NO LONGER IN BETA!
Please use this thread from now on:
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1373997-relz-radiance-a-simple-immersion-booster/



Help this mod out by trying the Alpha located here (at your own risk!):
Nexus (reports indicate that this is safe to use; currently conflicts with Occupy Skyrim):
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=15972

Steam Workshop (should no longer cause corruptions; requires confirmation):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=20262

Let me know what happens! Did you see any of the new events? Did absolutely nothing change? Did it chew up your save file and spit out the pieces? I'll probably have no idea how to fix it, but at least I'll know there's a problem!

Also, give me your ideas! If there's some world encounter you think it would enhance your immersion or the sense that you're impacting the province of Skyrim, maybe it has a place in Radiance!

Now, for the meat of the thread...

Radiance

Radiance is a simple mod with a big dream: make Skyrim more immersive by adding new world events and interactions to the Radiant Story system. These events occur based on what you have done in your playthrough, so that two different characters will leave Skyrim in a very different state from when they arrived. Now you'll feel it when you start a civil war or release a terrorist mastermind from prison.

The game is currently in alpha, and I'm adding new events in my precious little free time. Please note that I am not a programmer by trade, so things may not always work right--and when they don't, I often won't know how to fix them. I'll do my best, and once Radiance reaches a stable point in it's progress, I'm happy to give this project up to any more capable modders who are interested. I'm making this project because it's what I want to see in game, and I just happen to be sharing it with all of you in spite of my limited abilities.

Okay, enough of that. Here's what you're probably looking for: a list of all the events that are currently implemented in the alpha, and what's currently being planned:


Implemented Events

Civil War Events

The following events have a high probability of occurring while the Civil War is active (from the start of the first major battle until the final battle):


College of Winterhold Events

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:


Companions Events

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:


Dark Brotherhood Events

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:


Forsworn Events

The following events have a high probability of occurring after freeing a certain someone from Markarth's prison. Tracking him down and killing him later will end these events:



Main Quest Events

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:


Miscellaneous Events

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:


Vampire Events

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:



Planned Events (for Alpha release)


College of Winterhold Events

The following events have a high probability of occurring after completing "Containment" but before completing "Eye of Magnus":


Dark Brotherhood Events

The following events have a high probability of occurring after completing the Dark Brotherhood quests:

Forsworn

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:


Hjaalmarch Events

The following events have a high probability of occurring until you complete "Laid to Rest:"


Miscellaneous Events

The following events will occur about as frequently as any other event:


Thieves Guild Events Events

The following events have a high probability of occurring after completing "Speaking with Silence" but before completing "Pursuit":


Post-Alpha Events (events that require VO work)


Civil War

The following are Civil War events that will require VO:


College of Winterhold Events

The following are College events that will require VO:


Companions Events

The following are Companions events that will require VO:


Dark Brotherhood Events

The following are Dark Brotherhood events that will require VO:


Forsworn Events

The following events will require VO:


Miscellaneous Events

The following events will require VO:


Vampire Events

The following events will require VO:

Awesome project Keep up the good work. If you ever finish all this I will for sure install your mod!

Excellent, I feared you would never come back to this.

This sounds awesome will definitely use this if it ever becomes public. Keep up the good work man and good luck to ya

As I have quickly looked through the quest section over the Skyrim Nexus, I think that this would/will be an absolutely unique mod (and highly endorsed one, I suppose).

Thanks for the support, all. Unfortunately I can only spare an hour or so per day to modding, which in three days has given me time to do basic planning and implement 4 of the simplest encounters on the list. The going will be slow, but I'm thinking of releasing an alpha once all the unvoiced events (there are 15) are complete.

If you've ever played one of my mods for Oblivion, you'll know I'm pretty bad with QA/support, so it would be good to get feedback before my actual official release. =P

Time for a status update! Work is still killing me, but I'm managing to knock out 1 or 2 encounters a night. I'm not testing their conditions myself, but the encounters themselves are in working order. Once I complete 6 more encounters, I'll release an alpha version. (That'll be all of the encounters I've planned so far that don't require VO.)

