Does LAL Work for an Entire Playthrough?

[KoolHndLuke]

LAL- Live Another Life

 

I've wanted to play a game in Skyrim where I did none of the main quests so I don't have to see and listen to the same shit over again. But I think I have tried this before and it seemed to work for awhile and then the game got screwy after a time. So my question is has anyone actually played an entire game where they did none of the main quests and possibly none of the side quests either?

[Alessia Wellington]

If you want, you can give Skyrim Unbound a shot. Been using it for years now and really like it. There's also an updated version with more features available.

[Guest]

> My Prince played the game for hundreds of hours doing side quest and becoming the thane of all cities, joining Dawnguard, Companions and Winterhold college without any problems,  but by the time, he was intrigued to start the main quest. After visiting Thalmor embassy, he didn't like the rest of the missions like going to Soltsheim and dealing with Mirrak and then he quit. But when he started to play Skyrim before we met, he finished the main quests and hated to continue playing for Stormcloaks and Nords hated him and dragons constantly appeared wherever he went. Sometimes three of them attacked him

[Gukahn]

1 hour ago, KoolHndLuke said:

So my question is has anyone actually played an entire game where they did none of the main quests and possibly none of the side quests either?

I would go with Alessias suggestion and use unbound. Last time I played a really long Run.. The moment I came too near to Helgen, Alduin spawned and the whole Shit show started all over again. Sure you can ignore it, dragons only start to spawn after your first dragon Fight but still, you have to talk to Balgruuf at least and acknowledge the existence of Dragons ? Apart from play ability.. Yeah, nothing major only that view dialogue lines didn't made much sense anymore.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Gukahn

[belegost]

LAL delays start of main quest until you approach Helgen. It is very possible to have an entire playthrough without triggering it, provided you avoid visiting it. I have done that many times, never had any problems.

 

In addition I would suggest using At Your Own Pace. It lets you stop main quest from progressing in an immersive way. Basically Alduin will spawn if you go near Helgen and you can bring message to Balgruf and get a reward but that's it, you will not be given a task from Farengar unless you talk with him or jarl. AYOP introduces additional breaks in the quest at later stages as well, where its not shoved down your throat and can progress at your own pace. Mod page has a detailed break down of when those are introduced.

[KoolHndLuke]

2 hours ago, Alessia Wellington said:

Skyrim Unbound

Thanky. I'll give it a look for sure.

 

2 hours ago, Evaloves4 said:

he didn't like the rest of the missions like going to Soltsheim and dealing with Mirrak and then he quit.

Heh. I haven't been to Solstheim in years.

 

51 minutes ago, Gukahn said:

Balgruuf at least and acknowledge the existence of Dragons

I usually take it up to that point and then go wander around for awhile. Not sure why I go back into the main quest after that. But I always do.

 

Char I have now I have challenged myself to keep level one for as long as I can. I want to see how much of the game I can do without leveling even once.

[belegost]

19 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

have challenged myself to keep level one for as long as I can. I want to see how much of the game I can do without leveling even once.

 

Get a mod that delays leveling up until you sleep and then never sleep. You can stop from leveling infinitely.

[Darkpig]

2 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Char I have now I have challenged myself to keep level one for as long as I can. I want to see how much of the game I can do without leveling even once.

Easy. Infinite crafting loop. You're welcome.

 

But if you really want a fun challenge change it up. Play through the Dark Brotherhood without killing anybody, play through the College of Winterhold without casting any magic and play through the companions while playing frisbee with your dog.

[Alessia Wellington]

9 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

play through the College of Winterhold without casting any magic

 

That's what I did when I decided to join 'em.

[Psalam]

Who you need to talk to is @Grey Cloud. He revels is not playing "vanilla" Skyrim. He'll gladly give you hints including the Open Skyrim mod.

 

Then again, it's dangerous to predict what GC will do.

[Alessia Wellington]

2 minutes ago, Psalam said:

Then again, it's dangerous to predict what GC will do.

 

He's probably gonna offer you some skooma.

[Grey Cloud]

(I was on LE).

 

I never had any problem with LAL. The only advantage I saw with Unbound was that LAL makes Helgen inaccessible unless you are prepared to start the dragons thing whereas with Unbound you can have Helgen without the dragons appearing.

 

You need some mods to make life easier - The Choice is Yours and Timing is Everything being the main ones. These two help by 'switching off' various vanilla quests and side quests. The Manipulator is also handy for making factions friendly or hostile as required, plus it is a handy little utility/mod all round.

 

As everyone knows there are lots of mods out there for adding more bandits, NPCs, creatures, etc.

 

It all largely depends on what you want to do in the game if you aren't doing the vanilla stuff. My games were just hiking holidays with sex and violence financed by a peripatetic pharmaceutical business (skooma dealing ). The blog link in my sig will give you an idea.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Grey Cloud

[karlpaws]

I can second (or third?) the suggestion for Unbound particularly the Reborn version which is more up to date and being worked on yet.  It does have fewer starting options than LAL but enough that if you were going for a certain story you can make it work. There are also the start as vampire or werewolf options, but if doing that I'd suggest using the option whatever overhaul mod offers.

