A ZNPC Update but Spooky

Since my last update, a little over a month ago, I've added 12 new NPCs, started writing up 6 more, added 3 quests, a new weapon, and got some other miscellaneous things done. Needless to say, September was probably my most productive month yet.

As I mentioned I would do in my last update, I've shifted my focus, for now, over to almost completely mundane, civilian NPCs. Some notable NPCs among these "normal" characters are Abaalah, an elderly Kothringi student at the College of Winterhold, Ohalyria, a Maormeri assassin working for the Imperial Legion, and Llerukal, an ordinary miner in Dawnstar.

Additionally, I've added a new follower. Well, a follower pair. For 1500 gold, you can hire the "Champion of Wayrest", Jacque Mercois, and his Kothringi partner, Nuriel. I've also decided to cut down on dialogue for my "super followers". This project takes much more work than I anticipated, and to add the 1000+ lines to each super follower to make it on par with Interesting NPCs AND build the 4 Snow Elf colonies would take way too long. The NPCs designated as super followers still have a lot of dialogue, much more than other followers, and their traits, but they won't have nearly as many lines as those from Interesting NPCs. 

Among the new quests is an unmarked one with a Lilmothiit scammer, Amaret. Play your cards right, and you might score The Beguiler, a nifty little dagger that does more damage to enemies under the influence of an Illusion spell.

Details on the newly added NPCs, quests, and everything else that's been added since my last update will soon be added to the appropiate sections of the Zebsirous NPC Expansion page, located on the sidebar.

Make Skyrim Diverse Again

     This last month has probably been my most productive one yet. I've added Zharthand, the Dwarven prison, as well as Azmith, a Dwemer warlord with a prosthetic arm who is capable of summoning beasts from his prison plane to defend him. Pretty badass.

     I've also created a small quest involving a Kothringi wanting you to bring a cure for vampirism to his sister. At first glance, this seems like a standard fetch quest, but I threw in some twists: 

• Firstly, there's no clue in the game as to where the sister is. However, her location never changes, so if you find her in one playthrough, you should easily be able to find her in any subsequent playthroughs.

• Once you do find her, there's no guarantee that she'll even want the cure. You'll have to convince her. If you're successful, she'll take the cure and gladly join you to be reunited with her brother. But if you can't persuade her, you'll be forced to kill her.

     Regardless of the outcome, the brother will reward you. If she's dead, he'll give you some gold, but if she survives, he'll become available as a super follower. Like all super followers, he will have additional conversations during certain quests, as well as a character trait, which I'm still working on.

     I've additionally begun working on some regular characters with no real quest interaction, such as a Kothringi thane with a secret, and an aspiring Lilmothiiti alchemist. If anyone reading this has any ideas for NPCs, preferably Kothringi Lilmothiit, and Maormer, please comment them! The goal is to have 40-50 NPCs of each of those races, and I can only think up so many characters at a time.

     Also, I recently finished a naming conventions spreadsheet for my races. I originally made it to make the character naming process for ZNPC quicker, but I figured that some of you who try to give your characters lore-friendly names might make use of it too. So here it is!

I'm Back! (Even Though You Didn't Know I Was Gone)

A week or so after my last update, my grandfather passed away. If I'm being completely honest, it really made me lose all inhibitions to complete ZNPC, or any other mods, so I stopped developing it.

Fortunately, about a week ago I started thinking about all the cool projects that wound up abandoned, and how irritated I was by the fact that they never came to fruition. I really don't wanna be one of those people, so I decided to continue this project. I've also started working on another small-ish project that I don't feel like announcing just yet, but things are somewhat back to normal.

I should be making some big progress in the next month or so, but only time will really tell. Either way, it's nice to have my motivation back!

The Project (Still) isn't Dead!

Anyone who reads this blog probably already knows that I'm super bad at updating on schedule, but please don't interpret my lack of updates as a sign that the project is dead. We've actually begun working on the first of four Snow Elf colonies, Sepredium! Additionally, Valion's questline is 100% complete. The only remaining thing to do with the Sea Elven pirate is to add more follower dialogue. When completed, he'll be locationally aware, as well as quest aware!

In other news, I've started up Prometheus, the Discord server dedicated to teaching people how to mod! If anyone is reading this and would like to learn, you can join the server with this link: https://discord.gg/kRtHB3C

The Good, the Bad, and the Slightly Less Bad

As I previously warned, it's likely that these updates won't be every other Saturday as I originally intended. This is proof of that. However, even though these updates have slowed down, mod development has not.

Valion's mini-questline is finally almost complete. The remaining two or three bugs should be squashed within the next couple of days, as should the previously mentioned Dwemer Prison. Upon completion of these, I plan to finally implement our Dwemer warlord, and then move onto the first Snow Elf colony, Sepredium, while also adding a couple commoner NPCs here and there throughout Skyrim. I'm not sure if we'll have enough content, but perhaps I'll be able to put together a small teaser trailer once Sepredium is finished.

