“Whenever you use this bow I will be there,” the Zen archery master tells his students. And he means there quite literally. He lives in his students and thus achieves a measure of immortality. And the immortality of a writer is to be taken literally. Whenever anyone reads his words the writer is there. He lives in his readers.
So every time someone neatly guts his opponent with my spring knife or slices off two heads with one swipe of my spring sword I am there to drink the blood and smell the fresh entrails as they slop out with a divine squishy sound. I am there when the case bullet thuds home-right in the stomach … what a lovely grunt! And my saga will shine in the eyes of adolescents squinting through gunsmoke.
— William S. Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads
I love this passage, but I sure as fuck don’t agree with it. Death is death, my friend. I’m sure Burroughs himself would trade all his written immortality for another hundred years of drug-addled bliss. All the wealth, fame, and fortune doesn’t mean a thing if you’re too dead to enjoy it.
This is why it’s important that I live forever. It’s going to take at least that long to finish this mod. Failing that, there needs to be a backup plan. Because even if the words on the page are immortal, even if the graphics and gameplay are revived like so many Draugr, that empty space, the unfinished business will leave a stink as foul as any wet corpse.
This is why I’ve been encouraging the community to make their requests and ideas happen. It’s a great way to give the characters in the mod new life beyond my limited existence. A costumed hero, for instance, does not live on in readers of a 80-year old comic book. He lives on in the works of modern screenwriters, artists, and re-imaginings of his tale.
With that in mind, nonoodles has finished making a beta version of Mazekial’s patch, which you can download by going to the fan patches page via this link or the optional patches area in the sidebar. Hopefully this will be the first of many patches that either complement the mod or create entirely new NPCs, quests, and experiences for you the player.
Rumarin commentary? For Solstheim? By the nine thats one of the greatest thing’s i’ve seen all year ;D
Hope to see more things like that o: , for any of the super-followers really.
That, good sir, is my evil scheme.
So far, the commentary just consists of a couple dialogue trees and mid-dungeon quips, most of them centered around White Ridge Barrow (land of the spider-grenades), with a handful of Solstheim-exclusive idles. My evil scheme, of course, is to orchestrate what Kris considered in the back of his mind until Alphena made him too scared to leave Raven Rock: a full-on Solstheim Patch for at least a good chunk of the main mod’s followers, in addition to being a platform for a handful of quests (maybe an original character?).
But, of course, I have a nasty habit of having great, sprawling ideas and not enough resources to do them or straight-up being crushed under their weight, so I’ll stay small. Once the Rumarin lines are all polished mod-wise and we can tear down that “Beta” tag, I’ll try to put in some time to re-immerse myself in the other Super Followers with my Trifecta of Player Characters that basically encompass most player personality styles (because unlike most players, I don’t let my Paragon of Good Ultimate Dragonborn Nord join the Dark Brotherhood, or even theThieves Guild for anything other than to RP as an undercover Op to nab the Skeleton Key, put an end to Mercer, then leave them in their curse).
I’ll try to have at least something for all of those elite veterans to be talking about on Solstheim for Phase One of my plot. Probably not as massive for now as dialogue trees on how nonsensical the Renos siblings’ research into turning white spiders into grenades via a magical machine is (in fact I’ll more than likely be avoiding that dungeon for the other followers for the sake of variety), but I can guarantee they’ll all have something to say about the Black Books.
P.S., I don’t plan on ignoring anyone even when they all have basic Solstheim implementation. I’m just wanting to make sure everyone else gets some love in addition to everyone’s favorite (and only) sarcastic High Elf.
Phase Two will be finalized if I tackle and tame that monster, but let’s just say I’ve become a big fan of Daenlyn and Meresine ever since I strayed off the Rumarin path with my more Rogue-Like character, and it would be a real shame for the new guys to feel left out of the Fan Patch party, especially once they’ve fully rooted themselves in the mod.
All that roundabout wall of text to simply say: Wink wink. Stay tuned for more if I don’t suffer the fate Kris is half-joking about. I’m just getting started as far as I am currently concerned =P
That’s great news. Dialogue is easy enough to add in CK, so I encourage you (for totally non-slavework-related reasons, lol) to take up modding. The Bendu Olo quest on the CK wiki is a solid start to general points about quest making, inc. dialogue.
I’ll look into it when I can. It would be a lot more helpful if I could do things as well and help fix bugs.
Consider it a beta, folks, am already checking and retesting some stuff, plus including a line I skipped.
Will also post a guide of sorts to ease things for other writers who may not be too familiar with the CK, so they can get a grasp of the peculiar limitations and hurdles of dialogue. It’s been rather challenging in places to trigger Maz’s lines at the right time. Fortunately, i liek challenges :P
Sooo now that you’re quoting funereal words, Kris, if you feel inclined to kick the bucket, please send us a note in advance : D
In hindsight, using the timing of songs probably wasn’t the best way for me to deduce how long lines should be XD
I’ve been metaphorically spanked, I’ll know better next time. 0 =)
Lol! But nooo, maybe what I meant to say came out wrong. My big anxiety is being forced to chop up the lines, both written and voiced, to fit/work around CK limitations. I never want your work to go wasted – writer and actor’s – and it’s mostly with this in mind that the ‘guide’ will be written. If it gets written : )
It was an immensely valuable experience, Maz, so thank you for letting me do it.
Thank YOU for volunteering for slave labor =P