LE Improving the Blades

[Drytor]

When I was thinking of recruiting proffesionals to the Blades I saw it as more of a "There's <insert name of person living in seclusion/been captured by the Thalmor> who is a good at <proffesion>. We should totally recruit them." The example of the woman archer in the mountains is actually a really good idea for this as she's in hiding anyway and when you've done all her "training" she has no use. The quest is already a way for you to prove your worth to her as a recruitment quest so I say let's go there!

 

@Jibstaman, in terms of what you've suggested I'm not sure I like the whole training through an already experienced Blacksmith or some such but I also see the logic behind it so won't say no. I prefer the whole everyone you recruit is against the Thalmor but even saying this gives me an idea. What if there were some recruits who could betray you to the Thalmor? Even those "on the run" could be a Thalmor plant and they were just looking for a way to find where the new Blades were. This could fit in with the whole "bad intel" part.

 

The easiest way to do any of these would probably be to give you a few choices of recruits. With each profession you could do one of the following:

!) Promising young person who needs training. Find them and pay a trainer (for example, any Blacksmith) to train them up (Easy - large personal cost, Some chance they will tell the Thalmor)

2) Already proven to be a Master of the craft, the Blades have found said persons location and you need to go and convince them to help and complete a quest (Medium - possibly small cost. Low chance they will tell the Thalmor)

3) Master who is either on the run and you get to them just as they find them or has already been captured by the Thalmor and is being held. You must free them and complete a recruitment quest for them (Hard - No cost. No chance they will tell Thalmor)

If they tell the Thalmor then they raid SHT and recruit becomes hostile. After you've killed them you have to recruit a new person of that profession leaving you only with two options.

 

Based on my original idea of not expanding without Blacksmith and Quartermaster I think it might be better if the Blacksmith is option 2 but with no chance of going to the Thalmor as they're "a simple Blacksmith" with no Political offiliation or an avid worshipper of Talos. I think adding in some kind of corruption with the Quartermaster would be pretty sweet though. Maybe when you've recruited so much somebody reports that supplies are missing or something and you have to confront the Quartermaster, yada yada yada, exploring quaters or something turns up Thalmor letter, attack on SHT.

 

On worshipping Talos, I think it might be an idea to add in a Priest of Talos to the recruitment list or to replace Loremaster as isn't that essentially what they did at places like Weynon Priory anyway? This could possibly fall into the idea of Dragons joining you (though I'm still a little iffy on the whole thing) and move the priest out of Whiterun (unless it's a new person you recruit)

 

I just went through the route from Karthspire to Sky Haven Temple again and noticed that nothing respawns inside the caves. Following on from my town idea, isntead of trying to expand the Temple why not have some of the additions in these caves? There's no problems with trying to remove respawning enemies, just take out a little of the clutter and add in a forge, shop etc.

[JibstaMan]

I think a profession is just a profession. Those who are driven by anger against the Thalmor can be good, but (I think they) shouldn't be the only option. You do a lot of quests (whether we create them or they already are in Skyrim) for a lot of people and generally, the Thalmor aren't nice and the common folks don't have to support them. They neither have a grudge against the Thalmor, this (joining the blades as a service provider) is merely a way to pay their respects to you and also some sort of business opportunity.

Of course, I like diversity. I think we shouldn't follow a simple template of three options for all recruits. Also, maybe we hate the Thalmor, but they are not the only ones who we might have to fight for a possible recruit.

Every special position within our ranks should have their own candidates and quest options. Including, but not limited to, "There's <insert name of person living in seclusion/been captured by the Thalmor> who is a good at <proffesion>. We should totally recruit them."

 

I like the corrupt Quartermaster idea!

 

I might have a good option for a Priestess of Talos. I met her once in Riften and she was talking about her daughter who joined the Stormcloaks as a healer and got killed. I cannot find her or her name though.

Edited December 2, 2011 by JibstaMan

[Logiwink]

Love all these ideas guys - this weekend I'll go through and put together a condensed set of suggestions along with a flow-chart showing my current conception for how the missions will flow and the rewards you'll get.

 

Specifically on the point of turning Karthspire into a town I really like this idea - I think there might be a way to included it without compromising the secrecy of the Blades. What I was thinking is that perhaps once you neutralize most of the Thalmor's influence and power in the area then settlers could come and set up shop. Alternately, once you first access SHT and you clear out Karthspire of all the dirty forsworn, a settler or two could show up and set up tents and whatnot. As you complete quests for the Blades of any sort the town could evolve naturally. Not as a place founded or controlled by the Blades but something organic that grows up in the void left from the death of the Forsworn. Of course, if people are heading straight to SHT they might miss the town completely - but I'm loath to force fast travel to SHT to spawn in Karthspire. Anyhow, I love the idea and I'm going to put it in if I can, but it might be a later addition.

 

Right now I've conceptualized the mod to get released in stages:

1) Final version of SHT upgraded with facilities

2) Recruitment quests and SHT upgrades tied to recruitment

3) Thalmor, Dragon Kill, and Order of Talos Quests

4) Dragon Ally quests/support

5) Karthspire evolving village

[heyiforgot]

Hey hows everyone doing! First post here.

Anyway I like a lot of the ideas in this thread, the blades faction has a lot of potential. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. I don't see why people are so set against the blades interacting with the empire as opposed to the stormcloaks. Granted they are somewhat under the thalmor's thumb but they are hardly lap dogs. It would be great to have a quest where the blades have to gather support from the legates and jarls or help them plan attacks of their own against the thalmor. Possibly you could take that thalmor dossier about ulfrick around and show people to convince them of thalmor meddling or to expose Ulfric's treachery and disrupt the rebellion. Now back to playing before I accidentally read anymore spoilers!

[Razgriz1Blaze]

Hey, I got a redirect to here on a mod idea. I wanted to build a castle for the player and tie it into the game a bit but not so much that it sticks out.

 

My post is here: http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/483635-player-castle-battles/#entry3958601

 

I was wondering if we couldn't do something like a second fortress addon with battles and such just to make things more interesting. I've always been disappointed by the lack of decent sized battles in the ES series and really want to make a got battle area with castle defense as part of it. This is just brainstorming at the moment as no con set is out to make the changes, but I would like to have a good base idea to launch off from when the con set comes out.

[Logiwink]

As promised - flowchart

 

 

 

As mentioned I'd like to include Karthspire evolving as a town but that's pretty much a mod of it's own! This mod is ballooning really quickly....

[Zero713]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUs0VCqc4ZE&feature=g-u Interestingly useable in the future for laziness on the dragons. lol

[JibstaMan]

As mentioned I'd like to include Karthspire evolving as a town but that's pretty much a mod of it's own! This mod is ballooning really quickly....

 

Prioritizing is important. I took the liberty of creating a document of myself, with how I would envision it. It currently (only) contains the recruitment jobs and some quest idea's for recruitment of a smith.

I created it at Google Documents. Feel free to criticize or ask explanation.

 

I would also like to advice to update the first post with what the general idea is and warn readers for spoilers in this thread. ;)

 

My feedback on the flowcharts:

The Spy/Assassin sounds like a normal Alchemist that is not only the good side (potions) of the art.

The Mage; I would suggest naming it "The Wizard".

[NotCras]

 

I just went through the route from Karthspire to Sky Haven Temple again and noticed that nothing respawns inside the caves. Following on from my town idea, isntead of trying to expand the Temple why not have some of the additions in these caves? There's no problems with trying to remove respawning enemies, just take out a little of the clutter and add in a forge, shop etc.

 

That would be awesome, im sure we can also find some way to use the Forsworn camp nearby as well!

 

Maybe each Blade will get a "cell" similar to how monks are. And caves could serve as the locations for cells... just a thought

[Drytor]

@ JibstaMan: Nura Snow-Shod, Riften priestess of Talos. She's round the back of some buildings.