Welp, I loaded up TES3: Morrowind for the first time in a while yesterday. Think I’m going to stick with it for a while and see how it goes! Currently working on mods and I don’t think I’m going to go too heavy with them. We’ll see.

Ah Morrowind the game that introduced me to The Elder Scrolls series. Oddly enough when I play TES: Online it almost looks like an advanced version of Morrowind like Morrowind meets Skyrim kinda. I remember I goofed the main questline where you had to go to this tower to get the wizard there to cure your corpus disease but if you killed anyone in the dungeon below even in self defense, he wouldn't give you the cure and I'm not sure if there's a back door route.

You are, of course, referencing The Corprusarium of Divayth Fyr. One of the most interesting locations in TES3 because of one of his patients that lives down there.

You can use invisibility to avoid everything. I just gunned it. Ran like a madman. Everything but like, the quest dude is hostile.

Amulet of Shadows!

It’s ridiculous!

That would be the place. On my first playthrough I killed one of the patients cause it attacked me and Divayth didn't like that so I thought killing him would give me the cure instead and NO...it did not and everyone on Vvardenfell hated me cause I had Corprus so I had to do the whole thing over again.

Man, that brings back memories.


Have fun, Khajiit!

I've done little 'gaming' lately, for several semi-mundane reasons not worth relating. Early this evening I fired up TS2021 and drove a (British) Great Northern Railway (GNR) class-N2 steam tank loco, in BR Early Crest, pulling four Quard-Art maroon passenger coaches. The route is Lenton-on-Sea, a free download from the game's Steam Workshop. A favorite. Very scenic. If memory serves, it has fairly substantial payware route requirements. The scenario was a QuickDrive. I select departure and destination locales. So long as I arrive at the destination locale, all completion requirements are met. I don't need to stop at any stations other than the destination station, though I almost always stop at them all. No timetable, thank goodness! No performance grading.

(Yesterday I attempted a timetabled Standard Scenario, driving a GWR Small Prairie. I botched it almost before it began, arriving and coupling with the train's coaches at the initial station two minutes behind schedule. I could have continued, but with that station officially flagged as a failure I saw no point in it. Too bad. It looks to be an interesting scenario.)

(link) Here's an image of tonight's excursion, the N2 paused to board passengers at the scenario's second, non-essential, station. (link)

Playing Star Wars Squadrons on the Xbox One X and I LOVE IT! Mmmmm---now I REALLY need to get a 4K tv .

The controls feel just like Battlefront 2 Starfighter controls, so if you're used to that you can play this then.

I've been playing more TS201 these past several days. Nothing special. Just QuickDrives, all on Lenton-on-Sea Workshop freeware route, with various of steam locos, most third-party. I also spent too money of TS2021 DLC to take advantage of the ongoing (almost over) Steam Sale. No single item was all that expensive. Almost all are $5.00US railway coach/carriage packs reduced to $2.49US. I bought a LOT of 'em. I'd have wanted them eventually (assuming I stick with the game long enough), so best get 'em for a decent price. I looked into buying a couple of steam locos that are used in a lot of Workshop scenarios, but none were marked down enough to justify the expense.

Rather than nickle-and-diming it, I've combined captures of four semi-recent British tank steam locomotive acquisitions into one image. These are all captured along the Lenton-on-Sea SteamWorkshop route. All are QuickDrives:

(link) TS2021 British Tank Steam Loco four-in-one image (link)

As of now, the SECR H-class is my pick of the litter, followed by the LNWR 380-class, despite the H-class being somewhat underpowered for its pre-selected carriage load. (I can create lighter carriage configurations for it should I choose to.)

Nice shots and beautiful trains, Decrepit.

There's something about smaller British steam locomotives I find irresistibly appealing. Tank locos especially, and small tender locos. I seldom drive TS2021 scenarios behind the reverser of behemoth late steam-era locos. And never, of course, diesel / electric. (I own my share of 'big' steam, diesel and electric. They come included with most non-Worshop routes I own.)

Speaking of small/medium size tender locos, on a whim I purchased a British GWR 3300 class "Bulldog" 4-4-0 loco from Digital Traction to take advantage of a 60% discount. Cost me all of $6.84US. At that price I figured it was worth the risk. Truth to tell, I expected mediocrity. Turns out, I like it a lot. It's a looker, especially in its green-with-red livery. DT provides fine sounds for it. It also provides a 'leaning-out-of-the-cab-on-the-driver's-side' cab-view! I greatly appreciate this, as many Train Simulator locos rely instead on the more limited game-provided leaning-out-of-the-cab camera. My one quibble is that brake-lapping is tricky to set correctly with any consistency. Be that as it may, to the extent money can be spent well I consider this money well spent.

