Finally I can remake my dragoon from Morrowind. I'll have to mod up jump height a bit though.

Are there any firearms mods for Skyrim? Not modern weapons, but basic flintlock or even matchlock weapons? That would be awesome.

Yes. Some are flintlock quality others are dwemer steamwork type firearms.

I've yet to see any firearms in Skyrim, Morrowind or Oblivion; crossbows are the most advanced ranged weapons in the games. The dwemer had scattershot ballistae, but that's not so much a weapon as an environment hazard that you can use on your enemies.

EDIT: Just saw the word "mods" in the question, please disregard.

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

GUYS GUYS I FOUND THE MOST EPIC SKYRIM MOD EVAR.





-K

I've gotta admit, I want to try it.

Oh gods, the whirlwind sprint shout. I actually hurt myself laughing.

Unfortunately, I was incorrect on the spear front; the only spears in Dragonborn are used by rieklings (little goblins with boar-riding cavalry), and when you pick them up turn into arrows.
Sorry guys.

Ok, playing Dragonborn now and a few things pop into mind right away.

Bugs - fucking multi-save your awesomely-kitted out Archmage of asskicking doom vampire facemelter McStabby, as I've had about a dozen "restart console" loading drop outs. And one 45 minute load-up time.
No Spears. (Those gobbo skags, the land will run with their foul blood, on this I swear)



Introducing the Dragonborn was a trifle clumsy (the Folks at whitewater/windhelm/any major city must drag their kids off the street and lock the doors whenever my characters stroll into town, as it's vampires and cultists and werewolf assassins every freaking time I walk in.) but worked in reasonably well.

Spoiler: Get a dozen or so dragonsouls before heading off to Morrowind, sorry, Skyrimorrowind. Believe me, it will make your life a little easier.

The Provence-formerly-known-as-not-Morrowind is, frankly, awesome.
It LOOKS and has the same, I don't know, feel as Morrowind. Same bug carapace houses and armour, same mad warring "Great Houses" (Abet small, satellite versions of those glorious screwups) same ash yams, same creepy-as-fuck ashling things, same Netches that are an easy source of, oh, god, ow, OMGWTFBBBQ...

Netches have been...improved a trifle.

Story, it's simple, go here, go there, get stuff, fight like a sex-crazed rhino on a bad acid trip...but for the love of the gods, go off the grid, explore - nothing like trying to find my way over a mountain pass and then suddenly be ambushed by a pack of ferocious werebears, into whose shrine I was inadvertently tracking my gloriously-badass Nordic Armour that these Reaver Chieftans just keep handing over with nary a scream as a Dragonbone Arrow punches through from my new shiny Nordic Bow.

Mine! Get your picks a thwackin' boys and girls, and if you've got a ton of various gems about (especially flawless ones) do remember to pack them afore heading over as you're going to find out just what those Albino Spider Pods can give you. (and salt, lots of friggin' salt)

Books! Read the stuff lying about, but if it's a Black Book, worth ~ 2000 gp, well, enjoy:)

So, do miniquests, be the House Telvanni lackey that you remember with such friggin nostalga from Morrowind that you flash back to the reason WHY you killed every last House Telvanni Counsellor while becoming the Neverine...enjoy Fort Moonmoth, see the choking wonder of nature that is the Red Mountain and kill every last thing that walks, crawls and can't report you to the authorities...



Oh, and be prepared for the odd letter from the local messenger - it seems that all my housecarls are coming down with some serious cases of death. And they're NOT WITH ME. Not sure if bug, or a somewhat underhanded way to make me beat up the big bad faster...

Sure, I might be backstabbing Cthullu with a dagger that makes temples melt from a 1/4 mile away...but even if Lydia is in front of me, I TRY and not kill her...

