IDEAS NEEDED! - Collage of Winterhold Overhaul

[Iconic985]

​College of Winterhold Overhaul

(Mage's Questline)

 

As you can probably tell from the title, this is about an overhaul mod i'm working on for the College of Winterhold. To me the College questline seemed incredibly short and unsatisfactory. The aim of this mod is to add a more oblivion-like feel to the questline. For those who have played oblivion will know that in order to gain access to the "arcane university" you had to complete a series of "recommendation" quests from the guilds in the minor city's in order to prove yourself worthy to be accepted into the university. However I'm a little stumped for ideas on how to incorporate these "recommendation quests" into the game, and that's where you guys come in.

 

What I've done so far:

• Added more students to the university
• Added an alchemy Laboratory
• Added a training area with NPC trainers
• Added more items
• Refurnished some areas
• Added more followers

What I Need help/ideas for:

• Ways to incorporate the "recommendation" quests. Originally I was going to link them to the court wizards of Skyrim then had the Idea of putting "mages guild" like places into all the cities. leave you're ideas in the reply section!
• Side quest ideas
• Voice actors
• possibly help with scripting

Feel free to tell me any ideas or suggestions you guys might have! :biggrin:

Edited April 20, 2013 by Iconic985

[Littature]

Love this idea, a better and extended College of Winterhold questline would be awesome, hope you can make this mod reality.

 

I am here however to provide you with some help. Voice Acting!

 

I'll give you some samples of my work. I can do a variety of different voices, I'll link you to my voice samples here: https://soundcloud.com/tobi-nathanael-omole/sets/high-quality-voice-acting (broken, fixing now, wait for update) You're sure to find something you're looking for and I can even take suggestions on how you want the character to sound (different accents for example)

 

If you're interested PM me. I'd love to help ya out.

 

Also: there is this thread: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/951656-the-voice-actors-of-skyrim-nexus/ Where you can find more awesome voice actors!

Edited April 17, 2013 by Littature

[chacotaco91]

Wonderful idea!

 

The largest problem with the mages guild questline is that.....you don't really need to be a mage to do it. Once you get past the door, and the scripted ward spell class, I don't really remember anything pertaining to magic for completing the quest.

 

So, I'd recommend:

 

-Magic based puzzles.

-Enemy encounters where magic is required to win.

 

How about this: the Island of initiation. This way, you can start from scratch on your quest, and not have the complicated process of trying to interject within the Winterhold storyline itself. (unless that's what your ultimate goal is)

 

between Muribel and when you cast the spell to cross the bridge, you could run into some guy who states:

 

Some Mage blocking the front door: "Are you ready to depart, initiate?"

 

Player: "What?"

 

SMBTFD: "To Initiates Island, of course. What, you thought casting a simple spell allows you to join the ranks of our esteemed college?"

 

Player: "Well.....I just thought....."

 

SMBTFD: "No matter, I'll be departing soon with the rest of the potential students. You can find us in the docks below the college if you think you possess the magical fortitude."

 

The Island can have a storyline that has more to it than just a big place for testing. Also, lots of drama between you and your fellow initiates (competing for a limited number of slots at the College)

[Dhegonus]

if i can find my mic, i can do abit of voice acting for you

 

i'm english, have a "counties accent" as in, i live not far from windsor castle, wouldn't say i am posh, but i enunciate and i speak at university level :)

[Bhanqwa]

I was thinking that recommendation quests could include PR-driven tasks, as the college has a poor public image, perhaps being sent on assignment to cure someones ailments, resolving disputes with non-hostile magics, providing enchanting services etc.

 

Something else that came to mind: when asking Mirabelle about what you're expected to do she says that the College is a place to practice and study magic freely, a place of sharing knowledge.
What I'm getting at here is that the college doesn't appear rank-driven.
If you do include ranks keep in mind that Savos Aren will at some point say "you've proven yourself more than a mere apprentice", so the player shouldn't be able to surpass that rank before then.

[MPBunny]

Hmm, well for the 'recommendation' quests...Having to go to every single branch of the Mage's Guild in Cyrodill to brown-nose my way into gaining access to the headquarters felt forced and major overkill. I can see some level of recommendation for getting into the College with little to no demonstration at the gates, but if implemented please don't force people to go to each individual one. Just have a minimum recommendation of one, with changed responses from Faralda at the entrance depending on who you went to and how many wizards you visited.

 

As for individual recommendation quests, there are six court wizards in Skyrim and six magic skills. Have each one specialize in a specific skill, and have their quest revolve around proving your skills in that area (this would also allow focused playthroughs for a Conjurer, Illusionist, Destruction mage, etc.). If you wanted to include Alchemy in the potential skills, I would suggest using someone recognized as an authority on it such as Lami in Morthal, Frida in Dawnstar, or Elgrim in Riften. (Lami is perhaps the best choice, given that Angeline in Solitude refers you to her for training, and it preserves the one-trainer per hold ratio). However since Alchemy is a low-brow skill practiced by even simple hedge-witches, and that it doesn't really require significant skill or intelligence in the way that spell schools or enchanting do, I wouldn't have this as a recommedation that would allow admission to the College on its own, and have it more of a skill that ties into the others leading towards a 'gone to all the wizards' acheivment.

