Right then, my new Prisoner’s Peak Review. Sorry for the delay but I had issues to deal with.
For this run I am using a very well outfitted new Dunmer character, a lvl 10 rogue with two fine swords and a crossbow (acquired through a bandit crossbow mod). The addition of this powerful ranged weapon was compensated for the fact that I was playing on Master mode and had limited ammo, so off I went with Faendal to cleanse this lair of vampires. Only I then noticed that Faendal would not come into the place with me no matter what. If this was intended as a solo dungeon then all well and good, but otherwise this could be an issue.
Any hoot, the first 2 enemies, thralls, were about as strong as typical bandits of this level range and once they were down I snuck upon their vampire masters. There were three more beyond the gate, and I one-shot each of them with a sneak attack from my crossbow (again, on Master mode). Suffice to say I was not impressed and after taking instructions from the note on the table and finding the door’s switch, proceeded into the upper stories. After killing yet another vampire (turns out they are adequate in melee on Master mode) I came upon my first real obstacle: the Gargoyle. Needless to say my dual wielding rogue would have been squashed like a bug in that encounter had I not run back to dining room and proceeded to shoot fire and lighting at the damn thing while running around the table. Once it was down I went upstairs to find it’s master.
On Master mode, as a low level rogue without allies, I stood no chance against the Master Vampire in this last room. Especially since he was accompanied by a Death Hound and with a nearby corpse he could raise to attack me. I cheaply plugged the mutt with sneak attacks, running downstairs after each one until it was dead. Once the Vampire Master and I were alone I tried to defeat him and failed no matter how may sneak attacks succeeded or potions I imbibed during combat. So in defeat I lowered the difficulty rating to Adapt mode and killed him after shooting three sneak attack arrows (for I had run out of bolts by then) and a few sword slices. In the end the dungeon should be easily be doable for a level 10, at least on normal, & for the higher difficulties said players would need to either be a warrior or a well geared anything else
- The only big issue with the dungeon so far is that when going up the stairways the walls around me would constantly clip. And I counted three gashes on the floors revealing the outside blue nether. Will try to summarize their locations later. - The living vampire cattle on the table were a tad much - their groaning was annoying.
The dungeon has been vastly improved and I must applaud your efforts. It may need a few more tweaks however.
Oh, thanks a ton for the re-review! If its small fixes, I'll be happy to jump in and look them up. You're practically a professional mod tester CyrusAmell, I may need call on your expertise for my dungeons I'm making as part of the "As Night Began" mod team.
As for Faendal not following, its something I'm having an extremely hard time figuring out. Supposedly its a common C.K. bug, so I'll need to look for the solution online. That's why I offered the half-ass solution of just using the teleport feature available in some follower-overhaul mods.
By this: "Suffice to say I was not impressed and after taking instructions from the note on the table and finding the door’s switch" are you saying that you felt the 1st large area was too easy, and that you did not like the switch in the beginning forcing you to go downstairs?
Also, for the stairway clipping: Do you mean that weird movement you get when two textures collide? Those are easy to fix, but also really easy to miss even during ingame testing.
Well, with the "not impressed" portion I felt that the Fledgling Vampires were just pushovers but this is perfectly acceptable for a low level dungeon. Especially if the player accidentally aggro's the whole of the main room and does not kill the first two thralls alone. I noted it simply for the difficulty level jump once I met the gargoyle and later Master Vampire.
I am hopeful that you can modify the pathways to allow followers into the dungeon despite the tight quarters, as it may be necessary for level 7-11 Rogues and Mages.
Concerning the stairways, its just that when you toggle your view it is easy to go around the walls and gaze into the blue nether of absent coding (or whatever you call it). An excellent tweak on the story certainly, a vampire slave trader going renegade is far more feasible and a blood manufacturer quitting over a delayed shipment. Many thanks for the planned changes. It's my pleasure to go over this, I saw potential in the dungeon and I know how important testers and guinea pigs are for up and coming modders.
