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If any of this is even possible (which I'm skeptical about), wouldn't it make for a much more satisfying experience to simply allow them to form parties of 4-8 people and leave the NPCs and quests as they are (perhaps with some difficulty scaling to account for the extra players)? I don't think the Elder Scrolls world works as an MMO (which is why I don't care for ESO), but would be perfect for small party cooperative play. For example, the dragon hunts could be 4-player missions. Larger dungeons and treasure-hunting quests could be 4-8 player PvE missions, while Civil War skirmishes could be added as an 8v8 or 16v16 PvP mission, with some kind of system for matchmaking. Perhaps larger groups (up to 20) could share an instance when you're in a non-hostile environment like a city, but attacking NPCs and other players would not be possible. Beyond that, you just have chaos, where everyone is an adventurer and the experience is simply not immersive.

I would definitely be interested, insofar as Skyrim's vanilla game mechanics allow it. I hate to be a shameless self-promoter, but I'm working on a mod (see signature) and I think there may be a place for a platformer-type dungeon. It's set entirely in a single huge city, but there is a massive ruined temple and underground city that I'd like to try to create, and it might be perfect for what you're describing. I'm trying to experiment with the gameplay possibilities of Skyrim, and I've always had an interest in bringing back more "classic" types of dungeons, with an emphasis on movement, traps, puzzles, physical obstacles, and true"boss" fights (that is, puzzle-oriented combat). Let me know if that interests you. And either way, good luck. Would love to play through whatever you come up with!

So, the landmass creation is coming alone slowly but surely. I've gotten a handle on using TESAnnywn, though I still feel like getting the water height to be right is more-or-less just guesswork. I've decided to simplify the landmass some for now, as this process has revealed that my original concept was a bit unnatural or "geologically impossible. While I work on that, I wanted to pose a question to anyone out there that's reading this: Which of the following would you like to see most from a mod like Soulrest? 1.) A totally stand-alone story that takes place at the same time as Skryim (circa 4E201). The Player Character cannot go to Skyrim (without using the console). 2.) A story that is set BEFORE Skyrim and serves as a sort of "prequel", wherein the Player Character eventually leaves Black Marsh and goes to Skyrim. 3.) A totally stand-alone story that takes place AFTER the events of Skyrim. I'm leaning towards 1 or 2. Scenario 3 presents a few challenges in terms of lore, but is interesting from a writer's point of view. Let me know what you all think!

I followed the tutorial. Everything was looking good in GeoControl 2: Applied some filters to make the terrain look more natural (height exaggerated here for the sake of illustratration). But when I use TESAnnwyn to convert my heightmaps to .ESPs, I'd get this: I continuously tried to compress my heightmap to have less and less contrast, hoping it would smooth out, and while that improved things a little, it was still extremely buggy. I'm guessing something went wrong with TESAnnwyn, or I messed up a step. Or it's a bad tutorial. In any case, I took a hand-drawn map and turned into a 3D heightmap... didn't know how to do that yesterday, so I'll count this as a small victory. I'll be back at it later, but until then, if anyone knows what went wrong here, give me a shout!

I've been following this guy's tutorial so far, which explain how to create heightmaps. If I understand correctly, the author claims that the entirety of Skyrim would be generated with a heightmap of 3808x3008 pixels. I compared a few fan-made maps of Tamriel to get a sense of the scale, and Black Marsh is roughly the same sizes as Skyrim. In any case, to make a long story short, I figured my city's heightmap would need to be no larger than 256x256 pixels. I have no idea if I'm doing the conversions right, but we'll see. My heightmap so far: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-sYl6D2vzUSk/U7nNQCurxzI/AAAAAAAACHs/vte1dTznXww/s751-no/HeightmapTiff2.tif Now to plug it into GeoControl and see what I get!