 

Perhaps even have how your character is talked to in the College change depending on what skills you demonstrated skills in, with trainers have more respect for you if you share their discipline.

 

I would also direct you to a thread over at Bethesda forums (link), where some ideas have been posted that might help you out or show you some ideas. Also you misspelled College wrong in the title and tags. Just saying.

[Cowgoesmoo3]

I remember there was an amazing mod that was abandoned and let their stuff go open-source.

(It was mostly with the questline)

 

If you're seriously interested and can't find it just ask me and I'll try my best to find it again.

[GrimyBunyip]

I do scripting, which includes MCM menus, but not limited to that.

let me know what you need.

 

I just normally stay away from world content and quests, keep that in mind. I can still do them, just personal preference not to.

 

So yeah, if you need help with new spells, new gameplay mechanics, menus, scripts, cool quest rewards, etc.

 

btw is there a reason you're spelling college with an "a"?

and could we get some screenshots of your work so far?

Edited April 18, 2013 by GrimyBunyip

[Iconic985]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

 

I really liked chacotaco91's idea of the "Initiate Island" however I've decide to change it up a little. Instead of it been part of the initiation, it's going to be an expedition, like the one to saarthal. However its proving to be a little hard to complete by my self, so if there are any people into designing dungeons any help would be appreciated. At the moment I need 2 Nordic ruins and 1 cave. It would be good if they had magic-oriented puzzles however i could probably deal with that.

 

As for initiation I'm leaning towards retrieving something from some unique dungeon containing magic based puzzles and traps with enemies that require magic to beat.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Iconic985

[AvelonHellfyre]

I'm here to help with magic puzzles.

 

You'll need to probably check out the code for the Mzulft end-dungeon puzzle. I'm keeping it spoiler free just in case, but you know the one - fire and frost.

 

Zap-a-Mole:

Several holes in the ground, and something that pops out of one of the holes semi-randomly. You have to hit it with a bolt of lightning when it pops up - possibly only when it pops up out of specific holes.

 

 

O--O--O
O--O--O
O--O--O

 

With a 3x3 grid like this, let's say you have a door with a symbol on it that looks like this:

 

 

X--O--X
X--X--X
O--O--O

 

You have to hit the 'mole' when it pops out of the marked (X) holes, and NOT when it pops out of the others. It will cycle through each hole once per cycle, and is activated by pressing a button. If you do it correctly, the door opens. If not, the arrow traps open. ;)

 

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Boiler Lock

 

The door is sealed. Oh noes! But what's this? There's a globe with water in it nearby. Weird. Let's set it on fire!

Bubble bobble, door opens for a limited time. The longer you boil, the longer it stays open, to a point. The effect caps out at around 10 seconds open or something.

 

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Blasted Shorted Dwemer Mechanisms!

 

Some nearby gears aren't turning. But there's a box nearby that looks like it could take a current. Zzzzzzzt! The machine false-starts. Hmm. ZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!!! Oh, there it goes.

 

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Emotive Spirits

 

Non-combat NPCs who largely ignore you and are in unreachable places with no dialogue and the 'ghost' effect. They play different animations depending on which 'flavor' they are, and influence their environment differently. Flavors:
Frenzied Spirit

Complacent Spirit

Terrorized Spirit

 

Can you guess which 3 spells you can cast on them to change their emotion?

 

Can be applied in many ways, from "Torture Locks" (mage has a specific combination of spirit-energies that must be matched to open the door, like the Claw locks or turning stones locks) to outright changes to the layout or features of the dungeon. 3 Frenzied Spirits in a room with lava all over the place? Calm them and it turns into water. Terrorize them and it turns into blood (gives you diseases).

 

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Power Lodes

 

You didn't honestly think I'd leave here without punning you, did I?

 

Power Lodes are stones that receive, retain, and in measured amounts, emit magicka. A scripted spell called "Discharge Magicka" or something is directed at the stone. After it sucks enough of your energy away it will light up and glow, and start doing its magical thing again, whatever that thing is. Powering doors, generating fields, powering teleporters...etc.

 

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Daedric Seal

 

You cannot do anything to get past a Daedric seal. Unless you have a pal who is a Daedroth of some kind. Step into the handy-dandy nearby summoning circle and conjure forth an appropriate summon, who will then perform a scripted action (read: probably cast its unique distance spell) to disable or bypass the hazard/stop. Might need to add in a new spell for this one or run a global script to attach the relevant script dynamically to your summon.

 

May also be possible to receive a perk by stepping into the circle and lose the same perk by stepping out, perhaps by making the circle itself detect the proximity of the player. This method if possible would reduce overhead as compared to a global script (which should never be used unless absolutely necessary).

 

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I'll probably think of some more and come back. I'm a horrible level designer so getting someone else to use my trap ideas is a pretty good deal for me. An honorary mention somewhere in the source would be awesome.