StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Link Here. So looks like Beth is ready to gouge us again for a few graphics upda....

The publisher is even giving it away for free on PC to owners of the original game and all its add-ons.

Well then... Skyrim.. belongs to .....the Nords I guess? I'll eat some crow on this since I figured they'd make everyone rebuy it.

.... So anyway, I look forward to slaying more bandits on a graphically updated Skyrim. However, it's probably going to look like garbage compared to my current install, but it will be interesting to see if modders try out their stuff for a 64-bit version. Hopefully, they get cracking on fixing issues with the CK that aren't an issue for F4, but will be an issue for Skyrim. Races being just one of them.

Fallout 4 seems much more non-crash happy in general AND when it comes to loading every piece of shit mod out there, so who knows what kind of support a less-shit version of their engine will accomplish?

This whole thing was a given after they had to port Skyrim to 64-bit anyway to test the new console hardware. Them claiming to not bother releasing an Xbone version (at the least) was too insane to be true. No way they'd skimp out on that money. However, I did not expect to get a free copy. So kudos if they hold to that. This won't fix what's actually "wrong" with Skyrim, but it could lead to more longevity and maybe Beth could be bothered to kick out of a few more expansions of high quality. Dawnguard was decent. Dragonborn was pretty damn solid. In fact, I hold that expansion up over Fallout 4.

Trying to figure out how much of an upgrade Skyrim Special Edition is over the original release, with whatever little footage available.

Bethesda confirmed what many were expecting/hoping for: a Skyrim remaster for PS4 and Xbox One. The publisher is even giving it away for free on PC to owners of the original game and all its add-ons.

Though we don’t have much footage of the new version to go on, people are already starting to compare it with the 2011 version. Digital Foundry, too, has put them side by side to see if they could learn more.

Because there isn’t much footage to go on, the site used the available trailer in conjunction with uncompressed screenshots. The Special Edition runs at a native 1920×1080, but seemingly won’t go over 30fps, the same frame-rate target for the original, as well as Fallout 4.

Work has clearly gone into making the remaster, however, with new assets added in like plants, stones, trees and more around the area shown. Like Bethesda promised, a new depth of field field effect and volumetric god rays have been, visible also when compared against the original.

According to the report, texture quality looks to match that of the PC version’s highest setting. Ground detail in particular doesn’t look to have been upped. Generally speaking, lighting seems to be biggest winner here, resulting in more vibrant colours and warmer tone.

Take a look at both side by side in the video below, and read the rest of the report at the link.

64 bit alone is going to remove so many of the problems that plague a modded Skyrim, no more fucking 4gb memory limit for a start.
I've seen it bandied around that non SKSE dependent mods will work as-is, which makes sense seeing as Beth are really playing up the mods for consoles angle, breaking compatibility would be really fucking stupid.
As for SKSE I'd expect a 64 bit version about a month after release, the team already have experience creating F4SE on what is basically the same engine, ENB however ... Boris has stated he hates working with DirectX 11 so we may never see an updated version. We'll just have to wait and see.

Looks like my investment of a whopping £19.99 for the Legendary edition was completely worth it, having a vanilla game that looks like a reasonably modded version with a mid level ENB for free as a base for modding from? Man I can't wait to see what it looks like after I've modded it to within an inch of its life.
The upcoming new CK is also rumoured to be vastly more stable than the glitch fest we currently have use of. Please, please let this be true.

I do wonder a few things about it.

First compatibility between old Skyrim and the Special Edition. Will mods still work for the next version or will they have to be updated? Gonna suck for a bunch of mods long since abandoned. As Darth Nostril above said Beth is pushing the mod angle hard but they have done some pretty stupid shit with mods before like the paid mods on a fairly old game. It wouldn't exactly be a stretch to think they might think modders will create new mods or fix old ones for the Special Edition. And like the paid mods, they may be wrong. I'd assume mods probably should be compatible just because from what I'm hearing this is a mostly graphical upgrade with a few tweaks under the hood, the code and shit should mostly be the same. Hopefully.

The specs, is it going to be requiring a Fallout 4 capable computer? My computer can play Fallout 4 but I prefer current Skyrim where even a relatively shitty system can run it on high and a good computer can run it on ultra without completely swamping the system. PC Skyrim already looks nice as hell especially with the HD textures packs. There may not be a reason to upgrade for slight graphical improvement but a possible performance downgrade. Which leads into my next thing of wonder.....

