Thorin Oakshield

And I thought you finally got yourself a girlfriend. Gogo, dude, I'm very, very, very disappointed in you. Thorin

IC. My bad, as I've never played an Inquisitor or DM, since these two didn't "suit" me. Don't ask me why, 'coz I don't know. I've always suspected there was some sort of cap to bargaining and / or EP. I had those suspicions already in S:UW, where some players got better results with their shopper-Dwarves as others. Usually those having worse results were using a level of bargaining which was at least twice that of their level. So I'm kinda glad to see my suspicions were true. Only question is: what's the level cap in I&B? Thorin

When creating a bargaining char, the most obvious choice is the HE, for the simple reason she's the only char able to have the bargaining skill picked at the first level. Even if you're not a fan of bargaining, having a HE with that skill parked in Sloeford is a must. Main reason: you can ditch a lot of junk at her, which she then can convert into better items - read: yellow / blue - for other starting chars. More important: When you take the time for it, you'll be able to find enough +X to bargaining, + X to general Skills items to level her Bargaining enough to buy the really good items. Most important reason to use this kind of bargainer is that all unique, legendary and set-items have a level cap where you start to find them. Meaning you need to bridge those levels with semi-best items. Thorin

I should have responded to this earlier. My computer worked well enough to be able to help with the Beta. Are you saying that the retail version is more resource intensive? Yup, that could be it. However, not because of what you think, but because of what's added in the retail-version of Ice and Blood. Which is the graphic enhanced beautification you got at a special disc in the boxed version. It's very possible this is added to the download version, without making it an optional download / install. And if it is added, it's very likely your system is unable to cope with it, as it's sophisticated enough to even cause problems at Windows Vista and Win7 systems. It's been a while since I used XP - though I still got a 256Mhz PII lacking a keyboard and mouse stored somewhere - but wasn't it possible to set .exe files to run as administrator just like Windows Vista has:) You might give that option to run a try. Another option is to look for the settings file, where you can lower some specs of the game, making it easier to launch. And one question: How do you install the entire game? Do you have to install Sacred 2 and it's patches first, followed by Ice and Blood and its patches, or is the entire game one continuous installation:) I'm asking because I discovered that installing Sacred 2, Patching, installing I&B, patching worked best at my Win7 system. Thorin PS: During the Beta-test of Sacred 2, the main OS was Windows Vista. At the end of the Beta, Windows7 got into its Beta as well, already giving us Beta-testers an idea about the load of crap to come. If not mistaken, Dobster was one of the persons testing both. I know, I was there too.

Asking a question like this is more or less stirring up a hornet's nest. Main reason is that there are two party's defending both options. One group saying it's worth it, one group saying you're wasting one - or two - skills. Fact is; the skills won't stack. Investing points in Hafted Weapon Lore, won't increase your attack speed on top of the attack speed of Dual Wield. Or in math: your + 25% AS from HWL won't be added to the +27.3% from your DW skills. Fact is: investing a single point in HWL is useless, since the moment you start finding level 75 weapons, they ask about Hafted Weapons Mastery. Meaning you need to add 75 points in that skill to make sure you unlock the future bonuses too. Fact is: not all weapons get their modifiers unlocked with HWL, meaning you have to take Sword Weapon Lore as well to unlock the bonuses of those weapons. Fact is: There aren't any modifiers unlocked with the DW skill; unless you're playing the I&B add-on and the Community Patch, since the latter has some weapons with DW modifiers added. So, your options: 1) Play with all three skills - DW, HWL, SWL - and invest points in DW only, and one point in HWL and SWL to unlock the bonuses for the latter; 2) Play with all three skills - DW, HWL, SWL - and invest 75 points in all three of them to unlock the Master Bonuses 3) Play with all three skills - DW, HWL, SWL - and invest 75 points in HWL and SWL and one point in DW to unlock that skill. (Personally, I would suggest that, although I don't like the idea of picking HWL and SWL for the bonuses, as I see it as a waste of skills and skill points.) 4) Play with DW only and master that kill up to 75 points. This gives you the ability to pick one of two "fun" skills, like EP or Bargaining, Black Smith, etc; depending at your character. This is how I personally like to play, as having one of two "fun" skills sometimes pays off a lot better when having multiple chars. Even in SP. Regards, Thorin

