quest The Trappings of Fate

[cepelin]

Sounds great can't wait to try this out

[SilentAntagonist121]

1 hour ago, Frayed said:

Sharp eye. Yes, definitely. What's the part that tipped you off? ?I should probably credit those in the thanks section, actually.

 

It was the layout of the first room, and the descriptions of the things while blindfolded. Having just finished the quest (on LE, everything seemed to work perfectly), I can say this was a really great puzzle mod, though maybe a little on the tricky side. I imagine if I hadn't already played the Lia games I would have had a lot more trouble, but as I knew the logic you were working with, I thoroughly enjoyed it (and I imagine my Dragonborn did too). Only other feedback I would give would be in regards to:

Spoiler

The Harness puzzle. After opening the bookshelves I opened most of the books in each to see which were added by this quest (because who reads the Skyrim books enough to know which are vanilla Skyrim?), so some kind of clearer notice in the title would have been nice (maybe have it mention something lewd/sexual in the title so it's clear it's not a Skyrim book). After that, because of how you started in the hogtie pole, and had to use the pillory with the Churl, I assumed the bondage pole was important too, and spent a decent amount of time playing with that. As it's not used, you might want to remove it to not give the wrong idea. When I finally figured out to use the moon sigil to heighten my sense of touch, I assumed I was still missing something when it failed to work first time. After repeating 3 times it finally released, which I assume was the intent, but, if so, I would suggest changing the text on the second and third times trying with the moon sigil too to show you're making some kind of progress, as the repetition of the same text over and over implied nothing was changing, and the small flavour text in the corner is easy to miss.

 

Don't take any of this the wrong way though. All in all, that's a very minor criticism on an otherwise incredible mod. I would also agree crediting the Lia games is a good idea, especially as it will encourage others to play them, and, once they have, they will better understand this quest's logic, and will likely have an easier time beating it, and lead to less comments about it's difficulty. Overall, easy 10/10 for the mod. One of the best quest mods I've played in a long time, can't wait to see what comes next.

Edited May 25, 2022 by SilentAntagonist121
typo

[5243]

14 hours ago, fenrir34 said:

I found the key and unlocked the display case

What key was is because I currently have multiple that dont open anything.

[SilentAntagonist121]

22 minutes ago, 5243 said:

What key was is because I currently have multiple that dont open anything.

 

The display case key unlocks it without you having to pick which one. If the display case won't unlock from the keys in your inventory, you haven't found the right one yet. If you can't find a use for your keys on locks in the room, try using them on your restraints.

[5243]

16 minutes ago, SilentAntagonist121 said:

The display case key unlocks it without you having to pick which one. If the display case won't unlock from the keys in your inventory, you haven't found the right one yet. If you can't find a use for your keys on locks in the room, try using them on your restraints.

Spoiler

Im only wearing the gag. I picked up the keys form the other devices and they wont work on the display case, the bookshelf, the lockbox, or the door. I really feel completely lost.

 

[SilentAntagonist121]

1 hour ago, 5243 said:

  Hide contents

Im only wearing the gag. I picked up the keys form the other devices and they wont work on the display case, the bookshelf, the lockbox, or the door. I really feel completely lost.

 

Spoiler

It's in the room with the pond. There's something you can interact with you haven't used yet, other than the grindstone. Check around that.

 

[Frayed]

1 hour ago, 5243 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Im only wearing the gag. I picked up the keys form the other devices and they wont work on the display case, the bookshelf, the lockbox, or the door. I really feel completely lost.

 

Spoiler

The key to the display case is not from one of the devices, but should be laying around somewhere on the ground. As a hint: "Have you tried looking under the couch?".

 

Still can't find it? Click here:

Spoiler

It should be under the bench in the room with the pool, unless you bumped it into the pool without noticing it or something. If it isn't there, console it in: "help FrayEQCrowAndCoinKey" and "player.additem X" where X is the ReferenceID code shown by the help command.

 

 

I'll be sure to add an in-game mechanic for hints in the next update.

