Echoside

Yes but you have little stealth capability and your main warrior troops are meant more for slug fest combat over quick hit and run. Its interesting, because I don't feel the Dominions armies contain Bosmer or Khajiit. The only person who comments on their makeup is Salvianus, who says these two statements: They were golden, even when they were dead. But their blood was red. I knew it would be. And when the Thalmor burst into the room: No, you can't be here! You're all dead! I already killed you over and over! Other than this, I don't really have any evidence on the Aldmeri Army, and one may assume that because the Aldmeri occupy valenwood and Elsweyr, that they recruit Khajiit and Bosmer as Auxillaries, but for some reason, i just don't feel that they do. Anyway, onto battlefield tactics. Mages seem like a form of artillary. A fireball can kill a number of men, but so can a well placed rock! But Mages have one a weakness. Rocks and pots of fire travel in an arc. Fireballs don't. If the front line of the army is trained to form a shield wall capable of deflecting magical attacks (as defined by 'Killing, before you're killed'), it would not only render their mages worthless, but would also provide defense against archers, and pave the way for a powerful Phalanx. That said, 'Killing' also provides another tactic against mages that the Nords would be aptly trained in, charging. A good charge would have two benefits. 1. The Aldmeri would not be able to respond to the charge (with Julius Caesar's battle with Ariovistus in mind). 2. A good charge, conducted by trained shock troops, would break the enemies line, allowing the Phalanx to engage an already broken formation. Aldmeri only occupy Valenwood(Questionable cause we don't know how much support and are against them) and Elsweryr is technically no more, it's reverted to it's two ancestral kingdoms both of which are client states under Aldmeri Rule. Khajiit leadership see the Aldmeri as near religious saviors due to the Moons Disappearance incident. Also, Elven armor is golden and all the races in the war bleed red. (EDIT: The Great War by Legate Justianus Quintius about Valenwood and Elsweryr) Try charging a line of Antronach's... Try fighting your brothers in arms under illusions... Mages can cause a lot of problems with out using destruction at all. And from personal experience in game Wards and shields don't block illusions. I've been able to hit Warded mages with illusions and have them take effect. Well, knowing Khajiiti and Bosmer tactics and fighting styles (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Cherim%27s_Heart_of_Anequina), I doubt they would outfit themsleves in Aldmeri fashion, and from memory, the Great War does not comment on the composition of the Aldmeri forces. And again, true, mages can cause such confusion. Although as mentioned before, if this was part of their tactical arsenal, why did they not use them during the Great War. Remember that the Nords have fought against mages for thousands of years. They even forged an Empire out of Morroind and High Rock (against powerful elven mages). If magic is the be all and end all of warfare, why have such a mundane people emerged victorious against it again and again? You know their own fighting methods, not the methods of them under Aldmeri command. Numbers in a lot of cases, underhanded tactics, and luck, even then they still take large chunks of the forces out. True.

Try dropping some texture packs or try reducing them. Instead of 4k packs try 2k packs. My Specs (All stock speed due to testing.) [Processor] = i2700k 3.5gig [RAM] = 24 gig G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 [Video Card] = EVGA NVIDIA GTX 680 FTW 4GB Edition (Driver Ver.#: 314.07) [Monitor] 24 inch Widescreen 1080p HD TV @ 1920x1080 via Straight HDMI (HDMI to HDMI cable) [sSD] = OCZ Vertex 4 SATA III 256GB SSD (Had it on HDD but moved it for some testing) Tex Mods (Note: I did some personal mixing on some of these so there is some overlap.)

Your either running out of texture processing memory in your ram buffer or using too many loose file textures and getting texture load lag.

