Game Skyrim Forum

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=852861

Version 1.3 now available http://lovkullen.net/Emma/Kateri.htm (See this page for the list of fixes new to v.1.3!)


JULAN, ASHLANDER COMPANION
-----------------------------------

by Kateri (khsimpson@gmail.com).

REQUIRES TRIBUNAL AND BLOODMOON

Version 1.3

Introduction
------------

This is a companion/quest mod. It started because the Morrowind Main Quest can be a lonely business. I wanted to create a companion who actually "knew" what was going on, and had his own opinions and agenda concerning it, and would be interesting company on the journey. I also wanted to give a bit of a new perspective and approach to the Main Quest for those veteran players like myself who know it backwards, but still enjoy playing Morrowind.

I wanted to create someone who was more than just a silent meat shield or beast of burden, but an interesting and believable character whom the player could gradually get to know, and develop a relationship with, from initial suspicion to genuine friendship (or more, should you so choose), in a way that felt natural and unforced.

Did I succeed? I have no idea! But I did have an enormous amount of fun trying!


The Lowdown
-----------

Julan Kaushibael is a young Ashlander man you rescue from getting pasted by Daedra outside Ghostgate. He wants you to take him on as a companion in order to train him into becoming a better warrior, but it quickly becomes clear that there are things going on that he isn't telling you. As you progress through the Morrowind main quest with Julan, he gets dragged into your mission, and you get dragged into his - a tangle of secrets, lies, love, loss and betrayal.

That makes the mod sound heavier than it really is, however. I hope that above all, Julan is fun to have around, whether you're playing the Main Quest or not. He has a vast supply of sarky comments and random observations. Due to his upbringing, he possesses an odd mixture of naivet?, pride and paranoia, and is sometimes completely oblivious to how ridiculous he's being - which is unfortunate for him, as he hates being laughed at. Underneath it all, however, is a dedicated and caring person, who is desperately trying to do the right thing in the face of overwhelming odds.


Companion Features
------------------

- All the standard fare you've come to expect from a companion mod, as developed over the years by many modders in the field - see the credits section of the readme for more details! Companion share, warping, teleportation - the usual stuff to make him a help rather than a hindrance.

- Train Julan's skills in whichever direction you choose, either by training him yourself (free, once per day), by asking an NPC Trainer to do it (more expensive, but unlimited) or by lending him skillbooks. His attributes are calculated from his skills, and so will rise as you train him. He will also learn new spells as his skill in the magical disciplines increases.

- Can cast useful spells on himself or the player, such as healing, curing, etc. Dependent on magicka level and his skill level.

- Takes healing potions and magicka potions automatically, and can keep himself healed on his own, with potions or spells, unless he runs out of everything.

- Various options for fighting, including ranged, melee, no magic, or stay out of fight.

- Telepathy ring (after certain quest events) that let you warp him to you from anywhere if you are outside, and also warps him to you if you are both in the same interior cell - useful for pulling him out of battle, or out of lava pits!

- Over 1800 unique lines of dialogue for loads of topics and hundreds of cells. He'll give inane running commentaries on quests for Mages, Fighters and Thieves Guilds,and the Tribunal Temple, as well as the Main Quest. If you like companions who shut up and fight, this isn't the mod for you.

- Optional romance, for female characters. Be aware, however, that as well as the pleasant aspects, getting involved can also mean more opportunities for jealousy, screaming arguments and hurt feelings. Put it this way, he's no romantic ideal, but that's not to say he doesn't have his good points. He's not a "boyfriend mod" however, and it's not the main focus.

- An optional female companion, after certain quest events. She's not as "developed" as Julan, but she does have her own "romance" quest for male characters, should you choose to accept it. Be warned, however... she's trouble!

No guarantee of good behaviour! Julan MAY do any or all of the following:

- Disagree with things you say or do. Expect the odd yelling match once in a while.
- Get horrendously drunk.
- Get on badly with your other travelling companions.
- Get on a little TOO well with your other travelling companions.
- Moan about the weather, the location, that he's bored, etc...
- Criticise your choice of faction or quest path.
- Make fun of your choice of headgear.


