ArcieAdam

Awesome, exactly what I needed. Many kudos!

Simple enough of a description. Does anyone think they can move around some of the quest-locked word walls to neutral and accessible locations? Some word walls are located in places where you need to be at a specific point in a faction's questline, and some characters just aren't Companions material, or a mage at the College of Winterhold.

I have never once had a problem with autosaves in my experience, and I play a lot. This is the first I've ever heard that autosaves might cause a problem. In fact, between autosaves and quicksaves, I hardly ever save my game normally anyway.

Yet they do exactly that. Find the Talos shrine in the woods near Riverwood to learn of the actions of one such agent. Ondolemar in Markarth tries to recruit you to gather evidence against a suspected Talos worshipper. In one branch of the Civil War story you can blackmail Jarl Igmund's steward by finding evidence of his Talos worship and threatening to turn it over to the Thalmor. Nords have good reason to fear being denounced to the Thalmor inquisition for practicing the "heresy" of worshipping Talos. The Thalmor put a great deal of effort into hunting down the remnants of the Blades to the last individual, going far beyond eliminating them as an operational threat. Why? Because the organization was intimately associated with Tiber Septim, and they were Talos worshippers. Acilius Bolar, one of the last, fled to an ancient Blade's sanctuary (Bloated Man's Grotto), where he left his sword and his writ in front of a statue of Talos before going out to die to prevent the Thalmor from desecrating the shrine. I think it's pretty clear that ideology is at work here, not just crafty warmongering. Exactly, they do do exactly that. Expending manpower and resources enforcing ideology in a foreign land so far away is expensive, too much so to be fueled by mere ideology. There must be other plans at work, else they wouldn't bother. Ever other day in Skyrim, you see a single unarmed Nord, in rags, being dragged away by two fully armed Thalmor agents, and a Thalmor wizard. It's needlessly excessive. It's obviously to incite the Stormcloaks to rebel against the Empire. The dossiers you pick up in the Thalmor embassy even say they want to see the war in Skyrim prolonged. As far as the Blades go, they aren't just a cult of Talos worshipers. They are, to the Thalmor, very dangerous terrorists, and most political entities don't ever say, "Ok, I think the terrorists get the message, we can let up." Again. the dossiers you retrieve in the Thalmor embassy explicitly state just how dangerous the Blades are to their operations in Skyrim. By the way, I hope I'm not sounding forceful at all or calling you wrong. This is all conjecture and I could easily be wrong here, I just enjoy talking about fantasy politics.

Religious wars don't make sense because we tend to view them in the context of a religious war. Usually, religious undertones of a large scale conflict are just a means to incite the people, and are a front to much darker motives, like territory acquisition, genocide, and the like. I'm interested though where it says the Thalmor want to destroy reality, or any sort of source that makes a claim like that, I'd like to read up on that. But, it's worth mentioning the Thalmor in the fourth era rose from a small political faction, so it's entirely possible that they don't share the views of their ancestors.

Your statement makes the ban sound like a new strategy the Thalmor came up with after losing the Battle of the Red Ring. However, the ban was part of the package of Thalmor demands presented to the Empire before the war even began. I think it's pretty clear that this is part of the Thalmor agenda for reasons other than weakening the Empire for a new invasion following their loss of a war they expected to win. True, they did present those terms right before the war, but there's a difference between accepting a treaty at the point of a Thalmor sword, and accepting a treaty after a lengthy war. The Thalmor like to think ahead, I wouldn't be surprised if they planted every contingency possible to ensure the Empire's downfall. They would have no problem with a war that lasted a century, being fought in multiple stages. I just imagine the Thalmor as crafty warmongers, who know strategy and tactics. I can't see why they would want to ban Talos worship because of ideological differences. It's not worth their time to spend agents enforcing the ban, when they're the type of people to rely of espionage and coups to overthrow regimes and use their armies to pick off the remainder. Besides, I can't see the Thalmor as scenery chewing villains. Only the nihilistic monsters want to destroy creation. Even evil dictators have a vested interest in not having the world destroyed.

