Adventures with Balazar (Balazar's Bitch) - Beta

[Darl9]

I was able to start the quest up and get him to follow me, but I'm not seeing any dialogue options for Priestess Jora. I do have Follower Framework, not sure if that messes things up?

[DiabloJim]

Okay, just finished it...and now I'm depressed because it's over
Man, if this is just a beta version, the final version will be fucking outstanding. Most assuredly one of the absolute best mods--sex or otherwise--I have ever come across.  
I don't know if I had any issues because everything worked perfectly for me. All dialogues came up. All the interactions seemed to go smoothly. I've read a few of the other posts and none of it happened to me--and I know my setup isn't perfect because I do have one or two mods that cause random, occasional CTDs. It does seem that a lot of the issues with beast mods is the aggression of the beasts but I don't have that problem because I use One With Nature, and have them all set to Allied or Friendly. Nothing like getting set upon by bandits and having a giant and mammoth come to my aid, or a pack of wolves or bears or tigers

(One With Nature) https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/13343 with the accompanying settings loader so I don't have to redo it for each playthrough. I also have Aroused Creatures installed, with a profile specifically setup that has beasts essentially ignore me unless I strip for them but actively pursue NPCs (followers or others). And to round it off I have Simple Offence Suppression https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41764 installed and activated so I can accidentally hit neutrals (NPC or animal) without them turning on me instantly but can kill same when necessary. I think the combination of these three allowed this mod to have a perfect and enjoyable playthrough.

If this is just a beta and you're still working on it/extending it, then may I respectfully suggest finding a way to include the three female Jarls, and maybe Sybille Stentor as well.

[Gristle]

15 hours ago, killer905 said:

@Gristle

So my original idea was that the floor collapses and that's where Seeker attacks you etc. I don't recall in Skyrim where the floor collapses, but a possible other option e.g..
The door closes (locked) and the player has to find the lever, but at that point the floor disappears and the PC falls into the trap where the seeker attacks.

My original idea was that the pit door is a trap and you fall when you step on it. But this had a lot of issues: the PC might never step on the trap, Balazar might step on the trap first, the sex scene would occur in a tight space where it's dark and the game camera doesn't work so well, Balazar wouldn't fall in as well and wouldn't be there to help the PC with the combat stage.

 

As for the entire floor collapsing, that's beyond my programming/graphic skills. I have lots of ideas as I'm making quests, but unfortunately I have to abandon half of them because I can't figure out how to make it work. (Unless you count a computer science class in high school, I don't have any prior programming experience.) 

[Gristle]

9 hours ago, Animosities. said:

Maybe just ignore the sex scenes, leading them run a round in the city is good enough?

Yes. I think this is the way to go - give the player the MCM option to skip the actual sex scene with certain creatures, without changing the rest of the quest. 

9 hours ago, Animosities. said:

As for a different favor...some charity performance perhaps? Persuade some of the nobles like Brunwulf Free-Winter to to hold something like an orgy or naked masquerade, then let the Nord nobles pay to join, watching PC and Balazar or something else to perform some scenes, or join in themselves or anything. Nobles usually have some unusual tastes right? It should'nt be too difficult to persuade them to pay, then donate these money to solve rats problem. I mean, if the Jarl won't do anything, people in Grey Quarter should find their own way to solve this problem, and PC could lend them a hand or what. Just a imagine.

After all, just jump through the rat sex scenes is really good enough for me.

Interactions with the Jarls like you mention are a great idea, but I'd rather save them for the next part of the quest. Also, I would rather not create parallel branches in the quests (or at least branches with significant content).

[killer905]

6 minutes ago, Gristle said:

My original idea was that the pit door is a trap and you fall when you step on it. But this had a lot of issues: the PC might never step on the trap, Balazar might step on the trap first, the sex scene would occur in a tight space where it's dark and the game camera doesn't work so well, Balazar wouldn't fall in as well and wouldn't be there to help the PC with the combat stage.

 

As for the entire floor collapsing, that's beyond my programming/graphic skills. I have lots of ideas as I'm making quests, but unfortunately I have to abandon half of them because I can't figure out how to make it work. (Unless you count a computer science class in high school, I don't have any prior programming experience.) 

