Star Wars: The Old Republic - Space Combat - Fondor Escort mission.
The is the very first mission that you'll get when you finish up with questing on Coruscant. It took me a few tries to figure things out, so here are the key tips that you should know. The left-mouse fires the lasers while the right mouse (if the target cursor is over a circled target) allows you to lock on and fire missiles. The space bar key will cause your ship to do a barrel roll.
1) There is a vendor in the Republic Fleet station that sells "grade 1" upgrades for your spaceship. At a minimum for this mission, you should purchase the larger missile load (40 missiles instead of 16) and any upgrades that boost your damage (faster fire, more damage, etc).
2) Save your missiles for the turrets on the Empire's star destroyers. While it's not crucial that you blow up turrets on the destroyers, it's good XP until you run out of missiles. On other missions, you'll need to conserve your missiles for specific targets and not waste them on enemy fighters. Your remaining missile count appears in the lower right corner of the screen.
3) Try not to shoot the vessel that you are escorting.
4) Until Bioware rebalances early space combat, there's no reason not to just tape down the fire button (left mouse) during this mission. Your ship will automatically fire as fast as possible at whatever you point at. Just keep the crosshairs away from the ship that you are escorting or friendly ships / fighters.
5) The secret to the Fondor Esort is to focus your fire on every single enemy fighter that you come across. Since they are weak ships, it will only take you a few rounds to kill each one. In other missions, you'll sometimes run across "elite" enemy fighters which will require a lot more rounds (or a missile) in order to destroy.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
EVE: Mackinaw Conga Line
Sometimes you see the strangest things in EVE Online. Ice mining is an extremely low interaction activity because the ice harvester lasers only cycle every 4-10 minutes (depending on ship & skills). Naturally, this lends itself to being spiced up in various ways.
Such as the Mackinaw conga line.
Such as the Mackinaw conga line.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
ES4O: Knotbone Ruins (Gameplay)
A section of Knotbone Ruins in the Shivering Isles expansion pack for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. This is the part of the dungeon where the ruins have tilted a good 20 degrees off of horizontal.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
ES4O: Character creation
This is a custom class design, which should do well for a sneaky character right out of the gate. It's not overly powerful, and avoids some of the early traps (such as making Mysticism or Alteration a major skill - those go up fast).
http://linklost.com/occ/
Name/Class: Sylveth / Brigand
Race/Gender: Wood Elf (Bosmer) / Female
Birthsign: The Thief
Specialization: Stealth
Attributes: Endurance, Luck
Major Skills: Alchemy, Mercantile, Speechcraft, Security,
Light Armor, Blade, Armorer
Health/Magicka/Fatigue: 70/80/155
Max Level: 50
Encumbrance: 150
Abilities:
- Command Creature (daily: 20 pt. Touch for 1 min.)
- Resist Disease (constant: 75 pt. Self)
Stats:
INTELLIGENCE-40: Alchemy-35, Mysticism-5, Conjuration-5
WILLPOWER-30: Destruction-5, Alteration-10, Restoration-5
PERSONALITY-40: Illusion-5, Mercantile-30, Speechcraft-30
AGILITY-60: Security-30, Sneak-20, Marksman-20
SPEED-60: Athletics-5, Acrobatics-15, Light Armor-35
STRENGTH-30: Blunt-5, Blade-25, Hand to Hand-5
ENDURANCE-35: Block-5, Armorer-25, Heavy Armor-5
LUCK-65
To understand why I picked the things that I did, please refer to the "Leveling" section on the UESP wiki. Oblivion used a rather weird system based on skill point increases rather then raw XP.
So you need to ideally spread your majors around a bit between the primary attributes, and possibly make some skills that you use frequently not your majors picks during the character creation process (the "major is minor" approach). Basically, if you don't mind turning down the difficulty a bit at the very start, you should make your major skills, those that you use slightly less often and leave any skills that you use constantly as minor skills.
Skills that you use multiple times per hour (Acrobatics, Sneaking, Mysticism, Alteration) will go up very rapidly at the start, so there's not much need to get that initial 25 point boost in them from the very start. Other skills like Blade & Blocking take longer to skill up and involve risk. So they are good choices for tagging as "major" skills. Then there are the skills such as Alchemy, Mercantile, Speechcraft, Armorer, and Security which are either difficult to level up or are expensive to level up. Or which save you a lot of money early on.
