DracoTorre Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

David G Shrock — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 19:41:25 -0000

Thanks for pointing out the necromage issue. Those looking for challenge will no doubt avoid stacking.

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

David G Shrock — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 18:59:36 -0000

Oddly enough, my experience with USSEP is like how you describe playing without USSEP. I'm familiar enough with original content I avoid most bugs, so many USSEP changes become frustrating (weird, right?) and the added bugs and mistakes annoy me. So I created my own bug-fix plugin.

I agree, add/change content where a fix requires it. To be clear I'm not saying the content changes are wrong or that I disagree with them. I would like to see more entries in the change log / bug report better identify the fix and avoid sounding vague or speculative.

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

Dwayne J. Stephenson — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 01:16:43 -0000

The weird consensus on black soul gems was definitely the stupidest thing to come out of lore pedantry in Skyrim, something that doesn't just screw with a handy functionality (I personally just give myself 1000 black soul gems in the beginning of a game with custom soultrapping weapons because I just like the soul clap sound when things die) but also infects all the soul gem mods that have been cranked out. Every one of them offers to gimp your black star as if not harvesting creature souls was really a cool feature you might want in the daedric artifact you literally betrayed a Daedra Prince to obtain (Nelacar says what he says, but why the fuck would he know anyway).

To me the main issue with necromage is that you can stack the atronach stone plus the atronach perk in the alteration tree to get 100 percent spell absorption, since there is no spell absorption cap implemented in the game, and 100 percent spell immunity is obviously too much, especially achieved so easily, with one perk (a level 100 alteration perk, but still) and a standing stone commitment. I would say the same about 100 percent magicka cost reduction too, except that is definitely an intended feature in the game, so what the hell do I know.

Re: Show Your Tail With Campfire Cloak In Skyrim

vkaryl — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 18:13:43 -0000

Just want to say thank you SO much for this tutorial. I have a hard time learning from videos, and the documentation on various sites is sometimes hard to parse as well. Your explanation plus the screenies is crystal-clear, and I'm very grateful for your time and effort on this. I actually used these instructions on SLE as I don't play SSE - worked perfectly, and my kitties now have cloaks AND tails!

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

Robert Morley — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 02:20:45 -0000

Most of what you cite as content changes instead of bug fixes, I disagree with. Bug fixes are bug fixes, even if that requires changing content to match. While there are a few cases where you have a point, and there are a few bug fixes of Arthmoor's that I disagree with, I will take thousands upon thousands of valid bug fixes over my quibbles about a few of them any day of the week. I honestly wouldn't even consider playing Skyrim without USLEEP/USSEP. I did it once after SE came out just to get all the achievements without resorting to a hack that lets you mod and get achievements at the same time. It was..."hellish" might be too strong of a word, but it was certainly not pleasant. Bugs here, bugs there, bugs everywhere!

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

Cestarian — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 23:07:02 -0000

Yeah it would really be nice if they did, but it's kinda hard for them to categorize I guess, and with the size the project has grown to... it would be hard to break it into smaller pieces, real hard.

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

David G Shrock — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 17:04:53 -0000

Right, it's easy to reverse-patch USkP many changes and good advice (a handful are tricky). I played several months with several of these reverted, some I made and others I borrowed. For those players with little patience for broken quests, your advice is the best way to go.

Embarrassingly, some of the USkP fixes throw me off, because I'm accustomed to avoiding certain bugs and very familiar with original NPC and item stats. :)

As I stated, I don't require many fixes for my game, so it became easier to fix the bugs I wanted and using some of the existing older patch mods that USkP inherited. I'd still love to see USkP team break up their patch and offer players options such as: important bug fixes main patch, (disputable) game changes, and beautification. More player choice is cool.

Thanks.

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

Cestarian — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 01:50:33 -0000

"More than half" where do you get this data?

Skyrim is already an lgbt parade and furry roleplay king as vanilla (it has the beast races, and it allows gay marriage) so no modding needed for that, as for cutesy anime faces for various characters, you might think that's lore breaking, but the lore never specifies how pretty or unpretty women or men can be. It might not fit the rough atmosphere of the game and you're right about that, but it's all down to preferences because let's face it, our world has some rough places too, but that doesn't stop pretty women or pretty boys from existing there. I have half a mind to agree with you on the armors though, but I don't care cus boobies!

Also fam, why are you so triggered by body replacemment mods?

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

Cestarian — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 04:34:09 -0000

Woah I had no idea about any of this. I imagine there's a reason why Bethesda didn't allow you to improve these weapons. Right on about the black soul gems (although personally I like this change since it conveniently means I can't put any petty souls in my black gem; same with the black star and it also makes sense with the black star, seems like something bethesda forgot)

I agree with most of what you said, but overall wouldn't it just be easier to use the unofficial skyrim patch and undo these changes with an esp file rather than just not use the patch at all? I mean like you said it has a ton of very important bug fixes.

