u/oriontitley

Ark has been a huge part of my life. Solidly pushing 5k hours between Xbox and PC. I've met wonderful people on the official servers, one of which became the godfather of my son. I've already taken years-long breaks from Ark though, as every player knows it eventually gets to be too much.

Well, I have started up a server that will run for the next year or two for my closest friends to join me on. We are doing a "Full Tour" on the game. Once significant content updates stop, so will we. Every official map, every tame, every boss. More casual difficulty of course, but thats aside the point.

This gets me wondering what map I will park my character on, build a small house with a scenic view, and lay down one last time and log out. Once I'm done this time, I'll probably be done unless my son gets interested a decade from now.

Home for me is Scorched Earth. It's where I truly started. I spent hundreds of hours reaching alpha tribe status on PVE with my tribe. Its where I raised my first wyvern and took flight. Its where I met some of my truest friends. When I'm done, I'll pick a nice spot up by the waterfall canyon, build a nice adobe hut with some nicer furnishings, park my surviving tames, build a monument to our lost tames, and shut down my server.

Where will you rest your head that last time? Will it be huddled on Herbivore Island? Amidst the canyons of Ragnarok? Nestled in the Chalk Hills of Valguero? Atop the Spires of Sanctuary? Where will your last logout happen if you plan that far ahead?

In much of popular media, there is a recurring theme of "Immortal falls in love with young-adult mortal". In more recent years, a lot of these relationships have drawn the ire of people who bark about "Age Gaps" being inappropriate. At what point do they just expect these immortals to be miserably alone for decades, centuries, or longer? Are they not allowed to fall in love? And to someone who is, say, 200+ years old, what's the difference between falling for a 20yo versus a 40yo or a 60yo other than looks? 40 years is nothing to an immortal. Are they expected to make a person immortal just to wait for centuries before the "age gap" isn't an issue?

So over the past couple of years, my wife has started a journey to get herself in better overall health and has been quite successful in that regard. I am now trying to help her find her new styles for clothing and such and don't know how to approach her growing self-esteem issues with the subtlety required. I'll TL;DR at the end if you want to skip, since the story itself isn't too important, but does explain her specific circumstances.

To start, I want to iterate that I have loved and supported my wife at every stage of her journey and will continue to do so.

5 years ago (we are mid 30's now) and 8 years into our marriage (now 13), we started on the path to having a child and rapidly found out it would be difficult. After having her hormonal IUD removed, it caused a chain reaction of hormone spikes that helped us identify her having PCOS (now PMOS after a recent reclassification to the whole condition). PCOS, in short, causes a lot of issues for women. Hair growth where it typically isn't, weight balance issues, menstrual cycle issues, all kinds of fun stuff. Also fertility issues.

Thankfully, within 2 years, we'd managed to get pregnant without intervention and she had a very successful pregnancy with no complications and delivered a healthy baby boy.

At the start of this all, she weighed close to 300lbs. The day we got our first ultrasound, she weighed 260. The day after she gave birth, she weighed 240. She regained some weight during maternity leave and got on various GLP-1's as she qualified for their use and our kid wouldn't breastfeed. She now weighs 220 and is still losing weight and kept it off when she went off of the GLP-1's for a few months due to some insurance issues at the beginning of the year.

All this to say, her weight loss has really thrown her for a loop style wise. She's gone from a large-3x to a mid-2x and will probably be at the bottom edge of 2x soon. Since the beginning of the year, and even last year a bit, she has been more vociferous about wanting to try new clothing and has said to "show her things she and I might both like" since I have a moderate love for women's fashion.

The problem is that she is horribly self conscious about in-store shopping and hates online shopping because the "sizes are never quite right".

I have done my best to not try to push styles that would obviously upset her (she does have an apron belly that I adore but makes certain styles challenging) and I have also tried to find size-inclusive sites and stores to shop at (thank goodness for torrid outlets near me). I have had some moderate success with picking out things like underwear/bras than actual daywear since "people wont see that stuff". But, it always comes back to her self-esteem when it comes to most of the clothing.

