Well, my first mod launched yesterday after 20 mos of working on it. I wanted to take this time to say here how appreciative I am to this forum and the many modders who have helped me out, particularly DavidJCopp and johng58 who got some pretty important stuff working for me.

I imagine this forum will be archived soon and a new one will be opening in the new Beth site. I hope all will follow over there as it would be a shame to see this ban of dedicated, willing to share, modders not continue what you do in the forums.

Thanks All!

Beth

If any of you fine people decide to take a look at my mod, please be sure to give me honest feedback: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/74732?

It looks nice and well made, but I think the number of the required mods this mod needs to have installed might sounds too much a hassle to get the mod working.

Congratulations to your 1st mod release, http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1605758-relz-skyrim-map-markers/.

Leo, I think the only requirements are Skyrim and the DLCs or the Legendary Edition, unless you want to move spouse and kids in....

SkyBeth, I'd really love to check it out, but I don't have the bandwidth available to download something so large.

Your screenshots look absolutely stunning, Skybeth. The features sounds very enticing as well. I will certainly give this a test run in my next game. Congratulations on creating what looks to be a great first mod! (As I type these words you already have 20 Endorsemants...not bad!)

The only requirements are Bethesda's expansions, Leonardo.

Yes, only the vanilla game and DLCs are required and I wanted it that way for my first mod. Other mods are just recommended to enhance the experience.

Serethil, thanks. I don't have the best bandwidth either so it does take a bit of time to upload and download. Maybe 30-40 mins for me. Its pretty big for a house mod.

Pseron Wyrd, hope you enjoy the mod once you get a chance to play. Let me know what you think.

That's my point about the required mods, just to use the main features in this mod.

It's not the time. I'm retired, I have INFINITE time - and patience. But I literally don't have the bandwidth. I get 12 gigs on a rolling 30 day time frame - and right now I'm running right up on the "we're going to throttle you" limit (which is 70% of the total available....) And it's not cheap, nor can I pay for "extra" gigs I might want to use. I'm grateful of course to HAVE satband.... but it's very limiting.

Um. Sorry Leo. But that's not really much. There are mods out there with a required list three or four times that long. Of course, I would never bother with the entire spouse and kids crap. Just.... spare me....

*shrug* Each to her own.

Actually, while Dragonia is HF friendly if you wish to use those features, I'm hoping it is perceived to offer something for the strictly warrior-type gamer as well. Has a massive armory area with full blacksmith and arcane. Has a "man-cave" area for kicking back and enjoying life, and also gives you a variety of followers and vendors as well as areas to explore that is not domestic related. If you want a spouse or kids, all house mods require the one additional mod to get you there, otherwise you have to include that feature in the matrix of your mod, and it will only work for your mod.

I would not call "being able to adopt more than the default number of children" a "main feature" of this mod.


A "requirement" is something that the mod will not work without. All this mod requires is Skyrim and its DLC. Which is, at this point, not a particularly onerous requirement. (despite some people still pitching fits about Hearthfire). If you want to bring kids along you need Multiple Adptions...but if you want to do that then chances are you already have that, and same with making this the house for other followers. You need a mod for that but if you are using lots of custom followers you probably have the framework already set up.

To look at this mod, which requires absolutely nothing beyond the base game and DLC, not even SKSE or SkyUI (though the latter is suggested, obviously) and say that the "number of required mods to get it working" is more than just a bit of exaggeration but is actually, 100% undeniably wrong.

Anyway, SkyBeth. It looks really cool! A lot of house mods are just a house, and if you don't use it then it stands empty, but this is more like a self-contained village, which is super cool. I downloaded it and will see about giving it a shot sometime. If my current game lasts maybe I'll use it when she gets to be high level. Its also conveniently close to Riften where my current character has made her base.

Thanks, Nephenee13. I'd comment not waiting until you get to a high level if you wish to try it out.....a lot of time can be spent developing your armory collection in this mod and the vendors are great for unloading heavy stuff that is weighing down the inventory. You also have access to some ores and geodes and some helpful spells, if you like enhancements.

If you try it, let me know what you think.

Ok lets see. I haven't actually gone there yet, but I loaded it up in TES5Edit to take a look.

First of all, cleaning results:

UDRs

I know that deleting Navmeshes can cause crashes if another mod comes along and tries to touch them later, and TES5Edit won't undelete them. Might want to look into the best practices for dealing with this. (tbh I have no idea, ask Arthmoor maybe?)

ITMs:

24 ITMs isn't bad for a mod this size, but still worth making sure you clean out.

Lets see what else...possible conflicts with the Draugr boots and College boots, but those are minor.

You modified a Bed record in a way I'm not entire sure is advised. FormID 000fedc8. Maybe should be an entirely new record, instead of modifying a vanilla one?

I've heard there are issues with changing the sandbox cylinder, but not enough to say one way or another if that is an issue.

Modifications to Light records could affect other mods that use those lights.

You edited DLC1VCSkeletonMage_Ambush [NPC_:0201830B] and reduced its aggro range to 0, could cause conflicts with expected behavior elsewhere?

You heavily modified Package record 000978e3, probably should have been a new form.

A Fireplace record now uses HD LOD Textures? Form 000c0c6e

Alright, thats what I can see in TES5Edit. Pretty clean mod overall, the majority of it is new records so that helps. Check out those modified Bed, lights, Skeleton and Package, those are most likely to cause unexpected issues. The Deleted navmeshes are the most likely to actually cause people's games to crash.