However, the leveling process works on gaining 10 points in your major skills. So skill increases in your minor skills count towards the possible attribute bonus that you can pick when you level up, but they do not count towards getting you closer to the next level. So you should never setup your major skills to be only in skills that you never use, nor should you make all of your major skills those that you use all the time.
http://linklost.com/occ/
Name/Class: Sylveth / Brigand
Race/Gender: Wood Elf (Bosmer) / Female
Birthsign: The Thief
Specialization: Stealth
Attributes: Endurance, Luck
Major Skills: Alchemy, Mercantile, Speechcraft, Security,
Light Armor, Blade, Armorer
Health/Magicka/Fatigue: 70/80/155
Max Level: 50
Encumbrance: 150
Abilities:
- Command Creature (daily: 20 pt. Touch for 1 min.)
- Resist Disease (constant: 75 pt. Self)
Stats:
INTELLIGENCE-40: Alchemy-35, Mysticism-5, Conjuration-5
WILLPOWER-30: Destruction-5, Alteration-10, Restoration-5
PERSONALITY-40: Illusion-5, Mercantile-30, Speechcraft-30
AGILITY-60: Security-30, Sneak-20, Marksman-20
SPEED-60: Athletics-5, Acrobatics-15, Light Armor-35
STRENGTH-30: Blunt-5, Blade-25, Hand to Hand-5
ENDURANCE-35: Block-5, Armorer-25, Heavy Armor-5
LUCK-65
To understand why I picked the things that I did, please refer to the "Leveling" section on the UESP wiki. Oblivion used a rather weird system based on skill point increases rather then raw XP.
So you need to ideally spread your majors around a bit between the primary attributes, and possibly make some skills that you use frequently not your majors picks during the character creation process (the "major is minor" approach). Basically, if you don't mind turning down the difficulty a bit at the very start, you should make your major skills, those that you use slightly less often and leave any skills that you use constantly as minor skills.
Skills that you use multiple times per hour (Acrobatics, Sneaking, Mysticism, Alteration) will go up very rapidly at the start, so there's not much need to get that initial 25 point boost in them from the very start. Other skills like Blade & Blocking take longer to skill up and involve risk. So they are good choices for tagging as "major" skills. Then there are the skills such as Alchemy, Mercantile, Speechcraft, Armorer, and Security which are either difficult to level up or are expensive to level up. Or which save you a lot of money early on.
However, the leveling process works on gaining 10 points in your major skills. So skill increases in your minor skills count towards the possible attribute bonus that you can pick when you level up, but they do not count towards getting you closer to the next level. So you should never setup your major skills to be only in skills that you never use, nor should you make all of your major skills those that you use all the time.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
ES4O: Oblivion Introduction, Prison Cell (480p)
Introduction area at the very start of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion where you are locked in a dungeon cell. Shows what the game used to look like with the base textures and UI, with no mods installed.
(Old video footage from 2007 showing the vanilla version of Oblivion for the PC. Recorded as 720p and downsized to 480p for storage on DVD. The textures back there were nowhere as detailed, and the MPEG2 compression softened it up a bit.)
Also, the "well room" area of the tutorial where you pickup armor, a bow, some arrows and get to take target practice on a bucket.
Here is what all that can look like on modern hardware with a texture pack installed and the DarnUI along with some other enhancements. Unfortunately without sound because FRAPS didn't record the audio.
(Old video footage from 2007 showing the vanilla version of Oblivion for the PC. Recorded as 720p and downsized to 480p for storage on DVD. The textures back there were nowhere as detailed, and the MPEG2 compression softened it up a bit.)
Also, the "well room" area of the tutorial where you pickup armor, a bow, some arrows and get to take target practice on a bucket.
Here is what all that can look like on modern hardware with a texture pack installed and the DarnUI along with some other enhancements. Unfortunately without sound because FRAPS didn't record the audio.
ES4O: Setting up Oblivion again (setup 3)
Now for game play tweaks.
#1 - I've always despised the built-in game mechanic where all of the monsters level up with you. Which means that regular roadside bandits eventually become super powerful, with high level armor and weapons - rather then just being roadside ruffians.
