baronaatista

Set in West Virginia, and appears to be the earliest game in the series' universe thus far - Oct. 27th, 2102 (Fallout 1 takes place in 2161). I'm slightly disappointed as I was really hoping we could go back to the west coast. The NCR, WC Brotherhood and Caesar's Legion are the most memorable and interesting factions in the franchise, and I'm truly not sure why BGS seems not to want to touch them. That being said, while the location doesn't quite pique my interest (at least not on the surface - there are definitely ways to make WV a genuinely interesting region), the date does; I'm imagining this will be essentially when the first vaults are opening in the universe - it's entirely possible Vault 76 is the very first vault to open. Technically, there really shouldn't be Super Mutants. Nor should there really be established settlements for the most part. Will ghouls be a thing? Will radiation be more of a hazard? This is before people managed to tame any significant part of the wasteland - will the world be more dangerous? Will they finally commit to making a real, full-fledged survival mode? Anyway, despite the fact that I personally have heavily criticized Fallout 4 in the past for it's poorly written story (moreso, dialogue) and it's jumbled mess of half-finished mechanics; the game is a ton of fun to play, and I am legitimately excited to find out about the latest installment.

With the hair / eyes / ENB issue, there is a mod that alters certain - I believe it’s foggy weathers - to reduce harsh water/shore lines which occur during them; Waters Edge Fix. Not sure if this somehow related? Maybe ENB in general is doing something during foggy weathers that exacerbates an issue with how SE handles fog?

@ Berndaroy - you mean steam / steamapps / common / skyrim? As far as I understand it that is not ideal. From Tech's guide; Notice: This is out of date. Please do not install MO2 in the game folder! Install it to the same location as the utilities are installed to below. ie. Just a seperate folder. I have mine in c:/games. I can't remember the specifics right now but I'm pretty sure installing in the game folder can cause issues.

@berndaroy - out of curiosity, where do you have MO2 installed?

On caves - have you guys seen Underground? By T4gtr34um3r, author of majestic mountains and Terrain LOD Redone. Unsurprisingly it’s quite nice. Also Sheson just released a new tool - xLODGen (link is for Mega dL) Forum Thread - https://forum.step-project.com/topic/13175-xlodgen-terrain-lod-beta-for-fnv-fo3-fo4-tes5-sse/ Looks veeerrry interesting. Don’t think it’s quite intended for the average user just yet, but the pics on the forum thread look promising.

One thing I would recommend to anyone starting the game - it really is quite bewildering at first. There is a lot to learn and ideally you want to get familiarized with the basic mechanics very quickly. Everything is handled very well, the mechanics are fairly intuitive - but while pressed with all of the other issues you will be forced to deal with, it can be a little tense in the very beginning. I suggest hopping in to a game, but don’t treat it like you’re going to do a playthrough. Treat it like an experiment - figure out the basics of crafting, gathering, using weapons, look through the survival book and maybe explore the island a bit, try to get a feel for the lay of the land, maybe think about where you’d like to set up camp. Once you feel like you’ve got a grip on the basics, come back and start the game for real. The plane crashes in a couple different spots so don’t expect everything to be the same, but having a grip on the basics will really help.

Yeah - I can’t stand horror movies for the most part, and am not really a fan of horror games. The Forest is creepy, for sure. Even crosses the line to straight up horror with its creature designs. Caves are pitch black and exploring them can be not only freaky but also very stressful because of game mechanics. However, yes just as you’re saying - I mean that’s the game. You start off just lost - no idea where to go, what to do, or what to expect. The further you go though, the more you learn about the island and it’s inhabitants, the less frightening and bewildering it all is. I’m not freaked out very easily, but I also don’t like horror/gore just for the sheer shock either.

Yeah most Youtubers that play the Forest also play Submautica... definitely looks cool. The Forest still has some bugs for sure, but across 3 different games, two of which were quite long (around 80 days)... can’t say I ever experienced anything major? There are some clipping issues, and some weird stuff in caves I think leftover from various updates (fish floating in the air where a pond used to be), an issue with logs sort of exploding when they spawn in, if you’ve chopped a bunch of them - worse if they're closely grouped together. And some issues with weapon upgrades not always showing on your weapons, and also with dried meat hung on a rack too long - textures turn black. I expect most/all of that to be taken care of for the full release though, and not a bit of it is game breaking or really anything more than a minor annoyance - other than the logs issue. It’s recieved constant updates, and is gearing up for a full release this year. 3 man dev team, as I understand it, and I am currently putting this game in my top 5 ever, for sure. AND it’s early-access. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a AAA title, and doesn’t offer a ton of replayability, but it’s limited scope is its strength. All of it’s systems tie into one another, and feed each other. Anyway, one of the reasons I’m so excited about it is - in Fallout 4, the narrative about what is happening in the world (in general - a post apocalyptic world where isolated communities struggle for survival) is completely at odds with the world as it’s presented - which is some Disney world where everyone is friendly and looking for someone just like you to tell their deepest secrets to and trust with life-changing decisions. In the Forest, the gameplay, the storytelling and the world all work together to present a cohesive narrative.... I’ll stop gushing, just go play the game!

