The way the group dungeons work is that you can queue up for them and the game will put you with three others into an instance of your own, or you can enter the door with a group of up to four, and the instance is created then. So if you go in solo, the game treats you as a group, and you have it all to yourself. Nobody else can join you, except by grouping with you before they enter.

Lopov, that one cave shot is really spooky. It was fun meeting up with Shonta a couple days ago.

Last night I had a solo session with my first person in this game, which was good because I sort of got to know her better. Here are a few things I've learned. She's a Redguard Nightblade, somewhat antisocial, and she has no idea how she got to Morrowind. But she likes it here because it is warm. Ana's fixing to stay awhile. She grew up in Windhelm, where she became quite a sneaky-looking sort, for whatever reason. I suppose growing up Redguard in a town full of Nords has something to do with it.

Ana Khanda

She likes Vvardenfell's warm water

Likes Vvardenfell's warm weather

Spends a lot of time sneaking

Really likes blending in.

And Shonta Quassan is currently her only friend. Hmm, where is that lizard?

Shonta Quassan enjoyed meeting Ana Khanda. She seemed distrustful at the beginning, and didn't talk much, but as they got to know each other better, Ana became more talkative.

Meeting in Seyda Neen

Don't mess with me

Not to be messed with

Ana's buyin', Shonta's waitin'

Creature down

Having a break

Zainsipilu

Yes! She is distrustful. Wow, you picked that up. I liked that moment of tension when Shonta asked how Ana is able to sneak so often. That sure was an interesting RP, meeting up finally.

For Renee and Lopov -

Welcome to Ana - so glad she's enjoying MW.

How fun to link up with Shonta and enjoy some drink and adventure.

Thanks for the wonderful screenshots of their time together.

WOOOOOOOOT !!!!!!!!!! You are finally playing!!!! WOO HOO !!! Awesome shots of Ana and Vvardenfekk! And it is so great to meet friends in game like Lopov, isn't it? It is very cool knowing we are in the same realm together; even if we only see each other by chance here and there!










Oh, I love these pics of your day together!!! This is AWESOME!!! And what in the world gorgeous outfit is that Ana is wearing? I don't recognize it!!! Do we all need to make her some armor? She is sneak-erific; so probably Medium armor would suit her best; and I see a bow on her back too; so that goes with a Stamina character. What do you say, Renee? We love welcoming our new members with whatever armor they need!!!

Cool seeing Ana and Shonta hang out. Since she is Ana Khonda, does that make her an honorary Argonian?

Acadian: That was an enormously fun session. We both decided to meet in roleplay mode, so it was like they were asking questions about each other, an Argonian and a Redguard getting to know one another. If we had to communicate as humans we simply used parenthesis. (I'm taking a break for 2 mins) for instance.

mALX: Lol finally I get playing, right? In the first pic, Ana is wearing the Slave Jerkin which was part of her tutorial. In all the ohter pics she found some sort of Bosmer armor she found in a crate.

It is really hard to find clothes / light armor in this game! Nobody sells it (so far) that we've found. Ana's not interested in crafting yet, so it took us ages to find that armor set.

SubRosa: You have to try this game, if you haven't yet. If only for the super-smooth frames. My 6-yaer old rig is making 100 frames a second on High settings, and I mean, there is NO lag. OH, sometimes it'll dip to 99, but I mean that is it.

This is the outfit I'm talking about:


https://i.imgur.com/JYbvtmG.jpg



It is Adorable !!!!

That was the slave jerkin she wore during the tutorial. Had something to do with her fooling other slavers.

Oh, I'm going to have to look in my storage and see if I have that one, that is Awessome! I always keep even old armor if it is really cute; but my characters wear it for clothing (in towns) instead of armor once they outgrow the armor benefits of it. (and yes; I am a bit of a packrat in this game; lol) = really got spoiled by the single-player games where we could collect everything we wanted to, lol.

But I really like having outfits they can change into so they aren't in "armor" all the time - even if the outfit is technically old armor that no longer covers their protection needs. (like some of the old light armor robes that looked like beautiful dresses = they still wear those when going to Haute's parties every year).

