Kestrellius

Well, there's the Imaginator. Lets you up the saturation and such. Or, just the Immersive Saturation Boost. They don't change the textures proper, but if I'm reading you correctly, they should accomplish what you want.

I hate the plains around Whiterun. I hate how they're all open and make the map feel tiny. I hate how they're this hideous orange-brown color. I hate how they take up at least a third of the entire map. And, well, I figure I can at least do something about the color. I tried Forested Skyrim, despite my reservations about the lore-friendliness of the mod. I very much like the idea, but I had some issues with LODs...and...well, after becoming so familiar with the Whiterun plains, it was actually quite jarring to see things like the random puzzle pillar ruin in the middle of a giant forest. However, I'd very much like to have a mod that just basically makes the plains greener, and less dead-looking. I came across Summer Skyrim, and it looks gorgeous, but I'm not sure about a few things with it -- primarily compatibility. Will it be compatible with things like Ultimate Lush Overhaul? Also, does it keep the same general climate, but just make it look like it would in summer? I much prefer my mods lore-friendly, and I also don't really want Frostfall to tell me I'm freezing to death when the birds are singing and the sun is shining. Although admittedly, we get plenty of days like that here in Oregon. So basically: is Summer Skyrim any good/compatible/lore-friendly? And if it isn't, what are some other mods that make Whiterun Hold green?

...oh. Sorry about the multi-post.

So, I installed FIO a while back, because it seemed pretty good. However, I eventually found it very buggy and obnoxious (mostly in that the pools of fire that are left around occasionally would instakill me for no reason), so I wanted to get rid of it. Except that after I deleted it in NMM, the game would crash immediately after the Bethesda logo. Basically, right when the main menu options would load. Now, I would have just turned off both fire and ice in the mod menu, except that didn't work. It just had no effect. Neither did uninstalling the mod, for that matter. (Although I could be mistaken about this. The pools of fire thing might not be from FIO, or I might just be misremembering some things; this was all a while ago.) I guess it could be a script thing? Not sure. Maybe if I tried starting a new character, it would stop. Anyway, I got it to work by downloading and installing the mod again, and just put up with it. However, right now I want to clean out my load order, and really, this is just unacceptable anyway. Any idea how to solve this?

So, I installed FIO a while back, because it seemed pretty good. However, I eventually found it very buggy and obnoxious (mostly in that the pools of fire that are left around occasionally would instakill me for no reason), so I wanted to get rid of it. Except that after I deleted it in NMM, the game would crash immediately after the Bethesda logo. Basically, right when the main menu options would load. Now, I would have just turned off both fire and ice in the mod menu, except that didn't work. It just had no effect. Neither did uninstalling the mod, for that matter. (Although I could be mistaken about this. The pools of fire thing might not be from FIO, or I might just be misremembering some things; this was all a while ago.) I guess it could be a script thing? Not sure. Maybe if I tried starting a new character, it would stop. Anyway, I got it to work by downloading and installing the mod again, and just put up with it. However, right now I want to clean out my load order, and really, this is just unacceptable anyway. Any idea how to solve this?

So, I installed FIO a while back, because it seemed pretty good. However, I eventually found it very buggy and obnoxious (mostly in that the pools of fire that are left around occasionally would instakill me for no reason), so I wanted to get rid of it. Except that after I deleted it in NMM, the game would crash immediately after the Bethesda logo. Basically, right when the main menu options would load. Now, I would have just turned off both fire and ice in the mod menu, except that didn't work. It just had no effect. Neither did uninstalling the mod, for that matter. (Although I could be mistaken about this. The pools of fire thing might not be from FIO, or I might just be misremembering some things; this was all a while ago.) I guess it could be a script thing? Not sure. Maybe if I tried starting a new character, it would stop. Anyway, I got it to work by downloading and installing the mod again, and just put up with it. However, right now I want to clean out my load order, and really, this is just unacceptable anyway. Any idea how to solve this?

Alright, thanks.