Is the upgrade mandatory? Can you keep the current fairly stable version and have the Special Edition beside it or is it going to pull a George Lucas and overwrite the older one? I could play vanilla Skyrim on a dual core without a problem, meaning I have more choices of where to play it compared to one that requires an i5 just to run it on medium. I mean I got computers that should play a Fallout 4 spec Skyrim but I don't always, I doubt my laptop could currently. But my laptop can play vanilla Skyrim on high. Pretty much I'd like to keep the current version that can play on a shitton of other stuff.

I am disappointed that this wasn't a remade Oblivion. Oblivion is a great game but it is an ugly game even with mods and the PC version has some of the clunkiest controls and menus and shit I've seen since fucking Saints Row 2's PC port. A upgraded version with Skyrim style controls and menus and graphics that are atleast as good as vanilla Skyrim would be fucking godly.

Any mods requiring SKSE won't work until they update SKSE & the mod in question gets updated, most of the rest should work without any extra work, or so I've heard. Texture packs, armour & weapon replacers, all should work right out of the box. The key word here being should. We don't know what Beth broke yet.
Abandoned mods? SOL unless the modder returns or you get them to allow you to update it for them.

It is not a mandatory upgrade, if you don't want it you don't have to order it. It's going to be a separate game so you can keep your existing Skyrim install.

Why no Morrowind/Oblivion???? Because they would need more than a remaster, they would require a remake, completely rebuilt from the ground up. That would take a lot of time and resources, pushing TES6 back another couple of years. Skyrim on the other hand was already ported to the new engine very early in FO4 development. They'd already done it, just needed some tidying up and polishing.

Darth Nostril wrote:Why no Morrowind/Oblivion???? Because they would need more than a remaster, they would require a remake, completely rebuilt from the ground up. That would take a lot of time and resources, pushing TES6 back another couple of years. Skyrim on the other hand was already ported to the new engine very early in FO4 development. They'd already done it, just needed some tidying up and polishing.

On that note, I wonder what the Skywind team is going to do. Keep plugging with the original, or try to port it to the SE?

Given Beth's need to get mods to the consoles ASAP I doubt very much that they've fucked with the esm, esp & bsa setup so I would imagine the best bet would be to keep plugging away at the current version, there's still a large user base eagerly awaiting it after all, then see if it can be ported through the new CK.

Darth Nostril wrote:I've seen it bandied around that non SKSE dependent mods will work as-is, which makes sense seeing as Beth are really playing up the mods for consoles angle, breaking compatibility would be really fucking stupid.

Actual modders are saying this? Depends on what changes were made to Skyrim to make Fallout 4. If it was a straight port, then a lot will work. However, changes to script calls in F4 would be a major issue. That and the way textures are called to meshes.

For just one thing, texture data from .NIFs (the meshes) needs to be called in the CK for F4. I don't know if this was a byproduct of the porting process or done for F4. I'm assuming just for F4 because if not, Beth would have to redo a shitton of their own work. Hell, I have no fucking idea why they did it for F4, it's cluttering up my load order.

It's moot for the possible script changes because advanced scripting for Fallscrolls relies on SKSE either way.

It's all speculation by actual modders in the Nexus forums at the moment, Bethesda have been asked whether existing mods will work their reply was "basically, yes". Helpful that.

Best case scenario non-SKSE dependent mods will just work, next best is that you open the mod in the new CK and save it again to update.
We won't know more until Beth start actually talking to the mod authors and giving proper answers. But given that they really need mods for the consoles ASAP after release I doubt they fucked around with too much.

Darth Nostril wrote:It's all speculation by actual modders in the Nexus forums at the moment, Bethesda have been asked whether existing mods will work their reply was "basically, yes". Helpful that.

I know, right? Like them throwing fuel on the console modding scene by stating "all mod creators have to do to get the mod on console is to click the box." Yea, I'm sure your PShitty will run uncompressed 4K textures and 6000 poly models.

Best case scenario non-SKSE dependent mods will just work, next best is that you open the mod in the new CK and save it again to update.

Which means nothing much of real value will work. I don't think FNIS requires SKSE, so at least I could still use custom animations and swap them on the fly (my mage characters have flashier casting anims and I like my animations to be specific). But no SkyUI means shit UI for a while. No Frostfall. No mod that uses MCM. I just found an updated version of player head tracking. It's great: gone. Death Alternative.

Hell, FNIS would never run on consoles period since you have to build your animation lists though an executable. Same thing with Dual Sheath Redux.