These are interesting theories, but I had a hypothesis that's entirely strategic, and not philosophical in the least. From what I pieced together in game, the Thalmor seem to be following a very classic divide and conquer ruse designed to weaken the Empire for their next invasion. The Thalmor lost the captured Imperial City thanks to the combined might of Hammerfell, Skyrim, and Titus Mede II's main army that fled the city earlier that year. By banning the worship of Talos, they instigated a civil war in Skyrim, both focusing the legion's attention north, and not south where it belongs, and eliminating a good chunk of the predominantly Nord portion of the legion, who rebelled and joined the Stormcloaks. For the same reason, the Thalmor demanding the southern coastline of Hammerfell in the White-Gold concordat forced the empire to renounce Hammerfell, or risk throwing the treaty off the table. The Thalmor have effectively reduced the Empire's forces by two thirds, making their next invasion easy pickings.

Oh, excellent! Thank you very much. It looks like the author was updating the mod as of a few days ago, so it's not as if it's an abandoned project. I'm glad to know its happening.

Ah! I apologize for posting my request so hastily. I've searched myself, and the reason I cannot find this mod is because it seems to be set as hidden. I found the mod through this mod here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22565 , Royal Bloodline, and under recommended mods, one called Serana's Secret, which is what the person who responded to my post called it. However, it being set to hidden, I am unsure of what to do next. Is it bad form to send the modder a private message?

Hello mod detectives! I was in the middle of trying to discover just how to make a mod that would allow Serana to transform into a Vampire Lord herself, when someone commented that he (or she) seemed to recall a mod that did this, but they were unable to find it. Can anyone recall such a mod, and if so, does anyone know how to find it? I'd be grateful, not just for the mod, but that I wouldn't be stepping on anyone's mod toes. Thanks! -Arc

Really? In that case, maybe I should ask the mod detectives on the stickied thread. I looked myself with Serana and Vampire Lord as keywords, and didn't find anything, but maybe they'll turn up something. If that doesn't work, though, maybe I'll see how difficult Papyrus is, maybe scripting isn't as terrifying as it looks at first.

I thought I might update my progress, which is entirely theoretical. I've made no physical progress, but, I think I've managed to clarify a few things. Looking at Lord Harkon in the CK was a bit revealing. Although I couldn't find exactly where in the CK he transforms, his human race character lacks any sort of transformation ability. Further, there are three other Lord Harkons in the CK, two of which are beast form races. Thus, I can assume Harkon's transformation during his introduction is scripted, and when you do eventually face him (I have not yet), he will already be shifted. What this means is, I can't simply add the Vampire Transformation ability, and its Dismissal ability, to Serana's spell list and attach conditions to it. What likely needs to be done is similar to Harkon; A script needs to be attached to her that, when the appropriate conditions are met, she plays her transformation animation, and the female vampire beast race is added in her stead at the appropriate level. When other conditions are met, and combat mode is finished (Or, if you request she changed into a Vampire Lord, and you need to request she change back), replace the Vampire Lord with Serana. Unfortunately, that makes my wish to see the above mod included that much harder. If Serana as a Vampire Lord is a completely different entity in the CK (Which, in retrospect, should have been obvious), then she'll either be ugly, or, additional work would need to be done to create a new mesh and texture for her Vampire Form, no small feat for someone of my skill level. With those clarifications, maybe someone can offer some guidance or assistance?