TL;DR how do I help my wife solidify her self-esteem while finding her new clothes at her request after she has lost a bunch of weight? Not looking for clothing recs necessarily but feel free to post some good plus-size sites if you want to I guess. I want to help my wife emotionally, not just buy her clothes. I'm aware therapy exists (she is not against that), but I'm looking at ways to buoy her body image through choices and actions?

So the three most accepted ways of typing large numbers are: X000000.X, X,000,000.X and X.000.000.X (though i personally hate the third one because its hard to distinguish where the decimal starts) but recently I've been seeing X 000 000.X

Why? It's not a character count thing. A space is a character the same as a comma or period.

Hey guys, just curious about something. So we have a bunch of wonderful mods for "buyable" housing that I am using heavily, most of which are geared towards pretty vanilla-esque gameplay and while many are rightfully geared towards early/mid gameplay, the few options i see geared towards endgame seem... cheap?

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I've got a handful of mods that I'm dabbling in making for more upper-scale housing and want to fairly price them for the players for what they get. I know this isn't a huge deal in game as, unless you are playing under some very specific conditions, money isn't exactly hard to come by, but I also don't want a player looking at it and say "why the heck is this idiot setting the price so high for this place?"

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So, if I suggest a house size equal to a typical Velothi Tower (two large open floors and a couple of secondary rooms along the tunnels) how much would you pay in game for a fairly lavishly decorated example with plenty of storage, displays, racks, and even a couple service NPC's? Assume decor value to match something you'd see in TR for one of, like, the Narsis Manors, though specifics may vary.

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UPDATE: Hey folks, it's been a fun couple of weeks writing these challenges up every two or three days. A little feedback from anyone who has completed any of these would be appreciated as, for the most part, I've received very little input as to whether anyone is actually enjoying these. The poll this time is purely to determine whether I keep this going or whether I stop. If its the former, I'll return with a new poll after I see some responses, otherwise if the votes go negative, I hope you've enjoyed this little bundle of community challenges.

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Thank you to the few users who did respond positively!

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Welcome back to the Mournhold Museum of Artifacts adventurer, thank you for responding to my summons.

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I have received a commission for an artifact hunt. This collector prefers to remain anonymous, but deals in oddities. We have already sold him several pieces, a couple of which you even brought us, which has allowed us to greatly expand our ventures into discovering and researching the artifacts of this great land. I've even been able to hire an assistant!

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The artifact in question is reportedly in a Dreugh Hive in the Sea of Ghosts somewhere well north of Firewatch. I think the nearest towns are Nivalis and Bal Orya.

Dreugh Hives are notoriously difficult to navigate, mostly because they are under water of course, but the Dreugh themselves are fierce combatants, especially as they grow into Man-o-Wars, equaling any of the daedra for sheer ferocity.

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This ring *would* be extremely useful for any wreck-diver or pearl hunter as it greatly increases your swim speed, but I swear the same artificer that created those horrible boots we ga-I mean sold- to our anonymous collector created this ring, as it reportedly makes it almost impossible to see. Powerful resist magic can offset that of course, but it's not a great trade off. Perfect for our collector, nearly useless for anyone who isn't a mage. And what mage goes swimming for an activity?

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Reward:

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5,000 gold [player-> additem gold_001 5000]

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Return to the Mournhold Museum of Artifacts and place the ring on the pedestal with the Boots of Blinding Speed if you have sold them off, otherwise just place it anywhere.

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Remember, feel free to post your journey and any unexpected happenings here! Part of the fun of this is seeing how different playstyles interact with the world!

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Link to Previous Community Challenge: https://www.reddit.com/r/Morrowind/comments/1u2cpi9/community_challenge_4_win_a_game_of_chance_to/

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The goal of enjoying the early/mid game for both new and old players is to slow down. Morrowind is easy to unbalance and as any experienced player knows, its impossible to balance at high levels. So the name of the game is maximizing early/mid game replayability. My suggestion is do two things: embrace the roleplay and avoid the minmax.

