World design in the Dawnguard DLC: A missed opportunity and mod proposal

[theblackpixel]

World design in the Dawnguard DLC: A missed opportunity

 

 

Warning!

*This article might contain minor spoilers about the Dawnguard questline

*This article is highly subjective and based solely on my personal experience with the game.

*If you don’t feel like reading the article I suggest you just read the conclusion at the end to get a picture of what the article is about.

*I am not a native speaker of the english language, therefore this article can contain grammatical and structural errors.

If you detect one, please state so below.

 

 

World design:

 

I absolutely love the world design in the Elder Scrolls games, namely in Skyrim. The landscapes vary from snowy peaks to beautiful peaceful groves. It’s just too bad that there aren’t any deserts or real forests, Solstheim and the Vale feel kind of like a missed opportunity to really differentiate the areas in Skyrim. Overall I found the world design in the Dawnguard DLC to be very weak. Yes, it has the soul cairn and yes, it has the forgotten Vale, but honestly, how many times have you visited those places after completing the Dawnguard DLC? I believe that one of the reasons for that is that they isolated all the new areas. Think about it, fort Dawnguard is placed in an isolated cell, so you can’t just stumble upon it, which is in my opinion one of the greatest aspects about the Skyrim worldspace. Then you have the Forgotten Vale, another beautiful area that’s locked away in a separate cell.

This really feels like a missed opportunity, because the Vale has a lot of potential. It could have had a very unique forest. Add all the unique wildlife (Vale deer and saber cats) and you could have had a new experience that you could stumble upon at any given time.

Another thing that I found to be disappointing about the Vale is how linear the area is built. If you observe the level design closely you notice a linear path throughout the area. This contradicts the exploration and discovery nature of the game. There are no caves or areas that are just there, and don’t serve the path you follow through the Vale. This defeats the purpose of going through the Vale after you’ve completed the quest line.

 

Mod proposal:

 

The frost giants carrying paragons were a good step towards differentiating the Vale while not making it obsolete after the quest line. They could have worked have worked this out more by giving the paragons a more in-depth purpose, for example to uncover snow elven caves and or ruins that were locked when the falmer or ‘the betrayed’ swarmed the vale.

This could have been one of an array of side-activities to do, and yes it would cost more work but it would have been worth the effort.

Now that we’ve considered the environment of Snow Elf Valley (a.k.a. The Forgotten Vale) let’s move on to the structures and special features of the place.

The most remarkable structure in the Vale is definitely the Inner sanctum. This palace looks absolutely monumental when you first enter it. It has a long bridge leading to it and a statue of Auri-El, not mentioning the epic front of the building.

The problem is that it becomes a (n even more) broken down ruin after the quest line is completed. A solution to this could be to handle the snow elves similar to the dark brotherhood faction.

So the last remaining snow elf (Gelebor) asks you weather you want to join the elven cause. After some questions he informs you that there are probably still some snow elves left. This could be because they locked themselves away to protect themselves from the growing numbers of Falmer. These places could be opened by using the Paragons.

After you learn this info, you can either choose to help the elf, or you can inform the nords and inform them about the location of the last remaining elves. The nords will be glad to finish them off, and they will give you a hefty sack of coin for it.

When you choose to help the elf though you go to the elven ruins and start searching for the remaining elves. Of course there will be ones who were killed by the falmer or some who starved to death, but you’ll find some that are alive and take them to the inner sanctum.

As you gather the elves you get a unique and interesting living population in the valley, who can form a base for interesting lore and side quests. This way you can learn more about the Vale and the snow elves in the ingenious way Skyrim handles it. Learning the snow elf culture, architecture and beliefs would set them apart from the other races of Skyrim, while keeping the area interesting to come by.

They could have added a feature that would let you rebuild the castle over time, so you get the Vale as a valley ruled by the snow elves who live at the epic sanctum at the top. The area would be filled with roaming elves and things to to. The cause of the quest line could have been to unite the last members of a remaining race, and to drive back the monsters that were once their kin to ensure the rebirth of their culture. Doesn’t that sound like a great and possibly memorable quest line to you?

 

 

Self-reflection

 

Now I’ve gone over the problem I have with the level design and my proposal of what could have been done to solve it, I will answer some critical questions that come to mind after reading it. First of all:

Q:When you do not make it an isolated area you could have entered it at any time, which would have broken the quest line.

A: True point, opening up the area would have likely broken the quest line. Here I propose two solutions:

1. What if the Vale was circumcised by a large icy storm, just like the one at the throat of the world. You wouldn’t be able to enter the storm and neither would the other nords, which makes sense. Environmentally it isn’t strange because the Vale is covered in snow for the biggest part, besides the forest that is. But the forest doesn’t contain any items or places that could break the quest line beforehand. But then how would you enter after you were done with the quest line? For this I use the throat of the world as an example. They could have added an ability or a passive that allows you to enter after you’ve uncovered the Vale for the first time. I propose a passive because it again supports the idea of stumbling upon the place more than an active ability that you have to trigger.

 

 

 

1. My second proposal is to just lock all the important places and make sure things like the giants and the dragons at the lake don’t spawn before you actually go there for a quest. This doesn’t seem like a very good idea though, because it might still cause some issues like getting the shout at the lake before even encountering the dragons.

If you have any more solid questions I place them up there and try to formulate my answer.

Conclusion:

 

 

I think the Vale had a lot of potential and it’s sad to see it being so linear and disinteresting . As you probably noticed (if you read the whole article) I formulate an idea that could have made the Vale a better place. I believe this idea would serve very well as a mod, but Skyrim is getting old and I doubt there are still people out there willing to take on such a big project. Perhaps I’ll try to do it myself, but if you are interesting in working on it please say so in the comments. Thank you for spending your time reading this article.

 

 

 

 

Auri-el bless you,

 

TheBlackpixel

Edited June 15, 2015 by theblackpixel

[CelticVikingDragon]

I hope some modders would make this mod a reality (i would help but don't have any skills in modding)

[Matth85]

(i would help but don't have any skills in modding)

 

Start learning. You don't got less time than anybody else, I promise you.

[TheSpaceShuttleChallenger]

I've been sitting on the idea of making a proper Snow Elf settlement, because, like you, I think Bethesda really dropped the ball when it game to the Vale. These dweebs make half a Snow Elf architecture kit and they don't even make any good explorable places with that architecture? They make a whole new race and give you all of two characters to meet from that race? Nonsense is what it is.

 

But I will say that I actually like the idea of the Vale being very far out of the way. It's supposed to have been one of the few remaining refuges of a race that was actively hunted down over the course of centuries. It could only have survived as long as it did by being too difficult for Atmorans to reach, and indeed, to even be within the realm of human knowledge--after all, it's the Forgotten Vale, the one so obscure it took three Elder Scrolls to find it. I'd rather have the Vale be something like Solstheim; out of the way, yes, and maybe not accessible until a certain point in your game, but with enough content that it's actually worth exploring again and again once you find it.

 

 

Anyway, I'd be interested in comparing notes and seeing if we can't help each other develop an expansion we both like. Something definitely needs to be done about this weaksauce worldspace, but it's not something you or I could tackle alone. Right now I'm at the "assessment" stage of my own plans and all I can say is that to get the SERuin kit working, it's going to take a modeller who is also a saint.

Edited August 17, 2015 by TheSpaceShuttleChallenger

[CelticVikingDragon]

I've been sitting on the idea of making a proper Snow Elf settlement, because, like you, I think Bethesda really dropped the ball when it game to the Vale. These dweebs make half a Snow Elf architecture kit and they don't even make any good explorable places with that architecture? They make a whole new race and give you all of two characters to meet from that race? Nonsense is what it is.

 

But I will say that I actually like the idea of the Vale being very far out of the way. It's supposed to have been one of the few remaining refuges of a race that was actively hunted down over the course of centuries. It could only have survived as long as it did by being too difficult for Atmorans to reach, and indeed, to even be within the realm of human knowledge--after all, it's the Forgotten Vale, the one so obscure it took three Elder Scrolls to find it. I'd rather have the Vale be something like Solstheim; out of the way, yes, and maybe not accessible until a certain point in your game, but with enough content that it's actually worth exploring again and again once you find it.

 

 

Anyway, I'd be interested in comparing notes and seeing if we can't help each other develop an expansion we both like. Something definitely needs to be done about this weaksauce worldspace, but it's not something you or I could tackle alone. Right now I'm at the "assessment" stage of my own plans and all I can say is that to get the SERuin kit working, it's going to take a modeller who is also a saint.

 

I wonder how much money i have pay a modeler for him/her to work on the SERuin kit. Because i'm willing to pay to see this mod to see the light of day.