Wow, those are some colorful goblins!

Really looks like Persephone is calling down power from the heavens to smite those undead. Big book indeed! That demon is one big scary lookin’ dude! Whew, at least the lich is not giant like that book and demon.


And Molly in Skyrim! Heh, good use for that dragonstone. Much better than ratting out the dragons with it. Hmm, I did a little digging and I guess that Edoras is a Lord of the Rings city that bears some resemblance to Whiterun. Pointy-eared mutant! Spoken like a true round-ear.

Oh, I do like the look of those goblins! I think a Player should be able to see them coming before they attack, which always makes me happy, lol.

Very much like the look of the lich too, is Persephone talking to him or is this about to turn into a fight?

The giant book is AWESOME! Love that screen!

The "Demon" one reminded me of a few enemy battles I saw last night watching the ESO vids - they have some big boss fights for each region kind of like some of the old Mario games had - and they are BIG bosses, like that Demon is. Really oversized compared to the player, and with a lot of hit points.

Kind of made me wonder if they were overpowered because they are supposed to have groups of 20 attacking at once (because in the vid they were very hard to kill even with many hits) or if they tone it down some for single player mode so it will be more like doing the Gatekeeper at Shivering Isles.


Yeah! Molly !!!!

Oh, I love her armor here! And actually, I have used soapstone when I'm camping to keep the food warm after you pull it from the fire so it doesn't get overcooked - it is great for keeping biscuits and breads hot at the table too; Molly must have high survival skills!

Molly's hatchet is HUGE !!! Wow!

Uh oh, that man looks like he is going to fight with Molly! She must have said that aloud, lol.


Awesome Shots; really loved seeing Molly again !!!

Acadian: I have been having a lot of old school fun with Neverwinter Nights 1. Yellow goblins and all!

So far Molly has put that dragonstone to better use than any of my other characters! If she ever got the jagged crown (it's a spiky helmet from the civil war questline), she'd probably stick weiners on the spikes and hold it out over the fire to heat them up!


mALX: Thankfully I didn't have to fight the lich, or the demon really. There were a ton of other critters in that dungeon that needed smiting though.

I was thinking of those old-fashioned iron stoves when I put the dragonstone over the fire. You know, the kind with the solid metal plate where we have the burner on a modern stove, and you put your pan or pot over the plate, which is heated up by the fire underneath it.

Of course it is huge. Molly will be the first to agree that size matters after all. When it comes to hatchets at least...

Dawn of the Dead

Persephone vs. Wererats

Persephone vs. a Bone Golem

Persephone vs. Iron Man

Persephone vs. Godzilla

Goodness, it’s a zombie invasion!

I had such a laugh over the wererats – er, werecats.

Bone golems – ugh, I remember those from BG II.

Persephone found a dwemer centurian!

And a dragon!

I’m so glad that you and Persephone and Darryl are having fun in NWN I!

I have been laughing about Molly using that stone since I learned it was the Dragonstone, But I know the stove you are talking about; I've actually seen one in use in upstate New York in a small Lake Ontario waterfront town that time seemed to have stood still in. The man actually lit a small fire in the chamber beneath the metal plate to heat the stove, stoked it with wood and put a tea kettle on to warm. I was probably about 10 years old, and had only seen electric stoves till then - was fascinated by it.

I keep being surprised by the extreme detail in the textures of this world; they are amazing - but the characters don't seem as high resolution in comparison.

These monsters are huge! I guess you really need a group to fight them. I saw some similar oversized beasts in the vids of ESO and wondered if they will be too hard for a solo player to kill, or even just a party of three, lol.

Well, I have to say my favorite of these is Godzilla, dear gods is Persephone alone against him?

Awesome shots!

Acadian: Persephone is of course, quite at home during a zombie apocalypse!

The were-rats do have ridiculously large heads and hands don't they?

Now that you mention it, I do recall a bone golem or two from BGII. They were tough hombres there too.


mALX: I have seen those old-fashioned stoves somewhere around here too. Probably at Greenfield Village. Even way back thousands of years ago people had iron stoves. Armies used to cart around small ones to bake their bread. The Sassanid Persians had these heavily armored horsemen who the Eastern Romans (Byzantines) called Clibinarii, which is from the Greek word Klibanophoroi - meaning "camp oven bearer".

In noticed the same thing about the textures in NWN1. The world objects like furniture and walls and floors all looks outstanding, with a huge amount of detail. But then the characters look very simple and blocky in comparison.

Persephone did take on that dragon alone. But thankfully she was able to get an amulet with a really big resistance to cold beforehand, and the dragon's breath weapon was cold-based. So that made a huge difference in the fight.



I have been playing my old Amazon Total War mod for Rome Total War 1 almost non-stop lately. Here are a few pics from my Amazonia campaign.