First off, avoid minmaxing. This is easy to do. Avoid training except when necessary. Natural leveling will bring your main attributes up by 2-3 points per level instead of the ridiculous 5x that just powers your character up WAY too fast. As an example, the infamous 100 endurance by level 4 only requires 30 point increases across the endurance-based skills. This is frankly ridiculous. By level 10, a Redguard/Nord that does this will have 160hp.

So this is where roleplay comes into everything. Structuring your characters to minimize the early game struggle is a perfectly valid strategy. Starting with a tough character, or magically powerful character, or speedy character is perfectly fine as long as you are willing to commit to natural leveling, otherwise you will simply outpace the game by level 10. Roleplay helps to keep you to the previously mentioned goal of "extending the early/mid game"

I will present now my rules for "keeping things fresh" and it serves as a perfectly valid guide for new players seeking to roleplay as well.

1. I flip a coin on the main quest. If i don't get it i don't pursue it. If i do get it, i don't pursue it past meeting caius til i am at my first faction "stopping point." I also flip a coin on "imperialist or traditionalist" and that determines whether I join guilds more preferential to the empire or to morrowind. I usually keep it to three factions per character.
2. I stick to the factions that make sense (typically 3 of them, maybe 4 if i feel saucy) then I focus on one til I hit its "stopping point." A faction stopping point is where you've maxed out your skills/rank without having to specifically train. If its your primary faction, its usually rank 4 or 5.
3. During my faction progression I make note of caves/locations I pass by on my way to my objectives and DON'T go into them. The first faction stopping point is where I go adventuring and clear my current list. I then go to my next faction and start with them till my next stopping point and repeat the process. Depending on exact builds, i typically end up as rank 4 or 5 in three separate guilds by level 10. Dabbling in the main quest (if applicable) will also help solidify my experience as many of these quests are long, drawn out retrieval and dialogue quests. It measurably reduces advancement speed and helps you feel like you are feeling "a part of the world".
4. Solstheim opens to me at this point, and I am free to progress that place as I see fit. Imperial aligned characters almost always beeline for the Raven Rock questline. Tribunal also opens up (beyond just talking to the guy in ebonheart to stop the DB attacks) at this point. If I did not get the main quest tag I also cannot progress Almalexia's final two quests. Remember, this character ISN'T the nerevarine and those two quests are directly tied to that story.
5. If you are on pc, bite the bullet and get Tamriel Rebuilt. No it is not finished, but it so massively expands potential options for exploration and questing that it is hard not to go back to vanilla. Many of the quests (especially the post-2013 content when they restructured their team) are equal to or superior to the vanilla experience. There are a few new joinable factions with fun questlines as well as tons of miscellaneous quests.

As a final note, a personal way I choose to connect to my characters is to write a personal journal for them. This is beyond the quest journal the game gives and talks more about experiences. It also ties into my 3rd point as this is how I "make note of" locations I haven't yet explored. If i take a few minutes to write a journal entry after each quest, it manually slows me down and allows me to re-experience those moments a bit longer. Part fanfic, part actual note-taking.

Any additional ideas anyone wants to present, go ahead and post here. If they are good, I might even roll it into my practices.

Hey'all, curious about some of the cross-faction issues that arise in Tamriel Rebuilt. I'm looking at EEC and House Hlaalu and Ja-Natta Syndicate mainly. It seems like there are a lot of cross-issues at least from a rough overview, but it also seems like sometimes there are ways that improve the quest flow?

Trying not to get too spoilery as everything in and around Narsis is still new to me, but any advice would be helpful.

This is now the fifth time this has happened. Just building a new player house. Had previously tested the dialogue chain. Fairly certain there wasn't a duplicate topic considering this is the 5th time its happened. Was working fine last night when i looked at it last.

I go to launch CS, no error popups. I edit a new room into the build, not even affecting the NPC who sells you the place, as he is obviously in a different cell. I decide to test the whole thing again. Go to talk to him. Topic gone.

