Comments - Envy

OK, I managed to release as promised. Most of what I wanted, couldn't make it in time, so I decided to release with little fanfare and promotion. I will make improvements to Icecape and the like, with the Arthfront release.

Long time since there was a last update. I have technically done more of the Faren Mountains, with more quests and more choices to UBA's Paradise. Planning to release this in Q1 2022.

Thank you. :)

Actually, the video of the release showed that it was a “bug fix” when it’s perfectly normal vanilla behaviour. It’s more of a design decision than a bug.

I have raised this concern over in the OpenMW forums.

Hi, I'm Envy and I've been a quest designer for just over 7 years. My first game was a Spyro-style platformer (https://udachagames.itch.io/de-feet-platformer). I am now focusing on a narrative episodic series with a promised release schedule of one episode per two weeks.

Here's the link to the IndieDB page: Indiedb.com

Thanks for tracking De Feet. :)

Yeah, that was my first mod so that's one particular mistake I made. When and if I choose to remake it, I will merge them all in one plug-in file.

Let's just say that while I enjoy playing DR2, it's not a priority for me at the moment. I have two projects on The Assimilation Lab, which will have better quests than in DR2.

Thanks for the add! :D

Delaying the third release so I can redo the existing areas and get them up to TR standard.

No problem ;)
I'll go bug hunting soon :D

"I recommend everyone to start a new game with this version, there's just too much that can go wrong if you use an old save."

Updating via Wrye Mash and re-running MGE XE worked fine for me every time ;)

I'm hoping to get the next release out soon! It won't include Icecape at this moment but it will include New Kogotel and some of the Faren Mountains. More news soon...

Tamriel Rebuilt, Morrowind Rebirth, all the mods by Emma, Mournhold Expanded, Province Cyrodiil, Skyrim Home of the Nords, LGNPC...etc

Tons of recommended mods, really. All clean and I've had no problems with them whatsoever.

The Faren Mountains has had some significant progress today :)
More details to follow...

I don't think that compatibility would be a problem as long as they are simple enough and mainly change only the new NPCs.

Quests for the new NPCs and locations is something I always wanted to see, especially with all of the new notes and stuff.

Just drag everything from MR into the Data Files folder and delete the previous versions.

Hit up Wrye Mash, go to the saves tab, click on your save, go to MR in its mods tab, right click on MR and select "Change To", navigate to the latest version of MR and done. Do the same with all the other dependent mods. Been doing it many times without a hitch.
Click "Repair All" on your save too. There are always debris references when upgrading between versions.

No worries ;)

It's just many designers have worked on dungeons in Morrowind and Skyrim but only one person did the Oblivion dungeons so it does feel copy and pasted all the time. I feel the houses in the IC are all the same as well (don't get me wrong - Morrowind and Skyrim had that too). Vivec feels grand to me but the IC doesn't for some reason. I knew that it was supposed to be based on a Roman city but actually going inside felt a bit anticlimactic.

True, Morrowind's flora never moves but Oblivion's flora does. Funnily enough, Skyrim's trees are pretty static too. The trees moving was an advantage in Oblivion but only because they are Speedtree models and not NIF files.

True, NPCs are all walking encyclopaedias in the vanilla game. And I do get mostly unique greetings in Oblivion and Skyrim. Speaking of which, I did go to a savant and ask about Cyrodiil and I was told it is mostly endless jungle. Though most other facts are correctly done in Oblivion - no river dragons or exotic clothing exists though.
But past the "I'm a farmer who worked here for ten years", there is nothing else to say. At least LGNPC has given NPCs a unique identity but I doubt that Oblivion and Skyrim would have more detailed NPCs than LGNPC.
Speaking of which, I love Oblivion's fame and infamy system. In Skyrim, you could be a serial killer and everyone would just treat you just as they would if you first came off the cart. Player consequences exist in Oblivion (I'm not so sure in Morrowind) but Skyrim is devoid of them.

Sure, dungeons are looted before I arrive but isn't it the case that once the first bandits are killed then another group moves in? And so on and so forth until the end of time? I don't know but I always feel that there were bandits before this group of bandits in this cave in Morrowind but in Oblivion, I feel that this is the first time that bandits were here. I don't know how to describe that feeling but that's just how I feel about it. Even if it may not be necessarily true.
And bandits have names in Morrowind. One of them is a sister to a known smuggler in Morrowind. One bandit can even train you in Enchant so in Morrowind, you have to be careful on who you kill. Also, more variety of dungeons are available. You have bone caves, lava caves, pyrock caves, mud caves, grottos, Daedric ruins, Dwemer ruins and Dunmer ruins. In Oblivion, only Ayleid ruins and caves exist with only one colour.

Isn't the copy and pasted NPCs also in Oblivion? There are some NPCs who aren't part of any quest and remind me of another character in another city. Smaller cities arose from a smaller scale and there are plenty of larger towns on the mainland (such as Necrom which is eight cells big). I don't know - Vivec had large cantons already 3d modelled so it was just putting it together and using the same tilepieces in a copy and paste fashion as well. On map, the IC is bigger than Vivec so it should've been around 30 cells as opposed to just eight (without increasing the scale of the rest of Cyrodiil). Anvil felt like a town rather than a city. 4-8 cells seem to be a good strict guide that TR follows for cities and they really feel like cities. Port Telvannis is huge.

I can't interact with either plantlife. Trust me, I tried chopping the trees in both games and none of them came down (maybe in TES 6?).

