bg2408

Hi everyone, a few of you may have heard about a small mod called "Integration: The Stranded Light", containing several guilds, a city, over 80 quests and some more funny stuff. However Integration requires two major gameplay mods (RBP and LAME). Integration - Integrated! has these requirements removed. It is essentially the same mod, but this time you can just install and play it. Trust me, that was a bigger task than it sounds like, both gameplay mods were deeply rooted into the actual quest mod. Which is why, in its download, you'll be able to find two versions. One with RBP and LAME integrated (so there is merely an easier installtion provided), and one without any gameplay alterations (i.e. without any actual gameplay modifications of RBP and LAME). As far as I know the mod is already finished. It was tested for several months, so in theory it should work. However I need someone to test the finished installation package. That no meshes or textures are missing (or not loaded due to some file name hiccup), that everything works as it should. Prior testers only used the .esp file, and put together the resources from the other mods - now that they already have all resources, they can't test if any resource is missing (well, d'oh!) - or if something else in the installation file may be broken. More informations and screenshots can be found here - however that's the "normal" Integration mod, that with requirements! If you're willing to test the requirement free version, please drop me a line, and I'll send you the link. Best regards, bg

Gameplay and story segregation rears its ugly head here. In game Kvatch is the most defensible city, but simply because it is the least developed city. Lore wise it's the Imperial City. Cyrod is huge, has it's own food- and water supplies, is heavily fortified with multiple layers of walls and watchposts all around the island - which also can't be underestimated, because any army trying to capture the city has to use the bridge.

As for appearance, know about the "Import Face" function of Wrye Bash .

Well, the news is a day old, but nevertheless: New version released: 0.99 (If you're using any of the AddOns, Clothes or Faces, make sure to update them, too!) It's christmas, and I've got a little present for all of you. A new version of "Integration: The Stranded Light", which offers a lot! Remember, back in the summer when I said Integration is finished, having back then more than 60 quests? Well, I wouldn't say that I lied, simply because I believed myself back then. Yet there was always a nagging little feeling, which could be described as "why are there no guilds in the Shivering Isles?" With the new version of Integration: The Stranded Light this has changed! A guild in the Shivering Isles to join, with quests centered around Sheogorath's realm. A lot to do. In fact this guild is the second biggest in Integration, trumped only by the name giving "Stranded Light" itself. That's why Integration is now at "more than 80 quests". There is a bit of irony in it - it's christmas, and I release a guild with a tropical island as headquarters. The rest of the world also got some goodies. Bugs that crossed my path were squashed. A few quests added outside of the new guild. Various small improvements here and there. And now I only got two things to say: Have fun and merry christmas!

A question that needs to be answered by authors of all kinds of fiction, regardless if books, movies, games or mods, is that of explanation. Explanation seems to serve a simple purpose: Allowing the consumer of whatever story to understand motives of heroes and villains and the inner workings of the world. However when trying to explain the situation it can seriously backfire. A classical example are "Bond Villain Expositions", not only explaining the plan, but also the whole psyche of the villain in question. Let's just say not all people like this kind of thing. On the one hand it shoehorns people into simple roles (and making them look stupid), on the other hand it removes a lot of mystery and "coolness" of the villain in question. And it doesn't only apply to villains, which I only used as an example. It can also apply to the world (explaining how this and this works and came to be), to heroes (why does he do this and this), and more. Now however not explaining critical aspects is also wrong, because it will confuse. The opposite of complete explanation is imho ambiguous explanation. Which are subjective and often conflicting with other subjective explanations also given. So you need to make up your own mind. So it's an explanation, which doesn't reveal everything. An example for this are the different origin myths in the Elder Scrolls world. Problem is, some people don't like this either, because it often (if done right) doesn't offer a true solution. And if done wrong, it can get really confusing. Or look artificial. That happens if you try to make something look not "black & white" in moral terms, but then merely obfuscate the sides (or choices) a bit, without adding true colors (or more than very light shades of gray) to them. As a modder (or writer, or whatever) I don't think there is an optimal solution. It all comes down to taste. So my question here is, which do you prefer? As creator, and as consumer?

The game itself doesn't detect it at all, it's all part of the .kf file which defines the whole animation. Animators are very rare (probably the rarest breed of Oblivion modders). Unfortunately I have no idea how to edit the .kf file to use the other hand. I am sorry, but I have no idea. I'm no animator . Most are being used, but very rare. Example given some of the special greetings animations are only played when two NPCs of a specific faction initiate dialog with each other. Exhaustion and injury are used in quests. As for why they are not used more often, I think that has to do with Bethesda (at least while working on Oblivion, it was their first time they used something like them at all) not being really secure about using animations. The idle animation system of Oblivion also isn't that great imho, but compared to Morrowind it was a gigantic leap forward . I guess you could breathe a lot of life into the world by actually having a lot of animations played more often.

Speaking again about music, I've added some more game soundtracks (at least partly) into the game. This time some from Anno 1404 (especially the combat themes, ), (soundtrack's better than the game, meh), and of course http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-huEhNAUo. (Gotta love youtube... though I had to say finding an example from Anno1404 was hard...)