The greetings for him and the other NPC's are still there, the journal entries are there, the npc backgrounds are still there. The primary topic for selling the place is just...gone.

I'm getting a bit tired bros. It doesn't take long to fix. Like, under an hour, but i don't want to keep doing this literally every day. What could I possibly be doing by moving static objects into place that affects the dialogue?

Going through the CS and just entirely baffled by the variety of containers and furniture in TR. Is there an existing resource or mod that lets me just view all of it?

Just wanna make sure i did everything right including cleaning the mod before i upload/showcase.

Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The cast of Robin Hood: Men in Tights takes on one of the best worst movies ever made. Includes scenes where Blinkin becomes a cannon sniper - still blind of course - a carriage chase through the streets of Port Royal where they have to cut the scene and just walk off set to the craft services tables and nurse a romance between the two main characters in/out of character, and an epic boarding actions battle where the accidentally board a cruise ship instead of the main character's ship.

WARNING: This quest should only be taken if you have already completed the Ja-Natta questline, or have no intentions to. It intersects with no fewer than 10 quests, however none are apparently "gamebreaking" as I stated in my first posting, unless you actually intend to complete the Ja-Natta faction quests. It is fully possible to complete this quest without messing up any quests, and may in fact be easier to complete if you are in-progress with the Ja-Natta. Taking care and evaluating the environment carefully will be key.

Under sun and sky, we greet you warmly, outlander.

We of the Shinathi have rough lives. We make sure it is that way. We are strong warriors, and work as mercenaries for many groups. The Nasar, my clan, are particularly war-loving. We often raid and plunder. This is the way of our ancestors, and we are proud to do it.

That said, we do not take lightly to our defeats, and even moreso, when one of our brothers is taken captive by a former ally, we seek redress. We have received word Nussorabakul is imprisoned under Uddanu, the seat of the Ja-Natta Syndicate.

I implore you, rescue him and HURT the Ja-Natta. Perhaps you already work for them so can get close to them. Do as you see fit. Knowing how arrogant they are, they probably just have the keys to their slaves laying around on a desk. While I will not require you to slay them, perhaps material wealth may motivate you enough to simply rob them. They have a vault said to be guarded by a fearsome demon. Abscond with their treasure and return to me after freeing Nussorabakul and I will give you a token of our Tribe.

Reward:

The material value from the vault alone is worth several tens-of-thousands of gold, if not close to 100,000. Diruabanam will also actually give you an additional-albeit minor-reward for rescuing Nussorabakul in base TR as an unmarked quest. Treat this as an unofficial expansion of said quest.

Remember, feel free to post your journey and any unexpected happenings here! Part of the fun of this is seeing how different playstyles interact with the world!

Link to Previous Community Challenge: https://www.reddit.com/r/Morrowind/comments/1txuf9j/comment/oqe9hj0/?screen_view_count=2

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An entity from a certain realm approaches you. It offers you a deal. You will be able to, at any time, marginally adjust yourself in any way you see fit. The entity warns of the following limits:

1: The deal creates a "slider" system with every possible aspect of "what it means to be human" from a whole category dedicated to facial features, to the various aspects of intelligences, everything except for "luck". The entity explains it cannot affect random chance, everything you change about yourself simply gives you the raw advantage anyone else at that level would have.

2: The system sets your current stats at "0" and the scale reaches 100. The entity explains that the upper limit is the upper bounds of what is humanly possible. 100 in looks is an adonis or helen level. 100 in intellect is einsteinian. 100 in raw strength is Bjornsson levels.

3: The process is incremental. You can never change an aspect more than 1% at a time advancing towards perfection. Once you have reached your 100th change in any given aspect, you've topped that aspect out. Your body will automatically adjust if you don't balance things perfectly from the beginning- you wont look like a misshapen clod or be so intelligent you can't function socially. At the end of the process, you will look like a literal demigod. There is some "personal taste" to the process, if you don't want an 8 pack, you don't have to look like that, but everyone who sees you will "feel" that vibe from you nonetheless.