The answer to this dilemma is "Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul".
Which, unfortunately, can be a bit difficult to find/install. The primary file that you need to find is "OOO_133_Complete.7z" along with "OOO_134_Beta_5_Patch.7z".
Extract both files to separate directories, then look for the ReadMe files. Take the contents of the 1.34 beta 5 folder and use it to overwrite the same files in the 1.33 complete folder. Then create your OMOD off of the folder with the merged files. (The files in 1.34b5 need to replace those in the 1.33 release version.)
Read carefully the first splash screen that lists common conflicting mods (or mods that have been folded into OOO). After that, you'll want to pick:
- "Full" install
- Do not install "Drop Lit Torches" (say "Yes" to remove)
- "No" to the Spell Timer question
- "No" to the magic script effect
- "No" to the respawn rate
- "No" to the water weeds question
- "No" to the city map marker question (you now have to visit before you can fast travel)
- "No" to guild ownership removal
- "No" to Harvest Flora (you should install 3.0.1 instead)
- "No" to Living Economy (use Enhanced Economy 5.4.3 instead)
- "Yes" to readme files
Make sure you use the OOOupsave.exe with older savegame files (or just start a brand new game from scratch by deleting existing saves).
Try "Drop Lit Torches OBSE" for a better torch mod. Naturally, you'll need to install OBSE.
The default OOO leveling rate is about 3x slower. Great if you're not in a hurry and want to see many things in your travels, but not so great if you're pressed for time. To fix this, look for "Level_Rates_Modified_x2.esp" (which is only about 2x slower). Package that up in a new OMOD file and make sure that it loads after any of the other OOO ESP files in your load order.
#2 - Martigen's Monster Mod
(defer this install until later)
#3 - Enhanced Economy (requires OBSE)
This does a better job at making the merchant's gold amounts seem realistic then the older "Living Economy" did. Make sure to disable Living Economy when installing OOO.
Needs to be installed after DarnUI. Pick "Default" during the install, then edit the INI file later ("Enhanced Economy.ini" under the Oblivion "Data/Ini" folder). Recommended changes:
set tnoEE.extraBarterGoldJourneyman to 2500
set tnoEE.merchantServicesReturn to 0.75
set tnoEE.start_random_factor to 0.25
set tnoEE.time_factor to 0.25
set tnoEE.merchant_reset_interval to 96
set EEbarterChatterSpecial to 10
set tnoEE.mercSkillMode to 2
set tnoEE.merchantQuests_maxGoldReward to 300
set tnoEE.baseMagicValue to 2
set tnoEE.magicEffectPow to 0.95
set tnoEE.deadOwnership to 0
set tnoEE.deadOwnershipInCities to 1
set tnoEE.potionValueMult to 0.3
set tnoEE.coinValue to 10
set tnoEE.containerAdjustment to 150
(Makes those loose gold coins that you see laying around more worthwhile picking up. Makes gold inside of containers a bit more profitable. But also turns down a few other things.)
#4 - SD Skill Diary
Helps keep track of your skill-up process.
#5 - Gather ye Rosebuds
Makes harvesting of flora about 10x easier.
#6 - Reneer's Guard Overhaul
Makes the guards less psychic and much better behaved.
#7 - Better Thief Loot
Makes it slightly more profitable to rob upper level houses.
#8 - Random Sigil Stone
Makes it possible for Sigil Stones to show up in regular loot containers. There are (3) ESPs inside the archive, so you'll need to extract it to a folder and then remove the two that you don't want. I suggest going with GruntssigilstonesAylied.esp.
#9 - Random Welkynd and Varla Stones
Adds Weklynd and Varla stones to Ayleid containers, making it more rewarding to go into the ruins. Only a 1% chance of them showing up though, so shouldn't be too overpowered.
#10 - Soul Gem Bigger Capacity
Doubles the magic points stored in each soul gem.
#11 - Sigil Stones Expanded and Extended
Gives you more incentive to keep closing Oblivion gates. Note that you will need to unpack this and delete the extra ESPs (which files, depends on whether you use OOO or not or some other mods).
#12 - Buyable Chests
Puts little chests in the cities that you can purchase to use as permanent storage. They're much cheaper then houses, but not free either.
