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sleepymarmot · 7 years

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Skyrim liveblog: more Dawnguard rage and even more mods

Oh great. I installed a mod that makes quivers compatible with backpacks, decided that the several day long modding session should be over and I can go back to playing... And then I noticed that Serana's stupid Elder Scroll is considered a quiver and now is attached to her butt too. Cue an hour in Creation Kit trying to make her a bow with an ES model to wear. She fucking wears that butt scroll even if I delete it from her inventory, and refuses to wear anything else, even when I add it to her fucking outfit. Why does that quiver mod affect her but mine doesn't?! Ugh. It's as if this character is in the game specifically to spite me. Fuck off.

Well, at least I looted some stuff! Finally found the fort with the Bound Bow spell tome. It's completely against the idea of the character, and it's not as strong as my normal bows, but fast and fun. Dwarven condenser (steam staff) still haven't tried.

"I've seen that dragon before" and by that I mean "I have subtitles on and know that name from the internet"

Hell yeah, I can wait before the next part! Aka give Serana a ride home.

Solitude

After 138 hours of playing, earning 100000 gold, and becoming a Thane in three holds, I finally reach the capital! Exciting!

Wow, imperials really like beheadings, don't they.

Whoa, what a fancy tavern!

I love how distinct the interior style is.

A dude walked up to me and started to talk about his "master" and madness. Sigh. It's going to be Sheogorath, isn't it?

"Blessings of the Eight Divines" oh i see...

"We appreciate worship in all its forms" ha

And the temple is unlike anything I've seen before in the game, like the city in general.

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Just as I was glad to see the final battle of a dungeon end, my stupid followers decided to attack each other and Serana fucking murdered Uthgerd. Fuck! You!!!

Can't find anything to activate a bridge, think that maybe this dungeon doesn't have a shortcut, use Clairvoyance and it leads me back the way I came, I can't proceed, google and turns out there is a lever I missed. What is even the point of this spell?!

Dawnguard

Finally I have reached the place of your imprisonment, poor Thorald! But first I must get rid of Serana.

Haha, she thanks you for leading her all this way here and apologizes that she'll have to go her own way after. Fine by me!

Btw, in hindsight it wasn't the best strategic decision to show an ancient and respected vampire the location of the secret vampire hunter fort... Whoops.

Harkon *turns into a gargoyle*: Don't you wanna be pretty like me??

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Guess who showed no finesse whatsoever in this rescue operation and just slaughtered every Thalmor on her way?

I broke like a hundred lockpicks off these master locks, and the prisoners don't show any gratitude or even try to escape...

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With a good stock of certain mushrooms and a set of 26% fortify alchemy armor, it took me ten minutes to grind from legendary 15 back to 80 points.

Whiterun

I have figured out the problem with my Lakeview interior: it's not Whiterun-ish enough. Not enough yellow and blue, too much red and dark brown. Now that I've been to Solitude, I see its influences on the Breezehome mod I'm using and it's starting to bother me, too. Where are my blue-yellow walls? The ivy is pretty but it's Solitude's style, not Whiterun's. Btw I miss the simple vanilla Whiterun rug design...

"Not here, I told you to meet me in Riverwood" What the fuck? I didn't even expect to see her here! I live here, you know! I'm a thane here, actually!

Hmm, I tried to replace one of the rugs in Lakeview with a Whiterun rug but it just doesn't fit in... I didn't even notice that I build a red-green-brown color scheme there!

Dawnguard

Aaaand the vampires found us. Which is clearly a part of the main plot and happens whether I took Serana here or not.

"The woman was a vampire" Wait, is that supposed to be news?! How???

"I should have kept her here until we were certain" Yes we should have!!

"They also have an Elder Scroll" That's also not new! Literally the first thing you can ask her is "Is that an Elder Scroll?" Who wrote this???

"And you didn't stop them?" I LITERALLY BROUGHT HER HERE. SHE STOOD RIGHT NEAR THE CASTLE. WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE THE ORDERS THEN???

I'm going to cry... Out of everything I've encountered in the game, this is the stupidest.

