Skyrim Alchemist

The Alchemy Tool is complete! That doesn’t mean that I won’t make changes to it, but it is working the way I intended. I designed it with the intention of having it on my iTouch or Android phone while I play the game. I’ll probably add a frequently used recipes page later.

One detail that is bugging me. IE will not render the CSS3 drop shadows. My attempts to use ie-css3.htc and pie.htc didn’t work. I may come back to it later. So currently, the menus look nicer in Firefox and Safari.

For now, moving on to other things – like playing the game!

I’m actually a lot farther along in the game than my story blog. I have been thinking about how the story develops as I go.

To blog, or to play. That is the question. Hmmm.

I’ve updated the Skyrim Alchemy Tool. Effects and Ingredients are now always visible. Flyout links work! I designed it for how I use it with my iTouch while playing. If there’s a particular potion I want to make, then I know what to look for quickly at an alchemy shop. If I want to learn an ingredient effect, I’ll click an ingredient, then the effect to see what a matching pair might be.

There’s a couple of minor display issues to clean up, but it should be usable. Tested in IE, Firefox, iOS, and Android.

We set off for my first task in the Bard’s College – retrieving King Olaf’s Verse in order to reinstate a Festival.  Colleges in Skyrim seemed to be ‘learn by doing’ rather than studying books with exams.  I approved of the practical approach.  If you died in the task, then you were unsuitable for the job.

Trial by fire, perhaps cruel, but such is life in a world with dragons and frost trolls.  Even music students had to get their hands in the dank depths of dungeons.  Band camp wasn’t exactly a picnic to be scoffed at here.

On the way out, I took a moment to admire the view of Solitude.  Awe inspiring and beautiful on the magnificent arch carved by the sea.  Certainly this was why the Bard’s College was here, to be a muse to the students.

Very picturesque, but perhaps a natural disaster waiting to happen.  Didn’t Winterhold experience an earthquake that shattered the city?

I’ve completed a preliminary stage of the alchemy tool.  You can try it out here – SkyrimAlchemist.com Alchemy Tool.  It should be mobile app friendly, though I still need to do a little work to streamline the CSS.

To use, click on the Effects or Ingredients tab.  On a web browser, hover over the item in order to open the flyout.  On a mobile app, click on the link.

Clicking on the items in the flyout isn’t enabled yet.

Enjoy!

Considering for a moment that my ‘dream’ I conversed with my brother was true, I panicked.  It was plausible my mother may indeed be looking for me.  If nothing else to verify events and fact check.  She always was incredibly thorough.  Lying to her was pointless.  She’d find out, eventually, one way or another.

When I came here, I didn’t initially intend on being entirely anonymous.  However, my ‘death’ turned out to be an event I came to think of as a blessing.  Now I was faced with the possibility that my family was indeed looking for me.

I cursed myself.  I did not cover my tracks well.  It was too late to disappear.  I would eventually be discovered.  My arrival at Helgen was recorded.  They would find my tracks leading to Riverrun, Whiterun, and Solitude.

I hatched a new plan.

I must become powerful.

If I could establish enough titles, land, and prestige within Skyrim, then my family would not be able to extract me as a runaway child.  I would have my own estates, and therefore, a sovereign resident of Skyrim.

I already held title of Thane in Whiterun, and the Housecarl Lydia.  I needed more.

Counting out my 83 septims, I sighed hopelessly.  How was I going to gain estates?

An impossible task, but I didn’t have a better plan.  It was this, or marry the Supreme Commander Justicar’s son, Verin.

Verin.  The one responsible for the scar on my brother’s knuckle.  My brother was not one for violence.  His preferred weapon was his charm.  He talked his way out of trouble.  But Verin’s advances on me were unwelcome.  The one and only time my brother ever took a physical swing at anyone…

Mother was arranging for me to wed him…

I was not going back.

Nearly finished with my alchemy tools.  I’m in the process of testing them now.  Database and most of the queries are finished.  I need to polish the layout and interface.  My goal is to make them mobile web app friendly.

My twin brother Alinius.  For most of our lives, the only family we had were each other.  Our parents were away on Thalmor business.  We were mostly raised by our Bosmer caretaker, Anariel.  She was more mother to us than our own mother.

We did not have sibling rivalry.  Perhaps it was our twin bond.  We felt we were male and female halves of the same spirit.  We were constantly trying to best each other, but not in a jealous or malicious way.  We strove to make each other better.

My name as pronounced by the Altmer dialect was az-ur-I-ah.  The Cyrodiilians pronounced it, ah-ZAER-ee-ah.  The Nords seemed to pronounce it ah-ZEER-ee-ah.  My brother called me “Zeri”.  I called him “Alin”.

Handsome, intelligent, and popular, Alin’s one fault seemed to be his vanity.  He rather lavished the attention and fawning of his many admirers.  The way they’d giggle and blush as he walked by made my eyes roll and stifle a gag.  He actively encouraged this, which would be proceeded by me lecturing him on courtly behavior.  He’d probably kissed half the girls in the Imperial City.  They didn’t even have to be pretty.  We moved to Alinor (Summerset Isles) before he could finish the other half.

I dreamed of his folded hands at his desk.  Long and slender fingers.  A male mirror of my own.  Nails neatly cleaned and groomed.  Privileged hands that had never seen a day of hard labor.  Perfectly chiseled, almost like a sculptors marble.  Flawless, except one scar that ran across his left knuckle that was caused by…

Wait.  Something was odd.  I wasn’t dreaming of his hands.  I was looking at his hands.  Incredible.  I wiggled his scarred finger.

I walked up the steps to the Bard’s College.  My hands were shaking and my heart pounded.  I was taking a big step in my future.  College.  The transition from being a child to a young adult.

I walked to the door and hesitated.  I took a big gulp, and walked through the door.

If you’ve been following my story so far, you might be wondering: “If this is the Skyrim Alchemist, where are the alchemy tools?”

A fine question!  A problem that I plan to remedy in the new year.  I started this website two fold:

1) My first playthrough was with a Nord huntress.  I found my imagination filled in a story as I played – emergent storytelling.  I did not play the Bard’s and Mage College quests, as I didn’t feel it fit my huntress character.  I decided to make a mage character, and share the story as it happened.  I wanted the story format to be in words and pictures.  I really enjoy being a Skyrim tourist, stopping to pose and snap pictures.
2) A vessel for alchemy tools.  There are a number of alchemy calculators out there already, but I would like to try my hand at creating one.  I need a personal project at the moment to hone some of my development skills, and this seemed to be a great opportunity to work on a small, pet project.  I have a couple of different tools in the works, which I plan to unveil in the new year.  My goal is for the tools to supplement the story.

Enjoy the holidays!  See you in the new year, with more story and tools!

20th Last Seed, 4E201

Despite the flurry of events the previous day, my sleep was dreamless.  I actually awoke a little disappointed.  I hoped to speak to the bronze dragon again.  He and I seemed to share a kinship.

I realized the foolishness of what I was thinking.  A kinship?  With a dream-dragon?  I must be going mad.

Or perhaps it was the tea I missed.  Am I getting homesick?

I brushed that thought aside as well.  There were plenty of reasons to be glad I was free of the Aldmeri Dominion.  It was not a charmed life.  At least, not for me.