What else...oh, the dragon upgrades at level 77 are NASTY...if you're not a minmaxing enchant everything to "I kill gods" sort of player. And you're going to get multiples. (Or as I call it, "Minion, carry dragonbone time") of the scaly bastards. Yeah, they should have really kept that in the final build, as it's awesome enough to beat down 2 fire/frost resistant dragons, and then some other uberbadass thing decides to muscle in on our turf, well...there's a reason why the include that "Dragon battle music", it's to unleash your inner "Beast Mode" and we're not talking about the Ring of Hircine here.

Also, it's hilarious to tear apart Wereboars as a werewolf.

Also, use stealth when in the woods and mountains. Not only do you not have to run backwards setting fire to various things, but now EVERYTHING hates each other. I saw a fight between an Ice Bear and 3 Ice Wraiths, joined by a Skeever, joined by half a dozen bandits, joined by 5 wolves and joined (as the fighting slipped down from on the mountainside) by 2 Horkers. It was like a hong-kong action flick, no sooner had one thing died or had limped away, it was set upon by a troll (I forgot to say 2 trolls up there) and 1 Dreugar Deathlord and 4 archer skeletons (As before.) Madness!


I killed the survivor, the bear, and looted like a mofo.


-Tir.

PS: The fights I mentioned? Yeah, saw a 3-way battle between horkers, crabs and some hungry wolves. Fireball! Lightningstorm! Shout: Obliterate

Ok, Dragonborn is done and dusted, and like I said, BUGS.

Expect another series of patches soon as load times and, most annoyingly, the end-fight can glitch so that it's uncompletable. As in "I sat on the bad guy with every spell I had and he remained intangible because I'd killed something out-of-turn". Sloppy.

The writing was good, and frankly, it looks like the major portion of the budget went to Oblivion...yeaaaaah, don't play at 2 am, goddamned lurkers.

I Liked the Skaal - although I fear I may have gone "the easy option" and felt dirty in doing so...I hope there was a better way or I'll feel like a heel on the next playthrough.

Thalmor! Everyone's favourite SS elves are back..although at this stage, I should stop trying to talk to people and just obliterate them from a mile off. Steal MY blacksmith, will you?

Dragonsouls! - Make sure you've got a ton of them. You'll thank me later.

Black Books! Damn, they make you cry, the choices that can be made. A little hint, upgrading the Force shout isn't great as higher-level creatures (Ie: the one's you're bashing the ever-loving crap out of) manage to shield/protective barrier/plain ignore your new and improved shout. Ice, no. Fire, that gets hilarious. (and very, very crowded)

Note: The Black Merchant is friggin useless. Only carries 2000 gp, 11 Daedric arrows and some deadric armour, but by this stage, my Vampiric armour of awesome was in better condition and enchantment. Lackluster choice.

More werefun - the rings are a bit fruity (and you need to have completed Hircine's little quest to get them) but interesting.

Waterwalking is back! Note: have not yet tried out while riding a horse. If it works, then this is the best. Spell. Ever.

And...Dragonflight and the use of the bastards as airbourne support?
Fun...but tricky. I liked using lightning spells as they have almost no lead required, but launching an ice telephone-pole at some goblin throwing a spear at you on top of a fort in the Mountain passes, and watching as he tumbles alllllllllllllllllllll the way down, ok, that was fun. Flame and the rest are way too short-ranged, as much fun as it could have been, spewing lightning, cold AND fire at once.
Ground-attack - yeah, clumsy but hits HARD. That Skeever never knew what hit it.


Frankly, if I were level 20 or so, this would have been a bloody amazing DLC...but I was level 20 when I hit Whiterun, so that's a bit sucky. 30 - 40, yeah, hard but do-able, good loot and some seriously nice unique gear to be found in the various tombs. At 77, everything was dead or dying before I had a chance to summon my face-eating minions from the starless dark...or laughed at said minions and left them used like a clump of tissues at the floor of a pay-per-view peepshow.

But, BUGS.
Save often.

-Tir.

It might very well be Morrowind. The Dunmer got kicked off the island thanks to the great house infighting and a volcanic eruption and the Argonians took it. I would not be surprised if they renamed it.