Innocence Lost

The entire internet says you don't get bounty for killing Grelod. I sneak in during the night, stealth kill her -- bounty 1000, a guard immediately attacks me outside.

Oh right. It was Constance. But Grelod was in this room during the day, and someone among the kids shouted "kill her"...

Okay, now it went well.

"When I grow up, I'm going to be an assassin. That way I'm going to help lots of children, just like you" Aw...

An unusual gem is marked "take", I take it -- it's interpreted as stealing. Good thing I saved 10 seconds ago...

A fine hour as a honest student of magic -- training with everyone, getting my money back by trading, making more enchanted shit, grinding my brains out... My enchantment is at 95 now: almost there! Didn't even touch the storyline.

Dark Brotherhood

Wow, Astrid dragged me from Winterhold all the way to Solitude!She's the leader? They don't have anyone better? Really?Wait, the DB sanctuary is so close to my home? Unacceptable!!The DB sanctuary is bugged. Not only the inhabitants can't move, which isn't a bad thing, but the word wall doesn't work. And its word is in the only shout I regularly use..

Dawnguard

"You wouldn't happen to have a dwarven gyro, would you?" I'm wearing dwarven armor, boots, gauntlest, and two modded dwarven items. Yeah, I think I can find a gyro too...

I thought she would send me on a quest to explore a nearby ruin before agreeing...

Finally, I can interact with the master archery trainer and fellow engineer!

Aaand she sends me to freaking Solsteim. I had to google that because it doesn't show up on the map. Apparently it's a radiant location...

Isran refused to talk to me, only after I saw Serana he told me to talk to her, then after I turned my head from her back to him he asked me to tell me what she said, as if we weren't all standing in a corner almost on top of one another.

No, Serana, I don't want you to come along, especially if it's "just me and you".

Vaermina

Smart Looter broke the Vaermina quest, looting the soul gem that I was supposed to take, so I got stuck.

LMAO Vaermina your bluff could have been more convincing if you didn't add "Vaermina commands you" at the end

Proudspire Manor

Okay, I bought Proudspire and I have a lot of questions.

Is the children's room really next to the entrance on the first floor? Not on the third floor near the master bedroom, not even the second?

Where is the housecarl's room?

Where is the kitchen? You know, the cooking pot where I can make stuff?

Aaaalright, so the kids' room does appear on the third floor. So what is the empty room with a bed roll, then?

And the cooking pot is apparently supposed to be on the second floor, and is missing due to a Hearthfire bug.

"The housecarl's room in the basement contains an unowned bed roll, two food barrels, three food sacks and many crates, rugs and unused pieces of furniture. This doesn't get upgraded like normal when you become thane and the housecarl moves into the manor, unlike with other houses." Okay. Why the hell is this called basement when it's on the ground level and leads to the main entrance?

I finally decided to do something with my hoarding problem, selling old weak potions and trying to sort the rest.

Unique weapons -- weapon rack in my house

Upgrade everything I have to Legendary, then either sell or:

Pouch 1 -- clothes I might want to wear

Pouch 2 -- enchanted weapons I don't use (too weak or not my type) but don't want to sell

Pouch 2 -- one or two copies of every weapon I have.

Dawnguard

Wow, I fast travelled right to the entrance to the fort this time! Improvement!

Yes, Serana, I think it is my place to judge you! When your family's problems are that you feed on other people, they become other people's business!

"I'll buy whatever you're looking to get rid of" Sorine truly understands me...

Wow, Dawnguard has a special, second in Skyrim breed of dog that actually looks cute, not creepy! I actually want one, but only if they're invincible.

They're protected, not essential :( Maybe I'd take one but use console. Like I did on Uthgerd earlier today. It's impossible to play a destruction mage with a follower otherwise.

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Came to Winterhold to ask about the scrolls and train with Faralda, and she attacks me :( It's another bug apparently.

Okay, thanks internet, waiting for 10 days fixed it.

Dawnguard

"He might know where I can find an Elder Scroll for Paarthurnax" Uh? Are we mixing up quests here? I haven't even met Paarthurnax...