Known Issues and Incompatibilities
----------------------------------

This mod relies on the Main Quest! Thus, it will of course be incompatible with any mod that alters the Main Quest in a significant manner, e.g.

- any "Instant Nerevarine" mod
- Blake's Nerevar Say Nerevar
- Princess Stomper's Ghostgate.

It also conflicts with:

Guarded Ghostgate
Armingers[sic] at Ghostgate.

Exercise common sense! If you are unsure whether a certain mod will cause problems, please contact me and ask.


http://lovkullen.net/Emma/Kateri.htm (Thank you Emma, for hosting!)

Patch for the Romance Mod - currently unavailable, sorry! Email me if you really can't live without it.


ADDITIONAL INFO - NEW PLAYERS READ THIS!


This is a Main Quest Companion Mod. It is NOT playable by characters who are past the Vivec Informants point in the main quest, and will be best used by characters who haven't touched the Main Quest at all yet. Part of what I wanted to do with this was to inject a new perspective and interest in the Main Quest for seasoned Morrowind veterans! It is playable by fairly low-level characters as a result - all that is required is the ability to reach Ghostgate and beat up three Clannfears. They're modded to have high HP, but low attacks. They're not too tough.

As it seems this hasn't been clear enough in the past: THIS MOD BLOCKS PROGRESS IN THE MAIN QUEST until you have completed certain of Julan's quests. The blocked points are: Hassour Zainsubani's dialogue, and the Cavern of the Incarnate door.

If you are stuck here -or anywhere else, check http://princess.elricm.net/JulanFAQ.html, and if the answer's not there, PM/email me or post in this thread (but please, no spoilers in the thread!)

Finally, thankyou to everyone who's been supportive, appreciative, constructively critical, posted screenshots, told about funny things that happened to them and Julan, helped out with info for others who were stuck and generally been wonderful - I love this community.


Kateri.

Congratulations on reaching ten threads!

And to think, when I released the mod, I was quite prepared for the fact that noone would ever play it, since Oblivion had just come out. I love you guys!!! :touched:

Yay! Thread ten


Awesome mod, hope you continue to add bits and bobs.

Is there going to be further updates? such as julans perspective on the tribunal and bloodmoon main quest? I'd also like to see Shani developed more as well

@ Okida: Julan does have a few comments in Tribunal.

Even if I only played Oblivion, Julan would still be worth reinstalling Morrowind for. He even brings my most antisocial, antiheroic characters to the main quest - actually, if it wasn't for Julan, Vvardenfell would be saved a lot less often.

I've just started out with this, and I have to say Kateri, well done. I'm only just up to Hassour Zainsubani at the moment (with my Dunmer mage in the avatar) but I've done the main quest before on my own so this is an interesting twist indeed. I thought that regular MCA companions were OK in my past games but nothing prepared me for this!

Might I also add that Julan's not very hard to look at either. I'll def. take advantage of the "boyfriend" part of the mod. He and my Mage will make a good pair.

Yeah but (True as Julan's Almalexia comment is) I believe Okida means more like having something to speak up about here and there related to the steps the player takes in that storyline, just like in the MW MQ. I know I for one would love to hear what Julan would have to say after I get back from the Clockwork City. I imagine there would be a plethora of laughter, endless 'i told you so's, and some mazte on the house.

Now that I've been reminded of it though, there is one problem with Julan and Tribunal's MQ that I'd like to see fixed. If Julan is traveling with me around Mournhold, I found out that I can use him as an informant for many of the King's quests. Like Julan should in theory be entirely oblivious to really any knowledge at all about Mournhold, save for whatever he' read in books. He's also already at a high disposition with me, so using him as an informant also allows somebody to circumvent having to persuade a Mournhold resident to give them information.


-DL :chaos:

Ah, thanks for that! I tried to 'neutralise' a lot of the blasted non-nolored default Tribunal dialogue, but I knew there would still be things I missed.

I'd still like to add more stuff for Tribunal and other stuff... I have loads of stuff swimming around in my brain that I should probably write down, (I actually did write a few bits) but I'm not playing MW at the moment. I'll be back to work more on this at some point though.

On my next replay of the MQ, I'll use this, thanks! Maybe something similar for Bloodmoon?