Penthesilea the Conqueror recently took Rhodes from the Greeks, but they obviously want it back... (The red flags are Amazon units, the gold ones are Greeks. The amount the flag is darkened in shows how many soldiers are in each army, the dark, the more people).

Penthesilea marches out to fight one of the Greek armies

The Colossus of Rhodes looks on (all 7 Wonders of the World are in the game, plus I added a few with ATW).

Penthesilea leaves no survivors

Queen Penthesilea will have to march over two Greek armies to take Athens (in the distance). The second Greek army is behind the hill.

Penthesilea is conquering some turf! Looks like you did a fabulous job modding RTW to suit your purpose.

As I said earlier, that game looks epic in scale!

Long ago, I did play some medieval flavored RTS games. Lords of the Realm II gobbled up some time. And I enjoyed Stronghold also - that one was like a castle sim / RTS.

I used to play a board game like this, but this is so much more exciting! I really love that the flags on the map give an indication of the size of the troops; that way you can plan your strategy to maximize troops and don't get surprised by a battle much bigger than you are prepared for!

Is this game against the computer? (single player?)

I love the little journal entry showing the victory broken down into details, she only lost 3 men but killed 1178? Holy Cow, no wonder she is "The Conqueror!"

This game is very interesting, I think my son played something like this online called League of Legends (? Maybe it was Legion of Legends, I can't remember).

This game is very cool, thank you so much for sharing these!


OH! That Greenfield Village looks Awesome! I would love to go walk through there and see it all!

OK, I need those stats explained. How did Penthesilia have 18 less troops at the end, but the enemy only killed 3? Friendly fire? Desertions? Mergers and Acquisitions?

Acadian: Penthesilea has been my best general. She started the game as the faction heir, and led the Amazonian army to conquer western Anatolia. Then she took the army against the hated Greeks, and conquered all of the Aegean and Greece. By then she was pushing 60 years though, and had become faction leader. So I let her retire in Pella, and left the conquering to younger women. She is almost 80 now, and is still alive and well. Usually once a general turns 60 in this game, they could die of old age at any moment.

I remember those game, though I never did try them. I was playing a lot of X:Com and Tie Fighter back then.


mALX: RTW also has spies you can use to look at enemy units and generals, and find out their exact stats, as well as infiltrate enemy cities to learn what is in them. That is very handy. They even have a chance to open the gates for your army if they are inside a city that you attack. There are also diplomats - and aside from diplomacy - they can be used to bribe enemy units to disband or join your side. Finally, there are assassins as well, that you can use to murder enemy spies and diplomats, as well as sabotage enemy cities.

RTW is mainly a single player game. You can play a number of historical battles, or take a faction in a campaign, which is the most fun. There is a multiplayer component too, but it is only playing single battles against other humans online.



ghastley: Those unattributed losses are from friendly fire. The downside to playing a faction with powerful archers is that you sometimes take more losses from your own side than from the enemy... OTOH, my archers will often account for a good 60-70% of the enemy killed.


Amazon catapults batter down Egyptian walls

Battle against the Seleucid Empire

The Seleucids have elephants!

But my archers have flaming arrows (which panics elephants)

Elephants running amok through the Seleucid's own mercenaries (in green)

The archers have cleared the way

I remember the fun I had taking RTW for a whirl on my Mac last year (or was it two years ago?).

Seeing these screenies makes me think I should get the PC version so I can hit you up for that mod!

The elephants tossing people through the air - that never gets old, I have to love a game that thought enough to add that in!

Another thing I love is the little status reports on the troops (example: eager due to encouragement by their general, etc) - I love that!

The battle itself looks a bit scary, how do you tell all those troops what to do? The strategies involved in planning the war doesn't seem as daunting as conveying that to hundreds of troops, lol.

Oh, the idea of spies and subterfuge to infiltrate or bribing - that game sounds like a ton of fun!

Awesome screens, and of course the elephants tossing their own troops around is my favorite, you can't beat that!

Once again, the grand sweeping scale of this game is very impressive. I loved how those fire arrows panicked the elephants. An elephant stampede in your own ranks could certainly turn the tide I should imagine. Wow, the archer damage over the walls was amazing. Yay for archers!

haute ecole rider: The PC version of RTW and BI cannot be too much. The two were only about $20 when I bought them bundled together about six years ago. Just be sure you get the Barbarian Invasion expansion as well as the original game. Amazon Total War uses the BI executable, which has some nice extras such as night attacks.


mALX: The people getting tossed in the air even sometimes happens during cavalry charges as well. Or whenever too many people are crammed into too small a space.

