Dear all,

New user here, so be gentle!

Much as I enjoyed Skyrim, I thought the overall storytelling took a step backwards, and I'm frustrated by the lack of dynamic npcs and real rp opportunities.

So I've been hard at work over the last few weeks sketching out questlines - one for each race (10-12 quests) as well as one which would be open to all races (undecided length, perhaps c.15 quests). So far, I've begun work on one and have completed a few quests therein - though really the process is speeding up now that I've got up to speed with the creation kit and scripting.

Basically, what I'm aiming for here is the following:

- questlines with multiple endings depending on your actions and relationships
- npcs with genuine, detailed backgrounds that will unfold over time.
- dialogue options reflecting real choices, which affect relationships
- *lots* of text - the three quests I've completed have between them some 1200 lines - the entire Winterhold College questline has about 1000. [overall questline will consist of 12-15 separate quests... may possibly have as much content as the MQ by the end]
- the possibility for a long and complicated romances (but hopefully also satisfying, lol).
- epic stories that reflect the lore and mythos of TES, and also reflect each individual race's unique perspective and history.
- quests with multiple solutions based on your skills. But no hand holding - creative thinking is rewarded.

I'm working with a team of guys just now, but I'm really not sure what's happening to that project, as the mod leader has vanished without response for a while now. As much as I hope they can pull things together, I'm seeing what interest there might be in the community for this project *if* I need to go it alone. My skill is very much with the writing, but I'm getting pretty confident with scripting as well. The skill I don't have is level design, and that would be where I'd be asking for help, if anyone had a genuine interest in tackling something big and exciting like this. Any artists confident in creating new textures, clothing, and the like would also be more than welcome!

Very much a work in progress, and ambitious enough to keep me busy for a while. But I'm confident in the stories, and and really feel that most of the above is possible with some hard work. I also genuinely hope I can get to the stage of releasing a teaser in the not terribly distant future - and bring a new, exciting level of storytelling to Skyrim.

Open for advice, warnings, and expressions of interest!

TFQ

Please don't bite off more than you can chew. The idea of the mod gets me excited and I hope you stick with it and it doesn't vanish into obscurity like many ambitious projects have. The description of your mod seems to have similar RP goals to the terrific "Stranded Light" mod for Oblivion. I hope this post doesn't seem overly negative, that was not my intention.

Will you be releasing this mod in phases, or as one large package when it is complete?

Hey Chaos - not to worry, I'm sure people see plenty of project disappear into the void here! I wouldn't have undertaken this unless I thought there was a decent chance of producing it.

I was conflicted about the method of release. I want people to get to play with what I've got done so far, but I don't want them getting frustrated by getting cut off after three of four quests just as the story heats up, lol.

I suspect I'd aim for a release after I finish each race - I'm going to tackle one(ish) at a time to keep me on track. That way people could get to play through the whole of the story, without having to wait forever for it all to come together.

Very much interested! I agree that this sort of questing is just what Skyrim needs. I don't have the sort of skills you're looking for, but if you ever run into any issues with scripting and such, I'll keep my eyes open for your posts over in the Creation Kit forum. Good luck!

Also very much interested! The first thing I thought of when reading this was the previously-mentioned Stranded Light mod from Oblivion, which was an absolute masterpiece in my view.

Sounds like you are taking a good approach to it. Definitely worth considering the option of releasing in smaller chunks. Looking forward to see how this progresses!

Thanks guys. I vaguely remember the name of that Oblivion mod - I was a latecomer to the game and never got through all that the mod community had to offer. Might have to be an excuse to dust off the old Daedra stomping boots, lol.

Actually, there is one big problem that has cropped up: I'm torn between using a mixture of 1st/3rd person writing, and leaving it only as 1st. The latter has the possibility of being voice acted - the former presents a problem: do you just voice the talking, and not the descriptions? But people might miss something by not having subtitles on - something voice acting encourages for immersion.

On the other hand, the 150-character boxes present a problem in their own right without being hamstrung into casting away everything but direct speech - especially when the facial / gestural capabilities of the faces/bodies aren't subtle enough to capture nuances of meaning. Was there a mod for Oblivion that dealt with this problem with any degree of success?

-----------------------------

As a teaser, the first questline will be the Argonians. There's an eclectic group of individuals brought together to reconstruct one of the most ancient of the Argonian groups, but amid the glory of bringing a dead order back to life, there's the possibility that the face of Tamriel might be utterly changed in the process.

Featuring:
- A rooftop assassination (and chase)
- Robbing the most fiercly guarded stronghold in Skyrim
- An opportunity to fake your own death
- Missions of extremely dubious morals
- Three different endings, plenty of secrets, so replay value to be had.