That jerkin definitely looks like something I would have kept; but I don't think I've ever seen it before = going to have to dig up my Vvardenfell gear and look now!

I love seeing how Ana and Shonta met!

Oh, I forgot to say that there are some clothing items available in the game that are not armor. You find them in containers that you can steal from. Abiene wears dresses most of the time.


Also that slaver's jerkin looks like the Abah's Watch jerkin style, but I'm not sure if it's the same. I think it looks great!

Ooh, Abah's Watch style? Thanks Grits!

YES on the clothing! I have one of my storage trunks full of clothing that was once stolen items, I went to a fence and "laundered" them to wear, lol. When my characters hung out in towns they would change from armor to clothing; but then the Costumes and the "Outfit" system all but made them obsolete since I can keep my armor on underneath the clothing now.

So the clothing hasn't been used as much in the last couple years; and I really need the inventory space it is using up; but just can't bring myself to throw them out, lol.

That said = I really do wish we could add these clothes to the Outfit system; because some of them are really cute!

I'm taking screenshots at a much faster rate than I can put them up here. And some of them I have decided are not worthy enough to be posted after the fact.

Cincy has really been pushing the limits of what he can do. We have learned that we quite enjoy Battlegrounds, even if they have sometimes resulted in lopsided losses (some teams are very, very good at working together in deathmatches, and if your team can't cope with it you are in for a bad time). It also helps that they are relatively low stakes for PvP. Nonetheless, Cincy has gotten pretty decent at deathmatches.

We've also pushed the envelope on soloing World Bosses and dolmens, and we've seen some great success in that regard. Some of the bosses we would've been able to solo also got attacked by other players, which is both good and bad. On one hand, it makes a fight I know we can win on our own go faster, but at same time it is somewhat unforunate that others join in the middle of it (although I have done that before as well, so I suppose I can't complain too much). Some screenshots from those will be up on this post as well.

With that "test run," Cincy and I are thinking of doing a World Boss tour of sorts in the alliance zones. We have figured out a strategy that, so far, has worked wonders against World Bosses when going solo. And just today, we took out a dolmen in Cyrodiil on our own, fortunately not running into any gank squads in the process.

Also, all of the "points of interest" as designated on the map have been cleared as of today. A couple of quests in Grahtwood were all that were left.

And now for some pictures, including some from the end of the Imperial City questline. Sorry for the large number of pictures. There's a lot I want to show. I even had to refrain from posting a few more that I wanted to put in here.

Honoring a sacrifice

Enemy at the gates

Molag Bal's last obstacle

Restoring the Sublime Brazier

Center of the Imperial Sewers

Spoiling the Fun for the Despoiler

Monkeying Around (from our last guild meet)

Monkey Business (I believe this was Acadian who had also turned into a monkey)

Light Show

While a loss, still not too shabby a performance

Fancy meeting you here (totally unintentional run-in)

David vs. Goliath...and his pet (unfortunately the screenshot didn't turn out quite as I thought it had)

Now SHE'S a looker

All in a day's work

The Scarlet Judge's New Colors (I'm quite happy that you can also dye outfits)

Just one interesting picture from Cat Man Dhou's fishing trip.

Is this Platetite, or Rubidinum?

The game labeled it Rubedite, and when I mined it, I got Platinum first, then the Rubedite.

Rader: Whoa, those are the sewers? Looks like something out of an Isaac Asimov novel.

I love the "looker" Now SHE's hot!

ghastley: good to hear there's still some little glitches in this game, just for fun.

Rader - Great shots. Fun to see some Cyrodiil stuff as Buffy spends so little time there. No more monkey's jumpin' on the bed! Buffy knows that world boss giant and his mammoth pal well - great fun!

Ghastley - Lol. Buffy's occasionally encountered overlapping nodes and been able to harvest one, then the other.

These are some amazing shots! Especially love the Imperial City Sewers ones! How on Nirn you found the time to take screenshots at that battle with Molag Bal in the sewers = where is the bowing down emoticon when you need it? And where is all your PvP enemies and allies to take him down with? Awesome shots!

