No, it means I'm a Virgo, and attract responsibility like honey attracts ants, and part of me enjoys it, so I end up being put in charge of things and don't realize all the longterm repercussions of that until it becomes clear that I've been given more to bite off than I want to chew. That's when being a nice person becomes a problem, because it's very difficult for me to put down a responsibility once I pick it up because I don't want to inconvenience anyone or leave them in a difficult spot. :-?

But I am much better at saying 'no' than I used to be. A lot of it just comes with experience. Especially if someone is a bit overbearing and wants an answer RIGHT NOW, lol, because if you're not gonna let me think about it, then the only answer you're gonna get is 'no.'

Impossible... well, not impossible, but far too much work to be worth it. Most notably, her character uses the voice that I hate the most of any in the game, so in order to make her tolerable that would be the first thing that would have to go, and since she has unique dialogue you can't just go into the game files and pick out a more pleasing Nord female voice that just says generic stuff and assign it to her.

I dislike (at the very least) just about every NPC who uses that VA - Iona "I HAVE NO INSIDE VOICE" the housecarl, Adrianne Avenicci, Rikke, I forget who else. Some of them are less irritating because their characters are more likable to me, but Aela loses there as well. Some of them you don't have to be around very much, but I like the Companions and if I do that faction (which I always do) I'm stuck dealing with her constantly for a good portion of it.

What I modded was her class, which gives her lousy primary skills for the gear she wears and carries and for a warrior NPC in general. Altho I think that may have been addressed by the Unofficial Patch - I probably don't have the latest version, so I'd have to check when I start modding/playing again. But I think I buffed her basic stats a little as well, so she wouldn't be so useless if I do the Companions at a low level.

Unless they patched something I've forgotten about, you don't have to marry her to get free training. You just have to take her as a follower, then pay for training, then go in her inventory and take the money back. I used to do that with Vilkas when I had him as a spouse/follower - but I could do it with any trainer if they were also following me. I only did it with Vilkas since we were married and it seemed stupid that he would make his wife pay for training... so that was more of an RP thing.

Unless you were just doing the same kind of RP thing with Aela, in which case, never mind. :O:

I'm not really a horoscope person...but I'll look at mine today just for the heck of it.

"You're not sure if you really know what you're doing, but you should find that your people respond to your actions as if you're on the right track. Shrug your shoulders and keep on moving!" - Leo Horoscope for today

Well, that's probably about right for a lot of things. :hmmm:

As far as you attracting responsibility, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Too much is...but as long as you keep it under control you should be fine...right? :hmmm:

Ah...I didn't think of that. :dead:

:rotfl2: :rotfl2:

"Honey, I'm home. What's for dinn-"

"LOTS AND LOTS OF RABBITS!"

"Quiet down. You'll wake the neighbors...again."

She's not useless to me really...Lydia was useless. Lydia was the most useless follower I've ever had in a Bethesda game. I almost cheered when she finally died. Even though she was carrying a lot of valuable stuff for me, when that dragon kicked her off the Throat of the World...it was priceless. Such a moment that makes me wish I could take screenshots on my Xbox.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gfROz_0qZt...much%2Bwin.jpg

Yeah. That's exactly what I do. Pay her and take it back.

It's not like money is an issue in Skyrim. This is the only game where I've never had money issues. I've got like 60K gold on me and another 30 or so in the bedside table in my house in Whiterun. "Free" training is nice though. Beats paying for it. This is why I married Aela. It's better than marrying that pointless lady who has the name that starts with "Y" who wanders around the market in Whiterun. She's some sort of Merchant i think.

I married Aela because she's got skills that will help me dominate Skyrim. :rotfl2: A merchant can't really do that.

I get all my followers killed to the point that they all run and hide when they see me coming.:haha:
Skyrim is a cold and lonely place when your reputation precedes you.:smug:

I use UFO which makes followers a lot more fun and useful and also lets you make them essential if you like. I also use a "no friendly fire" mod that prevents them from taking damage from anything you accidentally hit them with. You can also make it so they don't take damage from ANY friendly hits, meaning that if you have multiple followers they can't accidentally kill each other. They still complain about it if they get hit with friendly fire, but it doesn't hurt them at all and as far as I can tell even multiple friendly hits won't cause them to go aggro on the perpetrator.