A lot of these aren't too terribly interesting, but hopefully they add a little to the game. You'll get ambushed by the factions you've ticked off a lot more often, though usually they're pushovers. (The Silver Hand is pretty tough, though.) And it was surprisingly difficult to make a randomized friendly dragon, but I finally got it working and learned a lot about the CK in the process. In fact, I may go back and improve the combat difficulty scaling for my older encounters based on what I learned today. (Not making them more difficult, per se; just make them scale to your personal game, whether it's vanilla or overhauled.)

What sites are you planning to upload to?

Probably Nexus and Workshop. Don't know what I'll do if I hit the mod size limit in Workshop, though--this shouldn't have too much VO, but I'm not too used to working with audio files in my mods.

Quick question: HAS anybody been challenged to a random melee duel in town? I heard reports that it happens, but I can't find any events for it in the CK. If it's something that's not in Vanilla Skyrim, I'll add it.

For the record, Vanilla Skyrim does have magic duels.

I haven't. Would be nice to have some kind of loose duelist "faction", where people travel the holds in search of a decent challenger and to make a name for themselves. Eventually, after you beat enough duelists, you might get confronted by the "champion", the strongest warrior in all of Skyrim.

In any case, really looking forward to your mod. Instead of reinventing the wheel, it tries to strengthen Skyrim's good features. Should be great!

Cool as that would be, it might be beyond the scale of my mod. Maybe. It's right on the border there.

I'll implement the first duel, at least. Now you've got me thinking of how I could implement this idea with a minimum of VO needed...

Thank you for your kind words! It's all relatively simple, so I hope you won't be disappointed with the results. A lot of ambushes, though there are a few cool moments so far.


New question! Does anyone have any ideas for events related to being married? Keep in mind that these events should not require any VO, since I don't have access to the original actors and would like to eventually have everything voiced...so kidnapping is probably out.

If you want help with the VO by the way, send me scripts and voice direction and I'll knock them out for you quickly.

I'll keep that in mind! What kind of voices do you do? At the moment it looks like my greatest need is for Nord and Imperial voices, though I may need an Argonian and Dunmer in the mix, too. I'd like to keep the voice acting to the minimum, too, since I don't think a mod like this warrants a large download size.

---

On that note, I have 1 more unvoiced event to implement. If anybody has something that they'd like to see in this mod--particularly something that won't require VO--let me know now, and I'll try to get it in for the first alpha release!

Preparing to upload the alpha now. It only has 15 new events, but I want to make sure that none of my techniques inadvertently caused stability issues or bugs. So, I'm going to be playing for a while, and I invite anyone else to join in the fun (at least, I hope it's fun).

But yeesh... Now I need to round up all my scripts. I miss the easy days of Oblivion where I would have no or next to no files to track down and upload.

Oi, I feel like I'm beginning to spam my own thread. I'm trying to space out my posts a little more reasonably from here on out. Anyway...



First off, the alpha is available on the Steam Workshop now. It doesn't do much, but I'd appreciate anyone who subscribed and made sure it doesn't make your game explode. (Yes, I know the description is very lacking. I want to avoid random downloads on this one.)

Taking a break has started filling my head with ideas again. I should work less hard more often!

I was going through the whole Forsworn Conspiracy, and I was thinking that the choice you make here should have a major consequence on the Reach. Here are my thoughts:


Another thing I've been thinking: Radiance could watch for when you sell Daedric artifacts, Dragon Priest masks, and other legendary equipment. When you do, it could wait a few days, and if you never bought the artifact back, it could end up in the possession of a random dungeon boss. Then, if you ever end up in the dungeon, ta-da! You find the artifact again.



Here's something for the Bard's College:


Anyone have any thoughts/input based on these ideas? My favorite part about these ideas, of course, is the fact that only one of them would require VO.

What I never liked about the Forsworn and Madanach is that they still continue to attack me after I freed their freaking king. They shouldn't be exactly friendly, but still. Maybe give me a chance to retreat before they attack.

In case of Madanach's death, there should definitely be less Forsworn around, tho.

This is a fantastic idea! Support +4

You have really great ideas, if you are able to implement these this download will be a no-brainer!

