Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

Well is this proper board to post ideas for quests and such.
Also wanna say hi, all these oblivion mods sounds too cool to be true almost
what i like in them is theyre kinda addons so they work alongside with original so you could run from cyrodiil to extra lands, or other solution like use ship from Anvil or so on, maybe NPC would be selling trips. its great idea have many dedicated teams making their own project cause every each of them is then unique with its own feeling. great!

Well i just had this idea pop on my head when i read Black Marsh wil have its own mod and i think its rather more "modern" sounding topic so it would fit to Black Marsh best i think. Argonian theme just made me think it..
anyway.

Within some Black Marshes town some argonians have a rumor that their people have started to disappear strangely. Theres been reports also some argonians have eyewitnessed strange creatures stalking near their town at marshes in the night. Not everyone in town believes these eyewitnesses. Considering them who have seen these creatures, they are telling they look partly argonian partly something else (up to you decide, human? daedra? something wicked)

There could be this argonian wizard (or alchemist, whichever to fit the theme better) who had been doing some forbidden tests in his at countryside mansion trying to cross argonian and some other race what you prefer (i still didnt think so far what would these "mutants" look) with terrible results. Instead he couldve summoned out bunch of aggressive "mutants" who killed their creator and now haunt the town at night. They are failure of creation having evil gene in them and they want to take out everyone reminding their summoner (the argonian wizard) for vengeance (they dont feel too happy for as what they are).

These creatures could be spotted surrounding marsh at nighttime. But killing them directly wouldnt make difference. They would be stalking, fast and strong. They would only get to town whenever its night and everyone sleeps, to hunt down the victim and drag to marsh (just the plot, told by npc maybe cause killing/dragging npc to outern marsh from town wouldnt work i think). So maybe you would have to observe at night and wait till one comes to town and follow him to the marsh (eventually this mutant would return to the Wizards mansion so youll find its location. Once you found their "nest", maybe in there you should take out all these
mutants.. or even better if possible to be created, use torch to set this mansion in fire. Or something.

I know it wasnt supposed to be this long "hi"-post.. went kinda complicated hahhah. That sounds like a B-class horror movie. Anyway thats my idea, happy to give them even if none likes it, even better if anyone invents to create something similar out of that or has ideas.

Anyway these landmods are huge projects but ill be looking forward to this and all the other big ones like Morrowind etc. good luck !

oh propably shouldve post this to "main subforum" part.. :/ and its not even near time for thinking quests yet i bet. but this post can be revisited much later too if anyone think it has something hehe

Hi there gravedigger, your quest idea sounds interesting. Not sure if they should have mutant gene thing going, but rather they're two different creatures bound togehter by dark rituals. I've always loved the idea of special monsters coming out at night and slinking around towns and stuff. What I've always thought would be really cool would be to have an uber NPC stalk the player, and try to assasinate him from time to time. Now it sounds kind of dumb, but the stalker would just stay within a certain distance of the player, it would act like a normal NPC, but if the player got near it would move away. With radiant AI and stuff it would have a life and what not, but then it would randomly choose a time to attack the PC, wait till the PC is in battle or something, start attacking, adn if he doesn't get the kill right away the stalker vanishes into the shadows.

"different creatures bound togehter by dark rituals"

YEAH. Thats actually what was thinking when i wrote wizard "summoned"..
i just didnt know what to call them in english so i put it "mutants" well it was kinda mest up cause i couldnt decide, other part i referred to "summon" and other part i was talking of alchemist (scientific way) but either way.

About that NPC stalking player there could be some quest about corrupted nobility in some town, didnt yet think how'd they be corrupted but anyway someone would ask you to find out. when youve found something out and return to Quest NPC tell about your discovery he would reward you with something. He would also reveal you, that the corrupted nobles have found out about you sticking your nose to their business and placed bounty on your head for freelancer assassins.