That morale status is very important. In this game you do not win battles by killing all your enemy soldiers straight out. You do it by making them panic and flee, just like in the real world. Some things help morale, like being well rested, have friendly troops to either flank, and having a good general nearby. Every general has 3 attributes: Command, Influence, and Management. Management is about managing cities. But Command adds its rating to the stats of all friendly troops in the area around the general. The range the general gives that bonus is based on their Influence attribute. So a good general makes troops even better.

Likewise, a general also reduces the morale of enemy troops by the same amount. So putting your general in the right place really counts. Also being tired reduces morale, so does being outnumbered, and having enemies behind or on the flanks. So getting your enemy tired out, flanking them, and focusing a powerful force into a small area of the enemy army has a very good chance of crushing that one section. From there on you can take them apart piecemeal. As Patton said: "I'm going to grab him by the nose, and kick him in the ass." It works.


Acadian: Archers can be very powerful in this game, so long as you take the time to use them properly. Making elephants and chariots panic and run amok is one of the most fun parts of the game. As you said, they do some really terrible things to their own army.


Well, because I talked about it in the last post, my faction leader Penthesilea died of old age. She has been succeeded by Iphinome the Conqueror

The first move against the final Egyptian stronghold of Palmyra. I make this a night attack, so I don't have to fight all three Egyptian armies at once

There is one Egyptian army in front of mine, and another on the left

Agema Archers light up the night

At the same time, another Amazonian army has hit the beaches of Sicily in order to chastise the Carthaginians (who had the gall to blockade one of my ports). I love these mad generals.

Proof of Bomilkar's madness, he just charged a line of spearwomen

Bomilkar is cast down into the dust

Well, well, well! Every commander worth her salt knows you never charge horses into spears! And if said spears are backed up by PMS, well-- *

A new Conqueress! All shall fall before her!

Love the shot night shots of the fire arrows.

Oh, that is a hilarious tidbit into the craziness of that other commander!

haute ecole rider: And I like that fact that charging spears with cavalry is suicide in this game. It has a lot of realistic touches like that.

Acadian: The world did fall before Iphinome. As of today she has completely destroyed the Egyptians and Seleucids, and forced the Parthians to bend their knees to Amazon superiority.

Night fights are one of the interesting things about the Barbarian Invasion expansion. Only generals with the Night Fighter trait can initiate night battles. That is a handy way to attack multiple armies that are clustered closely together. Normally they would all come into the fight, and might overwhelm you with 3 or 4 to 1 odds. But if you attack at night, only opposing armies led by a Night Fighter can come to reinforce the first army you attack. Most times that means you can fight one army at a time.

I love the crazy generals. Rome Total War was made with playing a Roman in mind (kind of obvious from the title no?). So the Roman generals have a lot of material for their pre-battle speeches. If they have the crazy traits, their speeches are hilarious. "The Moon People are angry because I stole their honey!" one will say. "But we have hats, such lovely hats, that will shield us from their fearsome gaze!"


Clearing the Carthaginians from the walls during an assault upon a city

My Agema Axewomen slug it out with them in the street

Barbarians run like dogs! Oh wait, those are dogs!

Parthia becomes my protectorate (I get their treasury, and their territories count as mine)

It must be such a change to go from playing one character to playing one with thousands of followers! I'm so pleased to see you having such fun with this grand game!

Oh, and I simply love the banner / symbol of the bow on the red background that your armies use.

I have no idea how I missed this post, I am so sorry!

This game sounds fascinating and exciting! The more you tell me about it, the more I want to hear!

Gaaaah! She did die of old age? I think you said she was 80. Does the game just suddenly message you that your general is dead?

Oh, and I love the list of traits, do you choose those or does the game add them based on your decisions?

OMG, Bomiker the Mad painting his bottom purple and wearing goat bladders! SPEW !!!


Gaaaah! Hey, when he died I didn't see those things!

I am loving getting to see this game, and really loving getting to learn more about it! This game sounds Awesome!

The melee looks frightening, it must be hard to see how your troops are doing!

I think my favorite thing about this game so far is the writing on these journals - the little info on the mad general before, and now this one where the allies "must accept this insulting proposal." These are hilarious, I'd have to play just to read them all, lol.

Oh, I am so loving this game, I can absolutely see why you are drawn to playing it!

@ "Running like dogs" = BWAAHAA!!!!
don'


* Please, if you have a post up and I haven't come in a day or so, if it is no trouble, can you PM me? Sometimes I miss seeing the new posts. Acadian usually gives me a nudge too, but that last post somehow got by me.

Acadian: It is a lot different from the whole mindset of playing a single character, to running a nation. Thankfully the generals all have some personality based on their traits and abilities.

The symbol I used for Amazonia was one of my favorites from the Barbarian Invasion expansion. It was originally the insignia for the Huns, except in black and white. I recolored it to Amaznian Red and White.


mALX: You do get a message when a general dies of old age, or from assassination, or even death in battle. There is even a family tree page you can go to, and see your entire family of generals, all laid on in the standard genealogical format.

