Today in Skyrim..., Epic battles, mudcrab sightings, anything but spoilers. What did your Options

[Acadian]

How fun to open up Jerric's retrogame! Heh, whenever I see Marcurio, I think of him as Darnand now. Kind of like with Kharjo - he's adorable but Buffy knows he belongs to Aravi.

[Renee]

I got out Jerric’s original Skyrim game on the PS3 today, with Marcurio in the role of Darnand. It was fun to see Jerric in his steel plate and Adept hood with a silver sword on his hip.

Cool, this sounds neat! Although I lost all my PS3 characters (original Claire Voyance, Crystal Beth, etc.) when my PS3 died, it would be cool to go back to Xbox. My Skyrim / Xbox games were more intense, oddly, than my gaming on PC. And more intense means more imm--, well you know. Immersive (there I said it).




This post has been edited by Renee: May 21 2016, 11:16 PM

[ghastley]

I started another Orc to build the Stronghold again, just because I hadn't for a while, and with the intention of doing that and nothing further. It turned out that she has an attitude to go with her purple mohawk. She's just defeated Miraak, and has reached 100 in both one-handed and smithing (because she wanted dual Dragonbone maces). Hopefully she's satisfied now, and I can get back to the mods I'm working on.

She'll probably demand to be the character that tests out the new dungeon for the Wise Woman, once it get it cluttered and nav-meshed.

[SubRosa]

Step 1 - Get mohawk
Step 2 - Dye purple
Step 3 - Profit!

[Acadian]

An orc with a purple mohawk and an attitude? Isn't that redundant?

[Grits]

Acadian, Kharjo is Aravi’s in my world too, there’s no other way for me to see him!

Renee, I know what you mean. I think it’s having to use my imagination to fill in or ignore (glitches) so much that makes the console characters’ games so imm.. immer... yeah, for me too.

ghastley, I shall now comb the whole site for pictures of your purple Mohawk orc lady. Wise Woman dungeon, that sounds great!!

[ghastley]

Unfortunately, I didn't get any work done on the dungeon for the Wise Woman, because I installed the UUNP setup instead.

It all started because I wanted gravity to affect the women, and there was no slider to do that, without the whole bodyslide complex to adjust everything, so I took the plunge, and installed the extended skeleton and all the rest. I already had Ethereal Elven Overhaul to swap in when I wanted a change of faces, and a few home-grown ones for the humans.

So I built half-a-dozen new characters to play with body shapes, faces, etc. An extremely leggy Altmer, a petite Bosmer, a very angular Dunmer, and an overweight, saggy, Imperial. There's also another Orc, and a Khajiit in there, that are less modified from the standard, although the Orc does have female animations, instead of "opposite gender".

I'm also trying out some combat choices I don't usually run, such as an Illusionist, who uses Frenzy spells backed up with a bound weapon for the last one standing. I started the Imperial as an unarmed, fists-only character, but ran out of viability very quickly. You probably need a Khajiit, or mod assistance, for that. There is an enchantment to enhance unarmed, but it's on a single item in the whole game, the "Gloves of the Pugilist". Those, curiously, don't count for the armour perk that improves unarmed damage.

UUNP needs a new wardrobe of garments that also react to the sliders. I may get distracted further.

This post has been edited by ghastley: May 31 2016, 05:05 PM

[Acadian]

ghastley - perky, saggy, scrawny, overweight. . . too many choices! Happily, I only need one setting for my twiggy elf.

*

As you know, Buffy, Acadian, Superian and Kitsune are almost constantly traveling the roads and trails of Skyrim. Along one of the roads leading to Falkreath, they came upon an interesting encounter today. It seems three random road spawns all spawned in the same spot. The first was a Thalmor patrol excorting a prisoner. The second was a normal Legion patrol. The third was a noble on his horse with Legion soldier bodyguard.

It seems since all three groups spawned on the same spot, they didn’t quite know what to do. Everyone was just quietly looking at each other as Buffy and Superian rode up. I knew we had a recent save in case something went weird/wrong and turned Buffy loose to handle things however she wanted.

Not surprisingly, she rode up to the Thalmor leader and chirped “So, what’s wrong with worshipping Talos anyway?”

“Blah, blah, blah and only a heretic would thing otherwise,” smugly replied the lofty Altmer. “And so you shall die a heretic’s death!”

