Lol, six months in jail! I'm actually laughing because nobody knows why was she imprisoned.

As I said above, it's easy to get imprisoned for years if using default bounty values from Life in Prison.

I'm actually not going to change the mod, the mod is perfect. If you murder somebody for instance, you SHOULD go to jail for a long time, assuming it's Manslaughter, and not Murder 1. But I really haven't a clue why she got a bounty. Maybe she did play around with Toryg's war horn & Elisif. XD

That's why I decreased its values because even the first murder will get you a bounty of 10,000 septims so if it's a manslaughter and you have some witness, you can quickly end up with a bounty of 100,000 septims or even more. That's what happened to one of my test characters who got in fight with guards because he accidentally stole some kettle and his head was worth 60,000 septims after the battle.

Good grief, what a disaster for Claire. I agree about the mod, it seems like a good way to make prison mean something more than a few mouse clicks. I’d be more interested in playing a criminal if there were consequences to actually play through. Poor Claire, though, justice was not on her side. I’m glad you found a way to have her friends get her out. Mods are great but they’re no substitute for the player’s creativity!

Yup, and sometimes we have to get creative. Claire going to jail was actually good for my roleplay with her, in the sense that I felt like I bonded with her on a deeper level than usual. I felt her frustration, sadness, and boredom. After clicking on the crappy haypile (where she slept) over and over, and still seeing her in jail, this really made her story stronger in a way.

But sometimes we have to get creative. I've been incarcerated once in my life, so I know how it is to wake up everyday to the same four walls, and there's nothing you can do about this. My stay was nowhere near as long as Claire's though.

Claire Voyance and Aela are walking from Markath to Solitude, taking the long way. Looking for adventure, and whatever comes their way. (ha ha) The Dawnguard chick who was with them (Vori) decided to leave. That was really weird. CSR allowed Claire to persuade Vori to follow her around, but then one day, just like that, there was no more option to even speak to Vori anymore; all she would say is generic lines if Claire tried to speak to her.

So it's like she really left, in a way. She simply decided "Claire is doing some good things, but my heart lies with the Dawnguard." She made up her mind, and stuck to it.

Right now Claire in in Karwathsten. She rented a room in this village's tiny inn, and was surprised to find that she paid 50 gold, and doesn't even get her own room! .. Instead, she only gets a bed which is located in this one-room inn. XD And there are other people just walking around the entire time, eating and saying silly one-liners. So she is letting Aela sleep first, because it's just a good idea to have somebody stand guard, in this inn in which she knows nobody.

Claire Voyance is in Whiterun, and has fully decorated Breezehome. Really looks more homey in there now. No, not homie, homey.

Aela is still with her, but nobody else at the moment. Companion Share & Recruit has completely shut down on me, I literally cannot get a second person to follow her because that mod keeps glitching. Sucks, because CSR is such a great mod when it works. But right now, it's pretty much the only mod I'm having problems with. Thinking of switching to Amazing Follower Tweaks, because Claire likes having at least two people with her at all times.

I agree, Breezehome looks very good when decorated. Time for some natter, eh, Renee? And you know very well what kind of natter I have in mind.

Try changing the load order of CSR, by manually moving it to the bottom. This is what worked when AFT glitched for me.

Oh yes, I know which natter you are talking about: a warm coSy natter. X)

I will try that with CSR, although I don't see what other mod below this could be overwriting CSR.

Morndas, 2:21 PM, Second Seed 25, 4th Era 202

Claire Voyance has paid off the loan she took out, finally, and with 13 days to go before the loan would .... um.... what's the word? Default. XD This loan (and many other things) is related to the Bank of Skyrim mod.

BoS offers loans on a 30-day basis. How much we can take when we apply for this loan depends on our character's level. What I didn't realize is that the way it works is pretty harsh. The debt placed upon the pc due to this loan compounds 4% daily. Yeah. Do the math. This is not really bankish at all, Bank of Skyrim is much more like a loan sharking operation.

Anyways, after 17 days, Claire's original 5,000 gp loan had just about doubled in size, so she really owed 10,000+ gp. Yikes. This is ridiculous!

Claire decided to go have a chat with Queen Elisif, woman to woman. She also decided to take that rude lady's advice (the one who says "If you're heading to the Blue Palace...."), and rethought the outfit she would wear before taking court with Elisif. This happened two days earlier, on Loredas. Claire greeted the court, and then explained her situation.

