COMPLETION STATUS: 60% - If im being perfectly honest... :/
MODDER ATTENTION STATUS: Intends to return soon to mod as of 17/4/11

Hey guys. Just setting up this topic for my Ordinator Ascension mod that im working on and nearing completion. Im just looking for some (mature) feedback on what ive done so far and any ideas you;ve got to make it better. The stuff below is butchered between what ive already put into the draft readme, and stuff ive just added.

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Throughout the history of Morrowind modding, we, as gamers, have enjoyed the work of skilled and devoted modders who have put hours into developing satisfying ways to add new role-playing experiences to our beloved Vvardenfell. Many of these have focused on specific roles such as Vampires (Vampire Embrace), House Telvanni (RoHT), being a Lich (Illuminated Order), being a Druglord (Vvardenfell Druglord) and even as a Necromancer (Way of the Necromancer). As I hope you'll agree, these are some of the finest RP mods out there, but there has always been one role that has never been sufficiently addressed: Becoming an Ordinator.

Sure we have seen a few mods that allowed you to put on Indoril Armor and not get attacked, and more recently there have been other attempts at quest based faction play, but im sure the die-hards among you will not have been satisfied, as I was not. Performing one or two quests in order to join the esteemed Ordinators just doesnt feel right. It doesnt make sense. And other mods that allow your character to become a High Ordinator make even less sense. High Ordinators are some of the most potent warriors in the whole of Tamriel. Who in their right mind would let your level 12 Bosmer archer don their sacred armor and run around like an idiot?

Clearly not me.

And so some months ago i began what I hoped would be my own modding masterpiece. The mod where i would piece together my years of developing skills into something i could feel proud of. Something that not only showcased my adherence to game-lore, ability as a level designer and scripting ability, but one that also displays MY standard of a mod. I realise that I can be a bit of a harsh critic on others mods sometimes, but obviously I am more than willing to put my money where my mouth is.

In addition, as an avid fan of sci-fi stuff (specifically warhammer 40K), ive taken inspiration and added my own 'Space Marine' feel to the Ordinator faction, with especialy attention given to the Warrior-Monk structure of the High Ordinators. Their Fortress Monastery is a large, gloomy, sombre place filled with dusty relics, tomes of knowlegde, training halls, armories and spartan chambers aimed at reflecting the monastic lifestyle these incredible fighters lead.

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What this mod specifically does:

1. After achieving the rank of Curate in the Temple, any DUNMER character can apply to join the ordinators (Lore = only dunmer!) . When you are this rank, just ask around Vivec for the latest rumours.
2. From there, you will begin your rise through the ranks of the esteemed Ordinators (ive also used the actual ranks and the actual Orders that make up the Ordinators. +1 for lore correct). Below is a quick outline of the ranks:

a. Initiate. == Here you must prove your basic ability to be judged worthy of joining.
Just one or two basic missions so that you can prove your not a [censored]. Due the shortage of Ordinators (cos of all the trouble around) they have sort of dropped their entry requirements a little. Well this is my justification for letting us outlanders in

b. Layman of the Order of Doctrine and Ordination. == This order is tasked with training and teaching recruits the necessary skills and lessons they will need. Earn armor.
Focus is earning your armor, doing some mundane missions (ie: high rank temple grade mission, do this, kill this, fetch this). These are simple starter missions so that you aren't thrown in the deep end too quick.

c. Defender of the Order of the Watch. == Now you are tasked with defending the temples, cities and priesthood of the Temple.
The goal of these warriors is to defend shrine and preists. A few heretic purges, preist saving and shrine reconsecration missions. The 'Defenders' are the classic Ordinators you see running around Vivec for example. They are the most numerous and serve the most basic, but important role. You may even want to stay at this rank, if your into heavy RP-ing

d. Disciple of the Order of War. == These warriors are sent out to deliver death and justice to the enemies of the Temple.
Ever been to Ald Daedroth? Well those robed Ordinators are Disciples of War. They get sent out to destroy threats and enemies. The missions for this rank centre around a general 'bad-daedra-worshipper' purge, so expect to be sent to wipe out a few daedric ruins and their leaders. Fun for all the family.

e. Agent of the Order of the Inquisition. == As an inquisitor, you are charged with seeking out heretics and traitors within, and uncovering significant threats to the Temple.
The Inquisition has always been one of my favourite ideas for this mod. They deal with major threats within and without. What i decided to focus on was dealing with a big threat from the outside. As fun as it would have been to rig up a few torture missions and heretic burnings, i didnt want to kill off too many "friendly" NPC's. So there is less heretic killing and more epic madguy killing. Theres a sub story to these missions too. Once (if) you discover the plot and bad guy/find him/kill him then this awesome achievement is good enough to bring your efforts to the attention of the High Ordinators, ever watchful for skillful warriors to assimilate.

