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The Grumpy Old Limey

"a little bit of this, a little bit of that and just a hint of the other"

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About

A British expat now residing in Dallas, Texas. I met my wife on the internet in the days when there was not much of an internet. Turned out well; I have a wonderful wife and we have been happily married since 1997. For all who said that was strange at the time [and maybe even feel it is an odd way to meet even now] I would simply say "Hey, after all those years we are still happy and still each other’s best friend". After working in pubs back in the old country I ended up in restaurant management once I arrived in the US. A few years ago I moved to the corporate office as a member of the training department and a year or so later transferred to the IT department.

Age creeps along and we all turn into something we would likely have yelled "no way" at in our youth. Pottering about in the yard is about as active as I get for the most part now. I do enjoy travel and especially enjoy cruising though I am not rich enough to indulge to the extent that I would like. I tend to be somewhat opinionated and many would say a little cynical at times and I have a tendency to share both my opinions and my experience and knowledge whether asked for or otherwise.

The Grumpy Old Limey - Skyrim Mods & Tools

As you must surely know if you are looking at this page Skyrim was released 11/11/11. If you are anything like me the game has occupied a lot of your time since then. I have never modded any game but I figured when the Skyrim Creation Kit came out that I would try. I have always felt I had some good ideas; no doubt all of you out there will tell me soon enough if that is the case. Currently this page is home to the Mod "Hall of the Dragon Priests" and to "Skyrim Stat Track", an Excel tool for packrats and completionists who want [or perhaps need] to keep track of just about everything.

Hall Of The Dragon Priests - A Quest Mod

First - The All Important Disclaimer

There is no reason this mod should interfere with your save games in any way and it never has with mine BUT my mantra is, and always has been, "better safe than sorry" so always back up your save games before installing and using mods.

Latest News

03/10/12 - A short break, catch up other web content and get some feedback
03/09/12 - Version 1.0 [Alpha] released
02/28/12 - Project started

Summary

Hall of the Dragon Priests introduces a new, extensive Quest Line to Skyrim and is based on the premise that the reward [Nahkriin] for completing the pseudo [no Journal entries] quest to collect the Masks of the Dragon Priests is really not that great for such a major undertaking. The MOD will feature multiple dungeons/locations and NPC's, new weapons and armor and eventually a player house.

Version Info

Current Version is 1.0 Alpha and contains the initial NPC and triggers to initiate the Quest Line along with the first dungeon; Necromancer's Refuge. I am new to modding not only Skyrim but any game so I am learning as I go - I have already learned that I hate navmeshes. This version while well tested is being put out there so I can get feedback on where I am so far. It makes sense to me to get a feel for what I am doing through the eyes of others before charging on with further development. If there are basic things that need to change now would be the time to do them when there are fewer cells to edit.

Current Issues

Followers do not enter - RESOLVED PRE RELEASE

Draugr ambushes sometimes do not trigger [alcove and seat markers not coffin markers] - not sure why this is; they all work almost all of the time but every now and again one does not - does not prevent playing the MOD just makes it a little easier - you can always attack them and they wake up - WORKING

If you leave the cell and come back the navmesh / AI does not work until the game is restarted - Creation Kit wiki says this is a known issue with .esp's and a resolution is on the way - BETHESDA ISSUE

Mod Content

NPC Herrold [1.0]
Herrold's Basement [1.0]
One Dungeon - Necromancer's Refuge [1.0]
One Miscellaneous Task [1.0]
One Side Quest [1.0]

Play Style

Hall of the Dragon Priests has been tested almost exclusively with a level 33 Kahjiit with 90 Sneak, 85 Destruction and 68 Archery and using a "sneak and snipe" play style. That is my normal mode of play, never been one for melee characters and the mod has not been tested with one. Almost every creature in Necromancers Refuge is a leveled actor - most set to either medium or hard - so in theory at least it should work for a melee player as well as for my player. At level 32 a fair number of the Draugr spawn as Deathlords so for me there is a reasonable challenge but I am only one person with a distinct play style and I will be more than happy to tweak based on feedback.

Quest Markers have been added for all Quest stages as that is how the Vanilla game is constructed. For the "hardcore" among you you should be able to complete Hall Of The Dragon Priests without them and I believe you can turn Quest Markers off by editing your SkyrimPrefs.ini file [I have not verified this] as below:

[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=0
bShowQuestMarkers=0

Installation

Simple - download the HallOfTheDragonPriests.zip from here and then add HallOfTheDragonPriests.esp and HallOfTheDragonPriests.bsa to the Skyrim Data folder - most commonly:

Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\data.

The MOD is also available from the Steam Workshop with automated install and from TESNexus where you can use the Nexus ModManager.

Removal

Delete HallOfTheDragonPriests.esp and HallOfTheDragonPriests.bsa from the Skyrim Data folder - most commonly:

Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\data.

Lighting

The dungeon Necromancers Refuge is constructed using a very low ambient light setting and many light sources. On my test machine [Win7 64 Bit, 12 GB RAM, Intel Core i7 8 x 3.07 GHz, Twin AMD Radeon HD6800's in Crossfire configuration, Skyrim video set to high as detected at install, no tweaks] it runs with no perceptible performance issues and the light levels, to my eyes at least, are high enough to be comfortably playable but not too high to spoil the ambiance. I did however also test a couple of times on a Vista machine [32 Bit, 4 GB RAM, Quad Core 2.67 GHz, ATI FirePro V8700] that had video set to low [as detected at install - no tweaks] and the mod was so dark it was unplayable. If you find the mod too dark you can download an alternative HallOfTheDragonPriests.esp from here to replace the standard one. This file has a higher ambient light setting. There is no need to get another .bsa file.

Voice Acting

OK, I know; the voice acting sucks but it was the best I could do given that I had the choice of my limey voice or my limey voice. I will figure something out moving forward to improve the voice acting. For now I wanted to get the Alpha out to see what kind of feedback I got before I start developing the Quest Line further.

Compatibility

Most of the content is new and has no impact on the vanilla game but of course it has to interface with it. The MOD makes edits to three cells; one interior and two in the Tamriel world space. Specifically the three cells edited are - WhiterunOlavaTheFeeblesHouse, DawnstarExterior05 and Wilderness(8.29). If you run mods at the same time as Hall of the Dragon Priests that change any of these cells and load after Hall Of The Dragon Priests in your load order the entrances to the new cells introduced by Hall Of The Dragon Priests will not be there. You could still play the mod by using console commands at a couple of points - see the walkthru. No other conflicts of any sort are expected.

I Cannot Get Started Or I Am Stuck

See the walkthru.

Feedback

I check comments on the mod anywhere I find them. You can also email
skyrim@thegrumpyoldlimey.com.

Downloads

Skyrim Stat Track - A Utility For Pack Rats

What Is Skyrim Stat Track?

Skyrim is a huge game; there are always discussions about whether one game is bigger than another and which is better. Those discussions are for another day and another place. However it compares to other games without a doubt Skyrim provides us with a huge game world. There are hundreds of locations; there are hundreds of Quests and Miscellaneous Objectives. With all of the permutations available when you add enchantments there are thousands of weapons, pieces of armor and so on. For some the game is a journey where what was past is past and only the now matters; "I just found a better weapon than the one I have been using so I am going ditch the old one". For others every find is added to their already vast collection; customized player homes can contain hundreds or even thousands of items. For some the Quest Journal is all the record they need of quests; there are others who have the "completionist" mentality who want to track every task they have completed with the goal of completing every task in the game by the time they have finished. For some the world is a playground to be wandered without worrying too much about where they have been or where they are going. Others want to see everything and go everywhere - "that Fort has a locked door I cannot get through; I need to remember to go back later". Skyrim Stat Track might be just the ticket for such people.

Skyrim Stat Track is an Excel based tracking system to allow the pack rats and "completionists" of the world to record and document every aspect of their journey through Skyrim. Detailed records of items owned, quests and tasks completed and yet to be completed, locations visited, locations cleared, locations they need to go back to and so much more can be kept, organized and searched for one game or for anything up to five distinct games.

Features

Location Tracking - found, visted, cleared, looted, return, quests etc
Quest Tracking - not started [Full list of Quests and Miscellaneous Tasks], active and completed, locations, pre-requisites
Weapon and Apparel Tracking - owned, storage location, enchantments etc
Books, Spells, Food - owned, storage locations etc
Ingredients - found, storage locations, utility to find common effects
Ability to maintain up to five separate profiles with fully automated clear and reset
Creation Kit extract listing in excess of 20,000 Form ID's