[5243]

6 minutes ago, SilentAntagonist121 said:

Spoiler

It's in the room with the pond. There's something you can interact with you haven't used yet, other than the grindstone. Check around that.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Frayed said:

Spoiler

"Have you tried looking under the couch?".

 

Thank you so much! The basket was clipped or something and I had to blindly interact to get it.

[Frayed]

3 hours ago, isee said:

This was a great 'little' quest mod!

 

It took me a good 30 minutes to get through it all and I left

  Reveal hidden contents

the piercings

on to see what happened with them. Overall It was fun and there where a few solutions that I honestly scratched my head and went. "They can't really mean for me to do this can they?" I did have one kind of odd issue that I'll leave in the spoilers below. Though I should say the npc also froze up after finishing the more enthusiastic dialogue. Tried talking to her again and she said her first lines of dialogue then proceeded to enter combat. She ended up paralyzed the quest failed and I got the message box for the end. Soooo Successful? As for the one weird device issue I had...

 

  Hide contents

I read both the books talking about the daedric enchantments and they where both kind of unclear, but I got the gist of it and figured it had something to do with arousal. However. Seemingly by happenstance. (And a rather powerful vibrator ?) I got the message that it had become loose while trying to find a way to open the knife case and was able to take it off. This kind of makes the piercings a bit more tricky to figure out because it makes it seem more like random chance that these two items can get taken off at some point.  At least based on character arousal.

 

Other then that everything seemed to work great and it was a fun ride. Hope to see more but I can only imagine the work it takes to make escape room based physics puzzles is the CK.

 

Spoiler

Thanks for the feedback. Just to clarify, did you like the headscatching solutions, or did they feel rather BS? The NPC dialogue I have to make more robust, it seems. Seems to fail for a number of people. The harness loosening like that is sort of intended: it can either happen organically as it did for you, or it can be forced. Solving it by happenstance is only supposed to happen if you're slow, though (and you weren't), so maybe I have to tune it a bit.

 

By the way, removing the piercings is actually not tied to arousal in any way

 

[Jappa123]

Hmm, removed everything except piercings, barrier is down but doors are still locked, no idea what do next. Do i need to take underwater mask deal? I've tried both with and without deal but that didnt change the thing that i'm still stuck.  Anyway great mod! Hope there is more to come since modding scene is kinda dying   

 

@edit

Figured it out

Edited May 25, 2022 by Jappa123

[darksong]

7 hours ago, darksong said:

having same problem.  drinking the wine does nothing. There has to be some other mod interfering. Installed normally using MO2 and I have all the requirement mods active

NM, I'm an idiot. TGM was on, so the wine didn't work.  I'm down to the last item, and had to cheat for the boots because there was no way in hell I was making that work.

 

For some reason in my games both in LE initially and in SE - manually picking things up and moving them rarely works. Like in the Dark Brotherhood quest where you have to hide a body - it's a miracle if I can ever pick up a body and successfully move it. But honestly even after I found out how that one part was sposed to be solved, there was no way in hell I'd be able to do it.

 

But otherwise this is a fantastic piece of work. I'd like to see more in this vein. It not as frustrating as the one part of the Chloe questline in DCL, at least. That was completely unfun. This is fun!

[LuvHarp]

5 hours ago, darksong said:

 

 

 manually picking things up and moving them rarely works. But honestly even after I found out how that one part was sposed to be solved, there was no way in hell I'd be able to do it.

 

 

Spoiler

So I'm assuming you have to put something there to jump up? I feel if that's the solution, then with Skyrim physics being the way they are, then doing it that way seems rough for a deep modded game.

Feedback for the future is to have an item like a basket or stool that you can pick up once free from XYZ then interact with the standing spot to create jump-able geometry because trying to jump ontop of a Drum/basket, or shove the cart through the door is t o u g h 

 

[LuvHarp]

How do you

Spoiler

blind the Gargoyles 

 

[LuvHarp]

10 minutes ago, MuhnMuh said:

How do you

  Reveal hidden contents

blind the Gargoyles 

 

LOL Classic Skyrim Bucket shoulda known

[Yanme]

Thank you for the mod. I had a lot of fun playing through it. Also, I think I was relatively slow to solve it, but that just means I had fun longer.