So, I've been playing Morrowind, completely vanilla but with both expansions installed. However, the game freezes up and "stops working" occasionally. Probably around every thirty minutes on average. Now, this is a pain, and I'd like to solve it if I can, but it's not that big a deal. I'm just concerned that this might in some way put a strain on my computer. If that's the case, I'll have to solve it immediately. Otherwise, I'll just keep playing. Thoughts?

Thanks. Yeah this is completely vanilla.

Never played Morrowind before, but a week or two ago I got the TES Anthology. I put in the Morrowind disc and just sort of followed the directions. Unfortunately, around five or ten minutes into the game, it freezes, and then crashes with the "Morrowind has stopped working" message. I'm on Windows 7. Also, I can't save. I'm assuming it's just because I haven't entirely completed character creation yet, but if that's not normal, it could be related. Thanks for any help you guys can offer.

Edit: Disregard. Sorry 'bout the double post. Internet being weird.

Favorite: Proudspire Manor. It's hard to beat Imperial architecture for wealth and luxury. Plus it's in Solitude, which is the only real city in Skyrim. Along with maybe Markarth, I guess? I like Honeyside, too. Same with Vlindrel Hall. Hjerim is just kind of pointless. It's all big and empty, and...I dunno. Hate Breezehome. Tiny, useless, ugly Whiterun architecture...

Alright, been thinking this over some more. If Aetherium's going to be involved, then the means to manipulate it has been staring me in the face this whole time -- Kagrenac's Tools. Now, using them on Aetherium is probably a really bad idea, because the last time they were used an entire race was wiped out, and they actually knew what they were doing. Nonetheless. So, if soul gems are basically just gems cut into a certain shape to hold souls, then you could do it with Aetherium, right? (Yes, I'm really set on this Aetherium-holding-dragon-souls thing. Not sure why, but eh.) So, the Aetherium section of the questline involves obtaining Kagrenac's Tools -- Arniel's Endeavor would probably be a prerequisite, so you'd already have Keening, but you'd need to find Sunder and Wraithguard -- and using them to harvest Aetherium. And, while I definitely want to call this gear "Aedric", because that's a brilliant name for armor, I might think about leaving some wiggle room as to why it's called that. If we're going with the whole idea of spacetime -- Lorkhanic Aetherium and Akatoshian (?) dragon souls -- then maybe it's called Aedric because the Aedra are only Aedra due to creating Mundus? As for how this equipment would affect gameplay...I'm not totally sure. It'd be difficult to implement something with this much in-universe power without breaking the game like a toothpick, but possibly a lot of inherent enchantments would work? IE you can enchant the armor on top of it. Possibly, the boots give you a constant (though toggleable) levitation effect, and the gauntlets a powerful telekinesis spell? Maybe a percentage-chance on-hit effect (like with Miraak's outfit) that creates an unrelenting-force-style shockwave out in all directions? I believe one of the Landfall documents made mention of a weapon that Numidium carries, that it used to wipe out the Altmer. Can't recall what it was called, but I suppose I could implement some lesser form of a metaphysical weapon like that. You know, that zero-sums people. Although it'd be tricky to, in terms of gameplay, differentiate that from just a one-hit kill. Also, I'm not really sure if you can seriously call something like Oblivion "lackluster and boring" when Skyrim is in the discussion. Just throwing that out there. By the way, I've been watching SorcererDave's Morrowind Let's Play, and...NPCs keep referring to the Daedra as among the oldest ancestors of the Dunmer. THE WORD LITERALLY MEANS "NOT OUR ANCESTORS", GUYS. WHAT EVEN -- I mean, I get that in TES games, it's like real life, where most people don't know what they're talking about, but really. That's a bit of a spectacular oversight on the part of Tribunal doctrine teachers. EDIT: Ancestroscythe. It's called Ancestroscythe. So, I'm thinking that if you use Lesser Ancestroscythe, and it hits successfully, the game reloads the last save, with that character just gone from the game entirely. Not sure what to do about looting -- maybe just drop all their stuff on the ground wherever they were? It's not like objects can zero-sum (okay, they probably can. This is TES we're talking about. But regardless), so that could work. Or you just lose out on the loot because you used a metaphysical nuke. Anyway, this'd be very helpful for dealing with high-profile targets without incurring a bounty. Not like a bounty would really matter by this point, but eh. And if it's not successful (percentage chance) your target is just replaced with a very upset Jill. Although to be fair I don't know what Jills look like other than that they're draconic, so that could be hard to implement. I was thinking about maybe the spectral dragon model?

