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Post by Sniffles on Mar 7, 2024 1:55:29 GMT
Hmmm, if I recall correctly you have to do a few bard appearances with Vilja before Wilbert aks you to bring Sindra along. Thanks. I've been avoiding doing that lobotomy shuffle.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 6, 2024 5:34:50 GMT
All quests for Vilja seem to have been completed. Tindra in residence. 20+ hours of other quests, Vilja in party for many hours but no further new dialogue from her. Parked Vilja at a home 20 hours. No effect. Used Vilja reset spell. No effect. Some radiant quests for Bards College are available - maybe more Vilja chants. But no mention of Sindra.
Suggestions?
Vilja has one quirk; repeating one of two lines. 'Tried so hard at spell casting...' or 'At the Solstheim mead houses we often.....'. Repeats endlessly.
I really could use a quest pointer to try and start the Sindra quest line.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 6, 2024 0:08:15 GMT
Andi, hold still a moment...
Global warming over Markarth. Hot air from Windhelm is spreading?
Pink sunrise!
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 5, 2024 1:47:12 GMT
Nods to Gary Gygax filling and sawing dice as he created D&D. Sad sad that D&D was stolen from him in an unfriendly corporate take over. Wonderful game maker, lousy at business strategy.
I briefly worked with a man who was a close friend of Gygax who was present creating those dice and gave me the low down on how D&D came about.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 4, 2024 23:39:27 GMT
I thought I recognized Tagore's influence in your last two posts! "The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence."
Tagore did not reflect and expound upon existentialism, but rather he gave insights in how to embrace it as an integral part our our lives.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 4, 2024 23:22:49 GMT
Onwards! Post her quest, I quickly discovered Rigmor was a simple tank with nearly all dialogue "HEY! WAIT UP!" and "YOU STEPPED ON MY TOE!", every minute or so, often interrupting crucial quest progressing dialogue. Time for a little reorganizing. Going back to Lakeside to swap out followers Anduniel from the crowd parked there instantly became the best. For reasons best known to herself she had shed all clothes and was spending most of her time cooking. In the buff, she has texture and seam problems. Additionally, her attire was inappropriate with children present. She is definitely several classes above the also naked wanton slut that sleeps in stables. And thirdly, she adds a compassionate thoughtful presence as a keynote.
Checking Andu's gear she had a hodge podge mess. Not about to undertake yet another careful smithing enchanting session, I took all Sop-fias and Riggsy's gear and dumped it on her as well. Then took her out for a stroll and a couple of encounters and started removing all the gear she had chose to not wear. HOLY CRAP.
Oh sweet sweet irony, be-ith thee as my guide this fraught rainy night. Roughly up to 2400+ armor depending on circumspices? Ms. calm and charming hath selected herself as the new tank of our little party.
A little further shuffling, the undead maiden of magic and mayhem is given the role of close support of Dragon girl.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 4, 2024 22:41:41 GMT
Renee G "You do the wrong thing, it gets baked into the save, yikes!" Amen to that. And as your game progresses, "I am the past come back to haunt you, David Lo Pan!"
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 4, 2024 22:33:12 GMT
Oblivion start in a nutshell. How to get going without a leveling mod. Escape prison, go swimming. Place the PC to swim against a rock where it's stable. Leave game to run for around 72 hours. When a stat is near 100 proceed to Bruma then return towards the lake overland, carefully jumping down slopes to take damage but not dying. Repeat the trip until another stat is near 100. In and around a city, sneak, avoid getting seen. Difficult at first but as the stat progresses it gets easier. Third stat nears 100.
Now make a special START save. Never restart from inside the prison but instead use this save with the leg up stats. Additionally, make a pre leveling save. Level up and check the aggregate of all leveling points. You should have 15. Open the console and distribute the points appropriately for your style of game play. Make note of extra points to be applied for your next leveling.
At this point, start game play to your personal preference. As you progress always make a pre leveling save, note the aggregate points, then use the console to distribute appropriately while keeping track of unspent points. Always be aware of if you are exceeding the 5 point cap. Level again before this happens or points will be lost.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 3, 2024 23:53:04 GMT
The blood of dragons within the dragonborn stirs. To ascend, going beyond self, or be found wanting.