I just want to iterate first that this is not a mod request. I posted a request on the requests board, and it fell down pretty quickly, so I'm trying my hand at it myself. I'm designing a mod that enables Serana to transform into a Vampire Lord herself, as her blood should allow. The conditions for her transformation I want to keep simple enough so that it's not complicated to implement, but complex enough so that it's not overused, as sort of a last resort ability. Thus, the condition that I am aiming for is that, 1 - Serana's health has dropped to 50%, and 2 - She is in combat mode. OR, in addition to this, Serana may be prompted via dialogue to switch, and then again prompted to switch back. That's the simple outline. Additionally, for my own sake, I'm hoping to incorporate this mod: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25321 into the mix. However, I'm not unsure that if I install the mod, it will affect Serana anyway without additional modding. I'll have to wait and see, and I'll certainly need to get the first step down before this becomes an issue. That's the game plan. What I'm looking for is feedback, and possibly some guidance. I know my way around the CK, but I'm inexperienced in making mods, I've only made very slight, dirty changes that aren't worth uploading, like making Serana's armor removable so that I can equip her with clothing. I can certainly find my way around it though, I explore the CK often enough. Do you think this is a mod the community would be excited for? Is there a condition to the transformation you'd like to see? And although I want to release a version that simply does what I've described, do you think a quest would be appropriate, or should this simply be something Serana can do on her own, being a powerful vampire in her own right? Looking forward to your feedback, -Arc

I don't play a Vampire Lord myself, I'm doing the Dawnguard route, so I'd like for her transformation to be autonomous. Having her trigger be health seems to make the most sense. Or, you could request for her to change via dialogue. Or, both. Both would be pretty cool.

I haven't finished Dawnguard yet, but I'm told Serana doesn't transform into a Vampire Lord. I don't know if it's lore appropriate, but I'd like for Serana to be able to transform into a Vampire Lord once per day, should her health deteriorate below 50%. I can't imagine that's too difficult. What might be a little more of a challenge, though, is that if the above is possible, I'd like to incorporate this mod: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25321 as well. What does the modding community think? Is this something anyone is up for?

I had this problem too, and lowering my graphics setting from high to medium fixed the problem. Proceed past the point where the bandit is killed by the arrow trap, then set your graphics back to however you choose. No idea what's up with it, but this solution seems to work. Thanks angan :)

I always thought that Starvation, Thirst, Exhaustion, and Radiation sickness were a little tame in their effects, compared to what they would really do to you in real life. Not sleeping for 24 hours causes serious lapses in consciousness, hunger can be debilitating, but all that happens in the Fallout world is the loss of a few SPECIAL points until you get yourself fixed up. I have ideas for new disease effects, but they require scripting, which I don't know how to do. Or at least, I think they do. I don't know how to make these into a mod. Some might not even be possible. One version might be in addition to the stat decreases, you gain these additional defects. Another version might simply replace the loss of SPECIAL points with solely these defects. Each defect is cumulative with the previous. Hunger 200-399 - Growling stomach, -15 sneak, audible growling sound effect. 400-599 - Roaring stomach, -50 sneak, very audible growling sound effect. 600-799 - Digesting fat reserves, -1 END per day until recovered, all END recovered when properly fed. 800-999 - Immobilization - Over-encumbered 1000- Death Thirst 200-399 - Dry mouth, Speech -15 400-599 - Parched, Speech - 50 600-799 - Hallucinating - Periodic head trauma effect (same as when head is crippled) 800-999 - Drastic Hallucinations - Greater head trauma effect frequency, enemies clone themselves (Ghost of She effect) 1000 - Death Exhaustion 200-399 - Alertness reduced, friendlies no longer appear on compass 400-599 - Alertness severely reduced, enemies no longer appear on compass 600-799 - Forget what you're doing, nothing appears on compass at all. 800-999 - Narcolepsy, periodic chance to automatically wait 1 hour, with some recovery to sleep. 1000 - Collapse, fall asleep on the spot for 12 hours. Death if enemies are in the vicinity. Radiation Sickness 200-399- Periodic vomiting, vomiting animation every 12 hours or so. Immobilized during vomiting sequence. -1 CHR for every vomit. 400-599 - Excessive vomiting, vomiting animation every 3 hours or so. 600-799 - Glowing, sneak - 100. 800-999 - Immobilization, over-encumbered. 1000 - Permanent Ghoulification (Might require ghoul race mod), CHR - 10 I don't know if all of these are possible, but even if they are, they're beyond my scope. Does anyone think this is a good idea, or maybe want to take it on? I'd love to see greater incentives than minor SPECIAL decreased to potentially fatal conditions. Thanks!