#1 - I've always despised the built-in game mechanic where all of the monsters level up with you. Which means that regular roadside bandits eventually become super powerful, with high level armor and weapons - rather then just being roadside ruffians.
The answer to this dilemma is "Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul".
Which, unfortunately, can be a bit difficult to find/install. The primary file that you need to find is "OOO_133_Complete.7z" along with "OOO_134_Beta_5_Patch.7z".
Extract both files to separate directories, then look for the ReadMe files. Take the contents of the 1.34 beta 5 folder and use it to overwrite the same files in the 1.33 complete folder. Then create your OMOD off of the folder with the merged files. (The files in 1.34b5 need to replace those in the 1.33 release version.)
Read carefully the first splash screen that lists common conflicting mods (or mods that have been folded into OOO). After that, you'll want to pick:
- "Full" install
- Do not install "Drop Lit Torches" (say "Yes" to remove)
- "No" to the Spell Timer question
- "No" to the magic script effect
- "No" to the respawn rate
- "No" to the water weeds question
- "No" to the city map marker question (you now have to visit before you can fast travel)
- "No" to guild ownership removal
- "No" to Harvest Flora (you should install 3.0.1 instead)
- "No" to Living Economy (use Enhanced Economy 5.4.3 instead)
- "Yes" to readme files
Make sure you use the OOOupsave.exe with older savegame files (or just start a brand new game from scratch by deleting existing saves).
Try "Drop Lit Torches OBSE" for a better torch mod. Naturally, you'll need to install OBSE.
The default OOO leveling rate is about 3x slower. Great if you're not in a hurry and want to see many things in your travels, but not so great if you're pressed for time. To fix this, look for "Level_Rates_Modified_x2.esp" (which is only about 2x slower). Package that up in a new OMOD file and make sure that it loads after any of the other OOO ESP files in your load order.
#2 - Martigen's Monster Mod
(defer this install until later)
#3 - Enhanced Economy (requires OBSE)
This does a better job at making the merchant's gold amounts seem realistic then the older "Living Economy" did. Make sure to disable Living Economy when installing OOO.
Needs to be installed after DarnUI. Pick "Default" during the install, then edit the INI file later ("Enhanced Economy.ini" under the Oblivion "Data/Ini" folder). Recommended changes:
set tnoEE.extraBarterGoldJourneyman to 2500
set tnoEE.merchantServicesReturn to 0.75
set tnoEE.start_random_factor to 0.25
set tnoEE.time_factor to 0.25
set tnoEE.merchant_reset_interval to 96
set EEbarterChatterSpecial to 10
set tnoEE.mercSkillMode to 2
set tnoEE.merchantQuests_maxGoldReward to 300
set tnoEE.baseMagicValue to 2
set tnoEE.magicEffectPow to 0.95
set tnoEE.deadOwnership to 0
set tnoEE.deadOwnershipInCities to 1
set tnoEE.potionValueMult to 0.3
set tnoEE.coinValue to 10
set tnoEE.containerAdjustment to 150
(Makes those loose gold coins that you see laying around more worthwhile picking up. Makes gold inside of containers a bit more profitable. But also turns down a few other things.)
#4 - SD Skill Diary
Helps keep track of your skill-up process.
#5 - Gather ye Rosebuds
Makes harvesting of flora about 10x easier.
#6 - Reneer's Guard Overhaul
Makes the guards less psychic and much better behaved.
#7 - Better Thief Loot
Makes it slightly more profitable to rob upper level houses.
#8 - Random Sigil Stone
Makes it possible for Sigil Stones to show up in regular loot containers. There are (3) ESPs inside the archive, so you'll need to extract it to a folder and then remove the two that you don't want. I suggest going with GruntssigilstonesAylied.esp.
#9 - Random Welkynd and Varla Stones
Adds Weklynd and Varla stones to Ayleid containers, making it more rewarding to go into the ruins. Only a 1% chance of them showing up though, so shouldn't be too overpowered.
#10 - Soul Gem Bigger Capacity
Doubles the magic points stored in each soul gem.
#11 - Sigil Stones Expanded and Extended
Gives you more incentive to keep closing Oblivion gates. Note that you will need to unpack this and delete the extra ESPs (which files, depends on whether you use OOO or not or some other mods).