I'm still a little pissed off they haven't got any of these working on PS3 yet. Last time I tried to play the basic game they'd just released a patch that crashed the game every time I was submerged in water. What a feature! Luckily, it was already my 3rd playthrough so I could put it down and know I got good value out of it, but I'd still like more.

That's normal. You only get to swim in sequels so when they release Skyrim II, then you get to swim.

You know, like with Assassin's Creed and Altair dying when he touches water but in Assassin's Creed II Ezio can swim!

Well, Skyrim is number 5 in the series, so they ought to have some of their shit figured out by now.

Also the fact that swimming used to be a skill in earlier installments.

It was made worse by the fact that I'd just started an Argonian character. I though breathe underwater, cool I'll give it a go. I'm happily playing. One day there's a patch, I think to correspond with the Dawnguard release on XBox, then suddenly any time I go underwater it crashes.

I figured out that actually it only crashes when my camera touches the water, so I could just about make it across rivers by swimming on the surface while looking at the sky. It's probably (hopefully) fixed now, but with that and the frequent loading crashes I was experiencing I just put it down and haven't played it since. I'm thinking of buying it on PC, but I'm reluctant to pay for it a second time.

PC has the advantage of player-written mods, you know.

I'll never buy another Fallout or Elder Scrolls game for anything but PC, ever again. Player-writ mods are just THAT good. (For Skyrim, IMO: "especially the crafting mods".)

Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are all greatly enhanced by player mods. In many cases they are better than the subsequent add-ons from the developers.

Exactly so.

The only reason I played FO3 on my Xbox instead of the PC, is because my g/f didn't know there was a difference, and surprised me with a Collector's Edition of the game - and no way in hell was I giving back my lunchbox and bobble-head!!!

Same for me sort of, I knew a guy who ran a store and he got me my collectors edition early but didn't stock PC games. So console copy it was! Don't forget the awesome lunchbox it came with either.

Haven't tried any of those on PC yet (only game I have on my desktop are some OLD video game roms and SWTOR), not sure if I will or not either. It would all be determined on if I can use this new controller I got for it--I dislike playing games using keyboard and mouse unless I absolutely have to. SWTOR so far is the only one I've been able to tolerate it on (and mainly because this new keyboard has a section devoted to special "gaming keys".

You are demonstrably insane.

I really don't get why people like a controller with those little pads rather than the control offered by a good mouse. And the ease with which a keyboard allows access to a wide variety of functions is unsurpassed. Makes no sense to me that people prefer things otherwise.

Feels more natural than twisting one's hand into strange and awkward positions using a keyboard.

I believe my Xbox 360 Wired controller works fine for Skyrim. I am sure it does for FO3 and FNV.





For one thing, the Xbox 360 controller has seventeen buttons, plus two analog thumbsticks. Assigning four of those buttons to "shift states" means you can have up to fifty-two (52) buttons available.

For another thing, well .... I have arthritis issues. I can't keep my arms at keyboard-and-mouse height for as many hours as I would LIKE to spend playing games. But I can hold my Xbox controller in my lap.

#1stWorldOldPeopleProblems

In all seriousness, I prefer my mouse and keyboard for gaming with, and will go out of my way to get a PC copy of something that is on multiple platforms if the PC version isn't completely neutered by consolification. That being said, I do have a wrist rest for both my keyboard and mouse, 'cause, well, my hands like to turn into claws if I muck about for more than an hour or two.

Well, I'm not quite doing that. I bought a SteelSeries controller recently. Works good so far on the roms (as I said only thing I got on this machine other than SWTOR, which I know it won't work on).

Hmm, if you can map the correct buttons to the pad, from what the game expects, you should be fine.

Now if only SWTOR and other similar games would make it so that those could be used. So very cumbersome having to use two input devices when one will do.

I use a mouse, keyboard, and Nostromo controller. The mouse gives unparalleled precision for the games that need it, and has 11 buttons by itself. The Nostromo you more or less just rest your hand on - 16 keys, D-pad, scroll wheel, and shift button (multiplying the 16 other buttons to 48) all at your fingertips without moving your hand. No contortions required.