I'm pretty sure there was a mod that reduced the travel time at the beginning of Honest Hearts down from two weeks to three days, or something along those lines, but I can't find it for the life of me. Does anyone know if it exists? Thanks!

It's a simple request, but I imagine it might be a little complicated. It can't be impossible, surely. Is there anybody skilled enough (Or has someone already done it, I can't find it on the nexus) to make Hadvar and Ralof into companions once you finish the civil war questline? Perhaps flesh them out a bit, give them some dialogue, marriageable, etc? It'd be cool, thanks! (Stay safe for Sandy if you're on the east coast).

I see one or two mods out there for reducing dismemberment but keeping limb explosions, but is there any way to completely disable dismemberment/exploding limbs for all weapons except explosives themselves? I'm tired of all these exploding heads already. Shoot a guy in the back of the head, and it's like the fourth of July. Eyeballs and bits of brain everywhere.

In Fallout 3, the overseer's terminal in Vault 101 had two images, one of a giant ant, and the other of megaton. Images never showed up after that one terminal, but maybe that could be an entry point into inserting images into a computer terminal?

A shame indeed, but as a thought, what if the text input was outside the actual game, as in the journal mod that Skyrim has of right now? After you input the text, the program ports it into a customized computer?

Name: Adam Gender: Male Age: Probably mid-20's Race: Caucasian Combat Style: Sniping/Distance Specialties: Diplomacy Weaknesses: Melee Likes: Girls, Cards, Music Dislikes: Pimps, Slavers, Cannibals. Wants: Peace and quiet, a nice girlfriend, and maybe a nice robot to do heavy lifting. Fears: Dying in an unmarked grave, people he likes dying in an unmarked grave. Friendly Factions: NCR, Unaffiliated, Wastelanders. Enemy Factions: The Legion, Powder Gangers, doesn't get along that well with Khans. Companions: Anyone who wants to tag along. Cass and Veronica are good friends. Sympathizes heavily with Raul's past, the two get along very well. Love interest?: Cass is cute, but too busy for the lovin'. Unless she's up for it, in which case, Deathclaws couldn't keep him away. Parents: Only knew his mother until he was six. A child of rape, his father is a nonexistent figure to him. Doesn't care, doesn't want to. Mother's name was Rose, but that's all he can remember. Early life: Ignored by his mother most of the time, foraged for himself, mostly. When he was six, he found his mother dead, a gang of thugs over her body. Instead of being killed, he was taken in by the thugs. Best to take them young, they said. They taught him about guns and survival, but the gang leader, Marco, taught him to read. Mostly smut, but reading is reading. He would read anything he could, especially pre-war history, which he was fascinated in, much to the ire of the Marco. Teen years: At around sixteen, although he doesn't know his birthday for sure, the gang abducted a nice looking girl. Excited to meet someone his own age, and a cute girl, no less, he prepared to see her that following night and comfort her. Instead, he could barely recognize her remains after the gang had had their way with her. Finally seeing the gang for what they were, he quietly murdered them all in their sleep over the next week, causing a massive, and for Adam, enjoyable panic. Marco was the last to go, buried in an unmarked grace. He gave the girl a funeral afterwards. He left, and hasn't stopped wandering since. How did he/she become a courier?: Money is money, and a travelling courier fitted his wandering lifestyle.

It's been maybe a year or so since I played New Vegas, but I recall there not being a method to keep a journal like there was in Oblivion. I think the Script Extender wasn't advanced enough to do it? I don't know, it's all magic to me. Anyway, I wanted to know if it was possible to add a computer to the game that you could input text into. That's all you'd really need to make a journal. It would be unrealistic to make a journal on the keyboardless pip boy anyway. This sort of mod is way beyond my level.

I hadn't thought of that before, and I must have played through the Shivering Isles questline at least three times. I don't know why I didn't think of that.