[WIP Mod] "Bandits Expanded"

[Ainulindale]

Probably won't do much to the actual camp itself, it's already nicely laid out / cluttered, and is one of those awesome skyrim dungeons that tells a story just by being there, with the Mammoth poachers, spike pits and slaughter-house. I don't want to swamp these places, but rather bring out their character. Valtheim was a great location gameplay-wise but lacked a bit of character I think, so by adding some stockades and a cliff-side encampment i've brought it out as a proper toll bridge and defensible base. As a centerpiece it'll feature all the essentials, player bedroom, smithy, merchants, alchemy / enchanting etc, but other locations will be barer, with only those services suiting the character. (Also cuts out what annoys me with some house mods, massive rooms full of weapon / armour stands and a full smithy underneath a wooden floor, next to a bedroom... no thanks, immersion please!).

 

So for example Half Moon camp will have more hunter style merchants and followers, tanning racks, cooking, but perhaps remove the forge, and only a simple bed + chest for the player.

 

Then just West is Halted Stream camp where the forge is the main feature, but player comfort is not, so no pub, fewer merchants, but a blinged out lunar forge!

[mprep]

Probably won't do much to the actual camp itself, it's already nicely laid out / cluttered, and is one of those awesome skyrim dungeons that tells a story just by being there, with the Mammoth poachers, spike pits and slaughter-house. I don't want to swamp these places, but rather bring out their character. Valtheim was a great location gameplay-wise but lacked a bit of character I think, so by adding some stockades and a cliff-side encampment i've brought it out as a proper toll bridge and defensible base. As a centerpiece it'll feature all the essentials, player bedroom, smithy, merchants, alchemy / enchanting etc, but other locations will be barer, with only those services suiting the character. (Also cuts out what annoys me with some house mods, massive rooms full of weapon / armour stands and a full smithy underneath a wooden floor, next to a bedroom... no thanks, immersion please!).

 

So for example Half Moon camp will have more hunter style merchants and followers, tanning racks, cooking, but perhaps remove the forge, and only a simple bed + chest for the player.

 

Then just West is Halted Stream camp where the forge is the main feature, but player comfort is not, so no pub, fewer merchants, but a blinged out lunar forge!

Regarding Valtheim towers, the defense on the road is a bit overkill in my opinion. The wooden defenses on the other side are great, but the road is used by various folk, including guards (especially if you have a travellers mod like Immersive patrols). Now lets imagine this in the real world: if there are brigands actively blocking the road and the blockade is unavoidable and seen from far, shouldn't a guard raid be sent to clear up the roads? However, if they're not blocking the roads, just situating around the tower, not many people would notice, but the weaker ones will be robbed.

[Ainulindale]

Yes, that's an area i'm not convinced with either, so will likely make some changes, if not now then after some feedback once it's released. There is precedent though - Robbers Gorge north of Rorikstead is an entire camp built on the main road.

 

So I spent a couple hours building a walkway and cave entrance behind the waterfall at Valtheim, only to find that in game, you can't walk through the waterfall to get to it. There goes that idea! Also due to the waterfall model itself, it can't really be moved slightly to the side to let you pass, as the edges curve inwards and look horrible from the back. Unless I can see how to turn the water physics off then I'll have to rethink, probably just use a mine style entrance off to the side instead and make an inaccessible "window" to behind the falls in the interior.

 

I've also got it set up that your camp overseers (who replace the "boss" bandits) have a 1/11 chance of spawning a renegade overseer hostile to you, just to keep you on your toes! Can't trust these bandits at all.

The AI is a little funky right now too, I'd like it to start a scrap with a few people (like starting massive fights in cities) but when faced with normal bandits (which attack the player normally), the loyal ones will run away and avoid the fight. Will have to tweak the faction relations methinks. Spawning a bunch of guards though is hilarious.

 

Also thinking "Bandit Empires" is a more fitting name? Possibly "Way of the Bandit" or similar..