“Do you think those pivotal moments in history happen through people being passive? By great men and women letting the time slip though their fingers like the softest sand? No, my friend – empires are born, civilizations rise and turn to ash because people *grab* history by the neck and bend it to their will. And me? I am an instrument that can forge a glorious future for our race – I can take those terrible decisions so that our children will not have to. I have forged myself into a knife sharp enough to slit the throat of a dying empire, and from the chaos I sow the shoots of a glorious, innocent civilization will rise. A race of angels, my friend. But the cities of angels will be built on the bones of demons – demons like you and I.” You see his eyes shining with something more than just enthusiasm – he believes every word. He lives in a world where the metaphors of his dreams can shape the future of all of Tamriel, and the force of that conviction both impresses and terrifies you."

- "The Scales of Justice" - Argonian Questline [Hopefully forthcoming, 2012 ]

I think the idea is awesome (romances, go!), but I also find that a lot of it will go to waste (in my eyes) if the quests are race-specific. I mean, to appreciate the mod fully one would have to play it what, 10 times? And many people stick to their favorite race all the time or even play a custom one from a mod or another.

While I believe it's cool to give a racial taste here or there (be it a dialogue option, another kind of reward or even another way to solve a dilemma introduced by a quest), I'm very much against it going too far (limiting the ability to play though a quest to its fullness).

That's still just my opinion though, by no means meant to be some negative kind of poke or anything I just wouldn't like to miss out on 90% fun from a mod because I will probably pick some fancy mod-made race next time I have time to play. And downloading and running a huge thing I'm never even going to see isn't all that tempting either tbh

Whatever you decide on doing though, I wish you best of luck in this endeavor ^^

Vivian, I appreciate the comments.

The race thing took a long time to decide on. On the one hand, like you I wanted to keep it open to all players. But on the other hand, the more I got into the stories I wanted to tell, I realised that what race you were - where you gre up, how you were treated, and how that race saw the world all became more and more important. In the end, it became very difficult to argue why a Nord would find himself in the circumstances of the story that has come to be for the Argonians.

Eventually, I decided if I wanted to tell the story well, I'd have to go down this route. If people don't experience all of it, I will of course be a little disappointed, but I'd rather they play one quest that fits well and blows them away than 10 that are bland and dull. Admittedly, the stories for the Bretons (A Necromancer's guild), Imperials (some terrorist infiltration on behalf of the Penitus Oculatus ) could lend themselves more readily to being multi-racial. I think I'll play it by ear - if it feels right to restrict it for the story, I will, but I won't be bound by that simply to stick to my plan.

I think given the size of the components, I would also make it modular so people could size it to their capacity.

My opinion on voice acting is to not bother with it. You can do so much more with text than with worrying about VAs, and a VA done even slightly off key will be more jarring in the game than subtitles. If you're going to do any VA, than i'd say wait until the project is complete, then go back and do good VAs with various actors. Lost Spires did this with Oblivion, and turned out fantastic.

Extremely Interested.http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1234537-relz-integration-the-stranded-light-the-stranded-light-integrated-with-no-requirementsno-gameplay-changes/page__p__18687291#entry18687291 was one of my top 5 my favorite games. Yes, I said game....

These shouldn't be too much of an issue early on. You can probably add some NPCs to existing areas for the most part, and with Oblivion a lot of mods did fairly well just copying vanilla locations, and moving things around a little bit, and adding a few new things to make it look new.

As far as textures, clothing, etc. goes you could always use existing clothes/armor/texture/etc. mods after getting permission from the original authors. You might also try seeing if http://www.gamesas.com/user/231685-bleral/ is interested in doing any more artwork. From what I can tell Bleral was never really an official "graphical modder" he just did the stuff for Integration because he was passionate about it.

Same. I'm not a huge fan of community voice acting. Takes me completely out of it.

Of course the voice acting depends on both technical quality and acting ability - and there's some quite outstanding actors out there with pro-quality microphones - check out some of the actors in the Interesting NPCs mod - http://www.youtube.com/user/kristakahashi?feature=watch Not all of these actors are perfect, but all you need to do is some quality control in your auditions process.

For me, I play without subtitles (not needed in either vanilla Skyrim or my currently modded game) and having to turn them on would take me out of the game more so than a non-vanilla v/a.

Thanks for the input everyone!

Well, voice acting is a definite no-no for the minute, simply because it's basically me plugging away on my own, and there's a *lot* of text, at least some of which will go through some revision. So, if the first steps are well-recieved and there's an appetite for it, v/os can always be added later.

Phoenix - Yes, I think I'll have to resort to some creative reuse of existing models. Like I say, I can only hope that if the work goes down well I might be able to entice some talented designers into helping out. New dungeons and layouts could always replace my efforts in the later stages in any case.

What I may do is put a hurry on the third quest I'm working on, and put together a very rough alpha release for people to take a look at. Not so much for the gameplay, but the writing - if people are not getting drawn into the story or the NPCs (or worse, have issues with my writing) I'll need to take a serious rethink. Still, better to rethink 1000 lines than 5000 though.

Might seriously have to load up this Stranded Light mod, since it seems universally praised on here.

A prerequisite for success in any large project is to plan it well and break it into manageable pieces. Do one quest line. See it to completion. Put it out there and get feedback.

Best of luck.