"Look.... I have been wrongly imprisoned.... and now I owe the town of Solitude quite some debt.... "

She explained how she has done nothing but help the Imperial cause in Skyrim, so why are they giving her such a hard time? She owned up to her original word, and paid 5,000 gold, AND spent 6 months in jail on top of that. Since Elisif is already familiar with Claire and some of her exploits, Elisif told Claire she'd give a day or two, talk it over with members of her court, before deciding on Claire's request. Claire spent Sundas inside the Hall of the Dead, in front of the Shrine of Arkay, deep in thought and prayer. Wondering what the outcome might be, for this just wasn't right.

When she returned on Morndas, Claire learned her request had been granted: the banker would need to back off from his compoundment accusations. Claire (of course) was oh-so-grateful. She blessed several members of the court, then took her leave.

(yeah.... I had to interrupt here with a console command, but what the hey is up with those loan-sharking rates anyways? )

And now it is Morndas, and she is headed to Markath, where she, Lydia, and Aela the Huntress are going to collect on some bounty Claire has forgotten about.

Wow, those interest rates are a little much for a bank mod. I would expect something like that from a skooma dealer mod, yikes! The way Claire resolved her situation sounds very Claire.

It's pretty ridiculous, isn't it? I think it's designed this way for all the gamers out there who complain about having too much money, and nothing to spend it on. Even on Earth, these sort of rates are downright Mafia-ish, probably worse than Mafia.

Well, this pretty much concludes my Skyrim seasonal gaming until maybe October. I get the sense that now that it's warmer outside (outside....as in outside here on Earth) it feels weird gaming in Skyrim. Moving on mostly to Fallout 3, once again. We will join up with Claire Voyance, the White Wizard, and anybody else I've got in mind later on this year. Thank you.

Renee - Good that dear Ellisef came through for Claire! Heh, summer hibernation for your Skygang, eh? May green grasses, cool waters and warm sands grace your summer!

A banking update from Claire - nice! I liked that she sought help from Queen Elisif but the story in general made me laugh, especially because of ridiculously high monthly fees interest rates, as you say.



Same here, I think I'm done with Skyrim until fall or winter. My season lasted from early November until April and I achieved two important things - I actually managed to finish one questline, that is the Dark Broterhood, completed by Aard. And I managed to get Lucius halfway through the main quest.

Lol "Monthly fees"


My season started rather late, but I did create three characters (Nasqaa, Claire Voyance II, and White Wizard), and got mostly done with Civil War through Claire's eyes. Who knows, maybe Claire will want to continue to adventure once she finally deals with Windhelm & Ulfric.

Well, it looks like Argis/Jerric is expanding into new roles and new realms . . .

So maybe I will watch this movie when it comes out . . .

ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! *melts*

That is an awesome role. I can't wait!

Hey guys!

It's been a while haha. I have a terrible habit of disappearing for long periods of time (work and general life annoyingness) but here I am!

So I've finally got Skyrim for my PC and, despite some frame rate/lag issues I am LOVING it!

I am playing a Lissa in somewhat of an alternate timeline where she was somehow taken from her own time into the future, ending up in Skyrim. I haven't quite figured it out yet haha.

I'm toying with a few face and hair mods ATM but nothing to game play effecting. I want to enjoy Skyrim as it is for a while before I go modding it

Anyway I will most likely be chatting about Skyrim a lot so I look forward to chatting to you all again!! Missed you guys

Rihanae, it’s great to hear from you! I can’t wait to see Skyrim Lissa when you’re ready. Jerric and friends travel back and forth between Cyrodiil/Oblivion and Skyrim with no worries about such technicalities as the timeline. Welcome to Skyrim! I look forward to Lissa’s northern adventures!

Rihanae - You are hereby forgiven for Lissa's tardy arrival to Skyrim. As Grits said, don't let any of BethSoft's 200 year silliness interfere with her plans. Buffy also passes back and forth through the time and space barriers with no concerns. Keep us updated on Lissa's adventures!

That sounds fun Rihanae. Skyrim on PC is mind-boggling, right?