f. High Ordinator Initiate. == initiates must prove and increase their skills to incredible levels to be deemed worthy to be inducted as a full High Ordinator.
8 missions. First seven are designed to test the 7 core tenets that define a High Ordinator. Devotion, Temperament, Vengeance, Procurement, Fraternity, Domination and Obediance. (yes, these are just my own ideas, but they gave me good titles and guidance for what the missions would be about.). The final mission will be a classic epic battle against impossible odds. And who doesnt love epic battles

g. High Ordiantor. == This is it. The long road to Level 60 is complete. Lock and load. Prepare to be thrust into hell and expected to survive.
Once youve proven youself as a High Ordinator, you are formally inducted as a full member and.........

Well, i havent gotten there yet. Soon though. Any good ideas more than welcome

Im also looking at giving the option of letting you become the Master of the Fortress Monastary (but not the Grand Master, your just an outlander after all). ideas about this would be great

Of course, this brief overview does not even hint at the number of quests required to rise throught the ranks. Some quests will be easy, but most will strain you and push you to the limits (hopefully), and who said a life as an Ordinator was going to be lay-back and relaxed. Mer up. Also, most require quite a bit of effort to complete, so dont expect a rapid rise. All in all, there should be some 40 quests. But this does not take into account other factors that I will outline shortly..

3. Installs the Fortress Monastery of the High Ordinators into the Temple Courtyard of Mournhold (only one screenshot atm) Ive put alot of effort into designing this place and I hope you'll agree that it fits in quite well with Mournhold surrounds. Eventually, when you are accepted into the High Ordinators, you will then get access to the interior, but until then you can just run around the building exterior and lobby dreaming.......

http://img704.imageshack.us/f/screenshot150m.png/

4. Installs another way for Ordinators to move between Mournhold and Vvardenfell. Eventually, if you are accepted as an initiate of the High Ordinators, then two NPC's will provide more temple-conveniant 'official' transport. More convenient then going to Ebonheart everytime... and it makes lore sense for them to have their own transporters. This is explained in more detail at the appropriate time.

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Other Factors...

"High Ordinators are all Level 60!" This guiding and irrefutable fact is what has driven me to make this mod so deep. Somehow, I have to take your character and rise him/her through the ranks to become a level 60 warrior. In all honesty, I dont think Ive ever stuck with a character long enough to reach Level 60 (before this mod) so this posed an interesting challenge. What I decided to do was introduce a graduated system of advancement. You must achieve and complete numerous quests, but you will only be allowed to rise to the next rank when you have made signifiant advances in your skills. This reflects that as you rank up, the challenges you must face as an Ordinator increase, so they can only let in more powerful individuals.

The Ordinator factions basic skills are: Medium Armor (High Ordaintors = Heavy Armor), Blunt Weapon (High Ordaintors = Long Blade), Destruction, Athletics and Block. Therefore, in addition to increased Level requirements, the following list outlines the skill requirements you must fullfill to be accepted to that rank:

a. Initiate == Curate of Temple
b. Layman == Level 10; Skills (all) 35
c. Defender == Level 20; assumed your skills are progressing...
d. Disciple == Level 30; Skills (all) 50
e. Agent == Level 40; Skills (all) 55

What follows, should you make it to a High Ordinator Initiate, is a complex and steadily graduated system what will take you through approx 9 extensive Quests up to Level 60, with skills at 100. Scoff all you want, I didnt want to cut corners. This is what the real ordiantors would have had to go through, so get used to it/better at training. There are, naturally, some ingame advice from quest givers on how to increase skills. After all, its them who want to see you improve, not me ; ) and High Ordinators have access to their own Master Trainers so you'll eventually be able to take advantage of them.

Naturally, some of you will want to use your existing (high level?) characters. Of course I cant stop you, but i have to admit that in my 'new-character' play testing of this mod, I did have some insane level of satisfaction progressing through the levels, even though it isnt entierly finished yet.

I also realise that some of the 'less experienced' members of the Morrowind community may struggle with this level-up requirement so my advice to you is to LISTEN to the advice given ingame and also primarily make use of TRAINERS. They are called trainers for a reason. One of the early quests gives you a list of good trainers in Vivec, so READ it.

