Inafog

Thanks very much for these suggestions. I will investigate them. (Interesting NPCs is already on my list.)

Thanks. Maybe I'll just train in something else.

Believe it or not, I have not yet played Skyrim. But after hundreds of hours with Oblivion, I will soon take the plunge. I write this to ask what you think of my planned mods list. I do not want a very heavily-modded game, and I am not concerned with big graphics mods. Here is what I have selected: -The four unofficial patches (of course) -A Quality World Map -Guard Dialogue Overhaul -Immersive Armors -Immersive College of Winterhold -Immersive Weapons -Interesting NPCs -Mod Organizer -Realistic Ragdolls & Force -SKY UI Are there any of these you would not recommend? Are there any mods you consider really essential that I should add? Finally, regarding archery: my character will probably be a Bosmer archer, so I wonder if any archery mods are essential. The ones I have looked at are: -ABT - Arrows & Bolts Tweaks -Proper Aiming -Real Bows (which I think is only cosmetic) -Realistic Archery -Archery Gameplay Overhaul (which apparently makes any others unnecessary) What would you recommend regarding archery modifications? Or is the unmodified game good enough?

No. I am not even wearing the Crusader item that boosts Destruction.

I talked to Delphine Jend again, just in case, and she referred me to Brasla, but it did no good. I am still just told to go away. I find this especially interesting because the UESP entry does not even mention this brush-off as one of Brasla's dialogue items. I may have to try the console; or I'll just train in something else. It's mysterious, though.

My destruction level is 80. I cannot bribe or even talk to Brasla: as soon as I click on her, she delivers the "go away" dialogue and the speechcraft/topics icons disappear. (Her disposition should be quite high. Before talking I cast a +30 Charm spell on her.) Since the Destruction quest is in my journal I think I did get the referral, but I will talk to Delphine again just to check.

When I approach Brasla Andaren, the master Destruction trainer, I get no dialogue when I click on her. She simply tells me to go away because I'm scaring the animals and making her job harder. I have the quest in my log; I even have 20 bear pelts. Time of day has not mattered. I cannot find a reference to this bug having happened to others. Any suggestions?

I know that your weapon can be knocked from your hands in combat, but can your shield? I had the Escutcheon of Chorrol before entering an Oblivion Gate and discovered that I no longer had it after closing the gate. I have no idea what happened to it.

I have a modest number of mods (about 30) but they are things like Phitts Artifacts, Salmo the Baker, The Rangers Fox, and Alluring Potion Bottles. None affect the Dark Brotherhood or general character behavior, appearance, or quests. I have been back to the Sanctuary a couple of times since Ocheeva's outbreak and she has not done it again. (My character is not actually going to do the Purification quest, so the Sanctuary is indeed a sanctuary for its inmates. It would be ironic if despite this they killed each other.)

I reached the point in the DB questline where Ocheeva gives my character the sealed order to see Lucien L. about the Purification. As my character was leaving, Ocheeva drew her weapon and rushed to attack Antoinetta Marie. I tried to calm them down by paralyzing them a couple of times, but they continued to fight until A.M was dead. Ocheeva then attacked my character, who, not wishing to fight her, ran out of the Sanctuary into Cheydinhal. Ocheeva followed, through the deserted house, across the lawns and two bridges, fighting with one guard and continuing her pursuit until, near the street up to the palace, she was cornered by three guards and knocked out. (Being Essential, she was not killed). When she rose up she was her usual polite self again and walked back to the Sanctuary. Has this happened to anyone else? Any idea why?

I started a new game and it happened again, at Skingrad. It was a Paint Horse when I got to town and a Bay Stallion when I came out. Strange.

Like most players, I always try to get Fingleam. But I wonder... how was it ever discovered in the first place, way back when the game was published? The helmet is not, as far as I know, referred to in NPC conversations or mentioned in any books. I cannot imagine players swimming around for hours in all the water in Oblivion hoping to find something, and anyway Fingleam is not all that easy to locate. So how was it discovered at all? Did someone read about it in a game guide?

My fairly new character (level 4) has been using Prior Mayborel’s Paint Horse. Upon reaching Skingrad, while taking Martin to Weynon Priory, the Paint Horse was nowhere to be found. But there was a “Bay Stallion” which was marked as mine. My character has been using him since. Has anyone else seen this miraculous event? I cannot figure out what happened.