Screw you, Serana! Is it not enough to just tell my follower to stay here? Do I have dismiss her entirely? Normal quest givers just leave the follower behind automatically!

I dunno, Serana, I think this courtyard looks pretty nice...

Free the horse's soul and then bind it to yourself! What's the logic? Nice horse though.

Does "Tyranny of the Sun" means "The sun harms vampires" or "Vampires destroy the sun"? I think they've used this phrase in both ways...

I'm not sure how the Soul Cairn works. Are the souls trapped here only by the special means gained from the Ideal Masters? I thought at first that they're just victims of the black soul gems, but doesn't seem so.

Wait, so if the prophecy asks for a "daughter of Cold-whatever", then any female vampire who had gone throgh that ritual would do, right? Not only Serana and her mom.

I'm not sure summoning a dragon to Tamriel is a good idea... Aren't we killing them on sight, not the other way around?

Winterhold

I just realized that I haven't used Illusion at all, but it would be very handy for roleplaying a nice character! So, another level-up session. I planned to leave legendary-ing alchemy for Solsteim, but what the hell! Got destruction and illusion to 90.

Damn, I forgot about Paralysis! And alteration altogether, it's at 38! That's because Tolfdir is in a different hall, haha.

The Black Star

Well, now I don't know what to do. When I read about the quest, I decided that I'll give the Star to the priestess -- I'm not evil and I don't need a black soul gem. But rp-wise... That mage is right. Why should I help daedra?

Wiki: "If you reveal yourself as an agent of Azura, you will have to pass an easy-level Speech check or he will dismiss you outright" Easy-level! Ha! I have 100+ Speech and I failed the persuasion and had to bribe him!

Uh, why is the owner of this mill a vampire? Is that normal?

Heljarchen Farm

Damn, the Heljarchen farm is so well decorated! The shrine decorations just floored me. I've never seen that kind of thing before!

It's a shame that as soon as I arrived to claim the property, I encountered a bandit stuck in place -- navmesh conflict? Also the light is flickering weirdly in the cellar.

LMAO my own worker addresses me "What do you want, lizard?"

I could feel the framerate die after I planted all my stuff outside lol. I didn't even fill all the planters! I wanted more of them, but maybe it wouldn't be wise...

Filled the greenhouse with mushrooms. Sorry immersion! I need those!

Oh, so I CAN light the lanterns! The activator is not on the lantern itself but on the post. Weird, but okay. Would be nice if they auto-activated at night.

Is that the outdoor toilet? Why can't I enter?

I wish it had a proper forge, not just an anvil.

I wish I could pay workers daily.

Cabbage clips through the fertile soil. Yikes.

The Hideaway

Time to tend to my other modded house -- the Hideaway. It's kinda ridiculous to have them right next to each other, but I love both. It's so amazingly designed! I haven't even seen before most of the assets in it! What I don't like is that I can't display a shrine of Zenithar -- some garbage Daedra, sure, but not one of the Divines! It's not a huge issue obviously, I can use one in the farm or anywhere else, but it's slightly irritating. The kitchen and smithing areas are too dark, there's a visible texture clash outside (might be vanilla though), and it's weird to leave all this stuff protected only by a couple of wooden planks.

Dragons Keep

Dragons Keep is beautiful and very detailed. Yes, Skyrim looks like a country that prefers home education to boarding schools -- but I really want to get those poor orphans somewhere safe even though I don't have time for parenting! I'd like some lore basis for this luxury. Maybe it was personally supported by the High King, and now that he's dead, the Dragonborn can become a new patron and pay for upkeep, as well as entrance fees for any new student I invite. That would be a good money sink, and make the entire thing more plausible.

And I wish the children were more diverse instead of carbon copies of vanilla ones...

My build

I've taken the Necromage and Aspect of Terror perks, and I think my fire spells are now even stronger than archery against draugr! So I went through an entire dungeon with Incinerate in the right hand and swapping between Soul Trap and Incinerate in the left.