 

I was stuck for a long time at two points (probably nearly an hour each). For those two points I looked at the hints.

 

 

Spoiler

1. The mittens. I found and got the key quickly, but I absolutely couldn't figure out what to do with it for the longest time once i had it with me. The hint was helpful as it confirmed I indeed had the right key, but even with the hint I still spent quite a bit of time stuck. Also, the way of getting the key is really cool. I was impressed at quite a few of the interactions, but this is one I specifically remember.

 

2. The gag, where I just could not find the key for the display case. The hint was not that helpful in this case..

 

Some things I encountered that might be bugs:

 

Spoiler

After removing the plug, I could not see/find it on the ground anymore (probably clipped into the ground? At least the belt was also partially clipped into the ground as well). Luckily I had a hunch that it might be important and reloaded. On the second try the plug was still completely invisible, but could at least be activated.

 

I played through some sections of the mod multiple times to check if I had forgotten something (or because I misplaced the keys before being able to pick them up). Only the very first time was the key in the tentacle statue visible. On all subsequent tries, the key could be fetched by looking at the statue at just the right angle, but I would have *never* been able to find it if I hadn't known one was there from before. If there is a specific action that makes the key visible, it was not apparent to me.

 

Concerning save, reload, at one point the entire clutter (except for like two buckets) in all rooms disappeared. Once I quit the game and loaded a save where the clutter had disappeared, it reappeared again.

 

I periodically received notifications about things happening with the harness, but it was the second item i removed pretty much immediately at the beginning.

 

One other thing: I usually just scroll over the download section to see if anything looks interesting, and I would have totally missed this great mod, as neither the title, nor the thumbnail, not the first couple words of the description (which are included in the download overview, but currently just contain the beta warning) indicated to me that this would be a DD quest mod at all. Luckily, you posted in the DD development thread, which is how I found the mod.

 

Spoiler

I am really looking forward to part two.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Yanme

[serranna]

I'm reading there are hints in the game, but I don't know where they are. I have removed everything except the gag and nipple piercings, and have unlocked everything except one bookcase, the lockbox underwater, and the display case, I am officially stuck. Not looking for the solution, just wanting to know where the in game hints are.

 

Speaking of the display case, I encountered a bug. While looking around the room for clues on what to do, I jumped on top of the display case so I could jump on top of the shelves that are near it. Shortly after doing that I noticed the display case was empty. I seems that after jumping on top of the case, some clipping must have occurred which knocked the item out of it, I think it was a knife, and I think it fell out of the world because it's nowhere to be seen at this point. I'll have to start over.

 

How do you use the spoiler tag? I have one more bug report that might be semi-spoilerish.

[SilentAntagonist121]

19 minutes ago, serranna said:

I'm reading there are hints in the game, but I don't know where they are. I have removed everything except the gag and nipple piercings, and have unlocked everything except one bookcase, the lockbox underwater, and the display case, I am officially stuck. Not looking for the solution, just wanting to know where the in game hints are.

 

Speaking of the display case, I encountered a bug. While looking around the room for clues on what to do, I jumped on top of the display case so I could jump on top of the shelves that are near it. Shortly after doing that I noticed the display case was empty. I seems that after jumping on top of the case, some clipping must have occurred which knocked the item out of it, I think it was a knife, and I think it fell out of the world because it's nowhere to be seen at this point. I'll have to start over.

 

How do you use the spoiler tag? I have one more bug report that might be semi-spoilerish.

 

The hints are in the mod folder, not in the game. Extract it, and you'll find a .txt file with the hints in it. 

To spoiler tag, click the eye on the top of the comment box (between the '</>' and the smileyface) and it'll open a spoiler box. 