The keyboard is mostly for typing rather than control.





-k

Aroo? How does one Shift key turn 16 others into 48?

I had a Nostromo years ago.

The one key cycles between multiple shift states - Red, Yellow, Blue, IIRC. So if it's in red, one click brings you to yellow. Two more bring you through blue and back into red.






Of course, the vast majority of games simply don't need that many buttons at all, period.

Take Dishonored. 1-8 keys for selecting various powers or off-hand weapons/devices. C to enter/leave stealth, spacebar to jump, shift to sprint. WASD to move. R and T to use health/mana potions. F to interact. Q and E to lean. Right or left click to use Main or Off-hand abilities. Left control for a nonlethal choke/takedown.

...

That's it. Twenty three controls, plus mouselook. Twenty-four, if you include "escape" to access the game menu.

Well within the limits of a gamepad.

So I just picked up all three official DLC from steam (Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn).

I started a new character to experience these DLC....

I've... unfortunately... gotten wrapped up in Hearthfire and building my first home, Lakeview Manor in northern Falkreath. Since it has a nice view and pretty good climate I decided to go with the "family" options for the wings (Bedroom, Kitchen, Storage). I intend to make Heljarchen Hall or Windstad Manor into the mage home with the Library, Enchanter's Tower, and Alchemist's Tower, with the last three options (Armory, Trophy Room, Greenhouse(?)) comprising my last manor.

Now, I've not gone through the wing furnishings for the Library, Enchanter's Tower, Alchemist's Tower, Armory, Trophy Room, or Greenhouse (because I haven't yet assessed which manor is getting those wings), but I have a pretty comprehensive total list of materials so far. I've also subtracted what I've build so far so it's not accurate if you're wondering the total material count. I'm also ignoring x3 of each amulet in order to build the nine's shrine in each of your cellars. Iron/Corundum Ingot includes the total needed to make all the nails/fittings/locks/hinges.

Bear Pelt (10), Clay (84), Corundum Ingot (73), Deer Hide (15), Dragon Bone (3), Dragon Scales (3), Ebony Ingot (6), Flawless Amethyst (3), Flawless Sapphire (3), Glass (42), Goat Hide (4), Goat Horns (53), Gold Ingot (9), Grand Soul Gem (3), Hinge (157), Horker Tusks ( 8 ), Iron Fittings (193), Iron Ingot (559), Large Antlers (19), Leather Strip (114), Locks (70), Mudcrab Chitin (10), Nails (984), Orichalcum Ingot (6), Quarried Stone (324), Quicksilver Ingot (9), Refined Malachite (6), Refined Moonstone (9), Sabre Cat Pelt (3), Sabre Cat Snow Pelt (9), Sabre Cat Tooth (24), Sawn Log (675), Silver Ingot (12), Slaughter Fish Scales (24), Small Antlers (3), Steel Ingots (114), Straw (28), Wolf Pelt (10).

The items that really concern me about gathering are the Corundum/Iron/Steel Ingots (that's a boatload of iron ore), Goat Horns (honestly, who kills goats?), grand soul gems (they need to value at 500 or they don't work), and Sawn Logs (think about how long it takes to gather just 10 sawn logs) and multiply that by 68).

It was a pretty general consensus by the PC modding community that the "official" skyrim manor was a bug-ridden POS - so many other people have made really nice mods it was a bit disappointing to see something so...plebian.

And the estimated supply count is way off - it seems to change depending on what build you go for, regardless of stated requirements.

Because I used an established character, the only thing I had to shop for were goat horns - I just dropped in at the local sawmill for the wood and just dragged everything else I'd accumulated to the site.

But as us x-boxers, etc, are at the whim of the developers, while the glorious PC master race cackle while eating sweetrolls and having fine wines poured into their mouths by exotic slaves...sigh.