I'd say you need to be interested in survival type gameplay, for sure, for this to be of interest. Horror, not so much. There are aspects of horror to the game for sure, but the experience of playing is not the standard 'oh god, what's around that corner?' type of experience horror games are going for (can be a little like that in certain places). I would say it has elements of games like; Zelda, Skyrim/Fallout and Myst, with maybe a little bit of Dark Souls in terms of combat.

Really sad to hear the reasoning for departing the community/taking down the mod Lepidoptera of Skyrim. I keep on hearing authors talking in this way... I just can't understand. Of course I don't have the skill or probably even the patience/dedication that many of these people do and I'm eternally grateful for everything they do. I definitely understand being too old, too busy, etc. to continue modding. It's your life, you gotta do what you gotta do. But why take your toys with you when you leave? It doesn't cost you anything to leave them there, and especially if you open permissions, there is a possibility that your mod becomes part of something larger. Why do annoying community people get such a reaction? So people are asking for all kinds of compatibility patches? So what. If you want to make them, go for it. If you don't, don't. If people complain, let them complain. You gave your time and skill to create something and shared it with the world. You don't owe anyone anything, and you don't have to pay attention to angry, disrespectful people. Anyway. Probably not the place for this, just my reaction to your post @Lexy.

I said brilliant twice in the opening sentence, lol. Unintentional, but I guess it's evidence of how strongly I feel. I literally finished it last night and wrote that as I was just buzzing with energy about what an amazing experience it was. As I sit and think about it more - watched a couple videos on youtube to try and help put some of the pieces of the story together, see if I had missed anything... I like it even more. The story is not told to you in any way; you experience the story as you play... I really could go on and on but it's difficult to say much without revealing important pieces of the story, and as I'm saying that really is what has me so excited about this game - not even necessarily the story itself, but the experience of uncovering it as you play. It's imperative to keep yourself in the dark the first time you go through it.

I just finished playing through (my 3rd attempt, first to completion) of the brilliant game from my brilliant countrymen Endnight Games; The Forest. I can't say enough good things about this game. I'm posting here because I think it shares a lot of aspects in terms of gameplay with the Bethesda titles we all love, yet offers a very different experience. I think a lot of people on these forums would really enjoy it. The brilliance lies in the simplicity. Your plane crashes on an island. A man takes your son as you lie wounded. You wake up. What to do? There is almost zero handholding. The developers place you, the player, in a very similar place to your character in the game; you're lost in the forest and you have to figure out how to survive. You have a survival book on you which will explain some basic crafting recipes, serves as your building menu and to catalog your discoveries in various ways. Neither the book nor the crafting mat pause the game; you are always in real-time. Days pass quickly and hunger/thirst/sleep/cold need more or less constant attendance. The crafting screen and your inventory screen are simply your bag and a mat with all the stuff you're carrying around laid out on it. Inventory is based on item-type and generally you can only carry very limited quantities of anything. Building anything large takes real time and work, and you are forced to constantly be gathering supplies. The story is communicated almost entirely non-verbally. You can pick up photographs, bits of paper with writing here; a magazine cover there. Watch a brief video snippet, get a tantalizing little glimpse of a room, some people - what does it mean? It's told in the environment, in the clutter strewn about in certain locations. The gameplay, the story, and the player-experience are all so harmonious here it's really beautiful. You feel so much like your character - having to stumble through, learn on the fly, cope with new situations, study your environment, take calculated risks, and keep putting pieces of the puzzle together. It also has aspects of a Link/Zelda type game - certain items you find will give you access to new areas which might contain new clues or items. And of course it gets a little bizarre as you explore further... There is combat in the game and it's quite fun though once you get the basics it's a little overly simplistic. Depending on how you play, it can be extremely challenging even on the normal difficulty though - I'd go into specifics there but I don't want to get into spoiler territory. Anyway I really loved this game, if any of that sounds appealing to you I highly recommend checking it out.

*nope that's just me being stupid again. Misjudged how the enable/disable feature related to install order, you have to 'remove' the mod in order to reset it's install order.