I'll definitely take you up on that. I can write stories until I'm blue in the face, but building quests isn't something I've got much experience with. Everything from SMQO that I did involved tweaking existing quests, so I am familiar with how they're set up, but I'm usually terrified to mess with scripts because I've broken my game a few times that way. Right now, I'm looking into a way to create a heightmap in Photoshop so I don't have to hand-craft the entire worldspace using the landmass editor. I found a good tutorial, so hopefully I can get that out and maybe even have a few pictures up by the end of the day.

@Matthiaswagg Thanks! To answer your question, I'd not really proficient in anything except story writing and music/audio stuff. I've toyed around with voice acting but don't own a proper mic yet. I've also messed around with scripts and tweaked a few existing quests, but beyond that, I'm a total noob.

Soulrest: City of the Dead aims to create the eponymous city of Soulrest in the province of Black Marsh. It will be playable as an "alternate start" type mod, allowing players to create a new, non-Dragonborn character*. This mod is a bit of an experiment in Elder Scrolls gameplay. Most TES settings allow players to explore vast expanses of wilderness, but feature cities that are modestly-sized at best. TES IV's Cyrodiil was quite large, but its Imperial City only had about ~190 NPCs. In contrast, the idea behind this mod is to create a single, massive, exclusively urban landscape, to which the gameplay will be confined. The player will not have access to any wilderness areas. As a result, nearly all of the players encounters will be with “persons” rather than creatures. There won’t be any caves or bandits, but rather, street gangs and their hideouts. I considered several locations before settling on Soulrest. I wanted the feel of a diverse and bustling port city. At the same time, I hoped to create an environment of poverty and decay. Lastly, I wanted to recall the alien and unwelcoming atmosphere of Morrowind. Soulrest, flanked by two massive rival empires but ruled by isolationist Argonians seemed like the perfect fit. Finally, as an alternate start mod, I'd like to give players a rare opportunity -- to play as someone who isn't [explicitly] special. It is my intent to create a story that operates at the level of "human" interaction, rather than some grand epic carried out by a divine hero. This doesn't necessarily mean it won't be a story worthy of the Elder Scrolls, but I'm going for a different feel. The large, all-urban environment and "down to Nirn" story should create something that feels like equal parts TES and GTA. *The player character may be Dragonborn, but not know it. In the event that this mod permits the player to travel to Skyrim, he/she may eventual realize that destiny. As such, Soulrest would serve as a "prequel" to Skyrim. Design Very little is given in the way of information about Soulrest, much less any other part of Black Marsh, so I've taken some liberties with the design of the city, including the geography, demography, and politics. Generally speaking, I prefer to depict the Argonians as less primitive, so my rendition of Soulrest will not be a modest swamp village, but a grand city to rival any other. I've drawn inspiration from many real world cities, such as New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Kowloon Walled City, Lagos, and many others. However, the "shape" of the city was inspired largely by this artwork by Noah Bradley: The following map provides a rough idea of the topography and layout of Soulrest: Note the street grids in the Lower Ward, which should provide some sense of scale. By itself, this area is probably roughly the size of Whiterun and far more densely constructed. For more details on the layout, see the following: More details coming soon.

The fact that i forgot about Bosmer voice types just shows how much i know about anything ... That idea of yours about modifying existing voices doesnt look bad,but from what you described seems complicated for someone like me,definitely dont consider making a tutorial,just make it,it could help people with more knowledge and skills than me,and who knows,maybe i even get better and use it myself ... fat chance ... Oh and ,just an idea,you could (or anyone else) make a program where all of that would be possible to be done on one place,cutting sentences and putting them together," tweaking the pitch, duration, and inflection of each syllable".Just an idea,dont throw me in Chaurus pit for it :tongue:...please dont...i am really scared of those things :unsure: ... Hm,maybe there is something like that already,but either way,just wanted to put it out there ...the idea of a program not the Chaurus pit ....dear god ,no ... Haha, I'm not very good at teaching or describing things, so I'm hesitant to make a tutorial. However, if any of my mod projects ever got off the ground, I'd need to teach my team how to assist in the process, so maybe I will :D And I suppose you make a good point that alot of the steps in my process assume that modders know the basics for audio editing. Ableton and Melodyne are both professional audio projection programs, so they have a bit of a learning curve. Your idea for an all-in-one program isn't a bad one, but I'm no programmer, and even basic audio editing software is pretty hard to make. Of the two, Melodyne is probably the one that has most of those features built in. It is a program used by music producers to tune up vocal takes and fix the musicians' timing errors. In any case, I won't throw you into the chaurus pits for the suggestion... they freak me out too :D