Well, the fight was on. And it was a pretty wild one. Only the Thalmor went hostile on Buffy. Kitsune did a fine job of distracting which allowed Buffy and Superian to maneuver and deliver arrows from the saddle. At one point she cursed the noble on his horse as they scurried past for blocking a good shot on the Thalmor leader.

When it was over, only the three Thalmor were dead. It seems the prisoner successfully melted into the Falkreath forest - good for him. No sign of the Legion patrol or noble.

Buffy continued on her way. Not too much later, she caught up to the noble doing battle with a cave bear. By the time Buffy got close enough to influence things, the noble, horse and soldier bodyguard were dead and, as the wounded bear turned on Buffy, she killed it.

"Acadian, the sun's getting low now. There's a nice little campsite just up ahead."

"Buffy, doesn't that site normally host three bandits?"

The elf kept her bow summoned and across her lap as she rode. "Oh, I'm sure they won't mind sharing."

[SubRosa]

And from this month's picture, it looks like the Falmer don't mind sharing either!

[mALX]

And from this month's picture, it looks like the Falmer don't mind sharing either!

The Falmer were sharing a little too much info on themselves, me thinks!

[ghastley]

Well, I tried dialling down the Argonian to flat, and it was ... weird. She didn't have any, but they still jiggled. Since the skeleton to enable the extra sliders adds the motion, you can't have it any other way.

The person of restricted growth (0.8 height, mostly subtracted from the legs) looks much more normal. Munchkin (temporary name) is also trying out unarmed, which I found to be non-viable in vanilla, but I added the Unarmed Helper mod to give me extra options. It was still very difficult to get a non-beast race past the initial stage of reaching the Fist of Steel perk, but sparring with a mudcrab, with a lot of healing, managed it at last. Now she's just punched out Gunzul, and I'm finding a whole lot of kill-moves I've never seen before. They're in the vanilla game, but since most players only brawl unarmed, don't get seen.

I can't post any screenshots until I put together an outfit that follows the dials. Right now she only wears boots and gauntlets, because anything else changes her shape drastically!

[mALX]

Well, I tried dialling down the Argonian to flat, and it was ... weird. She didn't have any, but they still jiggled. Since the skeleton to enable the extra sliders adds the motion, you can't have it any other way.

The person of restricted growth (0.8 height, mostly subtracted from the legs) looks much more normal. Munchkin (temporary name) is also trying out unarmed, which I found to be non-viable in vanilla, but I added the Unarmed Helper mod to give me extra options. It was still very difficult to get a non-beast race past the initial stage of reaching the Fist of Steel perk, but sparring with a mudcrab, with a lot of healing, managed it at last. Now she's just punched out Gunzul, and I'm finding a whole lot of kill-moves I've never seen before. They're in the vanilla game, but since most players only brawl unarmed, don't get seen.

I can't post any screenshots until I put together an outfit that follows the dials. Right now she only wears boots and gauntlets, because anything else changes her shape drastically!

I played a game of Fallout 3 using only fists and Pushy (plus some great unarmed perks) - hard, but fun.

That adorable child follower Ramy in Oblivion had that issue, the clothes gave her a huge bustline,

[Renee]

That is pretty wild you & Buffy can do archery from horseback. I love moments like that, when everything goes to [censored] within moments!

[Acadian]

Vanilla mounted archery can be very frustrating. With a helper to serve as a distraction on the ground (Buffy's fox familiar), some extra speed on the horse and literally thousands of arrows downrange, Buffy's gotten really good with it. It will never be quite as accurate as on foot, but the height, speed and maneuverability help compensate for that.

It does have some challenges to get used to when archer and target are on differing elevations regarding aiming higher or lower than intuitive. Another challenge is that you can only shoot about 30 degrees above the horizon, making killing a dragon with a bow from the saddle one of our biggest challenges - much harder than on foot but Buffy's done it several times.

[Andrea]

Hello all! Well it's been a while since I've been here... but with the announcement of the Skyrim special addition it rekindled my love for Skyrim as i eagerly anticipate the game!

I'm currently exploring the story of a new 'Andrea'. She is a 22 year old Nord who, currently is only skilled with bows and daggers. She prefers fighting from the shadows, but will happily use her trusty dagger to fight up close if necessary.

Her story started with her being a hunter in the wild (i used the live another life mod with a random choice, which had her start like this. I deem it as her fate and am rolling with it.)

She lives in the wild because her family were killed by a pack of vampires. She blames herself for not being able to protect her family, so as some kind of subconscious punishment she now lives a life away from people, although she happily goes to towns and settlements to sell good she finds.

