I don't want to be a bad guy either, though I know some people enjoy it.
My brother is the same -- doesn't want to be the bad guy.
Though even if you're the "good guy" you end up stealing stuff.

I know, right? Even a Paladin has to eat, and then there's all that good loot to be had. I suppose you can say it's for the greater good. After all, you ARE fighting to save humanity.

I always seem to be a combination of Thief/assassin/mageling. Not sure what that says about me

In all of the Elder Scroll games, I do try very hard to avoid having to kill doggies, wolves, bears, cougars, deer, and other wildlife. I'll sneak around them if at all possible. And I don't steal from poor people. Sometimes I leave extra things in their food bags (in Oblivion).

One of the character development aspects I miss in current day RPG's is Alignment, where you had Good, Evil and Neutral, with the modifiers Lawful and Chaotic from the older D&D rule sets. That really made it challenging because not only did that set your character's choice of deity, it also changed the point modifiers for your attacks, magic and encounters. The more you strayed from your alignment, the more your attributes or skills dropped. It also made playing a bad guy not so, er bad? Lawful Evil was always interesting if the game writers really put some thought into it. You were infernally evil, BUT you lived by a very specific set of rules that allowed you to help at times, as long as it served your interest that is.

I never played an evil character in BG because the merchants charged more. One of these days I should at least try making an evil-aligned character just for fun. Truth is, I wouldn't even know how to play one.

I was able to maintain a neutral disposition in one BG 2 game where I was trying to keep Anomen from killing Viconia. I do seem to remember being successful, though how I did it I can't say.

Well, I'm a happy camper for a number of reasons today *wink* , one of which is I got Oblivion working. Once again irony of ironies, it's the Steam GOY version that's working gangbusters with all my usual mods. I think there's something wonky (that's the technical term, I think) with the GOG version and the Oblivion Script Extender. There is a different launcher you have to use with the GOG version, where as with the Steam version you just start it normally. The GOG version was an "insta-crash" as soon as I tried starting the game. Steam on the other hand is running smoothly without any issue, *knocks on wood*.

Did they revamp some of the script in a later update to the GOY version? I noticed the parting dialogue with Uriel Septim in the last battle with the Mythic Dawn during the introduction sequence was way more heartfelt than the original version, with your character basically acknowledging Septim's sacrifice. I'll have to check my mods to see if one of them is doing a sort of "cutting room floor" thing like with Skyrim, but I don't recall that being a thing. Either way, it was a pleasant surprise to have an extended convo with Sir Patrick

How very odd. For me it was the opposite. Fortunately my game saves work on both platforms so it wasn't a game ender for me this time around.

When I get tired of Oblivion, which may be soon, I'm going to get back to BG3. I think there's still a lot of content there I haven't covered. Instead of staying quest focused I'm goin to go for a wander, level up some more. See the sights.

I gave up on Oblivion after all. Started hitting some odd glitches with a couple of my mods. The age of that game is starting to show, as not many of the early mods are being maintained any longer, so just too tedious to troubleshoot.

Tried BG3 shortly after getting a bunch of Win 10 updates and immediately got a CTD. So....

Decided to fire Skyrim back-up. The alternate start, NPC, expanded spells and and city mods I've got running make it tolerable for some decent re-playability. Plus they seem to still be on top of things in maintaining the Script Extender plugin.

Well, shoot. I never modded Oblivion, so I haven't had to subject myself to that and probably never will.

Skyrim, though, I had modded last time I played.

I rule the Mage's Guild now, as well as the Dark Brother hood and Thieves.

i guess it really is time for me to start the Main Quest. I'm getting high-level loot and the best armour and weapons drops now, to I could use some of those Oblivion Gate stones.

I've never applied MODS to any of my Elder Scroll games. Nor have I ever played any of those games to the same depths either of you two have

I just enjoy muddling my way through

But Morrowind is still my favourite and the one I return to the most

Oblivion has always been a little wonky when it comes to mods. A community group originally built an independent mod manager, aptly named OMOD. Then the Nexus incorporated it into their NMM, but several of the bigger mods require using Wyre Bash (another mod management tool) or manually inserting files. My mod group are a combination of all of the above, so it's a little on the yuck side to troubleshoot.

I enjoy Morrowind as well Mad. There's a couple of development groups that have been working to port the game to one of the newer graphics engines. It's sort of picky to install though, so not sure if you'd want to mess with it.