You don't get to pick the traits or retinue members your generals receive. Instead every turn there is a chance that they will get some based on things like if they are in a city or not, and if they are in a city what buildings are present. If you are outdoors you might get a Wilderness Prophet retinue member. Or if you are in a city with a Law temple, you might get a legal trait like Even-Handed, with gives bonuses to public order and law. Winning battles with tend to get you good battle traits. Some are specific, like the Butcher trait, which you get form Exterminating the population of cities when you take them over. The Killer comes from using assassins. The Cunning comes from using spies, and so on.

It is hard to see what each individual is doing in a battle. Most of the time you just see the knot of each unit, and if it is shrinking, you know things are not going well. Of course you can mouse over them to get the tooltip saying their morale, numbers, and so on. That is the best way to know if you are losing or winning a particular fight.

Nice kitty...

Demon Joe

Persephone meets Godzilla

Smiting a Hill Giant

Fire Giant

A Catfish Dragon

This one is not friendly!

Persephone is getting hot under the collar

Are some of those critters friendly? It looks like maybe the tiger and one of the dragons? Wow, demons and giants and dragons, oh my!

Your subtitles here have me in hysterics, especially Persephone getting hot under the collar! Now, is it really a catfish dragon or is that your sense of humor? I saw the whiskers on it and burst out laughing!

That Rome game sounds so interesting!

Acadian: A few of those were friendly; the tiger was a summoning from a friendly mage, and the green and gold dragons were amenable to talking. It is the endgame, so the really big guns have come out. The rest were all baddies, lining themselves up to be smoten upon Persephone's Flaming Blade of Justice™.


mALX: I think that was a gold dragon. But it looked more like a catfish to me!



She has been to Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Nevwerwinter, and the links at Augusta. Now it is time for Persephone to explore Cyrodiil

Who's on the other side of that door?

How about a room for the night?

At the helm

Docksider

Darryl has lost some weight...

That you, Agamir?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


*mALX's head explodes*


Your textures are so tremendous here that I actually didn't recognize it! For a minute I thought you had started playing ESO, lol.

Agamir, oh no!

These are some great screenshots, and I am very excited you are touring Cyrodiil !!!!

Yay, Persephone finally makes it to Cyrodiil! She looks great - every single detail. And very recognizable as the Persephone we know and love fear.

Something tells me Agamir is going to have a bad day. . . .

mALX: I am using Qarls Texture Pack 3, which really turns up the quality on the textures. It really makes it look like a different game.

It is nice to be back in Cyrodiil again, after being away for so long. Tbh, one of the big reasons I am not interested in ESO is that I could not play my favorite characters in it. It is has a class system, and there is no modding. I could not play Persephone because while she is mainly a fighter, she is also a necromancer as well. Conjuring the Darryls is just as much a part of who she is and what she does as swinging a greatsword. Likewise, while Teresa of the Faint Smile is mainly a woodsy archer, conjuring animals is just as much a part of her as using a bow. Of course I'd never be able to do either in ESO.


Acadian: Persephone has been everywhere else, so it is high time she visited Cyrodiil. Who knows, maybe I'll take her for a spin in Morrowind someday, and try out Skywind with her. She has rapidly become my favorite character. I just can't quit the living dead girl.

Agarmir just had a very bad day. Stay tuned.


That you too, Agarmir?

Visiting an old friend

Vilverin

Settin' for a spell

&*^%$#@*&^ Archers!

The sun sets on Nath Dyer

Help the light, find my face...

Looking back

Does ESO not have conjuration? And I thought you could play as necromancers in it? I'll have to re-look that back up. And can you not use a combination of weapons or weapons and magic? I didn't know that either.

Did you just pull the facial textures out and over-write Bab's with them?


Ha! I recognize Agarmir's dead body, lol.

But ... who's grave is that in the second screen? Where is Nath Dyer? Gaaaaah!


I love these shots of the sun on Persephone's face, gorgeous! Is that a pose mod? That has to be the best sqatting sit I've seen yet!


Awesome shots!

These are fabulous shots and it is so nice to see Persephone in Oblivion. Although Teresa will probably always be my fave of your characters, Persephone has been around long enough to have quite grown on me as well. Her timeless melancholy, not to mention the possibilities provided by death/immortality, does indeed lend her an enduring quality.

It always pulls at the heartstrings when she ponders the identity of a skeleton – perhaps one of her friends from forever ago?

