Enderal is Amazing and You Should Play It

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A few weeks ago, Summer 2020 I was looking for something to play. I sort of toyed with the idea of re-installing Skyrim and picking up on a playthrough that had gotten messed up due to fucking up a quest I wanted to do one way and realized I had done things the wrong way and would have to backtrack a few hours of playthrough to do it right.  And then while toying with the idea I remembered Enderal.

Enderal is a total conversion Skyrim mod – if you already own base Skyrim (not SE) it’s free.  (Otherwise you need to buy base Skyrim, which most of you already have.)  **UPDATE 2021 – There is now a Skyrim Special Edition version of Enderal!  So whether you have base Skyrim or SE, you can get Enderal.  AND IT’S STILL FREE.  Really truly actually free.  Install the SE if you have the option, it’s way more stable.  OK back to the post.**

By total conversion I mean it’s an entirely new world, new characters, new story, etc.  It’s not really even a mod more than it is an entire new game built on the back of Skyrim’s engine.  It incorporates a ton of mods you’d already want naturally, has its own section on the Nexus as well, and changes a lot of Skyrim gameplay elements like the leveling system is very different. If you liked Skyrim but don’t really wanna play Skyrim again, which is where I was, Enderal will scratch that itch.

What I expected was a fun Skyrim-lite game to bide some time in, and to be amused by an amateur-ish attempt to recreate Skyrim in someone else’s D&D-like world.  I didn’t expect to finish it, just to play around for a few hours, roll my eyes at some cliches and give up halfway, tbh.

Instead, what I got was near-professional level polish, with several aspects outshining Skyrim (and many other games I’ve paid big $$ for) drastically, including level design, characters, and especially story elements.  I got an experience that was engrossing and deep, tense, grim, emotional, and to be honest, took something extremely familiar to me and made it not only new, but did it significantly better than the sources it felt inspired from.  I gasped, I cried, I mourned, I cheered, I was delighted and depressed, I want to play it again.  Now that it’s over I’m going to miss those characters as much as I miss my Bioware faves.  I want to tell every video-game playing friend I know to play this game.

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I’m going to do my best in this post to be as spoiler-free as possible, and leave places where I need to do heavier spoilers until the end.  I’m going to post some screenshots, but there are so many things you should just see for yourself that most of my “best” screenshots I can’t post because I just don’t want to ruin things for you when you play it.  This is going to be long, but I have so much I want to say.  Hear me out.

Keep reading

margonite-seer:

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the full poses companions are making for the UI portraits

the portraits are not a simple image insertion. they’re taken from an out-out-of-the-bonds area that has fully rendered models with armor you put on the companions. this gets updated on every level-up. unfortunately, this area doesn’t render the dye changes, Wyll’s horns, and Shadowheart’s white hair. it also renders both the armor and the characters models on top of each other at the same time, that’s why you can see Karlach’s bra and Gale clips so much.

evviejo:

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STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION // S5E14 Conundrum
I feel as though I’ve been handed a weapon, sent into a room, and told to shoot a stranger. Well, I need some moral context to justify that action. And I don’t have it. I’m not content simply to obey orders. I need to know that what I’m doing is right
.

imdefyingmavity:

natjennie:

me occasionally, about a show literally called “ghosts”: holy fuck they’re DEAD. like they’ve been dead for decades, centuries, millennia. is anyone hearing me. they’re DEAD like they’re not there. is anyone talking about this.

That’s why this line hit so hard for me…

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It’s like it was the first time the actual tragedy of the shows premise struck for me, the fact that they are dead, some have been dead for so long no one remembers they ever existed before Alison found them. And they just have to watch as life goes on around them and they get attached to people but can never connect with them or, in cases like Sophie or Kitty while she was alive, when someone is alone and scared, they have no way of letting them know “I’m here.”

bisexualeliotspencer:

Eliot: I stay close to protect Hardison and Parker. I suppose I’m third wheeling but if that’s what it takes to keep them safe then so be it

Hardison: Eliot is our boyfriend. We take him on dates all the time

Parker: he hasn’t figured it out yet

Hardison: I suggested we tell him

Parker: but this is more fun

Hardison: yeah it is

trashmancer:

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Please, do not mourn for me. This was all my fault—and this is how I fix it.

After penning a message to his loved ones, Gale had set off from Waterdeep to get as far away as he could. He was going to end his life to put an end to the Netherese orb once and for all. Of course, then his carefully laid plan was thwarted when he was abducted by mindflayers and whisked into an adventure.

fluffmugger:

bogleech:

ansodie:

lennat2:

mini-wrants:

mini-wrants:

mini-wrants:

When absolutely 0 of Biden’s accomplishments have made any kind of news, and we’ve been fed a steady diet of fear and panic for 3 years, no one gets to be shocked when he loses the next election to Donald 2.0.