Once I've checked out the house I'll let you know my impressions. The courier letter is nice, though it assumes you are in fact the Dragonborn at the point where you get it. Not a big deal since skipping the main quest isn't something you should feel compelled to account for.

You are right in saying that a modder is not compelled to account for players who do not do the main quest. But I think you are wrong in saying it is "not a big deal." It's a big deal to some of us. A lot of us who are still playing this game use alternate start mods to avoid the main quest. I know that in my case I haven't done the main quest in my last ten or fifteen games. So if this mod expects my character to be Dragonborn that means I am not using it. I'm not going to suffer through the main quest again for the sake of one mod.

But anyway, SkyBeth, your screenshots look fantastic. This looks like a really top-notch mod. I am very impressed by what I have seen and read so far. Congratulations!

You do not have to complete the main quest for this mod. There are no requirements or prerequisites to acquiring the house. However the premise to the vanilla game is to assume you are Dragonborn; so, with my mod, the Greybeards send you a message letting you know and give you the key to the house because you are entitled to it. If you really want nothing to do with being Dragonborn, then the mod is probably not for you. Or you forget about the quest giving part (just a courier giving you a letter from Greybeards). Thank you very much for the comments about the mod page...lots of work and time went into it. Especially all the bb codes.

Nephene13, I'm embarrassed to say that I really goofed in not doing a final clean sweep in TESEdit. All I can give as an excuse is that we've just been through a hurricane (real one) and I am a bit discombobulated. I'd planned on publishing the mod Sept 1 but had to postpone due to storm and then the aftermath. I must admit I still don't completely understand all the workings of TESEdit, but I have already done a lot of cleaning and fixing on the mod. I've also gotten some help from Arthmoor with an issue on a weapon's rack activator conflicting.

I just did a cleanup and I'm re-uploading as I type. Will do some more work with it tomorrow. As for navmeshes, I could never find the few handfull missing. 7 exterior cells and no errors given when using the CK to check navs. This is why I love this forum. The mod community here really gives a help when needed. Thank you for the heads up!

Ah, I didn't realize that. Well, you're right: this mod isn't for me then. I've only ever done the main quest once and I never plan to do it again. Like Lady Selene, I use alternate start mods to avoid the main quest with all my characters.

It's a shame you felt you needed to do this, but it's your mod. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

Alright had a chance to look around.

The directions lead me right to it, though my followers had some difficulty pathing over the rocks, might want to check those navmeshes.

Inside the main hall I like it a lot. The auto-stripping on the shower area is neat.

I crashed twice trying to get into the Depths. Each time I got a message from CrashFix about a possibly corrupted NIF. The third time and every time after that worked perfectly, however.

It'd be nice if the residents had dialog talking about who they are. Its hard to keep track of who is who when they don't actually talk about anything. Voice acting is an issue, but personally I'm fine with unvoiced dialog if that is the only option (and voice acting can always be added later if possible)

I'm still not clear on where the follower and adopted kid's rooms are, I'm thinking I never found that wing? I also lost my followers (Annekke, Sylgja and Barbas) a couple of times on cell transitions and I'm not sure why. Biggest issue was when we ended up in the area with all the Daedric shrines.

Its definitely system intensive, but other than the crashes entering the depths, it was doable. I think the depths might be a bit much once its filled with your armor and weapons though. I think there should be a route from the main mansion area to the resident quarters without going through the Depths, IMO.

Not sure if this character will make her home here, but I'll probably keep it installed for flavor. Might be nice to see the acquisition quest fleshed out. Only get the courier after you've met the greybeards and done maybe a quest or two more. If you are playing as someone who isn't the Dragonborn, you can "stumble" over it and maybe have to do some sort of Non-Dragonborn task, or have standing of a certain level in another organization (Thieves Guild, Companions, etc) to make it more amenable to people not doing the main quest.

All in all though, super nice mod, and consider how extensive it is, it works quite nicely.

Hi, Nephenee. Thanks for the feedback. Additions to the mod likely will not be made as it is already loaded up. The design of interior cells are fairly large and totally open spaces which contributes to any crashes experienced when going through a load door. In my many hundreds of testing, including 2 playthroughs, though, didn't get many crashes at all. This is first mod for me, and it started as basically a learning platform so most cell sizes ended up going beyond what the developers planned. A lot of time invested in this so, I polished it and then released it. To help with load door crash, I did place occlusion planes and also added corridors to entrances and exits to the armory (Depths),

Would you mind giving your pc specs?

The rocks over river you mention that your followers had trouble with are not within my cells so I can't touch it. There is actually another popular mod that bumps up there so I definitely don't want to go into that territory.

There are 2 entrances to the followers quarters. One you found through the armory. The other is outdoors through a rock entrance. The follower's quarters is actually below ground structure made within the mountain so it can't really be directly connected to the main house which is above ground. There are 4 rooms not occupied in the residence quarters. You can use that for your own followers (but you need one of the enhanced follower mods to get them to occupy the room (make it theirs) just like any other mod with beds for followers. The kids room is on the 2nd floor main house. Not sure how you missed it! Its very large and open-space.

Agree that this mod is not suited for those who don't play the game as it was designed to be played.

Thanks for looking at it and the feedback.

Thanks johng58. Especially for your great help working through the courier quest!