Yes but you have little stealth capability and your main warrior troops are meant more for slug fest combat over quick hit and run. Its interesting, because I don't feel the Dominions armies contain Bosmer or Khajiit. The only person who comments on their makeup is Salvianus, who says these two statements: They were golden, even when they were dead. But their blood was red. I knew it would be. And when the Thalmor burst into the room: No, you can't be here! You're all dead! I already killed you over and over! Other than this, I don't really have any evidence on the Aldmeri Army, and one may assume that because the Aldmeri occupy valenwood and Elsweyr, that they recruit Khajiit and Bosmer as Auxillaries, but for some reason, i just don't feel that they do. Anyway, onto battlefield tactics. Mages seem like a form of artillary. A fireball can kill a number of men, but so can a well placed rock! But Mages have one a weakness. Rocks and pots of fire travel in an arc. Fireballs don't. If the front line of the army is trained to form a shield wall capable of deflecting magical attacks (as defined by 'Killing, before you're killed'), it would not only render their mages worthless, but would also provide defense against archers, and pave the way for a powerful Phalanx. That said, 'Killing' also provides another tactic against mages that the Nords would be aptly trained in, charging. A good charge would have two benefits. 1. The Aldmeri would not be able to respond to the charge (with Julius Caesar's battle with Ariovistus in mind). 2. A good charge, conducted by trained shock troops, would break the enemies line, allowing the Phalanx to engage an already broken formation. Aldmeri only occupy Valenwood(Questionable cause we don't know how much support and are against them) and Elsweryr is technically no more, it's reverted to it's two ancestral kingdoms both of which are client states under Aldmeri Rule. Khajiit leadership see the Aldmeri as near religious saviors due to the Moons Disappearance incident. Also, Elven armor is golden and all the races in the war bleed red. (EDIT: The Great War by Legate Justianus Quintius about Valenwood and Elsweryr) Try charging a line of Antronach's... Try fighting your brothers in arms under illusions... Mages can cause a lot of problems with out using destruction at all. And from personal experience in game Wards and shields don't block illusions. I've been able to hit Warded mages with illusions and have them take effect.

Depends on which side you wanna take. It's just a hypothetical on how you would see either side battling. And that answered nothing.

Nope, got the schematics, went to Galmar's forge, still can't craft it. Did you talk to the chick and make sure she's selling them?

I agree with this. I could see Farengar being and ex-Blade or at the very least a Blade contact. With his research into the Dragon War, the Dragonstone, and Dragons, I would be far from surprised if he came into the knowledge of where some Dragon Wordwalls may be. Plus considering how he wanted to study Dragon I bet studing the Dragonborn and his/her abilities would be up there.

I use custom INI tweaks to set my Skyrim's use of my 2700k's cores manually... This helped. My fps is far more stable and the loading seems much smoother. I even did the Whiterun test and got about 2-3 more FPS then average. Kudos to you.

The fact that Dark Elves live in a slum and are harassed and mistreated by the general human population of Windhelm and that not a single beast-race person is within the city(docks are outside the city walls) isn't enough to prove that if he isn't a blatant racist then he at the very least completely apathetic to what happens to the non-nords in Skyrim. I'd rather be hated by governmental figures then just having them not care about what happens to my people. True, still it's up in the air as a possibility till the next game. True it's hard to use logic to argue revisions... I'll withdraw the point. :P

So to rekindle this debate, I'd like to pose a very important question. How would you handle the armies? The Aldmeri Dominion forces being made of High Elves, Wood Elves, and Khajiit. High Elves are probably the strongest race in magical talent. Meaning your going to be facing a large number of conjurations(Necromancy was never banned on Summerset) making expendable cannon fodder, potent destruction magics, illusions concealing the enemy and subverting your forces, alteration protecting and shielding the enemy from damage, and restoration keeping the troops going. All this while trying to fight highly mobile Wood Elf and Khajiit(based of racial skill bonuses) war parties. Which are going to most likely doing more guerrilla style warfare over straight slugfest combat. The two most likely places for invasion being Hammerfell and Cyrodil as these two have easy border access to AD countries. How would you think your forces would handle it?

I would just like to say Epic name brother. :P I have to watch this now.

