SSE Putting Together Team For Companion Mod

[ExoArchivist]

Meet the Character

Like the bard Talsgar the Wanderer, Master Brand so too is a wanderer. He is the sixth Greybeard (counting Paarthurnax), though the others do not speak of him. In fact, to their minds he has been stripped of the title of Master, though he insists on using it. Still a strange bond of brotherhood exists and they cannot abandon him entirely, nor can he abandon them, so a compromise was made.

He would go out into the world as the herald of the Greybeards, securing both supplies and information for them. Thus he became known as the Zul do Lein, the Voice of the World.

But he also has an ulterior motive, and its source is also the source of the falling out between him and the other Greybeards.

For much of his life he followed the Way of the Voice and the teachings of Kyne, but over time came more to revere Talos as the ultimate example of the inherent power within Man, a power he believes can be best unlocked via Shouts.

This was tolerated for a short time, but then when his appointed pupil and ward, Ulfric Stormcloak, broke with the Greybeards and went to war, all the blame was placed on Brand and he was cast out, though he strongly disagreed with Ulfric.

He now preaches and altered Way of the Voice centered on Talos and Talos Worship, obviously making him an enemy of the Empire and especially the Thalmor. Still, he has always managed to evade capture and numerous assassination attempts.

Surprisingly, he quite vocally condemns Ulfric, his actions, and his followers, but also has quite a thing or two to say about the Empire and especially the Thalmor.

To say he has a bit more personality than the other Greybeards would be an understatement. He’s simply bursting with personality. He’s clever, mischievous, wily, witty, and can even be crude and brash at times, but above all he’s world-wise.

Game Integration

Master Brand wanders much in the same was Talsgar does, and can be encountered both on the road and both preaching and collecting alms for the Greybeards in various villages from the start of the game. The player can ask him about his philosophy, but that’s it.

It’s only after the player is recognized as the Dragonborn and tasked with retrieving the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller that Brand becomes an available follower. In fact, upon leaving High Hrothgar, even if fast traveling to some other location, the player will be immediately approached by Brand (and likely some certain cultists as well).

Master Brand will strongly offer his assistance, implying it could prove invaluable and that he is there at behest of the Greybeards. Assuming the player accepts, Brand becomes a follower running off his own custom framework, thus not taking up companion slots and allowing for greater flexibility.

Brand wears a modified version of the standard Greybeard robes which are more ragged, patched in places, and slightly up-armored into light armor. This is his default outfit. He wields a Nordic (not Ancient Nordic/Draugr) dagger in one hand and a spell in the other. Brand is skilled in Stealth, One-Handed, Light Armor, Alteration, and Restoration, with a selection of appropriate spells. In addition, he will not set off traps.

Finally, in addition to all this he is capable of using somewhere along the lines of 2-6 Shouts (either one or two word only, using pre-existing shouts but revoiced for Brand).

Master Brand levels to 0.8 Player Level.

Possible other features include a way to find him on the map, summon him, horse riding functionality, and the ability to set his “home”.

Features

Unlike most other follower mods, Master Brand will have no straightforward main quest involved. This, instead, will be replaced by two other features.

The first feature is certain events in the game, usually major choices made by the player, the start or completion of certain quests, or similar things will trigger small to medium sized “side quests” given by Brand. There will be about five of these in total.

Second, Brand will have a custom disposition system that will work similarly to that of the main companions in Fallout 4. Certain actions, usually choices made in dialogue with him, but certain other major choices in the game will affect his disposition.

The repercussions of it getting too low are still undecided but if the player manages to reach its maximum, they’ll get some kind of Shout-related permanent bonus.

Also as certain disposition thresholds are met, new conversations with Brand will become available.

Goals & Expectations

Master Brand is not meant to be the new Inigo or what have you. He’ll have dialogue, commentary, etc. but I do not see him having thousands of lines of dialogue. He will, however, be unique. He’ll be bridging the gap between the more fleshed out default vanilla game followers (Mjoll comes to mind) and the major companion mod followers (Inigo, Lucien, etc.)

