Vorstellung Blade of the Haunted

TheDarkRuler

Hortator
Habe heute morgen ein wundervolles Schwert entdeckt.
Es ist sogar mit einer Quest verknüpft.

Hier ein paar Bilder


(Title poster by Nichi21 - click image to enlarge)

Nov 12, 2010: BAIN-friendly version coming soon!
There will be a BAIN-friendly version of this mod soon. It will require the new upcoming version Wrye Bash (v291), which brings some important new features, so I still have to wait a little bit.
The new installation files will still be OBMM compatible, of course.

[Some sticky notes]
  • Don't miss to rate this mod once you've played it!
  • Don't miss to upload your own pictures (avoiding spoilers, of course).
  • Please note the alternative discussion thread at the bethsoft forums.
  • The online version of the Walkthrough Guide can be read here.

General information


Lean back and enjoy the trailer first.
The youtube version shown below and in the Videos section is not high quality yet, but you can download a slightly better version in the files section.



In this quest you will pick up the trail of an old legend from the Ayleid times of the 1st Era - a legend nowadays known only as a fairy-tale, a children's bedtime story called "Aaro and Dundellon". Follow the footsteps of this legend and prove yourself worthy, and you will gain a long-forgotten powerful sword, the so-called "Blade of the Haunted".

This quest isn't easy (at least I think so)! It does not always work along the standard mechanisms. Instead, it demands some decent experience in playing Oblivion, as well as some fun in meeting unusual challenges! Simply finding that sword won't be the solution! You will face a completely unexpected threat that needs to be overcome. Will you be able to defeat an ancient curse that has been lurking behind that old legend? Can you play the necessary role to escape from that evil trap?

The whole plot should take you at least 5-10 hours of gameplay, depending on your style of playing.
The sword itself provides some powerful abilities that go beyond usual magic weapons, so it should be a satisfying reward for the pain (apart from the fun of playing the quest, of course).

Keeping in mind "immersiveness", I tried to respect some design principles to make the quest more challenging and entertaining:

  • You should have some fun in reading books, which means actually *reading* them (not just opening them and then waiting for some window message to explain everything to you).
  • There are no map markers. Any location can be found by reading books, talking etc.
  • Journal entrys will never tell you what you are *expected* to do! Instead, they only summarize what you have learned by yourself (always consider the journal to be your diary, not a "quest guide"!).
  • I tried to make very spare use of "quest items" (i.e. items that can't be dropped). So nearly everything can be dropped, sold, eaten (or whatever). Always be careful about what to give away!

In some situations during this quest, you won't be able to sleep properly! This is intention and part of the story.
Be aware that, unless you solve this puzzle, you might temporarily be unable e.g.

  • to level up,
  • to become a vampire (if intended)
  • or to play any other quest that needs sleep mode for triggering certain actions!

Please also be aware of the conflict with mods like See You Sleep described below. It may be necessary to temporarily disable such mods to solve the quest.

But in the end, everything will continue as before.
Also be aware that you *have* to go to sleep to proceed. If you are one of those "no-levelling-at- all" players, don't worry: Sleeping at that specific time will supress uplevelling.

I recommend to play with a mid-levelled character (i.e. around 10-15), though lower and higher levels (up to level 35, roughly) have been tested as well and should work fine. Keep in mind that the "reward" (i.e. the blade) will level up together with you afterwards, so it doesn't matter at which time you complete the quest.
Also note the special warning below about higher difficulty in combination with OOO!


How to start the Quest?

Let's keep it "immersive"! Just imagine that you have become a little tired of stupid dungeon- exploring and adventuring lately, so you are currently hanging around in Cheydinhal, enjoying some leisure time and searching for new inspiration.
Just last night you have decided that it might be an awesome idea to read a good book (yes, you are one of those adventurers of the intellectual sort)! Let's imagine that you are especially interested in old legends.
Here we are. Now start role-playing...


What's the "Blade Customizer" feature about?

As of version 2.0 there's an optional spell (a Lesser Power) that will be added automatically to your spell list after you've found the final blade.
Casting this spell brings up an ingame menu that allows you to change the following of the blade's attributes:
1.) "Wield Mode" (one-hand or two-hand)
2.) Damage
3.) Maximum number of enchantment uses
4.) Weapon reach
5.) Weapon speed
6.) Recharge intensity (which affects the recharging speed)

This video gives an impression of how this looks and feels:



All your modifications will be applied to the sword immediately. They will be stored within your savegame and automatically restored on game restart/reload.
Whenever your sword levels up together with your character (which happens once per 5 levels, up to a maximum of level 50), or whenever you change from one-hand mode to two-hand mode and back, any existing modifiers will be reapplied to the base values of the new version of the sword. This allows you to completely customize all of the sword's base properties to exactly match your needs throughout the whole game, independent of your level.

