zixi

The first game I ever played on a computer was on the university's computer and it was backgammon. But the first game on my own machine - a ZX81 - was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. I wouldn't describe it as my favourite though. I think Morrowind has to be 'up there' along with Baldur's Gate I &2. I recently tried playing Ultima IX: Ascension but I struggled with it. The first time through though - in 1999 - I thought it was amazing.

I have a new Linux PC. Steam is now installed along with the games I play via Steam but so far I haven't installed a mod organiser. On my previous machine (also Linux ) I've used both Vortex and Mod Organizer - though not at once! I'm on Ubuntu Mantic Minotaur at present. At the moment I'm using the Bethesda mods but there are a some mods from here that I miss... and that solution won't work for Morrowind and Oblivion. I also play Baldur's Gate I & II via Steam but I'm happy to manually mod those... always have. Any Linux gamers here who've recently tried Vortex , MO or Wrye Bash?

I have a slight issue over navigation. I didn't find it easy to get back to the mods and escape the forum. Home brings me back here. So does Nexus Mods (I thought that would definitely be mods). I eventually got there via 'explore' when I'd run out off things to click on. Might be nice if there was a clear signpost or at least someone tells me how I do get back there... I'm glad you all survived BTW - such migration is a nightmare...

If you give it a go, get each bit stable before trying the next bit. I'd advise starting with Steam and Proton and then moving on to Lutris and Vortex. Whatever you do, don't let Vortex update itself - that way lies gnashing of teeth and wailing. I try very very hard not to add too many mods at once so that I'm sure each bit works and I use Vortex profiles in order to help me organise things a little more. I don't really think about being on a Linux box because the OS fades into the background in a way that Windows never did for me. However, if things go wrong, there's always the terminal window and the ability to kill a process. I do occasionally have need of that in SkyrimSE because of freezing. I had the same problem in Windows so it doesn't seem like a big deal. And I save often! :cool:

I run Skyrim SE on Linux. First I had to let Steam update and as I also use ASDL and it's extremely slow, that took ages. I ran out of time on the AE update so had to finish those downloads the next day. I was then able to run AE. It ran without any issues so I then purchased the additional content. That uses the Creation Club download in game to deliver those purchases and that also took ages and ages and ages. However, it all runs flawlessly. I can see an improvement in performance and I'm very pleased. I also like some the additional bits via the addon purchase so I'm happy with that too. I was braced for issues - just in case - but actually it was a non-event and everything runs perfectly.

If you mean do people running Linux manage to add mods to their games then yes. I've used Vortex via Lutris and on occasion when I feel like torturing myself I've even manually modded games running on Steam via Linux. I wouldn't use Windows if you paid me to. If you mean have I managed to build any mods for any of the games I run on Steam via Linux then no, I haven't. My days of writing any code at all are well and truly over! Really, running Steam games on a Linux box now is no big deal. It used to be quite exciting - more exciting than the games sometimes but it's fairly tame now... :laugh:

I've just started playing Morrowind seriously again after several years. I'd forgotten just how hard it is finding your way around and how annoying the signposts were. Thank you (many times over) for this! Endorsed with gratitude.

@shumkar - correct. Vortex doesn't recognise a game installed after you've installed Vortex. You have to set up symbolic links which is no great deal once you find where the games are and where Vortex thinks the games 'should' be in 'pretend Windows'. @mkienenb - re M&M - you sound over that just like I sound over Baldur's Gate! If you ever do try SkyrimSE then there's a mod for Daggerfall. It's very clever as it feels just like the original looks... The story is really good despite the graphics but it was story that made BG... @Hey You. My husband ran Linux when everyone around him was running Windows. However, like you I put up with Windows for your same reasons. I liked 7 in any case. I got Windows 10 during chemo but even in the haze realised it was gathering data. I switched off as much as I could but Cortana was very persistent and I found it hard to be methodical. I'd notice it running in the background and it drove me to despair. I feel the same about Google and Youtube. I don't use either but every so often I notice they've managed to stick a cookie on my PC and I get really, really fed up. I feel that this is my machine and they've come in without being asked... With Windows 10 I always felt it wasn't mine and as Bill Gates didn't pay anything towards it, it really annoyed me! You should see my Android. I've switched off as much Google as I can and once the guarantee runs out, I'm going to try turning it into Linux... That'll teach it!