I have a dilemma, a quandary my ancient friend, and you, by no means your intention, are the cause of it. It was your imprisonment, and seeing you freed of it, more than deserving of that freedom after you were so fouly duped, misled and abused, stripped of your life and freedom. It has come to pass, as one of your brethren has counseled me, that I must employ a vicious trap and ensnare a dova. All these machinations, working towards the intent of confronting and slaying another of your kind lest he wreak wanton destruction throughout Nirn. And so I turn to you as I have turned to your brethren Parthunax for sage counsel. Have I been irrevocably fated to undertake this deed? Is there any possible less bloodthirsty resolve, a truce, possible between men, mer and the dova? Have I any alternative course of action? Must all ultimately be decided by blood and death?
Perhaps the three, dragon and dragon blood, and possibly others, are destined to live out their days in silent contemplation atop the throat of the world. The middle path, so treacherous, fraught with peril upon all sides.
(Screenshot was as difficult to compose as the bleak prospects of the dragonborn. This post brought to you in part by alternating reading between Tagore and Sartre at 02:00 as I wait for an email response.)
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 3, 2024 22:23:17 GMT
Vagaries of life and unlife. As the cold stone about, time stands still for them in the long forgotten garden. An idyll out of time of a simple and tranquil nature. Perhaps a romantic interlude, but for both a time of reflection as they briefly shed their cares and give consideration as to what is of true value, what is fleeting and transient, with both, mighty, powerful, blood of the dragons and blood of the daedra, find themselves swept up as leaves upon the winds, at the mercy of the fates.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 3, 2024 21:51:35 GMT
@aatrnasyn I'm pretty sure there are several leveling mods considering how hated the game system is. Squishy's method worked for her because she's so detail oriented but drove me bats. Then looking at Skyrim's version, it's all about training. Keep training, it's a new level every day or two, stop training, you almost stop dead with the leveling. (At level 41 I switched to enchanting, smithing and speech training. Went up to level 51 in less than three weeks. Then, with the skills I had an interest in topped up I quit training. One month later I just barely am at level 53 and most of that was a chance encounter to learn restoration and one illusion session. Then the next iteration, Fallout 4. The developers knew their leveling sucks max and handed off leveling to quest completions. Same same. Run out of quests, leveling comes to a halt.
So IMHO, Squishy has the right idea and a mod that follows along those lines would be best, but extremely difficult. The mod needs to recognize individual players preferences and interests which borders on the absurd. Complex algorithms dead ahead. All the leveling mods I've read up on are WYSIWYG arbitrary in one way or another. For certain, a compulsive flower picking sightseer with a warped sense of humor is never going to be accommodated.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 3, 2024 7:11:26 GMT
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 3, 2024 2:35:36 GMT
That is quite comprehensive, Sniffles! See, back in the day there were folks who were into roleplay, but there were others who were also way into the numbers side of things. I'm more of a roleplayer, but that's one of the things I like about the older RPGs, they catered to both sides of the coin.
This, too. This is the sort of stuff which really makes each game & character unique.
The gal I am with now for instance: Joan of Arkay. She's got a huge backstory, since she began her tale in Morrowind, and now she is in Year 1 of the 4th Era (mods...) She's not especially quirky or odd, she is a Crusader, and probably my most conventional character I game with. But she does use Destruction spells alongside of Turn Undead & Restoration. Destruction is not supposed to be used by someone of her ilk, if we're talking of the old-skool DnD terms. But she learned Fire & Frost spells when she was a teen, and finds them useful for ranged targets!
Excellent example with Joan of Arkay. (For me) Incorporating her abilities into PC planned activities would always add 1 or more, (1+1) depending upon depth. Action -> reaction a 1, action -> further action, planned, thought ahead, (1+1+1) would get 2 - Intelligence plus creativity (a significant factor absent in the leveling system).
A serious nod to my partner Squishy for her take on the leveling. Meticulous detail is her forte.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 3, 2024 0:44:16 GMT
For what it is worth, my partner came up with a solution to the leveling system for the PC. It requires some introspection and being brutally honest with yourself. At every level up you take note of how much improvement overall you have. A number. Then level using the game leveling system. Then open the console and take into account what you have done in actual game play and opportunities where, time and place permitting, the PC would have undertaken training OR simply learned naturally from circumstances. Separate the game mechanics from the roleplay. Often similar to each other. Then in the console you adjust up and down the various stats giving the PC the sum total earned using simple logic. Rule: 5+5+5 or even more overall is always possible but not just three categories. The total of 15 is slightly flexible and spread over everything.