My progression is going as planned. After a lot of studies in the college, I became a skilled wizard who uses all schools of magic. When I get at least one other than enchanting to mastery, I'll proceed with the quest. I know how it ends, but not how long it is, so I'm leaving it entirely until I feel deserving of the title.

lmao bless stealth archery, I have completed the final room of the Potema catacombs in Solitude without even stepping into it, killing every draugr before it could spot me

Proudspire TNF

Finally got tired that there's not a single smelter in the capital of Skyrim and installed Proudspire TNF. Well, first of all, the interior is twice as big as the vanilla one. Which means it's finally fit for a thane (the vanilla house seemed not bigger than mine!) but breaks immersion severely. Both master and children's bedrooms have balconies in place of walls; and I thought the combined bedroom in Hearthfire was bad for privacy! The housecarl room is ugly like in vanilla. And there are leftover harvestables floating in the air, but the reset interior command got rid of that. As a smaller complaint, I don't like that it got rid of the snowberry vases and leather planters. And I need to throw out those trophy bases! Why the fuck would I need a monster corpse in my home?!!

But the crafting areas are pretty much perfectly designed! The achemy room has the full lab, which I prefer to the tabletop variant, uses the table shelf for ingredients in bowls and puts three wall shelves above it for the same; there's a wooden table connected to the lab, and the lectern is placed in the corner between the two workspaces. Ingredients have their own open shelf (I wonder if it respawns), the similar shelf with the potions is a container, and there's a potion display shelf; plus, several planters in the same room, and it's all next to the kitchen but is safely separate in its own room with a door. The enchanting station is combined with the armory, which is what I wanted to do myself, and there's even a set of weapon plaques hanging right above it, and it's all close to a library.

So I really don't know what to do. I guess I leave it for convenience's sake, though I saw a comment that uninstalling it may cause problems...

I finally bit the bullet and installed USLEEP/WAFR/CCF/CCOR. And because the latter instructed me to make a bashed patch, had to learn wtf is that. Please work...

Proudspire Manor

Magically, something fixed the housecarl room. Was it some bug fix? Or just because I left and reentered the house?

I'm trying to think of a way to make this floor plan a bit less insane... My ideas:

Revert the third floor's plan to vanilla

Create a cellar -- not a trapdoor, just another flight of stairs. Move the armory/enchanting, smithy, bath there.

First floor is now main entrance/lobby. Replace the door with the fancy model. Move the housecarl room back there: she's guarding the door. Move most of the bookshelves there from the third floor; couple of display cases/plaques/mannequins; some pretty plants.

What was the lobby on the second floor is now living room for the owners.

Alternatively, if the door cannot be replaced and all of this is impossible -- make the "real" entrances way more decorated and visible.

Lmao I accidentally selected & dropped the front-facing "backdoor" in positioner and now it's permanently open

King Olaf Festival

"When Vampires Attack" broke the burning festival -- nobody came, and the bard ran back into the building as soon as he lit the fire. Disabled the mod in the MCM, but there's no option to enable it again.

"Speech skill increases 15% faster" Ha! Should have done this quest sooner.

"I believe Sanguine will be pleased with this festival" Wait, did this dude just announce his daedra worship in the middle of a festival in a capital city?

Now what?! A guard walks up to me with "You there. What do you know about this?" There shouldn't be any dead bodies near here. Maybe dead vampires? I dunno. We repeated the same lines 3 times before he walked away.

190 hours into the game and 99 active mods later, I have finally downloaded LOOT! Well, the loading screens are just as long, and framerate even seems worse.

Arrive at Lakeview, start picking flowers from my garden, get attacked by Thalmor, vampires and wolves all at once. What the hell?!

Calcelmo wants me to bring him a dwarven metal ingot? All the way from Riverwood? Wut?

Now I thought something was wrong with Breezehome -- the cooking pot was off the center, and the housekeeping book was magic-themed for some reason. But from the screenshots on the mod page, seems like it's supposed to look like that? Okay.

Uh, why the hell did Clothing and Clutter Fixes change Farengar's clothes from normal blue robes + hood to some mismatched monstrosity?!

Installed HD maps, for some reason they have greenish tint.

Wow, something deleted the bugged old tree trunk of the Gildergreen! What was it, I wonder? USLEEP?

