Varla Stone Quest

[Strongit]

I have an idea for a varla stone quest, but I don't really have any modding experience. I was thinking of a mod that would allow the player to use a self-charging varla stone. This, of course, would be for players like myself who aren't particularly magically inclined and are sick of trying to find soul gems and soul capture scrolls.

 

The stone would be acquirable after a quest into some forgotten ruins and some battles and whatnot, but the stone itself would only be usable maybe once or twice a day so as not to upset the balance of the game. I was thinking of an infinitely usable stone, but that would feel too much like cheating. I don't even use fast travel... :biggrin:

 

The quest would be fairly difficult, of course, as the reward is quite good. It would go something like this:

 

Player loads the mod and gets a window saying he's heard rumors of a magical stone and should ask the mage's guild about it. He could talk to one of the members of the mage's guild to get more information about it and to direct the player to a specific person to talk to. The contact would be someone in the Imperial City as there's no mage's guild there, so there's a bit of travel involved. (I want to give the player the feel that they have to do a bit of work for this). After talking to the person in the city, they will be given a general idea of where the ruins may be, but no specific location would be given on the map, so for example "The ruins are located somewhere in between landmark A and landmark B". It would be a fairly large distance between them, say between Cheydinhal and Bruma. The quest would update when the player gets to the ruins with a message and a marker as to where to go next.

 

Once in the ruins he would run into some dark mages or something like that who he would have to eliminate. The quest could update with the message "It looks like someone has arrived here before me... I will have to eliminate them before I can get the stone." It would be the usual thing going through the ruins and killing the people who are there, but at the end of it there should be a large room with 4-5 powerful mages. The quest would update with "I have found the stone, but some of the mages I encountered are performing some kind of dark ritual. I must stop them." To make it more difficult, the room would be completely lit so the player can't sneak up on the mages and will have to fight them all at once.

 

After killing the mages and picking up the stone (which at this point would look just like a regular varla stone) the quest would say "I have retrieved the stone and eliminated the dark mages, but it looks no different than other varla stones I have found in similar ruins. I should talk to (contact's name) to find out what makes this one different." The player would have to go back to the contact in the Imperial City to identify the stone and activate the magical properties. At this point, since it's such a special item, the contact would offer the player a very large sum of gold for it which he can either accept and sell the stone, or deny and keep it. If the player sells it, he could buy it back later for more than he paid. If keeping it the stone would change into the "Great Varla Stone" and be able to recharge magical items once or twice a day. Either way, the quest would finish.

 

If anyone has any suggestions or comments, or feels like taking on the project, let me know. I'm open to changes, just as long as it won't upset the game balance or make it too easy to get the stone. Like I said, I want the players to feel like they have to work for it.

[tyreil829]

a pretty large scaled mod here mate voice acting might be one + the other bits to it could be fun!

 

Psycho

[Strongit]

After looking into the construction set a bit more, I've realized how ambitious this mod really is! I'm going to do some reading and research, getting into the construction set a bit more and start off by trying to make the item and put it in a container somewhere remote.

[BobSob2020]

If this mod ever gets to be done (or someone starts to work on it), May I offer myself as a voice. I presume I would give it a pretty extraordinary accent, but still clear and understandable.

 

Another thing. I think this game has many, and more "Smash and bash -trough" quests, so may I make a suggestion for alternate quest: What if the group isn't hostile? What if it's just an exploration to find the special stone, adding a bit of thievery in the game. Of course they wouldn't "own" the stone (so that it doesn't appear stolen), but it is a closed camp (they don't like you trespassing, but they still are in the protection of law). So, in order to get this gem, you have to trespass trough the camp (so the entrance to the ruins is in a cave, to have the camp as a closed area).

Now, you'd think that it would be over after you'd passed trough the camp, and in a way you're right, since you wouldn't be meeting a soul in the chambers... unless you consider poisonous gas as a soul... you see, the ruins are so long-lost, that all the undead creatures has already died of boredom. Only the traps, and slowly failing structures of the ruins answer to your presence.

When you finally manage to acquire the stone, and get trough the camp (again... There is no secret trapdoor to spam you outside), you'll have to face the guy who told you about the stone... The guy with a funny accent and a black, worn out robe... and probably some sort of "ebil sword of black blackness"... that will probably need a recharge (I wonder if this could be made of an option for to give him the stone that he actually only uses once, and then gives ti back to you, or should it be just straight slash and dash).

 

Now, to creating this, I presume it would be most easy to use textures from basic caves and Alyed ruins, and characters from the original game, so that all that would be added would be extra dialogue. Btw, I believe that the dialogues should lack the option of the "rumors" (or they should have something more or less static and pre-scripted to talk about), since I believe that nobody could imitate the original characters too well. However I wonder if there should be books (with pictures, perhaps), even tough this would require adding more stuff to the mod.

 

As for the humor, I believe that there should be some included (would the books regarding the ruins actually be in style of children's book, or would there be cross reference in Indiana Jones, maybe... or should the things just have a silly names?).

 

As I know this is hell of a work, I believe that I could help scripting it (especially the dialogues, that would have damn much to write), and I may provide graphics in the form of pictures. Sadly I don't know Jack's already eaten food, that has came trough already, of 3D modeling or level editing. However I am capable of sketching traps and designing stuff like that (and these sketches could be used as book textures also).

 

Who's with me?

[reaper9111]

i love the idea friend...two thumbs up !

[pedantic]

Strongit - while you are musing over this idea of yours - you might recall that 'Garlas Malatar' is an endless source of soul gems, often ready charged too. Of course you need to have KOTN loaded and also a suitable dislike of Auron's (whatever they're called) is needed. I wish you well with this mod, although I'll probably continue to use Azura's Star.

[reaper9111]

the idea is great since some great mod add item that take lots of charge, without compting the one in oblivion, i'm sure ppl will remember when they try to fill-up the blade ofwoe...lol a pain ******** ! so the mod would be more then welcome...(with restriction for sure)