#12 - Buyable Chests
Puts little chests in the cities that you can purchase to use as permanent storage. They're much cheaper then houses, but not free either.
ES4O: Setting up Oblivion again (setup 2)
See previous post for basic install using Steam/OBMM/BOSS:
ES4O: Digging up Oblivion again (basic setup)
This set of mods will focus mostly on making things pretty or sounding better. There won't be too many game play changes here. The assumption here is that you have already installed the unofficial Oblivion patch (UOP) mods. Some of the mods listed here will overwrite files modified by the UOP mods (which is fine, just install these after the UOPs are activated).
Note: After adding things in OBMM, you should go into "Utilities, Archive Invalidation" and click the "Update Now" button, which will ensure that things work. Don't forget to re-run BOSS after exiting OBMM.
#1 - Natural Environments
Makes the outdoor world much more immersive with storms, seasonal weather, denser foliage, improvements to water. The 2.1.3 version is the latest, and there is an OBMM install script as a separate download.
1. Download Natural Environments 2.1.3, extract to an empty folder
2. Extract the contents of the OBMM install script (7Z-packed EXE) into the same folder.
3. In Oblivion Mod Manager, click Create --> Add folder, choose the folder you just extracted to, click yes to everything.
4. Click the "Create OMOD" button, then install using double-click.
5. Exit OBMM, run BOSS, and see whether you can still get to the Oblivion start screen.
#2 - Alive Waters
Boosts the amount of fish, seaweed, underwater treasure that can be found in the lakes and rivers of the province.
1. Extract the contents of the archive to a new folder, check out the README file.
2. You'll want to create an OMOD from the folder and install all of the ESPs.
#3 - Qarl Texture Pack 3 Redimized and further reduced OMOD
Improves upon many of the textures within Oblivion. It's a fairly large download, but it comes packaged as an OMOD. So fairly easy to install / remove.
#4 - IFT Improved Facial Textures
Improves the facial textures of the stock bodies. There are other face / facial mods out there, so you may need to pick and choose.
#5 - Painted Paintings
Updates the in-game paintings to look more like hand-painted works.
#6 - LBM Weathered Direction Signs
Pretties up the road signs. Conflicts slightly with Qarls, so you should install Qarl's Texture Pack first, then install this one.
#7 - Unique Signs
Makes the shop / city signs better.
#8 - Darnified UI
The default Oblivion UI is designed for a standard definition TV screen. DarnUI makes it so that it works better on a high-def computer screen.
#9 - Drath Samid Hand Painted Map of Cyrodiil
I prefer the "Hand Inked Map of Cyrodiil Dark No Grid" version. It goes well with DarnUI.
#10 - A few sound tweaks
Oblivion Stereo Sound Overhaul
Symphony of Violence - Combat Sound Enhancement
#11 - Alluring Potion Bottles
Spices up the potion bottles in the game. If you like it, you may also want to look into adding Alluring Wine Bottles.
#12 - Glittering Prizes
Add some sparkle to your treasures.
#13 - Book Jackets (requires work)
Improves on the book covers of books that you can collect/read. I suggest the "standard res" version to start with. Note that you cannot just create an OMOD file from the compressed 7Z file, you must unpack the archive and remove one of the two main ESM files first. The ReadMe file inside explains the process and what the optional files do.
Since we're not using the "Book Placement" mod (yet), delete the "Book Jackets Oblivion - BP.esp" file. You will also want to delete the "Book Jackets Alternates" folder, unless you really want the alternates for the (5) unique books that already had covers in the game.
After that, you can create an OMOD from the folder.
#14 - Harvest Flora (OOO includes 3.0.0)
Designed to change the look of things after you loot them so that you can get a better idea of whether an area of flora has respawned. The OOO version 1.34b5 includes 3.00 of Harvest Flora, so you should go out and install 3.0.1 and tell OOO not to use its version when you do the OOO install.
# 15 - Harvest Containers (skip if using OOO)
Be sure to grab the Shivering Isles version if you have the Shivering Isles expansion installed. Note this is not compatible with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (which I recommend that you use), so you will want to skip installation of this mod and go with OOO instead.