Yeah, you can't play most of the Civil War until you complete "Dragon Rising". Which causes some problems if you're not playing as the Dragonborn. But yeah, it's entirely possible to do the CW after Alduin. I did so on my first playthrough.

So, my current load order is moderately sized -- 75 mods or so -- but I'm using NMM, and my load order is probably full of issues due to me not knowing what I'm doing. I've been hearing that Mod Organizer is the way to go at the moment, and I've been hearing things about PerMa as well. (Currently using SkyRe.) And I've known all along that I'd probably need to install Wrye Bash at some point, but I'm not clear on what Wrye Bash actually does, or whether it's mutually exclusive with things like NMM or LOOT, which I'm also using. So, I want to switch to Mod Organizer, install Wrye Bash, and rebuild my load order from the ground up using PerMa. But I don't actually know how to do that. Any help would be appreciated.

Your post count is off by twenty.

You really should have had some options with the TG. Do it like vanilla, tell Nocturnal to screw off and kill Mercer on your own, just blow up the entire place, reform the Guild somewhat into more of a personal spy organization...

Now that is a very interesting idea. After all, we still don't really know for sure what happened to them. Speaking of which, I've kind of been wanting to do something with the Falmer, as well. Maybe a questline involving them launching attacks on cities -- probably Dawnstar -- as they become more intelligent. You could have them attack in part by tunnelling up underneath people and buildings, and collapsing the ground. Just to play up the horror factor of something living right under your feet. And also, does Blackreach strike anyone else as really empty of Falmer? I mean, look at the Forgotten Vale. That place feels like a Falmer city. But Blackreach is supposed to basically be their homeland, and there are virtually no Falmer there.

Actually, you're right, as I recall. There is a conspicuous absence of lava everywhere in Skyrim but the Aetherium Forge. Of course, there clearly is a way to mine it, as the Dwemer did so. It's just a matter of exactly how high-tech the method was, and if it could be reproduced without the crazy Dwemer awesomeness that the 'modern' world lacks. Maybe you just need to use a diamond pickaxe. /minecraft

Oh, right. I was forgetting the fact that there would have been female armor, simply due to the exceptions...nonetheless, I'm fairly certain a society in which women fought to a similar degree as men wouldn't be sustainable, simply because you need lots of non-dead women to keep your population going. I'm not really sure what you intend to replace the light-medium-heavy scale with, though. Basically just all heavy armor, or what? Or do you just mean doing away with the "low-end" light armors like leather and such?

Yeah. I mean, I'd sort of figured that while digging up the stuff in Blackreach and getting it to the Forge in reasonable quantities would be difficult, it would be a surmountable problem. And that the reason it's never really been done since the Dwemer is that nobody had the Forge, so there wouldn't have been any point...

You know, fur armor actually starts to make a lot more sense if you have Frostfall installed... Also, on the subject of female armor: there's not really such a thing in real life, because in real life women don't fight in wars. Although I will say I appreciate the equal-opportunity butchery in TES. It kind of bothers me that the mooks we kill by the hundreds in video games are almost invariably all men...

By "hammer" I mean both maces and warhammers.

Mostly I just want to actually do something with the whole Aetherium subplot, because in vanilla, the Dragonborn finds this ancient forge that can work with an incredibly powerful material, makes a test item, and then...just kind of forgets about it.