@shumkar At least I get past the introductory vid! @mkienenb Re Oldrim SkyrimSE - I think I'd do what you're doing and get Oldrim to work first before giving Bethesda some more cash... It is more stable and there aren't the complaints about audio issues which I'm seriously impressed you haven't had... I didn't pay for SE, as I'd bought Oldrim via Steam I was given it. Anyway, I felt all feeble after listening to you two flexing Linux muscle so I did the symlinks to Vortex for Oldrim... My husband tried to help out but by then I was almost there and eventually completed it. We all danced... the dog barked. It was loud. However, the bad news is that SkyUI won't run and I think SKSE has a problem... The game runs fine though. And I managed to add Live Another Life so onwards and upwards... I'll have another look at SKSE and try to figure what its issue is. I apologise in advance if I 'disappear' we're having a roof put on and some building done... it's a bit like a rehearsal for a film about trench warfare... Totally OT - Re Might and Magic - I think I had something called Heroes of Might and Magic which shumkar mentioned - is that the same Might and Magic? Take care both!

I see what you mean by getting your hands on the things. My husband thought that bitcoin was the reason the cards are becoming hard to get hold of but it looks like it's a number of reasons. The link you gave was very useful for the cards and explaining what has happened over prices and availability. I'm going to try very hard to be patient for a few months. In any case, I may be forced to be patient because there simply aren't the supplies. But at least we know it's no new computer just yet - it's do something to update this one. BTW patience is not my thing... it never was if I'm honest but cancer has made me even more DO IT NOW!!! But you're right - it does *require* some patience... I'll try my best! :laugh:

I know. I've seen you in action and I've worked with people like you. They allowed us to go around in blissful ignorance of the techie parts of the technology because they knew their stuff. It freed us up to know our stuff. I'll take a look at your suggestions. Thanks again for the advice. I really do appreciate it very much indeed. I wanted advice from a gamer because at least they know where I'm coming from. :cool:

The cassettes were dire! I wish I'd missed them too! Rockerbacon has a version of Vortex which runs from Lutris. I installed via Lutris but it fetches all the stuff you need from Rockerbacon's Github. I seem to remember that it needed some messing around to get it to install properly. It might have been down to something about the version of Wine and it needed some tweaking which I'm pretty sure was documented on Lutris. The only problem I really have with Vortex is that I can't launch it. It doesn't turn up on Lutris (it's just disappeared). The only way I can get it to launch is by downloading a file from Nexus! Hence, I'm trying out a mod a day! My husband helpfully suggests it's a config file somewhere... great! I've thought about reinstalling it but that way lies madness... I know what will happen - the whole caboodle will likely fall apart so I'm waiting until April when I'll move to Ubuntu 21.04 and I'll deal with the fallout (if there is some). I've recently rebuilt the OS putting Home on the main drive and the OS on the smaller drive. I wanted to avoid having to reinstall everything every time I did something drastic to the OS... It's worked very well. But it took a while putting everything back on because the download speeds here are appalling... Rockerbacon also has a version of MO2 which again can install from Lutris or via Github. I really can't get that to install now. It fails and I've forgotten why. But as I say, I just use whatever works and I accept that as versions of Wine change so there will be issues. As you know, Wine changes as Windows changes - it's not under the control of the Linux community. I don't like manually installing mods either. I've done a lot of it because once that was all there was. But it was never fun and you need to have your wits about you even now. I don't mind playing about with the ini file as Skyrim will simply reproduce one if it all goes pear-shaped but I agree, there are better things to do with your time than manual install of mods... In any case, there are other more urgent ways to make oneself miserable - the dentist for example...

