[ALERT: Private Message Spam]

Whatever order it was, it definitely wasn't alphabetical. I didn't get any

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

Suspected that might end up the case. The beginning of the game is tied down so tightly to going to Whiterun that it's hardly surprising this would be unbreakable.

[Creation Kit Discussion]

Nope, if you deleted it and it vanished and didn't come back with the undo function, you have to reload and start again.

I also find it's much easier to be able to select nodes if you turn off the edge selection on the navmesh toolbar while you don't need it.

[Creation Kit Discussion]

Anyone know how to get a merchant to work? I have not found a tutorial yet, and copying an existing merchant does not work (no surprise as it never worked in the previous games either, except Morrowind)

I am guessing I will need new dialogue for my new NPC.

Vendors are set up on the Faction screen now. Look for Services<something> in the faction list to see how those are done now. Your NPCs then need to become members of the particular faction. I think it was done this way to support the possibility of killing a shopkeeper and having a replacement come along later.

[Creation Kit Discussion]

I think it goes red to indicate to you that you're no longer seeing its effects on the rendering.

[Creation Kit Discussion]

Collision boxes etc need to be generated via the controls on the toolbar at the top. The set on the far right marked with C are for collision planes/cubes/spheres.

Also a general tip. You can improve game performance for people by making use of Occlusion Planes. The two controls marked with O (as in oh, not zero) will allow you to place those. They block rendering of anything on the opposite side of them. Very handy for large cells and/or large additions to the outdoors. You'll notice these in the editor as big grey cubes and planes hiding underneath actual buildings and walls.

[How To: Test a Mod]

Excellent guide. Especially the part about valuing a nit-picker if you happen to find one. It's all too easy to get tunnel vision with you're own work and overlook those nits because you know how to avoid them or because you don't even see them anymore.

[Was your mod stolen?]

Oh yes. That Superpack has been making the rounds again lately. That Danwood guy doesn't have an ounce of respect for modders or for copyright in general and he's resisted all efforts to have that pack taken down. I'd greet his ISP with a DMCA Takedown, but the host is not on US soil and thus a notice of that nature would go unanswered.

As much as people are crowing about SOPA right now, this is exactly the kind of thing it's being crafted to deal with. SOPA is for international sites what the DMCA is for domestic US sites. It gives copyright holders some teeth to deal with rogue sites who don't give a rip about copyright laws.

[ATTENTION !!!: Be careful what you download!]

Yep, if the virus payload is in the ads, they can't harm your computer if you block the ads. AdBlock Plus doesn't download the content if it's going to filter it. You just end up with a blank spot where it should go. Obviously it's not wise to rely only on that though. It's just one part of an over all security setup.

[ATTENTION !!!: Be careful what you download!]

I'm sure Nexus doesn't like the advice, but the number one thing you can do to prevent these sorts of problems while surfing there is to use AdBlock Plus. Those ads are all coming from untrusted 3rd parties. From time to time, one is infected. It only takes one to ruin your day. The two utilities you list are probably fine, even if they do nothing. My guess is any infection associated with them came from the ads served on the pages while you were there.

[The future of modding, and the future of the Nexus]

Modding isn't a 9-5 job, nor should it be. If you want to make money making game content, then become a game developer.

Becoming a game developer isn't quite that easy. And believe it or not, modding is one avenue to attempt to break into that arena. Getting paid to do it would actually look better on your resume because of the perception that you've created a marketable product as opposed to a hobbyist game mod.

I certainly wouldn't mind being able to make a living doing this sort of thing. God knows finding work in a crap economy isn't going well, so anything, even $1/sale, would be welcome. At least I wouldn't starve to death.

[Skyrim Merchant Coherency]

Oh hell yes, I'm definitely down for seeing this come to pass. Maybe I'm just lucky though. I've got so many lockpicks I can afford to waste them on master locks I shouldn't have a prayer of opening. They're extremely plentiful on bandits and in dungeons. So yeah, no real need for legitimate businesses to carry them at all.

Dawnstar doesn't need to live entirely from imports. They should have ready access to horker meat, and there's several giant camps nearby so stocking mammoth wouldn't be out of place for them. Plus they have two mines, so they have ready access to raw materials for trade. We'll ignore the fact that Bethesda has always indicated Dawnstar to be a much larger major trading port instead of the almost useless place it is now.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

I think that would be a bit harsh since the masks you can otherwise get are usually well worth it on their own. It's only those who seek a complete set to put on the display statue that will be burned by that. Of course it makes little sense in my mind for a stealth oriented character who has risen to Listener of the DB and Guildmaster of Thieves to ALSO have to seek out becoming Archmage of the College just to get that last mask.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

Another railroading point:

When looking to retrieve the Morokei dragon priest mask, you have to complete the Staff of Magnus quest first. Meaning you need to be fairly far along in the College quests before you can get it since the Labrynthian is locked out until you've done so. This one is going to be difficult to rectify. Maybe even impossible since Bethesda has tied the backstory for Savos Aren to Morokei.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

It might also be cleaner to get the person at the head of the bridge to accept your "I'm the Dragonborn" answer without having that draft you by force into being a member of the College, because even that option forces the faction membership on you. Plus it doesn't get rid of the "visit the college" journal entry either. For the MQ you're basically going to see the orc in the library. So either method that proves useful to get that meeting works for me. Either skip the faction drafting or have him visit the city. I suspect making him visit the city will be slightly less prone to compatibility issues.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

MQ/Mages Guild Hook - You do not have to join the Mage's Guild already; however, the game doesn't give you any indication of this. You can already skip right to Septimus Signus, and not set a foot in Winterhold. All that is needed here is an edit to the quest journal & markers to make this evident to the player.

My only problem with providing a journal entry to go straight to Signus is that it requires meta-gaming with out of character knowledge to even be logical. Your character has no way to know about that option without being told first. Sure, you could stumble over him on your own but how likely is it that most people are going to randomly explore deep into the ice flows?

[Converting Bitmap Images to Quality Jpegs]

+1 for Paint.NET. When saving as jpg, you get a quality slider. Set it to 100% and you're golden.

[D3d9.dll Causing lag of biblical purportions + ther issues.]

Skyrim is a DX9 game, so yes, installing DX9 should resolve whatever issues you're having wit that d3d9.dll file.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

Namira's quest: At the point you're told to go lure the priest into the trap you are not given an opportunity to warn him. The only valid completion of the quest is to bring him to his death. Law abiding PCs might object to the premeditated murder of a priest of Arkay.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

Plus it seems like you want an exit option at every step of the quest lines. Like suddenly you had a change of heart when you are on the last quest of the dark brotherhood after having murdered 10+ people.

Nope, just at the initial railroading point where you're forced into doing something you had no intention of going along with.

With the DB, the railroading point is basically at the beginning when you're forced to go along with killing Grelod in order to reach the branch point. Not after you've killed 10+ people and had a change of heart. Escaping at that point should rightly have the Brotherhood members come down on you like a ton of bricks for turning traitor.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

Finally I'd really like to see an even more important option implemented: I'm not the Dragonborn. Something similar to the Neravar Say Neravar mod for Morrowind. I don't want to be the saviour of Skyrim everytime I play the game, so many of the quests are linked to the MQ it limits roleplaying options. I'd also like to see character backgrounds and optional start locations like the Alternate Start mod for Oblivion.

I've got plans in the works for one of those once the CK is out. I can see that there are at least a few things that would overlap in function considering the main point of a alt-start mod is to avoid or delay the MQ. I wasn't aware the civil war required MQ interaction until it was brought up in one of these threads so I could see an alt-start mod as wanting to at least break that relationship.

[[WIPz/IDEA] Skyrim Derailed]

Not sure if it fits, but you may want to consider a 3rd option for the Dark Brotherhood. As it stands right now, you have two paths, both of which require you to do what the Aretino boy wants.

1. Kill one of Astrid's captives, join the guild, etc.

2. Kill Astrid, and follow the alternative to wipe out the Brotherhood.

I'd like to see another path where you meet up with the kid and the "I'm not who you think I am" dialogue option bails you out without assigning the quest and optionally allows you to turn him in to the town guards.

As much of an evil old woman as Grelod the Kind is, you shouldn't have to be forced to go through killing her to be able to wipe out the Brotherhood. Turning the kid into the guards could even instigate the portion of the quest where the courier brings you the "We Know" note, thus presenting an alternative way for Astrid to confront the player about the stolen contract.

[3D Craftworks: Under Construction]

That's pretty much what he's saying they're setting up. 3D modeling and texturing are both non-CK related activities.

If you mean non-CK produced plugin files, do yourself a favor and wait for the CK. Using files produced with non-CK utilities is not something that's recommended.

[You know you`ve been playing Skyrim too much when...]

When you start cracking arrow in the knee jokes IRL.

How to know your friends and family also play too much? When they understand the reference without having to ask.

[Congrats Bethesda]

Maybe they are and all the other studios are even worse than this?

Other than CDProjektRed, I can't think of a single other studio I'd automatically trust to put out a quality game that's as stable as Skyrim is right now. Yes, we're hearing a lot of people with problems. They're a vocal minority out of nearly 7 million units sold to date. That doesn't make the issues any less real or important, but it DOES mean they've outdone pretty much everyone else in the arena in 2011. Good enough for GOTY in my book.