Or if your pathetic you could always defeat the point of the whole thing and cheat... --____--

SOOOOOOOOO

What suggestions do you guys have? As ive said, im still finishing off the High ORdinator initiate missions, but i could do with some input for the actual full-on High Ordinator missions.

i love killing these guys with my redoran chums to much. so ima gonna give this a pass, (atleats i'm a dunmer so i could get in) :homestar:

This sounds like a very awesome project, and I think I may have some ideas for future quests. I think there should be a quest to annihilate a cult trying to imitate the Sixth House after the main quest. The cultists believe that House Dagoth hasn't fallen, and the leader, an insane dunmer, believes himself to be Dagoth Ur. If you've played Metal Gear Solid 4, think of Liquid Ocelot.

I could continue if you're interested, or I'll just PM them. Again, I think this will be an awesome mod.

I creamed at your Metal Gear reference. Good idea hey. I'll add it to the list Give me the name of your character and i might include him/her/it. ^__^

I am not really good with Dunmer names, but here's what I came up with Drovasi Fathyron.

Also, the cult itself has great knowledge in the fields of alchemy, mysticism, and illusion. They use these to make artificial blights, dreams, and just lots of other things to mess with people. An idea is that if you're the Nerevarine, immune to blight, you'll catch this blight (Because it isn't real blight).

There is a quest you get to do (I think in the temple?) that you go to find some missing ordinators in a cave of sleepers in it, my advice on this subject would be that you might want to do that kind of line of quests. There also was a daedric shrine where when you went there (can't remember the quest on this one either) there was a group of daedrics fighting off an invading group of temple (?) raiders. Its the one where there is a daedric who you talk to who says something like "is a party, find someone to dance with and start swinging..." or something like that...

As in, taking on sleeper cells (pun intended) where you face sleeper npcs, ascended sleepers, ash ghouls, coprus infected creatures ect
and daedric shrines where you go to cleanse the evil from there, as well.

You could have the player go with a companion/group or alone. You could have the quest success/fail option be to keep someone alive thru this (easier for you to survive, than to keep someone else alive...)
You could even devise a "competition" of sorts between the ordinators and boyant armigers (I recall something like this in conversation in/around ghostgate), like some kind of between them to retrieve a coveted item...

Speaking of ghostgate, how about repelling ash-creature attacks?
finding creatures that have managed somehow to get outside of the ghostgate?

ST
ps, I like this idea!!!

I'd love to see more quests that deal with recovering Temple artifacts (like the Ebony Mail, the Hair Shirt of Saint Aralor, and so on). The other ideas in this thread sound great as well. Looking forward to this

I would say that if you desire to be as lore friendly as possible then some of the missions should center around destroying the cult of the nerverine, which of course would break the main quest. however since you seem to be a very deticated modder then you could possibly look into adding in an epic (but more mundane then reincarnation and prophacy) way to defeat Dagoth Ur, maybe a final quest where you escort Vivec, Almelexia and Sotha Sil (since the heart of lorkhan is still around Almelexia is sane and Sotha is alive) to Red Mountain so they can destroy the heart (or Ur) themselves. Just a couple of suggestions, keep up the good work cuz this looks like a great mod and ive always wanted to play as an ordinator :goodjob:

Hm, combining this with Ordo Daemonica, the Temple is becoming a very deep faction. Pretty awesome in fact. My main gripes with the vanilla factions was that the ascension in ranks was too fast and that a vast majority of the quests were minute-quests (you know, quests that can be completed in mere minutes). But reading your description, it seems like you took care of those things in your mod.

Now, mission suggestions...vampire hunting missions maybe? Facing an ancient vampire in his castle can be quite epic. Don't know if it's worthy of a high ordinator though. In any case, I'm eager to try this mod. But I'll be patiently waiting for the release day.

Oooh Vampires you say? I think you could make a quest with a vampire noble who when he dies has a letter to the person who bit him, which actually turns out to be a High Ordinator who cured himself after he read Galur Rithari's Notes and made a deal with a certain Daedric Prince, to erase evidence of him ever being a vampire. That would mean he broke multiple rules, such as making an offer with Bad Daedra, becoming a Vampire, and releasing a Vampire noble upon Vvardenfell.

Perhaps then you must fight him because of you finding him out? Then once he reaches low-health, you take him to the Ministry of Truth and execute him, or jail him.

I don't know, I'm going crazy with ideas.

Will this mod be compatible with Mournhold Expanded?

I know you are kind of getting swamped with ideas here, but i really like the "within" section of this group. Perhaps you could add in some quests dealing with threats closer to home? Heretic burning and torture sounds pretty damn cool to me.

