Devious Newcomer (Alt Start Quest)

[El_Duderino]

Devious Newcomer (Alt Start Quest)

View File

---

Devious Newcomer

An Early-Game Devious Quest Mod

 

This is a story-driven quest mod well suited for low-level characters or even as an alternative start* to playing Skyrim.

 

You start after having been attacked and robbed of everything on the road to Riften. Three grizzled adventurers are surrounding you. What do they want from you? Can they provide help or are they perhaps members of the bandits who attacked you? They seem peaceful so far... maybe you should speak to them?

 

This mod was originally developed as a new part for my Ebonitium mod, but I thought it might work better and reach a wider audience as a standalone mod.

 

*) Only Skyrim Unbound Reborn is currently supported. LAL and Alternate Perspective might come later.

 

Features

• A storyline with several chapters with perhaps 2-3 hours of playtime.
• Low-level character friendly objectives. No fighting. No sex scenes.
• Devious Devices (of course), including hobble dresses, but it's always consensual.
• Several points along the quest where you can end it early or take a break from having to wear devices.
• The story is for the most part centered in Riften and involves some new NPCs and some known NPCs.
• The ending of the story is at Whiterun, the place best suited for low level characters.
• Occasional references to Skyrim lore and vanilla quests.
• This mod is available both as unvoiced and with AI generated voices (xVASynth). The synth voices are, as usual, a bit hit or miss in terms of quality and some might not like them, which is why I'm keeping them optional.

 

Starting the Mod

Currently, you have two options to start this quest:

 

If you are playing with Skyrim Unbound Reborn, you can use Unbound to automatically launch this quest at your playthrough's start. Simply select the Wilderness starting location "Robbed in the Rift" from the Unbound MCM's starting locations list.

 

Alternatively, you can start the mod from the console at any time during your playthrough. To do so, simply open the console and type this: StartQuest AR_DeviousAltStart This will teleport you the quest's starting position on the road to Dayspring canyon outside of Riften, and then you can just follow the objectives as usual.

 

While this is intended as an early-game quest, you can start it any time you want during your playthrough. For role-playing purposes, the only presumptions the mod makes is that you were traveling to or from Riften by carriage and that you don't appear to know much about Skyrim yet (at least outwardly).

 

Note: do NOT use SetStage console commands to try and fast-forward through the quest. It will break the quest as most of its progression is triggered through dialogue or activator scripts.

 

Installation

 

Decide wether you want to use the voiced or the unvoiced version of the mod. Install only one of them with the mod manager of your choice.

 

Optionally, if you are using Skyrim Unbound Reborn, you can also install the separate Unbound add-on which will make this quest available as an Unbound start scenario (see "Starting the Mod" directly above for details.

 

Requirements

 

The only hard requirement is Devious Devices (SE/NG) and all its requirements.

 

For the optional Skyrim Unbound add-on you'll obviously also need Skyrim Unbound Reborn installed, version 2.1.10 or newer: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/27962

 

Please let me know if you encounter and bugs, issues, or oddities!

Does this work in LE?

It should but you'll have to run the included textures through Cathedral Asset Optimizer to make them compatible.

 

Version History / Changelog:

Spoiler

Version 1.0.4

ADDED: xVASynth AI-voice for all NPCs

CHANGED: mod is now BSA-packed

FIXED: a few missing dialogue isActor conditions and a couple of typos

 

Should be safe to update from 1.0.1 or later in your current playthrough.

 

Version 1.0.3

FIXED: The blindfold for gold deal is now actually giving you gold

FIXED: More typos and "language bugs"

IMPROVED: Changed order of armbinder for skooma script processing (AddItem and DD equip) to hopefully make it more robust

 

Version 1.0.2

FIXED: The adventurer leader's dialogue no longer gets blocked after the initial conversation

FIXED: You can now trade in firewood for empty bottles

FIXED: Some typos and language "bugs"

IMPROVED: Added a two-second delay to creating the opening scene to allow other startup quests and scripts to execute when using this as an alt start scenario

 

Version 1.0.1

NEW: Add-on for Skyrim Unbound Reborn

FIXED: Hobble Dress not getting unlocked when requesting a break after returning from the potion delivery

FIXED: Dialog/quest not advancing after returning from the potion delivery

FIXED: Dialog conditions not matching required ingredient count after the second items gathering mission

FIXED: Objectives not updating correctly when activating the corpse at the start under some circumstances

 

Version 1.0.0

Initial Release

 

CREDITS

This is a devious mod, so a big shout-out has to go to all the creators, managers, and contributors of Devious Devices: thank you so much for making so many wonderful things possible in this game of ours!

