Good Stuff For Skyrim

Today Bethesda released Patch 1.3, check the details at the Bethesda Blog.

Also released today, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Tweak Guide by Koroush Ghazi. Get Skyrim looking and running great! I've been using Koroush's guides since Morrowind and they have always done me well.

In more personal news, I've been reorganizing my website. It was getting too cluttered with all the mods for all the games listed on the first page. Too much to look at all at once. I'm not quite done yet, but everything should still be accessible.

Skyrim update

We get Skyrim patch 1.2 on Wednesday 11/30/11, but no date on the Creation Kit.

gstaff said on Monday, November 28, 2011 at 2:36 pm:

"The Creation Kit is not being released this week. Once we have more information on its release, we’ll let everyone know."

Well, poop!

Edit: Gstaff just posted on BGS the Creation Kit will be out in January 2012.

Pre-Launch Update

Skyrim is out in less than two days! I'm debating on going to midnight release or waiting until Friday morning. We'll see, either way Friday work is closed! Play all day!

The other news, I had surgery last month. It was unexpected. I was in the hospital for two weeks. They took out 6 inches of my large intestine and 3 inches of my small intestine. Then later developed 2 abscesses in my pelvis. Now its a little over a month later and I'm feeling a lot better. Doctors say I have a bit more healing to do over the next couple months, but I'm up and back at work. And able to play Skyrim! I count that as good news. :)

My mod Guild Benefits is still on hold. Of course I couldn't work on it while in the hospital or during my recovery. I'm going to take some time to play "you know what" before I pick it back up again. I do plan on finishing GB. Just like I plan on going back to beat Oblivion, SI, & KOTN. I had planned to do all of that in October, but my body betrayed me. Things are getting better so I'm not upset, I'm doing pretty well considering.

Also, do expect some sort of campsite type mod for Skyrim soon after I get my hands on the Creation Kit. Gotta have a home base for starting characters.

Skyrim Food Truck in Seattle for PAX 2011

The Skyrim Food Truck stopped by Seattle during PAX this last Summer. There was free food, free plush helmets, and lots of fans! I had fun waiting around with a crowd of mostly men and a few ladies (I was probably the only one there in a long skirt.) Everyone was chanting for the helmets and food. So without further ado here are my pics:

The most awesome truck ever!














The Holy Skyrim Napkin. (I have saved it in a ziplock, used my long skirt as a napkin as a proper nord lady should.)














Lunch: Dragon Leg, Whiterun Corn, a Solitude Sweetroll... and a bottled water.














Two helmets, one to wear and one to save for eternity.














Me having fun with my buddies at Gamestop. I wanted to see if they'd recognize me.














Nerd alert! Give a girl a permanent marker, a Daedric alphabet, and her online Elder Scrolls name. What do you get?

Good Day Today!

I am feeling really good today. For those of you who know me from OREF or have read some of my entries from a long while back you know that I suffer from depression. In fact I nearly left the modding community because of the depression combined with losing my Grandma (she was also my best friend) to cancer. Good days are very welcome and tend to be very productive. Lots of house work getting done, just taking a break to get some words out.

Adding to yesterday's list of stuff to do I still have some resources that are just about ready for release. I want to get Vanilla Eyes and possibly some of those resources online later this evening. After getting some more house work done of course! =P Now back to work!

Going on Vacation! See Ya!

Yeah, so I've got modder's block on how I want to set up the Arch Mage's Library. Can't seem to get inspiration right now. I know it will come to me, I just need to occupy my time with something else until it hits...

So what do I have to occupy my time?

On the modding front, a minor update to Vanilla Eyes Addon. I'm going to add Bash Tags and remove a stray esp from the textures folder, and an optional esp making SI eyes playable. And by request, since I lost the one I made previously, a compatibility patch for All In One. Probably will do this over the weekend.

On gaining some possible inspiration (that's the story, right!) I can install and play Shezrie's Towns. I've played Lakewood, Ravenview, and Woodland Villages before she added Pell's Gate. For all the love of what we do as modders I need to go to Pell's Gate! It looks awesome, the quests sound incredibly cool, and some of my own creations are used and I really want to see them in action. And lots of other modders made really great stuff for it too. So I say I'm going for inspiration, so maybe that's partially true, but really its more like taking a vacation. =D

Oh, and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness... dusted off my PS2 to finally play this game. Its a lot of fun and bound to take up hours of my time. I am the Overlord! Dood!

Exhausted and Sick, but You Can't Stop Ideas!!!

Alright, I give in for now. I keep trying to work on GB, but I'm sick and its making me too tired to mod. Whatever illness this is interfering with my asthma and its making me cough and draining all my energy. It got worse with the snow. Damn snow! The only snow I want is in Skyrim. }:P

But that isn't stopping ideas from hitting me.