I've also come up with a new concept for the mod's super followers: Character Traits. Basically, to further set them apart from typical followers, the super followers added by the mod will have abilities exclusive to them, ranging from simple, yet unique, passives to conditional summons. So far, only one trait has been implemented, to Valion. His trait, Duelist, gives him a 15% damage boost when wielding a one-handed sword and no shield, as well as a 15% chance to negate all damage from an attack blocked with a one-handed sword.

As for Cepheus, I've decided to put it off until ZNPC is completed, or at least more developed than it is now. I haven't abandoned it, but knowing myself, if I continue to juggle multiple projects, one will end up abandoned.

On the bright side, I've decided to create a Discord server devoted to teaching people to make mods, while still acting as a reference for those who already have a decent grasp on it. If anyone who reads this is interested, comment on this and I'll link you to it once it's up!

The Dwemer Update (Part 2)

I've gotten a new job since the last update and they seem to enjoy scheduling me for the weekends, so these updates may not be exactly two weeks apart as I originally intended. So if a new update isn't posted on a Saturday, or even a Sunday, it doesn't mean the project is dead!

I've done some more testing of the existing two quests, and unfortunately had to rebuild Friends In Deep Places from scratch, and change some of the dialogue. On the bright side, both quests are now 100% bug free, and partially voiced, thanks to the talented Complete the Circuit! 

In the last update, I detailed a lot of the Dwemer stuff that ZNPC will add, but I barely mentioned anything about the followers. Unfortunately, Dwemer names are hard to come up with, so they don't have any at this moment, but I should have a decent Dwemer name generator sheet completed soon. Firstly, we can't just have Dwarves living without any explanation and still keep the mod lore friendly. Of course, I could use the Morrowind excuse of being in a plane of Oblivion at the time of the Dwemer's disappearance, but for seven or eight NPCs? I'll need more than that. So after a bit of thought, and a couple of Smallville episodes (I decided to rewatch it, it was such a great show), I came up with an idea: prison planes. Basically, unruly Dwemer prisoners would be thrown in these portals that led to an unknown plane, where they'd serve their sentences.

In ZNPC, the player will be able to encounter a couple of these portals in a creepy Dwemer prison, and if the respective activator is found, the portal will open up, and a prisoner will be released. One of the releasable prisoners is a Dwemer warlord with Dwarven metal arm, who will be available as a f ollower after completing his quest. Another follower will be a Dwemer scientist, who modified one of the aforementioned portals and sealed himself inside. Anyone who liked Arcade from New Vegas should like this guy. I'd go into more details about their quests and whatnot, but I don't want to spoil everything, so you'll have to wait until the mod is released and see it all for yourself.

Now, onto the Cepheus update. This week, we have the Jode stone, which is unlocked after completing 30 quests.

• Jode's Vigor - Choose one of three random buffs to apply for 120 seconds.

I made this power to parallel Andromeda's Ultimate Power. Instead of fortifying one of three schools of magic, it provides a buff that a warrior would find especially useful. The buffs are to:

• Weapon damage

• Damage resistance

• Block

• Power attack damage/cost

• Health

• Stamina

That's all for this stone. Next up is the Sithian Stone, which I'll detail in the next update!

The Dwemer Update (Part 1)

Things have slowed down since the last update, as most of the ZNPC team has been busy with finals. However, everything should be back on speed by the time I post the next update. As slow as its been, there's still been a little bit of progress.

Two new NPCs, both Kothringi Dawnguard members, have been written up, and dialogue for Valion's crewmen is just about finished. Also, we've gotten a new, sleeved variant of Ancient Falmer Armor for the Snow Elf colony guards! 

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to start any of that Dwemer stuff I mentioned in the last update. But I did say I'd have more details, and I'm a man of my word! First off, we have the Dwemer Workshop. Its only denizens are an old Dwarf and his daughter, who will be marriageable after a short quest. The old man sells unique Dwemer items, such as a mechanism that can automatically pick locks, or a sword that causes steam damage. He can also modify Dwemer Apex staves by optimizing them (making them lose charge more slowly, but reducing their damage/duration) or by overclocking them (Increasing their damage/duration, but making them lose charge more quickly). For brevity's sake, that's all of the Dwemer stuff I'm gonna talk about in this update. In the next one, I'll talk about the Dwemer followers we have so far.

Now for the Cepheus update. This week we have the Aetherius Stone, which is unlocked after completing 20 quests.

• Aetherial Rain - Summon a swarm of magic anomalies for 120 seconds.

So these anomalies aren't exactly like the ones encountered in the College of Winterhold questline. These ones do almost no damage, but their attacks apply a stacking debuff of 5% weakness to magic for 10 seconds. And while this effect is tailored to benefit mages most of all, anybody who uses enchanted weapons can benefit from it.

That's it for the Aetherius Stone. In the next update, I'll talk about the Jode Stone and its warrior-boosting power, Jode's Vigor.