Hello there, Skyrim forum users. I know that Skyrim is still quite a ways away, and we have little to no information regarding the Creation Kit, but I've already got a mod that is progressing quite well. Just yesterday, I finished compiling the questline synopsis, and I'm very excited. I'm going to tell you what you need to know about the mod, and I'm going to ask a few questions about what you think of some of the features and plans that I've described. I really want to know what all of you would be interested in me focusing on from the start, and what might be better left for versions that come after the first full release.

Description: This mod is currently unnamed, but we'll start by calling it the Atheos Quest Mod. It's modeled as a standalone sequel to bg2408's Integration: The Stranded Light, an Oblivion mod about daedra and other non-vanilla races. The quests will allow you to interrogate daedric princes, cross into Oblivion (no deadlands, of course), negotiate with dragons, build a new city, and discover a lost race. The focus is not on combat, but combat is typically one method of getting your way in a quest. The main focuses are thinking and persuading other characters using your various skills.

At full release, the mod should include:
*60+ Quests: which you are able to access depends on choices that you've made throughout the storyline.
*2 conflicting guilds: will you speak on behalf of the daedra and protect them, or will you take up your sword against them.
*8 playable races: Maormer (sea elves from south of Tamriel), Falmer (snow elves), Ka'Po'Tun (tiger race of Akavir), Auroran (as seen in Knights of the Nine), Daedra Seducers (as seen in Daggerfall and Battlespire), Aureal (golden saints), Mazken (dark seducers), and Xivilai. No plans for changing vanilla quest gameplay based on you playing as one of these races for the first release, but it's on my priority list.
*Most quests allow you to choose how to complete them: options for evil characters include blackmailing quest givers and betraying your friends.
*Appearances from 5 daedric princes.
*The ability to build a medium sized city with architecture and features inspired by daedric, falmer, and dwemer cultures. Invite friends made during previous quests to live in the new city, and build it using funds that they've contributed, as well as some of your own.
*The option to form a romantic relationship with one of three characters: two female options and one male option.

What of this catches your eye the most? One thing that I haven't been able to gauge the difficulty of is how to manage to player relationships. I've already put a bit of work into the three love interests, but I'd like for the player to be able to develop friendships with a number of the NPCs added in this mod, rather than just making everyone friendly once you're famous and persuasive enough.
Originally, the Stranded Light included a guild guide system for the mages guild around Cyrodiil. I'll have to play the game before designing this, but I hope to include it in one of two ways: be just like Morrowind and allow access of all other guilds from any one of them (these guilds being college of whispers, most likely). The other option would be to only offer transportation within allied holds, having two different networks, and to possibly offer direct access to medium-sized cities rather than just the major 5.
Another thing to realize is that I haven't planned any interaction between this mod and other quests. That is something that I'd really like to include, and I'd like some feedback as far as how much interest there is for it, and how you might like to see it implemented. The main idea behind the 'good' guild is offering a safe place for those exiled from society. Due to its nature of being separated from mainstream society, it's likely that it will not have as many chances as other guilds to be really involved with other questlines. That being said, suggest away concerning what you'd like to see.

sure sounds like your biting off more than you can chew buddy... Working on big projects is great, but have you done some smaller mods first? Maybe wait for the game to be released and to play it first. You dont know how your idea will relate to theirs... It does all sound awsome, but when you think that experienced modders release one race after a month of work and your adding 8 before the game has even come out, do you think you should take it a bit slower?

Im just warning you now too: from what I've seen of this forum a lot of people are going to come and be sarcastic and rude, insult your ideas, flame you and otherwise bash you, amongst all the people that will be nice. Ignore them.

the horrible ones that is, not the nice ones.

damn dude, sounds huge, hope it works out for you

Just curious how you're going to have the mod 'build' medium size cities? I think it's a great idea, but can't imagine how it'd be incorporated.

Well, I salute your initiative, and would gladly give you feedback if you need some... unfortunately I don't have a computer so I won't be able to test it. but you have my support!

And yes, om nom nom is right. plenty of people will get rude and sarcastic. but seriously, you shouldn't let them bother you. I'm pretty sure there was someone that told the Beetles that they'd never be popular. keep that in mind

That's all some very good points, and it's a lot of the stuff that I've had going through my head. In a way, I feel like what I'm doing now is making recipes for mods. I know what I need for the product, and I'll know which dialogue and options I'll want for everything.

The races are one thing that I've been wondering about a whole lot, but the idea relies on most of them. I know that bg2408 primarily used races created by other modders. What I've been doing is prioritizing the order in which I make all the quests, trying to include as many main quests as possible without using too many resources. My main in Oblivion was a Maormer. Coincidentally, this is the first added race that you encounter, so I plan on making that one myself. I know that it may take some time before other modders create their own custom races, but I'm sure that Falmer will be included in them. This will be a long project. Hopefully my style will be to the liking of the community at large, but if not then there's nothing I can do to make them happy since this is the only style that I have. I'm gonna give this mod my all because I've already fallen in love with the story and a few of the characters. Still, you're entirely right, there's a lot of work ahead of me and it'll take a lot of time, as well as a bit of luck.

A large amount of the city will be interior cells because it will be built outward from a stronghold. I've picked a spot out on the map, but I don't know how free that spot will be. My basic plan is to mod a dwemer ruin into the side of a mountain. The spot I've chosen is actually directly east of Markath, and Markath is what inspired the shape of it. It's a very vertical area, and the city itself will be around 80 feet tall from the city streets to the "castle" (which is actually the original dwemer ruin with a redesigned interior). There will be a ground-ish level settlement with housing, stores, and a religious chapel. Halfway up, there'll be access to what lies beneath the dwemer ruin that you can discover early on, and then at the top is the entrance to the dwemer ruin. The dwemer ruin will be there as long as the mod is loaded, without having done any quests.

The building process will happen in phases. Depending on the Creation Kit's abilities, how well I get to know it, and how many semi-built cities I want to include, the process will look a bit different. A good reference in Oblivion is one of the Kvatch mods, I can't quite remember which. You leave for several days after a quest and come back to see improvements. Basically, quest is completed, you're told to leave for a few days. Later, you get a quest update, saying that you should check it out, and that quest update is scripted to change which resources the game uses to represent the city. When you return to the city, you're not seeing the original "Kvatch Stage 1" or whatever, but you're seeing the next stage, and the original is no longer in use. It'd be easiest if the entire city were a closed cell, and I could potentially do that, but I'd prefer not to. I won't know exactly how to do it until I get intimate with the CK, but I'm confident that it'll be possible because it was possible with the CS in Oblivion.

I think being a Xivilai might be too overpowered. They can use 2h weapons in one hand, and are the(physically)most powerful daedra.
They also have very little magicka and very high spell absorption

The rest sounds really interesting, especially building a city with daedric architectural style.

Well...as far as the location..we haven't even seen the area yet...
shouldn't you wait before you base stuff on an area revealed through a skyrim map, or a screenshot?

Yes, I sort of misspoke. I essentially used a terrain map on the imperial library to pick out a space, and then base my sketches on the city on that space. It didn't rely on a terribly large area, and I could utilize the concept in order to build the city on any mountainside. I realize that even if I had picked out some place based on solid evidence that the local geography would be absolutely perfect, then I can't help it if that area is an important quest location. My basic geographic need: the side of a mountain, preferably far away from major cities.