About this mod

The Colosseum of Blood! A Unique Daedric Arena! Become Grand Champion! Return as often as you like!
Hunt for the fabulous Axe of Dagon! ... And so much more!
Quest to find a missing brother! Will there be a good reward? Almost certainly!
Playable Dremora armoured robes, playable Aureal and Mazken Armour.

Permissions and credits
Donations
The Colosseum of Blood

  • Fight in the Colosseum of Blood! A quest mod featuring a unique Daedric Arena. 
  • Once you become Grand Champion, you may return as often as you like, with dozens of possible opponents! Each fight is rewarded.
  • Hunt for the fabulous Axe of Dagon! Not easy to find! Not easy to win!
  • Other artefacts and treasures are there to be found in this greatly expanded Oblivion world.
  • Quest to find a missing brother! Will there be a good reward? Probably! Most likely a very good one!
  • Playable dremora armoured robes, playable Aureal and Mazken Armour.

This mod may be used as it is, modified, or used as a resource pack, as long as you give credit to this mod, and to anyone who has contributed (see CREDITS).


CAUTIONARY NOTE! - PLEASE READ!!

  • This mod IS NOT level limited, so anyone can attempt it, but if you are low level you will most likely die (warnings and one auto-save are given).
  • Even if you die, if you think the mod shows promise, try again at a higher level.
  • In the Arena's original context, I would have expected players to be around 15th level plus, before they reached the Arena, but could be lower.
  • You will be up against characters of 22nd level for sure, and some levelled to 8 levels above you.
  • If you are skilful, or play high powered characters, it should still be possible at lower levels, so give it a go.
  • ... And if you find it too easy, just turn up the game's difficulty level :)


REQUIREMENTS and INSTALLATION


• This mod is entirely vanilla, so hopefully anyone can enjoy it. That said, there are four optional .esp files, as outlined below...

Ideally, the Oblivion Game of the Year Edition. If you run with this edition, Shivering Isles DLC must be active for full functionality, as Aureal and Mazken are fought in the Arena - OTHERWISE if you don't have this edition, or for non-Shivering Isles players, see the separate "BCArenaNoShiv.esp" file provided, below.

• If you are installing this manually, unpack the BCArena.7z file and copy into your virtual store. Four .esp files are included; activate whichever of the following is appropriate for you:-

  - BCArena.esp :
  • For Oblivion Game of the Year Edition, with Shivering Isles.
  • This allows the mod access to the codes for Shivering Isles content, allowing real Aureal and Mazken to be included as opponents.
  • This is the default .esp file, so no .esp file renaming is required.

  - BCArenaNoShiv.esp :
  • For no Shivering Isles access by the mod, with Aureal and Mazken replaced by non-Shivering Isles opponents.
  • THESE opponents will be referred to as Aureal and Mazken, and will have the Aureal and Mazken stats.
  • Also they will have my own crude substitute copies of the real Shivering Isles armour and weapons, but with Aureal and Mazken Armour/Weapon stats!
  • Not as good, but better than nothing! ... so both copies will give the same gameplay!
  • Please Note: you will need to rename this file to BCArena.esp and overwrite the original, for the silent speech to work.


  - BCArenaLowFPS.esp :
  • Same as BCArena.esp, but with a smaller arena crowd size for anyone experiencing frame rate issues.
  • Please Note: you will need to rename this file to BCArena.esp and overwrite the original, for the silent speech to work.

  - BCArenaNoShiv.espLowFPS.esp :
  • Same as BCArenaNoShiv.esp, but with a smaller arena crowd size for anyone experiencing frame rate issues.
  • Please Note: you will need to rename this file to BCArena.esp and overwrite the original, for the silent speech to work.



FEATURES

• A small quest initiated, directing you to Leyawiin.
• Access to the Arena is hidden away in Blackwood, on the Border, east of Onyx Caverns (borders DO NOT need to be disabled).



• The Axe of Dagon. A unique re-styled daedric two-handed axe, modelled on the axe from Dagon's statue (see picture).
• Arena combat with a daedric theme. Battle through 16 pre-arranged fights of steadily increasing difficulty.
• A large variety of challenging post-quest Arena fights, with 62 possible opponents, once you have reached Grand Champion status, with rewards!
• A re-worked and expanded daedric worldspace, with a good deal to discover.
• Essential Arena trainers, and hopefully everything you need to enjoy your stay.
• An Arena post-fight healing altar.
• Four new ingredients.
• New daedric architectural pieces and furnishings.
• New clutter items.
• A few new weapon meshes and textures.
• Artefact level scrolls, plus a few daedric spell tomes.

