A war-guar. This is grrreat!

Yes that is true about horses and their ability to turn. Especially while at full gallop, it's like I have to plan their exact trajectories through all those trees and boulders in this game, especially while being chased. Some of my characters used to actually prefer Paint Horses back when I gamed on PS3, because I could maneuver them properly through rough areas without constantly running into things!

So yeah, I'd imagine a guar would be easier to "drive". How fast are guars in comparison to bays, blacks, and paints?

Guars come in different grades. I started with a "beginner's guar" which is supposed to be slow. I'd say it's about the speed of a Paint horse. There's an "Expert" and a "Master" model as well, and I read that when someone got a "Master" guar, their PC couldn't cope with the speed - couldn't load cells quickly enough. I think that makes that guar pretty fast!

Pseron Wyrd's first character. Found her in the archived Bethesda forums. Here's to you, Wyrd. Wherever you are.

The Wyrdster! That is really good. Making faces in Oblivion is a nightmare.

Graziana Altobassi, the Imperial battlemage

Invisible but efficient

Creeping on customers

Sercen

Welcome to Grazi!

Hmm, vegetable gardening with magic - how novel.

No doors on the darn inn rooms!

Dead orc still tingling with shock magic.

Welcome to Cyrodil Graz!

Pink invisibility.

Why are there never doors in those inns? Skyrim is even worse.

A shocking final picture.

Awww, what a cutie. Moar pics moar pics!!!

Thank you all for a warm welcome.

___

Weynon Priory at night

The grey mare (in the background)

Somewhere northwest of Chorrol

One from below

Animated Lighting, so wonderful. Did you go through and make all the different choices? I've got green or blue lights for the insides of chapels, for instance.

Love the view from that rickety bridge. And look at Graziana. Her eyes contain no darkness within, unlike some. Ow!

Nice lighting at the Priory.

Grazi is a very nice looking character!

Neat how you can see the White Gold Tower beyond that bridge.

Oh c'mon, Grazi, stop showing off your thigh gap.

It is winter in Tamriel!

The white towers of the Imperial City

The frosted trees

The roads covered in snow

But waters are still flowing

Yes, we still need bridges

With Betty's Seasons.

Very nice, Lena. Yes, Betty's mods are really great. Just wait'll you see the Spring and Fall versions as well, if you haven't already. I actually turn the .esps on and off depending what month of the year it was, back when I played OB more often.

I'm really looking forward to winter now. ❄

Very cool to see Cyrodiil in the winter.

This is so cool! Kudos to Betty for this one! Although I'm too set in my ways to use it, I just wish that mod had been the vanilla game

Also, according to Renee, there are other season mods. I fully expect you to showcase them in due course, Lena!

Just try it, Crow. You've been the one to complain about lack of snow (even in Bruma's county) over the years, now here's the chance to rectify. Betty always does a great job. She goes out of her way to make sure her projects don't clash with anything else, and your game is still pretty light after all these years. Nothing special is needed; you don't need Wrye Bash or anything like that. Just throw the mod into the Data folder. Activate the .esp. Voila. ⛄🏔❄🌨

I know I've complained about the lack of snow in the past, but I'm over that now. As I've been playing over the years I have more and more come to appreciate the vanilla game which is why the mods I do use are minor ones that do their job but are basically invisible/unnoticeable.

I no longer want a wintery Cyrodiil because I associate the various parts of it with different parts of the year, and Lothran's rotation, and I only want Bruma and the Jeralls to have it now. It does look really good though.

I agree, although I might just keep Winter. (Snow, we need more snow!). I wasn't so keen on Autumn or Spring, sorry. It's strange because Autumn is my favourite season in real life, but not in Cyrodiil. I think we might have a short winter here and then things will get back to normal.

I found it important to rebuild the LOD though. Because otherwise it's really weird: everything around you is white, while everything a little further away is lush green... And winter follows you wherever you go... like some sort of a Winter Witch...