Alright, here we go with another textwalliscious post from yours truly. The same disclaimers from the Aedric Armor thread over in Skyrim Spoilers apply. I've been doing a lot of thinking about combat overhauls, and I think I've hacked together a decent concept, though that's all it is. I wanted to get your thoughts. The problem with vanilla combat, and even Skyre's combat, is a lack of verisimilitude in terms of damage. You hit a guy in the head with a warhammer and he's fine. But if you scrape your sword against his heavily armored torso enough times, he'll die. Now, you can just raise damage and lower defense, but that results in very short combat scenarios. I want a system that allows for proper swordplay. Now, the core of melee combat in this overhaul would basically be Locational Damage meets Action Combat. First of all, the weapon skill trees. Instead of one-handed or two-handed, or light and heavy weaponry, we'd have Blade and Blunt, ala Oblivion. Blade would encompass all types of swords, daggers, and polearms. Blunt would encompass all types of maces, hammers, and axes. And yes I know axes aren't actually blunt, but I don't have a better word for "weapons you smash and chop things with rather than cutting and stabbing things with". The other key concept is that of armor. If you hit a plate cuirass with a sword, you can't really expect it to do much damage. But if you hit somebody on the bare skin, there's going to be pain there. So that's vital to this overhaul: in general, if a weapon hits armor, it does very little damage, but if it hits bare skin, it does massive damage. Armor is divided up into two types, independent of the light and heavy classification: padded and plate. Padded includes things like leather, fur, and that scale armor that city guards use. Basically, most low-level light armor. It's not really something you want to use if you have an alternative, as while it's fairly good against blunt weapons, thrusts from bladed weapons go right through it. Plate includes things like steel, steel plate, glass, ebony, elven, and dragon armors. Most high-end armors qualify as plate. However, some armor types sort of include both. For example, you know how steel plate has those mail sleeves? Those would count as padded, if a blow hit there. Assuming that can even be done, on a technical level. I haven't the slightest idea how to designate different parts of a mesh as different types of armor. Now for the weapon types. While the skills are very different from those in vanilla, the vanilla "categories" still apply. Swords, hammers, and axes all work differently, although hammers and axes are far more similar to each other than they are to blades, hence the skill grouping. Oh, and armor degradation is a thing; that'll be important in a second. Swords and spears are used basically the same way -- they're quick and accurate, designed to hit weak points for massive damage. However, they do almost nothing against armored areas, at least plate armor. Maces and hammers are designed to go right through plate armor -- hit it hard enough a sufficient number of times, and the person inside will get hurt. Axes, meanwhile, basically hack armor apart -- attacks with them degrade armor far more quickly than other weapons, resulting in higher chances for wounds even through it. There are no longer big smashy animations for swords, or spears. Bladed power attacks are thrusts, using the staff animation, which everyone always forgets about when talking about spears. (That can be done, right? You can repurpose that animation for a melee weapon?) Stabbing attacks are important in part because Action Combat's notion of "weapon parrying" applies. If two weapons hit each other, the effect is that of a blocked attack. Thrusts are effective at getting past "static" blocks -- the vanilla animation -- but can be swatted aside by weapon parrying. They're also easier to aim, and so better at hitting weak points. Now, as for how damage works. In general, I hate the idea of health to begin with. That's not how people work. You can't shoot someone in the toe a hundred times and expect them to die any more rapidly than if you'd shot them there once. So instead, successful hits to unarmored areas cause Wounds, which are a type of status effect. They do bleeding damage, less if your health is lower (this makes the system more dynamic, rather than simply slowing down health regen. However, it's not a percentage thing; you can still be killed by the bleeding.) There are Minor Wounds and Major Wounds, depending on where you're hit -- a limb or shoulder strike results in a Minor Wound, whereas a hit to the torso, neck or head gives you a Major Wound. Major Wounds simply do more damage. Wounds stack, and don't go away immediately. After a couple days, Minor Wounds heal, and Major Wounds turn into Minor Wounds. They can't be gotten rid of with health potions, although those can be used to counteract the damage. Instead, you use bandages or something to patch them up quickly. But really the trick is not to get Wounded; that's really not something that you want to happen. Now, Wounds can still happen through armor, but you only have a ten percent chance on average with a mid-level fully intact armor piece -- some attacks might get through chinks in the armor, after all. The chance gets higher as the armor degrades. Maces can deal wounds, but it's not what they're designed for; they're meant to simply bypass armor and deal direct damage right through it. ...I think that's about everything. Uh, I'm kind of tired now. I don't think I organized that very well, so it might not actually wind up making any sense. I'll try to clarify if it's not comprehensible to you guys. See you!