The Elder Scrolls XVI: Sworn to Carry Your Burdens

[Fyraltari]

Saved on... the motherboard? Is this some hazard of SSDS that I hadn't previously thought of?

Guess so. The whole machine was back to factory setting.

[factotum]

Saved on... the motherboard? Is this some hazard of SSDS that I hadn't previously thought of?

If the SSD is an M.2 drive mounted on the motherboard then one can see why that would happen, although it still doesn't explain why whoever replaced the motherboard didn't just swap the old drive over.

[Fyraltari]

Welp, my laptop is fixed but that involved replacing the motherboard so everything that was saved on it is gone. There goes my playthrough of Morrowind I guess.

Turns out my progress was saved on Steam.
Didn't know that happened.

[Caelestion]

Yes, if you play on Steam. It won't help you reconstruct your mod list or anything like that, though.

[veti]

Yes, if you play on Steam. It won't help you reconstruct your mod list or anything like that, though.

I think Vortex will, if you can actually find and download the mods again. It has a function to replicate the load order of a selected save.

(Caveat, I haven't used the function myself and can't vouch for it. But in that position, I'd absolutely try it.)

[Caelestion]

Wrye Bash will keep a list of all the active mods you used in your save file. It's why I've always used it. :)

[Fyraltari]

Well, I've just read C0DA, and I've got to say... What the ****?

[Lord Raziere]

Well, I've just read C0DA, and I've got to say... What the ****?

Don't worry according to what I can find: C0DA is supposed to encourage the idea that Elders Scrolls is a living open-source world and that canon doesn't really matter.

if you want more of it explained we'll have to dive into Kirkbride's version of Elder Scrolls- the guy behind the 36 lessons of Vivec- and delve into very unintuitive and arcane concepts in Elder Scrolls lore. are you feeling up to it?

[Fyraltari]

Don't worry according to what I can find: C0DA is supposed to encourage the idea that Elders Scrolls is a living open-source world and that canon doesn't really matter.

if you want more of it explained we'll have to dive into Kirkbride's version of Elder Scrolls- the guy behind the 36 lessons of Vivec- and delve into very unintuitive and arcane concepts in Elder Scrolls lore. are you feeling up to it?

Oh, believe me, I know. I just wasn't prepared for the super-hero team of the Tribunal, Nerevar, Dagoth Ur and Molag Bal stopping an interdimensional invasion of TV set-headed people masterminded by a team of tsaesci scientist lead by a giant version of Yagrum Bagarn of all people, is all.

[veti]

I was thinking just yesterday that Skyrim is now not so much a game as a platform. It has as much in common with Roblox, or even D&D, as with traditional video games. It provides a ruleset and a "base" world - both of them hugely customisable - which people use to tell their own stories that are increasingly disconnected from "canon".

Of course the most extreme example remains Enderal, but it's not necessary to go to such lengths to completely change the character of the game. Modders introduce new spaces (Dragonborn was supposed to be the proof of concept for these, but Moonpath to Elsweyr pipped it to the release date), they constantly introduce new characters (the most popular single type of content mod, probably because it's so easy) or rewrite existing ones. And mods that completely change the world - Dawnguard sort of does this, but Rigmor, DCA/Shezzarine and many smaller efforts make a more thorough transformation.

And that's just the content. Cosmetic and mechanical mods are whole separate categories, mostly managed orthogonally to content.

[Keltest]

Oh, believe me, I know. I just wasn't prepared for the super-hero team of the Tribunal, Nerevar, Dagoth Ur and Molag Bal stopping an interdimensional invasion of TV set-headed people masterminded by a team of tsaesci scientist lead by a giant version of Yagrum Bagarn of all people, is all.

Im generally of the opinion that while Kirkbride has some gems in his work, most of what he puts out is just word salad that he wants people to think is deep.

[Divayth Fyr]

Im generally of the opinion that while Kirkbride has some gems in his work, most of what he puts out is just word salad that he wants people to think is deep.

Kirkbride really, really needs someone to keep him in check and restrain the nonsensical crazy. But after leaving Bethesda all he had was the circlejerk of r\teslore that largely served to stroke his ego regardless of what was put out.

And c0da as the concept is frankly pointless and dead on arrival. If you're willing to take it, it means you already were willing to add whatever suited your vision of Tamriel to your "canon", and thus it changes nothing. If you view only things coming from official sources as "canon", all c0da is to you is a silly fanfiction that tries to push something it has no right to push. Again, no change.

I guess it did serve a purpose when it came out - back on the official forums its fans claimed anyone who opposed it was wrong and their vision of canon was wrong "because c0da proves it"...

[Vinyadan]

Oh, believe me, I know. I just wasn't prepared for the super-hero team of the Tribunal, Nerevar, Dagoth Ur and Molag Bal stopping an interdimensional invasion of TV set-headed people masterminded by a team of tsaesci scientist lead by a giant version of Yagrum Bagarn of all people, is all.

