Another Alternate Start Mod (More Immersive?)

[paladicprince]

Heylo. I'm actually getting a mod within sight of a releasable stage which is pretty exciting for me. I just wanted to give some general information and ask for you guy's opinions/suggestion/ideas.

 

It started because in almost all my games I RP either a Paladin, Priest, or Mage (In that order, though oblivion makes it to much fun to sneak around sometimes). It's always bugged me that for some reason I was in jail. So when I RP my character I tend to think of him as reformed, but I really kinda wanted something else. I found a mod that altered the start along the lines of you're an immigrant, it seemed better but the mod was kinda small. I wanted to add more detail.

 

Thus my mod. For which the storyline goes something like this:

 

You start out in an immigration office (assumed to be in Morrowing) where you begin filling out paperwork for your immigration to Cyrodil. This part will play out somewhat like Morrowind did, I'm currently using messageboxes for the menus, but if I can ever get around to it I plan to voice act out the lines so it can all be done through dialogue.

 

The forms you fill out with the Customs Office will determine (of course you still set you're characters race as normal):

 

-Your Birthsign

 

- Where in Cyrodil you start your new life. I plan to include all the cities, also would like to include Kvatch as an option but that would be for later. To make it make more sense your character will make port at the Imperial City temporarily to meet with a Caravan.

 

- Whether or not you will own the house in that town (a well off noble would have procured a home well in advance)

 

- And what starting equipment and possesions you will have

 

It will also be an option to sneak aboard the ship at a slightly later date, which would give you choices between being a simple beggar or rogue.

 

Then you will wake up on the ship where you will go through a 'tutorial' of sorts. I of course assume that if you're modding oblivion you know how to walk around, so all those style tutorial pop ups are disabled. My tutorial will consist of a series of seven encounters that will all be somewhat like this one:

 

After awaking in you room of the ship you find that the heavy storms from last night have caused you door to wedge itself shut. You are then given the option to burn the door, pry the door off its hinges, or smash it in half with a sledgehammer.

 

Depending on your choice it will begin creating the custom class (which I haven't fully implemented yet) based on your choice. For example if you chose to burn the door, destruction would be one of your Major Skills, prying the door might relate to Security, and bashing it in would obviously be blunt weapons.

 

Then the six other encounters determine your final class which is automatically assigned. (And yes I'll add an option at the end of the tutorial to redefine your custom class if you so choose.)

 

I have also removed the two starting spells and instead you learn of the abilities you posses through the encounters. For instance, you have no spells to start with except you racial and birthsign spells. After interacting with the door (assuming you choose burn it) you discover the unknown ability to catch objects on fire with a simple touch (thus adding the lowest ranked Fire Damage on Touch spell to your spell list)

 

Then of course after landing (and taking the caravan if applicable) the game is playable as normal.

 

To integrate the main quest line, after 1 days game time you will encounter a mad man raving about something you can't understand. Depending on your interactions with him he will either give you the Amulet of Kings (along with a note mentioning Jauffre and thus beginning the main quest), or throw it into the distance (lake or ocean if applicable, if not simply the wilderness) where you can search for it should you decide to begin the main quest later.

 

I saw a mod that made Oblivion Gates begin appearing after a certain time if you hadn't advanced the main quest and I will probably do pretty much the same thing.

 

Also, if I use Kvatch as a starting city then instead of encountering a mad man, the Oblivion Gate will open after a day, then after closing it you find Jauffre thus advancing the main quest from that point on.

 

 

 

And that's what I'm working on. I know there are lots of other Alt Start mods, but I just enjoy modding for the sake of it and this is what I came up with. I'd love to hear some ideas. Especially regarding possible encounters on the boat as I haven't got them all done yet and somehow need to have an option for at least every Skill once (For instance I still can't figure out why you'd need to use heavy armor in a ship full of friendlies).

 

Looking foreward to replies :)

[Kamoba]

Looks good to me, heavy armor and armorer idea's....

 

 

*Sailor moans*

Blasted ship leaked into my room last night, now all my gears wet, including my new armor, this'll rust up by the time we get to shore!

 

*Player options*

Oh such a shame. *walks away. 0 armorer*

 

Hmm try doing this... *Player fiddles with the armor, manages to dry it and aply some oil. armorer as starting skill.*

 

 

 

Heavy Armor use?

 

*Sailor looks at the armor in his hand.*

Only problem is, I aint worn this befor..... where does this strap go?!

 

*Player Options*

It can go right up your..... *player walks off. 0 heavyarmor.*

The leg bone conects to the hip bone, the hip bone connects to the back bone.. more random blah to describe how to put the armor on. *Player has heavyarmor as starting skill.*

 

 

Light Armor use?

 

*Captain laughs at the sailor + player*

Why'd you want that stuff anyway? Fall in the water you'd sink straight away! *laugh.* You need a thick peice of hide on your back!

Allways protected me in fights and the cold.

 

*Player options*

Protect this! *Bang. player has 0 light armor.*

 

I find that fur or leather armor are better suited for the wet and cold conditions of bruma and sailing, however if i got my hands on a set of mithrill i'm sure i'd not need a new set of armor for years. *player has light armor as start skill.*

 

 

 

 

 

Hope those idea's can be of some use.

Keep us updated how the mod goes! :)

[paladicprince]

Cool, I'll probably use some variation of those. :)

 

Right now I've decided that you should encounter a stowaway as one of the encounters. I suppose I'm being nit picky, but I'm trying to set her to just stay in a corner in sneak mode. I can get her to stay still, but as soon as the player walks up she stands up. Though I did finally get her to stop greeting you heh.

 

I suppose I won't worry about it for now, but if anyone has an idea how to make an NPC completely ignore the PC it'd make my perfectionist self feel better. :)

 

 

As an interesting side note, has anyone noticed that there are 586,051,200 choices of Skill Masteries? That's not even a list of possible classes... There are a total of ... 98,456,601,600

 

Part of my brain thinks surely I made some fatal error in my maththe other part just exploded.

[eXoduis]

cant wait for it seems very cool