Any gamers around here?

[Blackleaf]

Vivec summons you directly instead of waiting atound for you to be named.  You can still do these quests if you want to for their associated loot, but you don't have to.  https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:The_Path_of_the_Incarnate#Bypassing_the_Fourth_and_Fifth_Trials

Ah. Interesting. Makes sense for Vivec to do that. Doesn't really matter to him if you're the real deal or not. He's desperate to find a hero to destroy Dagoth Ur at that point. I love the Tribunal in this game. Vivec, the guy who probably murdered you in a past life, has rumored Nerevarines put to death, and then comes to you when he realizes he and his people are fucked because he can't get back to the Heart of Lorkhan to recharge. Destroying the Heart means Vivec's death anyway, but you can kill him yourself if you want to end him yourself. Too bad we never see Sotha Sil, but Almalexia going insane was pretty entertaining, and it's funny to think she was your wife in a past life. Talk about crazy exes, right?

Could be done by lowering the disposition of the NPC when his goods go missing, regardless of if he saw you do it or not.  Real people would notice that you came in, left, then their stuff is gone and make the connection.  Certainly, Skyrim's bucket-headed NPCs could use the boosted awareness.

Skyrim actually has something like this. If you steal willy nilly everywhere you go, you'll find yourself targeted by assassins, who have notes revealing an NPC had hired them to take care of you for stealing from them. What I want is something more like building a reputation as a legendary thief or assassin, or something like that. The closest thing we have to that right now is a guard reacting to your Thieves Guild or Black Brotherhood armor. Which makes me wonder, if that armor is so recognizable that the guards instantly know what criminal faction you're a part of, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the armor?

Guard: "Oh, no! Nicolaus was murdered! Who could have done this?"

Citizen: "Gee, I dunno. Maybe that guy in the Black Brotherhood armor who rented a room at the inn last night?"

G: "No, that would be too obvious. We must look for clues."

C: "He's standing right there! He has blood dripping from his Daedric dagger!"

G: "Don't be silly. He's not bothering anybody. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that."

Dark Brotherhood assassin: "Oh, uh... I just killed a pack of giant rats in the alleyways. You're welcome."

G: "See? I told you it wasn't him."

C: "Are you serious!? You can't be this stu--hey! Someone stole all my gold!"

G: "Are you sure it was stolen? Maybe you should retrace your steps."

C: "There's a guy in Thieves Guild armor two feet away from us!"

G: "Oh! Hi, Greg!"

Thieves Guild guy: "Hey. Don't mind me. Just counting the gold I just made from the bounty on a bandit leader."

C: "That's MY gold!"

G: "Hey. You can't just randomly accuse people without proof."

[Blackleaf]

Hate to admit this, but I just could not get going in Morrowind.  I got to level 6/7, went to Balmora and joined the fighters guild.  I was a fighter--tried the first quest for the guild and could not beat the rats--could not even get the sword to swing!!!  I have over 1,000 hrs into the game--haven't played it in several years, tho.  Could use an old save and go from there.  But, I just quit.  I've been playing Oblivion now for a couple of weeks.  I have not played in years and it is still quite good.  The graphics are not as good as Skyrim, but the playability is in the same ballpark.  I would love to see this game remastered--with Skyrim's graphics, it would be a competitor!

Morrowind has a very slow start, and it hasn't aged gracefully. But I still enjoy some things about it better than Skyrim, and wish those things weren't removed. Funnily enough, there's a point where your weapon stops missing at a certain level, then you don't have to deal with that anymore. I think it's when the skill is at level 50, which is half of the max. You definitely want to choose your main weapon as a major skill. Any skill not chosen from the beginning will be pretty much useless unless you spend a ton of gold on training.

I like Oblivion too, but the weapon and armor degradation seems a lot harsher than in Morrowind. Sometimes it seems like you can't finish a single quest without stopping to repair your sword.

Oh, and about your wish for Oblivion to be upgraded with Skyrim's graphics. I have good news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGvU7QDWEDc

[Hydra009]

Hate to admit this, but I just could not get going in Morrowind.  I got to level 6/7, went to Balmora and joined the fighters guild.  I was a fighter--tried the first quest for the guild and could not beat the rats--could not even get the sword to swing!!!

lol, I've died on that quest.  All I can tell you is to level up your weapon skill - either by buying training or by swinging at critters in the starting areas - until you weapons stops whiffing so much.  Alternatively, just download a mod that takes care of the problem entirely.

[Blackleaf]

Now I want to play the game again. With mods, of course. Lots and lots of mods. lol

BTW, dunno if I mentioned this before, but one of the most popular mods for Morrowind is one that removes Cliff Racers from the game. Bethesda sort of canonized this mod by making the first NPC you see in the game becoming a saint by killing every single Cliff Racer in existence. They can be pretty annoying, but I don't think I'll go so far as to delete them. lol

[Hydra009]

The devs didn't intend for cliff racers to be so aggressive, so modding them in some way is practically a given.  After massacring them in my last playthrough, I opted to make them peaceful and leave them alone.

I had never noticed this before, but just outside of Balmora next to the river, there's a ridge packed with cliff racers.  I wandered in there by mistake and it freaked me out.

[Blackleaf]

I'm finding modding for Morrowind to be a massive pain in the ass. My desire to play it is dropping quickly by the minute.

