College of Winterhold Mod - Ideas wanted

[nayakri]

EDIT. Changed this post to make it more clear.

Hello! As you can see, I am relatively new to the forum, though I have been using mods from Nexus for years now. Just a quick warning: for as long as I can remember, I have a big problem with English grammar. So, sorry for mistakes.

 

But straight to the point. A few days ago, I started working on a big project for the College of Winterhold mod that would change... well, most of it. I don't plan on changing the main plot itself but making joining the guild more useful and fun.

 

How did it start?

 

I remember playing Morrowind - the best game ever - and I always loved how Bethesda handled making guilds then. The Mages Guild in particular always had my heart. Making you work hard for every single promotion and changing the way others think about you was for me the essence of the idea about RPG.


You can imagine how terrified I was when I discovered that Bethesda not only forgot about it in Oblivion, but also painfuly shortened what was left of it in Skyrim. Years ago, I was just a child and had to put up to this since my skills were limited to creating a new one-kill weapon in Creation Kit.


But no longer. A month ago I returned to Skyrim and I decided that I want a real College. First, I checked on Nexus, but I haven't found any mod that would do what I want. So I'm doing it myself.

 

 

My main targets are:

*quests that allow you to rise in the ranks of the College (from Student to Apprentice, etc.)

*special side quests (not radiant) that will become available as you become more important

*impossibility of becoming an Archmage before acquiring the rank of the Sorcerer (Tolfdir in your place if you finish the main plot sooner)

*more dialogues to make it roleplaying-friendly

*creating a real Arcanaeum (which involves copying no longer used books from Daggerfell and Morrowind and writing my own to fill all shelves)

*hidden quests that will be open by choosing correct dialogue options

*new treasures and artifacts

 

As you see, I'm facing a real challenge and the fact I have no idea how to deal with scripts in CK doesn't help at all.

 

I decided to start with promotion quests and it's going quite well for a moment.

 

But you probably wonder what is this whole topic about. I would like to ask you all for help. For tips from veterans of modding. For simple ideas. I don't ask you to make the mod for me - any help will be welcome, but this is my burden to carry. I don't promise to finish it, but I will try my best.

 

Still, I know that fighting with big dragons of challenge on your own usually ends in failure. This is why this topic.

 

If you're interested in helping, keep reading. If not, thank you for your time.

 

For now, everything I have is on paper - planned and ready to be implanted into reality as soon as I have enough to make a Demo version of the mod (probably involving only promotion quests).

 

I'm going to use the mod Not So Fast and modify the one allowing you to chose Tolfdir as the Archmage.

 

What I have at the moment: (Edited 09.09.18)

 

DRAFTS
Evolution - Brelyna and Onmund will rise in the ranks alongside with you. Brelyna up to Scholar, Onmund up to Evoker.
Rivalry - J'Zargo will rise in the ranks alongside with you up to Sorcerer.
Fame and Grand Fame - for a Wizard and Sorcerer. Better prices and cheaper prices with court mages. Working in game.
The Gift Chest - for Archmage, random gifts every 7 days.
Julianos' Touch - permament blessing for Sorcerer.
Responsibility - permament blessing for Archmage.
Freezed stats - stats of mages in the College are freezed. Powerful mages are powerful even if you are on 1 level.
Don't disturb! - sleeping mages are busy and won't talk with you.
Many students - new students will appear as you rise in the ranks and move forward the main plot

Environment-friendly - books will be more valuable (probably only as an optional plugin).

FINISHED DRAFTS
Promotion quests: Apprentice, Evoker, Scholar, Wizard, Sorcerer
Radiant quests - just basic ideas for every rank.
Side quests - The last stand (+ The last men standing, + The last wish)

BOOKS
*Treaty of Magi by Arould Basky

*A few books from other TES games added

 

IN GAME (working as a mod)

Fame and Grand Fame - working

Arcanaeum - cleaned, ready to start changing

Books added to Arcanaeum

Original mesh and texture for added books - to avoid problems with my texture and mesh changing mods

 

 

For every help and word of encouragement - thank you!