The winter looks very nice and would be great for seasonal weather in certain areas of Cyrodiil north of the IC. That must be a once in twenty year snow storm.
My preference, for various reasons (I can think of seven), is the warm steamy Amazon-like jungle of the Black Wood along the Niben, south of Bravil. But, I wouldn’t want that everywhere either.

Ah I am the opposite, Lena. I use the Autumn and Spring versions, but don't use Winter because I can't conceive of snow getting too far south of Bruma.

I gotta say the Spring version really puts a LOT of flowers into the game. Every time I game during the months Rain's Hand and First Seed I feel like I'm about to sneeze!

*Example*

I fully intend to use these seasons for the year 4E203 which is just about to start in Lena's game (it's Evening Star 4E202). I'll try to use them for the whole year, and we'll see. May be they'll grow on me.

As for winter going South... I was caught in a bad blizzard in South Texas once (to give you a local example), and it is the same place where I was also baking at 110F a few months before... So yeah, I believe it!

Oh Lena, that's beautiful! Just the thing for playing OB in the winter time.

Snow or flowers? i like the snow on a cold winter's day but um, I'll take the flowers.

Don't forget your Benadryl then. Or Dayquil or whatever you prefer for allergies. Lots of pollen with that Betty's mod installed.

Country

Joanie

Fiery!

Statue 7 (or is it 8?)

⚔

Joanie is statuesque.

A horse for Joan’s guard, a horse for Joan’s stuff. . . but no horse for Joan?

Dropping a fireball on that Argonian’s head?

Umbacano – ugh.

Nice ones, Renee!

The ruin had one of those giant traps which lift us up into the air, and Joan got caught on the edge of the trap 2x in a row, while being chased by baddies! In a last-minute effort to escape she had the idea to try jumping off the trap as it'd come back down from the ceiling. She'd then aim her feet (Mario Bros. style) so she'd land on that ledge.

NOW she was in command! Enemies could not get to her up there!

Lousy cops put January in the clinker!

January is starting to feel like she might not measure up...

Painting with all the colors of the wind

Everybody's an art critic

January will always be a Great Lakes gal

Offline mob

Poor January - stuck in 'The Chosen One's' Oblivion prison cell.

Wow, even a Breton looks small compared to that Altmer.

Oh yes, the painted trolls quest. That was a clever quest.

Jan's armor & shield look good - very businesslike.

Great shot in the water how you can see all of her even through the water.

Amazing looking blue sky.

Ah, there's Nerussa. She was one of your favorite elves back in the day, as I recall. Jan really looks sort of classic in these pictures, and not just the Painted Trolls ones. She looks like some damsel in a classic oil painting.

... speaking of .. gosh... it's been probably 13 or 14 years since one of mine did that quest. Anyway, good to see you're back in Cyrodiil.

Acadian: January is a Nord in this game. And she is still tiny compared to an Altmer!

I had forgotten all about the painted trolls quest. That was really creative.


macole: I love how you can see the brush strokes in the sky, and everything else.


Renee: Teresa had a major crush on Nerussa back in the day.

The painted troll quest was really fun to do again, after all these years. I really love how they presented the world, being all done up in oil paints.



Fraking archers!

Don't ghost me bro

Battling side by side with Bellac

What did Kaelin put in my drink?

Watch where you shoot that thing!

The Alliance

Standing on top

Hi Boromir

Low bridge

Long Live the Emperor!

Um, I think Boromir could use a seriously strong healing potion.

I used to be an adventurer like you. Until I took an arrow in the back.

I laughed over the low bridge pic.

Hey, just be glad all those arrows stuck in her shield, rather than she herself becoming a pincushion.

Ah, the Forlorn Watchman. Golly, it's quests like this which really capture the imagination, right? I can remember seeing that ghost standing by the shore long ago, my eyes almost falling right out of my head Those early days of playing OB man... the amount of depth and wonder were just astounding.