So, we're back to the stone-ages for a while with replacers and custom armor/weapons. It will be nice that I don't have to hunt down a bunch of that stuff, but it also means we're waiting on SKSE to get to where it's at now for 32-bit Skyrim. One can hope the the work on F4SE is mostly compatible.

I guess I could just mod in BOOOOOOOOBS while I wait. Boobs are always nice.

We won't know more until Beth start actually talking to the mod authors and giving proper answers. But given that they really need mods for the consoles ASAP after release I doubt they fucked around with too much.

At least with F4, they gave us an entire folder of example source scripts. But Beth probably knows that advanced scripting mods aren't the bread and butter. Modders adding in trademarked content like the Walter P99 just means they avoid paying for the license. I honestly have no idea how Beth can officially host such content.

Joke note, but not worth posting in the F4 thread, I found a reddit post talking about how someone upload nude CBBE to consoles under a different name and Beth didn't find it for a while. So, Beth is going to either rely on user playtesting for this or hire their owns guys to dig through mods. Thinking about it, there's so much you can hide in a mod if people aren't willing to crack it open in the CK. Anyway, from what I read: Beth can't force your console to remove "tainted" mods. So there may be people running around with nipples in their console version (the HORROR!). I have no idea about the veracity of that though.

In response to this and stealing mods, Beth is making people link to their Steam account to author Beth.net mods.

Almost (ALMOST) makes me wish I had a Xbone copy to test this on. But my wife doesn't like Fallout anyway. She has expressed interest in new Skyrim though. I just wish I could create mods ONLY for my console. I would enjoy trolling my wife with this. Like mod it Dildo Bats or something. Or just put paralysis staves in every leveled list. I figured if I ever did troll mod, that's what I'd do. Hide that in there because shit is way OP and annoying.

TheFeniX wrote:Modders adding in trademarked content like the Walter P99 just means they avoid paying for the license. I honestly have no idea how Beth can officially host such content.

By removing it the instant they get a DMCA claim on it.

bilateralrope wrote:

TheFeniX wrote:Modders adding in trademarked content like the Walter P99 just means they avoid paying for the license. I honestly have no idea how Beth can officially host such content.

By removing it the instant they get a DMCA claim on it.

I'm at a loss to find info on this. I know Napster got railed because they knowingly hosted copyrighted content. There was no claim made, they just got sued. I could be mis-remembering, it's been years. This is trademark. I know that's different.

I would assume Beth would have little legal defense if they said "We had no idea the popular Walther P99 mod was based on a trademarked product." And since console/officially hosted mods is part of their sales pitch for F4, I can't see why it's not actionable. I wouldn't put it past Walther to just take the free publicity, but it seems like Beth wants Brand name cake to eat for free.

Just about in time for it to be outdated: Skyrim Enderal is nearing release. There's a preloaders for Ze Zjerman (Deutsh) version. The executable was set to be release early this month, but it's been pushed back. It's a TC (Total Conversion) and is supposed to add 30-120 hours of content, all of it voiced, overhaul the combat, and other things.

From what I know, this will preempt your Skyrim install, backing it up. If I do load it when the English version hits, it's just too easy with Steam to rename the install folder and backup your own files/mods/load order. I have way too much shit to rely on an installer to backup.

Still, looks interesting and it's from the guys who made Nehrim for Oblivion.

Is there any news on whether the update increases the depth of the combat and spells?

TheFeniX wrote:I'm at a loss to find info on this. I know Napster got railed because they knowingly hosted copyrighted content. There was no claim made, they just got sued. I could be mis-remembering, it's been years. This is trademark. I know that's different.

Napster got a court injunction requiring that it cease all infringing transfers, and then shutdown on its own accord on the claim, largely true of course, that couldn't 100% comply with it. The main problem was since Napster had done NOTHING to stop such conduct prior to being sued the court system took a very dim view of its pledge to block 'most' content in the near future.

Trademarks are different because a court can actually rule to allow some infringement if it believes this is not confusing to customers, such as similar images on a broom vs a car radio can be allowed. If your replicating the trademark directly though that's just illegal, though even then if the trademark is very old courts can allow leyway, how much depends on the country, and some countries require that a trademark be 'in use' to be enforced, which can rule out enforcement against say, gun designs which are no longer produced new. An exact CGI version of a production gun is not going to standup in this case, but indeed Bethesda can simply delete such content on demand and a court is unlikely to award damages against them as long as the mods are free.