 

What kind of help do I need?

From whole drafts (everything explained, described, etc.) to simple one-two senctenced ideas.

 

IN WHAT I COULD USE HELP WITH:

Side quests - from easy to hard, might be connected with other mages in the College.

Radiant quests - I have them mostly planned out, but it you have something great on the mind, don't be shy and share! :smile:

Artefacts - ideas for them (textures and meshes are very welcome!)

Diplomatic quests - suggested by Alexandrina.

Quests involving you representing the College - other than diplomatic.

 

Book writing - more of less lore-friendly books for quests and for Arcanaeum. It might be about science, magic, races, alchemy, history, traditions, etc. It might be even fiction :smile:

 

THANK YOU! :smile:

Alexandrina - for good ideas

IsharaMeradin - for help with scripts

foamyesque - for help with scripts

cdcooley - for help with scripts

Magistrate2020 - for permission to mess with his mod :P

Edited September 12, 2018 by nayakri

[Alexandrina]

I have no experience in creating mods (something I'm hoping to change soon, but I don't feel like a big project like this is where to start for me), but I am willing to be an idea person if you'd like. The questlines in Skyrim have always irritated me, they're far too short and give you too much for nothing. The fact that you can go from apprentice to Archmage in the span of a few days is ridiculous. I know that one of the main gripes about Skyrim quests is that the vast majority of them are either fetch quests or dungeon crawling. What if you made some of the quests diplomatic quests? This would tie in with the Jarls and other important NPCs of Skyrim, as well as the ideas you had about improving the Court Mage's disposition towards you. As for dangerous radiant quests, the mages in Skyrim seem to ultimately be scholars. One of the most intriguing mysteries of Skyrim is the Dwemer, so why not send them into Dwemer ruins? They could be searching for rare artifacts or lost knowledge.

[nayakri]

Honestly, I thought there will no reply at all :P

 

As I mentioned, my prime target is to stop this ridiculous big promotion Student -> Archmage. That's why I intend to change how this mod with Tolfdir works (it allows you to chose him as the Archmage, so after change there won't be any choice at all if you're not a Sorcerer).

 

I thought about diplomatic quests, though I'm a little afraid to venture there too much because of others questlines - I just don't want to mess it up. I'm already messing up with Clavicus Vile and he is just first on the long list of Daedra that you as a mage will have to deal with.

 

If you have some specific diplomatic quest ideas (a simple draft like one or two sentences will be enough), please, write it here and I will store it on my main computer on which I'm working (stupid no-Internet at home).

 

Hm. Improving the Court Mages position may be a bit tricky since it is already mixed with Fame (as a Wizard) and Grand Fame (as a Sorcerer) - I wanted them to treat you respectively to your rank in the College. Though perhaps some additional, even personal side quest should appear as you become more experienced? I need to note that down.

 

The problem with radiant quests is that they feature: "go to A, defeat guy B, bring me C". It's... well... boring. And I think they include Dwemer, so it wouldn't be that dangerous. It's not tough to kill something, but I thought about keeping something alive for a while... No, sorry. As you see, I don't have yet any specific ideas about these.

 

Thank you for your post and for your help! :) Noting your nickname down should the mod actually appear one day.

[nayakri]

Initial post edited to make it easier to read and find useful information.

 

Progress:

Finished drafts for promotion quests (Apprentice, Evoker, Scholar, Wizard). Ready to implant them through CK to the game.

Finished drafts for side quests: The last stand, The last men standing, The last wish (all quests are optional and may not appear if chosen wrong options). Ready to implant them through CK to the game.

 

Plans:

Finish the draft for Sorcerer.

 

Help would be appreciated and would smooth the whole process!

If someone has time to check the drafts and tell me what should be better, please, give me your e-mail and I will send you the file with the drafts.

 

If someone is good with meshes and textures and has nothing to do at the moment, I'd like to ask for creating an artefact.

 

Thank you!