Your job would be kill the rich noble who placed bounty on your head, so he couldnt pay the money anymore and assassins would fade off your back. However to do this... you would have kill the assassin that has the letter from the Noble where describes the job to take you out and sum of reward. Because that letter would contain the name of the Noble. Once you took out the assassin who has letter you'd find bountyplacers name in it and have new topic for town NPC's "Where x lives?" either or you could just find it out yourself checking the doors of town.

There you said that the stalking NPC's would try to keep certain distance to player and look like normal town NPC. so youd have to find out who keeps following you (they would attack you with poisoned arrow or dagger if it they had good chance)
There would be couple of the assassins and only one would have the letter of assassination intructions from bountyplacer. Complicated?

Afterall i think that is pretty simple quest but sure needs some work to get it work well. I was thinking, when you would go to kill the noble who placed the bounty, something should be worked with guards so they dont rush in. Also when the assassins stalk you, you would have to let them attack first or guards would come for you. But that kinda makes sense.

More:
I was thinking of the letter assassin would have. You could read it. It would say from whom it is. Who to kill. And whats the reward. Like:

"As ive told you, ive found out this person called "playernameX" has been snooping around at wrong place wrong time. All you need to know is, he has stuck his nose to wrong place and so ive decided to place bounty on his head. I want him dead not alive. I know you are the ones always ready for some dirty job, and for what ive heard you're the best around here. Ofcourse i will reward you well! Ive decided to come up with bounty as high as "X" amount of gold.
When youve done the sweeping, meet me at my house. I will have two elite guads with me for security reasons. I hope you fast and silent success! Let that scum rot!

-Regards, Lord Garrett"

There! Now reading the letter you know much more. You know the nobles name. you know amount of gold hes willing to pay for assassins (and ofcourse when he waits at his house he has the gold with him, so after taking him out the gold is yours), you also know he will be guarded.

The assassin who has the letter, also might have the key to his house, or maybe another of assassins has letter and another the key. The key would be just because the door would be only openable with key, so player cant accidentally wander in the house before is possible with all sense.

Hunting Quest (weekly hunting competition, or daily whatever):

I think this would fit to marshlands. A bit like Cyrodiils arena, but this time its about the best hunter of Black Marsh. Or if it was about "the best", the last stage should be quite hard! But anyway it could be the way to make some money or get item rewards, random affected by what stage you win.

Im not sure if its possible to script it, might be too hard

Say in the certain town theres hunting competition repeating certain time like weekly or every 2nd day.
All stages could be within 1 day and have certain amount of time to complete.
Like first begins at the day, while last and the hardest takes place at the midnight.

Gather like 5-10 hunters (depending how much they slow down the game)
per round. The hunt takes place at surrounding marshland. Have time like 10-15 reallife minutes to hunt as much as you can and return to the quest NPC in time.
You must return with as much meat as youve got from hunt down animals (meat is marked specific way so its different than normal meat, or something so you cant just take meat if you already had any in the pack and use that as cheat).
The one with most meat wins the round. The better animal the better points per meat. Is it possible to set AI NPC for hunt within certain area certain amount of time and return to the quest NPC when he's finished?

Round 1 (earlier day)
Mostly deers, maybe few wolves. Not sure which should be more valuable since by defaualt deers run, wolves attack. Allowed to take the meat from any killed "quest animal" even if you didnt make the kill but other competitor. Taking someone elses killed animal meat drops his disposition to 0 and he can attack you, meaning you must fight for your life and this may ruin your chances to win by taking valuable time. You can also attack if someone takes the credit of your kill. Otherwise killing is not tolerated and will result losing. So if someone mistakes taking meat from your kill you can nail him, but killing makes half of the meat he carries disappear to balance this.

Opponents: Mediocre archers and blade wielders mostly.

Round 2 (later day)
Some deers, mountain lions, and few bears. The harder more points. I was thinking maybe deers shouldnt have much less pts to give than lions since they run. But lions are agressive tho. Bears there should be only few and make them most valuable. Same killing rules than Round 1.

Opponents: Better archers, faster running bladewielders, and a good mage or two.

