The Elder Scrolls IV: OBLIVION

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Guild Advancement
v 1.7
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By dreamed1
6/12/2017

1. Description
1a. Background
1b. Details
2. Requirements
3. Installing the plug-in
4. Playing the plug-in
5. Version History
6. Save games
7. Conflicts/Known Errors
8. Credits/Permissions received
9. Contact and Information
10. Legal Stuff/Disclaimer

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1. DESCRIPTION
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Requires you to complete more quests and sharpen your skills in order to advance in the Guilds of Cyrodiil

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1a. Background
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One of the quirks of Oblivion is that it's possible to become the Arch-mage of Cyrodiil without ever casting a single spell. Or, less likely but still possible,
to become head of the Fighters Guild with scarcely more than novice combat skills.

Enter a mod known as "Choices & Consequences". It's a wonderful mod. I've used it for quite some time and still recommend it. However, it does have some bugs
and some well-documented conflicts with other popular mods. It's also a mod that's heavy with fluff; either things that were never fully put in, or taken out, or
intended for something else, etc. And finally, it's a mod that's unlikely to ever receive an update.

To me, all this meant there was a niche to be filled with something lighter, less prone to conflict and hopefully without bugs. So I started from the ground up to
create a simpler, leaner alternative.

Besides adding skill requirements, Choices & Consequences also required you to perform services for the guild in order to advance. These services came in the form
of simple repetitive tasks which built your "reputation" in the guild. While these reputation builders are a very nice feature, they're also (as someone observed)
a substitute for having more quests and a longer questline.

Luckily, an alternative presented itself to me in the form of two excellent mods, both from David Brasher et al. Fighters Guild Quests and Mages Guild Quests both
add nicely executed extra quests for those guilds. However as they stand, they felt to me like side quests with little incentive to doing them other than just the
fun of doing more quests. They had no impact on the guilds.

SO...the system I came up with gives you "credit" for completing the extra tasks in the Fighters Guild and Mages Guild Quest mods. It also adds a skill-certification
requirement very similar to Choices & Consequences' system.

You will now need to complete about 3 times as many quests to finish the Mages Guild & Fighters Guild Quest lines, and meet minimum standards in certain skills.

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1b. Details
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A. Fighters Guild

In vanilla Oblivion, you need to complete 19 quests to rise to the top of the Fighters Guild. You will now need to complete a total of 55 quests. The extra quests
are from the Fighters Guild Quests mod, and are obtained from guildmembers in various guildhalls. Since Fighters Guild Quests adds almost 60 quests, you won't need
to complete all the available quests, but you will need to do a lot (36) of them. For the most part they can be done at any time. The quests are unleveled, so be
careful. Some of them may be too much for a low level character. If you can't complete a quest, try another guildhall and come back later.

You will also need to focus on training a few of your combat skills to high levels: Blade, Blunt, Block, Hand to Hand, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, Armorer and Marksman.
There are Guild Marshals in Chorrol who will monitor your progress. Talk to them to get your certification for each level of a given skill. No formal exams are
required. The Marshals will know if your skills are up to par.

Here are the ranks for the Fighters Guild, the total # of additional quests required to achieve that rank, and the skill certifications required.

Rank Quests Skill Requirements
--------- ------- ------------------
Associate
Apprentice 1 4 Apprentice
Journeyman 3 4 Apprentice, 1 Journeyman
Swordsman 6 4 Apprentice, 2 Journeyman
Protector 10 4 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman
Defender 15 4 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 1 Expert
Warder 21 4 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 2 Expert
Guardian 28 4 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 3 Expert
Champion 36 4 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 3 Expert, 1 Master
Master

B. Mages Guild

In vanilla Oblivion, you need to complete 18 quests to rise to the top of the Mages Guild. You will now need to complete a total of 54 quests. The extra quests
are from the Mages Guild Quests mod. For the most part the quests are repeatable missions, either gathering ingredients for the guild or rooting out necromancer lairs.
Raminus Polus will steer lower ranking mages towards ingredient gathering. As the quest line advances, he will point you to the necromancer quests. However, all quests
are available and can be done at any time. Be aware that some of the necromancer bosses may be too much for a low level character.

