Thoughts on the Dunmer

[Adipose]

Here I go, again, for the last time. Dunmer follower mods ought to adhere to the race as visualized by Bethesda...with some leeway of course. That means, typically, long angular faces/heads, skin tones in various shades of gray, chins that tend toward being pointy/jutting, heavy supra-orbital ridges and pointy ears. Obviously there can be variations on that look. What I've found is that it's very difficult to find a Dark Elf follower that adheres to that look. Further, most of the mods that do adhere to that look tend to be presets, which does me no good at all. I will absolutely never understand why modders feel that they need to create Dunmer/Dark Elf women that look like Nords, complete with wide hips, big breasts, round Nordic faces, and typically pale Nordic skin. If ya want a Nord, build a Nord. Don't build a Nord and call it a Dunmer/Dark Elf. Frankly, that mindset really decreases the racial variety that is characteristic of the population of Tamriel, and makes for a more boring game.

 

Anyway, I'm finished with the b...g. Y'all do what ya want, but I ain't gonna run'em and I ain't gonna compliment'em. If I want big, floppy t...s, I'll run a Nord. Nuff said.

 

Btw, kudos to the modder that did the Jenassa look that actually makes Jenassa look better while still treating her as a Bethesda inspired Dark Elf. More power to ya.

[Anselmp]

Yes, I have that Jenassa in my game.

I recently found an older overhaul of many NPCs so I took a look and found they nearly all had the same face but with different hair. What on earth is the point of that? Which reminds me that when I came back to Skyrim a few months ago one of the first mods I checked was another that remade NPCs, but when my first new character reached Whiterun the people looked uglier than I remembered, so I took that mod straight out. Uthgerd was probably an exception, but the Bijin version has sorted her out, it even fits the voice better.

Why is this the last time? You still have 106 posts to do. I'm just getting going on these forums and I'm nearly as old as you.

I can't understand why we have so many mods of distorted teenage girls, but I suppose these people never got out much even before the virus.

[Adipose]

  On 4/13/2020 at 8:16 PM, Anselmp said:

Yes, I have that Jenassa in my game.

I recently found an older overhaul of many NPCs so I took a look and found they nearly all had the same face but with different hair. What on earth is the point of that? Which reminds me that when I came back to Skyrim a few months ago one of the first mods I checked was another that remade NPCs, but when my first new character reached Whiterun the people looked uglier than I remembered, so I took that mod straight out. Uthgerd was probably an exception, but the Bijin version has sorted her out, it even fits the voice better.

Why is this the last time? You still have 106 posts to do. I'm just getting going on these forums and I'm nearly as old as you.

I can't understand why we have so many mods of distorted teenage girls, but I suppose these people never got out much even before the virus.

I figure that most of the players are male, in their teens or early twenties. That usually means the testosterone is so thick you could cut it with a knife. I assume that accounts for most of the young female m...n fantasies. Probably accounts for the Earth Mother look in female mods in general. Plus, I think that the vast majority of players don't look at this game from a realistic historical perspective but, rather, from a fantasy genre perspective...which, of course, it is. So, if a player wants a gorgeous, unmarred, lush bodied, follower/character creation who runs about the countryside wearing next to nothing in the way of gear/armor, that player can have it...even if it is in a subzero blizzard. I just happen to think that follower/racial mods should generally conform to the characters as created by Bethesda. Frex, one mod that I use a lot looks like a VERY well done Dark Elf/Dunmer, however, she's labeled as a Nord. I don't understand why. It doesn't really do much good to create a character from a new race, even one that's a half-race hybrid of some sort, because the game's dialogue isn't programmed to recognize the new race and the game won't interact with the new race...as a new race. They still need to be labeled as Nord, Dark Elf, or whatever. In sum, I figure that players mod the way they do as a result of hormonal, cultural, or experiential factors and, since the game is a fantasy, they're free to experiment as they wish. They can release their inner Conan, even if their everyday persona/appearance precludes that lifestyle. Being a conservative old wrinkly, I tend to have a rather realistic approach to the game...within the logic of the game as created by Bethesda, though I do have nearly two hundred mods installed. Those are mods that I use to overcome inconsistencies in the game, such as the solid water in the quench trough at a forge. Or, if you're in a driving snowstorm, you should be geared up for it, not running about stark naked...which you can do if you've not installed the mod "Frostfall". I like to play the game as a fantasy that still conforms to certain basic realities of real life. Back in Oldrim, I would rant and rave about Nordized Dark Elves but now that I've moved to SSE I'm determined to be more tolerant and live and let live...though I do need to vent my spleen on occasion. Hence, one last rant about Nordic Dark Elves.