[The Dragonwhore]

15 hours ago, Frayed said:

 

Again spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

To clarify, your game crashed while talking with the daedric altar? Was this before or after you made a deal with it?

 

For the harness: did you find the notes on Daedric magic? They contain hints. Now, which parts in the room involve Daedric magic? Can you use these somehow?

 

To everyone saying you got stuck somewhere: I hear you, but rather than replying to you all with hints individually I'll see if I can improve the puzzles. I see some people struggling with early bits, some with late, and some solving everything, so I don't see a clear bottleneck, at least. Maybe I'll implement an in-game mechanic for hints. But I think then I should also make the hints have a cost. Any suggestions? ?

Don't know how hard it'd be to do this, but a character (probably another daedra) that will freely give you rather clear hints

 

The less vague they are, the greater the cost

 

Level one (most vague): Sex with them

 

Level two (kinda vague, but less so): Sex with a seeker, lurker, atronach, or some other daedric creature

 

Level three (much more clear): Locks 1 permanent device on you that isn't unlocked by this mod (only slots that aren't being used by this mod)

 

Level four (straight up tells you what to do and exactly where to look): All of the above costs combined

 

He only tells you the hint once, so if you don't pay attention or forget, you have to "pay" again

[Grumbrum]

I am level 81 and the courier never shows up.

[jc321]

1 hour ago, Grumbrum said:

I am level 81 and the courier never shows up.

Me too! - I can't fathom it out. I mean the courier has turned up for a couple of letters (when my level has gone up .. past 9 even) but not to start this quest. 

I'm struggling to find which mod is preventing this quest from starting it  The frayescapequest just refuses to start. 

[Broomemike]

Now I feel really dumb. I have gotten the armbinders off but don't know how to get my sight back. I've been shoving the various things around, but can't seem to figure out how to use the rug or the gargoyle.

[screennamebob]

Great start, looking forward to more.  I can 100% see the Lia's games inspiration after seeing it mentioned in this thread.

 

General design thoughts

Spoiler

• Puzzles are always hard to design, because if a player comes into a puzzle not thinking the same way as the designer, "obvious" hints can easily be overlooked.  I loved the 3D, move things around interaction...once I looked at this thread and saw that was a mechanic.  I doubt I would have ever thought to do that otherwise.  I think the beginning could be a better mechanics intro, if after escaping the pole and getting out of the armbinder, player progression was 100% blocked until they interacted with an item and were forced to move that item to progress.  Ideally having an obvious popup on initial "examine", referring to moving something without picking it up.  That would go a long way getting the player thinking with the mechanics you used here.

• Forced DD Blindfold Settings - In my option, this is just a bad idea.  I was playing this on a fun save, so I didn't care but if I installed a mod and noticed it had changed other mod settings I had, I would immediately uninstall and never revisit it.  If there are settings for the intended experience, I would put those recommended settings on the mod page as a suggestion, but trying to control how a player interacts with your mod is, I think, always a losing battle.  Also to note here, I much more enjoyed seeing my character tied up at the beginning of the mod when I changed my DD blindfold settings back to what I had, instead of just seeing darkness pretty much everywhere.

 

Puzzle specific thoughts

Spoiler

• I would put an activator covering the whole first door, and add a message that the character doesn't feel like they should explore until they can see.  I missed rug interactions in the Lia's games and here as well.  Honestly don't remember how long I had my blindfold on the first time I played.
• I could pickup the Black Bear Key in third person without the broom, simply rotating the camera to the right angle.
• I don't think the cart shouldn't be in the initial room, it should be in the cave room where it's needed.  That will probably make that solution more obvious for others, but for me moving that cart is just a pain.  In one test play through I almost died to physics damage trying to get it into the cave room.
• The Clavicus Vile mask needs something make it more obvious, IMO.  My first play through, I went into the water, saw the strongbox at the bottom, saw I didn't have a key and left and never came back.  Only found it existed after looking through thread spoilers once I failed my first escape attempt.  Even now, when I know it's there, I sometimes have to go back up for air before I can find it to start the conversation.