You will also need to focus on training your magic skills to high levels. Skills are certified by the local guildhall leaders, based on their specialization.
Alchemy Bruma Jeanne Frasoric
Alteration Cheydinhal Falcar
Conjuration Chorrol Teekeeus
Destruction Skingrad Adrienne Berene
Illusion Bravil Kud-Ei
Mysticism Leyawiin Dagail
Restoration Anvil Carahil

Note that a few things may change during the quest line. You will get dialog to advise you how to proceed. In most cases recommendations can be done before or after
obtaining your apprentice skill certificate, but you will need both to advance to the Arcane University.

Here are the ranks for the Mages Guild, the total # of additional quests required to achieve that rank, and the skill certifications required.

Rank Quests Skill Requirements
--------- ------- ------------------
Associate
Apprentice 7 Apprentice
Journeyman 3 7 Apprentice, 1 Journeyman
Evoker 6 7 Apprentice, 2 Journeyman
Conjurer 10 7 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman
Magician 15 7 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 1 Expert
Warlock 21 7 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 2 Expert
Wizard 28 7 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 3 Expert
Master Wizard 36 7 Apprentice, 3 Journeyman, 3 Expert, 1 Master
Arch-Mage

C. Thieves Guild

The Thieves Guild already has a built-in mechanism for ensuring that only true thieves rise through its ranks. Unfortunately the requirements that the Independent
Thievery quest sets are abysmally low, and even worse if you use any kind of mod or overhaul that adds expensive items. I've not touched this part of the game in
order to keep conflicts to a minimum. There are two good mods which can be used to raise the limits for the Independent Thievery quest:

Higher Independent Thievery Requirements - http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/23149
I use this one. There are two versions available. With the Very Hard version only the most dedicated thief will assume the mantle of the Gray Fox.

Independent Thievery Rebalance - this one is already integrated into OOO, and used to be available on elricm.com which is now shut down. As far as I can tell,
it has not been reposted anywhere else yet.

D. Dark Brotherhood

The Dark Brotherhood quest line itself is one of the few that always feels "about right" to me. The main problems are with the beginning and ending. It only takes
a single murder to gain the attention of this notorious organization. I've upped the requirement to 5 murders before Lucien Lachance will notice you and come calling.
There are several other mods available to add content after the vanilla questline is complete if you so desire.

The number of murders can be changed via the console, or you can disable the Dark Brotherhood questline altogether. See below.

E. Arena

My dream is to expand the Arena quest line. Unfortunately at this point it's beyond me. I would need someone to craft a simple, repeatable stand-alone battle, similar
to the Grand Champion matches, where you can fight a levelled random creature at any time. If someone could do that, I could integrate it into the quest line in a
similar fashion to what I've done above. But as it is, the arena scripting and dialog are hairy things to unravel and duplicate.

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2. Requirements
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Requires:
Oblivion, fully patched and updated
Mages Guild Quests v 1.7 http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/39591
Fighters Guild Quests v 1.6 or higher http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/41012

There is also a version specifically for Banes Guilds United, requires version 2.4 or higher. I recommend this ;) http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/42261
Note that if you use this version, you do not need the Banes Guilds United Fighters Guild Quests patch; it is redundant.

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3. INSTALLING THE PLUGIN
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Be sure you have the prerequisite mods installed.
Choose one esp and install to your data folder.
Load order is important. Guild Advancement must load after both Mages Guild Quests and Fighters Guild Quests.
The BGU version must load after Banes Guilds United as well.

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4. PLAYING THE PLUGIN
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Activate the plug-in and play.