Aww thanks for the warm welcome guys I'll most likely post some screenies of Lissa tomorrow, but I'm trying to get her perfect haha. I find all of he Skyrim faces annoyingly generic, so I'm still working on bringing Lissa unique beauty to the game.

And Renee I KNOOOOW *grumble* I've seen a lot of people have trouble with FPS related lag. It seems to be a general issue, so I'm trying to figure out the best ways to make it a little easier. It's getting better, but still not good enough to make me happy haha

EDIT: I had some time so i took a quick screenie of Skyrim Lissa

Wow, Lissa looks great!

Lissa is looking wonderful with her over the shoulder pony tail.

So recently I've been throwing my way through Skyrim and it's quests simply to get a feel for the game and what I could do with it. And in that time I have been trying to find some good companions for Lissa.

I wanted Lissa to have companions that were intelligent, and responded to the environment, as well as provided challenges and immersion; so that meant all vanilla companions were out of the question for me.

I spent a while researching and looking at some MOD companions, which were well developed and suited Lissa as a person, and her game, so I have settled on two: Phia (FEE-Ah)and Vee. (I plan to use alternate versions of their names during updates their names to make them more original for me. I wish I could change their names, but alas.). You might recognize the MODs, and I love them to pieces and they are so well developed, so I endorsed them

Anyway, here is a screenie of the three girls together. Phia is the dark haired girl. She uses bows and magic, mostly summons. Vee is the blonde. She fights with swords and occasionally destruction magic.

I won't lie, I have altered them to be the Jessie and Anyanka of Skyrim!

Good to hear that Lissa’s pals made the northern portal jump as well! I recognize both of the follower mods you are using and they are both certainly very high on the ‘fully immersive follower’ list. Nice choices. If either of their personalities turn out to be ‘too intense’, another follower to consider is Arissa. Anyway, the gang looks great and I hope they’re having fun getting into staying out of trouble.

Skyrim Lissa is beautiful!

Hehe thank you The only problem is that neither are the races Jessie and Anyanka are which is why i feel i will keep them as Skyrim-esque companions who just so happen to have the same abilities and looks as J & A haha

If i find a way to bring the actual J & A to Skyrim I will certainly do so haha

Hey guys! I've been playing Skyrim SO much I've hardly had a chance to come on Chorrol, haha. I'm enjoying the game so much and getting used to everything and trying out as much as I physically can before I play the game for real (I.E Roleplay).

BUT I have accomplished something... I have brought Jessie and Anyanka into my game! I used a FANTASTIC mod called Familiar Faces which enables you to save multiple characters and use them as followers in each others games.

So here they are, Jessie and Anyanka!

EDIT: So as i load my game today, I notice J & A have disappeared from my game. Not sure if it's a problem with the mod or my computer. It's a shame but, hey ho, at least they looked pretty sweet

J & A look very good! I hope you can find them again.

I guess you shouldn't have left those invisibility potions laying around!

Find their base ids in the mod you created them in. Then use the console to move them to you. Or vice versa. It is just like this:

prid (base id)
moveto player

Also, check their ai packages to make sure they are not set to be in a specific place. You should use one of the generic wander packages with them.

They're beautiful!

@Rihanae - really pretty girls with really good-looking outfits.

I desperately need a rest from house-building. I've had a large succession of Argonians digging out the ruins under Lake Ilinalta, and a number of Bretons doing both the Argonian home and the Orc one, to check how they interact. Prizna the Dremora built both, too. Now I need a character that doesn't do homes.

So I just started a Redguard (male for once) who's not going to have Hearthfires enabled in his game at all. I'm trying for a no-magic swordsman, and he's already done Saadia's quest, just to get his hands on a proper scimitar. He'll possibly stick with that and smith it up to awesome, rather than get any other sword.

He just went to Windhelm to join the Stormcloaks, as I felt that someone from Hammerfell might be a bit anti-Empire, and Galmar almost talked him out if it. Stuck with it, as I want him to buy Hjerim instead of building his own.

Tirdas, 10:45 PM, Last Seed 26, 4th Era 201



Nassqa find town. New town for Nassqa. Man / Hod say town as Falkreath. Falkreath many Nords. Me find Falkreath night, no light day. I find bed, pay gold, make sleep.

In day, find shop, make sell many things, more gold. Nassqa like.