Robes
The thing that was bothering me the most was the robes. They were going to be in leveled lists both in the supply chests for free and extras for sale at Divine Elegance. The thing is you'll get too many free ones if you visit the supply chests too often. So the solution is: 1st basic set will be given with MG key and Welcome Letter, 2nd slightly fancier set in the IC Laboratory, 3rd set in the Mage's Quarters at the Arcane U, and the 4th in the Arch-Mage's suite (either Lab or Library.) Extras for sale will go to the only Mage's Guild member who buys & sells clothing items: Ungarion at The Warlock's Luck in Bravil. Makes so much more sense!
Edit: Correction there are five sets of robes, I really am sick to forget such things. There are two that are about the same fancyness, the purple set and the blue set. They're both going in the IC Lab unless I come up with something better. Bleh!

Supply Chests
The other thing that is bugging me is the supply chests themselves. I'm worried they will provide too much stuff. I have thought of two options:
1) Completely overhaul contents.
2) Remove them from the Guild Halls. Keep only the ones in the central Lab and the Arch-Mage's Lab. If I do this one I may make minor modifications to the contents adding or removing items.
Number 2 seems to make the most sense to me as players can still abuse the multiple chests in #1, while #2 continues to provide the most useful items.

Kvatch
The odd town out. Poor Kvatch, the whole town destroyed. That means no Mage's Guild. Or does it? According to the UESP not quite! There is one survivor of the Kvatch Mage's Guild, a lady named Sigrid. How convenient for me. In the Arch-Mage's Library there are maps of every city in Cyrodiil, including Kvatch. However, when you start the game Kvatch is under seige... you know the story. On the wall in place of the Kvatch map will be a place holder until your hero breaks the siege and re-maps the city. My problem was what to do for the place holder. I've got an image of the oblivion gate in front of the city, perhaps sent to the Arcane U by fellow mages. OK, that involves a suspension of belief... until I stumbled upon Sigrid. She is the one who sends word to the AU, a picture of the gate and a note. There I've got my place holder. Your hero saves what's left of the crumbled city and the cartographers are able to provide a new map of the destroyed city. As much as I'd rather just use a map of pre-destruction Kvatch and avoid this mess altogether, there isn't one that I know of.

First Ingame Footage of Skyrim

Bethesda delivers the first ingame footage of Skyrim! And dig the remodel they've given Elderscrolls.com. All the old Elder Scrolls games are listed again in all their glory. Kudos, Bethesda! And thanks for providing me the inspiration I've been needing.

Cartography and Books

Working on the Arch-Mage's Library. We've got Meo's Series Booksets, Meo's City Maps, Garak's Booksets, Zinni's 8 Book Stacks, some booksets from Trollf's Alchemist's Cave and I'm working on a Kvatch map to match Meo's. Probably use some of Meo's Open Books too. So far I've gathered resources and placed a handful of items, this helps the ideas form. I think there are going to be some display counters and the like. Maybe a small alchemy garden in the center, like the one in DLC Wizard's Tower. Since the int/ext alchemy garden got canned it would be nice to have one somewhere.

I will take some screenshots when I get the place more in order. Only the maps on the wall and one large bookshelf look presentable, the rest is a disarray of misc furniture. I had to stop for today because a migraine is starting. Poo! And I was making good progress... :(

Bethesda Announces Creation Kit for Skyrim!

Bethesda loves modders! They have announced that they will be releasing a Creation Kit for Skyrim on the Bethesda Blog. Also check what Gstaff has to say at the BGS Forums: "Yes it does. We've always been impressed with what the community has done with our tools. Like the Elder Scrolls Construction Set for Morrowind and Oblivion, we plan to release Creation Kit so you guys can mod Skyrim."

Oh, Bethesda, how much do I love thee? And how much does my fiance dread this coming November?!

Arch-Mage's Quarters Revamp Completed

The Arch-Mage's Quarters was completed rather quickly. It was just some minor fixes, redecorating, and adding a few things. Easy-peasy! The vanilla dresser at the foot of the bed was set to respawn so I replaced it with one that doesn't. Added a few more containers. Replaced some of the decor with new stuff, including the bed. I removed the spellmaking and enchanting altars because those are included in the Laboratory. The Enchanted Chest had to stay since it is referenced by quests, scripts, and dialogue, however, it got a facelift thanks to Meo's Ayleid Clutter. The only other thing I added was a teleport that will take to you the Teleport Room (goes to all of the other rooms in the tower.) The pathgrid was slightly adjusted to accommodate the new teleporter. That's it!

Companion Friendliness Modding

You may have heard of Emma, she is the creator of many wonderful Morrowind and Oblivion mods including Companion Vilja. She has posted a topic at BGS Forums called Looking for Companion Friendly Houses, it contains a list of companion friendly houses and information on how to create them.

The basic requirements are:
* Pathgridding - very important for the companion to be able to navigate.
* Unowned beds & chairs - so companions can sleep and sit down, they won't do so if these have an owner.

