Thanks I will check them out. :up:

I don't have Winrar... if you're talking about decompression programs, I use 7zip or whatever it's called. JAR isn't even listed as a file extension in the 7zip options, checked or unchecked.

Anyway... I can use command prompt if I want to tweak any settings, but you know the funny thing, after all that... I went in and played several hours today with the RL mod enabled but no custom tweaks and so far it's been fine. Even went through a dungeon and it wasn't as bad as I expected, especially with Argis carrying a torch which he seems to do automatically if he has one. Some interiors are still a little dark but not as bad as what I remembered seeing before. So I'm going to leave it the way it is unless I see something that really bothers me.

Just saved in Whiterun on my way to Dragonsreach to summon Ohdahviing, thought I would finish up some business for the College of Winterhold while the Jarl got everything set up. Expected it to be a quick "retrieve an item and bring it back" but of course the item ended up being in a ginormous cave complex which was part Dwemer ruin and so, naturally, infested with Falmer. To be fair I could've gotten the item and turned around and headed back out but I figure I may never go back there with this character so why not clear it the heck out.

Anyway, finished that quest and now I can summon the shade of Arniel Gane altho I'm not sure what he does besides moan and groan. :O: Got my inventory pared down to the bare necessities (I hope) for the trip to Skuldafn and Sovngarde... trying to walk the line between not having enough room to completely loot everything I can on the trip, and not having enough good gear with me to make it back alive. :haha:

I got a new Daedric bow and went with a mace and shield combo for up-close encounters. Never used a mace before but it looked like it would do a little more damage than any other 1H weapon on its own. Both enchanted to absorb health and magicka. Got a buttload of potions and filled greater soul gems for recharging weapons as needed. Got Sanguine Rose to summon some major assistance, and since I'll be on my own and won't have to worry about AoE stuff taking out followers, I got my three "wall of..." staves on hand. Plus the Staff of Magnus because it ought to be good for something besides closing weird magical outbreaks in the middle of nowhere.

Now - off to take a shower and grab some dinner and then I gotta see a Jarl about a dragon. :D

^ Ok my bad I thought you couldn't get the mod installed, you want to tweak it instead. All righty.


I'm glad I install this mod it gives cave crawling a whole new meaning, I no longer take along companions just trying out different gameplay so far its been good going alone till I came across this Dragon Cult quest. My mission is to go and kill this bandit leader at Helm Hollow (side quest) I meet this camper along the way who asks me to fetch a mask (Siege on the Dragon Cult quest) in a cave nearby and not far from the side quest i am suppose to do so I thought why not shouldn't take long. Yeah right.

This Dragon cult quest would have to be the hardest quest Ive done alone in the game so far, Nimrod is at lvl 35 with Orcish armor 94, 2h glass greatsword & 2h Rueful Axe, Shield of Yssramar with iron battleaxe, no magic apart from a low heal ability not the best armor so its more smash my way through with the odd health pots to help and Ive never really had any trouble playing this way till now. Damn those Draugr Scrourge warlords or lords whatever they're called in groups of 3 or more and not much space to attack I have died often & with the realistic lighting mod every shadow is suspect. Well Im not to far from the mask going by the map, have died 3 times in the last 1hr :haha: gotten lost & gone round in circles nearly twice!

yea, nothing like being a two handed character with the lighting mod and not being able to use a torch at the same time as your weapon!

HOW I DIED COMPLETING THE MAIN QUEST

Forcing Odahviing to land and get caught in the trap?

No, although a few of the guards were not so lucky. Parts of at least one are probably still falling into that giant camp west of the city.

Working my way up to Skuldafn Temple, fighting off two dragons and Draugr DeathMasterWarOverLords in groups of three and getting shouted onto my dainty arse more times than I can count?

No, although I'm probably gonna need to forge a special Daedric Buttpillow when I get home.

Fighting the last interior boss for the Claw that was the key to the Word Wall chamber and passage to the door to the steps to the portal?

Oh, hell no. Even though Boss Draugr aren't Boss Draugr any more, I leveled up too far and now they're creepy flying Dragon Priests. Creepy flying Dragon Priests who can't eat more than two ebony arrows without disintegrating, but still.

