SSE Affecting the (random?) minor hold demand from Season Unending's negotiations.

[johnboy3434]

As a neutral or Imperial representative, your alternative to demanding Riften for the empire in the first round of negotiations is one of two minor holds: Dawnstar or Winterhold. For Stormcloaks, your alternative to demanding Markarth is one of either Morthal or Falkreath. The other of the two can be demanded in the second round of negotiations, if necessary. However, it's never explained either in-game or on UESP what circumstances cause one or the other to show up first.

 

I did some digging in the Creation Kit, but have hit a wall. The answer lies in the location alias "Alias_SonsMinorHold". Unfortunately, this alias is auto-filled in the script for Season Unending, with no printout of what it's auto-filled with. And further, it's not listed in the list of aliases provided by the Creation Kit's dropdown menu. This alias is not the same as the alias "SonsMinorHold", which is set to the value of Alias_SonsMinorHold.GetLocation() during the quest. My best guess is that Alias_SonsMinorHold contains either some randomizer function to pick between the two holds in question or a more concrete set of criteria, but I have no idea where to look in the Creation Kit to find this, if I even can.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

Edited August 7, 2018 by johnboy3434

[simtam]

Consider two suggestions

 

(A) replicate the topic of General Tullius, so that he ask explicitly, depending on the value stored in SonsMinorHold

 

"Dragonborn, which hold should we demand: Riften or Dawnstar"

or

"Dragonborn, which hold should we demand: Riften or Winterhold"

(B) another suggestion is to duplicate the follow-up option that has "Alias.Cap=SonsMinorHold" and tweak it to "Alias.Cap=SonsMinorHold2", and add a fragment script that swaps the choice of first and second hold.

Feel free to pursue (B). Combined with OCW it explodes in required changes, so I will attempt (A) for the time being (new lines for generals, if voice splicing will allow it, and a new lore book explaining the negotiations in terms of de iure/de facto claims system familiar from Crusaders Kings 2 - the elephant in the room is the first claim to Markarth/Riften, if that city already switched sides...).

There are more quests to Season Unending than MQ302. I don't know their names by heart, but they both start with "MQ302", so you can find them in Creation Kit in the Object Window by selecting "Quests" and entering MQ302 in the search input field. One is to handle filling aliases, the other one is also interesting, developers testing quest form. Perhaps what you need is a user friendly wrapper for the latter?

Edited August 7, 2018 by simtam

[johnboy3434]

Consider two suggestions

 

(A) replicate the topic of General Tullius, so that he ask explicitly, depending on the value stored in SonsMinorHold

 

"Dragonborn, which hold should we demand: Riften or Dawnstar"

or

"Dragonborn, which hold should we demand: Riften or Winterhold"

(B) another suggestion is to duplicate the follow-up option that has "Alias.Cap=SonsMinorHold" and tweak it to "Alias.Cap=SonsMinorHold2", and add a fragment script that swaps the choice of first and second hold.

Feel free to pursue (B). Combined with OCW it explodes in required changes, so I will attempt (A) for the time being (new lines for generals, if voice splicing will allow it, and a new lore book explaining the negotiations in terms of de iure/de facto claims system familiar from Crusaders Kings 2 - the elephant in the room is the first claim to Markarth/Riften, if that city already switched sides...).

There are more quests to Season Unending than MQ302. I don't know their names by heart, but they both start with "MQ302", so you can find them in Creation Kit in the Object Window by selecting "Quests" and entering MQ302 in the search input field. One is to handle filling aliases, the other one is also interesting, developers testing quest form. Perhaps what you need is a user friendly wrapper for the latter?

 

Yeah, it was only in one of those other quests you mentioned that I found out the name of the alias in question. Those two methods you described are great suggestions for getting around the issue, but I guess I just have a one track mind, because I'm about to drive myself nuts looking at the same CK menus over and over: Where the Hell is "Alias_SonsMinorHold" and why can't I edit it, or at least view it, directly?

Edited August 7, 2018 by johnboy3434

[simtam]

it must be in the quest alias tab in creation kit