Thx for the update, Wolfie. At least now I know why I have to wait another week to see the next episode. Thorin

You're probably going to know that before I do. The series is broadcasted in the USA (NA:)) on Sunday and on Monday in The Netherlands (dunno about other European countries). Meaning you got a chance to see it before I do. What I find odd is that there isn't an episode this Sunday / Monday. I thought it was because of some event in the US, but couldn't find anything. Perhaps one of our US based members could fill me in if there's something special happening at May 26th:) As for that song.... I could have said it was Ser Jaime or Brandon was the one who's working at it, but somehow it felt more "right" when it was about Theon. Not to mention: I like those kinds of jokes about a "double meaning" a lot. Problem is, English isn't my native language, making things a bit harder to understand once in a while. Or keeping me out of trouble because what I meant was misunderstood. Anyway, I'm looking forward to Season 4 - and season 3 hasn't even ended yet! - because of what is going to happen. I'm in particular looking forward to Arya's journey, as well as that of Samwell, because I got the feeling those two are going to play a big part in the future books and thus the TV-series. Thorin

I think last weekend's episode was a bit tame, because we're going to get a major cliff-hanger this season. Problem is, I can't write much about what I think is going to happen - which is based upon the books - without spoiling the fun for anyone else. So........ The more I'm watching the show, the more I'm convinced we get the "Red Wedding", the "Assault at Castle Black" and an "Angry Tyrion". These three events happened about the same time in the books as well and it would be a great cliff-hanger. As for Theon.... He'll be back. However, rumours are he's currently working at this song. Thorin

Today I present to you some screenies of a future Olympic Sport, called: Head surfing. The shots were taken when defeating a dragon in the Forgotten Vale; which is part of the Dawnguard DLC. Thorin

Yeah, painful it was indeed. Even I had to swallow for a moment when it happened, as if I was feeling his pain too. As for where the author got his idea's... Well, that's not too hard. There's this book for instance. Another way is to think what you would do to hurt someone as much as you can. Often the things you know are painful to you, are painful to somebody else as well. And finally: If you're familiar with medical school or know about first aid, you can reverse the knowledge to save someone's life to hurt that person. It's likely one of those three, combined with the "What if..."-question most writers have popping up in their head once in a while. Spoiler warning: As for the season's ending: I think the other cliff-hanger is going to be the "Assault at Castle Black". Including the rescue by Stanis. Thorin

After watching Episode 7 of S3 tonight, I think where the last episode is going to take us. To avoid as many spoilers as possible, I'm only going to post two words to write down my guess. Those words are: Red Wedding. Those who've read the books, know what I mean. Those who haven't read the books; wait and see. It's going to be worth it. Anyone who's read the books thinks the same:) And while we're at the subject of the books; anyone here read "The Hedge Knight" and "The Sworn Sword"? Thorin

I've been thinking of that. However, some English dude stole my idea. Thorin

It's going to take a bit longer as I thought because for some reason I lost the original version of the story I had in mind to mail. Meaning I had to copy the story from the website into a word document. That also meant I need to do a lot of editing, as the story I put on the net is full of BBcodes. I discovered it also was full of spelling and grammar mistakes; which now can be corrected. Of course, I got that "wonderful" excuse to claim that English isn't my native language, but I still like to have things close to perfect whenever possible. So I'll keep you posted the moment I do have something to post about. If there are people who'd like to (re-)read it, let me know and I'll add a link to this topic. @ Spock: the original title was: "The Brotherhood of the Brave A Sacred Fairy tale" I've changed that into: "The Fellowship of the Brave A Sacred Fairy tale Thorin