Singlehandedly slaying not one but two dragons who were very displeased with me because I killed their boss priest and took his widdle staffy waffy?

HAH! I laugh at dragons. Even the displeased ones.

Proving to Tsun that I was worthy to enter the Hall of Valor?

Nope. Tweren't that either. Tsun was a piece of cake. Or sweetroll, if you will. A big, beefy, hunk of shirtless Nord sweetroll. With some of the clunkiest dialogue I've yet heard in Skyrim or related Aetherial realms associated thereunto. So to speak. If I didn't know better, I'd swear they brought George Lucas in to write his speeches.

But wait, fair maiden, I can hear you saying. How *did* you die completing the Main Quest? Surely if you passed all these other trivial tests unscathed, it must have been Alduin the World Eater himself who laid you low.

That's what *you* think, bub. Alduin is just an overgrown, over-hyped, flying iguana with delusions of grandeur. Me and them Sovngarde heroes of old, we took him out no problem.

No, my friends, let me tell you how *this* Dragonborn died completing the Main Quest. *This* Dragonborn lost her footing running across the dragon-bone bridge in Sovngarde, and fell to her death on the rocks below.

Yes, the final score on the first playthrough was...

Dovahkiin: 0
Slippery Skeletal Walkway: 1


:rotfl2:


But thanks to the modern miracle of Autosave and reload, round two went a little more smoothly. Alduin is now, in the words of the Dragonborn, as dead as I can make him.

Also: Sovngarde is awesome, seeing all the Dov with Paarthurnax at the TotW after is even more awesome. I almost cried.

So, to sum up... trapped a dragon, established my dominance so he would fly me to an otherwise inaccessible portal to the next world, defeated the many fearsome guardians of said portal, went to the next world, killed the Big Bad, saved this world, returned from the next world, and was duly acknowledged by those of my Dovahpeeps who are now on the friendly - or at least the "will not eat me on sight" - side of the line. And I *still* had some stupid bandit in piddly fur armor run up and threaten me with a sad little iron mace before I got halfway back to Whiterun. :haha:

That was cool. :yep:

Then I couldn't resist the temptation anymore and punched one in the face,
which aggroed them all and ironically I was eaten by Odahviing. :88)

:rotfl2:

@ Frau- I knew it!! Almost happened to me and then I was like "Crap if I die from falling I'll quit this character and restart"

The first time I went to Sovngarde I was a poorly constructed character that apparently could be two shotted by Tsun (Lvl 35 IIRC). So I found a rock and rained my crappy little arrows on him.

Then I had to walk across the bridge, Whoever in sovngarde decided "lets make the bridge to Shors hall out of a uneven whale skeleton!" needs to take a arrow to the knee...

:har:

I actually spent more than a few seconds looking around for the entrance before I realized I had to go *across* the skeleton to get there. And I was like ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I think I walked across the first time and that was fine but coming back out to face Alduin I was trying to keep pace with the three heroes so: running.

And then there's that horrible thing that seems to happen in slo-mo where you suddenly realize you've lost your footing and are slipping downwards and it's W SPACE W SPACE TURN SPACE SPACE W W CMON SPACE W OH FOR THE LOVE OF... and still I'm thinking, well, fine, I'll be down by the little brook that runs through here and I'll just have to run around and climb back up to the other side of the gate and WAIT WHAT'S HAPPENING WHY IS IT SHOWING ME... oh crap. :damn:

Plus I'm pretty sure Kodlak saw the whole thing, by the time I get back to Whiterun he will probably have appeared to the Companions in spirit form to advise them on some, er, course corrections. "Oooookay turns out I might've jumped the gun on that whole 'next Harbinger' thing..."

Mage is once again over powered, even without spell crafting.

It is a touch harder than a sneak or warrior build, but once properly perked and armored with enchantments, you are invincible.

I am playing a no weapon mage. I dual cast everything.
And without using dual casting impact perk.

Even then I still outclass.

So I ask, is it a product of my own understanding of the game (skill), or the re-occurance of the "over-powered magic" from previous games.

I mean it is too simple, fus ro da... Then dual cast a fireball/lighting bolt until dead.