I have to confess my favorite shot is the two monkey-fied Guild Members in the second shot of them where they are looking at each other and it looks like maybe dancing,








There used to be one like this in Stonefalls almost at the waters edge past the Dolmen; but I think they fixed it, lol.

@Rader - a bunch of great screenies. My favorite is Restoring the Sublime Brazier. I'm glad that Cincy brought down the Despoiler, so we can still use spoilers on forums.

I wouldn't mind meeting Bo Dacius either.

Looking great in black & red.

Mournhold

Hand of Almalexia

Saint Veloth

Almalexia in the camp

Angry Daedra

Spirits

Master Chef

Great shots, Lopov.

Angry Daedra? Yup, I'd be angry too if a scrawny lizard had beat me down to a sliver of life!

Wow, you are up to Mournhold already? That is a huge bustling metropolis compared to the previous cities; but once I bought a little apartment there; I fell in love with Mournhold!

By the way; not sure if you know this or not; but you can "Hide your Helmet" if you want to = you still get all the benefits of wearing the helmet; but we just see your Blue Argonian face instead of Shonta being hidden that way.

For Roleplay purposes; when my character was going into war or heavy combat; I toggled her helmet back to showing so it looked like she was more protected for battle; but then I "hid it" again when she came back to town or just puttering around the Countryside adventuring.

I played with the helmet toggled off for a long time but now I prefer to see it for a change. I guess that after a while I'll again prefer not to see it.

Shonta Quassan also bought an apartment in Mournhold and moved his furniture from Ebonheart to his new apartment. You're right, Mournhould is much bigger and crowded than other cities, but Shonta seems to like it.

Story-wise we could already go to Shadowfen, but Shonta will stay in Deshaan for a while. ATM, however, he's helping the Prophet.

Deshaan is one of my favorite Provinces in Tamriel; and I love that apartment in Mournhold, too. Do you need more furniture? I'll be glad to send you some so your Ebonheart Inn room isn't bare! It only takes 12 items to fill up those free Inn rooms and make them look nice; and that way if you ever have to stop back in there it will feel better than an empty cell.

Molag Bal himself actually doesn't appear in the IC (which is good for him because I'd kick his ass again). That sewers shot is Cincy right up on this giant tree-like structure smack-dab in the center of the sewers. I guess that is the main, or one of the main, things his forces poured out from to invade the city in the first place, because it has what appear to be door-shaped archways on it.

As frustrating as it can be to run into gank squads or a single player that is of a far-higher level/far-more skilled than I am, I also like the extra intensity that running around in the IC and Cyrodiil adds with PvP. Really keeps you on your toes and changes things up. Some days I like it less than others, though.




I'm a sucker for black and red (part of his outfit is also a dark blue). I wish it was a bit of a brighter red, but I didn't see one that I have. The colors I used are:
-Red Diamond Red
-Coldharbor Ash Black
-Ransacker Blue


And nice screenshots. Glad to see Shonta making good progress. Us Argonians are the true heroes of Tamriel!




When I found out that I could toggle the helmet off, I immediately did so and have never reverted back. I love being able to see the character I created (Cincy's helm is also kind of goofy-looking, IMO).

Speaking of the Ebony Flask Inn room, I finally actually made it livable this past week. I'll have to post some screenshots later of it.

It may not happen often, but

Khajiit has an idea!

He decided to go to Artaeum and try to fish up the recipe for Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl. That buffs your chance of geeting rare fish. He pulled in a waterlogged Psijic satchel on his second hole, and it had the recipe! So he fished a couple more, got the Artaeum fishing achievement, and took the recipe back for Laurie to make. (She has the extra points in Chef and Brewer). She made him up 100 of the food(?) so he's ready to do another Aliiance.

Ghastley, that's great news! Sometimes the RNG gods are with you, sometimes not.

Holy Cow, I still haven't gotten any of those gold recipes! Congrats on the Achievement; and also on taking one of the best screenshots I've seen in this game yet!!!!

ghastley: that has to be the most scenic fishing shot I have ever seen. You should send that pic to Field & Stream magazine, see if you can fool them into thinking it's real.