#16 - Improved Soulgems
Adds color to the existing soul gems so that they are easier to tell apart.
#17 - Darker Dungeons
This will require that you use some sort of night vision spell or a mod that lets you drop torches onto the ground, or light up the area inside of caves & dungeons. Works best if it appears late in the load order.
#18 - Camera mods
By default, the 3rd person view camera in Oblivion shakes too much and is rather prone to induce nausea in many people. Your choices for fixing this are either Growlfs Fixed Camera or ChaseCameraMod.
ES4O: Digging up Oblivion again (basic setup)
This set of mods will focus mostly on making things pretty or sounding better. There won't be too many game play changes here. The assumption here is that you have already installed the unofficial Oblivion patch (UOP) mods. Some of the mods listed here will overwrite files modified by the UOP mods (which is fine, just install these after the UOPs are activated).
Note: After adding things in OBMM, you should go into "Utilities, Archive Invalidation" and click the "Update Now" button, which will ensure that things work. Don't forget to re-run BOSS after exiting OBMM.
#1 - Natural Environments
Makes the outdoor world much more immersive with storms, seasonal weather, denser foliage, improvements to water. The 2.1.3 version is the latest, and there is an OBMM install script as a separate download.
1. Download Natural Environments 2.1.3, extract to an empty folder
2. Extract the contents of the OBMM install script (7Z-packed EXE) into the same folder.
3. In Oblivion Mod Manager, click Create --> Add folder, choose the folder you just extracted to, click yes to everything.
4. Click the "Create OMOD" button, then install using double-click.
5. Exit OBMM, run BOSS, and see whether you can still get to the Oblivion start screen.
#2 - Alive Waters
Boosts the amount of fish, seaweed, underwater treasure that can be found in the lakes and rivers of the province.
1. Extract the contents of the archive to a new folder, check out the README file.
2. You'll want to create an OMOD from the folder and install all of the ESPs.
#3 - Qarl Texture Pack 3 Redimized and further reduced OMOD
Improves upon many of the textures within Oblivion. It's a fairly large download, but it comes packaged as an OMOD. So fairly easy to install / remove.
#4 - IFT Improved Facial Textures
Improves the facial textures of the stock bodies. There are other face / facial mods out there, so you may need to pick and choose.
#5 - Painted Paintings
Updates the in-game paintings to look more like hand-painted works.
#6 - LBM Weathered Direction Signs
Pretties up the road signs. Conflicts slightly with Qarls, so you should install Qarl's Texture Pack first, then install this one.
#7 - Unique Signs
Makes the shop / city signs better.
#8 - Darnified UI
The default Oblivion UI is designed for a standard definition TV screen. DarnUI makes it so that it works better on a high-def computer screen.
#9 - Drath Samid Hand Painted Map of Cyrodiil
I prefer the "Hand Inked Map of Cyrodiil Dark No Grid" version. It goes well with DarnUI.
#10 - A few sound tweaks
Oblivion Stereo Sound Overhaul
Symphony of Violence - Combat Sound Enhancement
#11 - Alluring Potion Bottles
Spices up the potion bottles in the game. If you like it, you may also want to look into adding Alluring Wine Bottles.
#12 - Glittering Prizes
Add some sparkle to your treasures.
#13 - Book Jackets (requires work)
Improves on the book covers of books that you can collect/read. I suggest the "standard res" version to start with. Note that you cannot just create an OMOD file from the compressed 7Z file, you must unpack the archive and remove one of the two main ESM files first. The ReadMe file inside explains the process and what the optional files do.
Since we're not using the "Book Placement" mod (yet), delete the "Book Jackets Oblivion - BP.esp" file. You will also want to delete the "Book Jackets Alternates" folder, unless you really want the alternates for the (5) unique books that already had covers in the game.
After that, you can create an OMOD from the folder.
#14 - Harvest Flora (OOO includes 3.0.0)
Designed to change the look of things after you loot them so that you can get a better idea of whether an area of flora has respawned. The OOO version 1.34b5 includes 3.00 of Harvest Flora, so you should go out and install 3.0.1 and tell OOO not to use its version when you do the OOO install.