• Separately downloadable readme and walkthrough files are provided, if required.

• This mod can be used as a resource pack: includes a few meshes from the Neverweyr mod (see GENERAL section below).


GENERAL

The Arena has been extracted from the Neverweyr mod, which is not directly publishable (though images have been published - just search for "Neverweyr"). This mod may be used as it is, modified, or used as a resource pack, as long as you give credit to this mod. Ones stay in the Arena can require plentiful supplies to be taken. In the Neverweyr mod, this is facilitated by the Void Container spell (essentially a bag of holding). If you are lacking an equivalent, and find you need one, you may find the spell in The Red House mod. Also, if you like the Thunder effects used in this Oblivion world, see the Better Thunder mod
for the techniques used, and how to apply them.


• This mod was created using the Oblivion Construction Set, NifSkope, Blender, Gimp, Paintshop Pro, Photoshop, DDS Converter 2, TES4Gecko, and cleaned using TES4Edit.
• Does not require any script extenders!
• Arena access is just within the normal TES4Oblivion border, so will play with or without borders being disabled (an image of the cave location in provided). The quest will guide you to the cave location.

• A few images from Neverweyr are available on Nexusmods, as standalone media. Search for "Neverweyr" in the images section, or specifically for "Neverweyr Arena" for the Neverweyr version of this arena.


STANDALONE MOD


• This is provided as a standalone vanilla mod.
• However, please feel free to adapt it, or use anything from this mod, in whatever way you like, as long as you give credit to this mod, and to any other providers (see CREDITS).


KNOWN ISSUES

1. Due to the variety of fight types, a reducing count is kept during each fight, of the number of opponents left alive. When this reaches zero, the quest script determines that the fight is over. Very, very rarely, mostly during combat against multiple opponents, the count can mis-align if more than one opponent dies at much the same time. This can leave the player stranded in the arena... UNLESS you know about the hidden button that sets the count to 0, allowing the fight to end, and the player to return to the Hall of Carnage. The location of the button is shown in the following image...



2. I never use companion play, so I have no idea how it would work here - possibly badly. If you want to try it, feel free, but you may need to adapt the arena yourself, or perhaps someone else would volunteer on behalf of the companion play community.

3. Any other mods changing dremora, daedric creatures, or atronachs, could potentially have an impact, but again, it's something I have no experience of, so can't say for certain.

4. Any mod changing Cyrodiil can, of course, conflict with others, but I have placed the Hidden Cave "Arena Entrance" as far out on the border as possible, to reduce the risk of this. However, if there is a conflict, feel free to move the cave to any suitable location.

5. If you are using the non-Shivering Isles ".esp" versions, I have create crude copies of the Aureal and Mazken, which are close to the real thing in terms of stats and abilities. They will give an appropriate fight. However, for the real armour and weapons, you will need to go to the Shivering Isles... my meshes and textures were quickly thrown together, and are not a patch on the real thing (fully intentional! Bethesda have done an amazing job - use theirs!!).

6. I have included ".esp" versions, that reduce the number of figures in the Arena crowd. All our platforms are different, and what some can manage, others can't. In my own case, I had to reduce the crowd size for the Grand Melee fights, as it was killing my frame rate. I also struggled with the maximum crowd size, so I had to reduce it from that, unfortunately. If I add it, I'm afraid I can't easily test it! If you have a mega-PC and want the full crowd you'll have to mod it yourself (I can tell you how on request - it's not hugely difficult, but you'll have to test it for yourself).

7. One player has reported an issue upon entering the Arena training hall from the starting cave. Please note: the player controls are deliberately disabled for about 12 seconds to allow initiating actions to take place by the Pit-Master Kraarl (part of the scene setting/immersion). Do not attempt to do anything during this time, just in case that is a contributing factor. Otherwise, I'm still working with the player concerned to try and better understand the problem and to resolve it.


... Anyway, feel free to enjoy yourself with any of this! Use and/or change whatever you like, but please remember to give credit to this mod if you re-publish.