Please note that it may always take up to 5 or 10 seconds...
- until the customization menu pops up
- until modifications are actually applied to the blade
- until modifications are restored on game restart/game load (this means that you might sometimes see strange values after reloading a savegame, but this will always disappear after a few seconds)

How to activate/deactivate customizing?

You can choose whether to use the Customizer either on installation or later.
When using OBMM for installation, you will be prompted for your choice. When installing manually, you have to pick either of the two versions of the ini file provided with the download archive.

You can always enable or disable customizing later by changing the BoT.useCustomizer property directly in BladeOfTheHaunted.ini, like this:
set BoT.useCustomizer to 1; this enables customizing
set BoT.useCustomizer to 0; this disables customizing

Deactivating the Customizer will only remove the spell, but not the existing modifications.
If you want to reset all the modifications you have done, activate the Customizer, cast it, and then chose "(reset to default)" for all the available options.



Requirements

  • Latest official Oblivion patch (1.2.0416)
  • Shivering Isles (latest official patch).
  • OBSE v18 or higher (http://obse.silverlock.org)

Please note that the sword uses detailed textures. With low resolution or low texture quality settings, it might look plain (especially the inscriptions won't be readable, though actually "reading" them would require high-levelled elvish knowledge ;-)).


Known issues and Incompatibilities
Here's a lot of text about known issues, but this doesn't mean that this mod is highly incompatible! As this is the first mod that I am publishing (though not the first I created), I just want to be very thorough.

1. Be careful with Companion mods (like CM or others)!
In some parts of the quest, you will be automatically teleported via script. Having companions following you might cause confusion. They won't actually break the quest, but as part of the story takes place inside your character's dreams, having companions automatically following you would appear quite stupid. In addition, I am not 100% sure whether companions can even get lost when following you, so take extreme care!!!
I recommend that after finding the blade for the first time (which is in the middle of the quest), you should always tell your companions to stay and wait behind before going to sleep (no more details here in order to avoid spoilers). After waking up, they may follow you again without causing issues.

2. Sleep mode collision
Do not start/play this quest in parallel with other mods that use sleep mode (such as The Lost Sword of the Ayleids, Tears of the Fiend etc.). If you have already completed such quests, there shouldn't be any problem.
Also note the possible temporary conflicts with vampirism and uplevelling, as stated above.
In addition, there is a conflict with See You Sleep, which makes the "sleeping" part of this quest impossible to solve! Details are given in the walkthrough guide.
In case of any doubts you should consider temporarily disabling these mods and reactivating them after completing my quest.

3. The "single arrow effect"
The quest includes some heavy scripting for automatically removing and restoring all of your inventory items. This may lead to one specific, sporadical, but uncritical effect: If you should suddenly find yourself with only one single arrow equipped instead of all that you had in your quiver, don't panic! The arrows are not actually lost, but only separated in your inventory. It's a general scripting issue also known from other mods (like Super Hotkeys, for example). If you run into this problem, just reequip your arrows, and your quiver will be complete again.

4. Offhand weapon usage
(such as in Unnecessary Violence):
The blade, which you will find in the end, uses scripting for automatic recharging and uplevelling. It makes use of the equipment slot 16 via OBSE functions. I don't know whether this collides with any offhand weapon mods or any other highly sophisticated combat/animation overhauls. As I don't use such mods, I have no possibility to test. In short terms: I am not sure whether the sword can be switched to offhand, or if the automatic recharging/uplevelling still works in offhand mode. Any feedback highly appreciated!

5. Wrye Bash: Name Tweaks
This mod is potentially incompatible with name tweaks that are applied with Wrye Bash! Avoid any tweaks that rename potions, because this may cause this quest to fail in a specific situation!
If you want to be really sure, you should disable all tweaks that are listed under the "Tweak Names" category inside the "Rebuild Patch" menu of Wrye Bash, while playing this quest. You can reactivate those tweaks again after completing the quest.

6. Not a bug, but just a warning for all OOO users
If you are running Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO), the difficulty of this quest may be somewhat harder. This is because on specific dungeon,which you must explore in this quest, has been crowded by OOO with some very powerful foes! Though I guess that most OOO users are used to facing tough threats, I'd still like to warn you!

Installation

This archive is distributed in what everybody calls "OMOD-Ready format" (see the link to LHammonds' excellent tutorials linked below!), and there will also be a BAIN-friendly version soon.
It allows you to manually extract and install like most other mods but it also allows you to use Oblivion Mod Manager or later also BAIN, respectively) for easy installation.
I strongly recommend to use Wrye Bash, because this mod adds some factions to vanilla NPCs. Wrye Bash ensures full compatibility with other mods that might do the same.
All details about installation and uninstallation will be listed inside the readme when the mod is out.