Lopov: Shonta's armor looks pretty kewl. Most of the time in Oblivion especially, beastfolk armor / clothes looks all wrong (in my opinionated opinion).

Some screenies from today's adventures in Deshaan:

Deshaan

Fishing outside of Bthanual

Against the Abomination

Lagomere Dolmen

Against Sharpfang

Ta-da!

Over there!

Busy Argonian! Nice job on those world bosses. Buffy quite likes Deeshan. . . but she quite likes all the basic non-DLC alliance zones.

For a moment I thought the guar's tail was on fire, but then I realized it was a salamander instead.

Great pic of the sun coming through the arms of the windmill.

Neat winged helmet.

Ooh really nice shots of Deshaan! And a Skyshard, WOO HOO!

One thing I noticed about the Dolmen = there is absolutely no way to convey the magnitude of those Dolmen in any screenshot; they just can't capture the feeling of how massive they are. (and I've tried).

You have a wonderful ability with the in-game camera to capture Awesome screens! My favorite of these is the fishing outside of Bthanual = what a fantastic shot that is!!!

Shonta is exacting some kind of pwn4g3!

Can you center the camera in front of his face?

Renee, that's really hard to do given the game's camera mechanics. The best I can do is have my toon face something solid like a wall or pillar, then slide the camera POV around until it's in front of my toon, then I can get a close up of their face; it's still a little off center, however . . .

If I want to get a good look at my character's face, I either do what haute suggests, or take a look at them in the Character Menu screen, while standing still. Or take a look at them just before logging in.

You can actually center the camera in settings. Khajiit likes to bring it closer to the center for all of his characters.

Oh, I might try doing this! That should make it easier to get the close in shots in game!

Right now the only way I can do REALLY close up shots is what Lopov suggested below = go to the Character screen and click once on the character so select them (but not activate them) = then scroll towards them with the mouse scrolling thing. It is the closest you can get to them that I know of.

@Acadian - Shonta Quassan likes Deshaan too. I wonder how will he like Shadowfen, it should look more or less like his homeland.

@SubRosa - Og'nyeni the salamander has a nice ability to set himself on fire, whenever I'm about to take a screenie.

@mALX - dolmens are massive, yes. The other day Shonta was observing the cultists and he noticed, that if they're not disturbed = attacked, they sacrifice some of their own to the dolmen, and they are sucked to the sky to the portal above.

---

Waiting...

Someone needs to attack first...

Fishing

Frost in pieces

"Where are others when you need them?"

"No, I won't attack him alone."

Wonderfu pics, Lopov. I bet Shonta will like Shadowfen. It is a wonderfully lush and mystic land of swampy forests.

Yes, Dirtbag (Druitularg WB in Deeshan) can be tricky. The secret with him is responding promptly and reliably to his well-telegraphed heavy attacks (blocking) and his equally well-telegraphed magickal attacks (bash interrupt). He uses both very liberally and a magic user can find themselves blocking and bashing themselves right out stamina - which turns fatal pretty quickly. Using tri-stat potions is very helpful during the fight to avoid that.

Aw, your Fiery lizard pet looks adorable when flaming! I've never seen them do that in game yet; very cute!

My characters all had to leave the World Bosses for another time; and come back later to fight them when they were strong enough (or during an event when they had lots of help).

For a long time we used to catch World Bosses at our Guild Meets to help people who hadn't gotten them yet and couldn't solo them = I was one who always needed the help. Even Pia can't solo all the World Bosses; and she is my most powerful character.

Acadian's Buffy is one of the very rare characters I've seen that can solo all those World Bosses and Group Dungeons. She is just downright amazing in all she is able to do = very unique.

Shonta is just growing up right now; he is just learning/training how to use his skills in combat. Don't worry if he can't solo anything now; or even if he needs help for harder Bosses later on = most of us do still need help for the big Bosses.

Also: Shonta has no CP Points yet; which puts him at a disadvantage for big Boss fights. Also; Argonian's Magicka pool is an average size unless you spend Skill Points in all your Racial Passives and drink potions. (high Magicka pools add whopping amounts of damage to your attacks).

Shonta is in training right now for what he will become; he can't be expected to solo Public Dungeons or World Bosses at this stage in his growth. It isn't just his overall level; but the level of all his combat skills/Racial skills/etc. (and Champion Points will make a huge difference for him too). He just needs time to grow and develop all his skills still.

Every Province has 6 Delves = they are Shonta's level at all times. They are an important part of your clearing that Province and getting your Achievements for that Province. The map icon for Delves looks like this:

https://images.uesp.net/d/d0/ON-mapicon-Delve.png


The Provinces also have one Public Dungeon that will be well above Shonta's level. (Forgotten Crypts is one of these). The Public Dungeons are not needed for any Achievement for clearing the Province; they are to test your mettle. They have a skyshard to tempt you in; which is how/why I always ended up going into them. Most people come back to them later on to get them after their characters are grown = or get a friend to bring them through them for the skyshard.

Public Dungeons have a different Icon on the map than the Delves; so you will know going in that you are entering a place Shonta is going to be beaten badly. The map Icon for Public Dungeons looks like this:


https://images.uesp.net/9/9a/ON-mapicon-Dungeon.png


On the Public Dungeons = if you do go in alone at early levels; you can plan to walk through them dead. (when you get killed, resurrect and run toward the skyshard. Keep doing that till you reach the skyshard. Get into sneak position as soon as you resurrect; and hope no enemies are near the skyshard when you try to take it.

While Buffy and I appreciate the confidence, you do overestimate her abilities.

Here's a more accurate assessment:
She can solo 100% of the game's public dungeons.
She can solo dolmens and (usually) Summerset geysers.
She can solo about 80% of the Alliance zone WBs and maybe 5% of the DLC WBs.
She can solo about half the Alliance zone group dungeons but none of the DLC group dungeons.

(which still makes me bow down in Awe of her!!!!!! None of my characters can do anywhere near that; not even Pia!!!! = which is why Buffy is so Amazing to me !!!!! )

I imagine she can clobber everything in Craglorn, too. Cincy has been able to do a couple points of interest and group dungeons there on his own with boosts from food. And he took out one of the WBs on his own yesterday too (well, it would've been, but somebody joined in when I had him down to 500K of his 1.8M HP). And Cincy is only at CP430 now. So if he can, Buffy probably can mop the floor with anything there.

I agree! Acadian is like a Guru for Character building! I am totally in Awe of what he has been able to accomplish with Buffy!

After fiddling with camera settings I'm now able to take Lopov shots in ESO!

Wavey

Tail by tail

Arms crossed

Buffy the Dremora Slayer

Three on the bridge

Deshaan

Time for some pics from my recent excursions into Cyrodiil. I'm going to break it up into two categories, this post being Scenes from the Battlefield. The next group will be Cyrodiil explorations away from the PvP.

Clowns (Dominion) to the left of me, jokers to the right (Covenant)

Dominating the Dominion

Raising the Banner

Never should have come here...

The Dominion Strikes Back

On the defense

Siege the day

Into the breach

At the doorstep of the enemy

Lopov – I’m so glad you were able to adjust your camera more to your liking. Great to see a Lopov shot. Taking down Dirtbag as a duo was great fun! ‘Deshaan’ is a beautiful shot.

Rader – Some intense action pix of Cincy in Cyrodiil! That is a busy, scary place sometimes.

That's some heavy combat taking place in Cyrodiil! Maybe Cincy will be the new Emperor?

Nice to see names of familiar locations from Oblivion.

Lopov, though the names are familiar, I don't get much nostalgia in Cyrodiil. What does bring nostalgic tears to Buffy's eyes for her days in Oblivion however is the Gold Coast DLC. Though its main questline is about the Dark Brotherhood, Buffy ignored that. Like other zones though, there are side quests, dailies and plenty to explore. The zone itself includes the area surrounding Kvatch and Anvil and is wonderfully familiar - just like we might imagine the area to be in the era preceding Oblivion.

Oh, I would love to know how you changed the settings to get that first screenshot!!! I love how you stop to take screenshots while Buffy is battling away there, But my favorite of all is the last one: Deshaan. That really captures the area around Mournhold; I love that shot; love Deshaan!