Supposedly they're supposed to warn you if you to back off before they attack you after that quest. I don't know; I only sided with Madanach once, but I don't recall the Forsworn behaving any differently. In any case, if I do add more Forsworn encounters, I won't make them automatically hostile to the player. They'll follow their default aggression in that regard for maximum lore compatibility with other mods. (Isn't there a join-the-Forsworn mod in the works?)

Hmm... You know, I probably could decrease the number of Forsworn using Radiant story, but it seems likely to break stuff. I'm contemplating adding a few encounters in which Forsworn are completely wiped out, perhaps. Maybe a merchant or two on the road to trade in Markarth now that the Forsworn are in decline.


Thank you for the support, Exordiom!


@Rehn: A lot of these ideas came from the community, so I can't take credit for them. Still, thanks, on behalf of everyone!

I've been wan't this since I first played.

Keep it up!

Here's one that's already in the game just...barely used. If you kill someone or someone dies in game, Guards will rarely (like 0.0001% chance), come by and tell everyone to clear the area. Then if you're nearby with your weapon unsheathed, the guard will question you. However, as of right now you can somehow convince him that you are "innocent" (with your weapon out and covered in blood no less) without a "speech option". Meaning like... he will just let you off with a warning despite being extremely suspicious.

Again like I said the main problem is that...this happens almost never ( I doubt most people even know it exists). I wrote a post about it somewhere, but I dont knkow where it is, I'll try to find it.

It'd be cool if guards would initiate this immediately if a dead body is found by one or two more people(meaning the script alerts the nearest guard(s) immediately). Or alternatively, if you're caught nearby they'll question you and you'll have a speech option needed in order to get out. If you're not good enough at speech they'll jail you. If your weapon is out, the speech option becomes even harder, and you would need more speech skill to Persuade them you're innocent.

Another suggestion is, when a dead body is found in town, it should strike fear into the hearts of the people who witness it. If you kill someone in town (like a guard for example) and people witness it, people already have a reaction in some way. Might be good to check what reaction they're having and why, and change that to a sort of widespread fear spell for all non guard NPCs in the area.

I'm personally really tired of little kids stumbling on a dead body freshly killed in town and going "Whoah! A dead body!" "...Hey did you know, there are actually vegetables that grow better...in the cold weather?" *runs away*. Or people just going "Ugh...what a waste..." and walking away. Big immersion breaker. A dead body isn't something people scoff at in a real life situation...especially in a town. The "Blood on the Ice" quest is a good example of this.

Bland reactions like that are useful for testing, but not useful at all for immersion.

Thank you for the encouragement!

I'll see if I can find that event in the CK. I haven't set a policy on modifying in-game events just yet, but at the very least I might be able to make this trigger more frequently. Depending on the dialogue already present in game, I may even be able to make the guard more suspicious. However, I don't want to add any dialogue to vanilla NPCs. I want to avoid silent VO in the finished product.


Moving on...


Is anyone playing the alpha? So far I haven't encountered any of the new events in my game, but then again, I'm only eligible for 5 of these, and there are over a hundred random encounters in vanilla Skyrim. I need to come up with a lot more of these if this mod will even be noticeable.

I've added this quick guide to the Workshop description. You can use it to determine which encounters to look out for. I tried to avoid being too spoilery, but some minor spoilers are contained within.



Oh! And here's another idea I had: Once you complete the quest "The Blessings of Nature," you have a chance to encounter wandering healers. These healers were so inspired by the Gildergreen that they decided to become pilgrims, wandering the province and healing the sick. They will sell you potions and cure you if you are diseased. (I was on a sojourn through the Reach today with a bad case of witbane and thought that it sure would be nice to have a healer on hand.)

This is definitely what Skyrim needs right now. I love this idea.

Voice acting is great, but if you want to avoid it, this might be an option. Make some of the commissions secret - like dead drops, where the player leaves the potion/blade/enchanted armor in a container and must return later to retrieve the payment.

This is great idea !
Maybe any war related time events ? Attack Imperial/Stormcloaks forces on some opponents towns for example.
There is no war in this Skyrim civil war at all.
One request. If you find time/energy please upload your mod to other then Steam Workshop place too.