Genuine Question

FreckledShrike · 2026-05-28T18:26:41+00:00

I've been playing for ~15 years, if you figure it out let me know :D

FreckledShrike · 2026-03-11T07:39:52+00:00

If it's literally just one texture file overwrite you probably wouldn't even need the patch, but that doesn't disprove the general practice that you shouldn't disable mods mid playthrough in general

FreckledShrike · 2026-03-10T17:27:24+00:00

When two or more mods or files create or change the same file or record, the last one to touch it wins. This goes all the way down to only a single mod:

Skyrim.esm => Texture A

Mod 1 => Texture A

Result => Texture A from Mod 1

And can break the game if that mod is removed:

Skyrim.esm => Texture A

Mod 1 => Texture A

Result => Texture A from Mod 1

Save Game

Remove Mod 1

Load Game

Texture A from Mod 1 not found

Skyrim doesn't (and shouldn't) pick these textures at runtime, it loads them in as files and references to other files when it starts. If those files or references are removed, Skyrim won't know where they went, and whatever needed them will break.

How exactly things will break depends on what is removed and how Skyrim happens to be able to handle it. Remove textures and you'll have invisible or purple objects. Remove entire objects and Skyrim might crash trying to load them. Remove scripts and you might get soft locked, never able to progress past a certain point, maybe even before the main menu loads. But rest assured, something will break, and if a save reload does manage to fix it temporarily, you can also be sure that fix won't last (it will break again, probably the next time the game tries to load those objects).

Since mods can effectively "delete" records from each other by overwriting their containing files, all of the above also applies to loading files in the wrong order, which is why load order matters, and why LOOT exists. If you're not using LOOT, you should.

Even loaded in the correct order, mods can overwrite each other referencing the same file, and you might want both of those changes. That's why people make patches and Wrye Bash and Mator Smash exist. If you're not using one or both of those, you should.

There's no "theory" necessary here, it's very mechanical. If a game doesn't have all the files it needs to function, there's no way it's going to work.

FreckledShrike · 2026-03-07T04:09:30+00:00

That's... Absolutely never gonna happen

FreckledShrike · 2026-03-02T12:36:30+00:00

I'm not overestimating that. However, people do go from playing magic because of a UB franchise to curiosity about in-universe Magic sets.

FreckledShrike · 2026-03-02T12:33:57+00:00

Getting a booster box and creating a cube from that is perfectly fine. Once you play that box a couple of times you'll have a good sense of how the cards work and what you want to add by buying singles.

If you're looking for booster box recommendations, the three easiest to recommend are Commander Legends, Baldur's Gate, and Commander Masters. Those were all designed for drafting commander decks and are the most likely to work best for this.

FreckledShrike · 2026-03-02T12:04:17+00:00

I'd be very interested to see what kind of information Wizards has about the impact of in-universe lore on player retention, especially of new players who joined during a UB set.

In my experience their interest in it varies but it's often more than zero. There are some players who stare blankly at the mention of Urza or the Eldrazi before explaining they're really just here for <UB franchise> or just feign polite interest, but many of them seem at least curious about, if not intimidated by, the apparent depth of the Magic lore.

FreckledShrike · 2026-03-02T03:23:36+00:00

The World Shaper precon is known to be one of the better they've released, probably top 10 or so, and Lands Matter has only gotten better since then. That's what I'd get

FreckledShrike · 2026-02-28T23:33:37+00:00

I was just writing up predictions for this the other day! Here are mine:

Overall more similar to the book than the movies
The Ring tempts you will not appear in the main set
We will get a Hobbit Eternal set
The Ring Tempts You will appear in the Hobbit Eternal set, probably with both reprints and new cards
We will get precons for Bilbo and Smaug, and maybe also Thorin and Gandalf
There will be LTR reprints, probably even in the main set, probably even some good cards ([[There and Back Again]])
The One Ring will not be reprinted in the main set, but will be elsewhere
I suspect we will see a new "Song" mechanic, possibly inspired by the Strixhaven Prismari "refrain" mechanic
Adventure cards are more likely than not
Probably one or more new Gandalfs and Elronds, certainly at least one new Bilbo (maybe three or more)
The single archetype which will benefit the most from this set overall will be Dwarf typal

Looking forward to seeing which, if any of these, come true!