But the failed adventurers leave journals behind and there is a story in some dungeons. You know why this unique axe is in this cave because you were told this by some Nord in Vivec. Artifacts can be found as well as earned via quests. There's no level requirement for Deadric quests either so if I want the Skeleton key in Oblivion, tough luck, I gotta power level like crazy just so I could start the Thieves Guild questline with an advantage. And somebody actually left behind loot in one tomb in order to trap a poor girl (once again with the stories).
I never had the story in any dungeon in Oblivion. It was just enter, loot the place and quickly get out. In Morrowind, I take my time and sometimes I stay in the dungeon overnight (and maybe cook some of the food that I found in their sacks and barrels). I don't even recall doing that in Oblivion or Skyrim. Maybe it's due to different roleplays or something?

I liked the open city thing in Morrowind. And the loot is generally better in Morrowind, though the challenge is greater in caves. Also, I see many failed adventurers in Morrowind caves and know that people have been here before me and failed. Oblivion dungeons look like I'm the first to loot the dungeon. For example, an adventurer called Indie died because he was crushed by some rocks. There are stories of failed adventurers which makes you stop and think about it. In Oblivion, I was rushing through each dungeon because I've seen it all before, I'm afraid. Morrowind and Skyrim dungeons are better as they don't all just look the same.

I like open cities as you can go anywhere without going the long way round. Yeah, I'm lazy in that regard. I was disappointed with the IC tremendously. It's supposed to be bigger than Vivec but it's much smaller. I like the taste of other provinces in Cyrodiil cities but that's around it. They could've been a lot bigger but layout wise, they're pretty good. Solitude in Skyrim is far too small IMO.

I've done a lot in Morrowind and I still have a long way to go before I complete it with all of TR and the province mods currently. Oblivion - played only for 40 hours on the current save (but much more overall) and I don't doubt that there is a lot to do left. It's just I prefer Morrowind's environments and cities overall but sometimes I just want to see greenery or swim in the sea near Anvil.

TR would make it a larger world and will quintuple the playing area. Fully voiced dialogue - not sure about that. Physics, combat and AI would be from OpenMW. LGNPC is trying to make quests far more numerous and rather interesting.

I had more fun with Morrowind and Oblivion (vanilla and heavily modified respectively) than Skyrim. Exploration was more rewarding in Morrowind as if you got lost, you could come back to town with three enchanted artifacts you never knew existed. I found a magical staff worth tens of thousands of gold when looking for that farmer for the first House Redoran quest. With Oblivion, only after installing UL and some retextures, I could finally feel the need to explore everything. I never got lost there either - only in Morrowind and Skyrim did I get lost and find things by accident. But obviously people can get lost in Ashlands or a tundra quite easily as opposed to a forest where you can see the Imperial City for miles. I may suggest Skywind which will check everything off the list except for the quests and larger playing area but it is in alpha stage and probably won't be completed until 2018 (without mainland Morrowind unfortunately).

I liked the Thieves Guild better in Morrowind as I loved the corruption storyline as opposed to the Gray Fox. The DB is better than the Morag Tong because I loved the contracts and central conflict while Morag Tong mainly sent you to kill bandits.

Of course, Skyrim's Thieves Guild is a complete joke. Hardly any stealing and it's more about "I got a grudge, I'm angry, let's punish our enemies!"
Tamriel Rebuilt has better quests than the vanilla Morrowind so there will be more good faction quests to come.

It was part of dialogue with scouts in Morrowind. I would love to see TR in Oblivion too but it's virtually impossible to convert over Sacred East to Oblivion. The best bet is OpenMW for AI improvements. Stealing in Morrowind is laughably easy as everyone stays in the same spot. But in Oblivion, you get worried if that person will come upstairs and follow you until you leave.

Yeah, I agree with you. The story and depth of Morrowind coupled with Oblivion's improved mechanics would be great for TES 6 (with of course cast on use items as they were awesome in Morrowind). Skyrim tried to do that but fell face down flat with the not so good faction quests but the getting lost in the wasteland was still there. The DB had both Morrowind type contracts and Oblivion type central plot (which I loved) but the others didn't have that in Skyrim.

I think jungle close to Elsweyr or Argonia would be fitting. Plus, the Province Cyrodiil mod will have a Pocket Guide Cyrodiil and in the sea, you can dive and find hidden treasures unlike Oblivion. Tamriel Rebuilt is not abandoned, far from it - in the start of next year, they will have released Almalexia which is supposed to be 3-4 times bigger than Vivec.

Province mods are always more successful in Morrowind (ongoing development to get mainland Morrowind, Cyrodiil, Skyrim, Elsweyr and Argonia) and it's just some steps closer to TES3: Tamriel.

In Morrowind, they mentioned Cyrodiil as being temperate still so there must have been a rapid change in a few years, which was caused by CHIM.
I like Oblivion still, despite the flaws, but if it had that culture and appeared as it was described in Morrowind then it would be much greater. The difference between Colovians and Nibenese were a bit too subtle IMO.

Imperial-library.info

The Pocket Guide described Cyrodiil as mostly endless jungle but now Bethesda claims that it was a mistake. Same was done to Skyrim - the maps show it as snow everywhere but in the game, it wasn't all snow (thankfully).

Morrowind is great but sometimes I just wish to go beyond Vvardenfell, you know. I want to see Wayrest in all its glory, for example.

Actually, Cyrodiil was supposed to be a jungle mostly with some exotic creatures such as river dragons which didn't show up in game. And the IC was supposed to be bigger than Vivec city and take place across eight islands but it only covered barely one. We don't see indepth focus on the Nibenese or Colovians either. If Oblivion had all that, I'm sure that vanilla Oblivion would be even greater.
And I love change - I love going to different environments and I bought Skyrim mainly to experience the tundra. But Oblivion heavily modified is one of my favourite games of all time (along Morrowind of course!).

Will there be voice acting?