mechanic for a horse would have been more or less the same for both Skyrim and FO4, the terrain between the two is drastically different. Moving over and around hills and ridges is NOT the same as negotiating a path through a rubble-cluttered environment. Just walking pedestrians through the rubble often gets awkward with characters being supported by just one toe on a broken upright beam. Seeing a horse emphasizes the wrongness of what is being viewed. I have no doubt that Bethesda decided to leave out mounts because they are counting on modders to import Skyrim horses and work out all the kinks.

She is looking at someone or something. She is evaluating whatever it is that she is scrutinizing. No rush or need for haste. Hmm. "Is he for real? I'm just not sure." Whatever she concludes will determine what she does next.

DO keep in mind that the PCs available in 2006 were not nearly as powerful as the PCs available in 2011. Accordingly, game specs in 2006 weren't as demanding as they were in 2011. That is, there is a distinct probability of more things going wrong when the machinery is more complex. And naturally the relationship between hardware and software gets more complicated. The greater the complication, the greater the potential for things to cause CTDs. (Which is a PCs way of expressing, "I just can't take it anymore!")

As an empirical comparison, I played Oblivion for a few hundred hours and then never returned to it. In contrast, I've played Skyrim for over 3500 hours and it's still my fallback game between other latest-and-greatest games. (For example, at the moment I am focused on FO4, but when I finally wrap that up, I will most likely be back in Skyrim again.)

Interesting. I never had any CTD problems with vanilla Skyrim. Mainly because my rig was pretty decent for 2011-2012. It wasn't until I started to add mods that I began to have CTDs. Spent a lot of hours identifying and eliminating mod conflicts. Meanwhile, I did start to experience CTDs with other games, notably with Galactic Civilizations III. Turned out that as good as my rig was in 2012, it wasn't nearly powerful enough for 2015. It turns out that one of the primary problems was that while I had installed LOTS of RAM, my Windows 7 version wouldn't actually access any more than less than half of that RAM. I had to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate before I actually used all the RAM. And then -- surprise! -- fewer CTDs. All of my hardware related problems didn't clear up until I did a major PC overhaul to 2015 specs. Thereafter, pretty much all my problems in-game stemmed from mod complications. (This holds true for problems I am encountering in FO4 currently.)

My first inclination was to call "Troll!" But I'll give you a serious answer anyway. You can't have Good without Bad to compare it to. You can't properly appreciate Beauty unless you have something Ugly to compare it to. So, if Skyrim is so Horrible, what is the Fantastic that you are comparing it with? If ANY game is of a genre that you don't enjoy, that utilizes mechanics that disagree with you, that is, simply put, "not your cup of tea", it will be next to impossible to see Beauty in it anywhere, for you. Given 22+ million sales, I doubt that the majority of owners had to have their arms twisted to buy it. So who is more correct on this subject? You? Or them? All? None? When you stop to think about it, do you find fault with every game? Taking note of the kinds of flaws that for the life of you, you can't see how they ever got past the company's QA? If that's the case, perhaps you're a "The glass is half-empty" kind of person, focusing more on what there is to dislike instead of just leaning back and appreciating whatever enjoyable aspects that are present.

It always struck me as odd how some of the prisoners were dressed. The Stormcloaks were all wearing their uniforms. Ulfric was wearing his signature attire. But the horse thief and you wearing the kinds of clothes you would expect a beggar to be wearing. (And is in fact worn by the several beggars you encounter across Skyrim.) The horse thief wearing such garb is a maybe. But you? You are told that you were captured while crossing the border from Cyrodiil. Not exactly dressing for the colder weather, were you? And by what stretch of insanity would make a Cyrodiil pauper think that the opportunities available to him would be greater in Skyrim than in Cyrodiil? The only other alternative is to assume is that the Imperials decided to strip the non-Stormcloaks of whatever they had been wearing and then made them don beggar's clothing. And for the life of me, I can think of NO reason why they would do that.

Actually, when the SS revives the spouse's pod is sealed and needs to be opened. (Along with all of the other pods, none of which can be opened at all. What a happy coincidence that ONLY the spouse's pod can be opened.)

Concerning a .44 magnum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xjr2hnOHiM&feature=iv&src_vid=V7Nci-GVuHE&annotation_id=annotation_450191

In presentation, entertainers (TV, movies, theater, etc.) tend to go to three environment models: Idealistic View -- stereotypes are crisp and clear, most characterizations are shallow and narrow. Grim Reality View -- focuses on the seamier and seedy interpretations, even Heroes are depicted more like Anti-heroes. Synthesis View -- deliberately blending the two other views with Good Guys being Idealistic but Bad Guys being more Grim Reality versions. It makes a stark contrast between Good and Evil. HOWEVER, just experiencing the Real World we come to recognize that there are rarely (if ever) pure Good and Evil in the world. Life is just a series of picking the least Evil of many, many choices. EVERYBODY has at least some Good points to be weighed against their Bad points. It was either brilliant or exceedingly annoying how Bethesda has balanced soooo many situations in Skyrim. Everybody and everything has at least some Good as well as some Bad. We are left to choose between sides on nearly every issue on just how we, personally, weigh the values of those Good and Bad elements. Sometimes, all you want to do is identify the Big Bad and pummel him into the dirt without hesitation or remorse, because he has NO redeeming virtues. Or to be the Biggest Bad of all by stomping all over total innocents. That's when this everything-in-the-balance approach can be annoying.