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

Non RP version: Yep, I'm back in Skyrim, that dumbed-down action game which has what? .... like 5 quests in it? Kidding. Doing some test-gaming with my ore-mining Akavir. It's been awhile, so I had no idea what he's got going on lately.

He's actually doing better than I thought, money-wise, even though he doesn't dungeon-dive at all, he started with 248 gold when I returned to him. All he does is mine ores, and occasionally skins an animal, and this is how he makes his gold. I expected to find him with not enough money to rent a room, but I was wrong. So he must have gotten lucky; found something valuable at some point.

Nassqa is a memorable character and it's good to see him back pickaxng away at his game.

So I haven't played Halle's game for quite a few days. Her game became very unstable last week, and I ended up scrapping that entire mod load order. I think it's too many mods and maybe not enough patches (I rebuild a Bashed Patch every time I add/change mods, though I don't delete them from a save game). I was up over 140 mods on that game - the most I've ever set up!

So I'm trying out the STEP Core setup. It worked well with my test crash dummy Dan the Entertainer (modeled after a co-worker of mine), until I got to the LOD generation at the end. Now it won't show the world. I think I did that wrong somehow, so I'm going to go back in, delete all those LOD's and start over on that last step.

I'm trying out Mod Organizer, which is supposed to make switching mods easier and less destructive on your game. It is also supposed to handle profiles better than Wrye Bash or NMM, so we'll see how it all works out.

But I have to say that I'm liking what STEP adds to the game (until that dratted LOD generation step, anyway). It is supposed to improve graphics and gameplay without hitting your performance too hard. I've been loading 1K textures on the previous mod load order, so this is no different. I just can't see the diff between the 1K and the higher res textures under typical gameplay conditions, so I'm not loading more on my graphics card than I need anyway.

But I'm working full shifts this week, so I don't know when I'll be able to get back to this game.

Well that sounds like a nightmare, h.e.r. I hope you figure it out. That's pretty cute that your test character is inspired by a co-worker.

Acadian: yes, it's good to be back in Skyrim. I was really starting to crave being with one of my adventurous characters though; Nassqa is fun to be with, but all he does is search every square inch of ground, looking for that hidden ore vein. Beth put them in some weird spots, too.

I remember one time he found a moonstone vein; somewhere right outside of Whiterun. Moonstone ores sell for higher price than iron, so that was a great day for Nassqa!

Sundas, 3:26 pm, Second Seed 31, 4th Era 202

Claire Voyance is walking toward Riften slowly with Lydia and Aela the Huntress, after visiting the College, where Claire managed to buy a spell which enhances some of her stats (buffs them, lol).

I must say, it really is awesome ... the teamwork between Claire and her followers. Lydia does the bulk of in-your-face fighting, while Aela hangs back; she's good with her bow. Claire tends to play the role of cleric rather flawlessly, keeping Lydia healed up, occasionally getting a swing in with her axe or mace.

Questwise, Claire's game is rather shallow. She's supposed to be doing Civil War, and she's at the stage when only Windhelm (Ulfric) is left to tackle, yet I don't get the sense that Claire's this big, important part of this portion of her side of the war. It's probably more my fault than Beth's. To me, it seems like: why is everybody waiting for HER to make the next step? As if Claire's some sort of potent figure with the military, or something. I dunno, maybe Claire was the wrong character for this role. She made a great foot soldier when the questline was young, but role during latter stages of this quest feels more suited for somebody who's ... I don't know .... more like a staunch, firm officer of the military, or something. Or a super-macho go-getting knight. Claire's personality is all wrong. But this happens sometimes, it's a part of roleplay.

I'm not saying I'm going to go on some huge rant, demand Beth give back my money or anything. Like I said, it's probably more my fault than Beth's. I just don't feel inspired to see Claire finish up this questline. But next time she goes to Windhelm, certainly that's what's going to happen, right?

Well enough waffling. Claire's also doing Dawnguard, and this role seems much more suited for her. Maybe I'll make a Lord Haaf-Mersey NPC for her to travel with someday, since he also did DG, when I was gaming on Xbox. Hmm...

There are some good dialogue options when you finish the CW, at least they were when I did it for the Nords and Ulfric addresses you after the battle is over. I assume that it's the same with Tullius. It gives your characters several options to answer and you may choose some less heroic ones if Claire doesn't feel like being a savior of Skyrim.