She spends most of her days dungeon diving, hoping to find vampires to kill.

She recently heard rumors about the Dawnguard, and with them being dedicated to eliminating the vampire threat she is on a journey to check them out.

I'm not sure how often I'll post, but with Skyrim slowly becoming my addiction again I'm pretty sure you'll hear from me quite a bit!

[SubRosa]

Hi Andrea! I was just reading the news about the Skyrim Special Edition. At first I thought it was just going to be for the consoles, but apparently it is for the PC as well. And it will be free to all people who have already bought the game on Steam with all of its dlcs.

Have you done the Dawnguard questline before? I bring it up because my first time trying it out was with Revansch, an undead character who was tortured and killed by vampires on her honeymoon. Then she came back from the dead for revenge. Yes, I totally stole the idea from The Crow. Anyway, the DG questline completely derailed my hard-core vampire slayer. I just could not do it, because you have to be nice to and team up with a vampire right from the start, and are given no reason to do so other than the goodness in your heart (later you find that the vampire is important to events, but at the time you meet her, you know nothing about her).

On the other hand it worked great for my other undead character Persephone. She did not have any bones to pick with vampires, so becoming best buds with one was not difficult at all. In fact, Persephone could relate to another immortal much better than anyone else.


Edit; I just saw a vid with Bethesda's E3 announcements. The Skyrim Special Edition is at the back. I hate to say that I am massively underwhelmed. I thought the game looked far better on the old systems. The new version looks like it is covered in a bright haze that washes out all the individual colors, and the clarity of the image. But maybe that is just the sunrises and sunsets, and not how it looks all the time.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 17 2016, 01:30 AM

[Renee]

Andrea: Welcome back!

Acadian: Yeah, I bet mounted archery takes some skill! It's must be amazing once you get it right though.

SubRosa: Yes, Dawnguard certainly does fit well with some characters better than others for sure. I could see Persephone getting involved.

[Acadian]

Hi Andrea! As Renee said, great to have you back! I'm delighted that you're enjoying Skyrim. Buffy moved there in early 2014 and likes it so much she's still there with no interest in moving on yet.

[Andrea]

Thank you guys! I'm glad to be back I originally left because I had discovered I was pregnant, so obviously that took priority, but now my baby (well, not so much anymore!) is old enough for me to allow her into day care for a few hours a day i get a lot more down time. It wont be long until pre-school so that'll mean even more time!

BUT anough about my personal life

Andrea, Andrea, Andrea... well i'm going to change her name for a start. I'm just waiting for the right moment for her to tell me where it is! I'm also slowly reworking her face. I know she is beautiful, but I'm finding a way to add some character to her face to give her a less 'generic' beauty. I'm thinking a scar or something.

She started her game in a camp not far from Helgen, and she decided to head to Riverwood to sell some goods she had accumulated. On the way, however, she discovered the Embershard mine, so ever the curious cat she decided to explore. Which she did.

There were a few bandits in the mine, but nothing a talented marksman like her couldn't handle. She found a few gems and trinkets which she could sell, but other than that she was pretty disappointed with the lack of stuff. however she did discover that the exit of the mine led right out to Riverwood, which meant she didn't have to backtrack through the cave.

Once she was in Riverwood she went to the trader and sold all the gems and trinkets she had, which led to her getting 400 gold, which she was happy about. She was saving for a horse, and at 900 gold she was almost there!

She spent the night at the inn and is now traveling to Whiterun.

[Acadian]

Congrats on your little girl!

Wonderful to see Andrea adventuring in Skyrim! I hope she grabbed the one spellbook in Embershard and enjoyed her night at the Sleeping Giant.

Andrea just happens to be about a day behind Buffy who also cleared Embershard, spent the night in Riverwood and continued the next morning to Whiterun. On the way to Whiterun, she got jumped by three of those pesky cultists in funny masks who keep calling her a false dragonborn. Clearly they have her confused with someone else. She then cleared White River Watch on a bounty quest before collecting the bounty up in Dragon Reach. After exchanging some College correspondence and supplies with the court’s mage, Buffy did some shopping and reprovisioning among the wonderful shoppes of Whiterun.

She then rode north, clearing both the small smuggler camp along Whitrun’s eastern walls and those horrible mammoth poachers (she loves mammoths) from their palisaded encampment and mine as well.

She’s just entering Volunruud now. . . .