I remember Might & Magic - pretty certain I had one of the games but I can't remember which. The first games I played were on the ZX81... it took all evening to get them to load by which time is was too late to play... If someone switched on a light somewhere you'd get murderous because the thing was so unstable. It's come a long way since then. I don't think I ever used Sun OS but I did use NextStep a very very long time ago. What happened to Next??? I still think fondly of CPM... and The Pawn!!! I'm definitely a newbie Linux-wise. I terrify my husband who is the Linux guru here because I work on the principle that unless you play around with something you'll never understand it. I know 100 ways to really mess things up! But as all I do is game on a PC now, I really don't care. And actually Linux is very stable and supportive in a strange kind of way. No, I never play multiplayer games or online. Also the connection here is effectively dial-up. Sammy the Snail can walk faster than it is! Bug reports!!! Yes, that's something you get used to in Linux as well. I find them absolutely fascinating. I love the way that the software engineers argue over them and then parcel out the tasks sometimes to one of them who isn't 'there' just then as in: Oh... Jo can do that when s/he does XYZ... The enthusiasm and the knowledge is wonderful. But to return to the sheep, Oldrim is running on this very machine using SKSE. I haven't tried putting in SkyUI because I don't like it. shumkar uses SkyUI though. I know people moved away from Oldrim but I kind of agree with HeyYou there's a lot to be said for it. When I fired it up I was amazed by just how good the graphics were. I thought they'd be awful... I'd forgotten. Linux handles audio better in Oldrim and its more stable. The only downside for me was that Live Another Life was no longer available via Steam Workshop except in Russian... and Oldrim is the one game that Vortex doesn't recognise because I installed it after Vortex... so it's either a manual install (sigh) or symbolic links (sigh)... And at the moment things are a smidgen complex here so I don't really feel like doing either...

I'm not sure how much you know about gaming on Linux but in case you don't know this... here it is. There are games like Morrowind and Oldrim and Skyrim and Baldur's Gate and 7K and then there's the really, really fascinating, time-consuming game called Getting Games to Work and Modded! Re mod managers - I work with whatever decides to work at the time. I'm using Vortex at the moment. This time round it works better than it did last time round. First time round we had to make symbolic links to all the games. This time round it spotted them for itself. But I did have several months of MO2. I really liked that. Its interface isn't beautiful but it 'enjoyed' being a mod organizer. I always think Vortex would like to be something else... If you know what I mean... Anyway, I'm in awe with what you've done! It *will* get easier!!!!

re cost... That's a good question but my answer is: Depends. It kind of feels I ought to upgrade rather than replace just now and it'll put off the dreadful moment when I have to replace. As I say, I'm hoping the world will become Linux friendlier but if it doesn't I'll probably build. We could definitely manage that between us here but I'd rather wait till after my husband builds his Raspberry Pi! Start little... :laugh: The PSU was definitely replaced. It's the Corsair RM750x. BTW I'm glad I have a reply from you as I already know that you know your hardware! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Brilliant. If only! rofl. That ought to be a sig or on a t-shirt. It's the best description I've heard! :laugh:

Baldur's Gate! Welcome!!! :laugh:

I'm wondering what to do. I have a PC which is about 6 years old. A few years ago it had a component failure which necessitated the replacement of a few components - daisy chain effect. However, I've forgotten what they did... I was post chemo at the time and trust me it's like living on a bottle of vodka a day... So don't ask me what was new. Don't know. At the moment it seems to consist of the following - according to Ubuntu... Memory - 16 GiB IntelCore 8350 K CPU @ 4.000GHz x 4 Disk 2.3 TB GeForce GTX 690 It's the GTX 690 which is irritating me. It was a card developed to be superfast about 12 years ago. It puts 2 GPUs on one card. Under Windows these two GPUs got used. Under Linux I don't know if they do both operate. I do know that SLI does *not* operate under Ubuntu and hasn't for a while. I'm unclear if the GTX 690 actually uses SLI at all because technically it's one card... The bits of the web I've seen are as vague about it as I am. Nvidia support for SLI on Linux ended some time ago... it was a technology that didn't go anywhere... If the PC was just 6 years old I'd probably just replace it but there's the new bits and Linux. It's still quite hard to get a Linux box with the OS readily installed. My husband bought a PC recently which was without an OS but unfortunately they'd tested it with Windows so the residue of the OS existed and trust me, it was a headache to sort. So, I'd like to wait until the world is a bit more Linux friendly and the PC was built with Linux in mind... I'm wondering if swapping the GPU for something else might add a little sparkle. And if so just what???? I had intended to wait until Bethesda released TESVI but that could be so long off that I'm beginning to wonder if I will see it! The other games I play run fine on the current rig because basically they're very very very old and there's no likelihood I'd play anything that wasn't TES... tried them didn't like 'em. So, suggestions please? BTW the Linux part is non-negotiable. I've tried Windows, Mac, Android, iPad various mainframes and their various OS and I just like Linux. It feels right. We're quite capable of replacing a graphics card here. We're not hardware experts but we are ex-computer scientists and we've both replaced bits and pieces though neither of us has built from scratch. We were used to having technicians supporting us so we never bothered over the hardware aspects... the technicians were *much* better at that than we'd ever be... But I say all that to explain we have no fear of the insides and I shan't cry if it all goes pear-shaped. There are far more important things... Thanks for reading this far!!!