Wrye Bash is far beyond my humble computing abilities. I am afraid of it. :-)

LFact: Your Starter Characters Nords is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Thank you! I will certainly use it if I ever get my game working again (see post below :-)

My concern, posted earlier today, over Nord faces has been superceded by something a bit more serious. Yesterday, when I went into Oblivion to try to make a face for a new game character, all worked fine. Today, when I inserted the disc (GOTY) and clicked the desktop icon, the usual rectangle came up and music played, but when I clicked play the screen went black and returned me to the desktop. There were no error messages or text of any kind. This has happened several times. Also, I cannot find the .esm file. It has either been annihilated or is hiding. What could have happened? I may have done something unwise. I use NMM, which has always worked well for me. In preparing to play the game again, after two years, NMM offered me the chance, when I clicked on it, to update to the latest version. I did so, and AFAIK this succeeded and version 0.63.14 is now on my computer. The problem started after that. (All the mods are disabled, but I expected that.) The .esm file is still listed as item 1 and is checked (although it stays faint black instead of bold black). The .esm is missing from the directory, but nothing else seems to be. I am flummoxed. Any suggestions? It is hard to believe that whatever the new NMM installation did, it utterly destroyed the .esm, but, as I say, I cannot find the .esm, and the game, she don’t start at all. This is vexing. Only with difficulty do I refrain from rending my garments, pouring ashes on my head, etc. :-) PS - If the worst has happened and I have to delete everything and reinstall everything, ought I to use the GOTY disc or buy the game from Steam? Thanks much for any suggestions. I will continue my search for the shy .esm and the solution to other problems. Usually these things solve themselves somehow, but if this one doesn't... well, maybe it's time I finally try playing Skyrim. (I'm a little slow.)

I’m returning to Oblivion after some years and have decided my character will be a female Nord. I have spent quite a while trying without much success to convert the gargoyle you start with into a recognizable Nordic woman and I have despaired of success. In all the years this game has existed, has anyone ever published suggestions as to how to use the unmodded creator screens to produce human beings that are not deformed? I know there are all sorts of mods, but I am not looking for a "mystic elf" or an anime Lolita or similar improbable adventurers--I just want a young woman who does not make me wince when I look at her face! Can this be done, or should I make up my mind to download some mod? It is incredible that, with all the time Bethesda spent making this fine game, they could not see that the character creation process was so flawed. How could they go to all the trouble making so complicated and confusing a set of sliders without seeing that the basic faces were so appallingly bad? (But perhaps I just lack the skill to turn gargoyles into people?)

I'm glad to see that my post has generated interest! I wonder if, rather than giving up her armor and becoming an apprentice blacksmith again, Umbra, who is now an experienced fighter, wouldn't be more likely, as a token of her remorse and wish to do good to make up for the evil she has done, to become a Knight of the Nine or a member of the Imperial Guard or a Forester, or a member of the Fighters Guild.

Yes, I know that Umbra never sleeps or eats. That's why I hope someone can mod her. I have no modding skills at all, unfortunately.

I did not know about the Give A Gift mod--I'll investigate it. My character has been visiting Vahtacen every so often and leaving various food items (plus a cooking pot, tablecloth, and pan, from the Salmo the Baker mod) for Umbra. I am glad to find someone of like mind on this. http://i.imgur.com/Qr9StM1.png?1

Can Umbra (the NPC, not the sword) be redeemed? I am surprised that, with all the thousands of mods available, nobody has made one which would enable a player to coax the unfortunate Bosmer out into the world again. Perhaps bringing her food and presents, or talking to her, could result in her return to Cyrodiil. I always feel sorry for her. I don’t want her sword, I want to save her from the eternal gloom of Vahtacen. On a connected note, since the sword Umbra is evil, shouldn’t there be a curse affecting any player who is so wicked as to kill Umbra and take the sword? Perhaps the gradual reduction of the player’s Personality to 0 would be appropriate.

Thanks very much. (I did intend to install the unofficial patches--I guess I thought that went without saying.)

I have played a lot of Oblivion; I’ll be starting Skyrim for the first time soon. I want to ask which mods are regarded as more or less essential to overcome any of Skyrim’s limitations. I know that it’s best to play a game unmodded the first time, but just as in Oblivion I was convinced that a few interface and other mods might as well be used from the start (e.g., Francesco’s, a player home, BT Mod, ImpeReal City), I wonder if there are just a few I should start Skyrim with. I’ve researched this a bit and would guess that SkyUI and A Quality World Map would be a good idea. What else? (I see that Realvision ENB is highly regarded, but that item also recommends downloading 33 other mods to get the full effect, and I won’t go that far.) And am I right in thinking that mods are much easier to install in Skyrim than in Oblivion, and that NMM usually will do the trick?

Yes, if the problem occurs I will run Animation Fixer again. I understand that the a-bomb is caused by an incremental increase of this Byte number until it reaches 49. I just hope that won't be for a while--the problem occurred at about 300 hours; maybe if it's delayed until 600 I'll be done playing this character. I do wonder why this very serious problem was/is not fixed by Bethesda, or why some mod or file cannot be concocted to eliminate it. Reading some posts on various forums dating from when the a-bomb first made itself known is almost heartbreaking--some players seemed ready to slash their wrists in despair when their long-term games were apparently destroyed in an instant. Surely a permanent, pre-ready solution to this problem is, or at least was, more important than designing another body mesh for another top-heavy anime elf or one to make bricks look a little more realistic. :blush:

I don't use Wrye Bash. But, I manually installed Animation Fixer and the problem was immediately... fixed. In fact, the flames in fireplaces and torches now move, if anything, too fast. I think it even improved my frame rate. I hope it lasts.