I see.

[Gristle]

9 hours ago, Darl9 said:

I was able to start the quest up and get him to follow me, but I'm not seeing any dialogue options for Priestess Jora. I do have Follower Framework, not sure if that messes things up?

I should probably change the quest objective that tells you to "take the dog as a follower". This is misleading because you shouldn't take him as a follower under any follower framework. He has his own "Come with me" dialogue that makes him follow you. This dialogue only appears after you have first spoken with Dinya Balu in the temple about the dog. 

 

Jora only has this quest's dialogue when the dog is following you under this mod's follower framework. So, I would reload a save and speak with Dinya and make sure you select the dog's "Come with me" dialogue before leaving with the dog.

[Gristle]

2 hours ago, DiabloJim said:

Okay, just finished it...and now I'm depressed because it's over
Man, if this is just a beta version, the final version will be fucking outstanding. Most assuredly one of the absolute best mods--sex or otherwise--I have ever come across.  
I don't know if I had any issues because everything worked perfectly for me. All dialogues came up. All the interactions seemed to go smoothly. I've read a few of the other posts and none of it happened to me--and I know my setup isn't perfect because I do have one or two mods that cause random, occasional CTDs. It does seem that a lot of the issues with beast mods is the aggression of the beasts but I don't have that problem because I use One With Nature, and have them all set to Allied or Friendly. Nothing like getting set upon by bandits and having a giant and mammoth come to my aid, or a pack of wolves or bears or tigers

(One With Nature) https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/13343 with the accompanying settings loader so I don't have to redo it for each playthrough. I also have Aroused Creatures installed, with a profile specifically setup that has beasts essentially ignore me unless I strip for them but actively pursue NPCs (followers or others). And to round it off I have Simple Offence Suppression https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41764 installed and activated so I can accidentally hit neutrals (NPC or animal) without them turning on me instantly but can kill same when necessary. I think the combination of these three allowed this mod to have a perfect and enjoyable playthrough.

If this is just a beta and you're still working on it/extending it, then may I respectfully suggest finding a way to include the three female Jarls, and maybe Sybille Stentor as well.

Thanks for the feedback and for the creature mod tips. And glad you liked the mod. I think it would be a good idea to use the Jarls in the next segment of the mod. That would give the next phase a different theme. Also, if you liked this quest, check out the quest in SLSF Fame Comments that the Jarl in Markarth gives you if your PC's exhibitionism fame gets high in Markarth (which is easy to do). That was my first quest and it's pretty unique and I think it turned out really well. 

[Herowynne]

2 hours ago, Gristle said:

I should probably change the quest objective that tells you to "take the dog as a follower". This is misleading because you shouldn't take him as a follower under any follower framework. He has his own "Come with me" dialogue that makes him follow you.

 

Yes, it was just lucky that I happened to pick the right dialogue option.

 

The quest objective could be changed to: Speak to the dog and ask it to come with you

 

The dog's dialogue option could be prefixed like this: [Choose this] Come with me

[Gristle]

4 minutes ago, Herowynne said:

 

Yes, it was just lucky that I happened to pick the right dialogue option.

 

The quest objective could be changed to: Speak to the dog and ask it to come with you

 

The dog's dialogue option could be prefixed like this: [Choose this] Come with me

Yup. Will do.

[Darl9]

15 hours ago, Gristle said:

I should probably change the quest objective that tells you to "take the dog as a follower". This is misleading because you shouldn't take him as a follower under any follower framework. He has his own "Come with me" dialogue that makes him follow you. This dialogue only appears after you have first spoken with Dinya Balu in the temple about the dog. 

 

Jora only has this quest's dialogue when the dog is following you under this mod's follower framework. So, I would reload a save and speak with Dinya and make sure you select the dog's "Come with me" dialogue before leaving with the dog.

Yeah I thought I had chosen the right one but when I reloaded from before that and tried again the quest continued normally.

[monty359]

Great work with the mod @Gristle! I played it through and liked it very much!

 

I use NethersFollowerFramework, but i did not import Balazar into it.

