[WIP] Dovahheim -- A Player-Owned Town!

[elricshan]

an arena! the town needs an arena that wil draw the strongest combatans to fight to death agains eachother, beast, undead, monsters and the dragonborn but only the strongest gets to fight the dovah lord

[arcana75]

--Zoo

Hahah think this would be nice to do and could be a simple spawn device based on soul gem and a dialogue menu. There aren't that many creatures in Skyrim anyway.

 

--Arena

Nice mod idea, but personally I don't think it gels with the "lore" of the player-run town.

[kromey]

Zoo:

Not a bad idea, but I'm having trouble making it fit with the "feel" of the town. I'll keep it in mind, though, maybe something will come up that will make it a good fit.

 

Arena:

A friend of mine on another forum actually just suggested this. His suggestion was more of a "Fight Club"-style arena predominantly run by the "lesser" races in Skyrim -- argonians, khajiit, orcs, basically the guys who get bad rap in Skyrim society -- but it's the same general principle. Would be a nice fit to put it into Robber's Cove, that little cave underneath the camp that I really don't know what else to do with.

[kromey]

Tossing in my own brainstorm to get some feedback/comments on it:

 

A Forsworn story line!

 

Robber's Gorge/Dovahheim is located near to the Reach. In fact, it's pretty near the point where Whiterun and Hjaalmarch Holds both meet the Reach. The mountain range that the road follows is just riddled with Forsworn-occupied camps and caves, making it a plausible target for Forsworn raids even though it is outside of the Reach.

 

So this got me thinking, maybe at some point a Forsworn group begins raiding caravans on the road. The Dovahkiin naturally strikes out to deal with it, in the typical "kill the leader at such-and-such camp"-style quest. In a twist, however, the Dovahkiin arrives to find only a small handful of Forsworn still in the camp, with the main body having already moved elsewhere. Where? No clues are found, but when the Dovahkiin next returns to Dovahheim several dead Forsworn lie around the walls, and a guard reports that they just repelled a Forsworn assault.

 

They did take a prisoner, though, and talking to said prisoner results in the Dovahkiin learning that building up Dovahheim was perceived as a threat, a portent to a major campaign against the Forsworn. The Dovahkiin then has some options: kill or continue to imprison the captured Forsworn; assure said prisoner that no such campaign is being planned, and release him as a show of good faith; ditto, but with the added option of agreeing to aid the Forsworn in retaking the Reach!

 

From here a whole new, massive quest line could begin (if the player chooses one of the latter two options). This could probably be an entire mod in and of itself, really, being a slightly smaller version of the Civil War, where the player fights alongside the Forsworn in the liberation of the Reach, at which point Dovahheim itself becomes a sort of border outpost. Or I could keep it a tad smaller in scope, fight a couple of small-scale skirmishes over smaller objectives (e.g. Karthwasten), before going after Markarth itself...

 

Or, just keep things simple: If the player releases the Forsworn prisoner, the Forsworn no longer attack travelers or Dovahheim; otherwise, Forsworn raids continue, or perhaps even increase if the player executes the prisoner. At most, maybe agreeing to support the Forsworn makes a nearby camp friendly, and a few Forsworn occasionally show up in town to trade (or a Forsworn agent takes up residence in town, to keep things on the down-low).

 

 

Sorry for the pretty raw braindump, but I wanted to put this here so that I could get others' thoughts. I know some people are working on Forsworn mods, so maybe I should just stick to at most offering support but never actually getting directly involved.

Edited February 22, 2012 by kromey

[NanoCrudele]

an arena would make your town quite unique

just remember to make it in an internal cell

 

you should try to make something unique in your city, like your own version of the skyforge with something that can be crafted only in your city

there are a lot of place in skyrim but only a few are really necessary in the long run

 

falkreath, morthal, dawnstar are an example, good places but i've never really spent much time there, nothing really interesting to do or that keeps you from going to some other town

windhelm is too complex, like markal, easy is better

solitude is easier but too big

whiterun is a place i go everytime, be it a lot of merchants, central place in the map, a full blacksmith equip really comfortable to use, easy to use as a base town

 

if you really intend on making your city a good one pay attentions to these little details, place merchants not too far from each other, a couple of outdoor is even better

something late game that bothers a lot of players is too much stuff to sell and little merchant gold, if you place more merch side by side, the city is gonna be at lest my inventory dump choice :)

[kromey]

an arena would make your town quite unique

just remember to make it in an internal cell

Aye, I'm thinking it'd probably be a good use for the Robber's Cove...

