The Elder Scrolls XV: This is my Thu'um Stick

[Keltest]

Seeing how 4 of Daggerfall's endings were "This side destroys its rivals and gains control over the entire Illiac Bay", I'm not sure why that scenario was more resolvable via Dragon Break than Skyrim's civil war is.

From what I understand of the Warp In The West, weren't there also umpteen petty princedoms and chiefdoms that also got sublimated into the surviving factions, losing in every version of the ending? The Civil War doesn't really have those elements. A Dragon Break would be a needlessly complicated way of resolving a fairly binary choice.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

(Unless they have it that the "peace" negotiated by the Greybeards in the event you don't resolve the civil war before going after Alduin somehow holds after the point Alduin is defeated, which would almost be more unlikely than a dragon break).

Not going to lie, if I thought some long-term good actually came out of that horrible quest I'd be all for it, unlikely or not. I hate Season Unending.

[veti]

My guess is that the outcome of the civil war simply isn't that big a deal to people outside Skyrim. In the next game all the talk will be about what's going on in Hammerfell, and the only time Skyrim gets mentioned will be as one of many factors that keeps the Empire too preoccupied to take any interest in that country.

For the next game after that, if any, they'll wind the clock forward another 200 years or so, to when no one will even remember the names of Ulfric or Tullius.

[Triaxx]

I expect to find that there was a riot to overthrow the Thalmor and that Skyrim is now a semi-autonomous province the same way as Morrowind was. But that's just me.

[Spore]

Did anyone have the bug that it was simply impossible to pick locks after switching a few mods and going to SKSE (Special edition)?

[The Jack]

Civil war will be either

THEY BOTH HAPPENED (like, the imperials won, but then the stormcloaks resurfaced and won, and then the imperials reinvaded, and it ends up looking like the crusades where there's like, nine of them)

Or, the civil war is blown out by -bigger war that subsumes the result of the great war-
IE
Akavir invasion
Falmer invasion
The dwemer came back, and wrecked everything
Skyrim got nuked because the throat of the world was actually a volcano all this time, wrecking everything
The Bretons or some other neighbor invaded and wrecked everything
A daedric prince showed up and wrecked everything
the great famine/freeze/storm wrecked everything
The atmorans invade and wreck everything
The king of worms or something such rises again and wrecks everything.
The thalmor killed all the magic towers and wrecked everything.
That orb you found in sargoth that the Psyjics took? Skyrim needed that, you wrecked everything.
A redguard in skyrim rediscovers the atomic sword technique, with his curved sword, and wrecks everything.
The Developers cite CHIM, wrecking everything.
All the witches curse all the nords, causing them to stand outside towns naked with no escape, wrecking everything
Some dude sticks the skeleton key into his ear, or the ground, unlocking the universe and wrecking everything.
The sload sink tamriel.
Nerevar, exploiting his spell making mechanics, casts a spell, wrecking everything.
alduin showed up and ate the world, so the new game's in the new world.


Am I missing anything?

[Resileaf]

All the witches curse all the nords, causing them to stand outside towns naked with no escape, wrecking everything

That one's my favorite.

[veti]

Am I missing anything?

Vampires get hold of Auriel's Bow, wrecking everything.
The Dragonborn creates a new Shout that causes the whole of Skyrim to sink into the sea/summons Alduin back/buries Skyrim under 10 metres of snow, wrecking everything.
The daedric princes fighting for the Dragonborn's soul inspire their followers to violent insanity all over the country, wrecking everything.
The Forsworn wreck everything, just for spite.
Turns out Durnheviir was lying about not being able to leave the Soul Cairn. He raises an undead army and wrecks everything.
Realising that "invading" is costly, dangerous and downright stupid, the Thalmor simply nuke the province.

Really, it's pretty amazing the country has lasted so long among so many dangers.

[Rynjin]

Vampires get hold of Auriel's Bow, wrecking everything.

This could have the most interesting implications for the series going forward. After the events of Dawnguard, your vampire PC is slowly (or swiftly; who knows the effects a defiled Aedric artifact could have on someone) corrupted by power and leads a vampiric assault on Skyrim. Assume the temporary truce is canon, and the region is brought together longer by the vampire threat.

Having the vampires ultimately win at least a partial victory could be pretty cool. Haafingar becomes a bastion of the undead, with an uneasy peace formed between a realm of eternal night, encompassing the largest city in Skyrim, and the rest of the province which now has to be on constant alert for hostilities from the new Volkihar held lands.

[Silverraptor]

Awwwwww! It was going so well! I joined the stormcloaks and got the Jagged Crown. But now! NOW! I have to do Bleakfall Barrow before I can progress with the siege of Whiterun!

[Triaxx]

So? Oh no, dragons. Sounds terrible. Maybe you should hire a guy. Maybe the legendary Orkin man.

[Silverraptor]

So? Oh no, dragons. Sounds terrible. Maybe you should hire a guy. Maybe the legendary Orkin man.

I was hoping to do the stormcloaks civil war exclusively. Avoid all other quests until Ulfric had won. Guess they want everyone to do that first dungeon crawl no mater what.

[Keltest]

I was hoping to do the stormcloaks civil war exclusively. Avoid all other quests until Ulfric had won. Guess they want everyone to do that first dungeon crawl no mater what.

I believe that the Civil War has a few lines of dialogue at the end referencing you as Dragonborn, so you need to have discovered that first.

[Resileaf]

I believe that the Civil War has a few lines of dialogue at the end referencing you as Dragonborn, so you need to have discovered that first.