One last thing actually - why not move the Gargoyle down into the room with the switch? There is more space there for a mini-boss fight. In fact, set the switch up behind it and mention such in the letter upstairs - thus making it easier to find it. Of course, the problem with that would be leaving the Vampire Lordling's room unprotected. When you are done with your planned fixes be sure to message me so I'll know to try it out again.
I would like to congratulate you on your work. Small but fun dungeons such as this, especially using new assets, are a fine example of modding ingenuity. But a good dungeon requires a bit of tweaking.
After playing around my Impressions and grading are such:
Placement: 7/10 The placement was excellent. The area was unused and could certainly accommodate a dungeon. Though the entrance, consisting of a fortification built into the mountain, could use some work. It’s too clean, too well put together – the entrance simply does not look like a ruin that would have been abandoned. The tower over it was also a tad excessive, and certain to give the area away for miles. So the location is right but the presentation could use some work, at the very least one could stand to lose the tower over the entrance.
Combat: 6/10 At a high level, Prisoner’s Peak is extremely dangerous. There are more Vampires than Thrall’s and with the Dawnguard expansion they will be even more dangerous as you level up. Low level players who have just stocked up in Riverwood will simply be unable to cope with so many dangerous spellcasters. Even with either Sven or Faendal helping, they will be swamped by sheer numbers in the dining hall. While cunning and cheap exploits can see the 3-4 thralls and 2 vampires eliminated I believe it would certainly not be a pleasant process for a lower level player.
Loot: 7/10 The three point docket is not for lack of loot, but to say rather that there is an abundance of it. Between the two dead Dawnguard members, the close to 7 normal chests, the 1 Boss chest, a hoard of lesser containers and various items scattered around the player will lack for nothing by the ventures end. So again, there is too much loot.
Story: 8/10 A renegade vampire lord attempting to fortify his lair against a reprisal by Harkon is an intriguing plot. However, I do not think Harkon would demand a shipment of blood across half of Skyrim. The stuff would surely spoil en route and discovery would be quite likely. A great premise to begin with though.
Thanks a zillion man definitely what I was looking for: getting to be a better modder through good old trial and error. I'll work on it tonight.
This is what I'll change:
Combat: -Being close to riverwood, def reduce difficulty, should have thought of that. -more evened out fight, less of a super mob rush in the dining area.
Loot: cut it down around 50% levels
Story: Your right, storing blood doens't make that much sense lol. You kinda forget to think that stuff through when you're just trying to get grid-snap right. I'll alter to something better, though keeping the vassalage to Harken theme.
Placement: I'll keep it near the Helgen region (an underdeveloped area imho,) but get it right off that major road.
I'll look forward to your revisions then, I had a Dunmer thief in mind for a new character and this dungeon would certainly create a more flavorful experience for him early on.
do not reduce the difficulty, Challenging dungeons are more fun, I am LVL 7 on my current playthrough will wait for lvl 20 to try it but downloaded and istalled
You should probably try the mod before advising on such a course of action. A low level player, even at lvl 20, would be hard-pressed to combat a single vampire and a few skeletons much less what is expected of them in this crucible. I may be mistaken because I tend to play on the upper difficulties, but I think I am right in this regard. Again, you should try the dungeon first.
Suggestions: Reduce the number of vampires save for the final area as well as the number of thralls in the dining hall. I think this dungeon would do well with just three low-level vampires, each of whom could have a small part in a revised story about what they have against Harkon. Also, one gargoyle would be better than 2 and if you can make it wakeup before a low level player walks upstairs that would be groovy too.
The large vat in the dining room blood vat could easily be explained – perhaps belonging to the friends of those bandits now serving the vampire who would not submit. Either that or they legged it to the site where Ulfric was captured and took the bodies of fallen Stormcloaks to drain.