(link) Here's a four-in-one of the "Bulldog" taken along Lenton-on-Sea route. (link)

Most strange. First thing after breakfast I loaded TS2021 and looked for an appealing Standard Scenario to drive. The one that finally caught my eye was a stopping passenger run. Its loco, a "Spinner" with but one pair of driving wheels.

The Scenario loaded. Being timetabled, I immediately open carriages doors to take on passengers. Waiting for boarding to complete, I moved the Reverser all the way open and set the Train Brake to 'running'. Boarding finished. I was cleaned to depart.

I opened Cylinder Cocks, then edged the Regulator slightly open. The loco begin huffing and puffing, but didn't move forward. I double-checked Reverse and Train Brake. All looked as it should. The Regulator was opened further. The train inched forward at a snail's pace. I experimented with different Reverser/Regulator and Brake settings. All that accomplished was stop the train dead in its tracks. I finally got it back to moving forward at a snail's pace. By then I should have been at least halfway to the first station-stop. Instead, my train hadn't yet completely cleared the departure station.

The scenario was terminated.

That "Spinner" was an early TS2021 acquisition. I'd not driven it since those early days. I decided to experiment, using the loco in QuickDrive. There I could goof around to my black-heart's content until becoming reacquainted with the "Spinner's" quirks.

I began said QuickDrive expecting to battle the "Spinner" a good while before figuring out how to properly operate it. To my surprise, using the same procedures/settings as during the Standard Scenario, it accelerated just as one would expect a loco of its specs and vintage to. No issues whatsoever! In fact, I felt it might be a bit unrealistically overpowered at higher speeds. (But then, I'm no expert.) My one sadness driving wise; it might not utilize brake-lapping. I certainly couldn't get it to do so during the QuickDrive. That, however, has nothing to do with my earlier Standard Scenario failure.

What went wrong with that Standard Scenario? Beats me. I've come up with one off-the-wall remote possibility. Can it be that the Scenario opens with hand-brake engaged? If so, it will be the first Scenario of any kind I've encountered that does so. Heck, I'm not even sure the Spinner comes equipped with a functioning hand-brake. Time will tell. I'm not holding my breath.

Star Wars: Rebellion is ongoing, but little progress.


Keep building TIE Defenders and Victory II Star Destroyers. Also hit a snag; Coruscant suffered a natural disaster which took away almost all of the shipyards there.

Among recent TS2021 adventures, I returned to the Caledonian Railway "Single" No.123, choosing LMS CrimsonLake livery. I'd not driven the 123 single very early on, back when I was largely clueless on how to properly drive a steam locomotive. I'm still no authority on it, but can generally get from point-A to point-B with minimal embarrassment. (Except when driving in 'expert' mode.") As such, I was pleasantly surprised how pleasant to drive the 123 is. I of course tested it along Lenton-on-Sea Steam Workshop route, as I do with most locos. The 123 is not currently offered for sale. Hasn't been for some time. My understanding is that it will be overhauled to bring it up-to-date with recent Train Simulator loco offerings. It will be interesting to see how the makeover improves an already decent loco. Here's a 4n1 of images captured along Lenton-on-Sea:

(image) Caledonian Railway Single No.123 in LMS Crimson Lake (image)

I searched for a good quality YouTube video featuring the loco. None totally fit the bill, for differing reasons. I settled on this one, it being quite short (under three minutes) and graphically pleasing.

(video) Calendian Railway 123 Loco Pack - Tran Simulator 2018 - HD (video)

Still on my SW:R playthrough and today I FINALLY unlocked the Super Star Destroyer! I can at long last start building up my main attack fleet!
I'm also having an easy time in the Fakir sector since all planets reject the pesky rebels and join me as soon as I can remove the rebel troops. Still only busy in three out of six sectors as too quick a progress usually means ten steps back at some point.

