Thanks, Nowena. I look forward to what you find out. Did anyone write up a clear, easily usable manual for anything? The party isn't over yet.

Oh, by the way did you find their secret area? Don't remember what version you need to have it. It is in the Waterfront District. You know that garden when you get the first FG quest? On the other side of the wall in the bushs is a secret entrace to it. Unless they changed that. It is a very large space, many rooms and several stories. Lots of things to do.

Are you talking about the CB warehouse? If so, they did change it. I saw that in the public threads - was done in 7.0 version. They made a warehouse, inn, lighthouse, and harbor master - sort of a new village - in an area south of the main bridge over Lake Rumare. I haven't loaded anything above 6.0 yet, so I haven't seen it, just read about it. If that's not what your talking about, I guess I haven't found it yet.

So far, I'm still reading the early stuff (circa 2010). Lots to catch up on and lots of other things I need to be doing, too. Looks like I might have to only do a clean save, but that was written in early 2010, too.

On another note, I finally found the last edition of Iliana's Elsweyr, Deserts of Anequina, and downloaded it. Probably won't install this playthrough as I do have an earlier version installed and I have a lot to do with this runthrough. But, I really wanted to get that as she has decided to mostly remove her work from public view. (RL problems prevent her from supporting it the way she wanted to.) If you want it, let me know and I'll point you to the place I found it last nite. It is over 400 MB download, but huge land mass and all kinds of gorgeous, new things including quests, new landscapes, new cities and villages, new guilds, and player housing. (Love the desert, what can I say?) Well worth the time and space.

They have created a new, lovely, downloadable guide with pictures! They also made an ingame guide, but I understand that is outdated in several areas and in need of update.

Regarding fire: It is now much more realistic. You drop a piece of firewood on the ground, CB key it to turn it into a campfire, and then have to light it. Several ways to do that. I did it with a fireball spell and that worked wonderfully. To put it out, I tried a freeze spell, which also worked quite well, and got ashes from the dead fire. You can still add more firewood by activating the fire and if you don't, it will eventually go out by itself. They have also changed how it works in weather. It flickers in wind, does some crazy moves with rain, and is dowsed by a good thunderstorm.

That sounds great. I think I remember using a tinder box unless I am mixing it up with another mod that lightable fires. It seems they have improved it quite a bit so hopefully the Skyrim one will be in good shape to play.

How are you doing with the pottery and woodworking? What can you make? Anything new? Have you tried gardening?

Yep. Tinderbox and/or stone will also start it. (And, water poured on it will dowse it, too.) The third way to start a fire is the old way - open it, add wood, and activate. They are considering if they want to keep this method or just go with tinderbox and spells.

After a long period trying to create my new pottery board, I have now made: a lidded cooking pot, a bowl, a plate (all of these for cooking recipes I'll try later), and the clay lantern. The lantern is an entirely new model added when this feature was. I love it! The lantern needs birch tar or some other oil as fuel to light, but that part isn't quite working yet. For now, it lights when you equip it - like a torch.

In the woodworking part, I have only created my cutting board/pottery board/tailoring board, etc. (all in one, converted with CB key) and a whole lot of fire wood. hehe. Firewood is what you get if you botched the woodcarving. Doesn't matter too much. Firewood is quite valuable in other crafting, too.

In this version, I have only tried to skin one animal - a black bear. I'm told it's pretty advanced and that's probably why I only got scraps and bones. I'll try again when I run into some lesser animals.

I have also tried mining for coal, but so far my only success at that has been to get my mining pickaxe. I botched the getting it out of the seam. On the good side, they have apparently added more places to get ore of all kinds, plus clay and other necessities. Also, you can get bees from some trees that you can raise to get beeswax and honey.

Sounds as if they have added quite a bit since I played the mod. Sounds quite interesting.

Yep. You can also build yurts, tents, and furniture, plus set and bait traps, but that's a little beyond my abilities for the moment. I'm trying to get all the basics down first.