 

Regarding the tendency of group character mods to look like clones that came out of the same lab batch, I figure that it's a result of using the same, what, template? I assume that using a different template for each character in a large group follower mod is enormously time consuming and, perhaps, difficult. There is a handful of large group mods that provide a great deal of individual variety, but they tend to be thin on the ground. I think VERY highly of the modders that went to the trouble to provide that variety. They deserve a lot of recognition for their work.

[Anselmp]

Although the new races are usually classed as Nords or whatever, they can at least be made to look different. However, there is something that makes a big difference to play - size. You could try the Dwarf race and spend all your time looking up! I may try the new half-giant race just for the pleasure of looking down. It may be a problem in some of the caves. I looked at a half-dragon, but it turned out normal size, with wings but unable to fly. Ningheim used to look nice but don't seem to have been adapted properly for SE.

Anna (Anduniel) seems to be rewriting large sections of Skyrim. This suits me as I don't like the unnecessarily vicious bits (vanilla - Dark Brotherhood etc - or mod (I've been trying Vigilant for the first time).

[Adipose]

The game's set in a period roughly equivalent to Europe in the so-called "Middle Ages". In spite of romantic notions surrounding that period it was a vicious, ugly time in which to live. Disease was rampant, conflicts of various types were quite frequent and life was anything but fair for the poor sod trying to eke out a living. People infested with various body parasites were the norm. Various diseases were an ever present threat...smallpox, mumps, measles, typhus, tb, plague, leprosy, etc ad infinitum. Bathing was looked upon with great distrust. If one lived to reach twenty-five you were very lucky. I have the impression that looking out for number one was the norm. COVID 19 gives us a small taste of what life was like then. Disease was so prevalent that folks just went on about their business as best they could. If one died, the survivors mourned and then went on with life. I remember a tale about a man who's wife wasn't in the ground yet, and he'd already gone out, got a new young wife, and brought her home to care for his seven children...then went and buried his first wife. Queen Anne of England had thirteen children...all of whom died before the age of twelve. The germ theory of disease was unheard of...hence magic. This is all kinda garbled and off the top of my head, but it pretty much gets the gist. So, y'all enjoy this little fantasy, but remember, the essence of this game is civil war, witchcraft, monsters and disease all set in a high mountain area possibly like Switzerland with castles, poor villages, manual labor, bad roads, and no bathing facilities...unless ya mod for'em. Gorgeous, flawless, beautiful women? Ha, it is to laugh. A prostitute with no smallpox scars could charge a premium.

 

I don't mind violence and evil in the game...that's the way it was. My guy's gonna be focused on winning and staying alive...screw being mister nice guy. I don't go out and raid dungeons because I'm a knight setting about righting wrongs and ridding the world of evil. I'm raiding dungeons in order to loot the place for salvage and sales. All of that's done so I can pay for training and upgrades. The training and upgrades enable me to have more power. Eventually I intend to be numero uno in the game of survival. Followers aren't people I like, but people I use to haul loot and overpower people who stand in the way of my rise to power.

 

Btw, I've had mumps, malaria, tb, both kinds of measles and chicken pox. Most of the folks who play this game probably haven't had any of those diseases and some of you probably have only a vague concept of what they represent...which is because most school systems require that you get vaccinated for those while still in your early school years. That's so that you don't spread disease to everyone else who's jammed into the germ factory. We'd better start paying a LOT more attention to what's coming out of Africa and Asia, cause COVID 19 and Ebola are likely not isolated problems. I'm not gonna talk about stds. I'm pretty sure y'all know about those but you may not take'em seriously. Take a look at third stage syph if ya want to have nightmares.

[Anselmp]

TB was already rare when I was at school. I only knew one person there who had it and he later became a doctor. Malaria was unknown except for those who went elsewhere. I had the others, plus whooping cough and scarlet fever., except that the mumps came much later - caught off my children, when a very mild version came around, scarcely noticeable.

I'm not bothered about keeping to Skyrim lore. Some is quite good but some is very silly. There are too many gods and daedric lords to make good use of. I have never bothered to do the Sam drinking session, for example. I hate the Dragonborn ending as a servant of Hermaeus Mora. In fact the gods are more or less useless. Why is Talos a god? He was just an emperor, so probably no better than Olaf One-Eye. Add the mystery of the Dwemer who were so clever they disappeared.