Well, yeah, perhaps magical communication could work. Then again, it didn't work during the invasion of akavir (and magic was specifically mentioned as ending up as the only method of communication, and put a huge strain on the mages). Isolation also has its own problems. Such as having a harder time exerting your will. It is suggested that the bulk of the Legion is held up in Cyrodiil, meaning that if, for any reason, the Empire needs to deploy in High Rock, it will not be able to. Also, the Orc from Markarth was talking about the Orc strongholds in Skyrim. That may, or may not, be an accurate representation of Orsinium (the City State of the Orcs). Little is known about the current culture of Orsinium. Whether or not they actually worship Malacath and follow his teachings is unknown. Although, young Orcs are know to serve in the Imperial military. it was one of the main reasons they became considered citizens and not beasts. That said, the Orcish leadership may, or may not, support (or even care) about the Empire. Note I said teleport, not communication. The only in-game establishment of the teleporting lore is: A. it requires two premarked locations, B. it requires a mage to cast the spell for the teleporting spell (Typically only one mage), C. it was a commonly provided service from the mages guild. Considering they provided this service for gold and it was always the same mage providing the service, the spell it self was probably no more taxing then an expert or master spell at best. While maybe not practical for daily means, I'm sure in a big enough emergency it could enlarged to move large groups. As for the Orc, I never once mentioned Orsinium. There are a huge number of free roaming Orcs and I'm very doubtful that Skyrim is the only land hosting Orc Strongholds.

...Bromance... XD Gotta say I actually went Stormcloak my first playthrough... Didn't really get over the whole trying to chop my head off thing. Plus I had to kill that one chick... She was just rude and needed to eat steel on fire. Really the only thing I don't like about the Stormcloak is Ulfric... He's just your sterotypical brash nationalist rebel. While I could never support that ditz the ex-High King kept around for heir production. I wish they woulda kept in that quest where you had to kill her for the Ebony Mail. Stereotype or Puppet... Hard choice.

You do realize that there is magic in these games right? And. older game reference. where mages could more or less teleport people to per-established points... Breton's are a pretty decent magic race being man-mer mixes. Also the Orc smithy in Markarth talks about how many Orcs join the legion for experience if memory serves. Skyrim is important but no more so then Hammerfell.

See, something smart Bethesda did over other game to mmo's like Blizzard's Warcraft is that they have their sister/brother Zenimax Online handling ESO while Bethesda handles popping out more TES stuff. Like a sweet two for one deal that doesn't radically change the focus of the games like Warcraft did. (Which is sad because Warcraft was one of the better RTS games) I don't think it's been long enough for another game to come out not when their is so much happening in this time period to show.

From what I understand of that mess... :P It sounds like you might be getting some processor throttling from your shadow settings. Have you tried dropping them down to 2048 res? Cause I couldn't play 2d games at 20 FPS, heck dropping into the 40s range bugs me enough as it is. Also, Skyrim is 32bit meaning ram wise around 3.5gig you'll start getting memory crashes. Also the new RCRN AE is in beta and has a whole lot more ENB like features now if you wanna check it out.

The empire would still have the Bretons, Imperials, and the Orcs(Which still keeps the score at 3v3), besides taking Cyrodil would be a chore because they can't just focus on just it. It's harder to fight and watch multiple enemies at the same time instead of one concentrated enemy. Take your eyes off one and it tries to slit your throat... Beside the Imperials are going to make them work for every step of land. Plus the AD don't strike me as the type who would attack until they were absolutely sure of victory.. Plus I figure once they start their attack on Cyrodil is when I march my men... Troops from Skyrim flooding the heartland... Hammerfell 'pirates' attacking anything AD in the water... War and glory my friends, war and glory.

Would this work to consolidate empty esp files? For example I'm wanting to merge the High Res Texture Pack DLC from 3 esp files to one esp file.

It would be different but I don't think the Skyrim Engine could do it without cutting down on something somewhere else... No to mention what it would do to systems when you have like 20-30 actors in an area with that kind of hair.

