NellSpeed

This would be really, really easy to do with CM Partners. Add a line to the join dialogue to explain what happened, something like "You didn't really think you'd killed me, did you? You did! Oh, how sweet!" Then activate the mod AFTER the Purification, and you're set.

Rule of thumb: If you can already do it in the vanilla game, you can do it in a mod. The trick is figuring out how they did it in vanilla! Voice acting: I use TESGecko's silent voice generator option, since I don't do voice acting. Keep in mind that sound files (even silent) will expand your filesize, which may or may not be an issue. As far as I can tell, you need to manually assign a voice file, and a lip file, for each and every line of dialogue. This obviously isn't impossible (and cs.elderscrolls.com explains how it works), but it's hugely time-consuming. Improvements - What you're describing sounds like a combination of house upgrades (buying X item gives you Y results in your in-game house) and using variables and maybe factions and / or quest stages to affect what an NPC does. For your mage, I think it might work like this: NOTE: That's not an actual script, obviously-- just a very, very, VERY Rough example. But you can maybe see why big projects take a LOT of time and committment. Nothing in that example includes placement of objects & NPCs, creation of cells, or even just the writing.

Really hard-- but certainly not impossible, especially if you work with vanilla content instead of trying to implement all kinds of custom content. What you might want to do is consider putting together sort of a proof of concept-- pick one very small quest, maybe just your prologue: As the player goes to investigate, they would find a relatively modest cave perhaps filled with a few rats or such. However, as they explore deeper the player would stumble upon the skeletal corpses of perhaps four or five unfortunate men. As they investigate, they suddenly spot a ghostly dunmer in the room with the skeletons! Instead of attacking though, the ghost approaches the player and begins to speak with them. This requires 1 NPC, 1 location, 1 edit of an exterior cell (entry point for your cave), a few minor combat possibilities, and speech options. Ta-da! You've got a stand-alone quest to start with (a story arc, maybe a minor reward of some kind), something to whet people's interest, and-- most importantly-- the proof that you can do the work to support your idea. Mind you, ideas are awesome, but you have to be able to put some work behind it. Just read through this forum for the dozens of idea posts people make... then compare that to the number of actual mods that get done. Too many people post something like "I've got this awesome idea but I don't know how to mod, so I need someone to make the world and do the scripting and create new armor and and and and." Modders learn by modding, not by getting others to do it for them... and, well, most people who do their own mods want to tell their own stories, not someone else's. Whew, okay, almost done with the wall of text, here. FWIW, I think you have a genuinely interesting idea, especially since it's not some giant epic adventure, but more a workaday world series of quests. Very well considered of you.

You may also want to think about what character types you like best: if you play mostly a rogue and rely on stealth, you may want to look for different mods than if you prefer hack-and-slash warriors or wrath-of-the-gods mages.

Twilight Assassin? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16745 Black Templar? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20953 Sister of Eisen (maybe a bit too much skin) http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25389 Exnem (has skin-showing and concealing options) http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26020 Ninpo http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33179 Rose of the Guard? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34611 Holy Protector? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21074 Ruby Rose (skin & no-skin options) http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26798 I don't know off the top of my head which are and aren't heavy or light, but you can change that kind of thing in the CS. (And I'm pretty sure these are all HGEC-based; that was the keyword I used for a title search).

I think it helps to be "unconquerable" or "conquerable, but at a high cost" -- either to the PC, or to the world around them. Knights of the Nine played with this at one point-- not in a horror context-- and I thought it was an interesting approach. Let's say, for instance, that you've got your ghosts pushing their way into the living world for whatever reasons (maybe the Oblivion gates made it easier for things to get through, maybe someone was Tampering in God's Domain, maybe it never gets explained, etc etc etc). Let's say that at first, they're content to just sort of drift around, making people a little tense, but doing absolutely nothing. Then they start watching people-- you're asleep in a rented room, and wake up at 3am to find a ghost just standing there, watching you. Then they start getting aggressive. And people start dying. You're a hero (or maybe you just want the money or the fame or to figure out how to control them for your own gain), so of course you charge to the rescue... but in the end, the only way to permanently get rid of them-- and if you don't, things will only get worse, and worse, and worse-- is to take on a permanent penalty of some kind that will follow your PC around forever (or as long as the mod is active, I suppose)-- a wound that will never, ever heal, a permanent weakness to the undead. This gives us a "conquerable-- but not really" or "at a cost" that might give the mod a sense of genuine urgency and risk.

I think the first thing to do would be to try and determine what factors actually make for horror-- not just jump scares (although they have their place), but actually horror. And then, of course, implementing those factors while keeping in mind players' tendency to do the thing you don't expect! Look at Hackdirt, for instance-- even if Lovecraft is rather over-used. It was a bit too heavy-handed, plus the PC had the option of walking away at any moment; there's a reason why horror movies & stories are often set in areas that isolate the main characters. That sense of not having anyone to rely on AT ALL is what made Hackdirt interesting to me. It also lacked a real sense of risk-- yes, there was a rescue-the-NPC quest, but there wasn't enough time to get attached to the NPC, or even care what happened to them. What if you had had several interactions with the NPC over time? (See also BethForums' Relationship thread.) And, of course, the risk to the player can feel minimal, especially if you're not playing Dead Is Dead....