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Okay, so. I suddenly decided it's time to make Speech legendary. I had the ideal conditions:

A stack of potions in my inventory

All three barter buffs

Thief Stone

Well Rested

Bard College bonus to speech increase

Treebalance mod ready to be installed

Now I have so many free perks! Since I don't need price reduction, Investor & Master Trader don't need to be reselected after legendary-ing, and Treebalance removes a fence perk from the merchant branch. Now I can finally buff my Illusion! And then I can start putting points into crafting again! Also ice spells for the fire dragons, alteration for defense, and armor for utility.

If only Treebalance didn't have the Allure perk... I should learn how to edit perk trees. Since I'll never dare to ask the modder to do that for me... The problem is, it's for some reason a branching point in the mod, so the entire tree would need to be reworked.

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Last round I could create 36% Fortify Enchanting potions. Now it stops on 32% :( I don't understand why.

Hmm I wonder what I should bring to the Thalmor Embassy...

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Dragonkiller Cart Reloaded & Gypsy Eyes Caravan

The setup process of Dragonkiller Cart is so difficult... But when I set it up, it immediately improved my immersion. Now I know where I'm carrying all this crap! And then I could park it and scout ahead with invisibility/muffle. Time to put on illusion on heavy armor/cloak to make a peaceful traveller's outfit. And try to assign a housecarl to sit on my cart and guard it at all times.

What isn't as immersive is the way it tumbles around after fast travel or at the slightest sign of trouble.

Okay, when I started falling off a cliff and fast-travelled back to the word wall, my horse appeared but the cart didnt. When I came back to it, the harness somehow wasn't in the inventory anymore.

I still have no idea when Jaxonz Smart Looter works on horseback and when doesn't. Not sure why I'm not using Convenient Horses's auto-loot... But I rebound the manual harvesting to M2 and my life instantly became easier.

The dragon on the peak above Morthal was once again missing textures, and now even didn't give me a soul.

And finally, I'm in Morthal! Now I can pick up my unused housecarl and assign him to guard the cart. Though considering the horrifying loops the cart did on the rocky road down the mountain, I'm a bit scared to put someone in it...

Okay, I assigned my follower a seat, but how do I get him in there?

What the fuck? Where did the harness go AGAIN? Are they consumed after a day of use or something?!

A youtube video explained the problem: the followers are invisible if assigned to seats 1-2. Also, they only get on the cart if you do, and get off with you. So much for guarding my stuff!

When I tried to use Gypsy Eyes Caravan, it freaked out and was glitching almost for a full minute.

Well, here I can do what I want: assign a follower to drive the cart permanently, and either follow me or stay back. Even though I prefer the simple design of Dragonkiller.

Just as I felt happy that everything was finally working, Valdimar disappeared. And in the morning, rose through the seat and was on it again. Wut?

Okay, I left both carts at the Markarth stables, both set to "follow". Went into Markarth, then fast-travelled from there. Only my horse appeared, neither of the carts.

I'm back to the stables. Dragonkiller informs me that it needs a horse harness, again; also it's nowhere to be seen, its map marker is still in Morthal. Gypsy eyes has its wheels flying around it wildly, and it's unable to follow me.

Dragonkiller wasn't even at its map marker in Morthal; I have no idea how those work. Had to re-summon it, and it hitched the horse without a problem -- so the harness wasn't missing again, after all?

Okay, so turns out GEC has a next beta version, and the notes basically confirmed my guess of what was going on: when I fast travel to a city, the caravan attempts to do so too, and crashes horribly. I expected that the mod would be smart enough to park the caravan at the stables which every city has next to the entrance -- you know, like your normal horse!

And my max Fortify Smithing potion is now 130% as opposed to 145% last time. Why? Was it a beneficial glitch?

I put on my fresh max Fortify Smithing armor, made a lot of max Fortify Smithing potions, and finally sat down and improved every single thing in my inventory to the limit. I can breathe easily now.

I just remembered about Angi's camp! Just in time -- my archery is at 92. Damn, the last task is difficult...

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