With that mod enabled I usually don't make followers essential any more since it's less likely that they'll get killed by running in front of my weapons or me doing something stupid. If they die and I'm not willing to accept it, I reload. Then it becomes a challenge to plan out the fight better so they survive it the next time.

I think Lydia always seems so useless because more often than not she's the first housecarl/follower you get, and so is usually acquired at a relatively low level. As far as stats, skills, and class, she's no different than any other housecarl, but if you get her at level 10 she's gonna seem far weaker than the other housecarls you may not meet until you've leveled up your character quite a bit. By then Lydia should have leveled up as well, but she may not have survived or you may be so disenchanted with her that you've left her at home to keep house instead of taking her anywhere. :haha:

As far as housecarls go Argis is definitely my favorite. My first playthrough he was the last one I got and by then he was a powerhouse. I remember watching him kill an enemy with nothing but shield bashes and I thought - well alrighty then, I think I'll keep him. :O:

I like Calder as well since I modded those horrible muttonchops off of his face. :nope:

After that, Jordis, Lydia, and Iona, in that order. Iona is a problem because of the voice - HONOR TO YOU MY THANE!! Seriously lady, Honeyside is a very small home so I think you can dial it down a notch. Lydia's voice is also irritating but IIRC they made some changes to it with one of the patches or DLCs and I haven't played since I got those so my opinion of her might change in the future.

Granted part of it is a gender thing, I'd much rather wander around Skyrim looking at buff dudes than pretty ladies. One queen to a hive, you know how it is. :O: So I rarely take female followers altho I make an exception here and there. That Orc chick in one of the strongholds who was just waiting around to be married off to some chieftain she'd never met - yeah, I sprang her from that cage but good. Still found the voice annoying, all Orc women sound like Marge Simpson on steroids to me. :haha:

Maybe when I play again with Hearthfire I'll go get her and move her into one of the houses as my steward or something. And maybe get that hawt male Orc follower to move in there with her, they'd probably make a nice couple.

Opposite for me. I'm a guy and that's kinda expected.

I'd rather it be semi-pretty fake women than a bunch of dudes in their underwear like it was in certain parts of Morrowind. :nope: But whatever floats your boat and keeps food on the table...

The voices never really bothered me too much. I do wish I could mod the game a bit though. That's the downside of paying for the Xbox version...but it is really fun on there...like Oblivion and Morrowind. I still think Morrowind was the best. Countless hours were devoted to that one. I just wish there had been a better fast travel than the silt striders and Mage's Guild.

As far as followers, I take them only if they can do something I can't. :know:

I take them for the company, and to tote my crap around. But mostly for the company, which is why the voices and personalities matter so much. And sometimes I get a quest at too low a level and know I'm not gonna get through it without some help. There's been times when I went all the way to Riften just to hire Marcurio because the Companions would send me some place I knew was gonna be too hard at my level.

Nice thing about UFO is that I can have multiple followers, which means that even on those Companions quests where I was stuck with a useless low level quest follower as a sidekick I could still have someone else along as backup. As much as I hate taking outside help on Companions jobs from a role-playing perspective, sometimes not doing that just made playing that faction a real PITA. That and the fact that Aela and Farkas were given BS class assignments which screwed over their stats and skills, but at least that's fixable with modding.

The bottomless bag mod made housecarl pack mules obsolete for me.

Mine only guard my properties. Out in the world, they just get in my way and I really hate it when they push me around from behind. I had great luck with the vampire chick. At least until the wench bit me.

Umm, were they boiling, in a pot, on the stove?...

<O>

I've got a fire pit in my house IIRC. :hmmm:

Rabbits on the fire?

It beats Mammoth cheese.:woot:

In real life I've shot and cooked a squirrel over a real fire pit in my back yard. :woot: :O:

Well naturally. There's only one way to eat a brace of coneys. But what you REALLY need with that is some...

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__...d/PoTaToes.gif

Ugh, too right. I can never quite bring myself to eat the stuff. All I think of when I see Mammoth cheese is Giant toe jam. :dead:

OTOH I've eaten a Giant's toe to learn its alchemical uses so I probably shouldn't be so picky. :O:

Mmmm....taters.....


http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/5mDFTYzL0lE/hqdefault.jpg



<O>

...crawl at the bottom of Fox News screen:

"Frau Kaleun admits to foot fetish"


<O>