I have looked into this myself, and also for software that can emulate vocal timbres, but I haven't found anything out there. Honestly, I know there are companies that do great work with this, particularly for people who lose the ability to speak (like Steven Hawking or the late Roger Ebert), but most of these fall pretty short and they sure as hell aren't free to download. I've been developing a technique for voicing NPCs that involves using existing dialogue recorded by Bethesda, chopping it up and carefully editing it phrase-by-phrase, word-by-word, in Ableton Live, then tweaking the pitch, duration, and inflection of each syllable with a program called Melodyne. In order to know if a phrase, or partial phrase, or even just a single word already exists as recorded dialogue for a given VoiceType, I export the dialogue via the CK into a text file, copy/paste it into an Excel file, then use the search features and filters in Excel to find what I need. This is pretty time consuming, but it's quite effective. If you choose to go this route and would like more specific instructions on how to do anything I've described, feel free to send me a PM. I might even consider posting a tutorial. Another thing you could consider is using a different VoiceType for your Altmer warrior and seeing if you can't create a basic follower that way. The VoiceType used by most Altmer males doesn't have any dialogue for follower NPCs, but the VoiceType used for Bosmer like Faendal does. You could set your character's VoiceType to whatever Faendal uses (can't recall off the top of my head), then create any custom dialogue you need using the technique I mentioned above. Or, as many have suggested, you could find one of the many talented voice actors on the Nexus and see if they'll voice your character. I don't know much about creating and fleshing out custom VoiceTypes though, but I'm sure there's a tutorial around somewhere for that.

Perhaps, instead of trying to improve the existing bounty quests, you could create some higher level non-radiant bounties that bring in bigger pay but require more proof, more work, and perhaps have some backstory. Consider the quest to help Solitude stop the Potema cult... it is kind of like an extended bounty quest. Surely the other holds have their own antagonists or problems, ones that might be better suited to a character who as already become Thane and is looking to do more complex quests. I have a very well-developed story for such a quest for Whiterun, and it has lots of room for expansion. It's related to the story development I did for my SMQO mod, but was cut due to lack of time/resources. If you like Game of Thrones, it will certainly scratch that itch, as it is quest related to the politics of Skyrim. Let me know if you're interested in something like that.

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've checked in, so I thought I'd post a quick update and reply to a few of the more recent posts. As for our progress, there isn't much to report, other than to say that JibstaMan, myself, and the rest of the team have been working on a Blades-related side project for the past few months. Jibs is a bit tied up with school at the moment, so things there are at a stand-still. That project is a bit hush-hush though, so I won't say more than that. With all that said, SMQO has been at a standstill. Personally, I'd like to continue developing my ideas for the Dragonsreach expansion, improved Lydia, better pacing on the introductory quests, and what-have-you... I'm ready to go with stories written, and I've worked out a solid process for voicing vanilla characters as necessity demands. I just need someone who can script and do some of the more complicated CK work to help get it off the ground, as I've definitely hit a wall in that department. My ideas have gone through numerous re-writes, which means I have lots to draw from... so we can make it as simple or as crazy was we want. If anyone is interested in helping me there, please post, PM, or email me! Originally, we had some stuff written for this. We created an entire faction that would serve as an alternative to the Blades if you choose the "Dovahfahdon" path, since the Greybeards are more of a support group and can't help you fight Alduin or the dragons who follow him. Ultimately, it got cut, along with a lot of other stuff. Instead, we came up with a quest with for convincing the Blades that Paarthurnax and the "friendly" dragons can be trusted. Not sure if that'll ever come to fruition, but there you go... Thanks! The release may be a way off though, unless we can get more people involved. Shoot me an email/PM and let me know if you're interested in helping out in any way... we're always welcoming new blood! If you have any questions, ask away :geek: That's all I've got for now. Thanks for all the kind words and suggestions!

