Where Are You Today? Options

[ghastley]

In theory, a flat is an apartment on a single floor, so a subset of apartments. I have lived in an apartment on two floors of a narrow building, which I would not call a flat. Basements (garden flat if it has access to rear) and garrets (a.k.a lofts) which are just under the roof, are also eligible to be called flats (or apartments). The Mansard roof in French architecture is good for garrets.

You could argue that a garret becomes a loft if it has skylights, rather than just vertical windows. Or if the starving artist living there is a painter, rather than a poet, or author.

[mirocu]

Sadly, Buffy's old apartment now had a new occupant so she was not there.

Where is her apartment? Wait, is it the Abandoned Shack (which is not really abandoned?)

It's in the Arcane University.

Interesting that you use the word apartment. I thought people in Europe always used the word "flat" instead.

Well, I'm an Americanized Scandinavian, so...

[Acadian]

In Oblivion, Buffy had an apartment that she shared with Boderi Farano. It was a mod made by King Coin just for Buffy and the room itself was upstairs in the Mystic Archives.

[ghastley]

I assume the apartment was a rebuild of the existing upper floor, not an extra floor?

I've always thought it odd that the Mages' Quarters was the only one with a basement level. I added one to the Practise Rooms for my mod, but that still leaves four more opportunities for extra space. Each unit has basically the same layout, so the same interior would work for any of them.

[Renee]

Cripes. Well I had no idea there were such definite definitions for flat, apartment, and various variations of the ilk. All I know is in America, very generally, an apartment is a subdivision of a bigger building which is rented, while a condominium (condo) is either leased, or bought outright.

Well, this being the Oblivion "where are you today?" section, I think I'd better post a character update. Unfortunately, it's been several days since I've played the game so (gulp) I have no specific idea where Joan of Arkay is. Renee Gade III is somewhere near Kvatch though. Lady Saga? I haven't gamed with her for months, so your guess is as good as mine.



This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 23 2018, 11:24 PM

[mirocu]

Well, this being the Oblivion "where are you today?" section, I think I'd better post a character update. Unfortunately, it's been several days since I've played the game so (gulp) I have no specific idea where Joan of Arkay is. Renee Gade III is somewhere near Kvatch though. Lady Saga? I haven't gamed with her for months, so your guess is as good as mine.

Well then, I can say that Lothran is on his way to Cropsford, having had some fun along the way

[Renee]

Turdas, late morning Morning Star 9, 4th Era Year 421

Level: 22

Days Passed: 501

Cold, rainy day. Renee Gade III arrives to Shetcombe Farm, where two of her followers have waited over the past few days.

She managed to recruit two extra followers down in Anvil, so now she's got five followers in total. Two males, three females. One male is a Redguard, the other one is a Bosmer knight. These two guys join alongside RG3's usual Nord warrior, Dunmer archer, and "ghost companion' spellsword. Hopefully, everyone will fight the vampires of Fort Hastrel, and conquer the place without too much infighting. With all these different personalities, it's a given there will be some agro going on between them. RG3 has spent weeks gathering up this assemblage; quantity over quality basically. Once the deal at Hastrel is over, the two males will be dismissed.

It's still rainy when everybody gets to Hastrel. Not good, since it's best to lure vampires out of their lairs on sunny days, but it's going to take about a day to get into the heart of Hastrel (where that conglomerate of vamps are hidden) anyway. Hopefully they'll make it that far. For now though, everybody builds camp, while RG3 begins luring out those stray undead who populate the upper portions of Hastrel.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 29 2018, 04:48 AM

[mirocu]

Lothran has not visited Hastrel in a long time, but he did just visit Belda, the large ruin in the Heartlands sort of on the way to Cheydinhal. Or to the Imperial City I guess, depending on where you're coming from.

Strange thing, as visible and central as it is, Lothran has never been inside before. It's never been the right time. But now we had some time after having visited Morcant and also it was raining so the circumstances were perfect

[monkeyemoness]

What sort of money does Elise have, that she can afford a place like Rosethorn? RG3 has a few thousand in the bank, but she herself is perpetually fluctuating in cash. One day she might have over a thousand, the next, she'll be practically broke, especially after getting everybody's gear repaired / recharged.

