I saw this while looking through quest mods and this brings back good memories, Arandor. I loved this mod when I was just learning how to mod Oblivion and it has a nice story. So thank you Arandor for creating such a lovely mod!
Recently reinstalled Oblivion after nearly 2 years of not playing it. Looking through the mods I have saved I saw Castle Ravenpride and noted I downloaded it originally on March 8th, 2008, which would mean it is likely one of the first mods I ever downloaded for Oblivion. Just had to install it and play it again and it is a great mod, a ton of fun to play and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Thanx for this mod and sharing it.
Well, now I played through the mod after years. I really appreciate and respect any modder's effort (I put about six years into modding ages ago and work in the games industry); so, if you guys still check the comments here, please take this as constructive critique for future mods. It may sound harsh - I believe that nice critique easily fails - but is definitely not meant personally.
Honestly, I am disappointed. Why? The trailer, the epic speech of the quest giver in the beginning, the huge castle exterior, the promised hours of quest and sophisticated story all lied to me.
First, quest time was only about one hour, extended to almost three hours by NPCs getting stuck, dialog triggers didn't work, and terrible loading times. I'm not sure if the mod is responsible for this though, yet it never happened before. Second, the quest and story force me, Level 50 Hero of Kvatch, Godess of Madness etc blah blah, into the role of a whining dumbass who gets constantly the advice "don't do this and that, follow my advice, you might get killed". Actually I lured about thirty leveled Daedra into one sigil chamber once just to see what's possible, and survived with some tactics at settings harder than normal. So what should these few guards do to me? In the end, I simply felt like slapping Melissa in the face for using me like an ignorant, stupid tool who doesn't need any information because I could decide against her will. I had never the possibility to decide, to talk to anyone, to choose whether to follow the quest giver, kick him or talk to the castle guards, as all dialog is linear. That would have been fine if the quest giver was someone who seemed to be trusted, but from the first sentence he uttered I knew he was the true evil guy. The only reason why I didn't uninstall the mod when I reached the castle gates was that I am doing research about mods, and thus wanted to play through. Please, think about the position you put a player in when you try to manipulate him through NPCs. Don't make a fool of the character when everyone in front of the screen will see what's up. Don't let the tool do its task and then explain the whole background story. Stories are made to be experienced by action, not by a cutscene movie and a strange girl who babbles strange stuff.
What Melissa lacks in sense, the guard captain lacks in logics: sure, send the stranger who killed half your staff after the evil guy instead of going yourself (he claims he's able to kill me? So he believes in being the better fighter). Make the stranger the lord instead of chopping their head of. Sure, the ghost said otherwise, but then the stranger is the only one who says so, and the captain didn't ever see her.
Then, the castle has a great background with prison etc etc, and vast exterior - of which only three shacks and three rooms of the main tower can be accessed. I don't ask for a huge dungeon, but a believeable one. When there's a gatehouse, I want to be able to enter (or at least see a door). When everyone talks about the prison, where is it?
The worst immersion breaker was lacking consistency. I love the Ivellon mod, Lost Spires, and AFK's Weye (for example) for they fit perfectly in the world. Ravenpride doesn't interfere with the lore, but with the gameplay, which is an absolute no go in game design. There are invisible walls which aren't even supported visually with a fence or rocks. When I tumble down the ramp running, I seem to get hurt by script, even if I could jump down half of it and still survive thanks to high stats and abilities. The game always tells me that I could die oh-so-easily, which is simply not the case when fighting these guards. With no combat mods in use, each vanillia Ayleid ruin is more dangerous. The artifact is a locigal mess: invisibility spells are a huge part of the game when you play a stealth-based character, and I can sneak by those guards even in full light. But I need a special helmet to see the guy, and this helmet doesn't work on anyone else who is invisible? It is even forced on me, so that I don't even have the possibility to use my usual headgear and a detect life spell, or simply whack around until I hit him in the small fighting space? Don't try to explain your way out if this now. It should have happened in the game. To avoid stuff like that, ask yourself abpout everything you write: Why does it happen, why does an NPC do what they do? Why does the player do something - because there is no other choice, or because you made them want to follow the only choice?
Again, please don't take this personally. I know this mod is old by now and you'll have learned lots in the meantime; I had my time to learn too before I joined the industry and got constant feedback from veteran writers and designers. Yet in Nehrim, which I enjoyed a lot on the most part, I found some similar stuff, first of all a huge story flaw which made me want to whack the guy I freed from prison for taking the red thread from me. So when I found this mod now, I couldn't help but mention. I would not care to write this if your mods meant nothing to me. Go on with it.