To go off-topic a moment, now that I've played all 5 ES games, Oblivion definitely has the most creative quests. In comparison, most of Morrowind's quests are standard Fetch or Steal-type missions, or "Collect money from X, and if you can't get the money, kill him/her...." which makes me wonder, why... WHY I'm supposed to consider MW has the "better" quests & writing as so MW fanatics used to badger us with. Morrowind does not, at least if we're considering side & guild quests. The Main Quest has an air of mystery about it so far, it's really got me gripped. But that's it. I can't really say it's "better" than OB's Main Quest. Just different.

Heh heh, what's going on in the Oblivion Gate picture?

Yeah, looks like she took one for the team. What level is Jan? She's already seeing deathclaws daedroths, that's why I ask. And I know you tend to do these quests really fast.



Me too!

macole: The funny thing is that Martin was healing himself the entire time. So he was at full health with that arrow sticking through him.


Acadian: I tried something different, and took the high road in the mountains from Chorrol to Bruma. I was not expecting the bridges to be too low to fit a mounted character! I had to use the moveto command with the console to get them past the bridge. Thankfully it worked for both horse and rider with one command.


Renee: The blurry effect on the screen is just something I get on my PC from the Oblivion Gates. It is just some sort of visual effect the gates make. What is weird is that it will even show through solid objects, if they are in the way of the gate.

Jan was about level 17 or 20 when she started the main quest. It meant the fights were tough, and keeping NPCs alive was a real pain. I broke down and made a lot of them essential. But the sigil stones were the best variety.



Valhalla Awaits

Found it

Blades from a bygone age

The Countess and the Crow

To battle

The Black and Decker Kingdom Wrecker

Looks like the warranty was expired

Jan and Marty

Paradise Awaits

Dagon

Dragon

Yeah that makes sense to see daedroth if she were that deep into the levels at that point. I forgot that you've been with Jan in OB in this game for a while now. And also, OB can level up pretty quickly if all 7 Majors are being used.

Valhalla Awaits! There's her one-liner catchphrase.

Looks like she's doing Knights of the Nine? -- Wow, look at that wicked armor. She's headed toward the Wicked Tower of Doom!

Ah, there's that bastard Dagon. Just like Natthrafan in Stormcrow... Too bad Jan can't make her sword turn into a dragon this time. Perish, get back to your planes, demon!

Jan looks good in Savlian's old surcoat.

And the Stormcrow helps MartinAkatoshDragonGodofTime squash Dagon and save Nirn! She'll doubtless be named the Crowmeister of Cyrodiil!

Renee: I did not do Knights of the Nine. I don't like it how kills the members of two chapels. She's wearing a Kvatch surcoat and everything else is Mithril.

Acadian: It is just a regular Kvatch surcoat, that January enchanted with Sigil Stone to give her +50 magicka.

January will be the Crowpian of Cyrodiil.

As requested, here are some pictures of the finished Kvatch in Renee Gade III's game. This is Kvatch Rising by the way, not the more popular Kvatch Rebuilt, or the Kvatch mod Lena uses. Kvatch Rising has five levels of construction: Vanilla (fires still burn), Vanilla without fires, Bandit takeover stage (the town gets filled with riffraff), Under Construction, and the totally-built town, which I'll show now.

Exterior area.

Overhead view

Strolling into town (Xenagade's wearing nice clothes. She often dolls up in grand towns like this one)

Going to chapel (notice the street signs. All the avenues have names.)

Chapel of Akatosh

On Sundas, the chapel get psacked I mean packed.

Bar Crawl Begins (Kvatch has at least 4 places for libations. This is the lowest-class dive) 🍾

Upper Class Tavern

(Dang. Wish I'd gotten a pic of her getting smashed! She falls over drunk sometimes, but her alcohol tolerance is also rather high these days.)

I'll have the Shrrrrurilies *hic!*

Xena Gade's Kvatch House -- (as always, there are pumpkins on each side of the door, for any character of mine who's got a home).