Here's an upcoming TS2021 steam locomotive I've got my eye on:

(link) Caledonia Works: L&Y Class 5 - Coming Soon (link)

Here's the loco that might feature in a speculative TS2021 steam loco driving practice session YouTube video, as mentioned in another thread:

(image) TS2021 - Gresley N2 tank locomotive (image)

Otherwise, I drove a failed TS2021 Standard Session attempt that failed not halfway through, when I mistakenly uncoupled the wrong railway car in the process of 'running around' the train to prepare for its return trip. For whatever reason I wasn't given an option to re-couple it. Looking back, I betcha I could have worked it out.

My Caledonian Grampian 65' carriages are misbehaving! Can't use 'em at all. Here's an image showing why, in a QuickDrive consist configuration editor:

(image) naughty railway cars (image)

What a mess! (hint - those three rectangles with odd patterns should contain three carriages.)

I have a half-baked suspicion of what might be going on, and just shot off an email to Steam Sounds Supreme about it.

I am now in complete control of Sesswenna, Corellian and Fakir sectors and have just now begun operations in Sluis sector with my newly formed Main Fleet. It consists as usual of two Interdictors and Super Star Destroyers. I currently have eight Destroyers but it will be 15 when it's complete.

Eureka! I solved it! TS2021 railway carriage corruption is no more.

I own four SteamStore (SS) Caledonian Grampian carriage packs and two SteamSoundsSupreme (SSS) Caledonian Grampian carriage packs. Early on, I wondered if maybe SS and SSS pack conflicted. SSS pack manuals don't mention the possibility. Plus, with SSS providing two fewer packs, surely half my Cal-Gramp carriages ought to be okay? None were.

I did a little research. Turns out each SS pack contains 10 carriages. Each SSS pack contain 20. Ergo, both SS and SSS provide 40 carriages. I disabled all four SS pack via TS2021 Steam DLC window. Launched the game. Loaded a QuickDrive that utilizes Cal-Gramps. They're there, sans corruption. All of them, so far as I can tell. I just wish SSS stated that its product replaces/conflicts with SS Cal-Gramps, rather than complements them as I assumed. Luckily it's no great financial waste. I'm fairly certain I bought all four SS packs for $2.49US each on sale. (Even at full price they cost $4.99US each.)

Still haven't figured out why the "Spinner" locomotive doesn't move beyond a snail's pace in that one scenario (but drives like a champ elsewhere). found the loco's 'hand-brake, which I though might be set to 'on'. Sadly, it seems as if the hand-brake is for show only. I couldn't make it turn, despite indication that it ought to.

Whew, glad you were able to get that glitch worked out and can get back to having fun!

Thanks. It wasn't that big a deal, yet in some sense it was. As a bonus, I solved another railway coach malfunction, aso due to SteamStore/SteamSoundsSurpreme conflicts. This one appeared very early in my TS2021 'career'. At the time, I wrote it off as a defective carriage set, then proceeded to forget its existence. Knowing what I know now, I removed the two SteamStore packs, which allows the SteamSoundsSupreme packs to function. Thank goodness this appears to be that last of these snafus. <crosses fingers>

Drove an enjoyable Standard Scenario while ago. It takes place on the Ise of Wight, Britain. The train consisted of an LBSCR E4 tank loco pulling a string of SECR "Birdcage" coaches. I was skeptical of getting far in this scenario, as my experience with the E4 to-date hasn't been stellar, due to it relying on steam rather than vacuum brakes. To my surprise, steam brakes or no steam brakes, I had no problem driving it. Nor did I fall behind schedule, my most common failure. I admit to deliberately speeding to keep on schedule, but hey, it worked. I reached the scenario's final station with a few minutes to spare.

(image) Here's a 4n1 compilation of images captured during the run, one being of the scenario DEBRIEF screen. (image)

(YouTube) Here's a 6min 30sec video of a real LBSCR E4 in action. (YouTube)

Sunday's one totally successful TS2021 Standard Scenario is seen below. Once again I resorted to speeding to meet timetable requirements. The loco is a (British) Stroudly A1X, also known as 'Terrier', due to a sound it makes.

(image) TS2021 - West Somerset Railway, World at War Gala (image)

I just played game number 20000 of Windows Chess Titans level 3!


Yes indeed! I bought this computer in 2009 and decided to use it to play chess 20000 times Well, on lvl three anyway. I have an additional amount of plays on lvl one and two BUT WE WON'T MENTION THOSE.


Anyway; the semla I just happened to get today was a good way to celebrate!

Nice, mirocu! My Solitile rounds-played is in the thousands, but nowhere close to you. Course I rarely play Solitile anymore, except for infrequent mini-marathons.