@clubsauce Don't let the lack of computer talent hold you back. I certainly haven't got any :D Everything I've learned how to do (except basic audio editing) is something I learned AFTER deciding to make this mod. If you've got dedication, a bit of free time, and the will to learn, I As far as voice stuff goes, at this point, I'm mostly looking at what I accomplish by manipulating existing lines of dialogue for a given VoiceType. For example: Jarl Balgruuf, Ralof, and tons of other NPCs use of the voicetype "malenord," which has over 1200 lines of dialogue. Anything said by anyone with that particulary voicetype can, in theory, be said by Balgruuf... and since I have experience with audio editing and access to software like Melodyne, I can splice sentences together, re-pitch words, change inflection and duration of syllables... all without recording any new audio. I've also found a handy way to export spreadsheets from the CK that tell me each audio file's name, and gives me the contents as searchable text. All I have to do is think of a phrase I want a character of that voicetype to say, search for something like it, modify as needed, and drop it into the game where it needs to go. In other news... I've actually been invited to beta-test Elder Scrolls Online. Like an idiot, I waited until one hour before the tests begin to create my account and start downloading, so I probably won't be playing until tomorrow. However, I'm looking forward to seeing some parts of Tamriel that I haven't seen before. Still haven't picked an alliance/race yet... thinking of going with an Argonian, but I'm almost tempted by the Dominion, since I'll get to explore territories that haven't been seen in any other TES game. Thoughts?

Quick update: I've made some progress on tweaking the scenes with Hadvar after escaping Helgen. It took some trial and error, but I've discovered that it's possible to put ForceGreet dialogue inside of a scene. Now, Hadvar will ForceGreet the player with the line "Closest town from here is Riverwood. My uncle's the blacksmith there..." etc., etc. Instead of suggesting that you split up, he'll invite you to join him, an offer which you may accept or decline. I'm still working out how to make it so he doesn't wait for you if he decline his offer. If I can work that out, I'll do the same for Ralof's scenes. As it turns out, it Bethesda's original intention to give the player these options, but for some reason those dialogue branches were left unused in the final release. As such, there's actually a good deal of recorded voice audio for me to work with here. From here, I plan to remove Alvor's/Gerdur's ForceGreet dialogue, so inside of being asked to visit Balgruuf, you'll simply be given the option to ask Alvor/Gerdur if there's anything you can do to help Riverwood with the dragon threat. Again, it would seem this was Bethesda's original plan. All in all, these are small, cosmetic changes, but I think they'll make these scenes feel more nuanced and interactive. The next phase of the mod will be a bit trickier -- I intend to create a radiant quest, similar to ones that are used to track the player's progress on Thane quests, to track the player's "fame" in Whiterun. This will become a condition for being offered the quest Bleak Falls Barrow. I'm still looking for people to assist me. CK experience is obviously helpful, but not required. PM or email me if you're interested!

Resurrecting characters with whom you've interacted also causes weird things to happen. Other NPCs, like his wife and child, might refer to him as being dead. The Jarl might send you a letter offering condolences and some money from Alvor's will. I suppose it won't bring Alvor back to life, but you could try this mod to prevent any other characters from dying in dragon attacks. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23906/?