4: These changes DO fundamentally change you bit by bit. You will actually be smarter, not just feel smarter. You will actually be less depressed if you choose to be. Your brain works better, more clearly. You can hear and see better.

Now, the cost: Every time you use this, you must sacrifice a part of your psyche and soul. A connection to a friend. An ex you still pine over. A hobby you once loved. A pet that adores you. That connection simply stops existing. You have as many chances as you have parts of yourself to sacrifice. You cannot use new connections gained after starting this process to fuel your continued progress. By the time you max out what you've sacrificed from your old life, there will be nothing left for you to even remember from the before times. The you that took the deal will be gone. Everything you ever meant to someone or something else is lost.

One use is defined as "one activation of the system". You can change whatever number of sliders you want each time, but only by 1 point each. Theoretically, you could minimize the number of uses to 100.

So, how much of you would you sacrifice? How many connections can you lose before the connections start fading on their own. That friend you play a singular game with? Well, if you lose the connection to that game, why would they play with you anymore? The coworker who you have great conversations with because you stop at the same coffee shop probably won't have as many opportunities to speak to you if you give up coffee.

Happily married looking for more as the wife works long hours. Wife has several established partners, looking for Long/Mid-DR more serious than fwb. Nerdy, into PC gaming, warhammer, D&D and other similar hobbies. Must be okay with being around a non-verbal toddler. I'm a bigger guy myself, used to do trucking but now am the stay-at-home parent with the toddler. One step down from kitchen table with wife's partners, I'd say arms-length but friendly. No one under 21, prefer over 25. Over 60 miles and I can't guarantee travel on my side. House to myself in the evenings 5 days a week.

Yeah, pretty much what its sounds like. My dialogue topic just deleted itself somehow. I'd extensively tested it, made sure it worked, made sue the journal updated, made sure scripts ran, made sure it was all attached to the correct NPC ID, etc. Loaded and reloaded saves and it was all fine. I then moved on to continue editing other parts of my mod.

Now it's gone. I reloaded CS to work on another part of the dialogue. I'd saved before hand of course, multiple times across the previous 24 hours. The CS had probably been opened half a dozen times since the last time i edited dialogue, no popups of any sort.

I did not have the Topic/Journal entries structured the same, so there was no issues with anything reverting (did that the first time, fixed it after that). So why is my dialogue all gone?

I had to extract the BSA file from morrowind to access an animation file (that also isn't properly working as far as i can tell) so is it possible that reset all dialogue instances?

Recommended level 20+ Great House must be Telvanni.

Retainer, at least I assume you are, otherwise why would you be in a Telvanni tower speaking to the bodyguard of one of the Great House's Masters. I have work for you.

My wife, Fedura Sendal has recently discovered the location of a powerful tome that is said to grant any reader a quaintly useful spell. I want you to retrieve this for me so I can gift it to her in honor of our marriage. I'd get it myself, but I am honor-bound to remain at my master's side unless he specifically sends me away for duties.

The cave is surprisingly nearby, being almost due north of our city's Barracks across the water and a hill, practically a day trip. That said, there are supposedly some bandits of some sort within the cave. Hardly a concern for day-to-day operations, but they could give you some trouble.

Feel free to read the scroll as part of your reward. The information Fedura has unearthed states very clearly that the tome can be used by almost anyone to learn the spell.

Report back to me once you're done and leave the scroll on the bookshelf to the right as you enter. And feel free to keep anything else from the cave of course.

Reward:

2500 gold [player-> additem gold_001 1500]

1x Potion of Heroism [player-> additem p_heroism_s 1]

*Remember, feel free to post your journey and any unexpected happenings here! Part of the fun of this is seeing how different playstyles interact with the world!*

Link to Previous Community Challenge: https://www.reddit.com/r/Morrowind/comments/1tuvxr1/community_challenge_1_retrieve_the_bow_of_shadows/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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