Round 3 (midnight)
The hardest round. More like the last man standing. The score is to hunt down some pretty tough aggressive wild animal. How about adding some mythical creature like Manticora? Or similar. Theres only 1 of those. You must get its heart.(brutal i know). Its scripted to avoid any npc or pc, hide and stay out of sight, move alot. Untill someone gets within certain range it turns aggressive. Bring its heart to quest NPC within certain time to win.

Killing in this round is allowed ever since first person kills the beast and takes it heart: "Someone has found the heart of X!" or "You have the heart of X!".
When someone has it, or you do, prepare to play dirty or run! Cause everyone wants to win this! However to prevent pc just waiting at the npc for someone else to find the heart and then kill him, killing is possible only at out of quest npc's sight, or some watchtower next to him which observes competition. Killing in the sight results loss. "Sight" can be some area, maybe longer than he'd actually "see", text telling "Youre now out of watchtowers sight" (can kill, if anyone has found heart), "Youre now within watchtowers sight" (cant kill under any condition). Killing here would be tough option, since opponents on last round are elite.

Opponents: Good archers, fast runners and few tough mages. Maybe 1 above others ranked "current champion"

I know this isnt very realistic hunt competition but i'd think if its possible to create something like this then especially last round chaos would be quite fun. Running with the Manticora heart in your backpack while encountering agressive mage attempting to get the heart himself. Or see someone else getting the heart, be succesful find him running towards quest npc in far horizon while assaulted with few other archers shooting this man down and someone else hit and run with the heart. Competitors should maybe have at least last round different agressivity ratings so not everyone would have high chances play dirty, but couple would do anything for the win.

I think hunting competition would be different and fun, at least little while Like Arena style mini-quest. But sadly all setting all this sounds quite complicated to me even though idea itself is not.

Originally i thought to go thru rounds like

Within one day:

Round 1 (early day)
-if wins then to->
Round 2 (later day)
-if wins then to->
Round 3 (midnight)

End of competition.


But there could be also better option. You could choose which you want to take part to, but 2nd round isnt unlocked untill 1st won, and 3rd untill 2nd won

Amateur Hunters(day, available for anyone)
-if wins then unlocks->
Professional Hunters(day_rain, availabe for amateur winners)
-if wins then unlocks->
The Great Hunt for Manticora(night_storm, available for professional winners)

But instead of those in row within 1 day having to participate all of them unless you lose like i first thought, here you could only pick one per hunting day and thats it. But to get latter ones you need to win easiest. So later on you could directly go for Manticora hunt only for example. Round should have some random in opponents and so, and pretty big difficulty difference between'em.

Those are some good ideas. I would like to do them, but I am unsure of the full capacity of RAI. We would have to "dumb" down some of it, but I think we could make it work.

Yes i was wondering RAI capacity too ofcourse all that would need some scrips that has nothing to do with freeminded AI. i havent been playing with Construction Set much and since i dont really have programmers talent hehe. so i dont know how well you could script them some rules that they must accept under certain condition and not able to use their "free mind" (aka RAI)

I personally don't like the mutant idea. But the hunter idea would be cool. We could make the equivalent of a giant arena with obsticles everywhere and things to hide behind. We could put in a bunch of traps too. You would have 3 hours to hide from the hunter, if you stay alive you get a bunch of money. You could also choose to be the hunter, though the reward would be less.

yes it would be nice to have some traps, nothings more rewarding than being on your last and luring your hunter to deadly trap and get him whacked!

Like theres Gladiator's Arena
there would be
Hunter's Arena

slightly different.
manhunt.

arena should be stylistically different from cyrodiil arena, made more for hiding places and traps etc.

now normally AI doesnt really loose track on player when it first time reconizes the player even if he ran out of sight. at least thats pretty damn hard.
i hear someone tweaked guards so that they dont reconize nearly as long as normally, i dont remember mods name but im sure other enemies could set the same way? so if reconized you still could actually get away to hide .. or something.