 

The synth voices were created with Dan Ruta's xVASynth.

---

• Submitter
  El_Duderino
• Submitted
  04/18/2024
• Category
  Adult Mods
• Requires
  Devious Devices
• Regular Edition Compatible

 

[PNclarity001]

Might be possible to add an ambush point after riverwood or even outside Helgan until LAL integration?

[naaitsab]

Looks good, will give it a try on my next new-game. May I also propose using "Alternate Perspective" as a start framework? That's less intrusive and free of any modder drama.

Configuration guide can be found here https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/articles/3518

[El_Duderino]

Thanks for the comments!

 

2 hours ago, PNclarity001 said:

Might be possible to add an ambush point after riverwood or even outside Helgan until LAL integration?

The place of the ambush has to remain near Riften as otherwise the rest of the story doesn't make sense. Note that you don't actually get to witness the ambush/attack, you come to after it and only see the aftermath.

 

However, for roleplaying purposes you can start the quest anywhere you like. Perhaps you hired a carriage to take you to Riften and then wake up after it having been attacked? The quest teleports you to the starting location at the beginning.

 

1 hour ago, naaitsab said:

May I also propose using "Alternate Perspective" as a start framework?

I didn't know this mod even existed. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll look into it. As it stands, an addon for Unbound Reborn is most likely to be done first, mainly because it's the alt-start mod which I've used for years.

[PNclarity001]

1 hour ago, El_Duderino said:

Thanks for the comments!

 

The place of the ambush has to remain near Riften as otherwise the rest of the story doesn't make sense. Note that you don't actually get to witness the ambush/attack, you come to after it and only see the aftermath.

 

However, for roleplaying purposes you can start the quest anywhere you like. Perhaps you hired a carriage to take you to Riften and then wake up after it having been attacked? The quest teleports you to the starting location at the beginning.

 

I didn't know this mod even existed. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll look into it. As it stands, an addon for Unbound Reborn is most likely to be done first, mainly because it's the alt-start mod which I've used for years.

That's fair, I discovered that after playing the mod lol. It was good though, only issue that proc'd was the wine bottles not given to the PC

[mr wolf]

The quest won't update I went back to the lady after delivering the potions I try both options nothing she just say come back whenever . I waited 24 hours no change when I talk to her again it just gives me the same Dialog

[El_Duderino]

Hi and thanks for the comments and feedback!

 

A new version is now online which among others issues fixes the bug @mr wolf reported.

 

An add-on for Skyrim Unbound Reborn is now also available as an optional extra download.

 

Quote

only issue that proc'd was the wine bottles not given to the PC

@PNclarity001 I have not been able to reproduce this. Did you receive the bottles from an NPC or pick them up in the world? If the latter, you'll need a specific type of bottle (the narrow, green wine bottle without the basket (EditorID "WineBottle02AEmpty")

Edited April 19 by El_Duderino

[Seeker999]

15 hours ago, El_Duderino said:

Starting the Mod

This mod does sound interesting. I use Alternate Perspective, myself, to start the game.

Maybe a carriage ride to Riften is a  good way to start the quest. Only when the driver asks you where you want to go, you have an additional choice; "Today I go to Riften","gotta go to Riften" or something like that to separate a regular trip to Riften from this unexpected devious trip to Riften. You get in the carriage, fade to black, and end up where your mod starts.

Just a thought.

[GTAVC16]

When getting the normal skooma with the alternate payment, the player does not keep the deal.
The alternate payment for the strong skooma works as intended.

[Benderovskiy]

have a trouble
meet the adventuer leader
try to speak with him but nothing happened
UPD
tryed to start new game
same problem but now they dont speak with me  after speak with brynjolf 

 

Edited April 19 by Benderovskiy

[Hanshurtig11]

3 hours ago, Benderovskiy said:

have a trouble
meet the adventuer leader
try to speak with him but nothing happened
UPD
tryed to start new game
same problem but now they dont speak with me  after speak with brynjolf 

 

Same here. Well, more clear, first time (after ambush) the leader didnt talk to me, but one of the other adventurer. After meetimg Brynolf in front of Rifton, none of them had any response to me.