Skill certifications in the Fighters and Mages Guilds are tracked through entries in the quest journal. You won't be able to advance in the guild until
you get a quest update notifying you of your eligibility for a given rank. The journal entry will also subtly prompt you if you need to perform more quests
for the guild before you can advance, but will not give you a specific number.

For the Fighters Guild, you will need to speak to the Guild Marshals in Chorrol to have them certify your abilities at Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master
level. Initially you will need to train 4 combat-related skills to apprentice level before you can become an apprentice in the guild. Eventually you will need
3 skills at Journeyman, 3 at Expert and 1 at Master level to advance all the way through the guild.

For the Mages Guild, you will have to speak to the leaders at the local guildhalls to certify your abilities at Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master levels.
Each guildhall specializes in a magic skill, so you will need to visit all of them. In addition to completing the recommendation quests, you will need to have
all 7 of your magic skills certified at Apprentice level to gain access to the Arcane University. Once you've become an apprentice in the guild, you will need
to certify 3 skills at Journeyman, 3 at Expert and 1 at Master level to advance all the way through the guild.

For the Dark Brotherhood, by default the questline will not start until you have committed 5 murders.
You can change this by issuing a console command:
set AAD1MurderReq to x

Setting this to 0 will prevent the Dark Brotherhood quest from starting at all.

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5. VERSION HISTORY
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v 1.7

- Fixed conflict with UOP that prevented player from using the gates at the Arcane University. Thanks acerac for catching this.

v 1.6

- Incorporated changes for Fighters Guild Quests v 1.6 update

v 1.5

- Fixed a bug introduced in 1.4 that prevents the player from advancing to Fighters Guild Champion.
- Added a check to the initialization script for players adding this to existing characters. An apprentice alchemy certification will be automatically added if you're
far enough along to have started the Plot Revealed quest.

v 1.4

- Incorporated UOP fixes to the vanilla quests.
- Added a global variable to the Dark Brotherhood so the number of murders can be configured or disabled altogether.
- Added dialog so Azzan & Burz gro Khash can offer some guidance about what you need to do to advance.

v 1.3

- Cleaned up some text entries.
- Added an optional GuildAdvancementBGU.esp that already has correct masters assigned for Banes Guilds United OOO users, so you don't have to try and do it yourself.

v 1.2

- Added condition to S'drassa's crystal quest. He will no longer offer it until you've completed the Tears of the Savior quest. Also added side quest credit for
both Tears of the Savior and the extra crystal quest.

v 1.1

- Added condition to Burz gro Khash's witch quest. He will no longer offer it until you've completed the Desolate Mine quest.

v 1.0

- Initial release

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6. SAVE GAMES
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The guild advancement system will mainly be useful to new characters who haven't yet started the guild quest lines.
Adding to existing save games may have mixed results, especially if you are far advanced in the quest lines.

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7. CONFLICTS / KNOWN ERRORS
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Any mods which change the result script of certain dialog choices in the quest lines will conflict. So far these are the only ones I know of:
Choices & Consequences (obviously)
Arcane University Overhaul-Universitas Arcanarum overrides the changes at one point in the Mages Guild questline. A patch is available as a separate download.

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8. CREDITS / PERMISSIONS RECEIVED
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Great kudos to Lingwei, wsrowland, showler, migck & gabba for their work on Choices & Consequences, which inspired this mod. Also to migck for advice and improvements.
Also to David Brasher and the Fighters Guild Quest team for their work on the Fighers Guild and Mages Guild Quest mods which made this system possible.
Thanks to WalkerInShadows and migck for help with the 1.6 updates
shademe for the Construction Set Extender
elminsterau for TES4Edit
Bethesda for a great game, and the Oblivion modding community for keeping it alive all these years.
Especially, thanks to the community for supporting and helping to improve this mod.

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9. CONTACT AND INFORMATION
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Contact me by PM at Bethsoft Forums or on the Nexus.

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10. LEGAL STUFF/ DISCLAIMER
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You may modify/change/do whatever you want with this mod as you see fit.