Disable / enable will be your friend here-- to make different items appear and disappear at given times. And good luck to you! :thumbsup:

Okay, those are ALL good starts! I agree that bringing back Vincente would be kind of unnecessarily complicated-- but maybe he had an apprentice of some kind... someone who's going to be very, very unhappy with the PC, and is going to try to lure him/her into a trap. Houses are easier than you'd think-- check out this tutorial, for example: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Creating_a_House . Maybe add something unusual to it-- it's haunted, but by not by anything evil-- maybe it's a lonely ghost who just sometimes leaves the owner messages or asks the owner to bring in fruit, or books, or something like that. Plenty of people have made brand-new races with custom textures & meshes & everything else. You could always do one using vanilla resources only, but what would make it interesting? Maybe a special new power, or a race that's uniquely skilled at a specific class? You might never release it, but just the process of putting it together might be fun. And IMO, the best way to learn is just to get in there and start making mistakes! :D

Two suggestions for you. 1) Think of something you would like to play, yourself. If you're not interested in your idea, it'll be much harder to work on it. 2) Keep it small & manageable. The forums are full of huge, elaborate mod concepts that never get done. What existing NPCs and quests did you find interesting? What unfinished quests appeal to you?

Leave off the "player"? Is it giving you an error message? From the Wiki: AddTopic adds a topic to the Player's list of known topics. Only topics in this list can appear in an NPC's topic list during dialogue. Topics can also be added using the AddTopic list in the dialogue editor window. Syntax AddTopic TopicID Example: AddTopic HiddenCave Edited because: I hit "post" too soon.

Another quick note-- Stinky Grotto = EVIL. But in a good way.

You might consider keeping the current quest entry, just link it to something else-- like a trigger set up in one of the cities, so it "feels" as if the player has actually overheard Silatari being discussed, or an extra scroll found in another ruin.

A handful of quick notes, after getting through the first stage of gameplay (spoke to the mage at the Arcane U, continuing on). I'll note one possible problem right from the start-- I almost never do the main quest, myself, and I know I'm not the only one (for some of us, it doesn't suit the character we're playing; others are just bored by it). Linking the start of your main quest to delivering the amulet to Jauffre might discourage some players. The safe storage chest was a really nice touch. I'm lousy at combat, so no matter how easy it is, I'm likely to be challenged... except that I'm running through this with a companion who takes the worst of the damage. I loved the underwater level (I won't name it here, so I won't spoil it for anyone else)-- gorgeous work! I was sorry it couldn't be more brightly lit-- and the island with the statue-- again, beautifully done.

Are there any specific areas-- beside quest logic-- you're concerned about? (proof reading / dialogue, combat balance, lore-friendliness, etc) I actually have a pretty good-sized block of time on my hands this weekend, and could probably give you an initial report by, say, midnight US Central time, this Monday.

Have you tried the TGND body? It's probably not quite what you're looking for, but just in case.... SUMMARY ------- The Girl Next Door began as a personal project that garnered enough interest to merit a release. The body was designed to be an average female. She doesn't have huge breasts. She doesn't have a supermodel wasp-waisted figure. She has a solid and healthy body, with a bit of extra meat here and there. It's a body that won't look out of place on NPCs in game, nor on the character whether she's a thief, a mage, a fighter, or whatever. There are replacements for all default outfits, and some custom content (although not, AFAIK, Selene's stuff). I like HGEC just fine, but TGND is my personal default.

You probably already know this, but-- plan. Plan, plan, plan. Seriously-- this will save you trouble from the start. If you have a standard system for naming variables, scripts, topics, etc, and if you have an outline of what you want to do before you even open the CS, you will save yourself MUCH time & aggravation. Also, beware feature creep. If you keep having ideas about interesting new features or bonuses or little side-quests, think long and hard before putting them in. I found that the more I learned about scripting & building conversations & quests, the more little odds & ends I wanted to put in, and that way lies madness... not to mention difficulty in completing the core concept.

I'm about half done with a CM companion mod with custom dialogue, mini-quests, a romance, etc, and here's one thing you may want to keep in mind: you can save yourself an incredible amount of time & frustration by planning things out before you ever open the CS. For example: figuring out a naming convention for variables, conversation, etc, will keep you from backtracking and having to fix things later on. (Also, resist the urge to add just One More Feature. That way lies madness.)

It's the random delay that'll make it evil. Imagine dodging past something like that, and then having it shoot you in the back. And then, coming back, thinking you have eight seconds-- except, oops! It's three! Man, I'd be irate, but it'd still crack me up. Of course, it'd be even funnier if it happened to someone else! :whistling:

I'm not sure why, but this strikes me as being one of the funnier ideas I've heard in ages. And when I say "funny," I mean funny in the sense of the word that means "will drive players absolutely crazy as they repeatedly get blasted by various forces of nature." Definitely an awesome concept.

Precisely what LHammond said-- "comment" as a verb. I wasn't very clear. :) I'm very new to modding, so my code is often ungodly confusing; I find it helps to clarify what I'm doing and why: ; Okay, first-- are we in Oblivion? If yes, set variable to 1! ; Valtierro won't be there by himself, so we'll check for the player. ; This checks for OblivionRD004 locations. Lots of code snipped because of how godawful long it is. if player.OblivionRD004Caves == 1 || player.OblivionRD004CitadelLeft == 1 set valinhell to 1 else set valinhell to 0 ; ...because we're not in Oblivion. Carry on! ...okay, I do it to amuse myself sometimes, too; but my primary idea is to keep myself on task as I work my way through. That's also why I do so much planning before I actually do much of the writing. It's a lot easier to sort out the details right off the bat, instead of trying to untangle stuff halfway through. Not to mention, since I'm learning as I go along, it's easier to do things properly the first time, rather than having to go back and fix things. I've already found that out the frustrating way; in one instance, by having to remove conditions and replace them with a variable, once I figured out how to do it properly!

If you don't already, you might also outline what you're doing before you do it. You don't need every single detail, but I find it saves me a lot of time to have a setup for naming variables, quests, etc, instead of doing it on the fly, and having to remember what's what. And again if you don't already, comment scripts so you know what things do what. Or, at least, what they're supposed to do....