This will be, by far, the biggest mod I’ve ever done, even with help, and I frankly don’t know what to expect, so I’m willing to be rather flexible with just how much there is to Brand.

What Makes Master Brand Unique

I’m certain everyone believes their mod is totally unique and special, and I’m sure I’m biased, but in all my experience there’s a few things Brand would have that I’ve not seen before, or have seen very little of.

- Non-linear “personal quest”.

- Actual opinions, good or bad, on a variety of things including player choices and actions.

- Permanent consequences (good or bad) for what you say and do.

What I Can Do, What You Can Do

While I’m no novice to modding, I’m by no means an old hand, let alone a master when it comes to a variety of things such as scripting, creating dialogue trees, etc. In fact, I’m woefully in over my head, but I’m passionate enough about the idea, driven enough, and probably just plain hardheaded enough I’m determined to see it through.

Realistically I figure I can just about create the basis for the custom framework needed as well as basic dialogue, probably the basics of some of the “side quests”, and a number of other bits and bobs.

I’d have to experiment with my own voice a bit, but I might also be able to voice Brand, though I’d prefer not to.

So I’m reaching out here. I’ll take any help I can get, but I’m really looking for full-time partners. I’m hoping to find people who can do what I can’t who are willing to work on equal footing with me from start to finish on this, providing whatever help and expertise they can.

 

[cumbrianlad]

I read this post from start to finish, despite its length... why?

 

I was intrigued, simply put.

 

The only thing I didn't care for, but maybe you can point me to where this is cited in the game, is when you state that Ulfric was linked to the Greybeards.

 

To my mind, this doesn't make sense. The greybeards have been at High Hrothgar for ages. I cannot for the life of me believe, based on how Arngeir speaks to the player, that they would ever have any relationship with Ulfric. Given how Ulfric abused the voice to kill the high King, that would also be against 'the way of the voice'. Maybe you can clarify that.

 

Other than that, your project sounds extremely appealing. Whether I can help or not is up for debate. I do scripting when somebody holds a flaming iron to my backside... hard...for a very long time. So script writing is out.

 

Wish you well with this project... it sounds great. I'd love it to go ahead if for no other reason that I still love playing Skyrim and constantly look for mods like this to download.

 

Edit: I'd originally posted that I might consider voice acting but in all honesty I wasn't too confident about it. Today we've got wind howling around again. living on a hill near the west coast of Cumbria in northern England this is often a problem for voice recording. I've been waiting for almost two weeks now to do the dialogue for my own mod. I'd be worried about time constraints doing voice acting for someone else.

[ExoArchivist]

Hey thanks for your support! That by itself just means the world to me.

 

Also the bit about Ulfric being tied to the Greybeards can be found in in-game dialogue primarily. You can read more about it here.

[cumbrianlad]

Edit: time-waster, see last post.

 

First things first...

 

...thank you for the reference to Ulfric. I've played the game for thousands of hours but never knew he'd been given training from the Greybeards... bet they regretted that move!

 

Hmmm... I'm really wanting to offer some sort of help because I really like your idea but don't know what I oould offer. Even my daughter (who doesn't like PC games) says my interiors are stunning. I can create all manner of things that haven't been seen in the vanilla game... that could be useful? You mentioned side quests, So if you have an idea that you think may not work, I could have an idea to make it work, if not, I'll either tell you straight off that it's out of my league, or ask for time if I think I can find an answer... I'm an engineer, so I'm used to being given a specification (ignoring it, when the idiot that gave it to me didn't know what the hell they were talking about, not that I'm saying you're an idiot of course, just that some of my 'bosses' couldn't organize a p***-up in a brewery) and giving them what they want.

 

In all honesty, I want to help. I'm just not sure if I've got something you need.

 

let me know.

 

P.S. I can show you high res images of my most stunning cells, but I'd really like to keep these private at the mo, I'd be willing to give you in-game screenshots by PM or private e-mail. I don't want anyone else to see these before my mod is out.

[cumbrianlad]

Bumping this,

 

please forgive me.

 

I have put 30 to 40 hours work into this and have tried to contact you with no response for over a week.

 

Consider my contribution at an end.