Anyway, the land is now awash with swimming pools, clean running rivers etc along with recycling mods, but still no proper waste disposal or decent plumbing. I jest. Some old games used to make you waste time having to keep your followers fed. This may have helped immersion, but was certainly boring. My characters wear something to prevent disease. Also I cheat the carryweight, lockpicking and so on to keep the story moving. But I agree that if you are going to have different races then they should be different, although I never understood why the vanilla elves had to be so ugly when most fantasy lore describes them as beautiful.

I also think the Dragonborn after the Civil War should have a say in who takes over as Jarl (no crooks in Markarth or Riften).

[Adipose]

There are lots of potential plot/story lines in the game. So many, actually, that Bethesda could build whole games around them. The whole of Riften serves as a potential source for games. So do Markarth and Winterhold. One could also write a game for the Orc experience in Tamriel. There is a whole host of potential spinoffs.

 

I think there is, or was, a mod for relieving ones self. That's just a vague memory so it might not have existed. Besides, watching a beautiful woman take a dump would kinda lessen the impact of her beauty.

 

I kinda like providing for my pack mules, unfortunately, I'm not at all sure that it helps them much if I provide them with higher quality, enchanted gear. That seems to help some, but I'm not at all sure that it helps that much. I do know that they can still be helpful, even if they're running after you while wearing absolutely nothing. That's kinda funny if one's running one of the VERY well endowed, HDT enhanced, women. Flops and bobbles in all directions. Tends to lessen the titillation and up the sense of the ridiculous. That feeling is enhanced when the game is being played with Frostfall installed. I wonder if there's a mod that causes the followers to be effected by cold and hunger in the same manner as the player character. I tend to play the game with mods that up the reality of life within the framework of the environment and culture of Skyrim. Kinda handy, actually, to have generic healing potions. Saves a lot of convalescence or trips to the nearest temple.

 

Truly, when one considers all the realistic bits of life in the Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance Era, Skyrim is definitely a Fantasy. It's fun that way. One can kinda pick and choose which bits of reality one wants, and then ignore the rest of the real world. Kinda nice to be able to crawl into your computer and leave the world behind...until a program crashes. Lol! Then it's back to reality.

 

Regarding mumps, my understanding is that the more severe strains can cause an adult to become sterile. Much better to have it when a child. There are scare stories about adults being forced to remain flat on their back in bed in order to prevent movement of the disease down to one's reproductive organs. Have NO idea if that's true, but, after hearing the stories, I sure was glad that I'd had them as a child.

 

Btw, the Sam drinking session isn't all that bad...until the silly business at the end. On the whole, the little vanilla side quests I've tried are a nice break from the central theme. Plus, they're a good way to level up. My son-in-law said that he finished the game by level seventeen. I told him that he'd not really played the game.

 

My prime goal is to play the game as an Akaviri. Now, all I need is the environment to go with that...including housing, gear(which is available)and various cultural addons. Plus, I need a good, solid, ordinary, unenhanced character. I keep telling myself that I need to learn to mod. Don't know if my old brain's flexible enough for that. Some of the modders are absolutely brilliant. Very impressive work. Kinda puts me off to even contemplate making the attempt.

[Anselmp]

I like good architecture. There are some excellent Ayleid homes. Unfortunately they are not very practical. There is also a magnificent house set in Sovngarde, so that is fairly useless for much of the game. There are some pretty Valkyrie homes, with ridiculous NPCs, such as guards that look like prostitutes. I suppose one could lead them away and dump them, but why bother? Also the castle lands on top of one of Anna's inns in a place where an inn should be but not a castle, which would not have been built in sight of another (immediately opposite Dragonsreach) and right next to the road.

Mumps became milder and milder until I had it in my 40s. I have never known anyone who suffered seriously from it, but it may have been different ages ago. Just a slight lumpy feeling in the neck for a couple of days.

I expect you have tried Misty Skye. One run was enough. Vilja is a much nicer character but her quests are too boring.

I have hit the EFF home nude bug. Trying Mjoll out landed me with Aerin too in the same state. I am not sure how much of this I can take.

I may end up going along with one follower singing behind me (Zorya, perhaps).

I cheat the carryweight so I don't need pack mules. I have no interest in Frostfall, survival mode etc. Isn't life hard enough?