As some of you - especially those who visited the SIF when Sacred: Underworld was "Hot" - might know, I've written some stories over time. Somewhere at the SIF one might find a link to a story based upon S:UW, but it isn't about that I write. I've been writing stories for over 20 years now, first in Dutch, then in English. A few years after I began writing I contacted several publishers, asking if they were interested in my stories. Most of them didn't reply at all - so far for politeness, eh? - one of them politely denied, telling the kind of story I wrote wasn't what the market would like to see and one publisher asked to see one of my manuscripts. After I mailed it to them, I never got a reply. So, not long after that, I began writing in English. Partially, because I was hoping I might access the Dutch market, using the English speaking market as back-door; partially because someone mentioned that my posts of a contest I was participating in looked more like a chapter of a book. The story based upon S:UW was / is the best I achieved so far and despite a lot of comments telling I had to publish it, finding a publisher was almost impossible. Until November last year, when I got contacted by a publisher from the UK; who seemed to be interested in publishing my S:UW story. That was, until they found out where I was from. Apparently they wouldn't publish if you weren't a UK citizen; which I'm not. Things went even a bit nasty with them, when my contact demanded I paid the consumptions I had when we met, forgetting I had paid a lot more for the ticket and hotel room, since the meeting was in London. And all just to hear they won't publish my story. Something that could've been done by mail as well. (Minor reminder: never attack a Dutch person's wallet. You'll pay dearly for it [pun intended]) Suffice to say, eventually I got all my costs back, and didn't have to pay for my consumption; after I mailed the entire publisher our "correspondence"; in which was already mentioned I'm from the Netherlands, since (quote) "I'm able to take a flight from Schiphol Airport at 09:00 CET at December 20th, thus arriving at Stanstead Airport at 09:00 GMT. Transportation to London takes about 45 minutes, but I'm unsure how long it takes to get through customs; meaning that I'm able to meet you at 10:30 GMT earliest" (end of quote). And my "contact" got sacked as well. Anyway, that was my 2nd attempt to find me a publisher and my 2nd failure. Two weeks ago, I got that itch to find me a publisher. A Dutch one again, this time. So I browsed the net and found by accident a publisher which is prepared to publish stories the moment they think the story's worth it. Or not, if they think it's crap. More important for me, they're prepared to publish the book(s) in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria for sure, and most likely in Spain, Hungary and English speaking countries as well. Meaning, the moment I get my story published, it's published in several countries. Either way, I've taken my story based upon S:UW and mailed to them; telling it's in English, but that I'm prepared to do the translation myself, if needed. However, since they got an English website as well, they might publish it in the UK too. I'll look into that later. For those who'd like to know more: look here. For those who don't want to know more, don't look there. Still, I hope all of you wish me luck. I certainly am going to need it. Thorin

You know Rogvir (the one that is beheaded) is actually burried at the Sloeford cemetary? Except he's mistaken for a woman, so the tombstone read: "If she only hadn't lost her head". Thorin

The ancient Nords were the best inventors of their age as well. I mean: their tombs crumble, but when you enter then after 100's or even 1.000's of years the fires are still burning. Somehow they found a way to reproduce the eternal flame. I wish I had one of those fire basins. Could save me a lot on heating cost during winter time. Thorin

Here's the evidence; Vampires have a Boot fetish! Screenshot is taken in Morvath's Lair. Thorin

@ Wolfie: That swinging light at the end of the Sacred Wiki tunnel? It's just a freight train coming your way. Thorin PS: Forum is back up again, so this topic can be closed if anyone likes to.

I've been trying to sign into the International Sacred Forum for the past two days; but got the "invalid link" message each time I tried. Even a re-directing from the Deep Silver forum didn't work. Trying to sign in at the German forum, didn't work, nor did signing in to the International or German Sacred site. So I checked the Deep Shi.. Silver forum and didn't see any notification at all over there. Seeing that some of the SIF-mods are mods there as well, I can only assume DS is aware the Sacred site is off line. Anyone else noticed this and / or has any news:) It would be a real PitA if the forum and all the information it contains is lost forever. :| Thorin

If you'd like me to look into the mods available at the Nexus and pick a few for you, let me know. Got a couple of days off, so enough time to look into it. However, I do need to know what you'd like to have, in the first place. As for "beautification" mods: When playing a game I'd like to see the environment looking as "natural" as possible compared with the graphics. Like in Sacred 2, where you could see the grass, trees etcetera the way they are supposed to be; although the entire environment wasn't exactly as it is in the real world. Skyrim is a lot more based upon the real world as Sacred 2 was; but all in all I found the cities in particular and the total environment in general a bit "empty" looking. Reason why I downloaded some mods improving that, while other mods enhanced the ways water, rocks, ice, snow etcetera were looking. Same can be said about the weapon mods I downloaded. It's not that I'm not happy with the available weapons; they give enough variation about which weapons to use; it's more that I'd like to see more "realistic" weapons. And [spoiler!] Dawnguard offers only 4 crossbows; of which 2 are enhanced versions of the other two. So adding a mod making it possible to create crossbows in every part of the smithing tree enhances my gameplay; as it gives me better - read: more powerful - crossbows when advancing through the game. I think the most important thing about adding mods or which mods to add is: "What is it you want to see / use in this game?" Some players like to see a beautiful and / or realistic environment, including the weather; other players like to have the role playing part being so realistic, they add mods where you are forced to eat / sleep every (game) day to make sure your hero remains at full strength. Other players add all kinds of armour to their games, because they'd like the armour of previous versions of The Elder Scrolls series more. Other players like to add their own player-homes, because they're not happy with the houses Skyrim and its add-ons offer; being it because you can't store all the books, or because you can't display all the armour and weapons you can forge etcetera. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is to figure out what you exactly want. Stormwind and I can tell you "you've got to that this mod" or "take that mod because it's wonderful", but that's our opinion, not yours. So, make up your mind what you'd like to see in the game and we're able to help you into the right direction. It is however still up to you if you download the mods we're supposing, so don't be afraid you'd insult us if you turn a suggestion down. After all, it's a suggestion; not a "take this or I'll kill you" offer. Thorin

I tried the demo today, as that's exactly as it is. I TRIED it. Decided to remove this ASAP from my computer for several reasons. 1) The cartoonesque back ground makes the game look childish 2) keyboard controls are just awkward. Especially if you're used to use the mouse for about every game you're playing. 3) Storyline sucks big time. Even Sacred 2's story line was better 4) so does the voice acting. 5) Help function isn't helpful at all. I mean, double tab space to make a double jump and when doing so, you can't continue your way? Turned out you needed to double tab space and press D to continue. 6) Fighting in a mine and being over run by a train cart? Oh come on!! *vomits* I can go on like this, but I won't. Conclusion: If you're a child and using a PS3 - or any other console if that matters - this game "might" be something for you. If you're an adult and have been playing S:UW and Sacred 2:I&B, you'd be insulted by this game and the lack of respect with the Sacred legacy. Unfortunately for DS I'm in the 2nd group. Minor Edit: Since posting this, I wondered if there really impossible to play this at a PC. Then it dawned to me: This one would've looked marvellous at a Commodore C64 or an Amiga! [End of edit] Thorin :|

Minor spoiler: One of the weapon effects of Dawnguard: Big advantage of it: You don't have to put your victims on ice anymore. Thorin

