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This mod adds a gigantic underground maze along with a quest and a few nasty surprises, with an enslavement outcome option.
Supports Simple Slavery ++.

 

Thanks to the many kind users, who have helped me iron out the kinks, and who have provided me with a lot of useful information on how to do stuff.

The latest iteration of the mod is the first version which I dare call complete, as it now has a fully formed quest structure (as simple as it might be). Version 1.0 introduces a quest giver and quest items which will trigger the quest for finding the mysterious labyrinth and the treasure (or just a honeypot?) inside. You might want to find these by chance, when you don't expect it, or, if you can't wait, read the spoiler below. In any case, the revealed map marker in now hidden, in 1.0, until you get close to the entrance.
 

Spoiler

The quest giver is a woman named Patricia Laqueus, who resides in the Bee and Barb inn in Riften. Strewn all over most of the other inns and taverns of Skyrim are a number of books named "Notes of Ricard Stowdel", which will also trigger the quest.

 

If you successfully find your way through the maze, the mod will try and hand you off to Simple Slavery ++ (unless you resist).
WARNING: When captured, all your belongings will be taken from you, including quest items, and stored in a chest in the fort. I recommend making a backup save before entering the maze.

 

Description:

 

Rumor has it that there is a hidden maze in the vicinity of Riften, which harbors treasures beyond imagination. Intrigued by this rumor, looking for more clues, you are able to purchase a notebook from a mysterious woman who claims it is related to the treasure. Filled with dreams of fame and wealth, equipped with a rough map, you set out to find it. And find it you do, but soon you realize that that your in for more than you bargained for...

 

Hard Requirements:

 

ZAZ8

 

Sexlab Framework (for v1.0d and lower)

Devious Devices 5 (for v1.0d and lower)

and all their respective requirements.

I suspect some of these requirements aren't really needed (I added them at a time when I didn't really know what I was doing), but I'm afraid to remove them, because I used some of the furniture and restraints and I can't figure out how to determine what plugin the used assets stem from. Advice welcome.

 

Soft Requirements:

 

Simple Slavery plus plus

Immersive Jail Bars – for more realistic jail bars at the fort (and everywhere else in Skyrim, too)
Ambient Slaves – adds various affiliated Frostbite Clan outposts throughout Skyrim and Solstheim (purely cosmetic mod)


Since it is fairly easy, in the Creation Kit, to accidentally include masters which are not necessary (the column is narrow and many files have similar names), it has happened, and it can happen again, that I accidentally include masters which are not needed. If you notice that this is the case, i.e. if something is required which is not on the list above, nor is it a requirement thereof, this is most likely an accident, please let me know and I'll fix it.

 

For a more challenging experience, please make sure to deactivate all quests in your journal, as otherwise quest markers will point you to the exit.

 

Features:

 

- A quest giver or found quest items will point you to the general area where the hidden entrance to the maze is

- The entrance is well concealed, so don't give up too easily

- For gameplay reasons, fast travel is disabled in the cell with the entrance (outgoing, incoming is fine, once the map marker is revealed). The same goes for the exit.

- Unlike most other dungeons in Skyrim, this one is almost completely dark, so don't forget to bring torches or equip appropriate spells and/or potions

- You will also need a lot of lockpicks (if your lockpick level is low) or an open-master-lock spell (two expert and one master locks at the exit, other than that, movement throughout the maze is unimpeded – the whole thing is one big cell)

- Finding the exit should be fairly difficult, so far very few people have reported having found it. If you want to cheat, you can:
 

Spoiler

use the console command: coc perilousmaze
It will put you right in front of the exit.


- Compass is still enabled for now, as I don't know how to block it. So is the local map, so you'll have a little help, although thanks to the two levels projecting over one another, the map isn't too useful.

- story pop-up windows

- Some hostile creatures in the maze

- An insidious mystery feature

- Thee friendly NPCs in the maze, one of whom is a quest giver with a nearly impossible quest

- A fortified slaver hold at the exit, with slavers who will try to enslave you when exiting the maze, sending you to Simple Slavery ++

 

Planned Features:


- Multiple starting quests along the lines of what's in the description

- Jump-scares

- Deadly traps

- More voiced actors, also talking to you through a magical PA system, while you are in the maze

- Integration with Ambient Slaves

- Elaborate backstory (will be part of other mods)

- More curious NPCs inside and outside the labyrinth

- Multiple quest/enslavement/slave training options after the labyrinth is successfully navigated through (will be part of another mod)

- Additional labyrinth levels (separate cells), after the main features are working, potentially an unlimited number (hopefully regular updates)

- More poor NPCs trapped in really perilous devices within the labyrinth and at the exit fort