The presence of the Dawnguard are a bit of a stress, but it is a good & honest way for a low level player to acquire their items early on. I don’t know if you should factor them or not since Isran hasn’t gotten them running yet but it is up to you. Maybe they were early members and losing them is why Isran sent the orc out to recruit you at lvl 15?
The dungeon’s layout could also use a little work. The massive prison complex on the way past the gargoyles can be thrown out or otherwise shrunken. And there is a small structure gap on the floor revealing the blue coding outside just down the hall form the pressure plate and spikewall. Lastly, perhaps you should put the button that opens up the final area of the dungeon in the room with the Coffins, otherwise the players will miss it until after they kill the leader.
10 comments
For this run I am using a very well outfitted new Dunmer character, a lvl 10 rogue with two fine swords and a crossbow (acquired through a bandit crossbow mod). The addition of this powerful ranged weapon was compensated for the fact that I was playing on Master mode and had limited ammo, so off I went with Faendal to cleanse this lair of vampires. Only I then noticed that Faendal would not come into the place with me no matter what. If this was intended as a solo dungeon then all well and good, but otherwise this could be an issue.
Any hoot, the first 2 enemies, thralls, were about as strong as typical bandits of this level range and once they were down I snuck upon their vampire masters. There were three more beyond the gate, and I one-shot each of them with a sneak attack from my crossbow (again, on Master mode). Suffice to say I was not impressed and after taking instructions from the note on the table and finding the door’s switch, proceeded into the upper stories. After killing yet another vampire (turns out they are adequate in melee on Master mode) I came upon my first real obstacle: the Gargoyle. Needless to say my dual wielding rogue would have been squashed like a bug in that encounter had I not run back to dining room and proceeded to shoot fire and lighting at the damn thing while running around the table. Once it was down I went upstairs to find it’s master.
On Master mode, as a low level rogue without allies, I stood no chance against the Master Vampire in this last room. Especially since he was accompanied by a Death Hound and with a nearby corpse he could raise to attack me. I cheaply plugged the mutt with sneak attacks, running downstairs after each one until it was dead. Once the Vampire Master and I were alone I tried to defeat him and failed no matter how may sneak attacks succeeded or potions I imbibed during combat. So in defeat I lowered the difficulty rating to Adapt mode and killed him after shooting three sneak attack arrows (for I had run out of bolts by then) and a few sword slices. In the end the dungeon should be easily be doable for a level 10, at least on normal, & for the higher difficulties said players would need to either be a warrior or a well geared anything else
- The living vampire cattle on the table were a tad much - their groaning was annoying.
The dungeon has been vastly improved and I must applaud your efforts. It may need a few more tweaks however.
As for Faendal not following, its something I'm having an extremely hard time figuring out. Supposedly its a common C.K. bug, so I'll need to look for the solution online. That's why I offered the half-ass solution of just using the teleport feature available in some follower-overhaul mods.
By this: "Suffice to say I was not impressed and after taking instructions from the note on the table and finding the door’s switch" are you saying that you felt the 1st large area was too easy, and that you did not like the switch in the beginning forcing you to go downstairs?
Also, for the stairway clipping: Do you mean that weird movement you get when two textures collide? Those are easy to fix, but also really easy to miss even during ingame testing.
So, planned changes will be:
No more vampire cattle on table.
Reduced Gargoyle difficulty
Reduced Master Vampire room difficulty.
I am hopeful that you can modify the pathways to allow followers into the dungeon despite the tight quarters, as it may be necessary for level 7-11 Rogues and Mages.
Concerning the stairways, its just that when you toggle your view it is easy to go around the walls and gaze into the blue nether of absent coding (or whatever you call it). An excellent tweak on the story certainly, a vampire slave trader going renegade is far more feasible and a blood manufacturer quitting over a delayed shipment. Many thanks for the planned changes. It's my pleasure to go over this, I saw potential in the dungeon and I know how important testers and guinea pigs are for up and coming modders.