Not a distinction that most people compete for. Oh, wait. Idiots. Never mind.

Didn't know it was possible to adjust cooldown. However, whatever way you did it, couldn't you just reactivate that same procedure and change the value?

Laughter. Laughter is the best medicine when confronted by absurdity.

Without a doubt or hesitation, my absolute favorite mod is Cavern Isles Sanctuary: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17176/? It gives you a base of operations near Whiterun that provides EVERYTHING you will ever need in a base of operations in Skyrim. Quite good looking too.

Synth infiltrators doing sabotage.

Stop. Breath in. Breath out. No need to panic. All that is happening is that you are being given the opportunity to FAST TRAVEL to that settlement (Sanctuary Hills is only one possibility) to help the settlers beat back the attack. And you can rest assured, the settlers WILL win. (Unless you get yourself killed. In which case you just Load the last Save and try again. If you choose to NOT fast travel to the settlement, the settlers WILL lose. However, none of them get killed. The consequences of losing is that some/all crops get damaged, and/or some/all turrets get damaged, and/or some/all generators and water pumps are subject to being damaged. When next you get to that settlement, get into Build mode and go around Repairing anything that was damaged.

You forgot to mention "...with illusions of grandeur." [Hmm. Sort of like a lot of jocks I knew in HS. Hmm. Is this some kind of Bethesda "Revenge of the Nerds" inside joke I wonder? Hmm.]

Supermutants are hated and feared almost entirely because of what nearly all Supermutants have already done. I'm sure that some few recent FEV conversions will react as you describe. (Those being those that had been mostly puny and picked on by unjustly by others. Now that they are BIG and powerful, it's payback time!) I suppose if the majority of Supermutants had formerly been Raiders, that would also account for the nearly universal viciousness of Supermutants. But just given random sampling, a substantial number of involuntary converts were caring, loving individuals that would NOT jump to the conclusion that "Because I have suffered, then others that have not shared my fate MUST suffer!" Really, it's almost like with the FEV came a total personality rewrite. And if you take the time to study a large number of Supermutants by sneaking around and eavesdropping on their conversations, it seems like they all got the same personality. (The notable exceptions being Fawkes, Marcus, and some of the Supermutants in Jacobstown.)

I have often wondered about where in the conversion process it was that the involuntary FEV subjects surrendered their human self-identity and embraced their newly acquired Supermutant identity wholeheartedly. There MUST be quite exceptions that cling to their human origins, like Fawkes in FO3 and Marcus in FO2 and FNV. It is "MUST" because EVERY Supermutant was derived from a human subject; Supermutants are incapable of normal reproduction. (I suppose cloning would become a possibility, IF there was ever someone that retained enough INT to perform the process.)

No problem here. Actually, I should thank you for prompting me to do a little research on the continents of Nirn. That is, I am now a more informed TES player because of this exchange. I am also reminded of a poster I saw with a Robert McCloskey (whoever that was/is) quote: "I know you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." [sort of like what I feel after listening to a Sarah Palin speech.]

Sheesh. Is that what this has all been about? That I had the temerity to suggest that Tamriel might be only as big as Earth's smallest continent? Would it have been more palatable to you if I had suggested the size of Asia or one of the other continents? I mentally associate Tamriel with Austrakia primarily because of their comparative shapes. Basically the shape of a rugby ball with a large-ish island just off of one corner. (Tasmania off the SE coast of Australia and Summerset Isle off Tamriel's SW coast.) Tamriel doesn't really look anything like any of Earth's other continents.

Given that subsequent generations apparently have done ZERO reconstruction or clean up, what is missing is not so much the space between communities and residences, but rather an incredible amount of rubble and ruins. Nature -- especially a Nature adversely affected by lethal levels of radiation -- would only do so much to obscure rubble and ruins. Erosion, corrosion, deterioration, might wear down more organic building materials like wood. But stone, brickwork, steel, iron, etc. would most likely still be evident, at least in our ability to recognize, "That there was man-made." Personally, I feel that the size of the map places a lot of intolerant "neighbors" up against each other. For example, having Raiders on one block and Supermutants on the very next block that would have resulted in the eradication of one group or the other in less than a week. The only ways that you can reduce that kind of friction is by either seriously reducing the population, or else by putting a lot of distance between opposing groups = Bigger Map.