Skyrim Next-Gen Remaster (Nov 2021)

[king_tubby]

Yeah, but apparently the sidequest that you have to go through before it has any healing effect is fraught with glitches.

There's a side quest for shit eating? I've never come across that one.

[Cerys]

Talk to the bloke who sells the 'bloodiest beef in the Reach' in Markarth.  Has to be after the Namira's Ring quest, so you have to let him live; he'll complain about a farmer who ripped him off and you have to go and talk to the miscreant.  All very drawn-out and disappointing by the end.  Not least because if you succeed your only reward is the ability to heal yourself by eating shit.

[KaraokeDragon]

"Not many would walk blindly into the toilets of Markarth services, smelling of steel and blood, but not fear".

[king_tubby]

Talk to the bloke who sells the 'bloodiest beef in the Reach' in Markarth.  Has to be after the Namira's Ring quest, so you have to let him live; he'll complain about a farmer who ripped him off and you have to go and talk to the miscreant.  All very drawn-out and disappointing by the end.  Not least because if you succeed your only reward is the ability to heal yourself by eating shit.

Hmm, all he said to me was 'don't tell anyone!' - I always kill the weirdo in the halls of dead immediately though for that quest so maybe it doesn't kick in.

I did find the getting jiggy hagraven one you mentioned a while back though.

[Cerys]

Bah.  Although I wonder if you can encounter the farmer and do the rest of the quest without having to talk to him.  If you're dead set on eating shit, the farmer might be wandering somewhere north of Karthwasten.

Edit - jiggy hag ravens FTW!  If you like that sort of thing, anyway.

[Lemming]

There's some impressive stuff happening in the field of AI integration into Skyrim. Check this out:

There is a companion mod that uses this that came out not long ago:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/89931

You can modify the starting prompt to give her whatever type of personality you want. The only drawback so far is that everyone sounds a bit GPT-ish - which is to say, stilted, bland and formal - but we seem to be well on the way to getting these things working with the much more interesting and vivid language models.

[Cerys]

I don't think anything is ever going to make me stop killing Lydia.

[Mister Six]

Not looking forward to waiting several seconds between each line of dialogue.

[king_tubby]

I've got a better laptop so am modding the fuck out of this now. Interesting NPCs has opened up a load of new content. I've also got Beyond Reach, Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, Vigilant, Glenmoril and the Second Great War installed, all of which are apparently DLC quality.

[shoulders]

There's some impressive stuff happening in the field of AI integration into Skyrim. Check this out:

There is a companion mod that uses this that came out not long ago:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/89931

You can modify the starting prompt to give her whatever type of personality you want. The only drawback so far is that everyone sounds a bit GPT-ish - which is to say, stilted, bland and formal - but we seem to be well on the way to getting these things working with the much more interesting and vivid language models.

Very cool in terms of future utility. However one of the main drawbacks in Skyrim is the use of about 8 voice actors for everyone in the world. I'd rather have 100s of different voices and personalities. Getting those 8 voices to say dull AI responses isn't as good.

[Roxy Robinson]

Good thing about using AI is almost all game dialogue is so inane, it's imperceptible.

[king_tubby]

I started the Beyond Reach mod at the weekend. It's very good so far and I've barely scratched the surface. Apparently gets a bit dark later on. Also someone shouted 'Bollocks!' during a fight.

[king_tubby]

Oh it is very good, is this Beyond Reach. The grimness is ramping up. I've had some proper jump scares and ran out of a dungeon like Usain Bolt at one point. And some guy just called me the bad 'c' word, which is cunt.

[Joe Oakes]

I have some boring and increasingly urgent life chores to attend to, so was thinking about starting a first play-though of this to delay them further.

However, I was put off by the sheer amount of mod options (ps4). Is it better to play vanilla, if not which mods would you recommend? Is there a general mod that includes all the major quality of life improvements?

[king_tubby]

Always do a vanilla play through first, I'd say. Unfortunately I think the PS4 is not great on mods cos Sony are twats.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, Sony won't allow for original data to be uploaded, so the only mods on PS are ones that fiddle with existing stuff (a new house here, a knife that shoots lasers there or whatever) rather than offer whole new storylines, IIRC. At least that's how it was on Fallout 4.

[king_tubby]

I have now finished Beyond Reach. Wow. This is far better than both of the official DLCs. Story, atmosphere, new assets, new enemies are incredible. The depth of the main quest and how it all hangs together is so immersive. And, unlike, say, Wyrmstooth, you're not railroaded to go through it asap, you can stop, explore, do the side missions, piss off back to Skyrim to sell your loot, whatever. It is also properly scary in parts, and there is a lot of unpleasant content.

If you still play Skyrim play this.

[Cerys]

Must ... not ... succumb.

_{Will eventually succumb.}