Abou this, I strongly suggest playing Iron Brigade and its expansion, Iron Brigade: Rise of the Martian Bear.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Ogre: Poke Poke Poke

I truly hate the "Filial Piety" quest on Solstheim. "Wander around these places you have no reason to go to find this bastard, and the only real solution is to kill him."

[Triaxx]

Ah. Yeah, never could be bothered to complete that one.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I truly hate the "Filial Piety" quest on Solstheim. "Wander around these places you have no reason to go to find this bastard, and the only real solution is to kill him."

Is that the one with the werebear? Yeah that one is tedious.

...but there isn’t much more for me to say then that, so I’m going to complain about ‘A New Source of Stalhrim’ instead. The overarching concept (Thalmor want better weapons and kidnap the only guy who knows how to make Stalhrim gear to that end) is good, but the idiot Skaal give terrible directions. I acknowledge it’s not their fault that their settlement is on the northeast corner of the island and the directions of ‘southwest’ therefore encompass the entire island. But it is their fault that they tell me that the kidnappers were ‘elves’ when half the population of Solstheim is Dunmer and the kidnappers were the only Altmer on the island. Do they want their blacksmith back or not?!

[veti]

Well, I completed yet another "DLC sized" mod. (Yeah, I hate that description too, but it's what's caught on, so I'm gritting my teeth and going with it.) There comes a point where "grimdark" stops being an aesthetic design choice and becomes just "'edgy' for its own sake", and "Beyond Reach" is past that point.

It's mostly set in the Western Reach (which is to say, west of Markarth), with some minor incursion into High Rock beyond that. The total map area is probably about one-third the total size of Skyrim, bounded by impassable mountains; I didn't explore all of it, and toward the end of the main quest there's an incident that causes all the previously-discovered map markers to revert to "undiscovered", so even the bits that are explored don't stay that way.

It's a bleak, twisted and depressing land, full of maniacs who run the gamut from homicidally to genocidally deranged. The first enemy you meet, Witchmen, are living proof that the Forsworn are, if anything, even angrier under Breton rule than under Nords in Skyrim; then there are necromancers, brutal Orcish and Redguard raiders (with very little point trying to reason with any of them, up until the plot says it's time to), and a settled Breton population who look on all these "others" with undisguised - but frankly understandable - racism.

The main quest is aggressively nonlinear - by which I mean, it's often hard to tell which of the many objectives I've been given will progress it, and which are merely sidequests. What is the main quest anyway? At first it seems "curing the plague" might be it, but pretty soon I'm channelled into more conventionally face-stabbing activities such as scouting the outcasts, killing pirates and brigands, and saving a town whose

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sadistic and cannibalistic ruler seemingly wants to sacrifice the whole dump to Namira.

This little incident involves closing an Oblivion gate - just like old times, except that instead of the magma and rubble of Mehrunes Dagon's plane, this one is much darker (literally - there's no way to illuminate it), more gruesome and disgusting. But as before, there's a tower and a sigil stone, and one gets out of the dump by removing the one from the other. This episode earns me a knighthood from the king, and concludes what you might call part one of the main quest.

Part two involves me doing knightly things - running errands for the king's son and his minions, searching here, questing there, spying on the other, until quite abruptly the plot devices start to point me in the opposite direction: haunted ruins, unkillable monstrosities, and spectral messengers who speak the most convoluted riddling carp - the burden of which, however, is that

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the prince - fair, just, universally beloved - must die. Personally I'm more than fine with this, because - quite apart from his supernatural dark side - he's also a genocidal warlord on the make, but it's clear that a lot of people are going to be very upset.

Then there's another plot - not "twist" exactly, because it was telegraphed several quests ago, but a "reveal" moment that's supposed to abruptly change my opinion of the king and all his works. It doesn't work very well as such, because, as I mentioned, another NPC already told me the twist just before the Oblivion gate episode, but it's not until now that I'm finally allowed to put the pieces together and make my decision about how to end the whole mess.

It's a messy and frustrating mod, in which the bad guys are undoubtedly bad but many of the good guys are arguably worse, and there is no clean or satisfying way to lift the curse over the whole land and bring anything that might pass for "peace". There are bugs large and small (the whole area map is upside-down, which is one of the more inexplicable but less serious bugs), but the most frustrating thing about the whole place is the lack of good options. For fully half the plot, I had no choice but to support

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a royal family that I already knew to be thoroughly vile and corrupt, just hanging on until "the plot" gave me permission to turn on them

; there is, repeatedly, no realistic way to help innocents or call the guilty to account. And then the whole mess is lightly sprinkled with a kind of half-digested "class warfare" plot - which sort of explains the Witchmen, or would if it made a lick of sense in this social context.

And then there are loose ends. There's "the Affliction", whose plot purpose seems to be to set up a faction whose main goal is to burn people on sight. Would be nice if there were a way to resolve that little problem, but nope. There's the Griffon, emblem of the kingdom, which turns out to be

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as nasty as the king, and considerably harder to fight than a dragon

- where does it come from, or disappear to? what is it? why is it doing this? - are all questions that it never crosses the mod's mind to ask, much less answer. There's a Thalmor provocateur who's

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egging on the Orcs to rampage through the land, but I'm still not sure what they're getting out of it, since they invariably end up getting slaughtered

, and since I'm not supposed to kill the Thalmor, there seems no very good resolution to that either. Then there's Mara, the good spirit of the land, who brought me here in the first place and seems to want me to do something - but does she ever say what? Does she heck.