MALX, I also use and endorse QTP3 as an Oblivion graphics mod.

mALX: I did some reading up on ESO after we PM'ed a few weeks ago. They do have conjuring, but it is only Daedric. So far as I can tell there is no way to summon or reanimate undead. It also has a class system that is pretty rigid. Only the Sorcerer class can conjure anything. Now the skills are universal, and a character of any class can take any of the skills. So I could create a Sorcerer and use a two-handed sword, or a bow. But you will be missing out on all the abilities that a regular 'fighter' would get from the Dragonknight or Templar classes. So unlike Skyrim or Oblivion, you cannot really create any kind of character and still have them be useful.

I did just pull out the face textures from Roberts. I made a standalone texture replacer mod just from them. Bab doesn't come with any face textures, so that was no problem at all.

That grave is from the very end of Vilverin, where the necromancer Jalbert is.

Nath Dyer is just under the water in that pic. It just west of Fort Nikel. His body got stuck under the water. In my other games it always floats to the surface. But he has an arm clipping into the side of the lake, and that must be holding him under.

That pic of the sun on Persephone's face made it into my desktop rotation. It came out wonderful. I use two pose mods for Oblivion. Actors in Charge allows you to use any of the game's built-in animations, and NaRae Pose 01 & NaRae Pose02. I guess that is three mods, but in my mind the NaRae's only count as one. That pic was taken with NaRae, I think the 01. What is nice about the NaRae's is that they stick books in your inventory with pics of all the poses.


Acadian: One of those things about Persephone that really sets her apart from my other characters is her immortality. Everyone she has known has died, and turned to dust, before her eyes. Every time she meets someone she knows that will be their fate as well. That is why she can have a short fuse, and kill half the Thieves Guild within 30 seconds of walking in Riften. They are all dust to her, and how much value can you place on dust? Yet at the same time she can recognize that the fleeting nature of life is what makes it precious. What makes flowers smell sweeter for them, the sun's rays warmer, the summer breeze's more comforting, etc... She just wishes she could grasp those feelings again.




Most of the following landscape has been added by Unique Landscapes: Cloudtop Mountains.

After 4,000 years, Persephone has returned to the place of her birth: Lipsand Tarn

"Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old, my kin."

Taking a break at Hammerfell Pass

Colovian Sunset

Night falls on Rislav the Righteous

Persephone stands lookout in the Cloudtop Mountains

The summit of Colovia Horn, where Persephone has built a new lair

The first ring has a desk for writing, alchemy station, some bookcases waiting to be filled, and chairs and benches to relax upon

Down in the pit is a living space with bed, kitchen table, pantry, and some storage (in case she has a guest who actually eats or sleeps)

Letting the sun hit Persephone's face was my favorite in that last set, it was spectacular!


I think I have downloaded Actors in Charge on my old PC game, but had issues with "Personality Idles" and ended up having to reset the idles somehow each time I used a pose - I can't remember now, it was a long time ago.

Anyway, I just re-downloaded/downloaded them all, lol. Thank you so much! I would love to get some good screenshots of poses, it is always so impressive to see your screens, everything looks so natural as if it just happened and you caught the moment on film.

I have had tremendous issues trying to catch action in screens - like in FO3 when everything is blowing up and I want a screen of it - by the time I hit a key to freeze action or take a screenshot; the moment has passed and all I have is a screen of smoking vehicles, lol.

Oh, I LOVE the idea of the pose book, how helpful that has to be!



Persephone was born in Lipsand Tarn? Oh how I would love to hear that story!


Uh...I don't recognize some of these, (Like Hammerfell Pass and the statues, and the statue of Rislav - the only one I've seen is inside the city of Skingrad I think - I might be remembering wrong).

All these screens are beautiful! That tower mod you made is awesome! I like the deck stairs added, would not have thought of doing that!

Most of the places in this last round were added by Unique Landscapes - Cloudtop Mountains


btw, does anyone know where the quote "Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old, my kin." is from?




Persephone's story came together for me a while back. She was born a slave of the Ayleids, and took part in Alessia's Revolution. She was killed in the battle to take the Imperial City, which is where he life took a turn for the weird.

A necromancer named Haides - who would never call himself a necromancer - got ahold of her body. He was seeking to defeat death itself, by creating eternal life. He was a Pre-Modern Prometheus. Haides even has a theme song. He replaced Persephone's heart with varla stone crystal, and essentially wired up her body with more of the crystal, like veins. He transformed her, so that she would subsist off of magicka, rather than food, water, and air. Her heart gathers in magicka from the sky just as the Ayleid wells do, and then redistributes it through her body, like a giant battery. Of course he had to cut out her real heart to do this, and reanimate her. It worked, and she came back. But not alive of course. She is as undead as any Lich or Wraith.

