Congratulations, Andrea! Welcome back.

Acadian, that sounds like a lovely couple of days in Whiterun Hold. Plenty of big sky and some exercise for the bow.

Congrats on your baby girl! Maybe you could drop her off at Riverwood for a few hours with Lucan while you go adventuring?

Aw, congratulations on your baby/toddler now! That is Awesome news!

Thank you guys! She's an amazing little kid. Bit of a handful at times but that's to be expected with a toddler 😂😂

Anyway, Andrea made it to Fort Dawnguard after a day of travelling. Once there she was quickly recruited and she was sent on a mission to find a bunch of vampires in a cave up north and find out what they were hiding. Andrea wasn't too bothered about their secrets, she was just happy to get a chance to kill the things.

I've also discovered more on her back story. Her family were killed by vampires when she was 15, but she was then kidnapped by them and taken to their lair. Turns out they were a bit more twisted than shed origionally thought. The vampires in question enjoyed taking kids, keeping them as slaves and having them fight to the death, one on one, in their arena. Andrea was their slave for five years, winning every fight and becoming quite the fighter. She eventually escaped, killing all her vampire captors and spending a year in the wilds.

I'm looking forward to learning more in detail. Maybe even writing a story about it. I'm glad her back story didn't turn out the generic 'family killed, seeks revenge' like I thought it would be.

I love Andrea’s back story – it elegantly answers the motivation for her vampire hunting and origin of her skill to do so. I like the Dawnguard DLC very much for a few reasons:

- It suits a character named Buffy to a tee.
- You are not ‘The Chosen One’. You just help Serana.
- With Serana, BethSoft took followers to a whole new level of interactive sophistication – despite her imperfections/quirks.
- You do not become the boss of the guild! Rather, you get to just continue along as a vampire hunting knight with endless radiant quests.

I think it would be wonderful to see you writing again! I well remember your fan fic here, 'Jess of Valor'.

*

Buffy’s games are very long. I mean she has +3500 in Skyrim and her current playthrough is well over 1000 hours alone. I also have our dungeons set to respawn every three days since she is so voracious about clearing them. Many of Skyrim’s dungeons have an exit as well as an entrance to avoid so much retracing of steps. So what’s my point? Well, Buffy will often clear a dungeon ‘backwards’ for variety. A simple example is good old Embershard Mine, but there are many dungeons that lend themselves to this, especially for an elf who rides a horse that can negotiate terrain that would terrify a mountain goat to get to some of the remote exits (like White River Watch). One of our faves to clear backwards is Volskygge.

I fully agree with all your opinions regarding Dawnguard! My biggest problem with the factions was that you become head of them upon completion. I'm glad Dawnguard shook this up.

Ahha Jessika. That was around the time I found out I was pregnant and took my hiatus 😁 I'll most likely not return to that, as I've moved on from Jessika. Jessika is my oblivion girl, and I don't see myself returning to that unfortunately... but thank you! I'll probably start writing bits here and there for Andrea, but nothing solid enough to post.

Hehe I've only managed to clock 40 hours with Andrea so far! I spend my free time I. E when mini-me is at day care, my mothers, or asleep.
In skyrim nowadays.
My hubby doesn't mind that I game. I have really bad social anxiety issues so he is just happy that gaming relaxes me. So luckily I have no reason not to travel skyrim

EDIT: Oh dear. My first corrupt save! Andrea's most recent game wont load. I still still play the game as long as it's either a new or old save. Very annoying.

ANOTHER EDIT: It appears the issue is Markarth related. I just tried using a carriage to Markarth and the game crashed. I tried a couple of times and it kept crashing. Hmm...

This post has been edited by Andrea: Jun 22 2016, 09:59 PM

So I'm starting an Andrea #2. Probably with a name change. After doing a lot of research I've decided to use SkyRe, which requires a new game. I just hope I can get Andrea looking how she does now!

I've also added a mod which uses the Oblivion class creating system, so i'm looking forward to trying that out.

Sorry you lost Andrea I. The times I've started Buffy over, I've found to be great fun. I use ECE to save her presets and it only takes me a couple seconds to perfectly recreate her when I start a new playthrough. I think Race Menu can do the same thing. I sure hope you get her look back okay.

I prefer Oblivion's leveling to Skyrim's and my solution is a mod that lets me set individual caps for each and every skill. Many of her skills are capped permanently at 0, some at moderate skill levels and only a few up to 100. One effect of this is that she gradually rises to about level 30 and stays right there. Even if she reads a heavy armor skill book, her skill with heavy armor remains at 0 for example. Really helps sharply define her strengths and weaknesses.

