A player-owned fort!

[kromey]

I'm getting really excited about the CK coming out "soon". Already planning a few small mods that, while I'm sure they're more than doable with the existing third-party tools, should prove to be great starting points for learning to use the CK.

 

My big project that I want to do is a player-owned fort. The basic gist is that the player clears out a fort of the existing baddies, maybe finds a unique loot which triggers a mini-quest to bring it to an NPC in the capital city of the hold the fort is in (maybe even the jarl him/herself). Once this mini-quest is completed, the player has the option to purchase the fort, just like any of the player homes (but, of course, considerably more expensive).

 

Once the fort is purchased, it functions just like a player home -- safe storage, player-owned bed(s), etc. Additionally, a new NPC will spawn in the fort, allowing the player to purchase upgrades and repairs; as the fort is upgraded, more NPCs move in, and a small town begins to pop up around the fort, eventually culminating in the player having the option to buy a wall to surround and protect his/her new town.

 

Now, here's where I want some input: Which fort should this be? I'm eyeing Fort Amol, but the tendency of the Stormcloaks to move in once the mages are cleared out makes me a little wary. UESP doesn't list any quests related to Fort Amol, which makes it ideal in that respect, but nonetheless the Stormcloak presence is troublesome here -- it would be awkward to ask an Imperial-aligned player to "go home" to a Stormcloak fort, but on the other hand it would also be awkward asking an unaligned or (worse) a Stormcloak-aligned player to clear out the Stormcloaks! I could probably make the Stormcloaks just "go away", or rather never move in in the first place, with the CK, though, so I doubt this is a game-changer for my plans.

 

Nonetheless, I'll readily admit that I have not visited every fort in Skyrim, so there may be better forts for my mod out there. So, I'm asking if anyone has any suggestions for a good fort for me to use. The requirements are:

1. Must not be Imperial or Stormcloak
   
2. Must not be relevant to the civil war or the main storyline
   
3. Must have an open area around it where a town could be built
   
4. [Optional but highly preferred] Should be near/on hold borders (leaves the possibility open that this could become the capital of a new hold)
   
5. [Optional] Should not be associated with any quest
   
6. [Optional] Should be ruined (or at least heavily damaged), requiring the player to repair as well as upgrade
   

 

I'm also taking input for any features people would like to see in a mod of this nature, such as upgrades they'd like to see, or features of the mod itself they'd want to have. For example, I do plan on having purchasable workshops for the professions (smithing, alchemy, enchanting), a guard barracks (which would add guard NPCs patrolling the area), and I'd like to script some events such as a bandit raid.

[Sunnie]

All of the in-tact and mostly in-tact forts are all taken over by either the Stormcloaks or the Imperials when you get through the civil war series. I would suggest building a new fort somewhere to do what you want without breaking a lot of the civil war stuff.

[kromey]

I would suggest building a new fort somewhere to do what you want without breaking a lot of the civil war stuff.

 

I may very well end up doing that, in fact. But if there's a good ruined or semi-ruined (don't want one that's intact) fort out there that I could use instead, it would make this poor would-be modder's life a whole lot easier (and greatly increase the chances of me actually making the mod in the first place!).

[scrivener07]

Find a fort you like and copy (steal :devil:) it when the CK comes out and put it exactly where you want it.

[Ashfyr]

I'm getting really excited about the CK coming out "soon". Already planning a few small mods that, while I'm sure they're more than doable with the existing third-party tools, should prove to be great starting points for learning to use the CK.

 

My big project that I want to do is a player-owned fort. The basic gist is that the player clears out a fort of the existing baddies, maybe finds a unique loot which triggers a mini-quest to bring it to an NPC in the capital city of the hold the fort is in (maybe even the jarl him/herself). Once this mini-quest is completed, the player has the option to purchase the fort, just like any of the player homes (but, of course, considerably more expensive).

 

Once the fort is purchased, it functions just like a player home -- safe storage, player-owned bed(s), etc. Additionally, a new NPC will spawn in the fort, allowing the player to purchase upgrades and repairs; as the fort is upgraded, more NPCs move in, and a small town begins to pop up around the fort, eventually culminating in the player having the option to buy a wall to surround and protect his/her new town.

 

Now, here's where I want some input: Which fort should this be? I'm eyeing Fort Amol, but the tendency of the Stormcloaks to move in once the mages are cleared out makes me a little wary. UESP doesn't list any quests related to Fort Amol, which makes it ideal in that respect, but nonetheless the Stormcloak presence is troublesome here -- it would be awkward to ask an Imperial-aligned player to "go home" to a Stormcloak fort, but on the other hand it would also be awkward asking an unaligned or (worse) a Stormcloak-aligned player to clear out the Stormcloaks! I could probably make the Stormcloaks just "go away", or rather never move in in the first place, with the CK, though, so I doubt this is a game-changer for my plans.

 

Nonetheless, I'll readily admit that I have not visited every fort in Skyrim, so there may be better forts for my mod out there. So, I'm asking if anyone has any suggestions for a good fort for me to use. The requirements are:

1. Must not be Imperial or Stormcloak
   
2. Must not be relevant to the civil war or the main storyline
   
3. Must have an open area around it where a town could be built
   
4. [Optional but highly preferred] Should be near/on hold borders (leaves the possibility open that this could become the capital of a new hold)
   
5. [Optional] Should not be associated with any quest
   
6. [Optional] Should be ruined (or at least heavily damaged), requiring the player to repair as well as upgrade
   

 

I'm also taking input for any features people would like to see in a mod of this nature, such as upgrades they'd like to see, or features of the mod itself they'd want to have. For example, I do plan on having purchasable workshops for the professions (smithing, alchemy, enchanting), a guard barracks (which would add guard NPCs patrolling the area), and I'd like to script some events such as a bandit raid.

 

What about Bloodlet Throne? Even close to the bottom of the map in case someone wants to rebuild another province

[kromey]

What about Bloodlet Throne? Even close to the bottom of the map in case someone wants to rebuild another province

 

Hm, I'll have to check it out in-game. I'd originally looked at it on UESP and dismissed based on the screenshot, but now I realize that's an interior shot, so I'll have to head over there and see what the place really looks like.

 

It also appears that the quests associated with it (at least as listed on UESP) wouldn't be at all disrupted, since my plan is to require clearing the area before it can be bought anyway. So that's definitely a mark in its favor.

 

Find a fort you like and copy (steal :devil:) it when the CK comes out and put it exactly where you want it.

 

Not a bad idea at all. In fact, I could copy/steal parts of different forts to make one that's exactly what I want, instead of settling for something "good enough" (e.g. putting my crappy skills to work building one from scratch!).

[KarthGalin]

My 2c: Greenwall. I don't know what quest occurs there (if any) or if it could be tied in just yet, but the very first thing I thought about Greenwall was that it would be an awesome fort to rebuild. I can't for the life of me remember why I thought it would be better than the other ruined forts I've seen, but maybe you could check it out and see. Might not meet your optional criteria, though. :/ It is also a bit too close to Shor's Stone and Riften to be ideal.

 

Edit: there's also that bandit camp, mm... Robber's Gorge! It is in a bit of a wilderness area with everything a decent distance away. A sort of build-your-own fort; you could start out with a wooden structure and improve it to stone after you've built up a town/population a bit to support the workers... or whatever; I suppose it isn't realistic for a stone-walled fort to be built within a year or a handful either way. You might have to re-landscape the hill behind it to make room for a town. :/

 

Skyrim is in general pretty packed in my opinion. Hard to find good real estate with some elbowroom. I've daydreamed about a mod that would just sorta... scaled Skyrim up. Stretch the map to about twice the size in all directions while leaving (most) things the same size.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Karth Galin

[amblingalong]

Faldar's Tooth is my favorite, just for the awesome design, crumbling aesthetic, and verticality.

[kromey]

My 2c: Greenwall. I don't know what quest occurs there (if any) or if it could be tied in just yet, but the very first thing I thought about Greenwall was that it would be an awesome fort to rebuild. I can't for the life of me remember why I thought it would be better than the other ruined forts I've seen, but maybe you could check it out and see. Might not meet your optional criteria, though. :/ It is also a bit too close to Shor's Stone and Riften to be ideal.

 

Ooh, I can see why you like Fort Greenwall, at least from the screenshot on UESP.net -- very nice indeed! Unfortunately, Greenwall is part of the civil war (a Stormcloak fort that the Imperials take), so not a good candidate. Well, I guess I could require the player to finish the civil war one way or the other first, but I'd rather not do that.

 

But it's easily steal-able, and indeed looks great! I especially like the road going right through the middle of the fort!

 

Edit: there's also that bandit camp, mm... Robber's Gorge! It is in a bit of a wilderness area with everything a decent distance away. A sort of build-your-own fort; you could start out with a wooden structure and improve it to stone after you've built up a town/population a bit to support the workers... or whatever; I suppose it isn't realistic for a stone-walled fort to be built within a year or a handful either way. You might have to re-landscape the hill behind it to make room for a town. :/

 

Skyrim is in general pretty packed in my opinion. Hard to find good real estate with some elbowroom. I've daydreamed about a mod that would just sorta... scaled Skyrim up. Stretch the map to about twice the size in all directions while leaving (most) things the same size.

 

Ooh! This looks like it could be an awesome place, and the wooden palisades make for an awesome upgrade when you buy the stone walls later on! Especially if you have to buy the walls piecemeal, i.e. buy the north wall, then the west wall, etc., instead of all at once. Could be awkward to work out a reason for buying a bandit camp, though, whereas buying a fort from the local jarl makes sense. Maybe the spot is of some kind of strategic importance, and the jarl wants you to fortify and guard it? Hm...

 

The map definitely does feel packed to me, too. Can't hardly walk 2 minutes in any direction without bumping into some significant thing or another. Still, there are a few areas that could be occupied by new constructions, although that means that mods like mine that add such new constructions are rather likely to conflict with each other...

 

Faldar's Tooth is my favorite, just for the awesome design, crumbling aesthetic, and verticality.

 

Wow, Faldar's Tooth is perfect in nearly every way -- great design, definitely in need of repairs, and right on a road! Seems to also have plenty of usable land around it even. I'll have to check it out in-game, though -- if the interiors feel too vast, I may have to skip it, or steal it and us it elsewhere.

 

I did check out Bloodlet Throne. The area is almost ideal, a naturally defensible mountain valley with still plenty of room for a town to grow up, and I love the exterior. The location could make it insignificant, though, although there is a road on down toward Cyrodiil, making it potentially a good trading post between the two provinces (or nations if the Stormcloaks win independence for Skyrim...). The interiors are bothersome, though -- too big, way too much going on inside there for it to ever really feel like a home I think. On the other hand, plenty of opportunity to spruce things up with upgrades...

 

So far I'm liking Fort Amol, Faldar's Tooth, and Bloodlet Throne, and Fort Greenwall would make an awesome one to copy/paste somewhere. Robber's Gorge is a great location if I want to go with the build-your-own fort approach, which the more I think about it the more I do like that, and it makes buying the area initially unnecessary -- could be instead a gift from the jarl, in exchange for the player agreeing to fortify the area for some strategic purpose or other. In fact, if TES Wiki has its location description right, Robber's Gorge lies right on a main road -- making it ideal to fortify to protect trade, and even to become a trading post in its own right!

 

I'm definitely going to have to check our Robber's Gorge in-game, the more I think about it and look at screenshots online, the more and more I like it!

[KarthGalin]

I don't think you should disqualify anything for having a badly built interior space. Most interiors seem to be designed as neat dungeon locations instead of as someone's old living space. I suspect you'd end up wanting to rearrange any stock fortification's interior to make it more liveable.

 

 

So far I'm liking Fort Amol, Faldar's Tooth, and Bloodlet Throne, and Fort Greenwall would make an awesome one to copy/paste somewhere. Robber's Gorge is a great location if I want to go with the build-your-own fort approach, which the more I think about it the more I do like that, and it makes buying the area initially unnecessary -- could be instead a gift from the jarl, in exchange for the player agreeing to fortify the area for some strategic purpose or other. In fact, if TES Wiki has its location description right, Robber's Gorge lies right on a main road -- making it ideal to fortify to protect trade, and even to become a trading post in its own right!

 

I'm definitely going to have to check our Robber's Gorge in-game, the more I think about it and look at screenshots online, the more and more I like it!

 

Robber's Gorge does indeed lie right on a highway; the bandits have actually fortified escarpments on both sides of the road and rain boulders on any travelers that are so unwise as to pass through. There's also a cave with an underwater exit beneath the camp. The Jarl could task the Dragonborn with removing the bandits from the camp to preserve the Emperor's Peace since the Legion is too busy fighting to keep down banditry.

 

Hmm... would you necessarily need a whole exterior town? Make an inn for travelers, a small trading post for the same, and the fort's blacksmith + maybe an alchemist in service to the Dragonborn. Hmm... I'll keep thinking about it. :o)