Hello,
I have attached my quest showcase. The story begins at the Imperial Archaeological Society in Old Ebonheart. A visiting scholar, Morivus Siluceius, asks for your help to find his missing student Lutemius Nuncienus. He claims the student stole his research on ancient Dunmer lineages. He promises a handsome reward if you find him, and suggests you look for him in colleges or libraries somewhere in the mainland.
You can find Lutemius in Firewatch College, in the room with Odunia Hare (who happens to teach archaeology). He claims that he didn't steal the research because he is the one that wrote it. Morivus is just exploiting him to do all the work so he can publish it under his name (players having studied a phd will understand the pain :) ). He asks you to help him instead. At this stage you can either i) demand he give back the research and go to Morivus for the reward (quest ends), or ii) help Lutemius instead.
If you go with ii), Lutemius asks you first to find a rare book for a literature review. This can be found in two rare booksellers: Jobasha in Foreign Quarter of Vivec, and Uleni Tenandus in Necrom. No matter which one the player goes first, the seller will inform them that they sold the last copy to Morivus who came just before the player. However, the bookseller will recommend going to the other shop (Vivec or Necrom) to get the other copy. Once back at Lutemius with the book, he will study it for 1 day and then tell you that you should both go to Thirvayn Ancestral Tomb to search for ancient texts on history of Dunmer families. He urges you to go quickly as Morivus may beat you to it (although it's not actually time sensitive).
At the small tomb, you find the text and Lutemius is excited to leave and study it. However, Morivus appears as you are about to exit, and forces you to make a choice. Give the text to him for double the reward he initially offered, or refuse and fight him. If you do the former, Lutemius will attack you (I made Morivus 10th level Mage and Lutemius 5th level Mage). The quest ends with either Morivus or Lutemius dead. If you side with Lutemius the reward will be smaller, but you will have the privilege of putting your name on the research!
As this is my first try modding, any comments are welcome! At the end of the quest the surviving NPC goes back to their original position, but I could equally make them disappear (implying they go back to Cyrodiil), to save space. Also, I am not sure whether I should give more hints on the location of Lutemius.
| Attachment | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|
 Clean StolenResearch.esp | 35.08 KB | 2022-09-22 21:47 |
2016-06-10 21:48
5 days 20 hours ago
Hello! Welcome to TR, and apologies for the delay.
Your quest layout looks good to me and it looks correctly scoped but there are some issues that I'd like to see changed
1. Stolen research (topic) is unneccesarily capitalized
2. You attached scripts to vanilla doors instead of making unique versions. This means that all doors with the ex_velothi_loaddoor_01 id now have that script attached. Either make unique versions or just make some invisible activators based on distance or something.
3. Background topic - reknown -> renowned
4. Rewrite the background/my trade entries. They both say the same thing but differently. Background should say something like, "I am X, Esteemed Scholar of the Imperial College." and 'my trade' should say what they actually do.
5. I think the directions to 'an imperial settlement' are maybe too vague. For the sake of this showcase I'd like you to change it to something makes it a bit more specific. The NPC says "I think its at a settlement with a college", but the player will naturally say "Ok, like what?". The NPC definitely knows which potential areas he could be, because there aren't that many. In this case I think the NPC should instead say something like "I think he's a at a mainland college, probably in Firewatch or maybe at (a place) in Helnim". Something to narrow it down and give the player some kind of lead. Hell, you could just say "he probably went to Firewatch" and be fine.
6. Clever use of the switch to ensure the player never gets to the bookseller first. I would update the Vivec/Necrom to give the booksellers name. They probably know each other, I would just flat out say "Maybe Jobasha in Vivec has a copy"
7. Just add ancient linages of the dunmer to the NPC's stock by placing it in their cell and giving ownership to them. Let the player use the normal bartering dialogue and let the topic simply say "Yes I have the book in stock"
8. Never say "I should" in journal entries (I should try another bookseller / I should return to Lutemius fast), instead use what you had previously like "Jobasha suggested I visit X in Necrom". For the warning part you can cut it entirely and just say "I found a copy of Ancient Lineages for Lutemius", the player will naturally know they should return.
9. Maybe add a topic filtered to nolore and nottid in the firewatch college so people can find where this guy is. The place is a maze, it would be nice to be able to ask npcs about Lutemius and have them say "Oh he just arrived, he's on the first floor studying with so-and-so".
10. Rewrite the bit about "Time to leave the tomb." The quest completely breaks if the player teleports out, the npc and the quest should demand that you escort him out so that that part fires correctly.
11. The last dialogue from Lutemius has some awkward phrasing, starting that second to last sentance with "But you did a good deed today. Farewell." should be rewritten to sound more natural.
12. The last forcegreet by Morivus should be in greeting 1, not 5. You don't want other quests to break it.
2022-09-22 21:05
2 years 1 month ago
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback! I attach the latest version. I addressed all comments except 9.
1. Fixed
2. Removed scripts from doors. Now the scripts work as soon as the player comes into the cell of the tomb, which is better because he could teleport there instead of using the door.
3-8: Fixed
9: Unfortunately I didn't figure out how to do this. I created a new topic "Lutemius Nuncienus", with Cell "Firewatch, College", NotID on Lutemius and appropriate journal entry. I am not sure what nolore does. I saw in latest rumours there was the option Not local: T_Local_NoLore = 0 but this doesn't seem to do anything and the topic doesn't show up in the game. Any help here would be appreciated.
10. Added script where if player teleports out before resolution of quest the appropriate NPC dies and the quest ends.
11-12: Fixed
2022-09-22 21:05
2 years 1 month ago
Also fixed point 9 after feedback.
2016-06-10 21:48
5 days 20 hours ago
a few issues
-the npc is using a unique head model (anything with UNI in the name should not be selected)
-the script tr_m1_q_scrollupdatejournal is never started
-the topic about the student reads "he's downstairs studying with Odunia Hare" but that response is also given by Odunia Hare :)
minor stylistic things
-typically you always want a quest-topic to have a response at any point. when you give the book to the student the topic "stolen research" disappears, because it has no valid response for that quest stage. Instead, I would add a line like "Yes, just give me a bit to research this. Come back in a day's time."
-when you kill a quest NPC the journal should update. this happens for the teacher but not when you kill the student at the end.
I'm confident you could make these changes, but based on what I see I think you've passed your showcase.
2022-09-22 21:05
2 years 1 month ago
Fixed remaining issues.