Fair enough. I concede the Napster stuff, but Beth is really skirting the line WRT "free." By officially hosting this content and allowing access to it with a fist-party modding system, they are basically approving this content themselves. How would this play if someone upload "Fallout 4 Metallica Soundtrack" replacer mod to Beth proper? Sure, it's only going to cause a problem if someone kicks up a fuss, but I'm sure more than enough content providers don't bother going after anonymous user and his stolen content because it's not worth the effort.

However, if they bother getting lawyers involved to knock on Beth's door, then it might be worth their time to just start following any other popular modding site closer. Slippery slope I admit, but I'm not pleased at all the way Beth is handling "Official Modding."

Zixinus wrote:Is there any news on whether the update increases the depth of the combat and spells?

Nothing I've found and I wouldn't hold your breath. You're much more likely to just get a straight port of the game. That said, there are many mods that crack at what you're talking about and console mods will be a thing for Skyrim++. I'm hoping that since F4 is already losing some Steam, this might just bolster the already solid Skyrim modding scene, provided said mods are easy to port. And I'm sure many of them will be.

Sorry for the necro, but this is still on the 1st page.

Steam Page Link

No new DLC. Old Saves are said to work, but I have no idea if the 64-bit version will strip out Papyrus bloat or just be stable enough to ignore it. No mods for PS4 because "haha, Sorny."

Interestly, Soule is kicking up a fuss due to some kind of Beth Sympony he was not involved in. Good for him since Soule is pretty damn good at what he does. However, he could make his soundtracks much less agonizing to purchase.

Due out Oct 28th, 2016.

We’ve waited so long for so little information, but it’s official: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim SpecialEdition is a remastered comeback of the much-loved PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 game that plunged thousands of players into hundreds of hours of gameplay and it’s returning to consoles all over the world this October.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim first launched for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in 2011, set two hundred years after its predecessor, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continues to be a phenomenal game even years after it came out that players have been clamoring for a sequel, or at least a remaster, for those who might want to pick up the game for the newer generation consoles.

Now, we’re only a few more weeks from the release of the official Skyrim remaster, the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. What are we expecting from this remaster?

Interestingly, there are also perks for those who own and played Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on the PC. Bethesda confirmed last E3 that if you own the original PC version of Skyrim and have purchased the three DLC add-ons on Steam, you will get a free upgrade to the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition when it releases in October.

Also, Hines confirmed that existing save files on the PC could be continued through the Special Edition. Save files on the older generation consoles Xbox 360 and PS3, though, are not transferable to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

If you’re wondering why the PC version is so much more flexible and forgiving than the console ports, Eurogamer notes that Hines explained it’s because the PS4 and Xbox One are entirely new platforms for the game; Skyrim was already available on the PC.

While Express UK confirmed that Kinect Dragon Shouts are no longer supported on the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, mods will become a new feature on the consoles. Much like with Fallout 4, mods for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition will be downloadable on the Xbox One. Mods will not be available on the PlayStation 4, however, as per Sony’s refusal to let Bethesda put mods on their console.

To commemorate the return of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda is holding a concert featuring the music of Skyrim. But while a lot of fans were thrilled with the news, Skyrim‘s composer Jeremy Soule isn’t a fan of the upcoming concert.

It seems the original composer was not in any way included in the creation of the said concert, IGNreports, and would not “endorse a concert that is trading on my name and music that has absolutely no oversight or involvement on my part.”

If you have yet to get a copy of the remaster and would like to play it on the newer-gen consoles, this is the best time to do so. You can opt to purchase the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition Dovahkiin bundle, exclusive to Best Buy, which not only comes in a collectible steelbook case but also with a Dovahkiin mask.

I'm interested to see what, if anything, this does to the F4 mod scene. They were usually fairly separate, but you never know. I DO know a few Skyrim modders quit due to not being big on the Fallout series in the first-place but also with how lackluster the game was. Given an actual overhaul with mod tools being dumped in their lap, we'll see what happens. If we could just get a Frostfall mod not littered with save bloat, that'd be awesome.

Midly off-topic, I recall reading The Nexus hired the guy who wrote the original Mod Organizer. Some people were mad?? about this?

Getting closer to the 28th. Spec requirements are up:

System Specs

Minimum
Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945.
8GB of ram.
12 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB

Recommended
Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320.
8GB of ram.
12 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB /AMD R9 290 4GB

For some comparisons, the recommended CPU is just a bit more juicy than the CPU minimum for F4. Makes sense since Skyrim could barely touch 2 cores and and Fallout 4 has pretty solid multi-threading support. The recommend video card matches that of Fallout 4, whereas the minimum can get by with a bit older tech. Obviously, the RAM req of 8GB is going to be about the minimum for 64-bit gaming from here on.