One of the early ones that was active back in 2014 and is still available is Morroblivion: http://morroblivion.com/forums/morroblivion/mods/753

For anyone who's interested, here's the installation instructions. You must own a legal copy of Morrowind and Oblivion though: http://morroblivion.com/forums/oblivion/morroblivion-mod-releases/8114


The other is Skywind: https://tesrskywind.com/

The Skywind group is working to build Morrowind in the Skyrim Special Edition engine. It's still a work in progress. The website has a spot to signup for notifications on their progress. I heard they had a few legal issues from Bethesda on this one, but worked it out. It looks like they are still making progress and there are updates as recent as July of this year.

Mods can be a lot of fun, though I haven't used many.
The people who make them can be very creative.

Mostly I use cheats or save game editors to get past what I consider excessive grinding, especially in the beginnings of the games, but that's not the same thing.

It DOES look a bit obsessive.

You should see my hours on Fallout 4, with about 100 mods. Now that's obsession!

EDIT: Incidentally, in about 8 or 9 games of Oblivion, not once -- no lie -- not ONCE has the Kvatch quest proceeded properly. I always have to use the console. Annoying. In the old days, I would simply write the console code down to advance the quest and put it in the game box for the next time, but I no longer have my original copy of the game.

Is that 100 mods at the same time?

I haven't counted them, and no, definitely not all at once. Most of them are settlement mods, with some music mods to add music to the radio station. Some of them alter game mechanics, like not adding experience for crafting. I basically like to build stuff and then rebuild it. The mods I activate for each game depend on mood as much as anything (Vortex makes this pretty easy). Sometimes I like to have a really modern looking settlement and sometimes I like to have a really scruffy post apocalyptic-looking world. Sometimes both.

Happily, the Steam version of Oblivion came through for me this time and got me past Kvatch (have to love those cloud saves).

Yup, I'm onboard with that. For Skyrim, I've got 110 mods running that are loaded from the Nexus, and another 5 from the Steam Workshop, because for whatever reason the developers never uploaded to Nexus. So 115 in total. The reason it's so stable is completely in thanks to several mod developers not the least of which goes by the avatar Arthmoor, who helped write the standards that modders should use in order to have all mods play nice together. When combined with "Loot", which is a Load Order sorting tool, you can run that many mods with few CTD's. I usually get a few CTD's in the first level, then it calms down a bit as the .ini gathers the setting it needs. He's also the one responsible for some fantastic mods like "Cutting Room Floor" that gathered tons of cut content from unused files in Skyrim, corrected them and added it all back into the game. The result is somewhat surprising, as it brings in quests that you hear about, but never show up. A ton of lost and pertinent dialogue and a fair number of NPC's. He's also a major contributor to several of the unofficial patches.

Unfortunately, Oblivion has not benefited from his skills

I ventured into mod territory on Skyrim during my last game. Up to that point it was Fallout 4 only, and that was out of frustration at the build limits for the enormous sites you can use (I got tired of endlessly storing and restoring weapons to create more build space), the non-removable junk all over the settlement sites, and the idiotic way the junk fences didn't click together. After that I really started to explore the mods available.

There are some great mods out there and I suppose I should explore them further next time I play Skyrim since the vanilla game is getting a bit tired for me.

Yeah, I highly recommend the following:

~SKSE: Skyrim Script Extender - It allows you to use the really good mods. Don't use a mod manager to install though, you just need to download the zip file from their website and unzip it into the Skyrim directory. Here's where you get it: https://skse.silverlock.org/ You might have to tweak the ini file to get things to run just right, but a download file called: "SKSE ini file for lazy users" takes care of that. Got to love the name https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51038/

~The Tesseract: A player home that is absolutely amazing. It's basically a Dwemer TARDIS for Skyrim, because it appears as just an archway with a door. You can break it down, fully loaded with your stuff and reposition it anywhere in Skyrim. I'll post up a couple screen shots later.

~Jaxonz Positioner: Probably the best tool ever invented for those who like to customize their player home. You can copy objects, place them in your inventory and drop them anywhere you want. You can place almost any item on wall or floor display. You can move or even delete static items that are in your way. It's pretty awesome and quite user friendly.

~Cutting Room Floor: This is the one that I mentioned earlier. It adds so much little detail to the game. Here's an example: in the vanilla game the only way you come across the jester Cicero is by random chance on the road outside of that farm. After loading Cutting Room Floor, the first time you visit Whiterun, you'll stumble upon the stable owner and Uthgerd the Unbroken having a conversation about an "odd fellow" that Uthgerd ran into on her way back from adventuring. That results in a quest added to your Journal to find the odd jester. So, little things like that make the game feel more complete.

~Alternate Start -Live Another Life: With this one, your character wakes up in a prison and is given the choice by Mara to start your life over again. The choices include being caught in a shipwreck, being a Thalmor, being a bandit, captured by a necromancer and several others. My current character is a Thalmor.