Still - I do like the Dwarven Anchient Forge quest and the domain of that orb daedric prince is pretty...screwed up:) (Best use of a Daedric Prince's realm since whats-his-name-the-insane.) Give your kids some real weapons - makes combat-training in the cellar a lot more fun when an 8-year old is wielding Mazune's Razor, or something similar:)

PS: The "Kill anyone"mods are really, really good - worthwile buying the Game and a PC big enough to run it happily. That brat who insults you at Whitewater? He might accidently go for a midnight dive off of a cliff to be torn apart by hungry giant skeevers. Ulric's being a dick? Kill him, his generals, his cooks...and let the Legion walk in to a charnal house with you having a picnic on a pyramid of bodies. (Most Kill mods are a bit weak, but some have put in an "Awe meter" where your reputation as being an unstoppable force in the service of death gets you pant's wetting respect from the peasents.)

-Tir

Oh, we're moving after 9 years, so it's insane here, ta all:)

Someone stole my sweetroll...

The Guards in Skyrim are huge cunts. They taunt you, "awwww, did someone steal your sweet roll?" but Talos help you if you nick a sweet-roll from them. They will throw down over that shit, and run your ass through.

I hate how they can't recognize me despite the epicness of my adventures!

That's kind of handy in some builds, though. If you're known throughout the land as the sneak-theif female khajiit dragonborn, they're going to watch you like hawks when you show in their territory...

But yeah, it can be very "Dude, where's my respect?" at times, when they can, in the same breath almost, praise you for killing a dragon and warn you to keep your light fingers to yourself. Oh, and you're the Thane.

Have you interrogated the slaves and grape peelers ? there was a tubby little shifty eyed bastard hiding behind my watercooled PC farm with mine !

he's back on navel lint duty !

And that is why being a Vampire Lord is awesome.

Also the reason why becoming the Grey Fox in Oblivion is awesome.

--



Perhaps. Is there a comparable mod provided by the modding community? I know there's plenty of home mods but you get to work with what they give you. The advantage to Hearthfire is that you have a variable house with variable furnishings so you can be as sparse or crowded as you like.



No. My estimate, if anything, is well under what materials are needed. I believe you're misunderstanding my count. The estimate is the total bill of materials to fully construct and furnish three manors while using all 9 wing options. The bill of materials that I listed is slightly over what is needed for a single 3 wing manor since it includes the build/furnishing materials for the small house, main hall, and cellar of the other two sites (not including the remaining 6 wing options).

Using http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Hearthfire as a guide on material costs....

Materials - Hidden in spoiler to avoid long post


Total Materials - 3 Bear Pelts, 34 Clay, 1 Corundum Ingot, 5 Deer Hide, 1 Dragon Bone, 1 Dragon Scales, 2 Ebony Ingots, 1 Flawless Amethyst, 1 Flawless Sapphire, 13 Glass, 1 Goat Hide, 14 Goat Horns, 3 Gold Ingots, 1 Grand Soul Gem, 41 Hinges, 2 Horker Tusks, 54 Iron Fittings, 6 Large Antlers, 19 Locks, 37 Leather Strips, 2 Mudcrab Chitin, 313 Nails, 2 Orichalcum Ingots, 128 Quarried Stone, 3 Quicksilver Ingots, 2 Refined Malachite, 3 Refined Moonstone, 1 Sabre Cat Pelt, 3 Sabre Cat Snow Pelts, 8 Sabre Cat Teeth, 213 Sawn Logs, 4 Silver Ingots, 8 Slaughterfish Scales, 1 Small Antler, 36 Steel Ingots, 10 Straw, 3 Wolf Pelts. You'll need an extra 126 Iron Ingots and 19 Corundum Ingots to craft all the necessary Hinges, Iron Fittings, Locks, and Nails.

Now, that doesn't include any of the 9 wing options or the external item that is unique to each of the three sites and that is the bill of materials for one single site.

So what are the costs to build and full furnish each wing, which I consider it perfectly acceptable to construct each wing once.



