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> New Dragon Club, Oblivion -> Skyrim
ghastley
post Oct 19 2017, 02:56 PM
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The Red Dragon Club in the Imperial City closed down, and its staff dispersed when the city was invaded by the Thalmor. The Blades took over the espionage, and you all know how well that turned out.

However, the other part of the business just re-established itself in safer territory - i.e. Solitude in Skyrim - taking over an under-used wing of the Blue Palace, opposite the haunted Pelagius wing. There is no entrance from inside, only a door off the courtyard, so it doesn't interfere with courtly proceedings, but is convenient for visitors to the Palace. It caters to the diplomatic visitors to the province, as well as its wealthy merchants.

I've ported the Oblivion Dragon uniform over to Skyrim, although it's only the 100 weight as yet. I cloned the interior of the Pelagius wing, and removed some of it, which corresponded to the part occupied by the palace bedrooms. What was left got a new entrance door, and a general clean-up. The upper level, which was just a corridor to Sheo's realm in the other wing, now has bedrooms, while the ground level has a bar, and the basement is a restaurant. I'm working on a dancer, with flute and drum accompanists, for one corner of the bar. Dance animations available are all a bit modern, and/or too wide-ranging for the small space.

The place needs cluttering, and populating with a few more NPC's, but the main task is creating some quests to go with it. I'm looking through the generic dialog to see what radiant quests I could kick off from patrons or staff talking with the player. No spy quests needed, as it's just a club this time, but I'd expect the Thalmor Embassy to want to keep an eye on it.

It may run into the usual issue of needing custom dialogue, and screech to a halt, but so far, so what?

This post has been edited by ghastley: Oct 19 2017, 03:09 PM


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ghastley
post Oct 20 2017, 06:59 PM
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I've made the 0 weight version of the Uniform mesh and created a few staff to wear it (Dunmer, Nord, Imperial) added a Breton in Chef's outfit to the restaurant, and a male Orc bouncer in merchant's clothes. Still adding clutter. The chef's outfit may get a shorter skirt.

I may add a package to Erikur via a quest alias to have him drop in for an evening meal. He sandboxes at home from 8-12 P.M. and could spare some of that. Thinking of having him meet up with a Thalmor agent (female, not in uniform) to discuss trade. This could lead to a new quest.

I would like to find gaps in others' schedules to bring them in to the bar. Maybe Bryling and Falk, together. Aquillius Aeresius (Vittoria Vici's house-guest?) is also a likely candidate. Add in a few new permanent residents who never go anywhere else, just to populate the bar. Mostly male, of course.

The new NPC's could give generic radiant quests assuming that doesn't need new dialogue.


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ghastley
post Oct 23 2017, 02:06 PM
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I found a dance animation that wasn't j-pop disco and now there's a dancer with flute and drum accompanists in the corner. A customer is sitting in the front row, and can't take his eyes off her. Both of those are significant "new things" - my first custom idle marker, and finding out how to force the "look at" for an NPC.

Then I had to go update all those makers when I added a sandboxing customer, who tried to use them. It's a simple job to flag "not for sandbox use" but it needs to be remembered.

Next task is to see if I can get the waitress to carry the drinks tray around. All the instances of "tray of drinks" in the game now are standing still, but there's an offset variant that should work. It should behave like the "carrying wood" animation, or the basket of flowers, if I can figure out all the details. There could be a collision issue to work around.

If that works, then the waitress in the restaurant wants to patrol the tables, and take orders.



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ghastley
post Oct 25 2017, 01:50 PM
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Minor tweaks: The club door is locked and all occupants have a key. The player gets theirs when they furnish the bedroom of Proudspire. It's lying on the bedside table with a note. Membership comes automatically as a prominent home-owner in Solitude.

I'm looking for non-dialog ways to give the player quests, and am thinking a note delivered with their meal (find it under the plate when that is taken away?) Could use the same one every time for a whole series. That would require a waitress animation suitable for delivering/clearing a plateful of food. Subsequent quests could use the dead drop method used in Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood quest line. Reward and next assignment together added to a pre-announced container on completion. I can create a whole bunch of these with a keyword of their own, and have the radiant system pick one at random.

There's a lot of generic service dialogue from taverns that should be shareable. I'm trying to find appreciative remarks suitable for the dancer's audience. Also a pipe/drum tune that she can dance to.

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Background story is the Red Dragon Organization is working in secret to thwart the Thalmor. If the Civil War is undecided, then it's keeping the Dominion from direct military involvement in Skyrim. The Empire seems to be trying to contain Ulfric rather than defeat him, as an end to the conflict would tip the Dominion's hand. The Thalmor want both sides weakened, but the RDO want them eventually reconciled.

If either side has "won" the CW, then the RDO needs it rekindled, to stall a Dominion invasion, before the victorious side regains its strength and turns its attention to the Dominion.

Any scenario requires adjustments to the balance of power, which is actually held by the uncoordinated bandits, not the CW sides. So action against bandits holding forts, killing local leaders in their hideouts etc. will let the local Legion and/or Stormcloaks refocus on their objectives.

After the CW, the player may or may not have attempted to clear up camps belonging to the other side. Their random patrols will not have stopped. So there is a residue that can be rekindled in theory. Keeping the bandits out of the way will help that.

Bottom line is RDO versus bandits to keep CW keeping the Dominion away.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Oct 26 2017, 04:39 PM


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