This house is apparently the "lower class" one, in a seedy part of town, right next to the Arena. There's a quest which allows the PC to get a nicer home (maybe even the castle itself) but she did not want to follow those quests. I think we can become the Count/Countess of the town, but she's not into joining royalty. 👑 How would she be able to adventure if she's sitting on a throne all day?

Her bedroom. Yeah it's a mess!

Warming up for the Arena

(Turns out, Arena matches are only held on Middas. And it was only Sundas at this point.) So...

Heading to Anvil.

It's Kvetch. I mean Kvatch.

Wow, it looks a lot different when its not a disaster. I love the street signs.

The chapel picture is awesome, with the light of the fire illuminating Xena Gade.

That house is lower class? It looks pretty solidly middle class to me. Kvatch must be prospering.

Time to get hammered. I mean Anvil'd.

Cool pixies! I really like that the trees outside got some green on them as well. It's sutch a shame Bethesda didn't include restoring Kvatch into the base game. Then maybe I would have gotten to it. Maybe...


And I agree; those houses look very much middle class to me. Almost on par with the Skingrad homes. Although I guess their proximity to the arena brings them down a notch.

I agree, the "lower class" home is not so bad. I remember when she did the initial quests so she could get that home, the way the dialog was written went out of its way to make it sound as though she'd be getting some sort of condemned-looking dump! But I agree. It's not a palace, but the place is cozy, with three levels. Respawning Vegetable, Meat, and Alcohol cabinets. Lots of areas to store stuff, but not so many that my neurotic side kicks in.

Renee's game has the fully-finished version, but if I play Saga or Joan's games (which are supposed to be earlier in the 4th Era) they've got bandits roaming their Kvatch!

I should make a video for the Arena match. All of the NPCs are voiced btw, and mostly with Scottish accents!

The Unique Landscapes - River Ethe, we pick up the trail near Meridia’s Shrine.

River Ethe can be seen from Meridia’s Shrine. The trail is on the far

A popular tourist attraction on the River Ethe Trail is the shipwreck.

Stairs aid the inexperienced hiker.

One of many bridges to keep the traveler’s feet dry as the trail crisscrosses the River Ethe

A River Ethe waterfall near Fallen Rock Cave

A favorite honeymoon photo spot when it’s not raining.

Passing a MOO Forgotten Tower. Overnight accommodations are not recommended for the casual tourist.

Passing the Jones Stone

The ruins of Elenglynn where danger abounds. It is an Ayleid ruin after all. Of course, we stop for the night just to get out of the rain.

North of Elenglynn, an excellent spot for that romantic picnic

Weatherleah at last, we stop to have lunch with our friends, the Jemane Brothers. The Jemane brothers are doing pretty good running a business catering to hikers on the River Ethe Trail. They’re thinking of building a couple B&B cabins to accommodate those wishing to spend a night in comfort.

Wow, quite the modded game you got there. Real pretty


These pics are taken ten years ago but they could just as well have been taken from this Christmas hunt in Pale Pass. That's how tradition bound I am


Camp site
View
Caveboss slain
The one green tree in Pale Pass
I don't remember this one
Inside tent

Wow, Renee your Kvatch looks great!

Macole, your game always looks so darn beautiful!

Mirocu, very nostalgic. Love Lothran's almost never changing routine.

Yeah, your game's really pretty macole. I'll never use Unique Landscapes because it introduces changes which would be too startling. I'm too familiar with the way Cyrodiil's vanilla lands are portrayed. But I do enjoy seeing the possibilities!

You're also not afraid to take screenies while it's raining! No FW 38eee interruptions here!

Wow, that's really neat the Jemanes have something to do in their post-quest world.


I just saw an old screen you posted in the archived forums last night, mirocu. And yes, it does have the same look purported in the pictures posted today. Do you have any pics of Lothran without white hair though? I can't remember his original hair color.

Wow, how the heck did you get him on top of that statue? Doesn't look like the paint brush glitch was employed.