Oh, Elise tends to see large amounts of money come and go, as well. Since she's a mage that's constantly improving and seeing stronger and stronger enemies, she needs to keep her spellbook updated. Lately she's reached a point where it isn't that big of a priority, so she's had quite a few drakes to spare.

As to where she gets it from, she's become one hell of a grave robber. Or whatever purpose Ayleid ruins serve.

Which brings me to her recent adventures. I haven't played much so she's just started getting through Nibenay in search of ruins. Her first stop so far has been Welke, just on banks of the Panther River. For the first time in a while she was put to work in clearing out the inhabitants, and had to actually flee the ruin on more than one occasion.

Some particularly nasty Skeletons had taken up residence, and the worst ones had a habit of summoning an army of Liches. Not a problem for her, since she can just absorb their spells, but they kept her twin Dremora busy and banished them before they could properly deal with the Skeleton boss itself. Thankfully, Skeletons can't climb or jump. It took nearly three days but she cleared the entire ruin of undead and left with a few valuable trinkets to show for it, even a strange statue.

In some ways, she envies Renee Glade III and her posse. But she's too proud to ask for help from the wandering adventurers.

This post has been edited by monkeyemoness: Apr 30 2018, 07:56 PM

[Renee]

mirocu: one of these days ours are going to cross paths. We'll be in the same place at the same time, I just know it.

In some ways, she envies Renee Glade III and her posse. But she's too proud to ask for help from the wandering adventurers.

That's the thing about RG3 though--she's well-suited to fighting with a group, but her main drawback is if she decides to go on her own. Then, she's the one who might wind up fleeing, especially if she meets up against more than two at a time. So she's much better with her group. It's like a pack of dogs, coordinating spontaneously to take down enemies as they constantly move about! Some of my others prefer to go at it alone though, so being with RG3 is a rather unique experience.

That sounds downright scary, Elisa going up against all those daedra and high-leveled skeletons, and other advanced undead! What level is she? Are you using anything like Realistic Leveling or FCOM? Stuff which influences how leveling / loot / monsters show up and operate?

[mirocu]

mirocu: one of these days ours are going to cross paths. We'll be in the same place at the same time, I just know it.

Well, then. Ms Gade the Third and her posse better head down to Bravil; Lothran just entered the joint and is currently sitting in his little abode

[monkeyemoness]

That sounds downright scary, Elisa going up against all those daedra and high-leveled skeletons, and other advanced undead! What level is she? Are you using anything like Realistic Leveling or FCOM? Stuff which influences how leveling / loot / monsters show up and operate?

So RG 3 is like Elise in some ways, only without Dremora bodyguards and a boomstick. Elise's speed is pretty high from running all the time, too.

I'm running Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul. Everything's supposed to be leveled, but I'm pretty sure I've enabled the thing where dungeons that are farther away from civilization have higher-leveled enemies and the Nibenay Basin is as far from civilization as you'll get. But that just means the rewards are better, too. She's a glass cannon, so only melee monsters like the Skeletons are a real threat. In spite of how successful she's been and as fun as a full magic build is, I sort of want to play a sturdier character soon. :T

==

Anyways, Dungeon Hopping led Elise to Wendelbek, which was much easier to deal with after the previous ruin. Full of nothing but necromancers, even the strongest enemies couldn't do much against her. She arrived in time to see the Necromancer's Moon in action, and got two more Black Soul Gems for her morbid little collection. She didn't think to used them until a little later when she was attacked by a very familiar escaped convict. She might enchant a pair of shoes later on that she may or may not lose somewhere.

From there she's found herself on more Daedric adventures. First was doing a favor for Peryite, and now she's decided to follow the lead she picked up on Mehrunes' Razor, since she's in the neighborhood.

[Renee]

Morndas, 10:26 am, Sun's Dawn 11, 3rd Era 435

Level: 8

Finally, the Imperial Orrery is done in Joan of Arkay's game. What exactly is this place supposed to be? I really don't know, but we are pretty psyched about the place. WHOA wow wow wow!!!

But what in Oblivion is this place for? I don't get it.

Oh okay. We can receive a new Greater Power due to phases of the moon. Something like that. Let's try this. Ha! Joan got a power called Masser's Might, which fortifies ST by 20 for 60 seconds, but also drain 20 points of Speed. Weird. What a weird GP. Not really something Joan would ever use, but who knows?