 

you should try to make something unique in your city, like your own version of the skyforge with something that can be crafted only in your city

there are a lot of place in skyrim but only a few are really necessary in the long run

Already in the works, a reward for a quest line that will yield weapons and armor (light and heavy) with unique properties. Details are still TBD though, but they will require a new ore found only in the mines underneath Dovahheim, and only specially-modified smelters (and/or forges) will be able to work it (i.e. can only be made at Dovahheim).

 

falkreath, morthal, dawnstar are an example, good places but i've never really spent much time there, nothing really interesting to do or that keeps you from going to some other town

windhelm is too complex, like markal, easy is better

solitude is easier but too big

whiterun is a place i go everytime, be it a lot of merchants, central place in the map, a full blacksmith equip really comfortable to use, easy to use as a base town

I'm totally with you on everything you've just said. I'm beginning to go to Solitude more and more often, but really Whiterun remains my primary go-to place, for all of my characters.

 

if you really intend on making your city a good one pay attentions to these little details, place merchants not too far from each other, a couple of outdoor is even better

something late game that bothers a lot of players is too much stuff to sell and little merchant gold, if you place more merch side by side, the city is gonna be at lest my inventory dump choice :)

One thing I do plan on doing is having a central marketplace where all of the merchants will be (with perhaps one or two exceptions), and they'll all have outdoor stalls where they sell their wares. It will also be unique in that it will (optionally) be the only city in Skyrim where the khajiit caravans are allowed inside the city walls! I also intend to have the merchants grow in wealth as the town does, making dumping large quantities of junk from your latest dungeon raid that much easier!

[arcana75]

Some more ideas.

 

Since you're the lord, would be nice to make the town respond to your exploits. Eg being a thane of a town gets the town shield mounted on the backwall of your throne room, and similarly if you gain status in the various guilds and colleges, some symbol or trophy appears in your throne room.

 

Possible to have custom town shield?

 

Running with the Fight Club idea, interesting to back a fighter and play a mini-RPG with that fighter, giving money for his training and tweaking his training, eg add stamina or hp, strength or speed. Could probably do the same with the Zoo idea, but it's now more Pokemon/Bakugan/<insert animal brawler game/anime>.

 

Create trade caravans. You could escort them yourself or invest in escorts. But the trade items could be the loot you find in Skyrim, or forge in Dovahheim. Could be those custom Dovahheim weapons or just a consignment of 30 Steel Swords Whiterun ordered.

 

Participate in the civil war. Sets up a skirmish outside a location or town's walls and just have 20 or so soldiers go at it. No real impact on the story. Eg Solitude requests 20 men-at-arms to help in skirmish outside Whiterun, or some random watchtower or fort. 20 men actually make a run for the location and go swords swinging at the enemy waiting at the location.

[jet4571]

I have a house/town mod on a hill practically right next to that location. So you know where it is at and avoid conflicts link is below. Hate to have people bitching because you added a guard tower where my houses are or someone bitching to you because of that. I wont be expanding any further north into the valley so I will not conflict with yours. Actually there will be no expansions in the area so it would be safe to put something right next to the woman's servant quarters if you wanted to.

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9512

[Axisdeath]

If it's impossible to let the player choose the town symbol, perhaps you should run on a poll on these forums to decide based off some good choices...

[Kezza921]

Hey I like the idea for this mod it has great promise and I would like to help. I have a few ideas:

 

1) I liked the idea of the new guild hall (for theives) and a new college (for mages). Once the town reaches a curtain size the hilltop gets turned into a larger structure that makes up the player picked guild, college or whatever the player wants. Also you can put a library with the college and a skyforge with the fighters choice of building.

 

2) With the guards why not make them have no affiliation to any of the Jarls. It would make them easier to upgrade and easier to put a story to them in my opinion.

 

3) Why not add an archaeological sub line to it get the player to delve into dwemer ruins.

 

4) Have a building that can relate to the civil war the is raging.

 

(Things got a little crazy from this point onwards in the term of general ideas. If you want to ingore them do and skip down to the buildings)

5) Since you are a lord why not have the possibility to participate in the election of the new high king or queen

 

6) You can also have it so that your land can expand add a few small villages in when you main town becomes a city

 

 

 

 

Possible Buildings:

a) A market place

b) Inn/Tavern (have an underground part for the fight club idea I saw)

c) Black smith

d) Chapel (to a god of the choice of the player)

e) Stable

f) Museum or Trophy hall

g) The citadel as mentioned above

 

Finally if you need help in doing Voice overs I can help I have knowledge and a little experience in Voice overs and I get get equipment required easily.