Persephone was only the prototype. Haides planned to make many more like her. He went to Alessia to sell the idea to her. He could make her an entire army of undead warriors, who didn't need to eat, or drink, or sleep, or feel. But she turned him down. He was a necromancer after all. Then she ordered him to be arrested. But Haides escaped with Persephone. He fled to Skyrim, since it was the only other human-ruled place in Tamriel. He tried to make more like Persephone, but failed every time. He did not realize it, but he had made her within White Gold Tower, and its own natural magic had been a part in her creation.

In time, Haides fell in with a group of necromancers. Then he fell out with them. Naturally a lot of killing was involved. It ended with the ruins they were laired in collapsing, and Haides being run through with a broken support beam. Dying, Haides gave Persephone her freedom (He had created her heart in two pieces, the big part in her chest, and a smaller piece on a ring he wore. But both were connected, and functioned as one). He took the crystal from his ring and put it in her chest, fusing it with the rest of her heart. Now finally free, Persephone strangled him. She still does not know if it was an act of revenge, or mercy.

Lord of the Rings.


This mod is fantastic! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT !!!! Downloaded, and Thank You !!!!! WOO HOO, I LOVE it !!!!


I am still reading about Persephone, thank you for posting this for me. This is fascinating!

Gaaaah! I missed responding to what you said here, and I did see it! I'm sorry.

* I got a kick out of the fact that Persephone found the suicidal unrequited lover behind Fort Nikel, and Maxical found the one under the bridge on the East, lol.

* Oh, now I remember that altar! I knew Persephone entered Vilverin, why didn't I figure that out? (DOH!) I guess I had a brain fart or something, lol. Sorry about that!

* That is so interesting that you have made your own standalone! I found a vid with instructions on how to do it on YouTube and tried really hard, but the NPC looked worse when I got through with him, lol. Persephone is gorgeous, you did an Awesome job with yours!

* Gaaah, that doesn't sound good on ESO! It seems like that would kind of force you to rely on a group attack that combined the efforts of pure skilled individuals. Urgh.

Hmmm, I read something that said "Yes, you can play solo; but don't forget the game was designed to be an MMO"

Well, If one of us was all mage, another all archery, and the other all stealth/melee - maybe we as a threesome could handle anything that came up?

I don't know how the fighting is there, but my skills have varied per game. In Oblivion I could not cast or shoot a bow - anything but the sword and i was in trouble.

In Fallout 3 I was great with baseball bats, unarmed, and guns - really bad with swords unless they were enchanted and perks to make them deadly on hit.

In Skyrim and Morrowind both I could cast great, and use the sword - still no bow though.

So I'd really have to play the game to see where my skills will lie in it.

And another thing - I have seen screenshots of gameplay that are stunning - like Kobby's on here and Don's on the other site - but when I get on Youtube the vids of it look very World of Warcraftish. Makes me wonder what in the world I'm going to find on the game.

My son is wanting to try it, so what I planned to do is buy it for him and let him give me reviews on it. Once he gets on it for long enough to make determinations, I 'll start asking some of these concerns.

I might even be able to use his account when I play, because you can start new games with different characters and go back to old saves later, etc. The people I know that play have a Character in each of the Alliances.

*

Oh, and from what I heard the only place it goes into Player vs Player is in Cyrodiil; and they have massive battles there. (I believe I'll steer clear of Cyrodiil, lol).

Just a dead girl in search of. . . feelings.

The shot of Persephone at Lipsand Tarn is wonderful. The poignancy of it is nicely set off by showing us what a very nice butt she has.

And Colovian Sunset is downright wallpaper-worthy. Wow.

Aww, King Rislav. Did Persephone learn the Call of Corsair power?

Why am I not surprised that her lair is so isolated?

mALX: It is weird that both Maxical and Peresphone went off in opposite directions and each found a suicide victim!


Acadian: It might be a good thing that Persephone cannot feel what it feels like to feel. After all, being dead probably would not feel very good. I imagine that what she feels the most is cold, all the time.

Sadly, Persephone has neither horse nor phantom, so the Call of the Corsair is lost upon her. She still remembers when that young lad Rislav learned it however...

Her new lair is in part for the isolation that Persephone needs in order to "let her hair down" and be herself, without worrying about what mortals will do if they discover she is undead. The other part is that the Colovian Highlands are her homeland. While she was born and raised in an Ayleid city, places like Colovian Horn are human made. They are among the oldest places to belong to her race, not her masters. So there is a powerful dose of nostalgia, from those heady early days of freedom, before death and Haides took her.


It seems the orcs of this era have no need for shirts...

Marching back to Chorrol with the Odill family, their farm now safe from goblin attack

Persephone tries to remember what the blessings of the Divines felt like

Some light reading

Home sweet home

Still reading

This is probably the sixth or seventh major revision of Persephone's face. Hopefully the last.

