» Mon Feb 10, 2014 7:10 am Falskaar
By Alexander J. Velicky
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37994/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1466235-rel-falskaar/page-1
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1466924-rel-falskaar-thread-2/page-1
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1469226-rel-falskaar-thread-3/
For the last 600 years Falskaar has been inhabited by the Nords, though most of its history from before then is unknown.
For the first time since the party's arrival in Falskaar almost 600 years ago, a portal activates deep within the ruins of Mzubthand, and the player steps through, arriving in Falskaar. They are denoted as 'The Traveler', based on an old prophecy.
"They who arrive through the shimmering wall, mark the start of the worst."
What is Falskaar?
Falskaar is a new lands mod that adds an entirely new worldspace to the world. It's accessed by a dungeon the first time, then by boat from then on out. Falskaar's goal was to act as a DLC, adding content in almost every area. There is a new land, places, people, quests, dungeons and more for the player to experience. It adds roughly 20+ hours of content, and favors all types of characters.
http://youtu.be/BxWpfz06sgw
http://youtu.be/7gJiVKpLPYw
http://youtu.be/J5bEnz24kqE
This is NOT a beta. This is NOT a test version. This is a 100% completed new lands mod. (New content/expansions may potentially be added, though)
Features
- An entirely new land independant of Tamriel, roughly the size of 2-3 Skyrim holds.
- 20-30+ hours of gameplay.
- 26 quests, including a 9 quest long main story, and 17 side quests! (Along with some unmarked content)
- New items including new books, recipes, weapons and armor sets. (A mix of brand new, and retextured)
- Two new spells and a new shout.
- A bard with several unique new songs.
- A soundtrack containing 14 brand new tracks composed by Adamm Khuevrr just for Falskaar, adding more than 40 minutes of new music!
- A fully voiced experience, featuring almost 30 semi-professional and professional voice actors and actresses.
Not all quests in this mod blatantly hold your hand. If you seem to be stuck, look around and think through the quest. All quests were rigorously tested for complete-ability, so it's more likely than not that you just have to figure it out without a blatant quest marker telling you what to do.
"I'm going to wait until the bugs have been patched."
In addition to an incredibly dedicated QA team that was grinding over Falskaar the entire time it was being made (Whom of which reported and helped document & fix over 8,000 bugs!), there has been one major patch and two hotfixes since release so far. These have fixed a very large majority of the launch bugs. While it's always foolish to promise that it will be bug free, most of the remaining issues are compatibility issues and are completely out of my hands. Note: A vast majority of players use the mod without any issues whatsoever.
What does Falskaar require?
Falskaar only require the latest version of Skyrim. (As of July 12th, 1.9.32.0.8) It does NOT require any DLC. And it does NOT require any additional mods like SKSE.
Installing Falskaar
To install Falskaar simply extract all items in the archive into your Skyrim/Data folder. The archive should contain 4 items, "Falskaar.esm", "Falskaar.bsa", "Video/Falskaar_Intro.bik", and "Video/Falskaar_Outro.bik". Place Falskaar.esm in your load order above all ESP files. As close to the DLC as possible. (So close to the top) Exact order may not matter, as Falskaar shouldn't conflict with many things, but it should be near the top as other mods may later edit Falskaar.
How to Start Falskaar/What level should you be?
IMPORTANT!: When you first load up your game with the mod active, WAIT for a few hours to let Falskaar's content and characters settle down. This will help avoid issues if you manage to reach the content 'too quickly'. (Like blasting through the first dungeon. Do it fast enough, and the first cut scene gets wonky)
To start Falskaar, go to Riften and speak with Jalamar. He will either be outside around the market, inside the northern gate, or inside the Bee and Barb. You can also just go straight into Echo Deep Mine, a new dungeon just northeast of Riften.
The mod does not have a level requirement. It scaled in a similar manner to Skyrim, ideally providing a balanced experience for players regardless of their level. However, like Skyrim, if you're level 80 you may find bandits to be rather trivial. Mods that alter scaling and banditry/enemies in Skyrim will not affect Falskaar bandits as they are a unique setup. See compatibility (below) for more information.
IMPORTANT: Do NOT use the console during this to set stages, open doors or disabled objects! Falskaar has been rigorously tested and nothing should be broken, so by doing this you void any hope for support, and will most likely break stuff.
Mod Compatibility Info
FOLLOWERS: This mod is fully navmeshed, and should work just fine with most/all followers.
Falskaar was designed with compatibility in mind. That said, there are still a few minor areas that will cause conflict:
1) The area just outside of Riften along the path to the NE where the entrance to Echo Deep Mine is added.
2) The portion of Dawnstar Bay that Wulf's ship now occupies.
Mods that conflict with these areas may cause you problems. Otherwise there are no major compatibility concerns. Falskaar was designed with compatibility in mind, so many mods will work automatically, like wildlife replaces, etc. However, some mods will NOT and will require compatibility patches. This includes mods that alter the bandits of Skyrim, Necromancers, Guards, or music. (List not all-inclusive, of course, there are plenty of other areas as well)
Do NOT clean Falskaar.esm. It has been thoroughly cleaned before release and contains NO dirty edits. All edits to vanilla records are intentional and necessary.
Uninstalling Falskaar
The uninstallation of Falskaar is NOT supported. It's simply too big. Treat Falskaar like a DLC, and do NOT remove it during a playthrough. Only remove if you are starting a new game. To remove (Only for new game) simply delete "Video/Falskaar_Intro.bik", "Video/Falskaar_Outro.bik", "Falskaar.bsa", and "Falskaar.esm". Failure to follow the above conditions will likely result is serious, irreversible damage to your save and is not recommended or supported.
The good news about this is that Falskaar alters very little of vanilla content. If you ignore the new dungeon entrance, boat in the Dawnstar bay, and never go to Falskaar it will have NO effect on your gameplay in Skyrim. It will simply take a spot in your load order from that point onward. However it is, of course, my hope that you will not desire to remove Falskaar ever. Hopefully it will provide you with plenty of enjoyable content, even once you leave Falskaar, in the form of weapons, armors, recipes, etc.
This has been a very long time in the making, and I'm very excited to finally get it out the door. I hope you guys have a blast exploring the land, and I really hope it lives up to the standards of content and quality that you guys have come to expect from me!
Regards,
Alexander J. Velicky
I hope to further improve the wilderness and random-wanderings with additional content in the near future.