I don't remember ever having problems but I play first person. However, tarlazo - he of Convenient Carriages fame - has this to offer... https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/44249 Haven't tried it.

I'm so glad to 'see' you! It's been ages. I rather hoped you'd pop into this. I'm glad you're playing SE again! I've found it a good place to be able to go during these weird times!

7k should run with the set-up you have. It takes a few moments to install - it'll make you smile if you remember how long it took originally! You won't need Lutris for it. It's hosted here if you can't find it on your package manager. https://7kfans.com/downloads/ It's actually more than 7 kingdoms now but there's still only 7 to play with. The owners gave 7K to the community and that's how it is now maintained. I'm a huge fan of 7K so I think you should see if that runs OK to start with. Then see what your package manager has to offer. Synaptic is wonderful. Ubuntu has it's own software installer all pretty and with ratings but I much prefer Synaptic. It looks like a great big Christmas present on my desktop! And that's how I see it. But to return to the sheep.... Once you've got a small game - like 7K - running that will assure you that Wine is functioning properly. Then I think you need to see if Steam has installed OK and get Skyrim (Oldrim) to work *without* SKSE first. Once you know it's stable then add SKSE through Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/365720/Skyrim_Script_Extender_SKSE/ For me, Steam reported an error but in fact it did start the download process and I simply had to click install. It treats SKSE as a separate game so you can either use it or not. The SKSE team say that the latest version for Oldrim (Skyrim) is always on Steam but they have no plans to do any more updating to it. The great advantage of Oldrim is that if you add mods through the Steam workshop they stay there until you unsubscribe and when you're installing and reinstalling the game it's useful not to have to go through all that downloading rigmarole every time you want to add a mod the zillionth time. Once you know it's stable then you can add mods from here. You can turn it into a completely different game by choosing mods. I use Live Another Life which allows you to start somewhere other than Helgen. You can start as an innkeeper, or a soldier for example. Or my current favourite - as a Thalmor prisoner. It puts a new slant on the game as there are no dragons until you trigger them. So you decide how it will play out. There's even a mod to put Daggerfall into the Skyrim engine. You can play the main quest in Daggerfall and then choose to be dumped back into Live Another Life. There's a lot been done over the last few years. Actually, the same is true with Morrowind and Oblivion. Do let us know how things go! It's nice to see someone new to Linux gaming. Once you get things stable, you cease to notice. Honestly. But ironing out the wrinkles can take some patience.