 

Timing is Everything and The Choice is Yours that GC suggested are almost necessary for either starting mod. The quality of life improvements from both of those are significant. There are also a few At Your Own Pace mods, one for the MQ and a couple for other factions. Depending on what you want to do, they may be more or less helpful. Some quests you can delay prevent others, like the House of Horrors requires the bloodbath in the market (though that's not prevented by TiE, just an example since I cannot remember another one).

[belegost]

10 hours ago, Darkpig said:

play through the College of Winterhold without casting any magic

 

How is that a challenge? You can smack everything up with a mace. Not casting any magic actually makes the whole damn questline too easy, even on legendary difficulty. Just keep bonking Jyrik, Caller, Morokei and everything else until they drop.

 

Or to make it even more of a cakewalk, go stealth archer.

Edited October 8, 2022 by belegost

[Guest]

2 hours ago, belegost said:

 

How is that a challenge? You can smack everything up with a mace. Not casting any magic actually makes the whole damn questline too easy, even on legendary difficulty. Just keep bonking Jyrik, Caller, Morokei and everything else until they drop.

 

Or to make it even more of a cakewalk, go stealth archer.

May I present Ymfah and his video on completing the College of Winterhold without magic. Wacking things with weapons are involved, but the appeal of his videos are his somewhat unconventional methods of completing things (and the editing). 

[KoolHndLuke]

12 hours ago, Grey Cloud said:

The Choice is Yours and Timing is Everything being the main ones

Thanks. These are useful. Looking at Skyrim Unbound right now and see problems for me since I'd have to significantly change my mods or find/make a bunch of patches.

 

Since I'm set up for dragons and shouts (DD and TC among others) I'm probably better off with LAL. But the other two you mention should be fine since I loathe being forced to do anything.

 

Besides, Barbas makes for a pretty decent guard dog outside Falkreath. He should stay there I think.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by KoolHndLuke

[Darkpig]

4 hours ago, belegost said:

 

How is that a challenge? You can smack everything up with a mace. Not casting any magic actually makes the whole damn questline too easy, even on legendary difficulty. Just keep bonking Jyrik, Caller, Morokei and everything else until they drop.

 

Or to make it even more of a cakewalk, go stealth archer.

Stealth archer is terrifying. I'm thinking of making a mod to debuff the stealth archer a bit. I've been playing with a few mods and stealth archer is still too powerful.

 

I've been working with Combat Evolved(You're fucking dead edition), RAID Medium interior and exterior with no lighting mods, used Simply Balanced to make the difficulty higher basically enemies hit 10 times harder and take 10 times less damage than say adept difficulty. But even then the bow is still kicking ass harder than it should be.

[Alessia Wellington]

6 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

RAID

 

Shadow Legends.

 

I'll see myself out.

[Darkpig]

5 minutes ago, Alessia Wellington said:

Shadow Legends.

Is terrifying.

[KoolHndLuke]

25 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

But even then the bow is still kicking ass harder than it should be.

Shoot spitballs instead! 

 

Or you could just nerf it's stats in X-edit.

[karlpaws]

59 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Thanks. These are useful. Looking at Skyrim Unbound right now and see problems for me since I'd have to significantly change my mods or find/make a bunch of patches.

 

Since I'm set up for dragons and shouts (DD and TC among others) I'm probably better off with LAL. But the other two you mention should be fine since I loathe being forced to do anything.

 

 

Unbound does (did?) have an option for dragons to be present, but not give souls and not trigger the main quest.

[KoolHndLuke]

17 minutes ago, karlpaws said:

but not give souls and not trigger the main quest.

TC is a shouts mod (plus I have another) that more or less depends on the main questline being taken to H. Hrothgar. So I have to have DS's. Beyond that, it's independent. The only problem I'm thinking now is that certain locations are only opened through the related quests. Have to look at those mods again and see which one opens them up for me without me fubar-ing the game with console commands.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by KoolHndLuke

[Alessia Wellington]

1 minute ago, KoolHndLuke said:

TC is a shouts mod (plus I have another) that more or less depends on the main questline being taken to H. Hrothgar. So I have to have DS's.

 

Don't know if it helps in your case. Unbound has an option to unlock shouts without the need of dragon souls.

[KoolHndLuke]

5 minutes ago, Alessia Wellington said:

 

Don't know if it helps in your case. Unbound has an option to unlock shouts without the need of dragon souls.

Thanks. It might work. Really the whole problem with playing a completely independent game is that I don't want to have to give up certain mods related to the various quests I'm looking to avoid. Should I just shoot myself now? 

[Darkpig]

35 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Shoot spitballs instead! 

 

Or you could just nerf it's stats in X-edit.

I could shoot spit balls all day and I would never be found. I think the bigger problem is the AI. You shoot a mage in a group of mages and they look for you like idiots instead of I dunno using Detect Life or Detect Dead to find you. Maybe setting the noise level of bows and projectiles from normal to loud might make the enemies detect you a bit easier. Either that or an incentive to use any other weapon. Skooma sounds nice.