 

Here is my feedback:

Quests:

I encountered only one major problem: in the last part in kynesgrove. After speaking to the NPC, she did not go, where she was supposed to go. The objective was to follow her. I had to dig into the files with xedit, in order to know, where to go.

 

Oddities and other small problems:

1. Behavior in dungeons: Balazar as daedra appears to be above sneaking. I play my character with sneaking in mind and playing with Balazar was a pain. He has no sneaking skills and pulled everything just by being there. It was impossible to let him wait (plot necessity). In my opinion, he also followed to closely (little more distance would be nice, i guess you used a standard follower package, because all vanilla followers do that).

I use yammet and acheron mods and Balazar did not play well with these mods. After being defeated, he recovered after several seconds (10-15). The combination with no sneak and not staying defeated and aggressive behavior after entering a mine with hostiles he runs off attacking. After several times being defeated and recovered, he managed to pull all npcs in the mine and "tanked" them (everyone but Balazar were defeated because of the number of pulled npcs and my difficulty setting). In his powerful form he was also not able to sneak (animation and skill) behaved aggressive and additionally he was not heal able (healing resisted).

 

2. At Merunes altar he was attacked by the other daedra, while my PC was not. I use Trouble of Heroine, and that mod ads an additional npc there, This NPC was also attacking him (only in the powerful form).

 

I have lots of mods, so my experience might because of mod conflicts. So far, none else has reported this kind of problems.

 

It would be nice, if anyone did some dungeons with Balazar could share their experiences.

 

Thanks for the great mod!

 

 

[Gristle]

6 hours ago, monty359 said:

I encountered only one major problem: in the last part in kynesgrove. After speaking to the NPC, she did not go, where she was supposed to go. The objective was to follow her. I had to dig into the files with xedit, in order to know, where to go.

Thanks for the feedback. This one has me stumped because she starts moving reliably in my game. I'm going to try to change her destination a bit to see if that helps. If that doesn't work, then I'll just add a quest marker pointing to her destination.

6 hours ago, monty359 said:

1. Behavior in dungeons: Balazar as daedra appears to be above sneaking. I play my character with sneaking in mind and playing with Balazar was a pain. He has no sneaking skills and pulled everything just by being there. It was impossible to let him wait (plot necessity). In my opinion, he also followed to closely (little more distance would be nice, i guess you used a standard follower package, because all vanilla followers do that).

I think I could make him sneak when your PC does. However, he probably has crap sneak skill. I could increase this, but I don't know how immersive it is for him to be a sneak master, or really even to agree to try to sneak around. Maybe it would be better to be able to ask him to wait in dungeons. I'm not using a standard follower package, so I can easily increase his follow distance a bit.

6 hours ago, monty359 said:

I use yammet and acheron mods and Balazar did not play well with these mods. After being defeated, he recovered after several seconds (10-15). The combination with no sneak and not staying defeated and aggressive behavior after entering a mine with hostiles he runs off attacking. After several times being defeated and recovered, he managed to pull all npcs in the mine and "tanked" them (everyone but Balazar were defeated because of the number of pulled npcs and my difficulty setting). In his powerful form he was also not able to sneak (animation and skill) behaved aggressive and additionally he was not heal able (healing resisted).

I'm going to reduce his "Confidence" level by two levels. Hopefully, between that and a "Wait" option he won't run off attacking as much and will be more manageable in dungeons. I'll have to look into the healing issue.

6 hours ago, monty359 said:

2. At Merunes altar he was attacked by the other daedra, while my PC was not. I use Trouble of Heroine, and that mod ads an additional npc there, This NPC was also attacking him (only in the powerful form).