Silly question but the update won't change any progress I've made with the previous version that I'm using at the moment will it?

Possibly. Depends how careful you are, and, what with the Morrowind engine, how lucky. I've heard the new unofficial engine patch helps prevent the kinds of issues that can occur, but I don't know much about it.

Anyway. Instructions are included in the archive, read them and let me know if you have any more questions.

I would really like to see him comment on you meeting almalexia, considering he nearly had apolpexy when you met vivec. Long with other higherachs from the temple. Or maybe what he might think of you with the sword, Trueflame?

If there was ever an update for bloodmoon interaction, perhaps julan could start out suspect to nords and their culture 'like all dunmer' and then gradually grows more accepting throughout the main quest.

BUt I would still like to see Shani developed a whole lot more

He certainly does.

I actually have tons I could add to Shani. The trouble is that anything involving her tends to descend rapidly into non-PG13 territory, and I haven't figured out how I want to handle it yet! :blink:

Julan has his own slant on events, I guess its just figuring out what she'd say about it in contrast. perhaps even threeway arguments between the player and the two of them over quest... maybe to do with factions that ashlander's don't like, such as the temple or the Imperial Legion and such

A http://www.imperial-library.info/dfbooks/b070_jokes.shtml



And you wonder why I have trouble keeping Shani's dialogue vaguely appropriate!

then why be appropriate? have her pushing induendo at every step of the way XD

Well, whatever you do, it would be really great to see further expanded content for any aspect of this mod. Good luck with it!

You're very welcome.



Yay!



What you already have of her invested into the game leaves little to the imagination on how that would work out. I'd say just implement whatever you want and how you want regarding that, and slap on a warning tag if needed.



I like that idea. it worked out pretty well when



:lol: I can see it now...

Player and Julan approach the Skaal Village to investigate Carius' disappearance. The player studies the settlement when Julan interrupts his/her thoughts by starting a conversation.

Julan: "So this is the village you're looking for right? Can you explain to me why you brought me into the freezing cold island, that I hate, to investigate a village of Nords, who I also hate, on behalf of the Empire that I despise?!"

Player: "Keep quiet, they're going to hear us."

Julan: "I couldn't care any less what those filthy s'wits hear! I could already smell them when we were climbing the hill! erm, well... I thought it was the stench of that skull of theirs you're carrying at first. Wait! Why are you actually carrying that thing anyway? That's disgusting!"

Player: "Just because I'm holding it, doesn't mean I like doing this."

Julan: "Well then quit doing that! You're disturbing me, more so than usually as a matter of fact."

Player: "Alright then, thanks for volunteering to hold onto it while I wash my hands off in the lake."

Julan: "SHEOGORATH NO! PLEASE! Keep it by all means then! I just want to know what you plan to do with it, while not getting involved in whatever that is..."

Player: "The Legionary told me to give it to them to sow the seeds of trust, so that I can figure out what happened to Carius. Or... not get torn to pieces on sight by the villagers at least."

Julan: "Pah! Like that would really stop them. They are barbarians after all."

Player: "All the more reason for you to tag along and get better acquainted with them then! Just pretend they're a bunch of axe-wielding, mead-drinking, Ashlanders. Only twice as smelly, don't herd Guar, live in the cold, and have an actual roof over their heads!"

Julan: "*Julan gasps and his face almost instantly swells so red that you swear he would've had a heat stroke if not for the fact that you're on a frozen island.* YOU IGNORANT N'WAH! TAKE THAT BACK! NOW!"

-DL :chaos:

:rofl:

With such a set up, Julan just would have to fall madly in love with a Skaal beauty.

LOl like that!!


Julan: The Udderferkt?

Playe: No... the uderfrykte.

----------


Julan: I'm not sure I like this.

Player: Being out in this cold or hunting werewolves?

Julan: Both.

Player: We've been through worse.

Julan: Yes we have but even Dagoth Ur didn't want to eat us

Shani: hey? if we kill one, can I have a werewolf skin robe made?

I'm on my way to Gnisis from Ald-ruhn battling Nix Hounds on the way, and decide to talk to Julan. Crash. I try it again. Crash.

Do you have any idea what's going on?