Valenwood Islands

History: This was part of Beyond Cyrodiil: Valenwood. While the work on the mainland has fallen apart, there has been a lot of progress with the isles. The project fell apart because of lack of scripters back in 2007, now the mod has found a new scripter, me.

Premise: The manager of the South Seas Company has fallen ill so there is one spare berth on the Dragonseye Ship. The pirates on the ship are already looking forward to going to Southpoint in southern Valenwood. Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen storm, the ship is marooned on an unknown island. Most of the comrades survived, except for a fair few who lost their lives. It is up to you what happens next.

Features: I have done a lot of changes to the original Main Quest document, far too numerous to fully mention them. While the mod is still focusing on pirates and shipwrecks, the culture of the Bosmer will be fully fleshed out by complex dialogue trees with the villagers and to a lesser extent, books. The Main Quest is morally grey - it does not depict either side to be just good or bad. Both your comrades and the villagers have conflicting interests - it is up to you to decide their fate.

All of the major characters have their own dialogue trees, so you can have a say on what is going on in the isles and find out more about who you are dealing with. Even the minor characters have their own trees, though far less complex.

There is now choice and consequence (C&C). All paths will open some doors and close others, so not everything in the isles can be seen with one character. In fact, the mod needs several playthroughs in order to experience every single thing in the isles. There is also a faction reputation system - your actions will be recognised by the factions, for better or for worse.

Treasure exists in old battered treasure chests, which require a certain key to open. This unmarked quest requires vigilance and the willingness to look at every nook and cranny.

Level: The recommended level is 30. If you're going to be swimming in deep waters with sharks or hunting panthers, your character should have a level of 30 or over.

However, the mod can be gotten through with hardly any fighting.

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45533/?

OK - so I'm working on the beta version atm while the alpha version is being tested by me, gep5, Leonardo, morcroft and a few others.

A question about quest markers - shall I go the Integration way and virtually have no quest markers whatsoever, the AndalayBay way of limited use of quest markers or the same usage as vanilla Oblivion? I'd like to get some opinions

I'm known for my use of quest markers!

For those that don't know, I try to find a compromise between none and putting a quest marker on the specific target. A good example would be Azura's quest from the original game. I would lead you to the cave, but not have a quest marker on every vampire. And if I specify a well known location, I won't have a quest marker for that either. My quest markers are meant to guide, not lead you by the nose.

I am worried that I implemented Deeza's main quest in such a way that it's easy to go through. I don't use quest markers all the time, only to pinpoint who you have to speak to in the quest or follow (as NPCs do get lost sometimes). The last cave has a very obvious quest marker which will defeat the entire purpose of exploration - so I think I will redirect the marker to just outside the cave.

Thank you

Same opinion as AndalayBay here.

Anyway there are mods that turn off quest markers throw interactive map (the way I use to play).

Most important imo is to describe well what things the player must do so it can be done even without quest markers, and then after that put the quest markers you think it should be, but it is just my opinion.

I've implemented the main quest with the quest markers as an afterthought.

Yeah, I don't put quest markers right on the destination if the point is for you to find the destination. For example, we had a quest where you need to find a location near Bogwater Camp, so I put a quest marker on Bogwater Camp, but not on the location you actually need to find.

We did have a cave that the player needs to find for another quest, but it's so hard to find, even with a quest marker, that I did put a marker on that. You'd never find the cave without the marker and even with the marker, it's hard to find.

I agree with that approach: as an aid and not hand-holding. People want to feel accomplishment, but not outright frustration. (Cut's down on the "Help" questions as well.)

-Dubious-

I gave some hints in the hint thread - but nothing which would eradicate the accomplishment.

I didn't get any help questions so far. This mod is structured in such a way that you have freedom to go anywhere and if you want to find the secrets, a magic arrow won't be there.

Awwww.....no magic arrow to go with my magic map? Regardless, this sounds pretty nice. Can't really help test it though, ain't got enough time as it is.

The markers will aid you a little bit but the secrets of the isles - you have to find yourself

Will this work together With TWMP Valenwood/Elsweyr?

This sounds like this is going to be a great mod Envy. Looking forward to it!

The isles are in their own separate worldspace so should be

Does it work with Dibella's Watch? That one also requires to be loaded directly after Oblivion.esm

Also, is it playable without TES4LodGen? I liked that utility a lot, but unfortunately, it is the cause of many freezes and crashes in my game. I was told it's possible to disable it partially, could somebody please tell me how do I enable it only for this mod without touching the rest of the world? When I click on the exe file, it just automatically creates lods for everything I have.

You can play it without TES4LODGEN - you just won't have the LOD.

When testing out the isles, you can shift the load order when you want to go to the isles and revert it back when you're done. Had no problems when doing that with one province mod.

Good news - thanks to the amazing efforts of AndalayBay, the beta version will be load order independent and one single file. As well as many bug fixes and a few side quests

Bumping this to say that the second alpha should come soon for testing

New features:

-More complex dialogue trees with the major characters. You aren't forced down one way of speaking with someone - you have several.

-Several endings, all which give different rewards.

-Has an in-game map and is load order independent.

Just glanced in because of general interest in adding "big" quest mods. A little more information would be nice - such as: Character level suggestion, access method to get to the mod and compatibility thereof, maybe a hint of two as to the concept storyline. I took a glance at the thread on TAL but again such details seemed to be lacking.

Is this better? I don't want to give away too much, I want the main gist of the mod to be a surprise.

Curious to know if this ties in with some of the activities of the Thalmor (that are referenced in Skyrim) that happen during the Oblivion crisis?

Good luck to the team to bring this to fruition.

No, it doesn't. The mod focuses on the Bosmer culture

And thank you - Deeza and I are the only ones on the current team. I'm busy currently making the hundreds of dialogue responses

Currently 625 and counting.

Yes, thanks - that's very useful.

You might want to put a "block" on the quest start, so that the Town Crier maybe starts announcing from about level 20 or so, but when you try to join the voyage you get told they are after seasoned veterans, and you look a little green still. As you increase in level, the fliers get more and more desperate-for-crew, and at level 30 or so you can be accepted. That way if someone installs the mod early, they get the introduction to remind them to come back when a higher level in the journal.

I had considered having a block but the flier implies that the company is desperate to fill that last space because of a last minute problem so I went along with that. Also, you can get through the mod with very little fighting (and that little fighting could be helped by followers in the mod anyway).

Thank you for the suggestions though. I appreciate them

Actually, that sort of information (about the amount of fighting required) would be useful in the mod description. Might help some people considering to try it at a lower level to make up their mind.

-Dubious-