I realized almost immediately after posting that the notes feature was almost certainly in MO, I had just never noticed. Just checked and of course it is. I'm so far away from an expert it's not funny, but without a way to view file conflicts a lot of what I like to do with modding becomes much more difficult/impossible. MO2 currently works almost exactly as well as MO and is still in active development as far as I know... I can't see a reason I would use anything else to mod a Bethesda game - except for that OBSE apparently has issues with MO, which is why I'm testing Vortex with Oblivion. * actually after playing around more, it does indeed notify you of file conflicts and allows you to view them, and then set rules for how to manage conflicts between the two mods. Still lacks the ability to selectively 'hide' certain files, so you can only set one mods priority over another's files en masse, but it is helpful. It's in alpha right now so I expect a lot of change... Honestly at the moment though it feels to me very much like NMM, just with a better interface and some extra features. There seems to be an issue with the way it tracks install order, at least on my system / for Oblivion? It is simply not accurately tracking the order I installed my mods.

I certainly hope it’s coming, and that there could be a way to hide selected files/folders as well. I like the notes option in the mods tab a lot though. I always wind up doing these big complicated installs with custom merges or tweaks... can get wonky to keep track of, especially if I come back to it after having been away for a while.

Plugins tab is crashing for Oblivion and Fallout 3 at the moment apparently... That being said the more I poke around the more I'm getting over my initial distaste. I think it was mostly just the unfamiliarity. One thing I can't quite figure is if there is any way to see file conflicts with installed mods? I know it stores the 'installed' mod in the 'Mods' folder in the base game folder, and that I can preview and alter the contents of installed mods before I 'deploy' them into my data folder... but I can't see any way to compare those files against my other mods, whether installed or deployed. I haven't installed many mods yet as I'm just trying to familiarize with the program... am I missing something?

I'm testing it out with Oblivion right now, for kicks. Installing into the data folder scares me! I personally like the streamlined interface, but I so miss MO... MO2 still has some issues, but is generally so much easier and less stressful than this... I'm gonna keep working with it, but honestly at the moment I think I even like Wrye Bash better as a mod manager.

Gone to plaid, lol. Good Spaceballs reference. Vigor - Combat and Injuries has movement speed tweaks incorporated, and I do believe walking is a little faster while running is a little slower. Pretty much any movement speed mod makes at least these two tweaks about the same way. @ Lexy/Darth; I've been working at my own build for SE recently, couple mods maybe worth checking out; Enhanced Character Edit - I know this was around in LE and can't really say what the difference is between it and RaceMenu, except the interface isn't quite as smooth. Didn't play with it more than to confirm that it works, but I really can't create a character anymore with those nasty limited vanilla sliders. Carriage and Ferry Travel Overhaul - Seems to be a good replacement for Better Fast Travel, a little lighter weight and likely more compatible. Haven't actually tested this one at all, but as I don't use fast travel this type of mod is critical for me. Also can't recommend SkyHUD (customize your HUD! comes with a variety of presets and its really easy to tweak if you're patient. Works flawlessly with everything in the guide.) and Hallgarths Additional Vanilla Hair (just more hairstyles, in a properly vanilla style - no conflicts, just gives more variety to character creation. Unfortunate they're not distributed at all, but that does make it a really simple plug n play) enough.

That Special Edition followers mod looks great actually. I never liked Endgame NPC, found it way too overpowered and had played around with making my own version for a long time, but this looks better than I could have done and seems fairly balanced. SushiSquid is a respectable Modder as well.

@Ser_Dakota - AAE resistances. Try maces or frost magic.

Hmmm... Kelmych is saying in the guide that the limit for Fallout 3 is in fact 255, and it's only New Vegas that is 155. Quick search had a couple other sources saying the same. I'm also pretty certain Kelmych would not construct a guide that exceeds said limits. It's possible your problem is something else? Though the symptoms do sound quite a lot like hitting a limit to me. That thread you linked has many people talking about the limit being 255, but many other users complaining about issues past 140 as well. Don't know what's right here. Also suggested on the thread it could be a memory issue - are you certain your game is properly LAA enabled? I also know there has been some issues with NVSR and the Win10 Creators Update, not sure if the same is true for Fallout Stutter Remover. You're certain activating any plugin past 140 causes the same issues? Is your loadout stable and functioning properly prior to said limit?

Fallout 3 & New Vegas have a limit of 155 mods. I’ve heard there can be problems when approaching said limit. Try to merge some mods maybe and see what happens.

A note on Enhanced Camera; it comes with an .ini file that adjusts fneardistance. This is necessary to avoid clipping issues, but causes (or can cause) z-fighting or distant texture flickering. I use it anyway cause I can't stand not seeing my body when I look down, but haven't found a good solution for the clipping / z-fighting issues. It's possible there is a happy mid point where you could minimize both, but I'm not sure.

@ Darth - Interested to know the fix so I can roll into my own CR. Have been annoyed with dark grass in caves for a while.