Bear Riders for Skyrim, or Bare Riders - it's much the same thing. Options

[ghastley]

Again, I'm splitting this off from Fleur, as it's getting a life of its own. Since she's helped me work on the armours, and done some exploring for me, I'm getting into making a mod.

The Bear Riders that were just outside Bruma in Oblivion, have moved just over the border into Skyrim. I found a location next to the road to the border crossing for the HQ, and added a "Gudrun" and a "Timo" to the staff. The building is an inn, with bedrooms and forge in the basement. The main floor has facilities for alchemy and enchanting. It's about the same distance from Helgen as Falkreath or Riverwood, so it could be a third option for the starting player to head off to join the Riders.

Joining the Riders is only for females. The bears insist on that, and they'll also require the right equipment on the rider. Their special armour can be forged only at the HQ forge, but tempered/improved anywhere. It all has the same stats as the equivalent regular armour of the same material, and is made from the same list of materials. If I can determine how to add a frost protection bonus, I'll do so. Since there's a perk to allow multiple enchantments, there may be a way to do that without blocking the player from adding another.

I haven't found many bears in the Falkreath region in Skyrim, so maybe the bears can come from other places, but the trainer lives and trains the bears in Falkreath? That'll give a little more reason to actually go there...

That was the case with Meija in the Oblivion mod. She lived in Falkreath, and the bears were sent from somewhere else (Solstheim via Windhelm?) for her to train, so she only had one at any time. I'm thinking that the player will have to raise the cost of training a bear before they get one, and the trainer will have a quest to do as well. If I have a "recruit another rider" quest, similar to the recruiting for the Blades, then she'd start training more bears as the candidates join up. There are also possibilities for issues with her supplier, and a whole lot more.

I need to find an outfit for the trainer, that's similar to the one Meija wore - gloves and arm protection, so she doesn't get hurt by roadside foliage, and boots with possible thigh protection for the same reason. Minimal torso coverage, to keep the bear happy, and they also don't like fur or leather in any quantity. Chainmail is OK, as long it it doesn't contact the bear. She'll be a Nord - the 50% frost resist is a must in that outfit - and have an amulet to provide even more. (And it could get stolen for another quest opportunity.)

This post has been edited by ghastley: Aug 20 2021, 06:38 PM

[ghastley]

I'm not yet at the point of assembling the quests, so you still have time to influence me.

I looked at who's available for recruitment, and found no female Khajiit or Argonian followers. So I've been leaning to putting the same limits on the player character - i.e. must be female elf/human. But another part of me wants to write quests for "friends of the riders" who would be everyone else. So I suspect I'll end up with an alternate path for anyone who's not eligible to ride a bear. They won't get the same "join the riders" and "get your own bear" quests, but I don't see why anything after that should depend on ridership.

Help me come up with a good starter quest for the non-riders, and it will be a lot more likely. It really wants to be a quest that depends on not being a rider yourself, which is hard to imagine.

What's already in place:

Riders' Lodge built - navmesh changes around building need work, but it's not yet a location with much NPC activity.
Interiors built - needs more clutter, such as ingredients etc. on shelves.
Unique bear rider armors can only be crafted at basement forge, not available to buy/sell at vendors. They can be improved at any workbench.
Gunilla as barmaid on main floor - she'll do the recruiting as well, once I've found appropriate dialogue to copy. I need to make her a high-end armor to wear for some quests I have in mind. I was thinking Stahlrim, but I don't want a Dragonborn dependency, so it may be Ebony.
Timo the smith in basement - standard blacksmith vendor at present.
Unna the trainer placed in Dead Man's Drink with placeholder outfit. She's currently topless, but her attire mesh can be changed just using Blender and NifSkope.

The CS is crashing on me when I try to do some of the quest-building tasks, which is why I'm working mostly on the assets.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Oct 16 2013, 02:51 PM