One last thing actually - why not move the Gargoyle down into the room with the switch? There is more space there for a mini-boss fight. In fact, set the switch up behind it and mention such in the letter upstairs - thus making it easier to find it. Of course, the problem with that would be leaving the Vampire Lordling's room unprotected. When you are done with your planned fixes be sure to message me so I'll know to try it out again.
After playing around my Impressions and grading are such:
Placement: 7/10
The placement was excellent. The area was unused and could certainly accommodate a dungeon. Though the entrance, consisting of a fortification built into the mountain, could use some work. It’s too clean, too well put together – the entrance simply does not look like a ruin that would have been abandoned. The tower over it was also a tad excessive, and certain to give the area away for miles. So the location is right but the presentation could use some work, at the very least one could stand to lose the tower over the entrance.
Combat: 6/10
At a high level, Prisoner’s Peak is extremely dangerous. There are more Vampires than Thrall’s and with the Dawnguard expansion they will be even more dangerous as you level up. Low level players who have just stocked up in Riverwood will simply be unable to cope with so many dangerous spellcasters. Even with either Sven or Faendal helping, they will be swamped by sheer numbers in the dining hall. While cunning and cheap exploits can see the 3-4 thralls and 2 vampires eliminated I believe it would certainly not be a pleasant process for a lower level player.
Loot: 7/10
The three point docket is not for lack of loot, but to say rather that there is an abundance of it. Between the two dead Dawnguard members, the close to 7 normal chests, the 1 Boss chest, a hoard of lesser containers and various items scattered around the player will lack for nothing by the ventures end. So again, there is too much loot.
Story: 8/10
A renegade vampire lord attempting to fortify his lair against a reprisal by Harkon is an intriguing plot. However, I do not think Harkon would demand a shipment of blood across half of Skyrim. The stuff would surely spoil en route and discovery would be quite likely. A great premise to begin with though.
This is what I'll change:
Combat:
-Being close to riverwood, def reduce difficulty, should have thought of that.
-more evened out fight, less of a super mob rush in the dining area.
Loot:
cut it down around 50% levels
Story:
Your right, storing blood doens't make that much sense lol. You kinda forget to think that stuff through when you're just trying to get grid-snap right. I'll alter to something better, though keeping the vassalage to Harken theme.
Placement:
I'll keep it near the Helgen region (an underdeveloped area imho,) but get it right off that major road.
Thanks again!
You should probably try the mod before advising on such a course of action. A low level player, even at lvl 20, would be hard-pressed to combat a single vampire and a few skeletons much less what is expected of them in this crucible. I may be mistaken because I tend to play on the upper difficulties, but I think I am right in this regard. Again, you should try the dungeon first.
Reduce the number of vampires save for the final area as well as the number of thralls in the dining hall. I think this dungeon would do well with just three low-level vampires, each of whom could have a small part in a revised story about what they have against Harkon. Also, one gargoyle would be better than 2 and if you can make it wakeup before a low level player walks upstairs that would be groovy too.
The large vat in the dining room blood vat could easily be explained – perhaps belonging to the friends of those bandits now serving the vampire who would not submit. Either that or they legged it to the site where Ulfric was captured and took the bodies of fallen Stormcloaks to drain.
The presence of the Dawnguard are a bit of a stress, but it is a good & honest way for a low level player to acquire their items early on. I don’t know if you should factor them or not since Isran hasn’t gotten them running yet but it is up to you. Maybe they were early members and losing them is why Isran sent the orc out to recruit you at lvl 15?
The dungeon’s layout could also use a little work. The massive prison complex on the way past the gargoyles can be thrown out or otherwise shrunken. And there is a small structure gap on the floor revealing the blue coding outside just down the hall form the pressure plate and spikewall. Lastly, perhaps you should put the button that opens up the final area of the dungeon in the room with the Coffins, otherwise the players will miss it until after they kill the leader.
As I said, keep up the good work,