[Hydra009]

I'm finding modding for Morrowind to be a massive pain in the ass. My desire to play it is dropping quickly by the minute.

Nexus/Vortex mod manager?

I just manually download them, throw them in the directory, and checkmark the ones I want.  Haven't had a problem with that so far.

[Blackleaf]

Nexus/Vortex mod manager?

I just manually download them, throw them in the directory, and checkmark the ones I want.  Haven't had a problem with that so far.

I've only started with the code patch (unofficial patch), and started doing graphical mods. Everything is outdated and requires some other mods, some of which aren't available on Nexus. Nexus is full of reuploads, not from the original creator, and looking at the comments reveals it's out of date or lots of people are having issues with textures not working right or the game refusing to launch. I was installing Better Clothing when I noticed the Read Me said it required a beast body mod. Only one of the three suggested were on Nexus, but then I see Better Bodies 3.0 (Better Beasts) pop up. Which means the Better Bodies mod I just installed is an older version, and I probably don't need a beast mod if I just use this one. ARGH!

[Hydra009]

Aside from suggesting a mod manager, I can't help you with the heavy-duty mods.  I only put about 10 mods on, and most of those were minor tweaks.

If I had to choose between playing vanilla or getting frustrated with installing mods to the point of not playing at all, I choose the former.

[Hydra009]

I've been getting better at Mechanicus and the game's mechanics are finally starting to make sense.

Imagine XCOM but your team has a shared mana bar.  Busting out the heavy weapons depletes it quick, while normal rifles deplete it slowly, and pistols don't deplete it at all.  So you want go easy on it unless you're in a tight spot and absolutely have to bust out the big guns.

There are nodes spread across the map which you can station squadmates at to more rapidly replenish, but enemies can teleport in from anywhere, so you're never truly safe.

So you want to split the party to maximize your combat ability, but you want to keep them together for safety.
You want to plow through enemies fast because you're pressed for time, but you also don't want to overextend and get slaughtered.
You want to investigate as many rooms as possible for extra loot, but the enemy gets stronger per room explored.

Quite the logical quandary.

[Draconic Aiur]

So I haven't played LOL in awhile and would like to play something similiar to Riot's TFT, but don't want to go back to playing TFT.

[Hydra009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJNTTcmjhAk

I think I've found a rare gem.  Essentially, this is a sci-fi space RTS with an eye for realism.  So no aliens or humongous space battles with pew pew pew space lasers.

Instead, you have a game very grounded in real-world physics and logistics.  So you can build space stations and spaceships but all the materials and crew have to be shuttled in - they don't just appear out of thin air.  Ships have limited fuel and munitions and have to dock for major repairs/refit.  And since all the ships' volleys are calculated by the physics engine, you can miss and hit an unintended target - friendly fire is a possibility - and use asteroids as cover.  Also, you can customize your ships.

But before you can meet your opponent in the field of battle, you need to figure out where they are in the first place, which is no easy feat.  Space is big.  Really big.  You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is.  So scouting/sensors is super important.  Plus, you can manually adjust your sensors so you can see further in one direction at the expense of another.

All this sounds like a lot of management, but honestly, it doesn't look too overwhelming.  You can automate a lot of stuff and can support your war fleet with logistics ships.  You just have to remember to keep your crews fed and supplied, and you're golden.  And you can use that vulnerability to your advantage - attack your enemy where they'll never see it coming, hit their supply lines and really put a hurt on their economy, then crush them entirely.

This game is a relatively small project so like Sins of a Solar Empire, it has no campaign and instead is purely skirmish mode.  Yeah, kind of a bummer, but honestly, skirmish is a campaign unto itself.  And I'd rather the devs work on making skirmish mode as smooth and enjoyable as possible than work on a campaign.

My only major criticism so far is that while you can play as various factions: Venus, Lunar, Tethys, Europa, etc - Mars is nowhere on the list!  Even Pluto is represented and it's not even a planet!  Where's the love for Mars?!

[Hydra009]

I just found out that this game is being developed by just one person, with only the music being handled by someone else.  So yeah, a campaign is a big ask.  It's truly amazing that one person managed to create so much.

I'm going into this expecting a single-player skirmish only.  Anything else is gravy.

[Mr.Obvious]

Finished 'control' last night. Goddamn that's a great game. Satisfying combat, natural power crawl, interesting world, lots of lore but you could chose to ignore it, great music, great comedy, the leading character she's likeable and relatable, heck of a story and mistery.
Gonna miss this one, though I still have one dlc to complete: feels like an after game mission now.
I recommend it.

[Hydra009]

In City of Heroes, I love that you can fly/superjump/superspeed through the city from practically the very beginning.  The ability to go anywhere combined with the verticality of the urban jungle is truly amazing.  Plus, you jump down on criminals from the rooftops, and that never gets old.  Hell on the knees, though.

But there's a price to pay - to travel swiftly, you get one less combat ability.  A small price to pay for freedom of movement, but min-maxers hate it.  Instead, they game the *pauses* ...game by purchasing that ability temporarily and just re-up frequently.

Well, now there are turning tables!  An upcoming patch is going to make the fly ability much stronger than the temporary fly.  Who's maxed now!  :P