The way the mod works, Balazar starts being removed from his usual "daedra" faction, (If he wasn't, he would attack the PC and get attacked by brave NPCs all the time.) But, before entering the shrine both he and the PC are put into the "daedra" faction so that they can go inside without a fight. (I can't do it the other way around easily because the daedra inside are not unique NPCs.) Then, when they come back outside, Balazar and the PC are both removed from the "daedra" faction so they can wander across Skyrim without starting fights constantly. But this only works once (to enable the quest to progress). And it only works for the daedra inside. I think if you are level 20+ and have completed the Pieces of the Past quest, there will also be two daedra outside. These daedra would presumably fight both of you. And I'm pretty sure the daedra here respawn. I had considered this but didn't think it was a big enough deal to try to fix somehow.  I just "head cannoned" this as the daedra outside attack before they recognize Balazar. So, if you are talking about daedra outside, I don't think it's a big deal. If you are talking about the daedra inside during the quest, then this is an issue.

 

[shrtjsrtj]

10 hours ago, monty359 said:

It would be nice, if anyone did some dungeons with Balazar could share their experiences.

 

I was low level when playing through this mod, and here's my experience.

 

In dog form he was a good tank and did great damage, but in humanoid form he was more of a glass cannon, though this might have been because I was low level doing the quest chain. Biped Balazar would run into battle and either kill them quickly or get overwhelmed and knocked down in the later parts of the quest, he got up too quickly for defeat mods to trigger but I'm not sure if that really needs fixing or not. Also, while in dog form he would stop combat if I got KO'ed, it fits his character to watch the show though and it acts as a counter balance to his OP damage output.

 

He felt unique in his combat role which was cool.

 

Question for Gristle, what's the deal with the stray dog? Just a fun little extra follower? I recruited it and it ran around fighting with me for a while but after a while it disappeared. Are there any other recruitable animals I may have missed?

[monty359]

6 hours ago, Gristle said:

The way the mod works, Balazar starts being removed from his usual "daedra" faction, (If he wasn't, he would attack the PC and get attacked by brave NPCs all the time.) But, before entering the shrine both he and the PC are put into the "daedra" faction so that they can go inside without a fight. (I can't do it the other way around easily because the daedra inside are not unique NPCs.) Then, when they come back outside, Balazar and the PC are both removed from the "daedra" faction so they can wander across Skyrim without starting fights constantly. But this only works once (to enable the quest to progress). And it only works for the daedra inside. I think if you are level 20+ and have completed the Pieces of the Past quest, there will also be two daedra outside. These daedra would presumably fight both of you. And I'm pretty sure the daedra here respawn. I had considered this but didn't think it was a big enough deal to try to fix somehow.  I just "head cannoned" this as the daedra outside attack before they recognize Balazar. So, if you are talking about daedra outside, I don't think it's a big deal. If you are talking about the daedra inside during the quest, then this is an issue.

 

My char is lvl 65 and the dagger quest is already done. When going there, i was immediately attacked by the 2 daedra at entrance. inside there were 2 hostile daedras, and 2 not hostile. I believe one was from your mod and i had to talk to hin and the other was a named daedra from a different mod.

[dechurch]

On 10/29/2023 at 3:51 PM, Gristle said:

Great, and thanks! 

Current thoughts are either to expand on the idea of Balazar as a dominant companion, or add another Balazar-related quest, or both. Another Balazar-related quest would probably involve conflict with another aedric or daedric prince faction.

 

Expanding on Balazar as a dominant companion is trickier. I could throw in bondage elements, but that would require adding ZaZ or DD as a dependency, which would narrow the audience a bit. Also, I don't want to add any features that ultimately interfere with normal Skyrim gameplay. So, something like a collar would be great. Maybe Balazar forcing the PC to have sex with certain NPCs or creatures you encounter? However, would mean running scripts to detect nearby NPCs and creatures, which I don't yet know how to write. Balazar could also perhaps force himself on other NPCs for sex, e.g., women at night in the city, or in the wilderness?

 

It's hard to find an immersive balance with Balazar as a companion for several reasons. First, he's very strong (he scales between level 23 and 46 at 1.3x the PC's level, has awesome weapon and armor), and may unbalance the game as a constant companion. Second, he really should frighten most NPCs more than he does. He can frighten people now, but it's pretty subtle, they just run a bit and cower, and the current code only lets him do it to one NPC at a time.  I also thought about guards attacking him, but that would probably turn into a city-wide blood bath real quick. Maybe he could pick fights when out in the wilderness?

 

I've played it a little. I'm on the Jora part of the first quest. The only thing I would request is more. Too many of these mods are short. More beasts, more debauchery, more quests. 

[Gristle]

8 hours ago, shrtjsrtj said:

In dog form he was a good tank and did great damage, but in humanoid form he was more of a glass cannon, though this might have been because I was low level doing the quest chain. Biped Balazar would run into battle and either kill them quickly or get overwhelmed and knocked down in the later parts of the quest, he got up too quickly for defeat mods to trigger but I'm not sure if that really needs fixing or not. Also, while in dog form he would stop combat if I got KO'ed, it fits his character to watch the show though and it acts as a counter balance to his OP damage output.

Currently Balazar in humanoid form scales a bit with the PC. But he scales at 130% of PC's level, and with a minimum level of 23. Plus he has ebony armor and a really powerful sword. So, he shouldn't be a pushover, even with a low-level PC.  Normally, a creature like that is level 46, but I didn't want to make him crazy strong for low level PCs.

8 hours ago, shrtjsrtj said:

Question for Gristle, what's the deal with the stray dog? Just a fun little extra follower? I recruited it and it ran around fighting with me for a while but after a while it disappeared. Are there any other recruitable animals I may have missed?

Uh, what stray dog? That's not from this mod.

[Gristle]

5 hours ago, monty359 said:

My char is lvl 65 and the dagger quest is already done. When going there, i was immediately attacked by the 2 daedra at entrance. inside there were 2 hostile daedras, and 2 not hostile. I believe one was from your mod and i had to talk to hin and the other was a named daedra from a different mod.

The outside attack I would have expected, since you and Balazar aren't yet put in the daedra faction. But your PC (and Balazar) are put into the daedra faction when you enter the shrine on the quest, so I don't know why any inside would attack you. The two that are normally inside (and the one I added inside) never attack my PC on the quest. The other mod must be putting the new ones in a different faction for some reason.

[Gristle]

45 minutes ago, dechurch said:

 

I've played it a little. I'm on the Jora part of the first quest. The only thing I would request is more. Too many of these mods are short. More beasts, more debauchery, more quests. 

Yes, more content, but it takes time. The good news is you've barely started the quest. Lots more to go.

[monty359]

3 hours ago, Gristle said:

The outside attack I would have expected, since you and Balazar aren't yet put in the daedra faction. But your PC (and Balazar) are put into the daedra faction when you enter the shrine on the quest, so I don't know why any inside would attack you. The two that are normally inside (and the one I added inside) never attack my PC on the quest. The other mod must be putting the new ones in a different faction for some reason.

when i entered the cave/room, balazar was in his dog form, everything was ok, after talking to the first daedra, balazar should translate. He still was in dog form. I asked him to transform . after his transformation the other became hostile. I guess the transformation had some unintended effects.

[Seeker999]

About Dagon's shrine - only 3 dremora inside, vanilla + yours. They attacked Balazar. Not me, just B. I even tried leaving my followers outside, same thing happened. Have not completed the dagger quest, haven't even started it, but do have a couple of pieces of it. Am level 62. B remained in doggy form until we were back outside.

Hung around your Dremora Warlock Commander until I was able to speak to him while B was resting between bouts of being attacked. Balazar NOT in dremora faction, that faction isn't even listed for him. I, however, am listed. (Rank0, same as the dremora). I didn't attack the dremora and they didn't attack me. I would have, if I hadn't read stuff in this thread already.

Outside, after he changed into his native form, he was in the dremora faction. In Dawnstar, he didn't change back to doggy (I didn't suggest it either) and nobody ran away. Comments reflected it, though.

That's as far as I got, so far. No battles, dungeons, etc.

Tried shrine again, but this time suggested he change into his true form before we entered. Everything went smoothly, no attacks. Maybe the key is to have him change form on his own before going in.

 

FWIW, I don't think I mind him not being able to sneak. After all, if I summon a dremora lord it doesn't sneak. Seems totally in character.

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Seeker999

[PippinTom]

6 hours ago, Gristle said:

The outside attack I would have expected, since you and Balazar aren't yet put in the daedra faction. But your PC (and Balazar) are put into the daedra faction when you enter the shrine on the quest, so I don't know why any inside would attack you.