Ressources and Credits

I reused the following excellent resources from other modders.
I have read their readmes thoroughly to ensure that they permit reuse of their work. If I should have misunderstood anything, please contact me.


Very special credits go to the following persons...

  • Conny for the quest icon, the sword's book painting in "Myth or History?", for reviewing the book and dialogue texts, and for sharing the same "Oblivimania"
  • Jaril and Conny for spending hours of beta testing together!
  • LHammonds for his human-readable OMOD tutorials
  • Ultramace for excessive testing and lots of inspiration
  • Nichi21 for the Japanese translation and the fantastic title poster
  • Trollkin for the excellent revision of the book texts!
  • Timberwolftrass2005 for the ideas about how to enhance the "Key Stone" handling
  • gamesrc and Dark dude for analyzing and reporting various bugs and mod conflicts
  • Freathof for finding a flaw in the questline and helping to fix it
  • Vorians for detecting two FormID bugs and detailed analysis with TES4Edit, and for helpful hints about UL compatibility
  • Nichi once more for detecting the "Nightmare vulnerability bug"
  • The inventors of Shivering Isles for creating the Elytra, which is the most beautiful creature ever! ;-))
  • Bethesda, of course, for creating the game of the two centuries (this and the previous one)!


Licensing/Legal

Please don't use content of this mod without my permission. I don't want to "interdict" any reuse, of course (which would be quite stupid, as I have used other modders' work, too). I just want to keep some overview of where and for what my mod gets reused. So please send me a message if you plan to do so. If I shouldn't respond within 3 weeks, feel free to do whatever you like with my material.
This doesn't cover any 3rd persons' work listed in the credits section above. Read and decide for yourself whether you are permitted to use it.
I am not responsible for any damage that this mod might do to your savegames, hardware or whatever. Neither am I responsible for sleepless nights (I have to fight them enough for myself, since I have entered Tamriel for the first time).


Feedback and contact

Feel free to send your feedback to jaime74 here on TESNexus. Add posts and rate my mod.
I am not a native english speaker, so there might still be some flaws in the books and dialogues in this quest. Any helpful feedback will be highly appreciated!


History
Japanese Patch 1.2, 2010/09/23
- now compatible with latest mod version 2.2.1

Version 2.2.1, 2010/09/21:
This is mainly a bugfix release.
IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TO UPGRADE TO THIS VERSION, EVEN IF YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE QUEST!
- fixed a FormID bug that could cause some vanilla activators to malfunction (thanks to Vorians for finding it!)
- completely removed the UL Imperial Isle patch by optimizing Old Nadara's House exteriors (thanks again to Vorians)
- fixed a script bug that made Dundellon's Nightmare accidentally vulnerable to low-level characters (thanks to Nichi for finding this!)
- several enhancements/beautifications to Old Nadara's cottage: The interior matches the exterior finally, and she also has some animals and plants now to earn her living
- several minor cleanups to the esp

Version 2.2, 2010/09/17:
- included patch for Unique Landscapes - Imperial Isle in omod archive; adjustments to omod installation script
- dialogue enhancement fixing a potentially unlogical dead-end situation during the quest story (thanks to Freathof for detecting this!)

Japanese Patch 1.1, 2010/09/10
- now compatible with latest mod version 2.1

Full Version 2.1, 2010/09/05:
- revision of the book texts of "Aaro and Dundellon" and "Myth or History?" (thanks to Trollkin for the excellent work!)
- enhanced popup messages on placing the Key Stones (thanks to Timberwolftrass2005 for his suggestions on how to improve this)
- fixed a bug that could cause Key Stones to be duplicated (reported by gamesrc)
- removed a misleading topic about "Vonardo Tarvellis", which was meant as a "cliffhanger" for another quest, but caused confusion (also reported by gamesrc)
- fixed some more incomplete dialogue conditions which made a few topics remain visible longer than intended (once again, thanks, gamesrc!)
- added compatibility with ScreenEffects and OBGE2: Both the "Screen Controls" icon and the "OBGE v2 support" icon are now still available in your inventory while in nightmare mode (and once more: Thanks to gamesrc for reporting this!!)
- script enhancements for the Fountain of Dreams (enhanced distance detection)
- Several additions to the readme file

Japanese Patch 1.0, 2010/08/31
- included latest changes to the readme related to the "Tweak Names" issue

Full Version 2.0, 2010/08/21:
- added the "Blade of the Haunted Customizer" that allows you to modify the blade's attributes during gameplay
- added more power to the levelled base versions of the blade
- fixed a "missing script" warning produced by TES4Edit for the "Essence of Dreams" potion. Wasn't a bug, but used to cause confusion.
- quest is now set to "Completed" immediately after retrieving the blade, because this caused some confusion (but this isn't really the end yet, so expect some more things to discover!)