Spent the entirety of my day, minus breakfast and a quick lunch, adding text narrative to what will be my first TS2021 YouTube episode. It's a simple driving practice session. No fancy camerawork. It's L O N G. 1hr 23min! As such, I'll break it into two separate episodes/uploads. By rights, I ought to have divided it by four. Had my internet service not upgraded this past year I'd have needed to sub-divide it into four episode minimum. Very possibly more, depending on upload resolution. In any case, I hope to have part-one over and done with either later today or sometime tomorrow. (I've a test upload version rendering at the moment. A thumbnail is already made. I need to type up a decent YouTube Description.)

For those who suffer from insomnia, I come to the rescue with a Train Simulator 2021 YouTube episode, documenting a QuickDrive session along Lenton-on-Sea Steam Workshop route. The train consists of a (British) Gresley GNR N2 0-6-2T steam locomotive in LNER apple green, pulling five Gresley Teak railway carriages. It begins at Jasper’s Slaughter House and ends at Fenbury, with four passenger stops in-between. Gods help us all, the drive continues in a future upload. Not originally intended for public consumption, production values are fairly basic, mainly views from the cab, that being how I prefer to drive steam locos. I find the journey compelling, yet admit to a certain bias. Either you enjoy this sort of thing or you don't. Which can be said of pretty much any and everything, come to think on it.

(YouTube Video) TS2021 - Driving Practice session - GNR N2 steam loco - Lenton-on-Sea Steam-Workshop route, part 1 (YouTube Video)

I find these small games perfect for when I watch youtube in the evenings. And I watch A LOT of youtube!


Anyway, do you ever fire up Oblivion, Decrepit? I miss when you did

Rogue Company on the Switch and Xbox. Not a bad game it's nothing special but not bad for a free to play game.

I racked up a great many Solitile games early on while listening to Michael Grant's The Twelve Caesars on audio-cassette. (Not, as you might suppose, a translation of Suetonius' title of the same name, but his on take, based on a blend of Suetonius, other semi contemporary historians/writers and modern evidence.) I don't know how many times I heard it to completion while playing Solitile. Quite a lot, which might be an understatement. Those cassettes eventually approached becoming unlistenable due to wear. Then my cassette deck gave up the ghost, with no reason to buy another beyond that one audio-book.

Yeah, it's been too long since I last visited Cyrodiil. Whenever I drop by again, I must remember to back out of a mod change that interferes with one of Vilja's functions.


Looks like I picked the wrong morning to drive steam locomotives. One fail after another. Mostly dumb mistakes I had no right to make. Threw in the towel. Might try again later today.

Nice. This reminds me of whenever I do 1500 pieces puzzles and listen to a compilation of Mozart, Bach etc. Very relaxing.

-------------------------

Star Wars: Rebellion


I am now working my way through the last core sector, and I am now starting to get attacked throughout the other ones. Luckily I have fleets in place just for this but sometimes, like today, I had to call in reinforcements from one sector to another in order to destroy the rebel fleet and take back the planet that was under attack. Both sector fleets are now repaired and reinforced.

Meanwhile, the Main Fleet is hovering over a planet currently occupied on which Vader and Palpie are conducting diplomacy in order to reduce the number of garrisons required. Main Fleet is btw complete now; two Interdictor Cruisers and fifteen Super Star Destroyers with a total of 180 TIE Defenders. It now requires a lot from the rebels to top that one.

Bolded: “Aggressive negotiations”

Another term I believe is "advanced interrogation"


------------------------

I now own the entire core of the biggest galaxy in Star Wars: Rebellion. Skirmishes have been frequent these last sessions but no really big rebel fleet which disappoints me. Met the biggest one to date at the last core planet but even that was miniscule compared to my Main Fleet and the Super Star Destroyers didn't even have enough time to close in before the TIE Defenders had destroyed the entire rebel fleet.


Now is the time to go out into the Outer Rim in search of Skywalker, Mon Mothma and of course the rebel base.

I've been playing Transport Fever hot & heavy since the beginning of the week, my first extended stay since mid 2020. I concentrated solely on adding scenery to a heretofore ignored section of the map. I have finally admitted to myself that the map is over and done with so far as improvements to its railway network are concerned. Too many serious errors in judgement early on. To rectify that, I'd need to strip large chunks of my tracks and railway stations to bare earth and start afresh. At that point I might as well begin afresh on a new map, where I would hopefully do better from the start. That's unlikely to happen. Besides, I still have lots of scenery to add to my current map. Speaking of which...

