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.

[Renee]

Yeesh, I'd be leery. I skipped the entire Oblivion Main Quest several times so I could pretend my PC guys & gals were now in the 4th Era. Skyrim though... yeesh. You just never know what's going to go wrong next.

Good luck! Hope you don't wind up extremely frustrated!

[SubRosa]

I did have one odd thing happen. After the first night of sleeping, Ryo woke up to find Esbern in his house. Esbern wanted Ryo to kill Alduin and Parthurnax, and vaguely said something to the effect that he and Delphine could not support Ryo otherwise. So the standard Parthurnax Ultimatum that you run into during the main quest. Then he walked out, presumably headed back to Sky Haven Temple.

I also did the Bleak Falls Barrow/Golden Claw quest. You still get the latter from the guy at the Riverwood Trader (I forget his name right now, oh, its Lucan!). It went entirely as normal. Except that at the very end the word wall for Unrelenting Force was still active. It taught me the word as normal, and went dormant afterward. Even though I already knew all 3 words and had unlocked them all thanks to the Skip Main Quest mod. Afterward I still knew Unrelenting Force, and it worked as normal. So nothing really happened there, except the word wall was still active when I found it.

[Renee]

Wait what Ryo? You rolled Ryo? Are there any pics? Hold on. Gotta check Skyrim Screenshots.

Nope, not yet. Hope we'll see him soon. Because as far as I can remember, I can't remember you ever rolling a dude.

But I can totally see him in Skyrim for sure. He can fade away while using one of those shouts, I think there's one which actually makes the player invulnerable for X number of seconds, too. But anyway, good to hear things are going smooth, so far.

[SubRosa]

I rolled both Ryo and Avery as toons. I don't know if I am going to play them or not. I just got inspired to see what they would look like in Skyrim. In other games like the Baldur's Gates and Pillars of Eternity I often create them as companions for January. So it is interesting to see what they are like here.

As you know, I don't normally play male characters. I got sick and tired of it being the only option games forced on me a long time ago. So I don't know if I will actually play either one full time. I am also thinking it might be time for January to return to the Boston Commonwealth for another Fallout 4 playthrough. So I don't know.

[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?

[SubRosa]

I took Ryo to Whiterun. I got the usual forced greet from the guard at the gate, saying the city was closed due to dragons. I did the usual "Riverwood calls for Aid" and he let me pass. I think every response there works to let you in.

Once in the city I got all the usual scenes and activity. In Dragonsreach I was immediately force-greeted by Lydia, who explained to me that she was my housecarl. I ignored her as usual, and she went away as usual. There was no force greet from Irileth, and Farengar and Balgruuf could be talked to normally. So about what I expected.

[macole]

Does this do anything for the civil War?

Poor Lydia, she get ignored a lot. I almost feel sorry for her.

[Renee]

Yikes, that sounds tiresome, all those dragons just as you're trying to walk from one location to the next! So the mod does work, but it does some strange things, too. I think I also have random dragon attacks set to rarely occur. Probably once every 30 days as well, with some small amount (maybe 10% chance) of actually rolling. Thing is, dragon attacks should be challenging and special. In my opinion they shouldn't happen all the time. In the tablegames they were very rare, and I've tried to mirror this through mods.

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.

Yeah, that's true. There's a lot dependent on what we do in the game, such as we can't just do the Main Quest without needing to JOIN Mages College, if I remember correct.


macole: Lydia was actually beloved by a lot of gamers back in the day, but yes, I get what you're saying. Amongst us here at Chorrol, she's not used as often. An example is with Claire Voyance, my cleric from Chorrol. She has Breezehome and she has three followers: two of them are vanilla and one is mod-added. She also has Lydia, however, Lydia does nothing but stay in Whiterun most of the time. She guards Breezehome and watches over Lucia.

Maybe it's because Lydia is given to us, while the other followers Claire has were all hand-picked and chosen. Lydia just seems sort of ... "eh" compared to the hand-picked ones.

[SubRosa]

Does this do anything for the civil War?

Poor Lydia, she get ignored a lot. I almost feel sorry for her.

I don't know about the Civil War. I never do it myself. As far as I know, you can still do it normally. I did not see any complaints about it on the mod's comment section.

Yeah, that's true. There's a lot dependent on what we do in the game, such as we can't just do the Main Quest without needing to JOIN Mages College, if I remember correct.

The game tells you to go the College, and the only way in is to join. But you can skip it entirely and go straight to Septimus Signus' lair on the ice. Granted, you are completely skipping over the story that tells you to find Septimus as well. So it breaks immersion. But you can do it that way. I did when I played January last month, as I did not want to start the Mages Guild quests at the time.

[Lena Wolf]

Lydia just seems sort of ... "eh" compared to the hand-picked ones.

"I am swoooooooorn to carry your burdens!"

I think "eh" doesn't quite cut it.

[SubRosa]

I don't like companions in general in Elder Scrolls games. They always run right in front of me when I am shooting an arrow or a fireball, and insure that I shoot the in the back. Or the do the exact opposite, and turn me into a pincushion. Finally, they can never keep up with me when I am out exploring, because I love to jump onto things, and off of things, and get into all those out of the way places that are hard to reach.

In the isometric style games like Baldur's Gate, or Pillars of Eternity, or Kotor, I love companions. Because the way those games are built, companions don't have all these issues.