Full Version 1.2, 2010/08/08:
- fixed bug in default (non BMS) version that corrupted automatic recharging. Thanks to Ultramace for helping me to track this down!

Full Version 1.1, 2010/08/01:
- merged BMS compatibility patch into the main esp to get rid of the additional required plugin slot
- updated omod-ready archive, readme and OBMM installation script accordingly

Full Version 1.0, 2010/08/01:
- Full version uploaded.

Trailer (v0.9), 2010/07/18:
- Uploaded trailer only.

Und hier noch der Downloadlink:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33089

PS.
Die Anfrage auf Übersetzung ist draußen.
Da die ESP aber ziemlich umfangreich ist, wird es wohl dauern.
 
Wirklich ein Schönes Schwert.:)

Danke fürs Vorstellen, aber Downloaden werde ich es mir erst wenn du fertig bist mit der Übersetzung. ;) :p

LG
Sky
 
Hm, das Schwert sieht so böse aus, das könnte fast Mormegil sein : P (oder seine Schwester... Eols Schwert, weiß den Namen grade nicht).
Werd mir das mal anschauen :) auch ohne zu wissen, was draufsteht - zumal ich die entsprechende Literatur immo nicht zur Hand habe^^ aber vielleicht findet Eldarie was raus.

Ansonsten klingt das sehr nice. "You will face a completely unexpected threat that needs to be overcome." Bin ich mal neugierig, zumal das Questkonzept sehr interessant und konsequent wirkt^^... mal schauen, was es mit sich bringt. Danke fürs Vorstellen DarkRuler2500 :) ... wer weiß, vllt wird jemand die Mod auch übersetzen.
 
Zuletzt bearbeitet:
  • Like
Reaktionen: 1 Person
Das sieht echt toll aus, auch das Video ist sehr sehenswert. Klingt wirklich nach einer außergewöhnlichen Umsetzung, ich bin gespannt ^^

Danke, dass du die Mod übersetzen willst, DarkRuler :good:
 
Auf jeden fall sehr schön gemacht. :)
Da macht das hinschauen schon freude :)
Aber ich erkenn da keinen Sinn dahinter.
Was den Text betrifft :
das Schwert ist nicht ganz auf dem Bild,
villeicht kann man deswegen nicht verstehen was da geschrieben steht ?
Ich wüsste schon gerne was da Geschrieben steht.
Danke, dass du die Mod übersetzen willst, DarkRuler
Ja von mir auch :good:
Und der Video ist auch super !

 
Zuletzt bearbeitet von einem Moderator:
Ich nehm mal nicht an, dass der Autor hier chiffrierte Buchstabensalate releasen wollte, sonder lediglich die Optik des Schwertes aufgepeppt hat. :D

Aber nur zu:
Verschwörungstheorien, was dort geschrieben steht, sind gerne willkommen :p
 
  • Like
Reaktionen: 1 Person
Dafür reicht mein Elfisch leider nicht aus. :)
Aber Eldarie, die kann das :)
Ich würde es schon schöner finden,
wenn die Schrift sinn macht.:)

V
erschwörungstheorien, was dort geschrieben steht, sind gerne willkommen
echt ? das habe ich erst jetzt gelesen...
na wunderbar, also dann :
es hat sicher einen Sinn, aber der ist geheim,
schlau gemacht, passend zu so einem aufwendig gemachen MOD wie diesem.
auf den ersten Blich ergibt es scheinbar keinen Sinn,
weil er sich erst später enthüllt....
:D
 
Zuletzt bearbeitet von einem Moderator:
Schönes Schwert, gefällt mir sehr.
Danke für die Vorstellung DarkRuler, und schön dass du die Übersetzung übernimmst!:good:
 
Die Mod hab ich schon etwas länger im Auge, hatte aber noch keine Zeit, sie zu spielen. Jetzt wo dus übersetzen willst, DR, wart ich halt noch ein bisschen ;)
 
Die Mod hatte ich Mitte Oktober schon angefangen, bin aber durch andere Aufgaben wieder davon abgekommen. Hab jetzt meinen Char wieder ausgegraben, mit dem ich dort war. Das Schwert habe ich schon als Ghostly Blade, muss nur noch den Fluch loswerden, der darauf liegt, also weiter geht's. :D

Kennt jemand die Rüssi auf dem Bild? Die sieht auch cool aus. :-D
Andragorns weapons and armors (wird vom Autor im Releasethread erwähnt)
 
  • Like
Reaktionen: Meister von Cyrodiil