Hey everyone, just wanted to give an update since I've been away from the Nexus for so long. This mod is still going... slowly. It was a busy summer for me, and my job didn't afford me much time to delve into the CK. That's all over now, I'm working about half as much as I was, so I'm jumping back into this. As many of you who've followed this mod since it's humble beginnings might recall, I'm actually teaching myself as I go (my real background is in music/audio), so it's a slow process. That said, JibstaMan and I have been working -- albeit independently -- and hope to how something tangible to show for it soon. PROGRESS REPORT I've recently had to reassess many of the big plans I had for Act 1. Revoicing characters like Jarl Balgruuf won't be possible; he has hundreds of lines of dialogue, intricately woven into both the Main Quest and the Civil War, not to mention one of the Daedra questlines. I decided after testing CWO that I want this mod to be compatible with ApolloDown's work. For that reason, I can't change anything Balgruuf does as it relates to the Civil War questline, without risking incompatibility. This was a big limitation, as he was a major player in most of the new quests for Act 1. I've decided to take a different approach with Balgruuf, using exising lines from the same VoiceType to add new lines to Balgruuf for the Main Quest only, while leaving his CW stuff intact. It's a compromise, but after listening to over 3,500 lines of dialogue audio, and personally sorting and transcribing about 800 potentially useful lines, I'm optimistic that I'll still be able to enhance the player's intactions with the Jarl to improve the story progression. It'll allow me to change any line I wish (within reason) or simple add new lines, without touching his CW dialogue. To make up for the [partial] loss of Balgruuf, I still plan to fully revoice Farengar myself - and with the help of the VAs here, Irileth too - and make them the focal point of the Dragonsreach quests. So, Act 1 is going to be lighter than originally planned, but the benefit of this is that it will be more focused. Lydia will still get a proper introduction and backstory, and we'll even have a run-in with one of the new non-dragon antaonists that's being added by SMQO. Essentially, I'm getting back to my original vision -- to make the early quest "non-urgent" and remove the dove-tailing from one quest to the next, by allowing the player to "refuse" his/her fate (at least, at first). I'm also going to try to resolve what I believe is one of Bethesda's biggest blunders with Act 1 - the crossover between the Main Quest and the Civil War in Message to Whiterun. I'm referring to the awkwardness that takes place when players choose to side with a CW faction (particularly, the Stormcloaks) before ever visiting the Jarl. In effect, Ulfric sends you to Balgruuf with an ultimatum, and Balgruuf responds by telling you (a complete stranger and enemy of his regime) to kill a dragon, as a tiny favor. It's ludicous! Even if you're supporting the Legion, it's awkward, though at least you go into the situation knowing that after you kill the dragon and become his Thane, you're not going to turn around an invade his city. This lunacy actually forced me to scrap Farengar's new "dragon research" quests, which were going to be added before Bleak Falls Barrow. But then Balgruuf's unreasonable request would becomes all the more insane. As a compromise, I'm turning the storylines of those quests expository dialogue, so it's not a complete loss. If I have time, I might restore them as optional, time-sensitive side-quests. In any case, I'm torn. I'd like to leave the the Civil War alone, but I can't in good conscience leave this scenario unresolved, after all of the other crap we're trying to do. Right now, I'm working on finding dialogue from the existing pool of audio for Balgruuf's voicetype, that would allow me to smooth this over without any major changes. If I can't, my next best option I'm considering is to try to personally voice some lines for Ulfric, changing the conditions of his ultimatum ( Message to Whiterun [sC] ) from the original "give him this axe, and if he gives it back, it's WAR!" scenario, to something more like, "Go to Whiterun, try to be polite and make friends, maybe help out a little, then try to persuade him to see reason." I'm curious what others think? Keeping in mind the limitations on what I can make Balgruuf say. MOVING FORWARD JibstaMan is currently working on his own to create on of the new "towns" that will play a larger role in Act 2. It's being designed as a stand-alone mod, so it's going to have lots of cool features that don't have anything to do with the Main Quest. I still have hundreds of audio files to transcribe for Balgruuf alone, before I can set about arranging the phrases into new lines, editing and convertng them, and turning them into conversations. Then there's Farengar. The rest of my team is MIA, so I could use a hand executing these current plans. So, I'm looking for one or two people that are familar enough with quest design and script editing to assist me in tweaking the existing quests. For now, this won't involve building any new quests from scratch, but rather altering scripts and AI to create the "scenes" that will accompany the new dialogue being added to the vanilla quests Unbound, Before the Storm, and eventually Bleak Falls Barrow and Dragon Rising. From there, we'll discuss new NPCs, scenes, side-quests, etc. If anyone is interested in helping out, please feel free to contact me [email protected].