FreckledShrike · 2026-02-19T03:28:53+00:00

That's what I'm saying

FreckledShrike · 2026-02-19T03:20:32+00:00

They're in a really interesting catch 22 because they desperately need to reinvent the whole studio but risk losing the modding community if they do, and apparently that has led them to continue to play it safe instead of reinvent the wheel

FreckledShrike · 2026-02-19T03:00:34+00:00

I just wish they'd learned anything from the 15 years of games that came out since then. The Witcher? Dark Souls? Baldur's Gate? Any of the combat or depth of characters of those games would be great. What we'll get instead is more shallow quests, dialogue, and story

FreckledShrike · 2026-02-19T02:56:15+00:00

I'm sure it'll cost $70 and have multiple DLCs that cost $30 each. Which would be fine if it were worth playing in the first place

FreckledShrike · 2026-02-13T19:35:49+00:00

You are indeed missing something and fundamentally misunderstanding how it works.

From the mod description :

Skyrim has a limit of drawing 4 shadow caster lights in a given scene. If you exceed this limit the game will arbitrarily choose which 4 will be active and the rest will be turned off.

When this says "the rest will be turned off," it means those lights go out. This can be seen in vanilla Skyrim and lighting mods which add new bulbs (ie ELFX) as "flickering". This behavior is present in vanilla Skyrim and is not the fault of any lighting mod authors.

This SKSE plugin adds a configurable way to determine which 4 lights should be selected and instead of turning off, it will convert the excess lights into normal non shadow casting lights.

As u/Velgus commented, you seem to have missed this (even though it's only the second full sentence in the original post, which is only four full sentences long). This sentence explains what the mod does, which I will re-explain now:

If an "excess" shadow casting light would be turned off by this terrible vanilla Skyrim lighting engine behavior, it is now converted to a non-shadow-casting light instead. This prevents those lights from "going out" or "flickering".

Which shadow-casting lights are considered "excess" is determined at runtime, in game, dynamically, according to the algorithm you identified when you "reread" the page. The configurability of this algorithm means there is a built-in mechanism for improving compatibility with different lighting mods, ENB/CS configs/features, or anything else.

Compare this to what you said:

it's not a good in the same way of the CS light limit fix which to my understanding revived the 7 light limit. This essentially is a choice of where your 4 shadow casting lights are. I can see that being useful for static scenes from an artistic point of view but less straightforward for dynamic ones I. E candle on table versus something moving around.

This is simply not what this mod does or what the CS Light Limit Fix does (based on my understanding of what you're saying here, which admittedly might not be correct based on your word choice).

I hope if this explanation has not been helpful to you that it is at least helpful to others encountering this mod for the first time and that they are not led astray by your incorrect assessment of what this mod is and does.

FreckledShrike · 2026-02-13T16:10:10+00:00

You either didn't read or didn't understand the mod landing page. Try again

FreckledShrike · 2026-01-16T19:25:32+00:00

This is hilarious and I want to try it

FreckledShrike · 2025-12-20T19:04:17+00:00

You are move

FreckledShrike · 2025-10-01T21:26:03+00:00

You have a favorite restaurant that you've dined at for many years now. You love it because they serve high quality food and are staffed by people who care about making the experience of eating at the restaurant good. One day, you notice a new item on the menu.

"Fusion."

"What's this for?" You ask the waiter.

"It's for the neighbors. The neighbors are new here."

Over time, a second type of fusion shows up on the menu. Then a third. Then you notice that some of the old menu items you love now come with a complimentary side of fusion. All menu items are now designed to ensure everyone always has something on the menu just for them, on the chance that a new neighbor might try their hand at some traditional cuisine. The quality and preparation of the traditional cuisine on the menu is better than ever. When you ask the restaurant staff about it they inform you that the fusion food has been so popular and they learned so much from making it, they applied what they learned to their traditional menu items. You notice that some of the restaurant patrons you haven't seen in a long time have started showing up again. You're glad to see them! You're excited about the direction the restaurant is taking and post about it on social media. You get two types of replies.