 

Technical issues/thoughts

Spoiler

• I have to manually close my inventory after drinking the wine at the very start of the quest.  Happened both times I started the quest, I believe there is a way to force the menu to close before adding the paralyze effect.
• Having the dropped items be static and non-moving, makes sense so the player doesn't lose them, but depending on what items you remove where sometimes they are very difficult to see.  I didn't unlock the strongbox in the water, or the second bookshelf solely because I didn't think to interact with the gag as soon as it was off, and I couldn't find it afterwards.  IMO I think it would be better if they could be physics enabled objects that could be moved around, then the "dropping" after removal would be more obvious, and encourage player interaction to find those keys hidden in items.
• After the cart is used for the lamp and you are rag dolled back to the group, the cart always ended up in the water for me.  This made getting in the water and looking around even harder, as the cart would push me around and physics damage me, as well as get in the way when I tried to get out of the water.  Maybe keep the cart locked in place after the sun lamp, and have everything else fall down.
• I had trouble with both the mask and alter conversations.  I could not skip/fast forward any of their dialogue and there would occasionally be long breaks where I thought the conversation had stopped, so I tabbed out to end the convo, which either reset or broke the conversations.  It also would be nice if the dremora could force greet the player after saying they are going to leave them in the pillory, instead of having the start the conversion myself.  Don't know if that is how it's designed currently or not.

 

Something I do want to be clear on is I really enjoyed this.  This mod released with much high quality than many mods I've seen in the past, and with some tweaking I think could be a mainstay in most peoples load order for the future.  As such I felt like spending the time to provide some quality feedback is warranted.  Looking forward to future updates!

[serranna]

To those who are having trouble getting the courier to appear, remember you have to not only be level 9, but if you are past level 9, you need to level up again in order to trigger the courier.

When I installed the mod, I tested it by using console commands to give my character enough skill experience to level her up. I was in Solitude at the time so I fast traveled to Whiterun, and got no courier.

After that, I fast traveled outside some cave, use console commands to level her up again, fast traveled back to whiterun and the courier arrived.

In other words, if you are still having trouble, make sure you are not in a townspace, get a level up, the go to town. The courier should arrive at that point.

 

Bug info

Spoiler

So I ran into an issue removing the plug. When I got the plug out, I was unable to find it on the floor. I was standing over 2 other devices when I removed it, so Im assuming the game just wasn't able to find a good place to set it on the ground, so whereever the mod placed it was inaccessible. I reloaded an older save, went to a spot where there was nothing to get in the way, removed the plug and it appeared right there on the ground where it was supposed to be. As it is now, you need to make sure you're not standing near anything when you try to remove it.

 

Other thoughts

Spoiler

I'm not a fan of the blindfold effect. I get the idea of making it harder to see which might add a little more challenge in the beginning, but being able to see the character is frankly the best part and the blindfold effect detracts from it. At least make it an MCM setting or something.

 

I figured out how to set up the cart over the water to reach the lamp, but maybe it's just poor skill on my part but I was just unable to jump up the cart to touch the lamp fast enough. It got to the point where I had to run into the first room to touch that first crest, then run to the cart, turn on no clipping and run up to touch the lamp because I kept falling off and failing to touch the lamp on time. I tried for a long time before I resorted to no clipping mode. If it has to be done within a time limit I suggest a much longer time limit for those of us who are not quite as skilled.

 

[maihasegawa]

Puzzles are as frustrating as DD framework. Perfect match.

Seriously though, awesome mod. Can't wait for continuation.

[Lisan Al-Gaib]

Amazing mod you made mate. I understand there is more for the mod to come, but i had just a quick question. Do you plan on doing "themed" puzzles? Like the first one is with normal restraints like your armbinders and your harnesses, but will the others be focused on other kinds of restraints, like catsuits/latex, armbinders, dresses, etc? Lovely work truly