This post has been edited by Renee: May 11 2018, 01:29 AM

[mirocu]

Morndas, 10:26 am, Sun's Dawn 11, 3rd Era 435

Level: 8

Finally, the Imperial Orrery is done in Joan of Arkay's game. What exactly is this place supposed to be? I really don't know, but we are pretty psyched about the place. WHOA wow wow wow!!!

But what in Oblivion is this place for? I don't get it.

Oh okay. We can receive a new Greater Power due to phases of the moon. Something like that. Let's try this. Ha! Joan got a power called Masser's Might, which fortifies ST by 20 for 60 seconds, but also drain 20 points of Speed. Weird. What a weird GP. Not really something Joan would ever use, but who knows?

I think Joan can have fun playing around with that thing, trying out different Powers


And I see someone is utilizing Renee's Compass Removal Mod™

[monkeyemoness]

Elise's settled into Rosethorn Hall, finally. With an automated ingredient storage and just a place to warp back to for unloading treasures in general, adventuring will be less of a bother. 'Course, she had to barter virtually every treasure she had to fully furnish the place, but at least she had plenty left over for taxes. And a Nord maid.

Now it's time to see about these Ayleid statues she picked up in the Nibenay Basin.

[Renee]

That sounds neat, monkey!

Well it is Fredas, Morningstar 17, 4th Era Year 22 in Renee Gade III's game. She is headed back to the Imperial City to catch her next assignment from the Order of Virtuous Blood, which has quests added by a mod. There's so many of these vampire quests though; I wonder if she'll ever be done with them?

[monkeyemoness]

Elise's now-sponsored statue-hunting led her to Malada to retrieve a special carving from the ruin. Long story short, someone tried to take the carving from her as she left and, while he got away, he won't see his associates ever again. She plans to do terrible things to him if she ever sees him again.

In the meantime, I decided to gut my Oblivion install to remove Integration: the Stranded Light because I honestly lost interest in it again. Elise's save might fall apart later, but eh, I'm used to it.

I did this so I could start a new warrior character to contrast her playstyle. I almost made Guadalupe, but she makes use of Restoration and Mysticism and I wanted to try something without magic.

(Playing Oblivion and blowing so much gold on spells reminded me why I decided to make each character focus on a single school in Skyrim instead of having a pure wizard, although I guess I do technically have a character like that. Ironically, Skyrim has a less impressive selection of magic lol.)

So I rerolled Gavin from earlier and made him a pure warrior with heavy armor. He's still too low level to really tank too many hits, and since he doesn't have access to magical healing, taking too much damage is something to be avoided. It's taking him quite some time to clear out Vilverin, but I like playing with something different.

This post has been edited by monkeyemoness: May 17 2018, 03:31 AM

[Renee]

Welcome Gavin, have a Fishy Stick! I don't understand though, why do you have to "gut" Integration? Can't you just turn it off while you roll Gavin?

I'm also about to switch characters. I'm getting back with Lady Saga again, my Bosmer archer gal who specializes in Conjuration and Mysticism. Whenever I switch from one PC character to another, I have a list of mods I turn on and off, or disable altogether. I keep these mods around though, since various character saves depend on them.

[ghastley]

I don't understand though, why do you have to "gut" Integration? Can't you just turn it off while you roll Gavin?

In general, you can turn off the esp for a mod, but you can't easily undo the mesh/texture replacements it makes. A good mod, and I hope mine fit the description, doesn't replace, but adds new ones, even if they're clones. Wrye Bash helps undo the installation of a mod, but that only works if you used it to start with.

If you really want problems, then replace a mesh that has animation events that interact with a script in the base game. E.g. a drawbridge that triggers a quest stage when it's lowered.

I don't know what Integration got up to, but the more sophisticated the mod, the more nasty tentacles it has.

[Renee]

I don't know what Integration got up to, but the more sophisticated the mod, the more nasty tentacles it has.

Sure, I understand. I was just asking because monkey sounds like Integration is going to get removed, and then that's it for that character. monkey mentioned Elise's save "might fall apart," as though this is going to be the end of Elise. Maybe I'm reading that wrong, but monkey made it sound like after Integration gets removed, there goes her save too. It'll fall apart and won't get salvaged.

Or am I just reading that wrong?