Spicing up the release

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berry
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Spicing up the release

Post by berry »

Just some random ideas I had to make exploring the areas of upcoming Vorndgad-Karthwasten-Druadachs release more interesting:

Hunting down the bandits - lates rumours around Karthgad would inform player that thane is tired of bandits preying in Vorndgad forest and delegated his huscarl to take care of it. Huscarl's been looking for bounty hunters ever since. This would trigger the first of only three journal entries I imagined for this "radiant quest" - second one being "Huscarl told me about bounties appointed for the bandits lurking in Vorndgad Forest. I shall return to him to collect a bounty whenever I manage to kill a bandit", and the last one "All bandits in Vorndgad forest are dead"; killing all bandits would result in an extra reward. Next to the huscarl, in thane's lodge, there would be a board with bounties nailed to it, they would however only serve informative and RPing purposes (you wouldn't need to have read the bounty for bandits to appear), describing each bandits' group and loosely their whereabouts, for example something like
To all fair citizen of the Empire!
Let it be known, that:
  • Orc named Bugdul
  • Breton going by the name Ylbent Bovkinna
  • unknown Nord, accompanying them
  • unknown Orc woman, accompanying them
were sentenced to the death for their crimes of banditry, with the bounty estabilished at 200 Septims each. Any woman or man is free to kill them and collect the reward in Karthgad.
They were last seen marauding by the Falkirstad - Dragonstar road. Beware, for they all are armed and highly dangerous.(...)
describing the group in -107, 15. Each bandit would have a script assigned to him/her, and after his or her death player would be entitled to gather the reward (100-200 Septims per bandit?). I should be able to get the scripts done, I know the bounty system was done before, in Indy Bank I think, so I think I would be able to mimic it for SHotN.

Earning a player's house from one of renovated RG ruins - for some service to the authorities of Karthwasten, the player would be rewarded with a house (or just a possibility to buy one?) What would add some flavour to this, is that in order to strenghten Skyrim's position in this area, the idea is to get one of ruined Redguard houses rebuilt, and then have a loyal servant to the jarl (ie. the player) settled in. The player would then be informed about some possible locations (for example the lonely house by the forest, the house in docks, one of the houses on the Karthwasten's outskirts, where Red Quarter used to be, and maybe the ruined house on Wilbur's mesa too?), and be left with a possibility to check all of them before making up his mind. And then, after some days, the player would have a house in the place selected himself.

TES V style fishes - you activate the fish, it disappears with some bubbles appearing, and there's a random chance you find some meat and/or scales. I overall think battling these cute fishes to their deaths and then looting their corpses would be quite goofy. Plus it has this nice trapper vibe to it, that I think goes well with SHotN. I could get the scripting part done for that. :)

Craftable wormmouth armor - I really didn't like how crafting custom armors (adamantium) was settled in Tribunal, Bloodmoon however did much better job with that, both in regards to Stalhrim and bear/wolf sets. I think copying the solution used for the latter would be a nice feature; basically bring some wormmouth hides and gold, to receive some armor pieces. The crafter could live in Haimtir, or maybe Muspila's canyon?

Tribunal style blades to hire - another concept that had flawed execution in Tribunal, but opens some nice possibilites for us: mercenary companions. There's really little work required here, if we decide to include this indea: just take Tribunal's dialogue, expanded with few selected dialogue and script entries by Grumpy and add some unique dialogues, and voila, it's done.

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worsas
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Post by worsas »

These ideas sound interesting. I'd only prefer leaving the fish a regular creatures myself. They are similarly sized with the slaughterfish and I'd rather treat them similar. I'm also not sure, I like the gameplay mechanism you described.

Most of these ideas are very gamey (companion, housing, crafting etc) and they should be applied with taste. Let's concentrate on classical quests for the time being and add in these things a bit later as a tidbit ontop of it all.

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berry
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Post by berry »

I agree, now is not the time to develop any of these ideas. I mostly wanted to write them down, so I wouldn't forget about them later on. Some of these could also turn out handy in near future (for example the house idea, when we'd need an unique reward for one of MQ quests).
worsas wrote:I'd only prefer leaving the fish a regular creatures myself. They are similarly sized with the slaughterfish and I'd rather treat them similar. I'm also not sure, I like the gameplay mechanism you described.
I could just make an optional plugin for this, then. I had some vague plans about making a plugin like Resources Enhanced (one of the most favorite mods of mine) or Graphic Herbalism for SHotN assets, and I can see this feature in it. But this, now, is even more distant future. :P

dobren
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Post by dobren »

I'd like to add a small bit of extra "spice", even though I'm not sure it fits with the Nords.
I've just posted on Tamriel Rebuilt about adding a script to House Dres armour, similar to the Ordinator script on Indoril armour, where a Khajiit/Argonian PC would be attacked on sight by House Dres guards if they dare to wear a Dres cuirass/helm (at least until they're named Nerevarine...).
While I'm not suggesting a plethora of scripts on every faction-related armour piece in the game, a script on some Nord armour would certainly help make them feel as alive as the Ordinators do with their script.

With regards to Nord Guards' armour, would a similar script makes sense??
It doesn't make as much sense to me as the Dres suggestion, but there is at least some merit to the notion of Nords not accepting the sight of non-Nords (especially Bretons) wearing Nord Guard armour. They'd assume one of their fellow guards had been killed & robbed! It makes sense that a Breton PC (wearing a piece of guard's armour) would be attacked by Nord guards on the look-out for Breton subversives, in order to protect their brothers-in-arms & their Jarl.
This armour sets' uniqueness helps my cause. It's component pieces would be instantly recognisable to any Nord. Only a full set of the armour would hide the identity of a non-Nord wearer.
Could this kind of script work in tandem with a disguise script??
This "coupling" would make more sense for the Nords than for Indoril Ordinators (a war of attrition & regular reinforcement from other Holds could make new, unknown & fully covered guards more tolerated) & I think it would be the key to making this script idea work for Nord factions (if it's possible).

A Nord Guard armour disguise would also allow/facilitate an infiltration quest of some kind. Maybe a quest requirement to uncover the PC head to talk to a target NPC could lead to the PC being attacked if he/she forgets to put their helmet back on....

My main issue (with my own suggestion) is that the whole thing depends on how you want the Nord Guards' "factions" to act & react. Should there be a death penalty for wearing a guards armour? (if you're a Breton and I'm a Jarl, I would say yes. I'd also "expel" all Bretons from my keep, just to be sure)

This script would make more sense for an elite company of soldiers sent by the High King to reinforce Skyrim's interests. A company of 100 men spread across the Reach in squads of 8-12, all under 1 captain would certainly be worthy of a script like this (if the "common" Nord Guards don't fit).

I understand that the Nord factions in Tamriel_Data currently consists of the Bear Clan, so this is a thought for future consumption.
I do hope this suggestion is workable in some way.

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