~Interesting NPC's: This one gives the games all kinds of new and interesting people and encounters. Not all the NPC's are voiced, but most have dialogue and even add new radiant quests. When combined with the Better Cities mods, another group I recommend, it really gives the game a whole new feel.

That's just scratching the surface. One thing to add, I don't use the SE version of the game due to it not jiving well with some of my favorite mods.

Oh, and don't forget the best companion ever!

Dovachicken! https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34005/

Thanks for those, Trail.

I'm now actively working with Martin to foil Dagon's cunning plan. Time to get me some of those Sigil stones!

I tried a new weapon enchantment this time. A decent sword can get up to about 75 points of Speed damage per hit. The Speed katana I made took out the entire Mythic Dawn and their summoned Deadric gear with little trouble even with my Blade skill only at about 60, so it seems pretty effective. I might try Strength damage on my next weapon.

Here's my last character sitting in the throne room I made up for him using that Jaxonz Positioner. I call it, "You may approach the Dragonborn"

You'll see the backer for his throne is a Dragon Wall. Using the Positioner I was able to copy it, bring it back to the player home, and reduce it in size. Pretty cool eh?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x0enzh5y0b1luab/Approach.png?dl=0

Yeah, that's a copy of Jarl Balgruuf's throne in Whiterun. Seemed appropriate since it has the stylized Nord dragon heads on it.

Cool. I like the arrogant slouch. He looks a little bit like Geralt.

So, now in Oblivion, my bounty keeps shooting up to 1000 for no reason. I paid it off with Skriiva in Bravil, but it just goes back on. Weird. Hopefully a game reload will stop it.

Stupid Guards don't seem to realize that I just saved Bruma. Idiots.

Yeah, the slouch seems to be built into those thrones. The Geralt appearance isn't an accident. The hair is from a mod called "Apache Hair" which adds a ton of new, more realistic looking hair styles to the game, one of which is Geralt's half-back pony tail. I choose that one, cuz it's the way I've warn my hair for years. Gives me a connection to the character.

I've had that bounty issue crop-up in Oblivion as well, usually because a guard jumped in the way of my arrows or sword during a particular intense battle and I didn't realize it. From what I understand there's an existing glitch that can happen when you kill a guard. Even after clearing the bounty, if your character hits the aggro level of guards in a certain city because your a member of the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood, the bounty might re-appear again.

...or maybe I forgot to take off Nocturnal's Hood.....

But I did manage to enrage a guard while I was clearing out the Bruma Gate and the ratbag chased me all over the place. I led him out into the wilderness to meet an unhappy fate at the hands of a Brown Bear.

Been there, done that!

One of the things that bugged me about Oblivion was that every once and awhile you would hit a totally psycho guard who would chase you forever. A couple of times, the pursuit music stopped, and I went on my merry way. Right in the middle of another quest, in another city, that pursuit music starts up again, and I don't see anything around.

Then it stops. I'm thinking this is some sort of bug, so I restart my game, exit the city gates and immediately an Imperial City guard just destroys my character because I wasn't expecting anything to happen walking out the gate. Quit the game, made myself a drink and figured it was a sign

Well, been playing a pure mage in Skyrim. Forgot how difficult that can be, I'm always going for a weapon. Decided that I'd only carry an a destruction or conjuration staff, so that's been really interesting. Have been doing a lot of running away at the early levels, especially against Ice Wraiths. Those slippery devils are hard to hit with Flames or Fire Bolt and they take so much health with each hit.

After the last set of Windows 10 updates started getting CTD's with a really weird after-effect. My cursor looks stretched and I've got a mini-screen with an image of static that follows it. Once I push it down to the taskbar it goes away. How weird is that? I'm guessing it's a combination of my vid card starting to go, and an HDMI hub I'm running the monitor through that's never been the most stable. Combine that with wonky updates and viola! Glitches. Ah well. I'll run a diagnostic tomorrow evening to see if I can track it down.

Still having fun as a conjuration mage though. There's a mod that introduces a ton of new spells that actually have some decent complexity to them. It's called "Apocalypse: Magic of Skyrim" https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16225/?

It adds over 150 spells, like vengeful wraith that comes back with 150% power of the previous foe that bested it. Also has spells that drain your attributes as a cost for taking out your enemies. One of the other conjuration spells that's more in tune with other D&D games allows you to summon a Dremora Churl. If your foe kills it, while your still battling, he'll come back on the side of your enemy. Really cool spells that took some thought to put together as opposed to just setting stuff on fire, which as fun as that can be, gets a little boring after awhile.