unknownhero2827 Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/36250/? This is a mercenary/follower mod for Oblivion. A mod like this for Skyrim would be incredible. When using this mod, I would often disregard any essential companions, and take only ones I had hired/recruited with me. The roleplay was great, since they could die, and I could go get and infinite number of more if I wanted. But I didn't want them to die, since they took a bit of money to replace, and I also just cared more about their well-being, especially if they were guild members, or long term companions; many times I would give them custom names. At the end of the day, much of the time (esp if they were guild members) I wouldn't look at it as paying them as hired arms, but sharing the loot. I always made sure I shared some of the loot. Be it a fancy weapon or better armor. Generally I didn't give them gold since, what would they do with it? And better equipment makes them more likely to survive. I also made sure they were loaded on potions; they are my prize investments after all, and loosing them can hit pretty hard financially early game. They also didn't have respawning inventories, which was excellent, and came with lore-friendly appropriately leveled list equipment (i.e. no Daedric for recruits, just iron, fur, etc.) Many times, I would hire guild members just to populate the guild, or guards and servants to stay in my house. They didn't cost any upkeep if I disbanded them. And they didn't go anywhere because they didn't have a place to return to. But with follower mods in Oblivion, which can easily be duplicated in Skyrim, they interacted with things around them. However, it would be a good idea to be able to delete them through dialogue (have them be gone when you leave the room). With all that in mind, there are some general improvements I would love to see... -- A feature I liked, which I'm not sure was implemented in the linked mod (I used a different, but very similar one still based off of Endrik's mod), was you could choose the experience/rank of some followers, mostly the guild ones. If you were of low ranking in the Dark brotherhood, you could only hire low ranking assassins (Dark Brotherhood Murder). But if you were higher ranking, then you could hire higher ranking assassins (Dark Brotherhood Slayer, Executioner, Assassin, etc). And they had their costs according to their experience. I believe this feature is implemented in one of the current Skyrim mercenary mods ( ). I would like to see rank level, displayed with the npc name, with a level max (and min) for each rank. I.e. Novice Archer would level with (or a few levels below) player until level 24, Apprentice from 25 to 49, and so on. It'd be much more convenient to see their rank in their name. -- There were about 2-3 different looking NPCs in each class pool. Usually 1 female. I would like to see this increased to perhaps 3-5 (both m and f) as the mod develops, and maybe the option to choose which sex. And if the mod really takes off, perhaps even the race (not to be racist; sometimes I want a Khajiit thief over an Orc one.) -- In Oblivion, there was a fairly popular follower mod called Companion Share and Recruit. In it, you could give gifts to people to raise their disposition towards you. I would like to see some type of reward system for giving hired companions gifts or a share of your loot. I'm not sure what it would be; maybe they could receive buffs for being happy that last until they become less happy. Though this isn't so important to me, and would probably be more appropriate for a universal follower mod like UFO. Firefly 101 adds a ton of different classes in his mod. Tons of different classes is not something I care about much, and like I said I used a different dumbed down mod with the same template (Endrik's Mercenary Mod). Some basic classes I'd like to see are... -- Assassins recruitable from Dark Brotherhood if you are a member. Rank recruitable depending on your own rank. -- Thieves recruittable from Thieves Guild, and maybe through fences. Membership as a recruitment requirement possibly being optional. But must at least be a member to get higher ranking thieves... or maybe not. -- Mages from Mages Guild and maybe through court Mages. -- Mercenary Archers and Guards/Footmen (I like the title Footmen), and other very generic classes from every hold in Skyrim. Recruitable from inside taverns. Player level not a factor on hireable rank level. -- Hold Specific Guards and Guard Archers if you are a Thane of respecitve Hold. I'm not sure guards should have ranks; I think they should be the same as other guards. Recruitable from maybe the Steward, the King's Housecarl, or maybe the hold's Guard Captain. -- Recruitable Housecarls. Without rank, and level with player. -- Orcs from Strongholds. Or maybe not if it wouldn't be lore-friendly. Perhaps orc warriors should be recruited in taverns with the other mercenaries. -- Guard Dogs, and maybe other animals, perhaps from animal trainers. Level the same as other creatures of their kind. -- Servants, Villagers, or something of the like, from Stewards maybe. Level is always low (Can serve as pack mules, or torch holders). -- Healers/Monks from various temples -- Cattle, Thrall's, other Vampires and such if you are a Vampire. -- Werewolves from the Companions if you're a werewolf. Also regular Non-werewolf Companions. -- Generic Henchmen and Thugs for your darker character, hireable at taverns and other places. -- Necromancers. Idk how you'd hire one... But it'd be nice to have a buddy in your cave. -- Of course Stormcloaks and Legionairres, with a more extensive class selection, being that they are at organized armies. So mages, archers, regular footmen, those fancy imperial elites who replaced the Blades (and whos' names I can't think of). I guess that wasn't really all that extensive... The list could go on. The mentioned classes are mostly very generic. As the mod progresses, it would be nice to see more unique's like in Firefly101's mod, just maybe not as many (maybe more or the same amount considering Skyrim is a bigger game). But lore-friendly one's such as Wood Elf Archers (I believe there's supposed to be a Wood Elf settlement somewhere in Skyrim, but I've never found where), Redguards, maybe even Giants (or just brutes) from a Giant-Whisperer who lives in a giants' camp. And Rieklings if you do their tribe a service. Which would mean a quest (quests to acquire the right to hire followers would be a great addition late in the mod's progression). I just don't want to see superfluous classes, such as a sailor. I don't think that would make sense unless you had a ship, but I could simply just not recruit them, too. I believe having too many classes would have a negative affect on novelty value, or the professional feel of the mod; so no frenzies just so you can recruit any type of anything ever imaginable by anyone. Custom voiced dialogue... I prefer against it, or at least have it optional. If in-game voiced dialogue could be used, that'd be best, imo, if it makes sense when they talk. Anyway, if I type too much more, which I could, I don't think anyone will ever read this. I'm not a modder, though I have created my own followers and homes, fixed a few textures, tweaked few values, etc. in Oblivion. I think the bulk of the work would be spent on creating different looking NPC's for each class. And giving them lore-friendly equipment and leveling. Making them look unique, but not so unique, so that if you had two of the same NPC amongst your party, you couldn't distinctly tell that they were clones. The rest of the work, I imagine, would be in dialogue and scripting (spawning followers, and meeting the conditions to spawn them, and later on creating short quests), and balancing classes, also figuring out reasonable hiring and upkeep prices. I think the mod would be best used with UFO, or another follower mod, so no need to worry about things involved in that. If someone(s) were to take up this endeavor, I would be happy to lend my assistance in doing lay work. I don't have experience in Skyrim modding however. Though if it's simple and similar enough to Oblivion, I may be able to help create a number of random NPC's, their equipment, and possibly help with dialogue. My PC is also not up to par atm, and that may be a problem. I can still run Skyrim, though lag is frequently troublesome without my extremely low graphics settings, which I've tweaked even lower with a mod. Lastly, as I've said a few times throughout my post, Lore-friendly is a must. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Legion_Soldier_(Skyrim) This link is the Skyrim Wiki, and shows subtype classes for imperial soldiers. This is the kind of style I'd like to see. As generic as possible, balanced with being as specific and in-depth as possible, and as lore-friendly as possible, without too many things that'll make your head spin (Like this post probably does). I don't mean to sound demanding either, I just don't want my request to inspire someone to create a sub-par monstrosity. The style of this mod, ought to be something in accordance with, and able to be endorsed by, G.E.M.S. Thank you if you've taken the time to read through, and consider, my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts