[MOD] Main Quest Enhanced

[Sappho20]

Welcome to Daggerfall main quest Enhanced.

Mod on Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/418/

The aim of this mod it to fix some of the problems with the vanilla main quest and to create a number of new pathways through the main quest that
allows your player to choose a path that better suits their character. As such, many vanilla quests are optional. Finding out where Lysandus is buried, getting the restful dust, finding who has the emperor’s letter, finding what happened to the letter and learning about the Numidium all have three pathways that you can mix however you like to suit your character. Don’t want to talk to Medora? No problem. Want to avoid Wayrest? Sure. As you chose different pathways the others will close off so you will have to play multiple times to do all of the different paths. With V1.0 you can complete the main quest without doing any of the quest (except the last).

Features:
• Better main quest log to help you follow the story (not perfect by any means)
• Utilised the mod Famous Faces of the Iliac Bay to use some of these lesser characters in the story.
• Improved some of the vanilla quests
• Choices in quests can affect other quests better.
• join the ‘badguys’. Instead of working for the emperor, you can now help Lysandus’ killer(s).
• An Eighth ending to Daggerfall! (The cannon ending!)

Non-spoilers:
The main quest is progressed more by global variables than before which means the aim is to get information rather than doing specific quests. For example, who has the Emperor’s letter is known by three people so you only need to find one person who knows to progress. I have tried to keep the vanilla quests the same, but I have fixed some of them to be a bit better with multiple endings that have an effect upon how you move forward. There is less need to reload if you fail a quest as there may be another pathway. Also, if your character does not want to interact with certain npc’s or kingdoms then you have more scope to do this.

Changes:
• From the beginning. You were given Lady Brisienna’s letter before you left, and you will find it quickly after leaving Privateers hold (this means you can start heading to her sooner rather than waiting weeks), seeing Lady Brisienna is still optional.
• The letters from the courts of Daggerfall, Wayrest and Sentinal are not sent. I have removed the level requirement from the early quests so you can begin when ever you like. Also, it is up to you when you go to the courts to ask questions not for them to tell you.
• The three courts: When you first arrive at the courts of Daggerfall, Wayrest and Sentinal, many of the nobles will tell you about the letter and the death of Lysandus, some are little hints, some are outrageous lies and others will hint at the other quest pathways (many pathways are only hinted at, so unless you speak to the nobles you will miss them).
• The Eighth ending to Daggerfall: Now there is a new way to finish the game. You can give the Totem to someone else, and that person will use it to trigger a dragon break, the Warp of the West, the cannon ending! (At the moment all it does is play all of the ending videos, but I hope to add a proper quest later.) It just gives the option of becoming the ultimate agent of chaos.
• I have made it so that all that you need to complete the main quest is there on day one. So you can do it any way you like. Makes it more realistic that you could just stumble upon something major and you are not reliant on the quests to let you find things like the Emperor's letter.

Special Thanks:
Firstly, a big thanks to Cliffworms for his Mod: Famous Faces of the Iliac Bay. I have used many of the people introduced in this mod
to get the player to visit places not normally seen.
A big thanks to Ninelan for Daggerfall Expanded Textures the new sprites are great, especially Skakmat!
I would also like to thank Jay_H for answering my quest writing questions!

Requirements:
• Daggerfall Unity 0.14.0 or higher
• Famous Faces of the Iliac Bay
• Daggerfall Expanded Textures

Installing:
Copy the files into the quests folder, you will have to overwrite the quest _BRISIEN. (I have attached the original for uninstalling purposes only)
The quest will not affect current games and will only workon new characters. You could get this quest on existing characters, you will need to clear all quests and start the main quest again: In the console write 'purgeallquests' followed by 'startquest _BRISIEN', make sure you have completed all current quests you want to do before attempting this.
Uninstall:
You can just copy the original _BRISIEN file into quest folder, but all games using enhanced main quest will not change, new characters
will revert to the original main quest.

Updates:
V.1.0 The biggest change is that now you can complete the mainquest without doing any of the main quests!
All of the pieces are in play from the start: the Totem, the missing letter and Lysandus’ killer(s) can all be found straight away. There is even a secret way to contact Lysandus’ spirit and find out who killed him. This should allow the player even more freedom to play the main story as they want and also reduces an accidental soft-lock of the main quest if a quest is failed. If you think you know where the emperor’s letter is, then just go and look.

Secret Quests (Optional Download): to support the no mainquest quests play through I have created a batch of 8 commoner quests that hint to the player where the totem is, where the letter is and who killed Lysandus. These quests are like any random quest: you cannot choose when or where they will start and I have made them appear to be ordinary quests at the start. Some are vanilla quests with changes. The idea is that people must know something, who buried Lysandus? Someone’s friend knows a friend who knows a guy…

I have also created more rumours that give more backgroundto some of the main characters in the story, this should help player get a sense of some of the people and a direction of investigation.

I have now created a pathway that lets you join the ‘badguys’. Instead of working for the emperor, you can now help Lysandus’ killers directly. (see spoilers)

Changed King of Worms path to be a bit harder to start, nowyou need to have been told about him before you can begin (I felt players would be funnelled down this path too often.)

Re-wrote quest DW10017b (I just didn’t like the quest as it was!)
Improved quest DW10021d (I felt it was too bland)

V0.9 Fixed a bug in DW100019b/c that allowed you to talk to Gortwog to early and prevent you from getting the location of the Dust.

V0.8 Mostly dialogue updates. Thank you to nickstal1310 for suggested changes to S0000011 'Barenziah's Book' Book chapter is now a dairy as the chapter is freely available, added some extra tet for Gortwog.

V0.7 Initial Release.

Warning!!
*Spoilers ahead!!!*

Here are some of the specific changes:

‘Elysana’s Robe’ (S0000006):
I tweeked it and gave it 5 endings so that now you can do the following:
• Give Castellian the robe and leave (normal ending)
• Wear the robe and be attacked (normal ending)
• Take the robe to either Barenziah or Karethys. As rivals to Elysana and being mages, they will deactivate the enchantment and you can give the deactivated robe to Castellian, Elysana will not know the deception, but presumably will do by Elysana’s revenge.
• Give the Robe to Castellian and, as he transforms now into a knight sprite, you can defend him against the Seducers, he will reward you and this will annoy Elysana but impress the Dunmer.
• Give the Robe to Castellian try to defend him and he dies- At this point his guards arrive and assume you summoned the seducers to kill Castellian (kind of true) and you will get attacked and gain a permanent hit to your reputation in Wayrest (you can still return to Elysana to complete mission).

If Castellian survives the quest, then you can still do Helseth blackmail quest and Morgiah’s Wedding.
Completing Elysana’s robe (if Castellian dies) will stop youdoing Morgiah’s wedding as she will not trust you because you helped a rival.

The Werebeast (S0000007)
Now starts from the start, no longer triggered by S000005 Concern for Nalfaga.

Stronghold of the Blades (S0000010)
In an addition to getting the magic item for the Underking, you can also visit the King of Worms who will give you a fake item to betray the Underking and still get the information. However, there will be a consequence later.

Barenziah’s book (S0000011)
Starting this quest will stop you from doing Elyssanna’s Robe quest as you have sided with the Dunmer. (Doing Helseth or Morgiah’s quests do not as Helseth’s gives Elysanna more reason to want Castellian dead and Morgiah’s will result in Morgiah leaving the Iliac Bay to wed).
Helping Barenziah allows you to learn where the Emperor’sletter is, it will also trigger Elysanna’s revenge quest.
Helping Gotwog keep the book will mean that when you ask him about the emperor’s letter, he will give it to you without having to search for it. Also, if you are doing the King of Worms pathway to the restful dust then Gortwog will tell you where the dust is without having to fight.

Freeing Medora (S000003)
The Great Unicorn Horn is now available immediately! No need to speak to Medora first! You can do concern for Nalfaga and get the Horn at the same time.
Also, the Horn is how you choose your pathway to the restful dust. Whoever you give it to will determine the path.

Medora:
I have tried to reduce the number of times you have to fight through the tower to get to her (see the Horn above) Now when you get the restful dust from the Mummy Medora will appear close to you so you can give it to her straight away and avoid another tower visit.

Mantella revealed (S0000988)
This is now started by either the Orcish Treaty, Wayrest painting and/or Elyasana’s robe.

Mynisera’s letters (S000013)
This quest is now a back door to gaining Mynisera’s trust, you can do this instead of doing the werebeast to begin the emperor’s courier. Simply wait until Mynsiera returns to Castle Daggerfall and you will have two days to give the letters back to her.

The Emperor’s letter:
The emperor did not ask you to give it to Mynisera, He wanted you to destroy it, therefore you only need to pick up the letter to progress, and the letter is in play as soon as you know who has it and thus, where it is. No need to do Mynisera’s quests unless you want to know the full story.

Totem Totem, who gets the Totem (S000008)
This quest is started by lifting the curse on Daggerfall, having the emperors letter and knowing about the Numidium. Therefore, there is no specific quests that will trigger it. The quests Lich’s Soul and Orcish Treaty are optional depending on your pathway.

Lysandus’ tomb:
The sound ‘Vengence’ now plays outside Lysandus’ tomb until you lift the curse. Just to give the tomb some ambience, althugh I can't get the sound to play inside the tomb.