# 15 - Harvest Containers (skip if using OOO)
Be sure to grab the Shivering Isles version if you have the Shivering Isles expansion installed. Note this is not compatible with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (which I recommend that you use), so you will want to skip installation of this mod and go with OOO instead.
#16 - Improved Soulgems
Adds color to the existing soul gems so that they are easier to tell apart.
#17 - Darker Dungeons
This will require that you use some sort of night vision spell or a mod that lets you drop torches onto the ground, or light up the area inside of caves & dungeons. Works best if it appears late in the load order.
#18 - Camera mods
By default, the 3rd person view camera in Oblivion shakes too much and is rather prone to induce nausea in many people. Your choices for fixing this are either Growlfs Fixed Camera or ChaseCameraMod.
ES4O: Bleak Flat Caves
Gameplay from a fairly vanilla setup of ES4O without too many mods installed. Low level character at this point with a mishmash of armor and not many skills.
Friday, November 11, 2011
ES4O: Digging up Oblivion again (basic setup)
Since Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is out, I've gotten the taste to take a small break from EVE for a weekend and go back and play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Then, once Skyrim has been out for long enough that I can buy it on the cheap (with all DLCs included), I'll play that one.
This also has the advantage that my 18-month old NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 should be able to run it a lot better then the video card that I had back in 2007 (a pair of GeForce 7950 in SLI mode). So I won't have to deal with the slow frame rates I had back then and it should run fairly smooth on more modern hardware. I remember having to heavily tweak it in order to get even 20 fps at times.
Of course, since I haven't played it in a few years, it also means I need to find the mods that I used to use, see whether there are updated versions, and figure out if there are any new mods to use.
Old entries:
Oblivion Screenshots (May 2007)
Videos on YouTube (Jun 2007)
Gameplay Videos (from 2007)
Step #1 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition Deluxe $25
The deluxe version includes all of the DLCs, plus the Shivering Isles expansion. The other version (the GOTY regular) only includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion.
Step #2 - Oblivion mod manager by Timeslip
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097
This will make your modding life a whole lot easier. It will make backups of key files, let you re-order things, modify settings and a bunch of other really good and helpful tools. For the Steam version, you need to install it in the same directory as the Oblivion executable. On my Windows 7 64bit system, that is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\oblivion
After this is installed, I recommend trying to run the game in unmodified form, just to make sure that everything is working. That way you can backup your settings / mods / data and always fall back to this point.
Step #3 - Better Oblivion Sorting Software - BOSS
This tackles one of the thorny issues of Oblivion (and other Bethesda games), putting the mods in an order that makes sense and won't crash the game.
Install it, run it, and you should get a report in your web browser.
Step #4 - The fan-made patches
The game version that comes with Steam should already be the latest "official" version, but it still contains a lot of errors that get fixed with the following (3) mods. I recommend the OMOD version (since you can use OBMM to install those). Fire up OBMM and click on the "Load" button and browse to where you downloaded the OMOD file to. Then double-click on the new entry in OBMM to install it. You may be prompted about one or two things.
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch
Unofficial Official Mods Patch
Once you've changed the green box (not installed) to a blue box (installed), you should exit OBMM and run BOSS again. When you go back in and look at the load order, you'll see that BOSS has re-arranged the ESM/ESP files to make more sense.
Step #5 - Test play
At this point, I suggest going ahead and playing around with the basic game for an hour or so (enough to get through the introduction and get out into the game world). Make sure to create multiple saves as you go along, especially before you pass through any doorways to the outside world. These save points can be used later to test things out.
Step #6 - Oblivion Script Extender
OBSE is used by a lot of mods in order to extend what the Oblivion Scripting system was capable of. Installation requires copying some DLLs to the Oblivion folder (uninstall requires simply removing them). Note that you need version "0020" in order to be compatible with Steam.
1. Copy obse_1_2_416.dll, obse_editor_1_2.dll, and obse_steam_loader.dll to your Oblivion directory. This is usually "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\oblivion".
2. Ensure you have enabled the Steam community in-game, or OBSE will fail to load. Go to Steam > Settings > In-Game and check the box marked "Enable Steam Community In-Game".
3. Launch Oblivion via Steam or by running Oblivion.exe.
Step #7 - Windom Earle's Oblivion Crash Prevention System
Prevents some common Oblivion crashes, but not all of them. Note that you will probably have to create the "Data\OBSE\Plugins" directory and then copy the DLL file into there. Uninstallation is as simple as removing the DLL.
