Greetings from Norway… er, Skyrim! Almost the same thing. Here featuring Cerviden the supposed healer.

New computer, new modifications, bad habits.

I had barely touched Skyrim since last year, but three days ago I got the urge to try it on the laptop. I did not expect it to run very well there, it being a laptop and all. (Although I have hooked up a 24″ monitor, USB keyboard and trackball to it in my home office.) But it runs smooth as butter in high resolution. This computer really is something. (Asus N56V.)

I was trying out a couple new mods. Well, one of them was also around last time, in a certain sense: Calientes female body mod, Big Bottom Edition arrived almost as soon as the game did, rendering female bodies looking actually female rather than male bodies with oranges on the chest. But at the time it had the side effect of leaving all females naked if taking off their armor. Now they have underwear (if you insist during installation), and not particularly sexy underwear either, so that is good I guess. I routinely press the “take all” button after defeating enemies. (I use the word “defeat” rather than “kill”, because they certainly don’t seem to be dead in the earthly sense. There are no wounds or burns, and they don’t get rigor mortis. Even if you leave them around for a couple days, they don’t discolor or bloat, and after a couple days, they just disappear while you are not watching. So it seems more similar to City of Heroes where you get fixed up at the hospital at a modest cost if you are defeated. Or that’s what I tell myself.)

A mod I have not seen before is Cerviden – SMART Healer – which is a follower who can be instructed in how to fight, or not. Well, that is the theory. I tell her to stay back, not attack unless attacked, and not use aggressive magic, just cast healing and protecting spells on me as needed. She is all OK with that, but once the battle begins, she forgets and starts attacking the enemies from a distance. This keeps me from trapping their life energies in my crystals, not to mention gaining experience in weapon and armor use. Oh well. She is an amusing companion though, with a lot of voice acted more or less context-sensitive chatter. Probably the funniest companion I have had since the sentient sword in Morrowind. That was a hoot.

I also have downloaded the fairly large Immersive Armors mod, which adds a lot of new armor types to the world. Since many of them are context or level dependent, I have not seen most of them yet.

A quality world map with roads drawn on it makes travel easier. It is a small thing but makes a noticeable difference to “quality of life” in the game.

Finally there is the Guard Dialogue Overhaul, which is meant to make the guards less dumb and more respectful. They now recognize my fame, such as it is, and treat me accordingly. So that is something.

There sure are some amazingly high quality game modifications available for free. As I have said before, the freeconomy is already upon us. (Although some artists accept donations.) As for me, I hope I am not going to use their creations much. I am not particularly proud of having played Skyrim again. The voice in my heart is not impressed either. Stabbing people repeatedly with daggers is a bad habit. And you wouldn’t want to have people in underwear strewn around when angels come to visit, either. Besides, it takes time that I had intended to use for other things.

Still, it is amazing to live in the future. To think that one can visit such a detailed, lifelike imaginary world in one’s own living room! I remember the time when a screen resolution of 320×240 caused my computer to almost overheat. If it gets better than this, I better not enter in the first place, or I might never come back. That would be a great loss, at least to me!