[WIP] Forbidden Legend + more without joining College of Winterhold

[Sophisa]

Forgive the rambly nature of this post, it's mostly cut n paste from my WIP thread over at the nexus (Which no-one is reading anyway, apparently...)

 

So I'm beginning work on a mod to allow completion of Forbidden Legend, No Stone Unturned, and the collection of Shout Words and Dragon Priest masks without ever having to join the College. I'm trying to do so with minimal disruption of the College questline itself, so rather than alter it or the locations directly, I'm moving the rewards it locks away into more accessible locations.

 

This is the inital list of things I need to move, and where I plan to put them. If anyone can think of better ideas, or possible problems with these plans, I'd like to hear them - best to know about them in advance before they become a problem.

 

From Saarthal:

Jyrik Gauldursun + Staff + Writ (I actually plan to do this by moving them to a different NPC, and a bit of renaming, to reduce the impact on the college quest and its scripting): To either Silverdrift Lair or Shriekwind Bastion (Has no existing unique boss)

Word Wall for Ice Form, probably as an external wall in either Hag Rock Redoubt or Silver Moons Camp. (Nordic Ruins with no Word Wall)

 

From Labyrinthian:

Morokei + Mask (Again, by new NPC and some renaming): To Ancient's Ascent (Similar to Shearpoint, Dragon + Priest, why not?)

Word Wall for Slow Time, to Anvilsund (Has no Word Wall)

Ancient Helmet of the Unburned, to Sunderstone Gorge (Place is full of fire traps, seems thematic enough)

I don't plan to move the spellbook for Equilibrium, since it's a Mage-y reward, seems more logical for it to stay, especially since its internal name is dunLabyrinthianSpellReward.

 

From the Arch-Mage's Quarters:

1x Stone of Barenziah - since I plan to provide a way into the college that doesn't involve joining, I think I'll move this down into the college library, on Urag gro-Shub's desk.

 

Progress so far:

 

-Solved the "enter the college" problem, probably in the least subtle way possible - removing the lock on the door. I tried tinkering with Faralda to make her open the door, but doing so without triggering latter stages of MG01 First Lessons proved to be a royal headache. Sadly, it seems this hackjob method of entry only works on new games that haven't been to Winterhold yet. If anyone knows a way to improve this I'll be glad to hear it.

 

-Successfully moved the Stone of Barenziah. Also works fine with bruce142's altered Thieves Guild questline, as far as I can tell

 

-Moved the Helmet

 

Okay, started reading over Jyrik. Looks like it shouldn't be too hard to replace a levelled draugr boss with a clone of him, minus the barrier effects.

 

If a more experienced quest modder than I reads this, please double check my thought process:

 

Rename existing Jyrik and leave him otherwise intact, so the mage guild quest does not need to be altered

Create new Jyrik, with copies of his abilities so he fights similarly, but minus the super barrier he gets (Without being in saarthal, there's no way to remove it)

It looks like the writ and the amulet fragment are added to him by the quest script, not his own inventory, so I need to alter those references to point to my new clone Jyrik

Alter the Forbidden Legend quest markers to point to him and his new location, instead of the old Jyrik.

By rights, this should unhook Forbidden Legend from Saarthal without disrupting the college quest.

 

Trying to reverse engineer quests for the first time is really making me feel like an amateurish hack. Good challenge tho.

 

BTW, I would *love* a volunteer or few to test this when I'm done.

 

Bloody hell does doing this make me appreciate modders more. I'm just re-engineering stuff that's already there and it's complicated enough for me. Really gives me a lot more respect for people who can actually fully build something from new.

[Guest airdance]

With all due respect, all the work you are putting into this mod, your time would be better spent creating a unique quest.

You obvious have a superior talent for this kind of thing or you would not be undertaking such an endeavour.

Think of what you could come up with that would not require remapping half of skyrim, and creating lord knows what problems.

  Then there is the problem of how other mods will clash with this one.

Just my opinion, but I believe there is more prestige to be had with creating your own unique mod/questline than fixing someone else's work.

 

How about this:

  A revered dragon has taken the children of a village and hidden them all over Skyrim.  Without markers it is the job of the Dragonborn to return them to their parents.

The dragonborn has three options to rescue each child:

• fight his way in and risk the life of the child(children are killable)
• sneak in with minimal conflict but risk being discovered and having to fight as in # 1
• pay a ransom , but the price for each child is 5 000 000 gold there are 12 children in all.

The Jarl of the village will give you the quest but only after you prove yourself worthy.

 

I realize hat this is not the greatest idea in the world, but certainly well within your range of talents.

[Sophisa]

*blink blink*

 

Not wanting to sound offensive, but why would I want to do that? I saw a problem, and I'm fixing it. Why would I want to drop that and build a mod I have no interest in? And as for causing problems - that's why I'm testing it rigourously before I even think of uploading it, and am asking for people willing to help me by testing it.

[DDproductions83]

Lol, I am kind of in agreement with airdance

First thing first, if you are not interested in making a original mod etc by all means do whatever you love etc

But it seems kind of a petty endeavor when you could add new content and originality with your skills. I know it's a lot of work and I'm juggling 14 voice actors for one of my mods but meh I find it fun as hell and I'm addicted, but if this is your true cup of tea and something you really really desire to do, then do it. Just seems like gorden ramsey is working in a mcdonalds is all 

[Sophisa]

As to new content and originality: I have little in the way of artistic skills, so I couldn't make new assets or anything. Any quest i make would be purely using vanilla assets unless I found some artist I could lock in a cupboard and force them to work for me willing to take on my requirements. I really don't feel like that's a worthwhile endeavour, nor would the result be particularly interesting without something new and different to the base game. You're also way overstating my ability to code and script.

 

Whereas working with this is, in my opinion, improving something that actively lowers my (and others, from comments I got when I first announced the idea) enjoyment of the game.

[Kitsune32]

Your idea sounds great, Sophisa, and would be really convenient. Lord knows I'm sick of doing the College quest for the Nth time.

 

And really, guys, telling someone to drop what they want to do and work on something else is kind of rude. Talented people fix things, as well as create them -- I would not tell the Unofficial Skyrim Patch creators that they were wasting their talents, for example.

[Sophisa]

Progress on this is gonna be a bit slow for the next little while:

 

-My grandpa died

 

-One of my cousins had a new baby

 

-I need to make a new character that hasn't done any of these quests (I tried to make an archer, but she got eaten by a sabre cat)