- much more

 

Credits:

 

philo221 - for providing me with invaluable and absolutely essential support in learning the ins and outs of modding and scripting and troubleshooting the many issues I encounter

Mister X - for fixing one of my scripts and other useful advice

jbezorg - for a lot of very useful advice on scripting

alster325 - for finding and helping me remove numerous bugs and errors

The DD, ZAZ and SexLab teams - for providing all those fabulous resources

HexBolt8 and all his predecessors for developing Simple Slavery ++, providing very useful advice, and also inspiring me to do this in the first place

Dan Ruta - for creating xVASynth, which I am about to use a lot

All of the kind commenters - for encouraging me

 

Other:

 

- I'm always looking for voice actors, female ones in particular (I know, like that's ever going to happen...), or at least someone who could take that tedious synthing work off of my hands.

- I'm also looking for a collaborator, someone who would go over my work and find errors and mistakes and who'd teach me how to avoid those in the future. Someone who'd be able to answer very specific questions on how best to do this or that, ideally providing examples. This would greatly reduce the time I have to spend on the Internet and troubleshooting, which I could in turn use for more creative work on the mods.

- I'd love to be able to spend more time doing this, so if there are any generous followers who would like to support me to be able to do that, please let me know, and I'll set up a Patreon.

 

 

Version history:

 

Spoiler

What's New in Version 1.0d

Released November 27, 2021

A minor update: the only change is the inclusion of a script provided by Mister X that replaces one of my scripts which seemed to linger even after the player exits the maze. This issue should now be hopefully resolved. Thank you Mister X! 

 

Added a Cathedral-patched version, compliments to games2xs. This might help resolve the CTD issues some people are having. 

 

What's new in version 1.0c

Included a bunch of forgotten dialogue view files the absence of which probably broke the dialogues in the previous version.

 

What's new in version 1.0b

 

Released Thursday at 02:00 PM

It has been a very long wait, but finally, I was able to finish up the next major update of A Perilous Maze. I have skipped a number of version numbers, as, for one thing, those were used internally as steps in the development of version 1.0, and for another, This newest update finally features all of the main features I had planned (and not scratched yet) for this mod, so it seems fitting that this should be version 1.0.

So, what's new?
- There is now a quest giver as well as quest objects which will trigger the APM quest to find the maze (details will follow in the mod description)
- Correspondingly, the maze map marker was hidden and will only be revealed when you're nearby

- Rebuilt the docks from the scratched version 0.7

- Added various other features to the fort (which I can no longer remember)

- Fixed a number of issues (which I also no longer remember)
 

Please Note: 

Since I have the mod deployed in my game directory unaided by a mod manager (I tried doing that and it only led to accidental deletions of current files and significant loss of progress), I may have forgotten to include one file or another, even though I took great care not to, so issues can be expected. Also, when loading an earlier modded save with the new version of the mod, all sorts of game-breaking weird issues started happening in the location with the quest giver. Using a clean save resolved all of these, so hopefully I haven't done anything terribly wrong, but still, stuff can happen I suppose. As I keep saying, I am very green, and half of the time I don't know what I am doing. So use this mod at your own risk, you had been warned.
Please let me know about all issues you might encounter. Chances are that I won't be able to do anything about them, but every once in a while, I am.
Thanks for downloading and enjoy!


What's New in Version 0.6a

 

Released February 26, 2021

The Perilous Maze is moving into alpha! The main features are in place, though some still in a very rudimentary form. From now on, you can look forward to all of them being gradually improved, more detail, dialogue and quest lines being added, more levels of the maze, more NPCs and much more.
The new features are:

 

- Enslavement event at the exit from the maze with an option to fight your way out (very hard), or submit, lose all your stuff and be sent off to Simple Slavery ++

  WARNING: when captured, all items, including quest ones, will be taken from you and stored in a chest in the manor. I highly recommend making a backup save before entering the maze!
- The slavers have been revamped and their numbers doubled (night shift)
- All slavers now have (still very glitchy, but functional) AI packages
- Two voiced slavers with the same (enslavement) dialogue – two because they are day and night shift
- Added many slaves in the manor and its slave storage facilities (you aren't really supposed to enter the manor, all of this is in preparation of what's to come)
- Navmeshed the room in the tower
- Redid and simplified all interior lights to eliminate flickering
- Added cage protection to the wall walkways (mainly to prevent NPCs from falling off, but it does give the place a more secure look and it makes it more difficult to get out)
- Added a second Portcullis in the main gate to eliminate any hope for captives to escape while people in future versions are entering or leaving the fort
- Added and/or changed a lot of stuff I no longer remember

Given the large number of changes and additions, and the increasing amounts of time required for proper testing, there is a very high likelihood of bugs coming up, which I have not noticed yet. There is no simple way for me to check whether I haven't forgotten to include some files, so please report anything you discover (except for odd NPC behavior, as long as it isn't game-breaking, which is to be expected). This version is mostly untested, so I'm keeping the older versions, too.