Your review expresses many of the same issues I have with this quest mod. It's unfortunate because with a little work it could have been way better. Instead the author(s) fell back on tired cliches (something they claim to avoid in their documentation) and very linear storytelling.
I realize this is an old question, who knows if you're even playing Oblivion (let alone this mod), but for those who come after and have the same issue: once you've returned to the quest NPCs, Heron de Mende and Merius Meridill, you need to keep them close when going to the castle. Merius Meridil must be with you at the gate and the cutscene will automatically play once he gets close enough. However, if he gets stuck / lost somewhere, you may need to fast travel somewhere, maybe even back to Bruma to unstick him and walk back to Castle Ravenpride, making sure he doesn't get stuck. Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the upload and your work. I'll post again when i've played it.
(Forgive my english)
I don't recommend this mod, at all.
Honestly, I am disappointed. Why? The trailer, the epic speech of the quest giver in the beginning, the huge castle exterior, the promised hours of quest and sophisticated story all lied to me.
First, quest time was only about one hour, extended to almost three hours by NPCs getting stuck, dialog triggers didn't work, and terrible loading times. I'm not sure if the mod is responsible for this though, yet it never happened before.
Second, the quest and story force me, Level 50 Hero of Kvatch, Godess of Madness etc blah blah, into the role of a whining dumbass who gets constantly the advice "don't do this and that, follow my advice, you might get killed". Actually I lured about thirty leveled Daedra into one sigil chamber once just to see what's possible, and survived with some tactics at settings harder than normal. So what should these few guards do to me? In the end, I simply felt like slapping Melissa in the face for using me like an ignorant, stupid tool who doesn't need any information because I could decide against her will. I had never the possibility to decide, to talk to anyone, to choose whether to follow the quest giver, kick him or talk to the castle guards, as all dialog is linear. That would have been fine if the quest giver was someone who seemed to be trusted, but from the first sentence he uttered I knew he was the true evil guy. The only reason why I didn't uninstall the mod when I reached the castle gates was that I am doing research about mods, and thus wanted to play through.
Please, think about the position you put a player in when you try to manipulate him through NPCs. Don't make a fool of the character when everyone in front of the screen will see what's up. Don't let the tool do its task and then explain the whole background story. Stories are made to be experienced by action, not by a cutscene movie and a strange girl who babbles strange stuff.
What Melissa lacks in sense, the guard captain lacks in logics: sure, send the stranger who killed half your staff after the evil guy instead of going yourself (he claims he's able to kill me? So he believes in being the better fighter). Make the stranger the lord instead of chopping their head of. Sure, the ghost said otherwise, but then the stranger is the only one who says so, and the captain didn't ever see her.
Then, the castle has a great background with prison etc etc, and vast exterior - of which only three shacks and three rooms of the main tower can be accessed. I don't ask for a huge dungeon, but a believeable one. When there's a gatehouse, I want to be able to enter (or at least see a door). When everyone talks about the prison, where is it?
The worst immersion breaker was lacking consistency. I love the Ivellon mod, Lost Spires, and AFK's Weye (for example) for they fit perfectly in the world. Ravenpride doesn't interfere with the lore, but with the gameplay, which is an absolute no go in game design. There are invisible walls which aren't even supported visually with a fence or rocks. When I tumble down the ramp running, I seem to get hurt by script, even if I could jump down half of it and still survive thanks to high stats and abilities. The game always tells me that I could die oh-so-easily, which is simply not the case when fighting these guards. With no combat mods in use, each vanillia Ayleid ruin is more dangerous.
The artifact is a locigal mess: invisibility spells are a huge part of the game when you play a stealth-based character, and I can sneak by those guards even in full light. But I need a special helmet to see the guy, and this helmet doesn't work on anyone else who is invisible? It is even forced on me, so that I don't even have the possibility to use my usual headgear and a detect life spell, or simply whack around until I hit him in the small fighting space? Don't try to explain your way out if this now. It should have happened in the game. To avoid stuff like that, ask yourself abpout everything you write: Why does it happen, why does an NPC do what they do? Why does the player do something - because there is no other choice, or because you made them want to follow the only choice?
Again, please don't take this personally. I know this mod is old by now and you'll have learned lots in the meantime; I had my time to learn too before I joined the industry and got constant feedback from veteran writers and designers. Yet in Nehrim, which I enjoyed a lot on the most part, I found some similar stuff, first of all a huge story flaw which made me want to whack the guy I freed from prison for taking the red thread from me. So when I found this mod now, I couldn't help but mention. I would not care to write this if your mods meant nothing to me. Go on with it.