My conclusion is that the whole land is set up purely to make some sort of point about the unresolvability of conflict and the corruption of the ruling class. Marxist edgelord porn, basically. After playing it I need a mental wash. Time to go replay something uplifting and lighthearted, like Maelstrom or Vigilant. My recommendation is to give this one a miss.

[LibraryOgre]

Well, I completed yet another "DLC sized" mod.

So, the size of "Horse Armor"?

[veti]

So, the size of "Horse Armor"?

Y'know, I've done a few of these things now. Some are kinda silly (looking at you, Rigmor) but kinda fun, or grim but uplifting (Vigilant), or engrossing (Death Consumes All). But Beyond Reach is none of those things - it's just hard work, with no payoff worth having. I killed lots of people, and my only reward was the knowledge that a whole lot more were going to die without my help.

There is the opportunity to "save" a handful of people - a small town's worth of civilians plus refugees, a small settlement of "afflicted", maybe twenty orcs and about half a dozen kids (although where they're supposed to run to, Mara only knows); but for the rest, I was forced to kill pretty much everyone who might have stood in the way of bloody chaos.

Oh, wait - there is one bit of loot worth having: a cuirass that slows time when someone aims a power attack at me, which is undeniably cool. Still not worth the blood I (literally) had to wade through to get it.

[Rynjin]

Even the cuirass isn't very cool if you're using one of a dozen mods (most Vampire and Werewolf mods, many combat overhaul mods, Ordinator when you're specced into the Block tree, etc.) that also adds that feature.

I need to play through all of Vigilant some time. I've played through act I, and it was fun (more so after the actual plot kicks off), but I've been mainlining Nioh 2 for the last few weeks.

[LibraryOgre]

I am closing in on the "All you have left is the main quest" part of the game. This will mark me playing through all five main games with the same character.

[Triaxx]

Congratulations, that's one heck of an achievement.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I am closing in on the "All you have left is the main quest" part of the game. This will mark me playing through all five main games with the same character.

Excellent! Now you just have to wait 10 more years for Elder Scrolls 6 to come out.

[Keltest]

Excellent! Now you just have to wait 10 more years for Elder Scrolls 6 to come out.

He can pass the time by playing the 8 variations of Skyrim that will be released in that time.

[Lord Raziere]

He can pass the time by playing the 8 variations of Skyrim that will be released in that time.

Personally I can't wait for besthesda to one up the cantroller by releasing Skyrim on a beer can console. it'll be the first console and videogame that you can drink.

[DigoDragon]

Is that the one with the werebear? Yeah that one is tedious.

I never worked on that one after getting it. Lack of map markers meant wandering around, and as pretty as the island is, I just didn't feel like going about looking for the dude.

Funny aside, the real reason I go to that island is because occasionally the schematics for new crossbow bolts points there when I'm doing the Dawnguard stuff.

[LibraryOgre]

Well, Skyrim is done. I didn't even bother with the Dark Brotherhood (to be fair, Cana was at one point the head of the Morag Tong, and the entire affair with Purifying Cheydinhal left a bad taste in her mouth), but the fight for her soul at the end of time is going to be EPIC... Nocturnal, Hircine, and Azura all have pretty good claims, I'm sure Dagon would like a crack at it, and Shor has extended her an open invitation to come to Sovngarde... if she ever dies, it will be interesting to see who gets her.

I say "if" because how do you kill someone with CHIM? Especially if exposure to corprus left them unaging, and already an Altmer?

[Keltest]

Well, Skyrim is done. I didn't even bother with the Dark Brotherhood (to be fair, Cana was at one point the head of the Morag Tong, and the entire affair with Purifying Cheydinhal left a bad taste in her mouth), but the fight for her soul at the end of time is going to be EPIC... Nocturnal, Hircine, and Azura all have pretty good claims, I'm sure Dagon would like a crack at it, and Shor has extended her an open invitation to come to Sovngarde... if she ever dies, it will be interesting to see who gets her.

I say "if" because how do you kill someone with CHIM? Especially if exposure to corprus left them unaging, and already an Altmer?

You corrupt the save file, obviously. Oblivion does it to me all the time. Mehrunes Dagon is by far the most successful Elder Scrolls villain.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

You corrupt the save file, obviously.

That explains a terrifying amount.

[veti]

My achievement for the month: I posted version 1.0 of my mod for fellow compulsive Skyrim restarters, which allows you to skip some of the more tedious and harder-to-ignore vanilla content.

It's my first published mod, and hasn't attracted much attention, but it does have a good endorsement ratio (more than 10% of unique downloads). Which, I tell myself, makes it above average, by the metric I choose to care about.