Slowly, but surely!

Just a quick sneak peak at one of our new towns:

At the moment, there is essentially only one ending planned for the main quest itself, (spoiler: the Dragonborn defeats Alduin). But we plan to flesh out some of the paths that allow you to arrive at that ending, and the implications of your decisions along the way. It's more about the journey than the destination, right now. However, if we are able to follow up with an Aftermath story, there almost definitely be multiple endings, a bit like Daggerfall's main quest. We're re-writing most of the dialogue throughout the Main Quest to give the player a greater voice, and to allow for a more varied role playing experience. At this point, I've accounted for many different heroic-type character builds, reluctant do-gooders, rogues, adventurers, etc., as well as more opportunistic characters. I'd be interested though to hear what kinds of characters people RP, and how the vanilla game succeeded/failed to support that character build. It would definitely help us develop the best possible story as we go forward and begin writing dialogue.

Not counting the occasional hiatus, we've spent the last year writing, designing new characters, creating their back-stories, discussing ES lore to assure we don't trample on Todd Howard's vision too much, making considerations for different play-styles, and determining which aspects of this mod are feasible from a technical point of view. It has been my directive NOT to rush this process, and to consider as many options as possible. As you might expect, sometimes this means spending time on a particular idea that turns out to be a dead end, but it's a very informative writing process. That said, Act 1 is completely written. The quests have been designed and await implementation. Acts 2 or 3 have also been thoroughly discussed. Before we put any of this into the game though, we're planning to build the villages, dungeons, etc., which are to serve as settings for these quests first, a process which began last week. I'm actually working in the CK right now, building one of our new towns, which will actually be released as a stand-alone mod in the very near future. Unfortunately, because I want this mod to be compatible with other big, popular mods that overhaul things (namely ApolloDown's Civil War Overhaul), I now have to work around the Civil War stuff and avoid breaking any CW quests. That has been a learning process, as the civil war is a bit more complex than anything I've ever looked at before, with lots of non-linear quest sequences and "invisible" quests. I hope that answers your question :D

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully we can do this right! We'd love to have you! Shoot me an email at [email protected], with specifics about your interests, writing experience, other modding skills, etc. For the Aftermath story, I do think the Dragonborn will find that he/she has made just as many enemies as friends, and some will be out for blood. If possible, I want to explore the conflicts that should existing between the factions, which in vanilla Skyrim, seem isolated and disinterested in the world at large. After Alduin's defeat and the end of the civil war, many of these factions will rise up to fill the power vacuum. And you're right about the political loose ends, which I'd also like to address in the story. I don't want to spoil too much, but it might be similar to Daggerfall's plot, with a touch of Clash of Kings. Romance, revenge, war, assassinations, necromancers, a severed head, cheese... and a Dragon Break to tie it all in a big pretty bow... or not, I really haven't a clue yet. As for getting the NPCs to heap praise on you after you kill Alduin... I'd love that, but the problem there is voicing those NPCs. Instead, I'm considering working something into the plot to explain why the Dragonborn isn't famous or recognized everywhere he/she goes. But the city guards are omniscient, and can determine your stats and faction relationships by looking at you, so I dunno if that'll work.