[Adipose]

Lol! I've never tried Ms. Skye. I outgrew her type somewhere around my late twenties. Afaik, she's a concept pirated from one or more x rated/porn films. Skye's not a one off mod type either, there's at least one other...so implied by the title. Speaking of sex, the person/persons who designed Flower Girls are, basically, brilliant modders. I still use that mod, along with SOS(also a brilliant mod), simply because I see no point in being married and not consumating the relationship. I also like the male body that comes with SOS. That, of course, leads us to HDT and various other animation mods...all brilliant. Btw, FG for SSE is somewhat improved over that of Oldrim. Not quite true of SOS though. I do tend to role play, and those animation mods make that much more enjoyable. There are several modders who deserve financial contributions...also some who don't. When it comes to character/follower mods, the greater percentage of modders seem to be kinda stuck in a rut...female, huge tits, wide hips, flawless, beautiful faces...your basic masturbation fantasies. Some, of course, are so ridiculous that one knows they're making fun of the whole business. Since modding is a time consuming process, I see that as a time waster, but, hey, to each his own.

 

Regarding my followers, I make a point of seeking out those that are a reflection of life in Skyrim...mature looking, weathered, scarred, blind in one eye(I'd like a bandit eye patch port). I also recruit wrinklies when I can, but most of those don't reflect the physical realities of movement or bodies among those of us with wrinkles and gray hair. There are some mods that enhance that effect and I use them if they're compatible with the rest. Personally, I'd like to see mods that are missing appendages...the occasional finger, hand, arm, foot, leg, tooth/teeth. Life in Skyrim is violent and I think that should be more accurately reflected in the mods.

 

In general, when I mod I look for those that leave as small a footprint as possible. Further, if they call for the download of a bunch of other mods before they work, I scratch them off my list. I run nearly two hundred mods on my game. When one does that, it's better to limit adding a bunch of others just so that one mod can be used. Of course, there are a few hard core role playing/immersion mods that I think are a must. For those I'll make exceptions regarding requirements.

 

AFT is my go to mod for followers. EFF does have some nice features, but, on the whole, I prefer AFT. I particularly like the recruit followers spell that is part of the AFT package...as well as the other features, such as outfit control, etc. I use UNP bods, so, if a mod isn't standalone, and requires some other body type, I don't use it. Same with hair...of all types. Though, if I really like a given mod, I'll add in the required hair mod. In general, I prefer bodies that are fit but not overblown. Beautiful women are very nice and all, but not realistic...with a very few exceptions, such as the Queen, some Vamps, other types that can use magic to preserve their looks. Of course, using magic can have a negative effect on the body of the spellslinger...as in draining their energy and aging them prematurely. All that's found in the canon of SciFi/Fantasy. Evil players are supposed to be ugly or prey upon others to maintain their looks. Good players are supposed to be beautiful/handsome because they're doing good works and helping others. It's all a crock of course. Magic drains energy and will frequently leave the character exhausted...at least that's the way it's supposed to work. That would take it's toll on looks.

 

I tend to like having lots of followers living in the house. However, I've reached the point where I'll have one following me in the field...if that one has enough capacity to carry the loot from a dungeon like Bleak Falls. I make an exception if I'm using the Populated mods, then it's better to have at least three, otherwise the bad bitmaps are gonna smoke ur a...s. It is possible to be swarmed, unless the player is up around level fifty or so, wearing a lot of top end, heavily enchanted gear, and using high end, heavily enchanted weaponry. If that's the case, one might well not need any followers at all. Bear in mind, I play at legendary level and tend to have game hardening mods installed. Being too easy makes the game boring. In general, my favorite part of the game is right at the beginning when just about anything can kill you. Lot more lively at that point.

[Anselmp]

I only got SoS because I thought it unfair that the women were stripping while the men wore nappies (sorry, diapers to you).

I tried FG Amorous Adventures. Some good quests but dangerous crossing of wires with vanilla quests. Possibly the best was for Jenassa, which takes us back where we started.

You don't name any favourites. I like Annekke. Actually, I've always liked Lydia, although I have to admit she is more beautiful now (Bijin version).

I must be much more peace-loving. I like to take over a place, fortify it and make it safe. Bandits respawning all over the place is just irritating and not at all immersive. Also, I don't see why we have to kill every enemy. They could surrender when the chief dies and go to a prison for correction. That should be possible. There is a boarding school for the waifs and strays (Dragon Keep) so why not a re-education facility? Also, after completing Dawnguard one should have the option of eliminating vampires altogether, as in Destroy the Dark Brotherhood, which someone seems to be working on a mod to finish properly.

Perhaps a bit odd that after the Civil War everything looks exactly as it did before. Even Whiterun is rebuilt in a day.

I never go for hard core or legendary level. I find that boring because it slows progress too much. Each to his own!

What's that about grey hair? Do you mean the eyebrows? Don't worry, I'm 'heading' the same way.