I want Guild Benefits to be companion friendly, after all you own your bedroom in the guild halls so your companion should be able to stay there with you. However, there was a problem... three of my rooms were accessible to other NPCs who decided they would like to use my "unowned" chairs and beds themselves. We don't want strangers in our bedrooms, this just won't do! Thankfully PrincessStomper had a suggestion, make the furniture owned by the PlayerFaction since companions belong to the PlayerFaction they should be able to use them while keeping other NPCs from doing so. Guess what? It worked!

Advanced requirements for public & semi-public places:
* Furniture owned by PlayerFaction (for use by player and companions only)

Last night I went around to all of my beds and furniture (and my food items just to be sure) changing them to owned by PlayerFaction. I went in game to spy on the worst offender, Contumelorius Florius in Chorrol. I took all the food from his room and the rest of the basement, leaving only the PlayerFaction owned food in my room. Then waited for him to come downstairs for supper. He went to his room looking for food, finding none he walked out toward my bedroom door. He stopped just outside, then turned around and went back into his and just stood there like a dummy. It was so funny to watch!

Arch-Mage's Dining Hall is Complete

Its finally done. The tedium was worth it. Look how pretty! I'm still thinking about whether or not to add a bartender.

Brain Purge, I had to get all this stuff out...

This week I've been:
* Working on Guild Benefits in the Arch Mage's Dining Hall. Removed a bunch of food and drink from the mod that was just too much, left in enough to make things interesting. That allowed me to remove the two banquet tables that were blocking shelves that have Ayleid clutter on display. Put the Ayleid crystals above all the dinner tables, very pretty! Added Meo's Winecellar wine racks and a couple crates to the beverage serving area. And started arranging the foods on the central banquet tables. That means the Dining Hall is almost complete!

* Updates and corrections on Phaedra's Elder Scrolls & Fallout. Fixed minor text errors and broken links throughout, especially on Friends Websites and My Favorite Elder Scrolls & Fallout Links. Updated the Zombie section of About Me with pictures from ZomBcon 2010. Reorganized the Modding Requests page since Shezrie's Towns was released last month. Updated and organized WIPz Guild Benefits page. And finally, I also created new buttons for people who want to link to my website and blog:

* Took last night off to finish reading a book. I think this was good for me, my brain feels quite refreshed. Ideas are popping into my head this morning which I'll detail below...


Ideas:
* ??? Add a bartender NPC to the Dining Hall? This will need dialogue and scripting. I will need to consult tutorials and may need to ask for help. But it would liven things up in the Dining Hall and just be plain cool.

* ??? Where to put Traven's grave: in the private Alchemy Garden or the public one at the University? Also Feek had the idea to have his gravestone give a temporary fortify magicka like the Ayleid Wells. There is already a Well in the AM's Lab, so how about a temporary shield or absorb magicka?

* ??? Do I still want a special staff for the new Arch Mage? If so this post at OREF has some links to some promising ones. Also what enchantment on staff?


To Do List:
* Finish arranging the food on the banquet tables.

* Take and post screenshots of the finished Dining Hall.

* Check food in the Guild Hall rooms, if there is un-cooked meat replace it with cooked meat. See if any other food changes would look nice.

* Decide which area to work on next. Revamp Arch Mage's Quarters (bedroom); or begin building the Library, Alchemy Garden, or Guests' Quarters. I'm thinking Library or Alchemy Garden, leaning a bit more towards Alchemy Garden.

* Start releasing misc resources. A bunch of stuff is ready, only need screenshots and readmes. Ready to go: colored quills, fancy folded cloths, misc clutter items, and mini-ayleid well architectural piece. Late day edit: Thinking on this there are some more goodies in other folders, various things I've played with that may be resource worthy (some signs come to mind.) I'll have to check those out too.

New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution is to finish Guild Benefits. The extra challenge I'm posing to myself is to finish before Skyrim is released, by this I mean done including any bug fixes and little tweaks... everything. So much is already complete there is no reason this shouldn't be possible. There are no other Bethesda games that are due out to distract me and I've played New Vegas enough to get it out of my system for now.

My creative juices are flowing, new ideas are coming once again. (I've figured out what to do with Hannibal Traven...) Oblivion is back to a clean installation plus the necessary resources. TES4Edit is up to date, such a wonderful tool! I'm just about ready to begin.

New Vegas Mod: Goodsprings Camper

Simple house mod released today for Fallout: New Vegas. Goodsprings Camper is next to the Prospector Saloon. It provides you with a safe place to sleep and store your goods. Fast travel is provided to the camper via its own map marker. There is a plate of food, one bottle of dirty water, and one pickable maize plant. Nothing overpowering in this mod, just a basic home.

In other news Bethesda has finally announced Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. 2011 is going to be an awesome year!!!