Constructing all that requires 2 Bear Pelts, 75 Clay, 25 Glass, 5 Goat Hides, 44 Goat Horns, 1 Gold Ingot, 1 Grand Soul Gem, 114 Hinges, 6 Horker Tusks, 127 Iron Fittings, 40 Iron Ingots, 1 Large Antler, 47 Locks, 31 Leather Strips, 10 Mudcrab Chitin, 617 Nails, 178 Quarried Stone, 1 Quicksilver Ingot, 1 Refined Moonstone, 1 Sabre Cat Pelt, 2 Sabre Cat Teeth, 438 Sawn Logs, 12 Steel Ingots, 10 Straw, and 2 Wolf Pelts. You need 350 Iron Ingots and 47 Corundum Ingots to build the Hinges, Iron Fittings, Locks, and Nails.

So the grand total material bill to build everything?

11 Bear Pelts, 177 Clay, 3 Corundrum Ingot, 15 Deer Hides, 3 Dragon Bones, 3 Dragon Scales, 6 Ebony Ingots, 3 Flawless Amethyst, 3 Flawless Sapphires, 64 Glass, 8 Goat Hide, 86 Goat Horns, 10 Gold Ingots, 4 Grand Soul Gems, 237 Hinges, 12 Horker Tusks, 289 Iron Fittings, 133 Iron Ingots, 19 Large Antlers, 104 Locks, 142 Leather Strips, 16 Mudcrab Chitin, 1556 Nails, 6 Orichalcum Ingots, 562 Quarried Stone, 10 Quicksilver Ingots, 6 Refined Malachite, 10 Refined Moonstone, 4 Sabre Cat Pelts, 9 Sabre Cat Snow Pelts, 26 Sabre Cat Teeth, 1077 Sawn Logs, 12 Silver Ingots, 24 Slaughterfish Scales, 3 Small Antlers, 120 Steel Ingots, 11 Wold Pelts. You need 786 Iron Ingots and 104 Corundum Ingots to make the Hinges, Iron Fittings, Locks, and Nails.

Now, as I've said I will probably be selective with my furnishings but that's still a high cost with iron ingots/ore (for steel), corundum ingots/ore (for steel). The sawn logs will take a long time to harvest (108 cycles of the mill). 177 clay and 562 quarried stone are easy to gather since they have on site clay and stone pits that have a quantity of 4000 in them (that respawns) they just take time. Now, yes, you could pay your steward to furnish the home but then you end up with everything and it comes over time rather than on demand. So you can't be selective in what you furnish.

That would be Hermaeus Mora and yeah, they did a good job with his realm (the other prince you're thinking of being Sheogorath, the mad prince, although previously was, or rather is, Jyggalag, the daedric prince of order.)

I tried to get into the game again, and just couldn't. With having finally played Fallout 3/New Vegas to death, I really need a new time eater...

I'm actually having the same problem, CanRay.

I picked up the new DLC, and started a new character - well, kind of had to, since allmy saves went poof when the old PC died - anyway, started a new character and .... it's just not grabbing me as much as it once did.

for a cheap bit of retro time assassination, I've had a blast in "Legend of Grimrock"

I can't believe my quick search here returned no results, I can't be the first to suggest it, can I ?

Remember, Jyggalag and Sheogorath are two separate entities now. =)

Is Sheogorath even a Daedra?

After Shivering Isles? Hard to say. I suppose it's possible the Champion of Cyrodiil was elevated to the status of Daedric Prince, between stopping Jyggalag from the Greymarch and stopping Mehrunes Dagon.

Honestly mods are the answer, at least for the PC version. Making it look better and overhauling good portions of the game end up making it eat hours of my time... just in playing with bits and pieces of mods. Last two weeks I spent I don't know how many hours trying out character concepts to level 20 - 25.

Mods don't always help, though. I've got a whole raftload of 'em, myself - largely graphics improvements, but also some Smithing/crafting related stuff.

Barbas is a beast.

Just saying.

He's a temporary companion while the Clavicus Vile quest is active. It appears that only you can harm him. I sat back and watched him solo a Vampire Master, 2 Vampires, and 2 Fledgling Vampires all beating on him at the same time.

So he is a cheater, not a beast.