Official description:
Harness the power of the stars. Rebuild the defiled Orrery and unlock the secrets of this Mage Guild Inner Sanctum.
What you get:
- 8 new powers, accessability depends on moon phases; each power fortifies one
attribute by 20 points and drains another by the same amount
- One quest - retrieving stolen parts needed to repair the orrery
- One Dwemer orrery cell (technically two, but one is only the entrance area)
Description:
As soon as this plugin is installed, the character you play with will get a message from Bothiel of the Arcane University that tells you to fetch parts that have gone missing (read: stolen) and that are required to repair the orrery in the center of the Arcane University. The letter tells you of the first location to search, a bandit camp. When you arrive and kill the bandits, you'll find a list of some more camps to visit and get parts from.
When all parts have been recovered, you can go to the Arcane University, hand them over to Bothiel and wait a day for her to work her magic. After that, the door to the orrery will no longer be locked, and you may enter. Inside, you find that the orrery has not been activated yet - that honor is yours. As soon as it is activated, the machine in the center starts to move and spin around, and the orb over the room opens and a giant moving ceiling-map of the stars is revealed.
Activating the console again will give you a power - which power you get depends on the phases of the two moons, masser and secunda.
Stargel's opinion:
Summary: not worth the money.
I read a lot of bad comments about this mod. The complains were pretty much all that there isn't enough in this mod for $1.89. I bought it anyway, thinking perhaps the orrery itself was worth it. I really liked the one in Redguard, and I thought maybe they had expanded on that, done something for those interested in lore and such things, perhaps with birthsigns marked in the sky, and a description for each. Well, the birthsigns are marked, but you have to look very closely, because they're so dark it's hard to see them at all.
Somehow, I expected something more elaborate. Don't get me wrong - the room with the great many spinny things is really nicely done, but... well... it just doesn't do anything. It just sits there and spins. You can't interact with it in any way.
And the quest - well. It's right up there with the fetch-the-ceramic-bowl quest in the Morrowind Mages Guild quest line. It took me about 10 minutes to go to all the camps and kill their inhabitants, and that was mostly travelling time. I'm not really sure why they bothered to include it at all.
Finally, the powers you get from merely touching the orrery console, that's something different altogether. Considering this is a _Dwemer_ orrery, the way this is implemented seems very tacky, nay, gimmicky. The Dwemer supposedly didn't believe in magic and that kinda stuff, yet you get magic powers from touching their mechanical devices? Sorry, that just doesn't work for me.
Aside from all that, there's still the fact that the orrery of all things seems like a very bad choice for "outsourcing" content. Before this mod was announced, I tried for about an hour to get into that orrery. I finally gave up and opened the door with the console, only to find out the room was entirely empty. When I later learned of this mod, it really _felt_ like this was content taken out of the game to be sold separately. Maybe this wasn't the case, but that's what it felt like, and not just to me. I know for a fact that a lot of people felt that way too. Not a very good way to start this whole business off. That aside, it's just not enough entertainment for the price, especially if you put it in relation to Oblivion's entertainment-to-price ratio.
Harness the power of the stars. Rebuild the defiled Orrery and unlock the secrets of this Mage Guild Inner Sanctum.
What you get:
- 8 new powers, accessability depends on moon phases; each power fortifies one
attribute by 20 points and drains another by the same amount
- One quest - retrieving stolen parts needed to repair the orrery
- One Dwemer orrery cell (technically two, but one is only the entrance area)
Description:
As soon as this plugin is installed, the character you play with will get a message from Bothiel of the Arcane University that tells you to fetch parts that have gone missing (read: stolen) and that are required to repair the orrery in the center of the Arcane University. The letter tells you of the first location to search, a bandit camp. When you arrive and kill the bandits, you'll find a list of some more camps to visit and get parts from.
When all parts have been recovered, you can go to the Arcane University, hand them over to Bothiel and wait a day for her to work her magic. After that, the door to the orrery will no longer be locked, and you may enter. Inside, you find that the orrery has not been activated yet - that honor is yours. As soon as it is activated, the machine in the center starts to move and spin around, and the orb over the room opens and a giant moving ceiling-map of the stars is revealed.
Activating the console again will give you a power - which power you get depends on the phases of the two moons, masser and secunda.
Stargel's opinion:
Summary: not worth the money.
I read a lot of bad comments about this mod. The complains were pretty much all that there isn't enough in this mod for $1.89. I bought it anyway, thinking perhaps the orrery itself was worth it. I really liked the one in Redguard, and I thought maybe they had expanded on that, done something for those interested in lore and such things, perhaps with birthsigns marked in the sky, and a description for each. Well, the birthsigns are marked, but you have to look very closely, because they're so dark it's hard to see them at all.
Somehow, I expected something more elaborate. Don't get me wrong - the room with the great many spinny things is really nicely done, but... well... it just doesn't do anything. It just sits there and spins. You can't interact with it in any way.
And the quest - well. It's right up there with the fetch-the-ceramic-bowl quest in the Morrowind Mages Guild quest line. It took me about 10 minutes to go to all the camps and kill their inhabitants, and that was mostly travelling time. I'm not really sure why they bothered to include it at all.
Finally, the powers you get from merely touching the orrery console, that's something different altogether. Considering this is a _Dwemer_ orrery, the way this is implemented seems very tacky, nay, gimmicky. The Dwemer supposedly didn't believe in magic and that kinda stuff, yet you get magic powers from touching their mechanical devices? Sorry, that just doesn't work for me.
Aside from all that, there's still the fact that the orrery of all things seems like a very bad choice for "outsourcing" content. Before this mod was announced, I tried for about an hour to get into that orrery. I finally gave up and opened the door with the console, only to find out the room was entirely empty. When I later learned of this mod, it really _felt_ like this was content taken out of the game to be sold separately. Maybe this wasn't the case, but that's what it felt like, and not just to me. I know for a fact that a lot of people felt that way too. Not a very good way to start this whole business off. That aside, it's just not enough entertainment for the price, especially if you put it in relation to Oblivion's entertainment-to-price ratio.
 Orrery Screenshot #01, 93.47 kb |
The entrance to the orrery. |
 Orrery Screenshot #02, 26.34 kb |
As you can see, the orrery is not yet activated. That will be your honor. |
 Orrery Screenshot #03, 35.59 kb |
Nothing's moving yet. |
 Orrery Screenshot #04, 80.89 kb |
This is where you switch it all on. |
 Orrery Screenshot #05, 54.14 kb |
As soon as the orrery is powered up, the roof opens up... |
 Orrery Screenshot #06, 58.21 kb |
...and the machine starts to spin and the planets start to glow! |
 Orrery Screenshot #07, 122.69 kb |
The base of the machine, with some more moving Dwemer gear in the background to the right, and the stairs to the observation deck on the left |
 Orrery Screenshot #08, 104.82 kb |
Some more Dwemer gear in motion |
 Orrery Screenshot #09, 127.64 kb |
You touch the console... |
 Orrery Screenshot #10, 141.51 kb |
...to get special moon powers! |
 Orrery Screenshot #11, 200.78 kb |
One of the powers you can receive from the Orrery |
 Orrery Screenshot #12, 179.03 kb |
One of the birthsigns you can see on the orrery star map. As you can see, it's a bit hard to see. |
 Orrery Screenshot #13, 175.95 kb |
Two more birthsigns. |
 Orrery Screenshot #14, 156.70 kb |
A wide-angle shot of the Orrery |
 Orrery Screenshot #15, 162.22 kb |
Another wide-angle shot of the machine |
 Orrery Screenshot #16, 145.36 kb |
Wide-angle shot from the base of the Orrery machinary |