 

 

What's New in Version 0.5f

 

While working on the 0.6a update, I have noticed some dialogue view files were missing in the last package, what probably resulted in the dialogue with the newest NPC being broken. So while this update brings nothing new, the dialogue should be fixed. If you find any issues, please let me know. As the number of files is growing, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of all of them, so omissions are likely.

 

What's New in Version 0.5e

 

A minor update, adding another fully voiced NPC into the maze. This time, it's not a quest giver

 

What's New in Version 0.5d


Having seriously delved into the area of quest building, I have quickly discovered that my belief, expressed in the last update, that updates will be coming at a faster pace now, was somewhat misled. Those tutorials make it all seem so easy, but in reality, I have encountered  whole range of issues, some of which were fairly obscure (see my blog, if you want to know more), so I won't be making such promises for future releases, but I can promise, I'll keep at it. As is becoming a rule,  this update would have taken much, much longer, if it hadn't been for philo221, who helped me sort out most of the issues. So what's new?
 

- Added one fully-voiced quest-giver into the maze. It is not necessary to meet him in order to find your way out. Thanks Philo221 for the character's background idea
- Albino Spiders have been replaced by White (which I keep calling albino) Frostbite Spiders, due to an issue described in my blog
- Navmeshed the entire Frostbite Clan Manor in preparation for breathing life into it
- Added new layers of detail in the manor and an underground kitchen

 

What's New in Version 0.5c

 

Although this is, once more, just a small update, it constitutes a fairly big update to my brain, as with the new features implemented I have finally learned the fundamentals of Papyrus scripting and how dialogues are made. Form now on, progress should be a little bit faster again.

 

- Added a non-hostile NPC in the maze, with voiced dialogue. The voiceover was done in xVASynth and is still a WIP, but it already sounds fairly good.
- Tweaked the existing NPCs in the maze a bit
- Added an insidious scripted little feature in the maze. You'll have to discover what it is for yourself
- Added some water FX at the entrance
- fixed two navmesh triangles in the maze

 

What's New in Version 0.5b

 

This new version is basically the same as the previous one, only it adds some missing texture files which were causing the crashes, not only in VR, as I thought, but most likely also in SE. Only I hadn't experienced them, as the files were there, in my case, the SE folder being the one where the Creation Kit is deployed. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, now it finally should be working properly.

 

What's New in Version 0.5a:

 

There is only one new feature in this version, but it took the whole weekend to create:
- I set up the navmesh for the entire maze by hand, as automatic generation would always result in a crash. You can imagine how much fun that was. So you can now enjoy the company of the first maze dwellers. They are very simplistic, no scripts, for now, as there was little time for anything but making the navmesh, but they can walk about.
- I also removed most of the traders (apart from those in the courtyard), it's probably for the best if they are not allowed to wander around and kill innocent NPCs, until they are properly scripted.

 

What's New in Version 0.4e

 

As minor, as this update is, it took me an entire day to make it. I finally found where to change the properties of water, what allowed me to finally find a setting in which the visibility of the water does not extend indefinitely in VR, while not sacrificing the look of the water in SE. And I was also able to make the water look darker, both in the labyrinth, as well as in the cistern. The water issue had been bugging me ever since I first added the water, so I consider it a breakthrough. This update concludes the 0.4 version. The next one should bring first interactions with NPCs and/or quests and other mechanics. Since I will have to learn how to do all of this first, expect a delay.


- fixed water issue in VR in the maze
- adjusted water level in the maze so as not to flicker on the first step of staircases
- fixed north markers which somehow changed direction
- added new north markers in the manor and the tower
- removed the rubble pile in the sky outside of Whiterun (somehow, discarded objects from my interior cells occasionally end up here)
- made the water in the cistern much darker
- removed the mist effects as once they became apparent (thanks to the darker water), due to their upscaling, they looked very 2-dimensional

 

What's New in Version 0.4d

 

- added light FX in the manor
- extended cellar for increased slave storage
- added some devious furniture
- added the tower interior cell
- fixed the invisible barrier issue in the manor
- fixed the rebellious door on top of the tower
- removed the Devious Devices SE Patch from dependencies, as I no longer can find the link
- fixed a number of misalignments

 

What's New in Version 0.4c

 

Another small update that was extremely time-consuming.