It's a while since I've run Oldrim. In fact, I'm just downloading it again today so I could remind myself of how it operates. There aren't audio issues with Oldrim. But SE does have issues. It's a licensing thing apparently. With Oldrim (Skyrim) - as you say - you can simply go to the Steam workshops and find what you want. I think you just type in the name of the game to the search in workshops and then see what you fancy. I didn't bother to mod it much outside of workshops as there was so much there. If I did mod it, I'd mostly do it manually because there was so little I wanted to add. I wouldn't do that with SkyrimSE though. My days of finding manual modding fun have long since past! With SE you can mod inside the game via Bethesda and some modders will post their mods here and there. When I can't get either M02 or Vortex to work on my rig, I'm really grateful to those who put them in both places. DLC - I like the Dawnguard because I like having Serana around. Dragonborn is fun because it's on Solstheim and I found it rather nostalgic. There's Neloth of Morrowind fame who I find very amusing... There's quite a lot of content in both... Hearthfire sticks on houses and not much else but some of the mods need Hearthfire. Bethesda did some work on the graphics and made audio awkward for Linux but I doubt that was their intent! On Linux I don't find SE as stable as Oldrim but I've got use to its foibles... Most people mod for SE now though some modders very kindly will release for Oldrim as well. It depends how much you want to add mods I guess. But there were some fabulous mods for Oldrim and even now you hear people begging modders to port to SkyrimSE. I don't know what else to say. If you install the Synaptic Package Manager (if you haven't already) you'll find that it comes with the ability to install some games. I run 7 Kingdoms much more successfully on Linux than I ever did on any Windows OS I had. So there might be games you can get hold of that will run very happily. I'm afraid that I spend my time getting the game stable and then trying to break it (and the OS) by adding and subtracting as much as I can. I suspect I enjoy broken more than I enjoy fixed and running smoothly. But the reality is Linux is very very very stable. It's quite hard to wreck it! It's just I've had a lot of practice in wrecking systems... I'm still waiting for Oldrim to finish downloading. We have the slowest download speeds in the world here. It's the modern equivalent of the old dial-up. I can walk faster than it runs... but once it's done I'll look at how I installed SKSE via Steam. I'm wondering too if Glorious Eggroll has a fix for Oldrim which includes SKSE...

I'm glad it's working! You *should* be able to re-map the keys to whatever you want, inside the game itself. The SKSE people are very insistent about how to install SKSE. I'm not sure if you've seen what they had to say here: https://skse.silverlock.org/ But you should be able to install SKSE directly to Skyrim (Oldrim) via Steam. I'm pretty certain I've done that. Both versions of Skyrim should tell you which version of Skyrim you're running and which SKSE. I'm not running SKSE at the moment as I've just reformatted both drives, stuck the OS on my small drive but home is now on my large drive. I was filling up the small drive very quickly with mods... I'm afraid my days of doing anything serious with a computer are well and truly over. I don't get CTD which I'd get from time to time on Windows but sometimes SkyrimSE freezes and requires closing via a terminal. Oldrim is very very stable. If you get that situation then bring up a terminal in game and do pkill Skyrim.exe or pkill SkyrimSE.exe (whichever game you're on) and it will close it for you and return you to the desktop. You haven't mentioned any audio problems. Oldrim didn't seem to have any such issues but SE has given Linux gamers a few headaches over audio. Glorious Eggroll's Proton fixed that for me but I now issue a command from the Steam launcher WINEDLLOVERRIDES="xaudio2_7=n,b" %command% It saves all the messing around setting audio to native, inbuilt etc etc... which in my experience was beginning to feel a bit like casting the chicken bones! Incidentally, GE's Proton includes SKSE... When everything is stable you might like to look at Lutris which will let you run other Windows games though a fair number will run through Steam. Rockerbacon (Github) has a version of MO which can be used to install mods or Vortex will run too under Lutris. MO needs an instance for each game. Vortex under Linux can be iffy about recognising games. I've found if you install them before Vortex then it finds the games easily enough. Installed afterwards it can't find them and you have to set up links manually. But Lutris has versions of NMM and Vortex which saves scouring Github for things. I'm surprised shumkar hasn't come along but maybe they haven't noticed this yet... it's an old thread... I'd be interested in how things go. Even though all I do is game now, I guess I have retained *some* curiosity about user experience... :-)

I've just seen this. I'll have a look tomorrow and make some sensible comments. If I can't then I'll commiserate! :-) I've heard of OpenSuse but never used it. However, Linux is Linux... and there are plenty of people now gaming under it and they're very keen to help! You're not alone! There will be solutions.

You could use The Sidrat - which can then be parked at Half-Moon Mill, overlooking the lake. The advantage of The Sidrat is that you can park it all over the place - not just Half-Moon. You could use Millwater Mill which places a disused and rebuildable mill a little further along. There's also Zim's Silverglade which is slightly to the NW of half-Moon and has a quest with it too. Or - as Shadohz says - you could do your own; then it would be just as you want! :-) And you could share it with the rest of us! :-D