Strength and Endurance always increases. Factor in physical activity. Marathon activity favors endurance, close combat and exertion as climbing favors strength. Agility increases using the rule of how well damage has been avoided and negotiating difficult terrain.
Personality is increased in direct relation to social contact. Lots of Inns and engaging in dialogues. Intelligence is increased by magical use and academic studies reflected in alchemy. Always factor in fails as part of the learning lessons. Speed and Willpower are different, calculated last. They are fixed at 1 since they improve indirectly. Speed is adjusted upwards by Agility and Endurance, Willpower by Endurance and successful accomplishments. A sloppy barely survived dungeon crawl vs taking your time and being meticulous, getting and and out with minimum of fuss and mess even if it takes a lot longer time..
So yes, micro management and some soul searching is in order. A gameplay session set aside specifically to review what you have done and how well you did it.
For example, me, dedicated flower picker given to strolling and esthetics involving scaling near impossible terrain, my 5+5+5, 15 total, is usually dialed down to 8-12 due to my RP style. But my sessions, hours of play and save game reverts in defeating Umbra and getting that sword scored me 7+6+1. Endurance and willpower over the top, Intelligence as dumb as a doorknob plus a little bit for creativity. My intelligence always suffers as in my pursuit of ingredients I often accidentally stumble into fights. When I distracted and maneuvered Glarthir up to dive rock and pushed him off my stats got extremely skewed for that leveling, Intelligence 2 (malice aforethought), Personality -2 (natch), Agility 3 (survive the trek and avoid his dozens of attacks), Strength 1 (the trek, shoving him etc), Willpower and Endurance, 7 and 5. 16 total.
ALSO, use your weirdness! Your quirks and oddities the game never takes into account. For example. I worked out a methodology and ended up selling around 100 Black Bows. What I call a fudge factor. I think I gave myself 1 or 2 extra leveling points entirely outside the Oblivion box for the effort.
Factors I usually use tailored for my style of game play. Tanking fights 0. Strength might get a 1, intelligence a -1.
Sniping and tactical encounters - successful, Agility 1, Intelligence 1.
Potion cooking Intelligence 1or 2, Strength -1, Personality -1, selling potions Personality 1 Stupid moves as in falling off cliffs; dieing -2, surviving - Endurance and Agility 1/2 + 1/2.
Completing a quest the wrong way, outside the box, always gives a 1 for creativity. Lots of opportunities there in the DLCs
Crime always gives a -1, morality issues. Some DLCs always give -1 or -2 for engaging in general stupidity. Horse armor? (Psycho micromanagement esthetics for the foof inclined. Just paint your uncontrollable critter with camo). Vile Lair? Fighters Stronghold? (Augment what you already have!) The Orrery?? (Just what you always suspected, Oblivion the game - functions and crashes, are dictated by the phase of the moon.) Other DLCs like Shivering Isles afford a wonderful opportunity to do things wrong and somehow make them work.
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Post by Sniffles on Mar 2, 2024 5:52:56 GMT
Loooved the fifth and seventh shots from your collection above, Sniff! I'm working hard on perfecting screen grabs, casual, Serana and flowers, and staged, Rigs turning her head.
Beyond surrealism. I'm taking Serana through her mothers garden again, just following her around. Such extreme contrast, the subject stunningly beautiful, graceful, but perplexed. Childhood memories, dreams, visions, meeting a cold harsh reality in that decrepit Gormenghast-like surrounding. Enigmatic as in dark, obscure, almost inexplicable; a riddle; a statement, the hidden meaning of which is to be discovered or guessed. A magical mystical moment out of time as her wondrous form and newly discovered life is utterly antithetical to her surroundings. Sadly, the effect would be ruined by censorship. I freely admit to being given strongly to esthetics. A purgatory Leda and the swan was assigned to for centuries. “She had shown him by her independence how it was only fear that held people together. The fear of being alone and the fear of being different.”
Mervyn Peake meets Paul Rubens
In the above posting images, efforts at creating art. I strive to make a single word describe the subject. Rigmor - defiant, Serana uncompromising.
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