Edited April 19 by Hanshurtig11

[El_Duderino]

Thanks for the reports! I'm not sure I understand why this is happening. The dialogue conditions all look fine to me for all the topics that involve the adventurers.

 

Could you run "SQV AR_DeviousAltStart" in the console after starting the quest and check if all the aliases have filled? Is your savegame clean and healthy (especially no suspended stacks reported in ReSaver?) Do you have other mods that can globally override generic NPC dialogue?

 

Does the adventurer NPC dialogue in this mod work for anybody, at the start of the quest and later on?

[mr wolf]

I get the same bug as well I can talk to the the other adventurer  the one  with the grey hair he will take me the the meadery but the one name  leader doesn't work for me but after doing the quests for the meadery the npc with name adventurer   he disappears he not waiting at huntsman  the broken leader guy is there

Edited April 19 by mr wolf

[BigOnes69]

I will use this next time I start a new character. It is nice to see someone on LL utilizing Skyrim Unbound reborn. That combined The Choice is Yours and Timing is Everything make playing a non dragonborn character viable. I have been using it for years. Did you just overlay one of the starts in SUR or did you add another start?

[PNclarity001]

22 hours ago, El_Duderino said:

Hi and thanks for the comments and feedback!

 

A new version is now online which among others issues fixes the bug @mr wolf reported.

 

An add-on for Skyrim Unbound Reborn is now also available as an optional extra download.

 

@PNclarity001 I have not been able to reproduce this. Did you receive the bottles from an NPC or pick them up in the world? If the latter, you'll need a specific type of bottle (the narrow, green wine bottle without the basket (EditorID "WineBottle02AEmpty")

I reloaded an earlier save and it seemed to fix it. probably just a quirk on my end, my game is pretty mod heavy

[El_Duderino]

49 minutes ago, PNclarity001 said:

I reloaded an earlier save and it seemed to fix it. probably just a quirk on my end, my game is pretty mod heavy

Oddly enough, I can now reproduce this bug in my game, though I still don't know what could be causing it.

 

I have however noticed that it's not only my mod's dialogue that gets blocked but also any comments that other mods add globally to all NPCs (such as SLSurvival's comments). Something must be blocking all dialogue for the leader adventurer NPC (and this one only).

 

EDIT: I may have found the reason. Seems like I accidentally enabled the "Exclusive" flag for two of the adventurers' dialogue branches, which disables all other dialogue for them once the original conditions are no longer valid (in this case the active quest stage).

 

2 hours ago, BigOnes69 said:

I have been using it for years. Did you just overlay one of the starts in SUR or did you add another start?

Yup, same here. The non-dragonborn aspect of Unbound is what originally drew me in but it has many other cool features, too. My plugin adds a new start option and shouldn't overwrite any of the existing ones.

Edited April 20 by El_Duderino

[nork4782]

Overall, a great RP start for a non-dragonborn non-special character that just happens to come to Skyrim while also organically introducing DD usage
 

Spoiler

Bugs:

Spoiler

• Unable to trade-in firewood for empty bottles. After he told to me to come back later with the firewood, I only got default dialogue and no option to exchange anything
• After talking to brynlojf and getting 'speak to your escort', no dialogue is present in any of the adventurers

Gameplay:

Spoiler

• I was genuinely missing some kind of vibrator or/and chastity belt 'integration' there - either when you take a break and get unlocked ( but get put a vibrator and chastity belt as movivation to come back ) or -ideally- to have the vibrator/belt combo go along with the beggar dress ( optionally? )
• I know that you said the mod story is finished, but there could be some kind of a break-in quest before you get sent off to Whiterun? It could be a practical moral test before going away from Riften and you could introduce another mini quest before the actual break-in - to get lockpicks?