You can make a copy of Andrea #1 very easily, and turn it into one of the face presets.

Load up the save for the face you want to save to use in other games.

Open the console.

Select your character (this should show as an id of 14)

Type spf <filename you want> and press enter. This can be any name you want. For example typing spf Andrea creates a file called Andrea.npc in your Skyrim directory.

Load up the creation kit and choose any one of the character presets that matches your original save's race and gender under actors. So if Andrea is a Breton: BretonFemalePreset01.

Open up the properties window for that character (Just double click the actor in the list)

Click the tab Character Generator Parts (You may have to scroll all the way to the right in the tabs)

Click import in the top right.

Select your Andrea.spf file, in the root of your Skyrim folder.

Click Ok on the bottom left.

Save the plugin as any name you want, for example Andrea Character Preset.esp

Enable the plugin in a mod manager or the Skyrim launcher.

Load up your new game or another save you want to reuse the face in.

Bring up the console and type showracemenu.

Go through the presets until you see your face.

Seems the problem was with a city mod I had. I uninstalled it and now the crashing doesn't happen... but I still went ahead with Andrea 2 regardless.

Here she is. She looks the same, although i gave her green eyes and a more practical hairstyle.

Oh, and although her name is still Andrea, it is now abbreviated to Andi.

Also in my game Crossbows aren't Dawnguard exclusive, so she started off with one in her inventory. I know this messes with Lore, but whuteva haha.

She is still going to join the Dawnguard though. I just thought that if I have the crossbows non Dawnguard exclusive, it would make more sense how she is able to use one upon obtaining one, as crossbows are Andi's weapon of choice.

EDIT: Thank you SubRosa for the advice! But as i managed to fix my save I just saved Andi's preset to the racemenu Sincerely, I thank you for the time you took for all that advice you wrote haha


This post has been edited by Andrea: Jun 24 2016, 10:18 PM

I'm so happy that you found the problem. And also happy that recreating her worked out well. She looks beautiful as ever! I think her new hairstyle looks great. It seems a bit less 'Cosmo' or 'coiffed' and therefore 'fits' better into Skyrim I think - if that makes sense.

Edit: I can think of no reason on Nirn why Xbows should be DG exclusive. Go for it, Andi!

This post has been edited by Acadian: Jun 24 2016, 10:35 PM

I'm glad you recreated Andi/rea successfully. It is amazing how different she looks, even though her face is still exactly the same! The shorter hair is definitely more practical. But then again, that never let Bayonetta slow her down!

I've been playing with a whole lot of odd builds recently, and the latest is a ghost!

Mzthlft is a Dwemer who didn't quite manage to disappear with the rest of them. I'm trying to play her as unable to interact with physical items, so she has to use spells for everything. Right now she has a few inventory items but I'll be making her a cyborg companion to do all her carrying, except for a few (and I mean few) clothing items. The companion is possibly going to be unarmed, except for metal fists, which is why I'm trying out Illia that way. She should be able to pick stuff up and carry it, mine ores, etc. which Mzthlft can't.

So far Mzthlft's restrictions are enforced by me, but I'll maybe mod them if it's possible (and worth the effort). She needs to be able to read books (spell books, skill books) but not take them, and I'm still trying to figure out how to do that, when a book is in a container. Quest items are another issue, as the quests are often triggered by an item entering the player's inventory, and using the follower won't work. Potions are being used right now, but I'll probably use absorb spells, and boosted regeneration instead. That should eliminate the need for alchemy, too.

The regular ghost shader hides everyone in a cloud of particles, but I made one without that looks better for the player, who now doesn't have to look through fog all the time. I'll waste a lot of time fiddling with that, as I'd like to eliminate the glowing hair syndrome, too. No screenshots, until I make more Dwemer clothing.

More edit: I'm finding that a follower is too restricted in capabilities for what I had in mind. In particular, they can't loot a corpse, it seems, or pick up a quest item. It's also hard to control what they take from containers. "Take all" followed by the player exchanging items and dropping the junk would normally address this, but if I don't let Mzthlft carry things, she can't take/drop. Another issue is using soul trap. I can't put it on an unarmed weapon, so the follower can't fill gems.

So Mzthlft will have to do more than I hoped, and the "no physical interactions" idea is a bust. I'm still thinking of not letting her use potions. Scrolls are a borderline case, as she can read, and cast spells. I'll be playing her a while longer to see what tweaks her unarmed follower needs, and what other spells she needs herself. Mzthlft can cast soul trap, so I may have to let her use soul gems.