Not saying it isn't fun.:DL Just OP once you get past your level infancy.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/...eenShot4-1.jpg
Hope this glitch gets sorted thought I was seeing things:06:

Mages have been traditionally overpowered in TES, which is why I don't like playing them. In terms of crafting, I limit myself to one discipline. If I am a warrior, I smith. I don't enchant, I don't use potions. Keeps things from getting out of hand.

Reminds me of when I found the khajiit traders in what I can only assume is Khajiit convoy formation!
http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/...2-22_00001.jpg

Just think of Skyrim as a land where conjoined twins are relatively commonplace. :O:

Well I think I'm gonna wrap up my current character... almost to level 63, have completed the main quest, big bosses are really not much of a challenge any more. Can't see my current PC joining up with the thieves or assassins. Don't want to visit *every* location on the map, at this point I'm actually avoiding previously undiscovered places just to save something for future playthroughs.

Altho I do have three treasure maps on hand and one quest item I found but still need to be given the quest by the proper NPC... pretty sure finishing it will involve killing another dragon, and that might be a chance to call Odahviing and see what that's like. I also was dumb enough to pick a Crimson Nirnroot in Blackreach so that quest got started and it might be worth going back there to finish it off. Also I've never pickpocketed the heart out of a Forsworn Briarheart which I think would be hilarious. Got close once but he turned around just at the last second. But I'd probably have to go back to Markarth and start accepting bounties from the steward just to find another Briarheart to pickpocket... maybe I'll save that for when I'm playing out the Thieves Guild questline. :hmmm:

Sad that I can't summon Odahviing into Blackreach to help with the dragon there, that would kill two birds with one stone.

I dunno. Will probably finish off the one quest just to get the item out of my inventory. Then maybe I'll sell off all my raw materials and unused unenchanted apparel, see how much money I end up with, and retire to a life of leisure. :O:

Also been searching around hoping to find some mods that fix a couple annoyances in the game. If anybody's found any fixes for tempered Blades swords, Orcish swords, and some of the unique staves (one of the Hagraven ones is a problem, can't remember which... Eye of Melka or Hag's Wrath, one of the two) regarding the way they display (or refuse to stay) on weapons racks, please point me in that direction. Also noticed that equipped necklaces don't show on my PC if I'm wearing clothes where the necklace should be visible, i.e. blacksmith's apron. Minor things but I would love to see them fixed for future playthroughs.

Too bad after the main storyline you cant take over any of the holds though force. Since I can pretty much murder all the guards at any time i want.

And why wouldn't a high level mage be OP? Its a freaking mage... and a high level one should be able to burn you down, control your mind, summon an undead army, tear your body to pieces particle by particle.

There should never be a point that a mage should be outmatched. They are the very conduit of magikca the world bends to the will of a mage and that is supposed to be OP.

Besides the game renders one thing perfectly an assassin can take a mage out. Which is the way I would imagine a mage dying other then a mage duel. Lets face it your not going to send the strongest warrior in the world to confront a powerful mage, chances are he won't even be able to draw his sword. An assassin though would kill a mage before he could even react.

I wouldn't mind Mages being OP, if that would also apply to NPC mages, which it
doesn't. No problems slicing and dicing them on master difficulty with my dual
wielding character. :hmmm:

Thats also an AI issue... they have the same 'power' as the PC, they just don't use it or do it stupidly...

Ie: A necromancer will raise up a dead minion and then proceed to blast you and his minion with a fireball explosion that kills his own minion. Duh. Then the AI loves to cast a flesh spell then hide behind a ward until it runs out of magicka and dies. The reason the PC seems OP is because we don't waste huge portions of our energy supporting Wards when we could turn them into offensive mayhem. Also the ai can't control your mind... which is a major power of any mage... I can turn a whole city against itself and nobody will touch me.

+edit: Besides I'm not sure alot of people would be cool if at random they lost control and started beating their companion to death in a magic induced rage while an NPC mage cackles evily in the corner.

I just want to say, I hate anime. I hate the artistic style of anime, I hate the hair styles of anime, i hate the names of anime, i hate the clothes of anime, i hate the armor of anime, I hate the oversized weapons of anime, and most of all, I hate the mods anime inspires.

:haha: