LE Dwarven Tech and possible player home

[Jeffman12]

Let me start by saying I don't assume anything like this will be possible until the creation kit is out. Thought I'd get it out there before I forgot.

 

It bothers me that there is so much unusable loot with relatively low monetary value to be had from Dwarven relics. Why do they give you levers, useless (unbent) scrap metal, dynamo cores, and gyros?

Sure you can melt down solid chunks, bent scrap, plates, and struts, but doesn't it seem like there's something more to all this clutter?

 

I also find that I am now swamped with dwarven metal ingots. I simply have too many, my smithing skill is maxed out, I'm using Dragon Armor now (Best light armor, playing a thief) and I just have no use for all of these. My accumulated wealth makes it unnecessary to sell them all, and besides, it would take ages to sell off the massive stock due to the limited gold vendors carry. It doesn't help that Dwarven ruins are some of my favorite places to investigate.

 

This spurred a thought; It'd be fun to have a place to spend these dwarven ingots and scraps, maybe a player home of sorts. I imagine there'd be a forge-like device that would be able to construct spider bots, upgrading this device with the proper components would allow construction of more advanced dwarven devices, leading up to the mighty centurion, which, of course, requires a support bay to function. Each automaton would require a specific quantity of soul gems of specific capacities, some may need special parts which could be constructed from bars and other necessary materials. I have an abundance of oil as well, which I presume would be a necessary component, but I don't use alchemy very much at all. There may need to be some way to fabricate oil, you could probably do this with certain plants, troll fat, pelts, or raw meats.

 

Building one or two bots is fine, but why would you want to build more than you can personally use? Here are some ideal 'bot functions:

I imagine dwarven spiders, if used for combat, would be produced as a consumable item that spawns a spiderbot near you. If your home is essentially a dwarven ruin, you might want to assign spider bots to run maintenance. This might clean up appearances or even boost efficiency(?) of certain features of the home. As you bring more of the ruin into working order, more and more spiderbots could be assigned to maintenance tasks. These spiderbots wouldn't take up real-game-world space so much, but you might see previously ruptured pipes repaired and an occasional spiderbot going about its business in the halls or merrily hammering away at a pipe or rubble like they seem to love doing so much.

Ore collection is another capability of Spiders, and adding this is more of an attempt at preventing an exploit from arising like killing your own spiders for the rare ore they might be carrying

 

I don't think Dwarven Spheres would be able to fit in inventory, although as a companion taking up the space dogs normally fill, this may be ideal. If you begin expanding control of a ruin, you may encounter hostile wildlife like falmer, chaurus, and spiders, to keep occurrence of breaches to a minimum, assign spheres to a security detail.

 

The Centurion is hardly something you'd want to keep in your party regularly, it's better in situations where you're expecting trouble. The best way to execute the use of a centurion is to summon it using some mystical dwarven device. I think of it like this, a device that requires the equivalent of 3 grand soul gems to be fully charged. It then sends a powerful signal out staggering all nearby, and calling forth the mighty centurion from the depths below to burrow to the surface and aid you in combat. It wouldn't work in interiors, such as forts and caves. I'm not sure how you'd assign a centurion other than security. Perhaps there would be a way to gain favor and/or gold by outsourcing centurions as guards for particular merchants. These would be by far the most costly to produce, requiring not just bars and soul gems, but dynamo cores, intact solid metal chunks, levers, and probably lots of oil.

 

A few more ideas:

Uncover more areas in the buried city, bring in people to live there(as some sort of post-endgame). Put Markarth to shame.

Back the empire, the stormcloaks, or yourself in the conflict for Skyrim.

Carve out a place for yourself as a new Jarl.

[eviltikiman]

I support this idea. I love the dwarven ruins and the idea of uncovering their knowledge. Edited January 13, 2012 by eviltikiman

[Jeffman12]

The idea is there's still some mystery to it as far as the inner-workings, but it doesn't mean you can't figure out how to use the hardware. Besides, I love putting things to practical use.

[wolfe171]

I actually really like this idea. I mean it always kind of offended me that I can be a master enchanter, a master blacksmith, master EVERYTHING, being able to make daedric armor (which is essentially artifact level gear for most of the elder scrolls world), discover new powerful spells for every kind of magic, etc etc, but NOT be able to reverse engineer a few technologies from one of the ten thousand dwemer ruins lying around skyrim. Maybe it'd have to be something that you'd HAVE to have maxed out blacksmithing or something to start. I think that'd be awesome actually, since there's no kind of master-level quest for blacksmithing (or anything besides the magic skills, really) and it'd give a more gratifying feel to maxing out your blacksmithing than just being able to make daedric armor.

[Jeffman12]

That's a great idea, maxed out smithing being a requirement sort of gives you more to look forward to by doing so. I know heavy armor crafters have no incentive to get Dragon Armor other than the fact that they may as well once they're at 100.

 

Here's another idea: Racially discriminate! Are you an Orc looking to make a new stronghold? Maybe you're an Argonian wanting to make a point. Perhaps a young enterprising Khajiit is out to create a bustling Skooma empire? Nobody wants those damn altmer around.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Jeffman12

[mrschnuffels]

I like the idea, I suggested a mod like this a few months back. A modder commented on my page saying he would make something like this once the CK comes out so expect a dwemer mod like this when they finally decide to release the freakin thing.

[Harithwa]

i love this but is it possible? (im no modder so i have no idea what kind of things are possible)

[Jeffman12]

If previous mod SDK's have been any indication, most if not all of it should be possible, it's just a matter of gathering the resources and team to do so. I've seen crazier lists of ideas come to fruition in the Fallouts.

[TolarisOmega]

+10 endorsement.

This combines a lot of the things that were done in Oblivion, so it should be possible.

Kvatch rebuilt, Magetower reborn/revisisted/revised (or whatever it was called, the big Ayleid city under the mountain) etc.

Certainly give me something to do with all my dwarven ingots.

[Jeffman12]

At first I thought it'd be good enough to get payed for them by some random NPC. Since then my coin purse has grown in size to the point where it could probably drown everyone in Whiterun with Septims if cut open, and all without such an NPC present. I thought it'd be more rewarding this way, so I'm hoping someone picks this up.