The weird ones you listed aren't really that many, and this shit is actually really really easy to fix usually. (For example with items, enchantments, effects or perk changes you can just load up skyrim.esm and create a new esp dependent on that, then click the affected perks and enchantments that have been changed by the unofficial patch to open their properties, then click ok. The editor now marks your esp as it edited the properties of this item, load it after the unofficial patch and you're done!)

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

David G Shrock — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 15:47:33 -0000

I agree, modding depends on the player's goal, and naturally players with goals other than maintaining lore care less about lore changes. :) Additionally, I would think many with a goal to try stick close to TES gameplay, even with concern about lore alterations, likely see pros of many fixes outweigh one or two game changes. Thus it's for consideration.

Thanks.

Re: Say no, or carefully consider, USkP

FlyingSpaghetti — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:02:10 -0000

All your points are dutyfully taken into great consideration. But when someone says "the X mod changes the Y thing that damages the lore" I tend to laugh loudly.
More than half the players mod Skyrim into an anime LGBT parade (Oblivion was the king of furry/anime roleplay with godawful armors), the other percentage mod Oblivion to nude/texture replacers and item additions that are so lore breaking that a simple bugfixing mod changing lore is nothing compared to them.
On the other hand, if Bethesda openly acknowledged UOP and UFP in the past, I have no reason not to install USLEEP or anything that fixes Fallout 4. For me, unofficial patches to bethesda games are not only must-have and obligatory, but I actually install then on any machine I have in my hands, friends' or mine.

Re: Mother Dove Redux - Draco Torre

Feidor S. LaView — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 18:39:14 -0000

Somehow I missed this one. Very atmospheric. Loved the tempo and the dreamy feeling, you know something's not right from early on, but don't know what. Well done!

Re: Mother Dove Redux - Draco Torre

Sonia Lal — Sun, 10 May 2015 16:37:29 -0000

Poor Fred!!! He had a hole in his head after all.

Re: Mother Dove Redux - Draco Torre

Cindy Vaskova — Sat, 09 May 2015 19:36:08 -0000

Nice twist there! I dig the Psycho vibe, but with this cool new brightness, suburban colours. So freaky! Totally loved it, yes, and also the rhymes, those were really neat, and the noise of Mothers walker.

Re: Mother Dove Redux - Draco Torre

Helen — Sat, 09 May 2015 18:20:30 -0000

Poor Fred, an afterlife with Mother Dove!

Re: Mother Dove Redux - Draco Torre

TimVanSant — Sat, 09 May 2015 11:03:36 -0000

Seems you've found a fate worse than death. Nice work.

Re: Mother Dove Redux - Draco Torre

Chuck — Sat, 09 May 2015 00:11:57 -0000

I like the way you mentioned "dead" a few times in the story foreshadowing what was to come. Poor guy. I have a feeling he's not going to get away from this trying existence for a while.

Re: Mother Dove Redux - Draco Torre

Larry Kollar — Fri, 08 May 2015 22:45:20 -0000

Yup, I was wondering which one of them was dead… turns out they both were!

Re: Postcards From Skyrim

Joshua Elster — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:33:24 -0000

I like the narrative you've fleshed out with the letters. I had a similar idea as yours, sans the writing ability, which I developed and published at http://www.postcardsfromsky... --- the site allows you to create the letters you've written as actual postcards! It's still rough around the edges (especially since I'm not a graphic designer, just a developer) but I hoe you like it.

Re: Kandy Fangs Ebook

Shadowsinstone — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:45:20 -0000

Picked it up! Looking forward to this one!

Re: Past Life: Game Modder

David G Shrock — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:03:02 -0000

Thanks, John. Yes, the original Doom mod community was a great bunch. Good times when the web was just arriving. The first mods were shared on BBS before transitioning onto the web.

Re: Past Life: Game Modder

John_W — Mon, 16 May 2011 22:09:44 -0000

This mod community is still talked about today. I feel sorry I missed it - I had no grasp on the internet until college. Thanks for sharing your maps. Now get on that first person game! The indy space abides creativity.

Re: Still Standing

Mari Juniper — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:08:52 -0000

I can't stand for long periods, my lower back kills me. How feminine of me, eh? lol
Glad to know your new arrangement is working out for you. Keep healthy! :)

Re: Donating 2011 Ebook Proceeds to KIPP

Laura Eno — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:27:00 -0000

What a generous thing to do, David. I wish you much success!

Re: Dance with the Dead

Danielle La Paglia — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 23:41:34 -0000

That was fantastic, David. Amazing descriptions and what an awesome world you've created.