ENBoosts and other hacks aside, the remake should make better use of actual GPU cycles and CPU multi-tasking since, while Fallout 4 had optimization issues, it at least used the hardware you gave it. From what I know, Fallout 4 was just built off the top of the 64-bit "test" Skyrim port done for Xbone development, we should see more of the same. But also with only an increase in texture quality. I have to wonder if we're really just going to get the Official 2K texture pack as baseline and some other small graphical hacks.

I'm hoping this leads to a resurgence in Skyrim modding. There's more than a few script heavy mods I've put off because they just wreck my saves. Frostfall being the biggest one, but there's also many more QoL improvement mods, such as Death Alternative, I had to pull due to save corruption and script bloat leading to crashes. At the least, Fallout 4 is much less crash-happy in general due to, what I assume, is just all around better memory addressing required with 64-bit coding, but some codemonkey is more than welcome to come in and yell at me.

Old saves actually work without issue. I haven't had a chance to check if it "dejunks" them and saves them in a new format or if the engine just uses the same file format. I have a few old "permanently junked" saves that rarely load in the 32-bit version. They are filled to the brim with baked in scripts from Death Alternative, Frost Fall, Dance of Death, etc and the Special Edition loaded them just fine.

Game is not a marked improvement visually, at least not with Screenshots. Tends to run a lot smoother, but I have little test time since I find it nearly impossible to play with the default UI. It's really bad.

But otherwise, it seems to be a solid port that can handle 60 NPCs on screen with little issues. I hope to have more playtime once SKSE is ported and SkyUI is a thing. No rush though.

Got to wait for a new-to-me graphics card is delivered, my creakingly ancient GT630 managed 5 five minutes before it shit the bed & the graphics driver crashed.
Still, the wait will give mod authors time to update their stuff.

I'll probably give the thing a try in a day or 3 when my new keyboard and headset come in.

I probably shouldn't have a tough of time getting thing to work where pretty much other then a few armor and lightsaber mods I really don't have much in the way of mods. Certainly nothing major. Skyrim vanilla is pretty decent. Nothing major needs overhauled in my opinion like the godawful menu system of Oblivion. Pretty much the only "script" mods I have are the fan patches for the base game and the expansions, a mod to find all the Crown of Barenzial pieces, and a mod to kill the officers of various military camps because when I want to wipe out the damn dirty racist ass fucktarded Stormcloaks I don't want ANYBODY getting back up. I even kill the fucking horses.

Its not like Fallout where I have shittons of weapon mods and armor mods, mods for faction improvements, mods to change some NPC behavior, town expansion mods, just piles of mods. Last time I played NV I think I had well over 50 mods. I had like 15 mods for Skyrim.

Really most of my Skyrim mods are Star Wars stuff. The game feels alot like KOTOR, some of the setting, the combat, even the sounds remind me of KOTOR. With only a teensy tiny bit of work Skyrim could be one of the greatest Star Wars games ever. The only thing that really sucks is alot of the best Star Wars armor mods are only on Steam Workshop and unlikely to be ported to the Beth workshop.....thing.

Joun_Lord wrote: I even kill the fucking horses.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes to completely wipe out those racist asshats, right down to the last equine.

Waiting on body replacers, texture replacers to get rid of that horrible upscaled crap beth fobbed us off with, settlement/npc mods that fill in the blank spaces on the map, but most importantly a mod manager with VFS.
Development of MO2 has stopped and NMM is a complete waste of coding. Hoping that Tannin can make the next iteration of NMM the successor to MO, and screw the whiny bitches.

Tamriel is built off "side with who is the least shitty" and I wish Beth hadn't passed the buck on the CW quests when they said "if you read around a bit, you find out Ulfric is a plant." I always side with the Imperials because really their "only" black mark is trying to kill you at the start because "assholes," but I didn't take issue with the racism in of itself because the Nords have at least a semblance of a reason for it. They went and lost a lot of soldiers in the war against the dominion and came home to find the same Elves running around killing their Talos worshipers. Oh yea, and outlawing Talos worship. And let's face it, the Aldmeri aren't even subtle about it, they go around telling everyone" Fuck you, I'm Altmer: you are shit."

They're like the bad guys from fucking Lethal Weapon 2. I just kill them because it's fun. Don't even talk to them before hand, I just unload on them and vendor their fancy Elven gear. But the Nords believe the Empire is weak and crumbling and essentially selling Skyrim to the Elves. They know nothing of what Ulfric has been through or that he's being used to further weaken the Empire.