If you decide to buy the DLC's; there are two pieces of advice I'd like to give you. 1) When looking for mods to play, check the workshop. Then click at the "Collections"-tab. This'll give you an overview of what a large amount of players consider the "best mods available. One of the collections I recommend to download are the official patches. The beautification mods are a good one too. The rest is up to you. Warning rest of the post contains major spoilers 2) As mentioned in my previous post, you got 9 options for house expansion in Hearthfire. Each of the houses also comes with a special building, giving you a hint about what to build where. Since each of the houses come with a small garden, it's easy to grow some of the ingredients needed for your potions. Or to grow food, for that matter. Based upon that - and my own experiences - I think the best house expansions would be: 1) Heljarchen Hall: Special building: Grain Mill Expansions: Kitchen, Master Bedroom, Storage Room (You might make this one your permanent residence if you decide to get marry and adopt children) 2) Lakeview Manor: Special building: Apiary Windstad Manor: Special building: Fishery Both the Apiary and the Fishery offer room for some alchemy ingredients; making both locations the ideal ones for an Alchemy Tower. Since you're building that tower, adding a Greenhouse - to grow even more ingredients - is a must. The last choice for your Alchemist-building could be the Library or the Trophy Room. Personally I'd pick the Library Leaving the Enchanter's Tower, Armoury and Trophy Room or Library for the last building. You might switch the Greenhouse and the Enchanter's Tower, however you'll miss out on growing a large amount of Alchemy ingredients yourself at that particular manor. And with the ability to pick a perk to get twice the amount of ingredients in the Alchemy tree, having as many ingredients available nearby as possible seems like a very good choice to me. You'll find some more information at the Elderscrolls Wiki, I mentioned in one of my previous posts. Thorin

If you're still running Vanilla Skyrim, I recommend you subscribe to the "Unofficial Skyrim Patch" as well. It solves a lot of bugs, the official patches won't fix and it offers some improvements of the game in general. Most important: it's a community patch, so you can expect regular updates of it. As for the DLC's: I think they're all worth it. Dawnguard and Dragonborn offer new quest lines, new foes, new area's to explore and new weapons / armour to the game; thus making the entire experience more beautiful. Hearthfire offers three new houses and the ability to adopt children - if you're married (so much for escaping RL) - making the entire game feeling more like ROLE PLAYING. Another nice feature of Hearthfire is the fact you can build your own houses now. They all look alike, but each house has the option to build 3 additional wings; and each wing is having three choices as well. Meaning 27 different possibilities. Given you have three houses, some tough choices have to be made there. One of the good things of this, is that you can build a house to your needs. I.e.: when you decide it's the place you want to live you add a Master Bedroom, a Storage and a Kitchen to your house. The total list of options are: West-side: Greenhouse, Master Bedroom, Enchantments' tower North-side: Storage, Alchemy Tower, Trophy-Room East-Side: Armoury, Kitchen, Library Tower As said, Dawnguard offers new weapons; which are 2 x-bows. These bows can be enhanced a bit with two side-quests, but adding a mod to be able to use - and craft - more bows is almost a must. Disadvantage is that because of Dawnguard you often have to face nightly attacks on cities, occasionally killing essential citizens. (Like I had when Whiterun got under attack and Arianne, her hubby and that Greymane smith were killed). You get to know a bit more about the history of the Falmer as well. Dragonborn takes you to an entirely new island, where several side-quests and one main-quest are found. I'ts the place where you find the most new armour and a few new weapons; although by the time I got to that place I was using Dragon material weapons already; thus the new items were useless. And you get to know a bit about the life of the Ancient Nords as well. There's also a High Resolutions Pack-DLC which you can download at Steam for free. It's certainly worth it. Overall, yes, I think adding the three DLC's to my game was worth it. To give you an impression about the prices: Dawnguard and Dragonborn are available for 20Euro's; Hearthfire is for 5 Euro's. It's money well spent, if you ask me. But.... I read somewhere that Bethesda isn't releasing any DLC's for Skyrim. So you might wait a while until Steam drops the prices and buy the whole package at once. Which could be the moment the Elder Scrolls On-Line is released. Anyway, if you're curious about more things to be shown in screenies, just yell. Thorin

The top city-pic is taken in Falkreath, the other one is indeed Whiterun. Both have more flora added by the Enhanced City Mods. I have to say, it does look more natural now. As for the burning bandit: He attacked me the moment I entered the main road, coming from the mountain path leading to the Tower of Stendar. So I killed him using my swords; of which one is having a fire-soul trap enhancement and the other one a life leech enhancement. Biggest problem is, both enhancements work with the other sword as well, so when hitting him with the LL-sword, the bugger still burns. Add a hit with the other sword to it, and you got a burning bandit, like in the screenshot. Still, the fire-soul trap enhancement is one of the best there is in this game, given that so many foes are vulnerable to fire. Thorin