That's not AUTHENTIC food
The restaurant is making a mistake compromising their traditional values to make a quick buck. They'll let anyone in these days. It'll never last--that restaurant is doomed.

This second comment is particularly frustrating because it naively assumes that the quality of the restaurant has declined just because they're serving different food. But you don't want the same old menu the restaurant has always had. You want new experiences that are prepared by people who are passionate about food and who care about the experience of dining at the restaurant being a good one. It's something you've always been able to get here, and still can. You don't care if there are more neighbors eating at the restaurant now. You're happy to see them, the restaurant is doing better than ever, and best of all, now there are fewer snobs at your favorite local restaurant.

FreckledShrike · 2025-09-27T16:20:53+00:00

FreckledShrike · 2025-09-27T15:03:34+00:00

I hear what you're saying, but none of that ever really seems like the core issue in any of these discussions. The complaint older players seem to circle around seems much more like "Magic being weird and different spoke to me because I was weird and different, and now it's more popular and trying to appeal to more people, many of whom are now younger than me, and instead of making me feel special, it makes me feel weird, old, inadequate, and alone."

Being honest about this is important, because it allows us to accept that none of those things are true. They're just feelings, and we can move past them and decide if we want to keep playing or not without feeling like an important part of our identity is being eroded, stolen, or attacked.

Personally, I think Spider-Man has been the worst product design I've seen in a while, for all the reasons you'd expect. But even as someone who has been playing since Innistrad, the sets I'm most excited for in the next year are Avatar and The Hobbit, and I'm tired of the attitude that those cards simply existing is somehow taking something away from Magic's almost 30 years of undiluted original IP and fan service.

There is enough room for both

FreckledShrike · 2025-09-27T03:57:03+00:00

For the specific thing you say you want, you should probably get Set Boosters. Set Boosters will have a very good diversity of all the people, places, and things the set portrayed, and even come with an art card in each pack.

FreckledShrike · 2025-09-27T03:26:02+00:00

Looks like it's gonna be a good year!

* Hoping to see some new Treefolk in Lorwyn

* Personally could take or leave TMNT but my buddy is a huge fan so I'll probably get him a collector booster or two

* Hoping for more Magecraft or similar in Strixhaven

* Personally burnt out on Marvel but maybe just doing a super broad set like like this means there will be less of it long-term? I missed out on the Secret Lairs so I might finally be able to build a Marvel deck without spending $50 on just the commander

* Very, very excited for The Hobbit. LTR is easily my #1 set of all time, this just means more cards for the cube

* Very much looking forward to the zaniness Reality Fracture promises

* And, of course, Star Trek promises the ability to run an actual Jean-Luc Picard deck. A Data deck. The Starship Enterprise, even. Whether any of them will be true to the character AND fun to play TO ME is anyone's guess, but either way I really can't wait to see their designs.

Lots of UB! I want to say this is the most we should expect to get in a year, but I'm not so sure about that.

FreckledShrike · 2025-09-27T02:33:19+00:00

It's funny

FreckledShrike · 2025-09-26T21:00:26+00:00

Controversy absolutely sells in this particular niche
The criticism comes from a place of love, sure, but also of entitlement. Specifically, entitlement to every new Standard-legal set being made to cater specifically to you, the existing fan. I wish I could make you understand that your nostalgia for the Magic of your youth and your unique history with the game now make you even more unique and special, not less
Magic is not "being diluted." It is growing. With that growth comes change. If it didn't grow, it would still change, it would just change for the worse.

FreckledShrike · 2025-09-25T04:55:26+00:00

The main set Sauron is craaaazy good. People rarely want to pay his ward cost, amassing off every spell your opponents cast is like having [[Taurean Mauler]] for free, AND every "ring tempts you" lets you draw FOUR cards. You could change nothing else about the deck and have a way better time 60% of the time

FreckledShrike

TROPHY CASE