Also it's probably a lot more convenient if they only have to do voice lines for one Jarl to send you to handle that dragon at the tower.

[Silverraptor]

Also it's probably a lot more convenient if they only have to do voice lines for one Jarl to send you to handle that dragon at the tower.

I guess...

[Triaxx]

Ulfric comments that letting the dragonborn do the finish will make a better song. Don't remember the other side.

[Silverraptor]

Ulfric comments that letting the dragonborn do the finish will make a better song. Don't remember the other side.

When the Empire wins and everyone is trying to figure out who to kill Ulfric, he says let the Dragonborn kill him for the better song.

[RagingKrikkit]

So, having recently found out that the original version of Skyrim is still on Steam if you know where to look, I've been considering taking the plunge again after a few hundred hour binge on console back in 2012/13. Since then I have developed a fondness for proper RPGs, mastery-based, melee combat systems such as Dark Souls and For Honor, and cut my teeth on modding with New Vegas. Therefore, I'm looking to head down the path of modding the hell out of Skyrim, and would seek your advice on the matter. Firstly, on the technical end, how well do Workshop mods get along with mods from external sites, and is there a go-to mod manager, as there is for Fallout 3 and New Vegas? As for mods, graphics have never been a major concern for me, and I don't feel the need to dive into quest, equipment or companion mods just yet. Primary focus #1 is character progression. I'm looking to change the emphasis from mastering ALL THE SKILLS to developing a chosen playstyle over time, or to put it more bluntly, a mechanical reason to have more than one character. The other point of focus is combat. If I were to sum up my preferences for combat in a word, it would be "painful". High-risk, unforgiving of mistakes, demanding of your attention, and leaving you feeling absolutely battered even after walking away victorious. If anyone has knowledge of mods that accomplish these things, I would gladly hear of them. Thanks in advance for your time.

[Rynjin]

The Enai Siaion package has what you want. Wildcat for harder combat, Ordinator for skill overhaul, and Apocalypse for spells. Imperious (races), Andromeda (star stones), and Wintersun (religion) are also good.

If you're playing Legendary Edition instead of SE, Perkus Maximus is another good skill overhaul to try out.

ASIS makes combat a little harder too (enemies use potions and stuff). Revenge of the Enemies and High Level Enemies ramp things up too. In conjunction with those, Dodge Mod and Mortal Enemies (they have less insane tracking and overly wide swing arcs on attacks) make dodging and weaving another tactical combat option.

[Triaxx]

Ordinator with Wildcat. Punishingly hard combat but with a set of abilities you can use to mitigate it some.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Ulfric comments that letting the dragonborn do the finish will make a better song. Don't remember the other side.

There's a comment in Ulfric's speech at the end too. "I am indeed Ulfric Stormcloak, and at my side the man/woman we know as Stormblade, and the world knows as the Dragonborn. And indeed, there are many that call us heroes.[...]"

[factotum]

So, having recently found out that the original version of Skyrim is still on Steam if you know where to look, I've been considering taking the plunge again

Um, why? What's wrong with Special Edition?

[The Jack]

It's murder on an older PC

[RagingKrikkit]

Um, why? What's wrong with Special Edition?

It's murder on an older PC

The primary motive was penny pinching with a touch of disdain for Bethesda re-releasing the game every other year, but after double-checking the DLC prices, it turns out that the new edition is in fact the less costly option.

The Enai Siaion package has what you want. Wildcat for harder combat, Ordinator for skill overhaul, and Apocalypse for spells. Imperious (races), Andromeda (star stones), and Wintersun (religion) are also good.

If you're playing Legendary Edition instead of SE, Perkus Maximus is another good skill overhaul to try out.

ASIS makes combat a little harder too (enemies use potions and stuff). Revenge of the Enemies and High Level Enemies ramp things up too. In conjunction with those, Dodge Mod and Mortal Enemies (they have less insane tracking and overly wide swing arcs on attacks) make dodging and weaving another tactical combat option.

Ordinator with Wildcat. Punishingly hard combat but with a set of abilities you can use to mitigate it some.

I did some research of my own, and those are probably going to end up on the list, probably along with Vigor. For reference, this is how my New Vegas reacts to bad decisions.

[Triaxx]

That seems fairly vanilla honestly.

[RagingKrikkit]

Perhaps, I don't make enough of a habit of throwing grenades at my feet to be sure. My combat suite is primarily made up of the Project Nevada core for the crosshair and backpedaling with Solid Project for the sprint function, Realistic Weapon Damages with Unforgiving Combat, More Realistic Aiming, Real Recoil and Realistic Reloading, a couple AI changes, and a reanimation pack. And while that's neither here nor there for this thread, perhaps it illustrates what I'm looking for. I'm not after le realism, but something that makes combat, for lack of a better term, suck just enough to get you interested in alternatives.

[Spore]

Did anyone have the bug that it was simply impossible to pick locks after switching a few mods and going to SKSE (Special edition)?

Can anyone help?

[Silverraptor]

Can anyone help?

I had a problem of getting any mods to become active in my game. Still have that issue.

[Keltest]

Can anyone help?

As soon as you involve mods, things get tricky. Without knowing which mods are involved, its hard to say where the bug comes from, and even then your only recourse might be to enable and disable mods systematically to find whichever one is causing it.

[Resileaf]

As soon as you involve mods, things get tricky. Without knowing which mods are involved, its hard to say where the bug comes from, and even then your only recourse might be to enable and disable mods systematically to find whichever one is causing it.

And in the worst cases, that particular save file is corrupted and you'll have to restart a new game.