[nayakri]

Progress:

Finished the draft for the Sorcerer promotion quest (sadly, I decided to make it bigger and I will have to add side quests to make it playable - no spoilers :P)

Created custom mesh and texture for added books - to avoid problems with my modded meshes and textures.

Cleaned Arcanaeum off locked bookshelves (not all, I left some for decoration). I will start filling the place with books soon.

Added about 10 books to the game (Daggerfall, Morrowind, TESO).

Started making Apprentice promotion quest in CK (temporal problems with scripting, I'll do it trial and error way of doing).

 

Plans:

Make essential side quests for finishing the Sorcerer promotion quest.

Finish adding books to the game (from other TES games).

Finish implanting Apprentice promotion quest into the mod.

 

By the way, if someone is actually reading this, I accidentaly made a mess in dialogue view while writing Mirabelle's dialogue - I wanted to hide one branch to clear my view, but of course, it hid only that colourful box, not everything. And now I have a mess. Anyone knows how to fix it?

[nayakri]

Working on the mod halted.

 

Due to serious problems with getting the mod working in the game (quest not triggering right, dialogues don't even appear) I officially inform everyone that for the moment being, there is no progress with the mod and won't be until I'll find out what I'm doing wrong.

[nayakri]

Topic is closed.

 

Don't get me wrong, I will work on the mod, but after days of learning about CK and doing various things in it, I decided I'm going in the wrong direction - yes, more quests are good, but this is not what makes the guild unique. Secrets, mysteries, magic, rich history - I need all that if I want to create the College I will love.

 

Therefore "College of Winterhold Mod" is cancelled due to the fact it was meant to be mostly quests mod. I have no name for my future mod, but I know it will include:

 

*ranks (as was posted here, but a little different)

*quests (also as was posted here)

*improved interiors and exteriors

*NPC evolving

*random guests

*random events

*more NPC and unique NPC appearing after finishing certain quests

*multiple choices and possibility of changing many things

*at least two big adventures for the Archmage imported from my ideas for this mod

Perhaps something more.

 

But when it comes to this topic: it is closed. Please, do not update it unless you have something important to say or ask about (still, prefer to do it via personal message).

 

EDIT. I forgot about one thing: credits from this mod are preserved. Meaning that people who helped me here will not be forgotten.

Edited September 20, 2018 by nayakri

[WakahisaSensei]

Not sure if its the kind of idea you want, but it always bothered me the the "college" of winterhold never had any real classes. One class at the beginning on wards, a field trip, and then the rest is an independent study ending with the player as the headmaster. I'd greatly enjoy the feel of actual mages attending some kind of class, maybe just scheduled dialogue about the different, maybe unknown uses, of certain spells a player has access to. Uses that might already be in game. An example: I often use frenzy during the dark brotherhood quest line because I can get guards to kill my target without incurring a bounty. A lecture on these useful tricks and others would be a nice addition. Or they could be the topic of the books mentioned in your first post if this idea is too complicated.

 

It just bothers me that there is only ever one "class".

[nayakri]

That's quite funny because just yesterday I have been thinking about it... and I decided strictly against such classes. Why? When you talk with Mirabelle and ask her about expectations in the College, she tells you that this is the place where you study what you want - therefore kind of on your own.

 

I'm going to change the way of training, though - no more paying but written "quest-like" lessons from a chosen teacher (eg. Faralda if you want to learn more about Destruction) and less skill affecting lessons from other people.

Edited September 21, 2018 by nayakri

[WakahisaSensei]

That's quite funny because just yesterday I have been thinking about it... and I decided strictly against such classes. Why? When you talk with Mirabelle and ask her about expectations in the College, she tells you that this is the place where you study what you want - therefore kind of on your own.

 

I'm going to change the way of training, though - no more paying but written "quest-like" lessons from a chosen teacher (eg. Faralda if you want to learn more about Destruction) and less skill affecting lessons from other people.

 

I suppose that makes sense. I just always felt the college was useless aside from access to a few books. It provides very little in my opinion. I hope your mod changes that.