The racism against the Dunmer is pretty shitty, but considering the racism/general elitism portrayed by the Dunmer, it's amazing the worst they face is being forced to live in ghettos in Windhelm. While the conditions are terrible, I would have figured the Nords for just telling them to fuck off, not giving them Solsteim and allowing them to live in the Windhelm proper. Also, the (lack of) size of WIndhelm considering how big it SHOULD BE makes it hard to empathize with their plight. Also of note, the Dunmer shops aren't run down and look just like any other Skyrim shop, probably due to laziness on the devs.

Also, the the Empire did manage to betray Ulfric first because they also suck shit. Ulfric's biggest issue is not seeing the big picture and the Nords buying up the racism. But the analogy to real-world racism tends to break down considering the history of Tamriel. Many believe the Empire has sold them out wholesale to the Altmer, not biding time for the Empire to recover it's lost strength. Imagine some real world issue in the US where a stalemate war lead to Jesus worship being outlawed and there were representatives of the aggressors allowed to run rampant in your state, executing Christians with impunity.

Yea, that wouldn't go over well.

Joun_Lord wrote:I probably shouldn't have a tough of time getting thing to work where pretty much other then a few armor and lightsaber mods I really don't have much in the way of mods. Certainly nothing major. Skyrim vanilla is pretty decent. Nothing major needs overhauled in my opinion like the godawful menu system of Oblivion. Pretty much the only "script" mods I have are the fan patches for the base game and the expansions, a mod to find all the Crown of Barenzial pieces, and a mod to kill the officers of various military camps because when I want to wipe out the damn dirty racist ass fucktarded Stormcloaks I don't want ANYBODY getting back up. I even kill the fucking horses.

Animations need their files updated to work, but Beth supplied a converter. New animations are obviously a bust without FNIS. SKSE reliant mods are also out, but the team is working on a new version.

Model and texture replacers work just fine so, as you said, you should be good to go. Body replacers are already a thing. If you wanted, you could use your old ones from the original Skyrim, even the clothes/armor should work. I think skeletons have issues, so those will need to be converted, but there's no vanilla animations I can think of that even need them. Since HDT is a bust till SKSE is up, same thing.

And the Oblivion UI, while terrible, was at least trying to balance a UI that worked for a mouse and controller. The Skyrim UI is a bad UI even for one designed around a controller and terrible for KB/M. SkyUI is almost a requirement to play the game.

The only thing that really sucks is alot of the best Star Wars armor mods are only on Steam Workshop and unlikely to be ported to the Beth workshop.....thing.

I don't know if it still works, but used to be you could subscribe to a mod, collect the ESP and loose files from the data folder, repackage them, unsub from the mod, and load your zipped mod either through a manager or manually.

Darth Nostril wrote:

Joun_Lord wrote: I even kill the fucking horses.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes to completely wipe out those racist asshats, right down to the last equine.

I kinda play as a berserker. If I see the enemies I tend to charge at them and slaughter them. I really hate Ulfric's boys, really really hate the wannabe Nazi Aldmeri, and just plain think bandits are scum, really stupid scum. If there were slavers in the game I'd be reserving a special place in my black heart for them like I do for the Legion of Fallout. Its funny, in Elder Scrolls I'm all "Legion For Lyfe" while in Fallout I'm like "Death to the Legion, Death to Caeser, NCR for......eh they're good enough".

TheFeniX wrote:Tamriel is built off "side with who is the least shitty" and I wish Beth hadn't passed the buck on the CW quests when they said "if you read around a bit, you find out Ulfric is a plant." I always side with the Imperials because really their "only" black mark is trying to kill you at the start because "assholes," but I didn't take issue with the racism in of itself because the Nords have at least a semblance of a reason for it. They went and lost a lot of soldiers in the war against the dominion and came home to find the same Elves running around killing their Talos worshipers. Oh yea, and outlawing Talos worship. And let's face it, the Aldmeri aren't even subtle about it, they go around telling everyone" Fuck you, I'm Altmer: you are shit."

They're like the bad guys from fucking Lethal Weapon 2. I just kill them because it's fun. Don't even talk to them before hand, I just unload on them and vendor their fancy Elven gear. But the Nords believe the Empire is weak and crumbling and essentially selling Skyrim to the Elves. They know nothing of what Ulfric has been through or that he's being used to further weaken the Empire.