I have done both sides of the civil war, and I felt the same way doing the Imp side. I think the Legion just makes you feel like one more cog in the Imperial machine, perhaps slightly less rusty than the others. The Stormie side felt much more personal and heroic. I think the titles you get are part of that. Ulfric gives you really cool nicknames like Ice-Veins and Stormblade. Storming Solitude with him Fus Ro Dah'ing the Imperials like bowling pins was great. It all felt larger than life. The Imperial side just feels like work. Like you are doing a job.

Wow, that is too bad that the rewards of choosing one way vs the other are so pronounced! It is certainly clear from reading this which side Todd Howard wanted you to choose, which is what I suspected when I used to play it. He was really so heavy-handed in his manipulation of the player to get them to play the way HE wanted them to that it just pushed me into playing the opposite and then eventually into stopping playing the game.

I am going to do the Stormie side too, one of these days, but that guy (it's going to be a guy, a Nord) will have the sort of personality which fits the questline a lot better, I think. Claire hasn't got the sort of feel. She's not really a warrior, she's a nurse.

I am also going to be trying out WARZONES Civil Unrest? again too, when I make this Nord dude, which is supposed to be a beast of a mod with all sorts of demands. It adds a lot, you know, it'll make the Civil War feel a bit more like a war. The author of this mod recommends using this mod with a "clean save" though (a brand new game), and so this seems to be why I had problems last winter when I tried using WARZONES in Claire's game, which was not clean, it was "dirty" ha ha.

Edit: Okay, I get it now. Maybe they're all waiting for Claire because she's a nurse. There, that's it. In fact, she's the only nurse they've got, maybe the concept of having somebody who mostly helps others on the battlefield is something nobody's ever tried, before Claire comes along. Sorry... RP awkwardness....

Sounds great, and sure makes a lot more immersive feel to the Civil War that is SUPPOSED to be going on than the few random "prisoner" encounters - especially for those not leaping into the main quest line right away (like me).

The way it is, unless you jump into the main questline, it is really hard to believe the country is in a state of Civil unrest. Other than those random prisoners being walked down the roads; there is no indication but a few gripes in dialogue as you walk through a city that there is even a problem. I was able to play this whole time with absolutely no intrusions of the Civil War in my game other than the (very scripted) scenes when you first enter Solitude and Markarth.

So I am seriously considering this mod, and appreciate you bringing it to my attention - and thanks for the link to!

Oh so that's it, eh? ... We have to also engage the Main Quest more fully to get a better, more immmmmersive Civil War? I see. I've got the MQ started for Claire's game, but only to the part when we fortify Riverwood, that's as far as I'm going with her. My Nord guy (the Stormcloak) will be the one who does MQ more completely, so that'll all be good then.

WARZONES is a huge mod, I dl'd it awhile back for Claire's game. I had all sorts of probs with this mod (like she was "underwater" during the one battle we did with this mod turned on, even if she was on dry land, there was this swimming animation that kept happening during the battle. Yeah...), but it's entirely possible that these probs occurred because her game had already been extant for a while, instead of a fresh new game. And that's one of the things the mod author (or authors) recommend right off the bat: start with a new game, previously saved games might have probs.

Anyway, now Claire has got Serana following her too, and also Lord Haaf-Mersey (I'm just pretending him now, but I'm gonna learn how to actually make him too). So it's Claire, Lydia, Aela the Huntress, and Serana in real-time. Pretty fun.

That mod should bring the Civil War to life without even starting the main questline, make it more believable.

In my game, I refuse to bring the DragonStone back to Whiterun, so my main questline is frozen right there = never started/no dragons, lol.

I did that because Todd Howard said (in an interview before Skyrim came out) that he was so mad at everyone who didn't want to do the main questline in Oblivion that he made Skyrim impossible to avoid the main questline, tied everything together so tightly that you couldn't do anything without meeting the main quest head on. That you would not be able to play without fighting dragons.

Well, that ticked me off; because it takes all our choices away from us and we have to play HIS way in OUR roleplay game. I really didn't like that, and vowed to play the game without touching the main questline or fighting a dragon, (just to "show him" ) it could be done (not that he'll ever know, lol).