Firstly, I remember when I called myself an unbiased Observer. i was even praised once for my balanced decisions. I'm not sure if I could consider myself as such anymore :confused:. Sort of sad, really. Well, i'm done being sentimental. As a few others around here will tell you, gameplay=/=lore. That is why there are only a few hundred NPCs, and only a few farms and plantations. So obviously a census of information is not possible. However, when you can't study the whole situation, you study a part of it (a sample). I feel that game representation can be justifiably used as a sample of information. And regardless of the gameplay=/=lore thing, statements by NPCs are supposed to represent in game lore (although apparently they sometimes don;t fit the weirdness of MK). Thus when Farmers make comments about having already established successful farms, and when Galmar suggests that Skyrim has a relatively large number of farmers, then we are inclined to believe these comments. I can call myself that because neither side of this debate will ever come ahead till the next game is released and it's all history. That and I'm pretty sure that either, the Aldmeri Dominion is going to win or Bethesda is going to grant the Empire some miracle that restores their place while ignoring all logic and reason to the otherwise. I'm not saying that's wrong but their overlooking a number of major things if you start mix reality with fantasy. Such as seasons, which aren't in game because of the work it would involve for little more then an immersive boost. Not to mention by that logic then the numbers being mentioned to be field via armies would significantly smaller, Probably no more then a 500 or so max a country, if they want to keep a functioning infrastructure. That a most of Skyrim's population would be Bandits and rouge mages... They would out number the townsfolk by good margin.

I'd say it's as much political as racial, the High Elves have always seen themselves as higher then the other races, even other elves. The Blades represented a major threat to the Aldmeri via their tactics and knowledge, while Malborn would be seen as a rouge if not traitor. The Thalmor are basically the High Elvish Stormcloaks with less morals and even less noble intentions for the world.

RighthandofSithis as the more or less neutral party I'd like to point out that the original point of that argument has long passed, namely Skyrim ability to support and field a large army without the assistance of outside aid and devolved into a mere argument of trying to justify video games with laws of reality. I even went and more less destroyed the main part of the argument by actually defining the amount of farms present both Cyrodil(oblivion) and Skyrim(Skyrim :P) not being enough to support their own populations let alone others. They didn't seem very receptive to the fact Bethesda does not figure food logistics into the games or logical climate formats.

I'm not out of vRam, I don't even have the cards yet, a 4gb 670 OC'd is not faster then 660 "ti" sli but it has more vRam, max vRam you can get on a 660 "ti" is 3gb, witch should be enough at 1080p. I meant the guy ON the video (1st page) has avarage 45fps with a gtx 680. As long as I can run through a forest, fight be in a city at 60fps its cool. My bad. I thought you were mentioning me cause I was the quote right above and I got a 680. :P

I said I get drops down to 45fps not 45fps on average(That would drive me up a wall). My main fps killers are water(forced high res with float point render), large exterior actor counts, and the rift. I can name three places that with any heavily modded rig is going to noticed FPS drops. Looking down at Whiterun from top of Dragonsreach's stairs during the day. Looking down at Cinda Mines in Markarth from the bridge over the smithy during the day if your using any sort of water mod or ini tweaks. Running through the forest of the Rift with higher then default tree rendering or tree shadows on. As said above SLI ram doesn't add up it to a joint number unless eyefinity setup or something, just eases some of the processing load of one card. Skyrim is limited greatly by it's 32-bit setting... I really wish Bethesda would of make an optional 64-bit download over an high res texpack or Hearthfires :P

I don't have to address any of these because I already did. I already addressed the hunting. Already addressed the temperate Skyrim holds and their relation to the province's overall food logistics which at their absolute best even out with no surplus (better not have a bad harvest). You aren't bringing up anything new but you are repeatedly bringing up new tangents that really aren't relevant. I even went in-depth on this and you're still just saying "nuh-uh" as a rebuttal which is hardly convincing. We can argue "what if's" all day about how the war will turn out but it doesn't lead anywhere because for every pro-Stormcloak what-if we can easily invent an Empire what-if. You also ignore quite a bit of logic and reasoning. One seasons: Windhelm has farms thus implies a warm enough season to plant and grow crops. Two Unequal climate zones: Solitude is the town farthest north of in all Skyrim and shows to be temperate while Dawnstar, Winterhold, and Windhelm show almost tundra like climates dispite being more south then Solitude. Three the general freaky geography of Tameriel as a whole: Hammerfell aird rocky crags and desert, Skyrim Northern temperate zone, Morrowind Ashy wastelands to tropic like jungles, Black Marsh huge swamp, Cyrodil southern mild temperate zone, Valenwood massive forest, Elsywer desert to amazonian type jungles... None of it conforms to logic. Like I said Bethseda really doesn't focus on food logistics or logical climate assignments.