In anticipation of the CS being released, I've been tossing a number of story lines around in my head trying to decide which I want to work on first. I played around with the CS for Morrowind years ago and found out I was rather terrible at creating buildings and landscape, but managed to get a little experience playing around with npcs. So, that's where I'm going to start with Skyrim, and I would appreciate a little feedback on this outline. I have only put in about 65 hours on Skyrim and have gone through nearly all of the Stormcloak line on my main character, but haven't begun the Legion quests yet, so if anything I outline sounds redundant to what's in there already, please let me know. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The purpose of this mod will be to flesh out the civil war part of the Skyrim story. The mod will only add npcs and quests, no additional cells are planned at this time. As a fan of TV series' such as HBO's Rome and Game of Thrones, and of the battles described in the amazing book series Tales of the Malazan: Book of the Fallen, I want to add more drama and action to what seems like a very stale and uneventful war. First goal: Add a variety of soldiers to the fort capturing quests, both on offense and defense. -That first time launching the attack on Whiterun with the Stormcloak "army" with the catapults firing away and the soldiers roaring was awesome. After that, the fort attacks become a routine of running in and knocking over about fifty archers. The Stormcloaks have archers, the Imperials have archers. Everyone's on foot. No officers command the fort. - I want to add officers on horseback to the Legion ranks, equipped with proper gear and stats, as well as soldier mages, conjuring familiars and elementals along with throwing fireballs, as seen in the defense of Helgen. - If the player is on the Stormcloak side, they will have fewer mages, though the ones they have may well be more powerful, and skilled in non-Imperial sanctioned arts, such as necromancy or summoning daedra. Second goal: Give the player a nemesis, a Legate or war leader, that will counter the player's advancement. As the player captures forts, the opposing Legate may raid a Stormcloak camp, capture an important Stormcloak's child (or the player's husband/wife?) or ambush the player with a raiding party, leading to a capture scenario similar to the one in Markarth. I want to have multiple occassions for the player to have dialogue with their nemesis, to know them by name and face as they taunt and counter each other through the war, leading up to an eventual meeting on a battlefield, or a one on one duel while their army's look on. Third goal: Add variety to the quests given as the war goes on. If possible, add an entire questline that is a prerequisite to starting the current questline. Why should a new recruit be getting to speak with Ulfric or Tullius? If possible, I would like to have a decent sized chunk of work put in for the Legion and Stormcloaks where the player is reporting to a number of lower level officers doing tasks to further the war effort in little ways before they embark on the real campaign of leading men against the enemy strongholds. Involved in this could be some tasks that are incomplete-able, leading to a good scolding and re-assignment to a different area, or a quest which lands the player in the hands of the enemy, giving the player several avenues from there, including switching sides in the war.