That and for all I loved the Main Questline in Oblivion, I remember SubRosa was firm set against doing it at the time she was writing Teresa, and I decided to follow her lead in Skyrim = not do the main questline until/if it was my choice to. At least in Oblivion they gave us the option of whether to/if/when.

So that is how I have played in Skyrim so far = my way. Exploring, and no linear Todd Howard channeling of my characters into his molds of what he thinks they should be,

That is why I like mods like these so much - with them we can shape the Skyrim situation to the way we think it should be - THAT is something I really like, and why I love modding so much. If it wasn't for SubRosa's help making Misa look decent, I wouldn't even open up the game, lol.

There is some more civil war stuff in the main quest. I think the biggest thing is that you have to arrange a meeting of the Imps and Cloaks to call a truce. Because the Jarl of Whiterun won't help you capture a dragon unless there is a truce. What does one have to do with the other? Absolutely nothing. After what happened at Helgen, only a madman would attack a city with a dragon in it. But that is the high quality of Bethesda's writing.

Come to think of it, much of the main quest really does not seem to have much to do with the actual main quest. There seems to be a be a lot of padding, and the Todd Howard mindset that mALX pointed out: that no one must be allowed to play an open world, sandbox game like an open world, sandbox game.

I have tried to do the main quest with a couple of characters. But I just cannot keep going. The farthest I have gotten is the Blade In The Dark quest, about a third of the way into it. It just always falls flat for me. Most of what I know about it comes from watching King Coin's Aravi vids, and from reading the UESP wiki.

TBH, the civil war really isn't that much more interesting from the Cloak side though. It is still mostly a bunch of repetitive "take the castle" quests, with a few other spy-like missions tossed in. In the end almost nothing changes. The most obvious thing is that the uniforms of the guards for half the holds changes depending on which side you are on. Plus if you go Cloak the Thalmor patrols and captured Nords on the roads stop, and the Temple of the Divines in Solitude gets a Talos statue added to it. That is really all that changes in the world.

I'm still floored that throughout the whole game everyone talks about "The Companions" as an honorable organization; and Bethesda saw nothing wrong with them taking contracts to beat up shop keepers like mercenary thugs; not even mentioning that they won't allow you to complete the questline without becoming a werewolf - like one has anything to do with the other.

Imho, they should have attached the werewolf to a Hircine quest instead of the Companions; and had either the Dark Brotherhood or some mercenary faction (the player could join if they chose) handle beating up shop keepers instead of the "Honorable" Companions doing it (or the Thieves Guild - why would they be beating up shop keepers?).

And don't even let me get started on the 4 quests from joining the College of Winterhold to Arch Mage; they almost didn't even bother making a questline (or one long enough to believe you would be in line to run the place).

It was like in Fallout 3 when he put such a low ceiling on the game because he didn't want the player to be "uber." Like we couldn't control ourselves, needed him to do it for us in our single player game. I really hope they didn't let Todd's heavy handed control-issues affect Fallout 4.

Britch over, lol.

Actually,



Is the questline that has us beating up shopkeepers, not Companions.



Most of my games are like this too, especially on consoles. I figured out pretty early how to stall the MQ before it even happens. It's not the questline I have problems with, it's the "dragon attack every few hours" that got on my nerves. Fighting dragons should be something which rarely happens, something special, and something which totally freaks me out. My opinion, of course.

Now that I'm on PC, random dragon attacks are super-rare, so there it is.



Wow, I haven't heard this one, but he's said some weird [censored] over the years, so this is not out of character for him.

I remember one interview in which he said something like "You can walk to your next quest, but who walks around in videogames?" ... implying that everybody who plays runs all the time. And that ticked me off too, because most of the time, my guys & gals are walking, even if they're on a horse, they're moving slowly along.

So thank the Nine that Beth didn't take this away. There are some games (Fable, Witcher, for instance) which only allow running. And this blows immmmmmmmersion for me.



Yikes!

The Companions make you beat up shopkeepers too. One of the radiant quests you can get is to beat someone up. The game picks an NPC at random. It will even pick modded NPCs you put into the world, as we have seen in some of Grit's games.

Oh I see. Didn't know this. Still though, TG forces us to do this, while it sounds like with Companions it's radiant, and therefore optional.