Edited January 20, 2014 by Ainulindale

[axfvh]

this is a wonderful idea and one that i've always thought should have been done way earlier, best of luck to you

[Ainulindale]

May have gone overboard with the entrance to the falls...

http://static1.nexusmods.com/15/images/110/2370730-1390315887.jpg

http://static1.nexusmods.com/15/images/110/2370730-1390315831.jpg

http://static1.nexusmods.com/15/images/110/2370730-1390315748.jpg

 

[Ainulindale]

Progress update:

 

Renegade Overseers are working - there's a small chance that when the camp's Overseer is spawned, they're hostile to you (with a note grumbling about not getting a fair cut of the loot). Other bandits are still not getting involved in fights with vanilla bandits (including the renegade overseer) so I'm thinking i'll have to remove everyone from the "banditfaction" and come up with some sort of workaround whereby the renegade isn't nuked on the spot by everyone else before they attack you...

 

Randomised merchants are in and working properly. Brutally murdering one, then waiting somewhere else for 10 days, a brand new one will show up.

 

Working on AI packages for the whole settlement, which is quite fun, and a great way to crash test the navmesh. Gives the place much more atmosphere when they all huddle around the campfire. Needs more tweaking to get some proper patrol routes and guard shifts.

 

Main issue i'm facing at the moment is the combat overides to the AI packages. When anyone turns up on the road the entire camp runs out to lynch them. I've had to move some wolves away from the northern mountain as the whole settlement rose up in glorious crusade the moment an archer got a single wiff of their furry hides, and the return journey they managed to find every hole in the navmesh possible, of course..

I can use the HoldPosition package, but only on wizards and archers, the blacksmiths spend their time yelling "I'm warning you, back off!" at anything on the other side of the river while everyone else runs around like lemmings showing off how big their weapons are. Aggro radiuses would work on the southern side as that makes sense there. Will look into how other vanilla camps deal with it. (Something to do with these huge red "default trig" boxes maybe.

 

Did I mention by the way this is my first Skyrim mod, started following tutorials making mini dungeons and basic followers to go with my let's play, now learning stuff every day and putting it all together, anyone thinking modding is beyond them should just dive in, it's great!

[Indigoblade]

About the mod name, I know you wanted suggestions about it, but it kind of seems like your building more of a bandit lifestyle more than just expanding on the bandits themselves... I should have probably used that title instead of OBIS tbh.

 

Maybe something that has a cool acronym like:

Live Like A Bandit - LLAB

King of Bandits - KOB

Lord of Outlaws - LOO

Kingdom of the Lawless - KOTL (Keeper of the Light :D)

Guild of Degenerates - GOD

I'm sloooooowly getting off topic, but the name can be SOOOO much cooler for such a great idea and well done work

 

Great intitative for someone that just started out I applaud you good sir

[mprep]

About the mod name, I know you wanted suggestions about it, but it kind of seems like your building more of a bandit lifestyle more than just expanding on the bandits themselves... I should have probably used that title instead of OBIS tbh.

 

Maybe something that has a cool acronym like:

Live Like A Bandit - LLAB

King of Bandits - KOB

Lord of Outlaws - LOO

Kingdom of the Lawless - KOTL (Keeper of the Light :D)

Guild of Degenerates - GOD

I'm sloooooowly getting off topic, but the name can be SOOOO much cooler for such a great idea and well done work

 

Great intitative for someone that just started out I applaud you good sir

I'd say the first name Live Like A Bandit would be most fitting. It's simple, the users would know what the mod is about just by seeing the name.

[Eggpie]

Hi there Ainulindale! I'm new to the Skyrim modding community, but I'm interested in contributing my experience as a creative writer to a project. I've been reading around looking for mods in progress with plenty of space for character development and dialogue writing, and yours struck me as an ambitious, interesting one. I'm wondering if you might have room or need for a lore/dialogue/environment writer for your mod, especially considering that amiable interactions with bandits aren't exactly something that has been explored before. If you're interested or or would like any more info, simply let me know!

Thanks,

Eggpie

[Ainulindale]

 

Now working on the interior, plus some stuff with the NPCs

 

Having trouble with randomised (level listed) respawnable followers at the moment, not sure the game likes that combo, having a look through some other mods that have achieved it.

 

Also struggling to get the Renegade Overseer to use a custom shout i've made, it's got the frenzy effect, and I think there's something preventing NPCs using some of the illusion school (which would all be useless on the player), so i'm fiddling with that too.