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Is that the Chorrol Fighters Guild? Lol, you must have an Orc enhancing mod; he looks nothing like the Chorrol Fighters Guild Orc in my game,


Urk, the Odill boys. I HATE that quest! It is like the Bruma Great Gate battle or the Farwell quest, I have to redo it hundreds of times to leave there with both boys intact!

This Wayshrine is at the end of the road west of Chorrol, isn't it? I love that area. Will Persephone have the Fighters Stronghold DLC Battlehorn Castle down there? There is a necromancer that lives in the dungeon below it, which may tie into her storyline.

Ooh, she is reading the two books you told me about! And I love the sad cat climbing on her back!!!!! It looks like he is kneading her back with his paws, my cat used to do that, lol.


Home Sweet Home - I am floored by this circle of landings you made around the tower; your landscaping job here was spectacular!

I picture a small table and chairs on one of them to watch the sun rise or set, the sky is just gorgeous and being on top of the mountain it would reap every ray of light in every day. (and shooting stars at night too - I've seen them in game in the mountains!).

I used to go up to the mountains here to watch the shooting stars - they seem so much closer there; it feels like you can reach out and touch them!

I absolutely love her face in this last shot - I can't tell what was tweaked because she has been wearing a hood a lot and her face was not angled this way in other shots - but she looks very cute in that screen!

Her face shape is wonderful, I really like it a lot!


Awesome update!



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The orc with no shirt is doubtless trying to compensate for his lack of tusks.

Aww, helping the Odills.

Blessing of the Divines = Dat Butt!

Light reading – Adorable. And a kitty!

Persephone’s home is a bit run down the location and view more than compensate.

You’ve done a wonderful job with her face and she looks great!

I've been following PursePhone's adventures, though I've been remiss in commenting on them.

Anyway I have to call out the adorable kitty in that "reading" pic. Love its expression - and the pose is classic. "You're momentarily still - I'm going to make myself comfortable on you and keep you in your place."

mALX: I basically replaced the orc head meshes with the human ones. So now they don't look like pigs. I notice Bethesda did the same in Skyrim too...

I only had to reload once during the Odill farm quest, so I count myself lucky. The stupid boys run off to battle without any armor at all, and carrying iron longswords. The goblins had better weapons. I got lucky though, and an Imperial horseman came over the second time to help fight the goblins.

No Battlehorn castle for me. I don't like how it adds all the people who suddenly become your servants. I know that is all the rage in games these days. It seems everyone wants to have a castle with an army of retainers. But not me.

I didn't do any landscaping at the tower, or make those landings. Those were all from the original mod. I just swapped out one of the sections to the tower and replaced it with another that had an opening, so you could walk inside. Then I just added furniture.


Acadian: Maybe that is the secret to Lum's shirtlessness. I thought he was just too sexy for his shirt!

I noticed when you are that close, you can see her panty lines though that leather...

One of the nice things about Persephone's lair is that she gets both amazing sunrises and sunsets.


haute ecole rider: What Persephone needs is an undead cat. Maybe all bones, or a zombie kitty.


I did some more work on the lair, adding catwalks up to the upper stories

I turned the hole in one wall into a proper observation post

I added a second bed, and moved it and the original one into an alcove in the wall

I am still not sure what to do with the upper two floors though

Living on the edge

Persephone came to Hackdirt

She saw

She conquered

Persephone’s lair is coming along nicely! Now it has places for the cat to walk.

And a guest room for two.

Hmm, upper two floors? Leave them open – nothing like sleeping under the stars. Well, for those that sleep.

Wow, that pose with her arms spread, the time of day, setting sun, playful feel – what a great pair of screens those are! Who says dead girls don’t know how to have fun? Oops, sorry – didn’t mean to remind us of Falanu.

Those Hackdirters used to think they owned the market on scary – then they met Persephone.

Why should an undead cat be ugly? Why isn't Persephone an anatomy model (bones) or an example of Frankensteinian beauty (zombie). I would rather see a white cat, with silver eyes to match! Now that's an undead cat!

I wondered how you were getting in and out of the tower!

Wow, you did a whole heck of a lot of work on that Tower! I was wondering about the top shelves last screens you posted, and how you would reach them - you answered it, lol.


I was getting height sick seeing Persephone dancing so high above the ground in those two screens, and Aerosmith's song was a fitting title for that, lol. That was scary, especially since you took the camera off her and freed it to take the screen, GAAAAH!


Hackdirt - that place gives me the creeps! Those moonlings going around saying "Where?" - and I never realized it till I saw your close up screen of him, but that Moslin guy is a real anomaly, lol.

I really appreciate the second bed; Maxical might come visit soon, lol.

Acadian: It is a long way down from that top floor. But Persephone always jumps around when she is up there anyway. Girls just wanna have fun.

