That’s right, I couldn’t stay away from Skyrim. And it’s down to that family news I mentioned in June.
My Grandmother came home to die in the first week of July. She’d been home less than two days and the inevitable happened. Her home was/is my home, so her passing has deeply affected me.
The funeral was last week. Writing the eulogy I’d speak at the service, I realised that I needed to do something familiar, because I was feeling so miserable. Before booting up Skyrim again, I checked out Steam Workshop and subscribed to a bunch of mods…
– An alchemy compendium (adds a book with all effects for each alchemy ingredient listed)
– Some random clothing crafting mod that makes all non-special clothes craftable at any tanning rack
– A Lord of the Rings weapons creation mod, adds a forge on the way to the Greybeards where you can forge them
– An invulnerable horses mod, because I’m fed-up with my horses dying so easily
– A mod that added a “hunter’s cabin” for you to own just outside Riverwood
– A mod that ups drops from animals and increases value of animal parts
– Tea brewing mod that let’s you brew teas over cooking fires with alchemy ingredients – gives amazing positive effects
– An expansion to cooking with another mod that added more recipes
Sorry for the lack of links, but I’m writing on my phone. But, I ended up not using Steam Workshop for most of these…
I made the discovery that Frostfall, the survival mod, is no longer on Steam Workshop for two reasons: the mod has exceeded the 100mb limit for mods on the service and its creator was being abused through it.
I still have Frostfall, but it’s an old version from before September last year. It’s available elsewhere online, but I’m a bit scared about upgrading the mod and bricking my save files. If you have any advice to share on this, please let me know in the comments.
Steam Workshop and Skyrim mods are in general not playing well together at the moment. As I suggested earlier I had to go elsewhere (Nexus mods) to get functional versions of them, this was because the subscription service for many of them seems to be partially broken and not auto downloading files into the Data folder of Skyrim.
I have under the 50 subscriptions that some Google searches were telling me was the limit on Steam Workshop. And I found that I wasn’t the only one having problems. It seems it’s an issue that’s been going on for several years that Valve haven’t fixed in Workshop, which is disappointing.
Nexus wasn’t a fantastic solution, considering they’ve had malicious attacks made on them over the past few months and stuff doesn’t auto update like Workshop enables. I do wonder with the mess I uncovered in Workshop (other game mods outside Skyrim are being affected) whether Steam is still taking the modding community seriously.
Back to crafting.
The list of mods I’ve added should hopefully indicate to you that I am heavily into crafting this time round. I’m building Lakeside Manor nail by nail, sconce by sconce. All armour and weapons I use have been crafted by me. Most of my potions are brewed by me. And I am cooking lots of things.
Having a crafting focused character, I’ve joined no factions (other than 10 minutes where I tried being in the Companions and then went back to a previous save), has so far meant that my adventuring has been determined by the need to find materials to make and build things. I’ve done a few quests, a tiny bit of the main so that I can get at shouts more, but that’s it.
This is comfort gaming for me.
Drowning In Multimedia 
Hello Emily,
Thank you for sharing this, it is an example of how it is important to find small/simple things in life that can help you during rough times, and even during good times.
It is good that you found something that helps.
-John Jr
Thanks, John, for your kind words.
You are welcome Emily. :)
I need to try playing Skyrim again before this year ends, I briefly played it earlier this year after being inspired to play it again after watching Darnoc on YouTube play it, but he disappeared from the internet months ago so I have not played it again since then.
What is your opinion(s) of The Elder Scrolls Online?
I very briefly tried the beta a while back during a period when I did not feel like gaming, and so I did not get a good idea of what the game was really like and I did not play it long at all because most of my time was spent trying to download the beta and it ended before I could really play much of it; and things have gone quiet about it since its release like most people do not really care about or like it.
Thank you,
-John Jr
ESO was something I tried in beta for a day, however I found it far too similar to other MMORPGs to really hold my interest (fetching quests). Its attempt to label you as “the one” who will save the world seemed ridiculous in a game that you knew would be filled with thousands of players told the same thing.
So, I didn’t really like it and have not subscribed.
Hello Emily,
Thank you for answering that :) , that seems to be the general sentiment/option that I expected/heard, and I did not enjoy the brief time that I played it either; and it did not really feel like The Elder Scrolls to me, and paying a monthly fee is not something that I would do.
I guess we will forget/pretend that this game even happened/existed ;) ; but it seems like they possibly/probably wasted a lot of money on this game, and they even got known actors/actresses to do voice work on this game.
If only they would have at least made another major DLC/expansion instead and/or fixed some of the bugs/problems that they never fixed in the game and/or just made a co-op version of Skyrim. :(
-John Jr
There were definitely better ways they could have spent the development money, as you suggested.
I just hope we don’t have to wait for too long before there is a sixth game in the main series.
Yes! :D
I am glad that you brought that up Emily because part of me agrees with you hoping that we will not have to wait too long for the next game in the main series, but another part of me (possibly a larger part of me) hopes that they will take too long/longer to a time when the gaming technology is a bit better (maybe the next console generation) and for enough time for them to avoid some of the bugs/flaws in the previous games that they never fixed (like major flaws/bugs in the companion/follower system that made Skyrim less enjoyable for me, and some other known bugs in every Elder Scrolls game that they never fixed); and so I am a bit torn between both of those options. Hahaha :D
-John Jr