A question of how to handle a quest

[Khet]

My mod, Alternate Start - Roleplayers, allows the player to either use a quick start, or play through the Vault 101 tutorial. With the quick start, the player has access to a quest which is currently called "Finding Tony" in the mod. However, this quest is incomplete for a couple of reasons. The first reason is, it's been more of a backburner idea. That is, it's not as important to me as the rest of the mod. The second reason is... I have hit a major roadblock. Here's my bifurcation.

 

With the "Finding Tony" quest I see two options. Single .esp or two .esp. The single .esp would be simple. Include the entire quest in the current .esp of AS-R. The second option... two separate .esp files is a bit more complicated. The reason I cannot decide is because of the scope of the quest. Right now, with what I have current planned, the quest itself would be rather extensive. Which is cool, since I'd love to be able to replace the vanilla Main Quest with my own version of a Main Quest for the alternate histories that defy Vault 101 (that is, every single one). The problem is, which what I have written down and drawn out... I fear it would make the AS-R .esp needlessly large.

 

What I'm getting at is this, I suppose (since I tend to ramble at times)

 

If you were to see AS-R for the first time, would you be more willing to download it if you had a choice of the alternate main quest (the two .esp version) or would it not matter (the one .esp version)? Since, adding such an extensive quest, I wouldn't know whether to consider it an alternate start mod anymore... or just a quest mod with alternate start features... which would kind of defeat the purpose of the original Alternate start idea. Nor would I know if it would make a difference in the minds of others... I mean, would you be willing to download a (random number here) 20mb mod even if you have no plans to ever touch the "alternate main quest" included in it?

 

So, would it be smarter to have one or two .esps? Thoughts? Comments? Flames? Cookies? (for cookies, please note I'm allergic to almonds!)

[Tony the Wookie]

so what exactly are the downsides to having two .esp files?

[pkleiss]

Are the quests related? Do they share any resources you made? Put them in one ESP.

 

Are the quests totally unrelated and share no resources? Put them in two different ESPs.

[Exodus111]

My mod, Alternate Start - Roleplayers, allows the player to either use a quick start, or play through the Vault 101 tutorial. With the quick start, the player has access to a quest which is currently called "Finding Tony" in the mod. However, this quest is incomplete for a couple of reasons. The first reason is, it's been more of a backburner idea. That is, it's not as important to me as the rest of the mod. The second reason is... I have hit a major roadblock. Here's my bifurcation.

 

With the "Finding Tony" quest I see two options. Single .esp or two .esp. The single .esp would be simple. Include the entire quest in the current .esp of AS-R. The second option... two separate .esp files is a bit more complicated. The reason I cannot decide is because of the scope of the quest. Right now, with what I have current planned, the quest itself would be rather extensive. Which is cool, since I'd love to be able to replace the vanilla Main Quest with my own version of a Main Quest for the alternate histories that defy Vault 101 (that is, every single one). The problem is, which what I have written down and drawn out... I fear it would make the AS-R .esp needlessly large.

 

What I'm getting at is this, I suppose (since I tend to ramble at times)

 

If you were to see AS-R for the first time, would you be more willing to download it if you had a choice of the alternate main quest (the two .esp version) or would it not matter (the one .esp version)? Since, adding such an extensive quest, I wouldn't know whether to consider it an alternate start mod anymore... or just a quest mod with alternate start features... which would kind of defeat the purpose of the original Alternate start idea. Nor would I know if it would make a difference in the minds of others... I mean, would you be willing to download a (random number here) 20mb mod even if you have no plans to ever touch the "alternate main quest" included in it?

 

So, would it be smarter to have one or two .esps? Thoughts? Comments? Flames? Cookies? (for cookies, please note I'm allergic to almonds!)

 

 

Well being a fan of ur mod, having tried most of the different builds, I found a definitive lacking of the main quest.

Even adding the quest by console doesnt help, as things like the first meeting with the BOS going into GNR doesnt happen.

Thats a big problem, and invalidates the whole mod in my opinion as I then removed it.

So adding ur own main quest line sounds awesome and totally in line with what this mod should be.

 

So should it be one or two esp files.

 

Well speaking as a person with a 26 megabit line and 2 Terrabit HDD I rarely even look at the file size, i just download what I want.

 

 

-Ex

[BadPenney]

I think that it is probably better to have one .esp rather than two. I don't think a large .esp file is really going to be that large. It is usually supporting files like unique meshes, textures, sounds and such that really add size to a mod.

[Quetzlsacatanango]

^^What he said. I think the largest .esp I have is something like 2MB.

[rickerhk]

 

If you were to see AS-R for the first time, would you be more willing to download it if you had a choice of the alternate main quest (the two .esp version) or would it not matter (the one .esp version)? Since, adding such an extensive quest, I wouldn't know whether to consider it an alternate start mod anymore... or just a quest mod with alternate start features... which would kind of defeat the purpose of the original Alternate start idea. Nor would I know if it would make a difference in the minds of others... I mean, would you be willing to download a (random number here) 20mb mod even if you have no plans to ever touch the "alternate main quest" included in it?

 

So, would it be smarter to have one or two .esps? Thoughts? Comments? Flames? Cookies? (for cookies, please note I'm allergic to almonds!)

 

In my mind, an alternate start would be crying out for an alternate quest to go with it...

 

And the size of an esp file is trivial - you can pack a lot into 20mb. For some perspective, Broken steel is only about 11mb.