 

Maybe because Balazar is in form of a dog and he attacks them every few (half)minutes?

So even when using break between combats if PC manages to ask Commander for anything, she is not able to ask Balazar for meaning of gibberish that Commander spilled out, because Dog is busy and does not have any dialog options available/useful. The only solution is to ask Balazar before entering the chamber but after crossing the gates, to "take his powerful form". Then other Dremoras won't attack; dialog/quest can proceed; PC can get fucked and this part be over.

 

Another problem however is that after leaving the cave/shrine  - Balazar remains in humanoid form, is which he is so silly weak that even first 1-2 of those exploding dogs that attacks later can knock him out easily to bleed-out state. Same for standard vanilla bear or random necromancer/blackmage encountered in the wilderness on the way to next quest marker - they are all supreme to him in Dremora form.

 

And talking to Balazar does not offer option for changing his form back to Husky, which seems much more powerful and resilient actually than Dremora one.

[Gristle]

7 hours ago, monty359 said:

when i entered the cave/room, balazar was in his dog form, everything was ok, after talking to the first daedra, balazar should translate. He still was in dog form. I asked him to transform . after his transformation the other became hostile. I guess the transformation had some unintended effects.

 

6 hours ago, Seeker999 said:

Tried shrine again, but this time suggested he change into his true form before we entered. Everything went smoothly, no attacks. Maybe the key is to have him change form on his own before going in.

 

FWIW, I don't think I mind him not being able to sneak. After all, if I summon a dremora lord it doesn't sneak. Seems totally in character.

 

Thanks for the details. This is indeed the issue. My expectation was that Balazar would be in humanoid form when he enters the shrine. In my playtesting, my PC hasn't previously visited the shrine, can't fast travel there, and my wilderness travel from my closest fast travel point gives Balazar(dog) plenty of time to switch. I'm guessing you both either fast travelled to the shrine or to nearby Dimhollow Cavern, which likely does not give Balazar enough time to switch forms (as he would eventually do in the wilderness).

 

So, the fix will be to detect if he is in dog form and to force a change to humanoid form before he enters the shrine. I'll figure that out and put it in the next version.

 

And I agree on the sneaking. Not in character. I think better to give him dialogue to ask him to wait, but only in dungeons (for the purpose of sneak attacks) and not generally.

[Gristle]

5 hours ago, PippinTom said:

Another problem however is that after leaving the cave/shrine  - Balazar remains in humanoid form, is which he is so silly weak that even first 1-2 of those exploding dogs that attacks later can knock him out easily to bleed-out state. Same for standard vanilla bear or random necromancer/blackmage encountered in the wilderness on the way to next quest marker - they are all supreme to him in Dremora form.

I think I see the reason. I thought the Dremora form would be stronger because the dog (standard husky) levels with the player at 1x with a min level of 10 and a max level of 25, while the Dremora form levels with the player at 1.3x with a min level of 23 and a max level of 46.  But I see their base health is not what I would expect (I didn't change it from the base forms of these creatures). The dog's base health is 100 and the Dremora's base health is 50. Of course, the Dremora scales better and longer. But, I see now that for some reason, the standard Dremora has a "health offset" of -200, meaning that 200 is subtracted from the health added by level scaling. I would imagine this means at lower level ranges the dog is stronger. I think I'll remove the -200 health offset in the next version. That should be enough to balance them better. The Dremora's attacks are devastating. He just needs to stay on his feet better.

 

EDIT: For reference, what level is your PC?

Edited November 7, 2023 by Gristle

[PippinTom]

1 hour ago, Gristle said:

EDIT: For reference, what level is your PC?

 

little 15 18

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by PippinTom
little mistake

[dechurch]

On 11/7/2023 at 12:51 AM, Gristle said:

Yes, more content, but it takes time. The good news is you've barely started the quest. Lots more to go.

Zero complaints! I appreciate anyone who does this stuff.

 

Are you planning anything with Farengar? His last line opens up a bunch of possibilities.