Helping Lord Woodbourne:
If you do Elysana’s Robe and LordCastellian dies (just don’t save him) you can go and talk to Lord Woodbourne. You must do this before you get the dust of restful death, otherwise you will have done too much to upset Woodbourne. Woodbourne Hall will be full of enemies as normal, but Woodbourne (A knight) will be passive. If you talk to him he will give you the chance to join him. Woodbourne will find a new way to sooth Lysandus that does not mean his death and it will allow you to help Gothryd as an ally.

Note:
This is a work in progress and there may be bugs that I have not found, there are so many variables to test them all.
I also hope to make some of the pathways have greater difference than it is now, but at the moment I need to see that it all works.

[Kamer]

Did you use any new global variables in this pack?

[nicksta1310]

Welcome to Daggerfall main quest Enhanced.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

Warning!!
*Spoilers ahead!!!*
...
‘Elysana’s Robe’ (S0000006)
...

Best spoilers ever.

Barenziah’s book (S0000011)

I just hope that it's no longer about a book that's already available to the public. I have some ideas for an alternative item, if you like.

Note:
This is a work in progress and there may be bugs that I have not found, there are so many variables to test them all.
I also hope to make some of the pathways have greater difference than it is now, but at the moment I need to see that it all works.

I look forward to trying it on one of my future playthrough attempts. It could be a while, though. I'll be taking a break from the game after the book reviews.

[Sappho20]

Did you use any new global variables in this pack?

Yes I use the following global variables: TookTheCure, OpenedShapeshifters, Unused10, Unused11, Unused12, Unused13, Unused14, Unused15, Unused16 and Unused17.
If there is a conflict with other mods I can easily change some of them.
I did have a version that did not use any and instead used

Code: Select all

run quest DW100008 then _totw_ or _totf_

However that only allowed two choices and made it difficult to add consiquences to later quests. I hope in the future to make dialogue in the quest take more advantage of what you did in the past. I would also love to make some random quests for commoners, nobles, thieves guild and dark brotherhood which can advance the main quest. I think it would be great if a random quest in a tavern could give you breakthrough in the main quest, gobal variables can allow this.

I just hope that it's no longer about a book that's already available to the public. I have some ideas for an alternative item, if you like.

I'm afraid I have not changed that, yet. Alas anything I wrote like that would be naff or like it came from the pen of C3PO, but I might have a go later.
I would 100% welcome any ideas you have!

[nicksta1310]

Thank you again.

The book doesn't need to include any text: you could just have a brief message when the player clicks the Use button and then the item, like the message that shows up for the "unknown author" version of Ark'ay the God, except that the book wouldn't be ruined and unreadable. I'll explain in the spoiler below.

Spoiler!

The message could say that the book's pages appear to be blank. Barenziah could explain that the book is enchanted with a spell that makes the ink invisible. The quest would be to retrieve the book before the spell is broken.

Here's my idea for the book itself: My Dearest Outcast by Barenziah. The book is a diary that Barenziah kept during and after her fourth pregnancy, which is referenced in the last chapter of The Real Barenziah. She's desperate to keep the contents of the diary secret, because it includes the identity and location of her youngest child (the father was Jagar Tharn). Barenziah would have no need to tell the player anything more than the book's title on the cover, so it's up to you whether or not there would be any more clues about the contents.

While I think about it, there was another thing about the quest that annoyed me: I found Gortwog's silence incredibly bizarre while I was searching Orsinium. I think there should be a brief message when the player enters the dungeon, something like... Gortwog looks you in the eye and speaks. "I know why you're here. Don't waste your time."

That message would be sufficiently ambiguous, given the potential locations of the book.

[nicksta1310]

Spoiler!

OMG! I just finished reading the description of Whispers from the East. I didn't know that you wrote that too.

I wonder if there could be a continuity issue, assuming that my guess about the baby is correct (I haven't tried the mod yet).

[Sappho20]

I hope you like that mod too. The identity of the baby is deliberately ambiguous, it could be someone special or it could be a nobody, you decide.

[nicksta1310]

Thank you for the clarification.

Spoiler!

I just realised that Barenziah's youngest child would be at least nine years old by then.
I really need a break after I finish the book reviews.

[nicksta1310]

Yes I use the following global variables: TookTheCure, OpenedShapeshifters, Unused10, Unused11, Unused12, Unused13, Unused14, Unused15, Unused16 and Unused17.
If there is a conflict with other mods I can easily change some of them.

You may want to declare the global variables that you're using in this thread. It may reduce the risk of mod conflicts in the future.

[Sappho20]

Good idea, thanks for that