At least we can agree that the vanilla version is awkward as hell. "Dragons? Ain't nobody got time for that! Take the f***ing axe, Balgruuf!" As for said "can of worms," I'm really just a writer, not a coder, so I've probably not considered how impractical my solution might be. I look for plot holes, and fix them. Your solution - that is, forcing Balgruuf to accept Ulfric's axe, dragons be damned - was actually our original solution. But for us, that meant the possibility of the player joining the Stormcloaks and making Vignar jarl of Whiterun. Which in turn meant writing two versions of the Main Quest - one for Balgruuf's regime and another for Vignar's, depending on who is in charge when you finally start doing the Main Quest. Of course, that's our problem, not yours :P As for replacing the vanilla "Join the Imperials/Stormcloaks" quests, does this really present any issues? By my reckoning, it just changes a few conditions, adds new content, and bypasses the vanilla quests without changing them at all. Of course, my experience in the CK is pretty limited, so I may be overlooking something.

That is a valid concern. We are planning to redo the voice work for a lot of the major characters. However, this will include a lot of vanilla dialogue, and we don't intend to change anything unless is pertains to the main quest. However, the Dragonborn's role in Whiterun is the focal point for the first act of our revised Main Quest sequence, so Jarl Balgruuf will probably have the most changes to civil war related dialogue. To be more specific... We had planned to remove the following scenario from all possibility: The player joins one of the civil war factions BEFORE completing 'Before the Storm', eventually arriving at the quest 'Message to Whiterun'. He/she goes to Whiterun and visits Dragonsreach for the first time. Upon delivering the message on half of his/her chosen faction, the PC is FORCED to assist Balgruuf with his dragon problems before Balgruuf will give his/her faction an answer. This scenario is simply ridiculous, but not easily fixed. After playing around with different ideas, we came to the following solution: If CWO sticks to the basic quest sequence leading up to 'The Battle for Whiterun,' we are probably OK. Otherwise, I'm not sure... I'm also open to better solutions to the above scenario, if you've got one. - - - - - As for Fort Greymoor... If it's a simple matter to remove the battle for Fort Greymoor through a patch, I'm all for it. Like I said, anything I can do to make our up-coming mod compatible with yours is good for everyone. I hope this answers some questions, and doesn't spoil too much.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you all a quick update. To begin, we are returning after a bit of a hiatus. I had to take some time away from the project to focus on other things. But we're back, hard at work finishing the preliminary writing for our first release. Because I've been away from the community for so long, I have a lot of catching up to do, learning about all of the other great mods that have been released in the last 4 months or so. The bad news is, due to our hiatus, we have lost contact with most of our staff. We're in the process of transitioning to a new project management service as well, which has probably only added to the confusion. So to make a long story short, we're looking for new people to join our team. The good news is, now that there will be no more official DLC releases for Skyrim, we can touch on subject matter that was previously off limits to us. As a result, we've been restructuring and reworking our story, to make room for content that deals with the aftermath of the Civil War and the Dragon Crisis, and allows the player to continue his/her character's story AFTER Alduin's defeat. We'd also like to introduce a few new plot threads of our own, and expand on some of the more interesting side-quests from vanilla Skyrim. I've begun work on a broad outline for this "aftermath" story, but it's still rough. Instead of giving away too many specifics, I'd love to hear what kinds of things you would like to see in an "aftermath" story. What do you think Skyrim is missing? And if you think you'd like to help us write the aftermath story in a more official capacity, feel free to send me a private message here, or email me at [email protected]. Currently, we are looking for an experienced level designer to take the lead on implementing designs for new world-spaces that are being added by SMQO. Send me a private message here at the Nexus, or email me at [email protected] if you're interested in joining our team.

Wow, I wish I had known this was coming! It looks fantastic! We're a ways away from releasing anything playable, but my mod team has been working an overhaul for Skyrim's main quest, and it includes some significant changes the role of Whiterun and Fort Greymoor play in the civil war. I had hoped to keep the specifics a secret until the release of Act 1, but I also want to SMQO to be compatible with other major overhauls like this one. I can tell this is going to be a popular one! Any chance you'd be interested in talking about what we can do to make our mod more compatible with yours?