[IDEA] Bladeless Main Quest (now with flowchart!)

Post » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:50 am

So, I've brought this idea up before, and there was a nice little discussion that took place regarding some ideas how to make it work. Since I've been playing the game again and was about to do the main quest (just finishing up with Pax Redoran), I had been putting some thought into this.

Here's a http://i.imgur.com/81Wjz5z.png I made. I whipped that up pretty quick just to get some ideas down, but I think it's a good foundation. I had a few other ideas too, mainly:

  • Great House versions of the Main Quest (since they'd clearly have some interest in not letting Dagoth Ur win)
  • Tribunal Temple version of the Main Quest:
    The later Temple quests involve a lot of crusades into House Dagoth territory, so it'd make sense to expand upon this path

Another thing I was thinking about is, if you're taking the path layed out on my flowchart, how to handle all the exposition, as well as how to handle getting (and curing) corprus. Most of the early main quest missions you're sent on are for the purpose of exposition and leveling up your character to handle the later stuff, but if you're swung right into going to the Urshilaku Burial Caverns, players would probably have a pretty tough time. Additionally, without all the Blades main quest's exposition regarding what the Sixth House is, it would all be pretty confusing to the player character, and new players as well.

So, what are everyone's thoughts? Personally, I don't have time to develop such a mod, but I'll at least keep working on the flowchart in case myself or anyone else does want to tackle this.

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Czar Kahchi
 
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Post » Thu Dec 03, 2015 1:46 am

I think the way you have it currently in your flow chart makes the main quest inevitable. There needs to be a unique activation, something you can't stumble on that will force you down a path, something similar to delivering that package to Cauis and starting the main quest. I also think that the barrier to that activation needs to be set pretty high if you want to fast track the quests to the Urshilaku burial ground.

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luke trodden
 
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Post » Thu Dec 03, 2015 10:55 am

I've been wanting to make a mod like this for a long time. Specifically for Redoran. I have this crazy vision of a main quest where you actually have to unite the houses and defend your capital against Dagoth Ur's army. Think an epic scripted battle sequence where hordes of sixth house followers siege Ald-Ruhn and you have to hold them off until the other houses (if you managed to persuade them) send aid. All of this of course culminating in dark rituals to rewaken the emporer crab ala Kirkbride's stories, complete with epic animations of it coming out of the ground sending ash and dust everywhere.

Sorry. :whistling:

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lexy
 
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Post » Thu Dec 03, 2015 12:06 pm

There are a few ways for House Redoran, but the best idea I can think of is involving the Velothi population, in Maar Gan in particular. Most of them follow the New Temple, but perhaps some of them resent the Empire's presence and privately believe in some version of the Nerevarine Prophecy. Meanwhile, they've got ash monsters.

A Telvanni wizard may interested studying soul sickness or he could be an eccentric who simply wants to realise the Nerevarine Prophecy in order to completely remove both the Empire and the Temple from House Telvanni's affairs.

For House Hlaalu, it could start with the player being sent to investigate smuggling operations in the Bitter Coast and what they're doing with ash statues. The Camonna Tong are probably involved to a degree. Some of them might even believe in the Nerevarine prophecy although that may be the most garbled version of all, given how far they are from Ashlander oral traditions.

For the Temple, there's the fight against the Sixth House, but it also be related to research for the Dissident Priests (although they wouldn't introduce themselves as such that early in the quest line).

You mentioned the pc getting a bounty for talking about the last dream to the wrong people. I don't think that would happen in most cases. They might, however believe that your character has soul sickness and that requires reeducation, not a simple fine or jail sentence.

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Oyuki Manson Lavey
 
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Post » Thu Dec 03, 2015 6:46 am

I think you should add specific NPC for these alternate MQs.

It would also probably be easier (but not what you wanted to create) to make several plugins, one for each faction's version of the MQ.

Quirkyusername has great ideas for starting points I think. But in any case, having the ash statues triggering the dreams and Sleeper Awake sequence is obviously a good idea, and is a good motivation to start the MQ. The player would then tackle this MQ differently, depending on how the Faction reacts to the topic "Ash Satue".

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Gracie Dugdale
 
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Post » Thu Dec 03, 2015 5:07 am

Interesting. There should be some more hints leading you to the Urshilaku Ashlanders, otherwise it would be quite difficult.
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Cayal
 
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