The racism against the Dunmer is pretty shitty, but considering the racism/general elitism portrayed by the Dunmer, it's amazing the worst they face is being forced to live in ghettos in Windhelm. While the conditions are terrible, I would have figured the Nords for just telling them to fuck off, not giving them Solsteim and allowing them to live in the Windhelm proper. Also, the (lack of) size of WIndhelm considering how big it SHOULD BE makes it hard to empathize with their plight. Also of note, the Dunmer shops aren't run down and look just like any other Skyrim shop, probably due to laziness on the devs.

Also, the the Empire did manage to betray Ulfric first because they also suck shit. Ulfric's biggest issue is not seeing the big picture and the Nords buying up the racism. But the analogy to real-world racism tends to break down considering the history of Tamriel. Many believe the Empire has sold them out wholesale to the Altmer, not biding time for the Empire to recover it's lost strength. Imagine some real world issue in the US where a stalemate war lead to Jesus worship being outlawed and there were representatives of the aggressors allowed to run rampant in your state, executing Christians with impunity.

Yea, that wouldn't go over well.

I do understand why Ulfric is rebelling, even can understand the racism to a degree. Its possibly a case of 21st century sensibilities looking at a different age, the real world era Elder Scrolls is based on no doubt has different views of racism. Still don't like it though.

My main thing about Ulfric is the fact he is doing the Aldmeri's job. He's so wrapped up in his own shit, so guilty about thinking he sold out the Imperial City, so filled with righteous indignation about not being able to worship Talos that he's selling out all of the Empire including his beloved Skyrim, he's destroying the Empire Talos built, he's letting the hated Aldmeri Dominion win the 2nd Great War before the first sword is drawn.

And a second war is inevitable. The Aldmeri talk about it bluntly (usually right before I hit them with something blunt then dragon shout them into something blunt), Colonel Tigh says the Empire is preparing for the 2nd Great War too. For all of Ulfric's and Stone-fist's proclamations of not letting the elves dictate the lives of men they are damn sure doing just that.

Ulfric is such an idiot that he doesn't see what banning Talos worship buys them, time. He doesn't understand that something relatively small gives them a chance to build back up their strength, to give the Aldmeri false confidence. No he'd rather thumb his nose at the High Elves and do stupid shit and act like the Empire betrayed him when they stopped his stupid shit so it didn't ignite the Great War again.

The Empire banning Talos worship and arresting Ulfric when he tried to resurrect it in Markarth (possibly on the dead bodies of the slaughtered natives) was not them betrayed him, he betrayed them and all his dead comrades who he said he cared about and all their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who would have been killed if the Aldmeri Dominion decided to say Markarth invalidated the White Gold Concordat.

And the Oblivion UI, while terrible, was at least trying to balance a UI that worked for a mouse and controller. The Skyrim UI is a bad UI even for one designed around a controller and terrible for KB/M. SkyUI is almost a requirement to play the game.

Honestly I never had a problem with the UI for Skyrim. Its not perfect but never thought it didn't work well enough for a keyboard and mouse.

I don't know if it still works, but used to be you could subscribe to a mod, collect the ESP and loose files from the data folder, repackage them, unsub from the mod, and load your zipped mod either through a manager or manually.

Might try that. Install old Skyrim, grab the mods and toss them at the new Skyrim and see if they work.

Joun_Lord wrote:I kinda play as a berserker. If I see the enemies I tend to charge at them and slaughter them. I really hate Ulfric's boys, really really hate the wannabe Nazi Aldmeri, and just plain think bandits are scum, really stupid scum. If there were slavers in the game I'd be reserving a special place in my black heart for them like I do for the Legion of Fallout. Its funny, in Elder Scrolls I'm all "Legion For Lyfe" while in Fallout I'm like "Death to the Legion, Death to Caeser, NCR for......eh they're good enough".

I think Beth whitewashing the slavery in Fallout and Elder Scrolls is weak. Siding with the slavers in Fallout 3 just to get the achieves (then immediately loading an older save) made me feel like a skeeze. I like choices like that because it gives me the option to not only be a dick, but also be a hero.

I'm not saying we need only black and white choices, but having those scattered around a game along with the grey gives a game more depth.

I do understand why Ulfric is rebelling, even can understand the racism to a degree. Its possibly a case of 21st century sensibilities looking at a different age, the real world era Elder Scrolls is based on no doubt has different views of racism. Still don't like it though.

The problem becomes, it's not even about 21st century sensibilities: there are marked differences between Elder Scrolls races. In earlier games, Nords and Redguard actually had Intelligence penalties that made it hard to be an effective mage with. Nords are actually dumber and more violent than Bretons and Imperials due to actual racial differences. Reguard, Orsimmer, and Nords are also more physically powerful than many other races. Altmer are naturally taller, but weaker, than many "human" races. This excludes the insanity of Khajit and Argonians.