Even more edit: I'm still trying to figure out how to balance an unarmed-only follower. Bzuumz has been given upgraded versions of her outfit but doesn't wear the new pieces, as the game only looks at the stats of the base form. It ignores both tempering and enchantments, and keeps the outfit when there's a tie. However, since her unarmed damage increases, and her heavy armour increases, with level, she's not doing too badly.

Mzthlft wants to buy Vlindrel Hall, but she's not level 20 yet (18.6-ish) and with few skills in use, she's not going up very fast. Some "practice" with Muffle and Bound Sword has helped, but in normal play she's only using Destruction and Restoration. She should probably also use Alteration for mage armour, but we initially had issues with both shaders running together.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 13 2016, 04:07 PM

ghastley, your incorporeal Dwemer sounds very interesting! Would casting Soul Trap work instead of enchanting a weapon? I almost never use the spell, but Darnand likes it.

Perhaps if you made a version of the flesh spells with no shader they would look better? I made a Woad version that’s blue-tinted on the body for a Nord theme, but I’ve never tried no shader at all.

I love “Bzuumz� the companion construct. I can guess at her defining feature(s)!

Mzthlft bought Vlindrel Hall at last, so she's retired there while I work on the Bosmer Den.

Wizwen built it without the smithing equipment, and has just gone and become Arch-mage to get the Amulet from my other mod. Wearing it with her satchel isn't too over-powered, and it's very cool. The Archmage's boots add a bit of shock resistance, but she'd rather have frost resistance in Winterhold, so we may enchant some others. But then, Fortify Carry Weight would help, too. She might have to wear a ring. There's no plant material in that.

Sounds like Wizwen needs to get some rings, bracelets, earrings, ankle chains and toe rings to enchant.

*

We had a very neat but frustrating episode yesterday. Buffy was approaching Fort Greymoor from the north and passed a group of Thalmor with their Stormcloak prisoner in tow. One of Buffy’s greatest pleasures is legally causing the Thalmor trouble – up to and including their death.

Calling Kitsune up into the saddle with her, she ran Superian in, around and back out of Fort Greymoor’s courtyard, drawing its full complement of bandits out after her.

As she led them into the Thalmor, the battle was joined. Buffy circled wide and stayed out of it.

The prisoner and all bandits died and the battle ended with all three Thalmoor standing around.

At this point, Buffy would normally ask them what's wrong with worshipping Talos - a tried and true tactic that results in dead Thalmor and no bounty.

For some reason though, she decided to check the already numerous corpses first. As she checked the dead prisoner, it triggered the Thalmoor to go hostile on her – perhaps the game considered it ‘releasing the prisoner’ I suppose. Okay, that's fine as she intended on having to lethally defend herself one way or another.

At any rate, the compass displayed three red dots and the three angry Thalmor attacked. With some distraction help from Kitsune and speed/maneuverability help from Superian, Buffy’s bow was able to defeat all three Thalmor.

Uh oh. Top left screen: 'Last witness dead, bounty removed, blah, blah, blah.' But they were hostile and attacked Buffy first - that was the whole point! How could it be murder?!?

Sure enough, we checked Buffy’s stats. Her perma-zero bounty now showed 1000. Ugh. And she was so proud of her elegant opportunism. Reload a previous save.

Somebody should make a mod where handcuffs are put on Buffy. I would pay money for that.

1000 bounty. That is territory that Buffy rarely, if ever, has ventured. I will tell Rattler about this!

What was the highest bounty Buffy reached in Oblivion?

Or was she a good girl there and turned to the dark side since crossing the border...

BWAAHAA!!!! Buffy the moyderer? No way! But too bad the prisoner had to die in the melee,

Thanks!

Over the years, Buffy has accidentally clicked on a fork or mug instead of activating an NPC to talk a few times - and we just reload a save. Buffy murdered Earana in Oblivion (and would do it again) but no one saw her (no bounty). Both games are dumb when it comes to deciding murder so we don't pay any attention to her murder stats as long as no bounty is involved. In both Oblivion and Skyrim, I think the games have each given her about half a dozen murders that are not legit. Part of that, I'm sure, is her talent for illusion. If you change allegience of a foe via spell then kill them, is it murder? Part of it also is her penchant for sniping. If you nail a foe from so far away the game has not declared him hostile yet, is it a murder? Such is the life of a mystic archer. She almost never gets a bounty and doing so is an automatic reload for us. When she's a naughty girl, she insists on not getting caught. She also views a bounty as an indication of failure (not sneaky enough). Lol.

The clicking on stupid items like mugs or plates accidentally = have most def done that a billion times!