I had forgotten all about Falanu. There might be some wild times if and when Persephone finally goes to Skingrad.


haute ecole rider: I don't see what is ugly about a skelecat, or a frankencat. The original Persephone in Skyrim had the most heavily scarred face I could pick. In Oblivion it isn't an option, else she would have them here as well.


mALX: All of the Hackdirt people look really creepy. They have big, round, sort of fish-like faces. They are supposed to be mutants.


Persephone doesn't like the look of this guy, but she'll work for him in order to keep a closer eye on him

Return to Hackdirt

Night ruin

I put in a statue of Alessia on the tower's east face, and put in a deck with an observation lounge

I added a dragon statue to the Hammerfell side of the tower, and added a small table and chairs as well

I turned the third floor into a dojo

Persephone in bound armor (I replaced the vanilla armor with Ice Morrigan Equipment)

Molly by moonlight

Something tells me that if Persephone finds all the Ancestors, they will not end up in this Altmer’s collection. . . .

I see she put those Hackdirters to the sword. Did she rescue Blossom and Dar-Ma?

Nice looking Ayleid ruin under one of the moons.

I see the Persephone Palace continues to grow!

The dark armor looks good – and intimidating.

Molly under the moons! Gee, Molly and Persephone. *shiver*

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WOO Hoo, the Collector Questline! One of my absolute favorite quests in Oblivion!


Urk, those creepy people again! I have to give Bethesda kudos for whoever made that town; that place gives off just as freaky as anyone would wish for that quest! My skin crawls just looking at screens of it, lol.


Ah, now Persephone will be in her own element. I wonder if she is seeking out these Ayleid statues for her own purpose and history; and maybe just using Umbacano to settle an ancient score and get paid for collecting what was actually stolen from her people, possibly by Umbacano's own relatives, lol. For some reason I think there is more to it than just being a pawn in Umbacano's game, lol.



Oh, that statue of Alessia is Awesome there! And your choice of tables and chairs is so much better than mine! LeyawiinDeck04 - that piece is probably the most versatile static in Oblivion, lol. Great deck idea!


Wow, I don't remember seeing that dragon statue before, but it is absolutely perfect for Persephone to use in her tower! Awesome choice!



Oh what a great idea for using that upper ring! That is fantastic! Perfect!



OMG, that is bound armor? AWESOME !!!! That is gorgeous! And that sword is wicked looking!


MOLLY!!!! WOOOOOOOOT !!!!


This update is Awesome!!!

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Acadian: Or if they do end up in that Altmer's collection, they will not remain there for long after his death...

Dar-Ma and her trusty Blossom are indeed safe and sound. She is the nicest person Persephone has met in Cryodiil. Dar-Ma that is.

Molly + Persephone = Chopping Mall!



mALX: One nice thing about the Collector questline is that if you select it, it will not put a green arrow constantly in your hud. That is a nice way to get rid of it, even when you are not actually doing the quest.

I think you got a little confused about Persephone. She is not an Ayleid. She is an Imperial. She was a slave of the Ayleids, which is why she was born in Lipsand Tarn. Her people are Alessia and the other Imperials. That is one reason she lives in an old Imperial tower.

The dragon statue is from the middle of the Talos Plaza District. They also use it for the stone dragon that Martin's body turns into at the end of the main quest.


The swimmin' hole

Relaxing in Outlaw Endre's lair

Visiting old friends

This is no way to treat a dead person

Persephone and Skinny Darryl

Resolve face

Poor fellow lost his head

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Gaaah, and I filled her tower with Ayleid stuff thinking she'd like it! Oh no! That is like reminding her of the slavers that held her! Urk...Maxical seems to have put her foot in it. I'm so sorry.



Those statues never stay long in Umbacano Manor after his untimely demise in my game either. In fact, just for fun I considered stealing them as I am leaving the room each time or something - not waiting till he is gone (just to see what happens, lol).

I mean, I'll save first just in case. Maybe I can swipe his silver right under his nose too, lol. If I do it, I'll get a screenshot of him sitting there while she is taking a statue,


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Is the mouse a friend of Persephone's?


Oh, Persephone's face looks spectacular in this shot!


What a great pose that is, and Awesome sword!



Urk, I guess I didn't want to keep my dinner anyway ...



Is this Darryl friend or foe? He has kind of an evil grin, lol.



AWESOME Face !!!!


Really nice update, and I'm sorry again for the mistake. My deepest apologies to Persephone




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It is no big deal. I can see how you might get confused with her history, not to mention how similar she looks to Teresa. Persephone's paleness is not natural though. Well I suppose it is. She is dead, and doesn't have any blood in her body.

I love the pale skin, and she does kind of look undead - but like someone who was really full of life when she was alive.

Oh, I could never confuse her with beloved Teresa, her hair isn't red, lol. And pale or not - Teresa is very much alive, lol.

Thank you for understanding, I can't believe I messed that up!