I have unleashed my first Transport Fever Scenic Excursions episode in months. A passenger train ride along a newly scenicked landscape, from Sittingbourne to Bebington and back again. Our first visit to Bebington. My first YouTube video posting as a septuagenarian, having turned seventy 28 Jan 2021:

(video) Transport Fever Scenic Excursions ep42 - Train Ride Amid Newly Scenicked Landscape (video)

First big space battle with the Main Fleet today, in the Outer Rim. Well, I say "big" but it wasn't an even match by a country mile. Though the Super Star Destroyers actually did some work for once and one of them even got a bit damaged, so that's something. But when you have 180 squadrons of TIE Defenders, not much is actually a problem and those Destroyers are more or less a backup just in case.
Luke Skywalker has been captured and was brought before the Emperor by Vader. Luke was confronted and captured by Palpatine and is now on his way to prison on Coruscant which btw is protected by a whopping 500 squadrons of TIE Fighters!


Two victory conditions left; capture Mon Mothma and destroy the hidden rebel HQ.

Bought the original Xbox version of TESIII: Morrowind for the Xbox One X---talk about OOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLD.

I first played Morrowind on XBox. It was a lot janky, but I loved it so much.

I loved the music and atmosphere to the game plus it was my introduction to the Elder Scrolls series. I first saw it advertised on Toonami back in the day.

Has anyone played the Morrowind mod named Muffinwind? It is an interesting one which took me quite a bit of time before I figured out what was going on.

I have again released another monstrosity on the unsuspecting masses. (All zero of them.) This time round footage of my decrepit DFU avatar exploring the bowls of Community of Vannausa (dungeon) to remove a Gargoyle. Captured at 1080p, it is rendered and uploaded at 1440p. To my surprise, it looks best online at 1440p full-screen, even on my 1080p monitor. That's due to dungeon fog, which doesn't display well full-screen at 1080p, but does at 1440p. Viewed in a standard YouTube window, either resolution should be okay.

(video) Modded Daggerfall Unity - Community of Vannausa - Gargoyle Disposal (video)

Oh man the memories T_T . This game is going to be tough cause I can't cheat or modify my character like I could in the PC version to give myself an edge. I think there's a god mode cheat but it's been so long I can't remember it.

The Horror!!!
T_T

With all the noise made tromping around in heavy armor I don't see how you were able to sneak up and backstab anyone. The music is pretty good. It adds to the dungeon crawl tension.

Morrowind: GOTY Edition. Finally had time to plonk down and play this gem from the early 00s. A large percentage of its content still holds up! Though some are without a doubt extremely dated.

The most fun I've had (and still having) however is with the Construction Set. I managed to get the most basic stuff down and created a bunch of NPCs, since I'm planning on making my own faction with its own questline. Its going to be a long and hard journey ahead, but hoooooo boi am I ready to tackle it.

<nods> I turn music off in most ever game I play. Yet I leave it on in Daggerfall. Wouldn't be without it. As to noisy feet and stealth, I hear you. In Oblivion, my avatar switches from plate footwear to quieter leather boots when stealth is required. In Daggerfall, I decided to not be so 'picky'. The difference, I think, is that I consider Oblivion my 'immersionist' TES game and run my avatar accordingly. I don't see Daggerfall as an immersion game beyond a certain point. It's more my quest / dungeon crawl TES game.

For example, in Oblivion my avatar eats three square meals a day, in taverns when he can, from carried supplies when he can't. He sleeps every night except when on rare assigned that see him legitimately active overnight, in which case he'll catnap the next day. And so on. I can of course do the same thing in Daggerfall. I just don't think DF is geared for that being a meaningful endeavor.

I am loving these Daggerfall Unity vids! I have to keep pausing them to read your on-screen dialogue; but it is def worth it to catch all your side comments! Your Daggerfall looks amazing compared to the one I played briefly; it makes me want to try it out again!

@Decrepit - Enchanted with a paralysis spell your sword is very effective. Thinking that high elves are naturally immune to paralysis, is the enchantment effective against high elves and deadra?

Star Wars Rebellion update

Day: 8121

I now have a ridiculous 1000 TIE Fighters stationed at Coruscant, as well as a Death Star and a Death Star shield. Half of the Outer Rim is conquered. Luke Skywalker and senator Mon Mothma are captured. The only thing I'm doing now is searching for the rebel HQ.