And, in fact, even a lot of their cultural differences are due to influences of actual gods and demigods. So, while there are actual real-world parallels to be made, many are a really hard fit.

The Aldmeri are actually afraid of Talos. They aren't just using him to sow dissent among the Nords, he actually has influence the more he is worshiped.

My main thing about Ulfric is the fact he is doing the Aldmeri's job. He's so wrapped up in his own shit, so guilty about thinking he sold out the Imperial City, so filled with righteous indignation about not being able to worship Talos that he's selling out all of the Empire including his beloved Skyrim, he's destroying the Empire Talos built, he's letting the hated Aldmeri Dominion win the 2nd Great War before the first sword is drawn.

I like it because he doesn't know that even though I, the player, do. His motivations actually make a lot of sense to me. If Beth hadn't added in the "he's been brainwashed" bit, I might have had an actual decision to make.

Ulfric is such an idiot that he doesn't see what banning Talos worship buys them, time. He doesn't understand that something relatively small gives them a chance to build back up their strength, to give the Aldmeri false confidence. No he'd rather thumb his nose at the High Elves and do stupid shit and act like the Empire betrayed him when they stopped his stupid shit so it didn't ignite the Great War again.

The Empire bids it's time while Nords are executed for worshipping their God by Aldmeri who hunt said Nords with impunity across his land. That has to be an extremely hard pill to swallow especially since Talos worship is centered in Skyrim and Nords.

The fact that the Empire NEEDS Skyrim in their inevitable next war adds to this. While Reguard and Orsimmer are just as warlike and tough, The Nords are actually organized into a large army and not prone to tell people who ask for help to "fuck off" like the Reguard are. And they already lost a shitoad of Nords in the first dust-up even though Skyrim itself was left untouched.

The Empire banning Talos worship and arresting Ulfric when he tried to resurrect it in Markarth (possibly on the dead bodies of the slaughtered natives) was not them betrayed him, he betrayed them and all his dead comrades who he said he cared about and all their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who would have been killed if the Aldmeri Dominion decided to say Markarth invalidated the White Gold Concordat.

The Empire cut a deal with Ulfirc, then went back on that deal and arrested him when he left the city. Whatever Ulfirc did in the Reach, he has zero incentive to trust the Empire after that.

And even with his crazy, he is able to sit at the table and work out a cease-fire while we stomp Alduin. Honestly, the Empire was in a position to negotiate with him to bring Skyrim back into the Empire (fully). I always thought it was weird there were never talks of marriage between him and Elisif. She does like.. fucking nothing in the game anyway. They could have been an interesting plot-point. Yea, he killed her husband, but we are talking about a guy with enough support to kick the Empire out of Skyrim if you side with them (and the 20 or so NPCs that show up for the fights). Real life leaders married off to bitter rivals in the past on Earth all the time.

Man, I think I like talking ES lore more than playing the games.

Honestly I never had a problem with the UI for Skyrim. Its not perfect but never thought it didn't work well enough for a keyboard and mouse.

It's still better than the Oblivion UI, but it's also still garbage. SkyUI is such a vast improvement, I have issues dealing with the default UI.

Might try that. Install old Skyrim, grab the mods and toss them at the new Skyrim and see if they work.

If it does, please let me know. I have plans to clean up a bunch of stuff in my install and possibly grab a few mods I can only find on the Workshop. If it doesn't work, then I don't have to bother with some of it.

EDIT: Damn, I actually use the word "actual" way too fucking much.

There's also another x-factor with the whole banning-of-Talos-worship thing: neither we nor the characters in-universe know just how much worship an ascended deity like Talos needs to stay alive, nor how long he can do without whatever that required level. The Thalmor aren't just trying to step on the Empire, they're also attempting to assassinate the quite literal God of Mankind in the process, and exactly what they need to accomplish is something of an open question. Do they know? Maybe, but irrelevant. Neither the Empire nor the Nords know the answer.

Fundamentally, the Empire is willing to risk Talos for eventual military victory, and the Nords are willing to risk eventual military victory for Talos. Viewed through that lens, the conflict becomes downright fascinating.

Also, fuck the Thalmor. Seriously. Fuck 'em. I want the next Elder Scrolls game to be me, as an Elder Scrolls PC, just turned loose in Dominion territory and told to go nuts.