Things I liked:

Spoiler

• I really, really liked how the whole atmosphere and quests were -consistently- grounded.
• It didn't feel as if DD was being forced on at any point, although sometimes I kind of wish it was more pushed, like for example when asking to take a break and wanting out of the dress, like I mentioned in gameplay
• It was a struggle to even get the first one hundred septims or to scrounge up enough money to buy honey... going back to the atmosphere of the mod, it was a nice break from the 'heroics' in a compelling way
• I played without any DD helper mods, and I personally spent about three days trying to get out of the damned armbinder Sapphire put me in for that double-distilled skooma, while I was continuing in the mod quests. For me, this was a fun scenario which happened naturally

 

 

PS: Can't wait to see more of Ebonitium

Edited April 20 by nork4782

[El_Duderino]

Thanks much for the fantastic feedback and the very kind words, @nork4782

 

I like your suggestions but I think I'll keep things as they are since this mod was primarily intended to be a short and not too serious story. I also want to keep the numerous existing off-ramps to exit the quest early and "in lore" for those who might want out early. I'll use Ebonitium for the stricter or darker stuff (where an early exit isn't possible without console magic).

[El_Duderino]

All right, new version is up which should address the bugs that have been reported. I have successfully played the whole quest again. Please do let me know if you run into any other bugs or issues.

 

I could not replicate the skooma bug that @GTAVC16 reported. Both types of skooma allow the quest to progress in my test runs. I have also tested this with CACO and SkoomaWhore active in my profile, though neither of which are installed in my CK-only copy of the game.

[thesteve812]

I'm an LE and Skyrim Unbound Reborn user. Ran it through CAO. Have Devious Devices 5.2 installed.

Started a new game and had this error.

 

/SkyrimUnbound/Addons/DeviousNewcomer.json 

*Line14, Column 3 missing '}' or object member name

 

I went ahead and started but didn't see a choice for Robbed in the Rift. I started with Riften roadsign. Then console command to start quest and was teleported to the 3 adventurers.

I've made it Riften gate and will see how it goes.

 

[El_Duderino]

1 hour ago, thesteve812 said:

Started a new game and had this error.

Thanks much for the feedback. I didn't get any error messages about the JSON in SE, but I did find a minor formatting error in it (a trailing comma where it shouldn't be). I've fixed that and have uploaded a new version below if you want to give it a try.

 

The "Robbed in the Rift" starting location should be the very last entry in the "Wilderness" locations sub-menu.

DeviousNewcomer_Unbound_AltStart_2024-04-20.zip

[thesteve812]

17 minutes ago, El_Duderino said:

Thanks much for the feedback. I didn't get any error messages about the JSON in SE, but I did find a minor formatting error in it (a trailing comma where it shouldn't be). I've fixed that and have uploaded a new version below if you want to give it a try.

 

The "Robbed in the Rift" starting location should be the very last entry in the "Wilderness" locations sub-menu.

DeviousNewcomer_Unbound_AltStart_2024-04-20.zip 31.67 kB · 0 downloads

The start location isn't there, I looked a couple times. I tried the last file you posted and get this error pop up. The last choice for wilderness is in Solstheim.

 

.locations [0]

.flocations can't be retrieved

(possible causes: wrong FormID or plugin name, missing plugin, REFR record not being persistent)

[El_Duderino]

5 minutes ago, thesteve812 said:

The start location isn't there, I looked a couple times. I tried the last file you posted and get this error pop up. The last choice for wilderness is in Solstheim.

Thanks for testing this! I'm guessing this might be an LE/SE thing then. I've just discovered that Unbound Reborn SE requires PapyrusUtil SE for the custom add-ons to work, so perhaps there some differences between LE/SE PapyrusUtil at the root of this. Just a guess.

 

Good to hear that the mod itself seems to be working in LE so far.

[thesteve812]

1 hour ago, El_Duderino said:

Thanks for testing this! I'm guessing this might be an LE/SE thing then. I've just discovered that Unbound Reborn SE requires PapyrusUtil SE for the custom add-ons to work, so perhaps there some differences between LE/SE PapyrusUtil at the root of this. Just a guess.

 

Good to hear that the mod itself seems to be working in LE so far.

I have restartitis anyway, so I don't mind being a guinea pig.

I too had the wood for empty wine bottles problem. The first dialogue about exchange would be there, but when I returned with wood the exchange wouldn't happen.

I tried reloading a couple times and then ended up just paying for them. It could still be an LE/SE thing. Still playing along as far as possible.

Thanks anyway for something new to try. 

[El_Duderino]

27 minutes ago, thesteve812 said:

I too had the wood for empty wine bottles problem.

Did that happen with the latest version 1.0.2 that I uploaded a couple hours ago? It should be fixed in that version (at least it worked here on my end). You should be able to update the main mod mid-game btw.