Skip the Main Quest Options

[SubRosa]

I found two mods that allow you to skip the game's main quest. Both seem to use a bath file(s) that you run from the console, using console commands to complete the quests.

I tried out this one, which seems to go into more detail in by using the setstage command rather than just completequest for every quest. It also gives you all the dragon shouts you are taught by going through the main quest.

It has 4 batch files you run in order, each doing part of the main quest. That gives you the option of simply skipping over parts of it, and doing the others if you want.

I did find one bug with it. The creator suggested using it with an alternate start mod. I tried it with mine, and in the end I found that I was invisible when in first person! I could not see my hands or weapons I equipped. I could still hit things with my invisible weapons though. I could also see the effects of spells I equipped hovering in mid air, and they still worked too. I tried all the fixes for this bug I could find, but none worked.

So I went back and started a new game the normal way, and went through all of Helgen and down to Riverwood. Then I ran the batch files, and everything worked fine. I was visible in first person.

Today I went and tinkered a bit with the first batch file, and added in a couple more setstage commands to the starting quest. I tried it out, and afterward I could see my hands in first person! So that worked.

I changed the block of the first quest to this:

setstage mq101 0
setstage mq101 30
setstage mq101 50
setstage mq101 60
setstage mq101 65
setstage mq101 100
setstage mq101 150
setstage mq101 160
setstage mq101 180
setstage mq101 202
setstage mq101 240
setstage mq101 900

So if you want to have the main quest done, but are tired of doing it, this looks like it will take care of that for you. I have not tried playing very far after this. So I am not positive how it all works out. I guess I will find out.

It does add the attunement sphere and runed lexicon into your inventory so you can get into Blackreach and get the elder scroll if you want to. They are not marked as quest items however, so you can put them in a storage container for later, which is nice.

[SubRosa]

I played some more of Ryo last night. It was dragon gladiator school. I had 4 dragon battles walking from Falkreath to Sky Haven Temple. These were not the random dragons you encounter once every 3 days. I use the mod Timing is Everything to change the frequency of those to once every 30 days. Instead it seems that the Skip Main Quest mod awakens all of the buried dragons at once, as well as populates all the word walls with them. So the world suddenly becomes packed with dragons. As soon as you walk near one, its AI turns on and it starts doing dragon stuff.

It was crazy.

When Ryo got to Sky Haven Temple that was also weird. The head was lowered down blocking the way inside as normal. Then both Delphine and Esbern appeared, and they began their normal dialogue for when you finally get to the temple as if you were going through the main quest normally. You cut your hand on the seal, and the head opens up. Even as this was happening Delphine formally delivered the Paarthurnax ultimatum, starting the quest where they want you to kill him.

That was simple enough to deal with. You can use the setstage command to complete the quest without killing Paarthurnax, and everything goes back to normal. So I did that.

I was thinking of using this mod to get past things like the forced greeting you get when you walk into Dragonsreach the first time. It then ropes you deeper in the main quest. It would be nice to be able to buy and sell stuff from Farengar without getting caught up in all that. When I do non-main quest games I simply never go there at all.

But this is just really weird. I think I will take Ryo over to Whiterun and Dragonsreach to see how it plays out. Then I might be done with using this mod, at least for now.

On one hand I went looking for it because my last 3 or 4 playthroughs of Skyim I did the main quest. That is what happens when you are playing super heroes like Blood Raven or January. Now it has gotten tiresome. But it is also nice having the post main quest world, where I can walk into Dragonsreach, or get the notched pickaxe from the Throat of the World.

Since you can use this mod at any time, I might simply use it later in the game, rather than from the start. That way I could avoid the slog of doing the MQ. Or use bits and pieces of the mod, since it comes in 4 parts. Skipping past the Thalmor Embassy part would be nice. The same with Sky Haven Temple, since I never use the place. In fact, the only Blades part I like is going into the Riften ratway to find Esbern. I really love the old, decrepit architecture down there, and the gloomy feel of the place.

Come to think of it, a lot of the training sessions with the Graybeards are tedious as well. Maybe I could pull out the setstage commands for each individual quest, and run them separately if I want to, and still play through the others I still enjoy?