Anyways, its really cool to see that this is actually quite close to completion and not a long way off. Im thinking that when ive done all i can with my Telvanni char it might be time to fire up this + Ordo Daemonica (assuming they are compatible) + LGNPC Redoran and go for a major Temple/Redoran/Ordinator evil hunting character. B)

What does everyone have against Bosmer archers? They're my second favourite race after Nords...


Yay, 40K! That's just how I imagined them too. Although, where will there fortress be? I know TR will have one in Almalexia (it's huge).

One thing though, I know it's good to remain lore friendly, but I've always preferred slight bending of lore if it would impact game play. For that reason, I'm not sure about limiting the Ordinators to Dunmer only. If people care about lore that much, they won't try to join the Ordinators with their Argonian thief, but for people like me it would be nice to see that rule slightly bent. Perhaps it could be an optional esp? Also with the level limit, I think it would be better to use really hard quests to stop people progress when their level is too low, rather than hard-capped level limits. It doesn't make much sense for an ordinator to look at the player and say with certainty 'you are level XX' either. Levels are by their nature a rather abstract concept.

Wow, great feedback guys. Cheers. I'll try and reply to everyone..



Yep. The daedric shrine is Ald Daedroth. Those sort of missions are covered by the Disciple of War missions. Although my missions dont have any 'team work'. Just you and your mace. The competition idea sounds good.. although the Armiger rivalry is traditionally with the 'normal' ordinators.. so i'll have a think, see if theres any non-lore-breaking way to do it.



Yep, covered that as much as i dare. Since the Temple missions do loads of artifact recovery, i thought people might want something else to do.. But ive still got artifact recovery. Mainly in the 'Procurement' initiate missions. Put a bit of thought into that mission too..



Yea, good idea hey! Except i sort of had in mind that people would play this mod with a character who wasnt the nerevarine yet and who hadnt finished the Tribunal questline yet. Given that some people will tho, it would be almost impossible to incorporate something like this into it, because i cant be sure how people want to role play their own games. My personal style is ADDING stuff to morrowind, not tampering with whats already there. Good idea, but im guna have to say its not totally what i wanted this to have. But kudos to anyone who wants to make a animated Sotha Sil 'creature'. lawl



My full intention is to make Ordo Daemonica redundant with this mod. Ordo was good, and for me was one of the first times i had struck out into incorporating scripts, etc etc. But now that im fairly confident that ive unlocked all the CS secrets, this mod should be a million times better than that one. Ordo had like 3 missions from memory, which was.. ok. But this one should dominate it in all ways ^_^ I agree that existing faction advancement is tooo fast, thats another reason why i have 'significant' (?) level advancement requirements. You have to be a level 60 character to be a High Ordinator. Anything lower would be breaking game lore.



This is actually a really really good idea. Ive added it to the list



Hmm... not sure. I dont run that mod, but ive taken a look at the screenshots for it. Unfortunately, there are no screens of the Temple Courtyard in Mournhold, so i cant know for sure if something else has been put there. Take a look at the screen shot i provided of the Fortress Monastary location, and see if Mournhold Expanded puts anything there. Unfortunately, if there IS something there, then im not so keen on moving the Monastery, since i love the location ive put it in.



Lol. Ive got a story-within-a-story running in the Inquisition missions.. so im not soo keen on going back and slotting things in, mainly because id have to rethink all the remaining quests/dialogue and scripts to make sure everything still worked (due the way ive coded and numbered my quest id's). So at this stage, slotting missions into previous ranks is.. unlikely. Plus, at the time i had no idea how to run a torture quest (ive since had a few ideas, but like i said, maybe to diffiuclt to put in atm)



Problem with Bosmer.. well: Fargoth + Adoring Fan = intense racial hatred. lawl

Check out the screenshot i provided in the original post for a link to the Fortress location. Think its placed well. As for the dunmer thing.. Ah, i shake in my boots thinking of non-dunmer Ordinators. The High/Ordinators, being predominately Indoril dudes, are a stoic bunch, who hate outsiders and non-dunmers and love their traditions and standards. To them, Dunmer are superior (and i agree ^_^) so i really cant justify letting in anybody except Dunmer Sorry if this isnt to your liking, but in order for me to sleep at night, this is the way its got to be. In any case, anyone with a basic understanding of CS could go in and remove the one dialogue condition at the very start that stops you if your a Dunmer. No quest/dialogue ever checks it again the mod so its pretty easy.