Posting anything positive about the president here will get you called a capitalist bootlicker.

What do we expect to happen?

Anger sells better. Anger feels better, it feels righteous.

It’s easier to protest against a president you don’t like then to actually remain in charge and keep pushing ahead, even if small, consistent accomplishments are all you receive.

I know I’ll never be missing an election in my life again (barring some kind of major medical event).

I just wish it weren’t so damn frustrating, feeling like you’re screaming into the void constantly, fighting against apathy.

CMS just announced that the government will start taking high-cost drugs that were developed with taxpayer dollars and start pulling patents to force competition and low cost generics. That’s fucking momentous.

I saw 1 news article on it. I wouldn’t have known it happened if I didn’t read the news every day. This should have caused the kind of celebration that erupted when companies started announcing $35 insulin caps. Why didn’t it?

Low cost hearing aids, lower and $0 student loans, concrete investments in green architecture…there was an announcement like 2 days ago to replace all leaded pipes out of US cities over the next 10 years, which will be an absolute boon in jobs for construction workers and can make our homes safer for kids. I’m sure I’ll see a headline in a year, “Biden’s lead pipe program causes drivers traffic headaches.”

Republicans want 20 foot concrete barriers topped with barbed wire across the entire southern border, and Democrats want amnesty and ease to citizenship for just about anyone who crosses, and it really seems like until a compromise is made somewhere in there, Republicans will continue to turn out in massive numbers to elections because God told them to, and Democrats will continue to stay home because the last president didn’t accomplish 100% of their goals and voting for an imperfect president is a personal and ethical failing.

Now take that mentality and spread it over every single social and economic issue.

I remember how utterly scared and angry we were sone years ago when Trump was trying to bankrupt the USPS. People were talking about it left right and sideways, asking people to buy from the USPS gift shop, start a stamp collection, anything. Then, Biden got elected and put a huge stop to that by getting rid of the unfair laws that only the USPS had to abide by. Overnight, the USPS was saved, and how did everyone react?

They didn’t. It was hardly mentioned. Not a blip.

Same exact thing when it came to net neutrality!! It was DEVASTATING when it was killed. People died in wildfires because Internet providers throttled data of firefighters. Xfinity actually stole identities in order to make it happen.

About a month ago, BAM, it was restored because Biden appointed a Democratic leader to the FFC. Did anyone talk about it? Nope. I saw ONE post.

okay, so as much as I think that Biden was the least shitty of two garbage presidential candidates, and as much as I disagree with some of the things he’s done…

…I have to admit that the Biden-Harris administration has done more for the average American’s life than any other I can remember in the last 20-30 years.

even with a congress made up of majority spoiled toddlers who would rather kill a man than vote “yes” to save a hundred thousand, they have:

Not only that but:

  • as many people who were vocally against it, they also made covid vaccines widely available and FREE for everyone during the pandemic
  • provided massive student loan debt relief
  • ENACTED A MINIMUM 15% CORPORATE TAX on large companies, who otherwise tend to skirt taxes with legally-gray methods
  • Rejoined the Paris Agreement - literally can’t believe I even have to say that
  • are providing relief to veterans exposed to burn pits
  • reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act and added protections for LGBTQ+ individuals and non-women victims, changed it so it now allows tribes to now hold non-native aggressors liable under tribal justice systems, and improved long and short term housing for victims (as well as increased emergency housing access)

I’m not going to say I agree with every action taken under the Biden-Harris admin (lol, looking at you specifically, IRS), but. 
These things change people’s lives. Not just a little - they are the difference between literally dying a slow death from lack of medication and living happily.
 Between getting heart surgery and NOT getting heart surgery, because you don’t have health insurance, because you just got out of prison for having one (1) molecule of weed stuck to your sleeve during a traffic stop.
Election season is already starting, so if you have to remember one thing, remember this:

Adding to this list, the Biden-Harris administration has also:

And honestly, this administration has done so much more that I don’t have time to list - with wide-ranging effects that won’t be fully felt for another few years, but are MONUMENTAL for our country, our healthcare, our environment, our jobs, and our futures.

Please don’t allow shills and bots to convince you that voting doesn’t matter or that your vote is inconsequential.

Please register and vote in 2024.

I just know there’s shitheads in the notes who think a post like this constitutes an endorsement of Israel but the Republicans are going to undo all these things, attempt their 2025 military police state plan, and fund Israel anyway. Nobody is going to survive another trump term.

ima gonna quote something from lemmy:

People have a fucked-up understanding of voting in the US. You are not voting for the person you agree with. You are voting for the person you’d rather negotiate with.

If you actually care beyond the aesthetics of whether you did the cool thing or not, you have to think about the function of what you’re doing and not just whether it feels good.

original comment

Your political choices shouldn’t be performative, they should be as effective as possible in the present.

You do the best you can with what you have.

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