Step #8 - Fast Exit 2
Another OBSE plug-in that makes Oblivion better behaved when you go to exit the game.
This also has the advantage that my 18-month old NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 should be able to run it a lot better then the video card that I had back in 2007 (a pair of GeForce 7950 in SLI mode). So I won't have to deal with the slow frame rates I had back then and it should run fairly smooth on more modern hardware. I remember having to heavily tweak it in order to get even 20 fps at times.
Of course, since I haven't played it in a few years, it also means I need to find the mods that I used to use, see whether there are updated versions, and figure out if there are any new mods to use.
Old entries:
Oblivion Screenshots (May 2007)
Videos on YouTube (Jun 2007)
Gameplay Videos (from 2007)
Step #1 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition Deluxe $25
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansions plus Fighter's Stronghold Expansion, Spell Tome Treasures, Vile Lair, Mehrune's Razor and much more.
The deluxe version includes all of the DLCs, plus the Shivering Isles expansion. The other version (the GOTY regular) only includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion.
Step #2 - Oblivion mod manager by Timeslip
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097
This will make your modding life a whole lot easier. It will make backups of key files, let you re-order things, modify settings and a bunch of other really good and helpful tools. For the Steam version, you need to install it in the same directory as the Oblivion executable. On my Windows 7 64bit system, that is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\oblivion
After this is installed, I recommend trying to run the game in unmodified form, just to make sure that everything is working. That way you can backup your settings / mods / data and always fall back to this point.
Step #3 - Better Oblivion Sorting Software - BOSS
This tackles one of the thorny issues of Oblivion (and other Bethesda games), putting the mods in an order that makes sense and won't crash the game.
Install it, run it, and you should get a report in your web browser.
Step #4 - The fan-made patches
The game version that comes with Steam should already be the latest "official" version, but it still contains a lot of errors that get fixed with the following (3) mods. I recommend the OMOD version (since you can use OBMM to install those). Fire up OBMM and click on the "Load" button and browse to where you downloaded the OMOD file to. Then double-click on the new entry in OBMM to install it. You may be prompted about one or two things.
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch
Unofficial Official Mods Patch
Once you've changed the green box (not installed) to a blue box (installed), you should exit OBMM and run BOSS again. When you go back in and look at the load order, you'll see that BOSS has re-arranged the ESM/ESP files to make more sense.
Step #5 - Test play
At this point, I suggest going ahead and playing around with the basic game for an hour or so (enough to get through the introduction and get out into the game world). Make sure to create multiple saves as you go along, especially before you pass through any doorways to the outside world. These save points can be used later to test things out.
Step #6 - Oblivion Script Extender
OBSE is used by a lot of mods in order to extend what the Oblivion Scripting system was capable of. Installation requires copying some DLLs to the Oblivion folder (uninstall requires simply removing them). Note that you need version "0020" in order to be compatible with Steam.
1. Copy obse_1_2_416.dll, obse_editor_1_2.dll, and obse_steam_loader.dll to your Oblivion directory. This is usually "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\oblivion".
2. Ensure you have enabled the Steam community in-game, or OBSE will fail to load. Go to Steam > Settings > In-Game and check the box marked "Enable Steam Community In-Game".
3. Launch Oblivion via Steam or by running Oblivion.exe.
Step #7 - Windom Earle's Oblivion Crash Prevention System
Prevents some common Oblivion crashes, but not all of them. Note that you will probably have to create the "Data\OBSE\Plugins" directory and then copy the DLL file into there. Uninstallation is as simple as removing the DLL.
Step #8 - Fast Exit 2
Another OBSE plug-in that makes Oblivion better behaved when you go to exit the game.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Minecraft: Parody video - Revenge
"Revenge" - A Minecraft Parody of Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love - Crafted Using Noteblocks
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Transformice
This is one of those silly Adobe Flash games, but is also an amusing study of human behavior as the individual players (mice) attempt to get to the cheese and back without falling into the void.
Of course, when things don't always go to plan, you can just resort to dancing.
Of course, when things don't always go to plan, you can just resort to dancing.