As for the level thing: I didnt want to just release 40 near impossible missions. Some are going to be real easy, and the fun is to begotten from the role-playing experince it provides. So relying on quests alone to determine advancement isnt really.. appropriate. Also, i dont want people to advance through the entire faction in one afternoon. By putting on level requirements, it gives people time to what they want. Maybe you want to spend all your time in Morrowind Gym, cranking out the training montages like Rocky, or maybe your happy being a Defender of the Watch, running around killing bad guys. As for the NPC's recognising your level, well all factions 'leaders' do that anyway. I always scoff then Temple officials somehow know my Personality is only 31, not 32. Bit wtf.

Most of the missions that preceed advancement requirments incorporate a leveling-up requirement.. Err (that makes no sense). Ok, eg: Mission -> compete it -> head back, get reward -> offered spot in new rank ("oh your awesome, want to be an Inquisitor" or whatever) -> "Well let me write down these abilities i want you to have in your journal" -> Mission complete journal entry then contains training requirements for advancement. [Level 20; Skills at XX, etc].

Ive played throught the 'normal' ordinator missions which ive completed, and im happy with the way ive configured it. Maaaybe just trust me when i say it works til i release it and you can see for yourself

Hope that answers most of the ideas/comments so far ^__^
Keep it coming guys. Cheers for the feedback so far.

True, I very rarely play races other than Dunmer. It seems right that they'd only allow Dunmer in.

I just imagined an ordinator lifting weights and running with the Eye of the Tiger playing in the background.



If at all possible, I think I'll try to keep both Daemonica and Ascension active. For a dunmer character, it might be unnecessary, but for my occasional non-dunmer characters it would be nice to still have access to Daemonica. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see if the two can coexist in the end.

This mod sounds really interesting, I like new quests and a factionmod which adds them in a coherent manner gets an extra nod.
But as other have mentioned, I'm not thrilled with the requirements, first of all, the highest level I ever achieved was 45, and that character had completed all three mainquests and was leader of all factions, so I saw no point in continuing with him (it was before I started adding mods though). So lvl 60 is an insanely high requirement, and I don't think it's lorefriendly to have a requirement based on level, since I see level as an artificial thing in morrowind (go out and pick a lock, so you can advance in that minor skill, so you can reach lvl60, that does not make sense to me). I know the high ordinators are lvl 60, but I would not expect any lore to claim, that you have to be that.

Also I don't think you should have the dunmer check: having an orc join might be lorebreaking, but I see that as the player's own responsibility.

Both these comments are purely selfish though, since I would like to play this, but I'm seldom a dunmer, and I don't expect ever to reach lvl60.

I strongly support this idea of a main quest path.
As for Sotha Sil, Arcimaestro Antares has released it: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8565

Ive always been fascinated by the ordinators and their lore, and I really hope this mod goes well for you
Do you need any beta testers? PM me if you do.

Awesome idea men!

That alternate main story sounds great, but I think what Psycholex is trying to accomplish here is to add an additional, optional, Great House Indoril faction, and not something that would alter the main quest like mods such as Great House Dagoth, or Sixth House.

Now I don't speak for Psycholex, so obviously we'd have to see what he says. Also another thought, it should probably be considered that once you join Great House Indoril, you probably shouldn't be able to join other Great Houses, like the main game intended it to be. Being a Telvanni/Hlaalu/Redoran while being Indoril seems... Strange.

Not all Ordinators are in House Indoril, just most of them. Therefore, houses ain't a problem.

This hits the nail on the head. As awesome as that sort of Mainquest Overhual would be, its just not what i wanted to achieve with this mod.

On the note of High/Ordinators being exlusively House Indoril, well sure, most of them are, but i gather that it is not an exclusive thing. I wouldnt want to limit your games by making it a this-faction-and-no-other kinda thing. I admit that Hlaalu/Telvanni joining the Ordinators is a little.. odd (Redoran can be justified, since Redoran and Indoril hold closer beliefs) but all Dunmer should be given the right to defend their land, homes, people and way of life. Or something like that

Keep the ideas flowing guys. I'd like about 10 fully inducted High Ordinator missions. Ideas so far have been very good.

Presuming this takes awhile to complete, I would love to see some kind of integration with this and Tamriel Rebuilt. Necrom and Almalexia especially are places you would expect to be able to pick up some quests as an Ordinator.

i think a cool idea for a High Ordinator quest, would be

The Temple finds out that the Stendarr's Hammer in the Museum is indeed, a fake. Hence why its durability is so low, yet the strength needed to wield it.
There's been a rumor though, that the hammer is just not restored yet. only a True Warrior of Stendarr in the Council of Ordinators, could restore its power.

yadda yadda yadda, whatever details you wanna throw in =P
just one of my suggestions.