 

- I just couldn't stand the messed-up interior proportions in the Frostbite Clan Manor, so I spent half a day resizing it to normal
- Please note, there is an invisible barrier preventing entry to the loft – I am currently investigating which object is causing this
- Fixed some unnoticed navmesh errors around the fort
- Added a few light sources in the manor (the interior is still far from finished)
- Hopefully fixed a slaver skin color mismatch issue, courtesy of verydarknut
- Fixed a bad segment in the labyrinth, courtesy of Phantom2696
Thanks guys!

 

What's New in Version 0.4b

 

This is yet another small update on the surface, but it took a lot of work.

 

- Added the interior of Frostbite Clan Manor. Still rough around the edges and the underground is yet to be furbished and the whole space lit. All doors work and connect to the outside. I wanted to make the proportions inside the house bigger, so as to correspond with the giant statures of the clan huntresses, but it seems I've overdone it, and I can't find a way how to sale all the objects without creating gaps between them, so I guess I'm stuck with this. If anyone knows about a way to resize the whole house, I'd be very thankful.
- Corrected the gap between one outer wall of the labyrinth and the edge of the water plane, thanks to alster523 for making me aware of this!
- Increased fog density to hopefully compensate for a water brightness issue on some systems and in VR. If this doesn't help, possibly I will be releasing versions with and without water, in the future. Please let me know if you like it, or if you are also experiencing the issue.

 

What's New in Version 0.4

 

Another small update, but I am calling it 0.4, as it concludes one stage of the development

- Hopefully removed the unused dependencies (to Skyrim Utility Mod, SLSFF etc.)
- Significantly improved the visuals inside the labyrinth thanks ti finally figuring out how fog really works
- The NPCs in the fort now all have different faces and are more numerous
- Adds Message boxes throughout your journey through the labyrinth

 

What's New in Version 0.3c

 

- Unsuccessful hotfix of unused dependencies
- Additional navmeshes and idle markers

- A workaround for the broken door on top of the tower. It's a mystery why it won't work. I linked the door on the wooden balcony and it works perfectly. If anyone can explain this, please do.

- Added some torches, a chandelier and two barrels

- A slave in the courtyard to dig (ATM far without any DDs)

 

 

What's new in version 0.3b

 

Just a minor update

 

- Finally made the NPCs attack. Integration with SL Defeat works well, The animation is unobstructed by the locked gate.

- The NPCs are pretty powerful, so make sure you surrender quickly (in future version there will be dialogue first

- I replaced the doors on top of the tower but they still only work one way. The top one does not even display the prompt to open. In CK the reference works, if you click the marker, the camera moves to the other door. No idea why this is happening.

 

What's new in version 0.3:

 

- Corrected four bad segments in lower level, thanks again to alster523

- reoriented exit to correspond with compass

- Replaced fully opening cell doors with the proper teleport ones, so they don't open into a wall

- Added a lot of detail to the exit location – finished main structure of the tower. Apart from the parts of the tower, which are in the exterior cell, no interior cells have been made yet for the fort, but I did interconnect all the doors to make most of its parts accessible. The door on the top of the tower is one-way only, for some reason, so you'll have to jump or fast travel from there, but there really isn't a reason to go there yet.

- Added NPCs in the hold, hand-crafted them only to lose all this work by setting them to a base actor class in an effort to make them hostile. As reverting to a backup would mean a loss of even more work, all NPCs in the fort are now bandits. Friendly bandits. The one thing I was trying to achieve with  the setting, I did not get. It seems I will have to read a lot, before I can figure out how to make the fort-dwellers attack you. All the tutorials I have watched seem to avoid this topic. Suggestions welcome.
- Successfully tested navmeshing and idle behavior. The NPCs perform their routines exactly as defined. I haven't refined this yet, so they seem a little bit restless.

- I actually went through the maze, with the help of my hand-drawn blueprint, and verified that the exit actually can be reached, and that it teleports correctly into the exit location

 

What's new in version 0.2:

- Fixed some misalignments, courtesy of alster523

- Added/replaced some clutter

- Finalized doors and extended exit corridor to roughly correspond with exterior scenery (bring lockpicks)

- Aligned door teleport markers

- Connected exit door to a new hold

- The hold is exterior only ATM, unfinished, the gate does not open yet, but you should be able to fast-travel

- added some haze

 

 

 

Edited by gargamel9


What's New in Version 1.0e EXPERIMENTAL

Released

A long overdue minor update:

 

- Removed dependency on DD and Sexlabs (untested – expect possible issues!)

- Changed the Riften force-greet to only fire once a day

- Fuzzed the Riften dialogue files



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