Hey guys, it has been quite long since I commented here.
I've been quite busy in real life, working nearly 60-65 hours while maintaining complicated social life. It is hard to say I will be supporting any of my Fallout 3/NV/TES5 mods. If you are hoping for updates on any of my public mods, it is unlikely to happen...not anytime soon.
As for ARM quest, people having asking for update or sequel....both of them were at work till end of 2013. I was working on overhaulling the interior cells of the Mythic Dawn and quest structures to provide alternative ways to progress to the last mission, in the middle, my desktop (Intel D800 with HD 4800...yup all my mods were built from this ancient PC) finally died. This is where my mod making session kinda stopped. Later that year I build a new PC but I couldn't really be motivated to work any further.
Simultaneously, I was designing a sequel to this mod. I've seen people saying Helanu would have been a companion after the end of ARM...truth to tell you, depending on the choice made in this mod, she was supposed to come back as one of essential NPCs in the sequel. After seeing all the people writing ungrateful and negative reviews, I kinda lost the spirit to work any further on this mod. In the late 2012 and earlier 2013, I was working 12-17 hours a day everyday for this mod, I even literally coughed out blood onto the screen while working on this mod. I am aware that my mods contain bugs,glitches, plotholes and etc, but it was my joy being able to share my imagination with so many people in the community.
Since I am here, I might as well answer some questions people posted below:
1) "My journal will not activate!!" -> I think I figured out why people have this problems and I never had this problem while testing out this mod in 2013. Journal has a script attached that is waiting for player to complete certain part of quest stages in certain order. And each stage can be completed while moving into the invisible trigger boxes located throughout the mod. I've seen some youtubers playing this mod with TCL console command on...if you use these cheat codes, it disables all the trigger boxes in the level, thus, even after you progress the mod, the journal object will still be on "waiting-mode" for player to progress the already-completed-quest-stages.
2) "I cannot pick up xarxes! also infinite number of enemies spawn in that area!" -> Xarxes can only be picked up by the female NPC companion. Also, infinite enemy spawn is intentional. Player was supposed to escape while everyone else was fighting. The design flaw in this mission was that I expected players to follow the NPC to initiate the Xarxes grabbing scene. If friendly NPCs engage in combat and does not withdraw, the quest will be halted.
3) "The Mythic Dawn guy is not moving once I escaped from the cave." -> The AI marker is placed in the exterior cells. If you have other mods that occupy that region, or used TES5Edit to "clean" (seriously, it is not dirty, it is harmless), it will be deleted along with it. Thus your companion will not lead you to the Mythic Dawn hideout.
4) "Going back and forth to the Inn? this is stupid!" -> I know. The reason why I used that Inn as main source of player-Nirtiuss communication was to minimize the possible conflict with other mods. I could use 10 other interior cells but that would already put more burden on compatibility issues which this mod already has few.
5) Mythic Dawn hideout is too big to navigate. -> This is my fault. I made it big and made each cell interconnected with every other cells. Apparently, this is not what everyone wanted. I apologize. The unreleased update contained about 25% of overhaul which recreated the main hall and the dormitory. At this point, it will be as it is.
Lastly, super thanks to all the donors who supported this mod beyond simply clicking endorsement. I've been struggling financially in last couple months and this has been a great help. I truly appreciate it and if I ever come back to create more quest based mods, these donors will likely show up as badass NPCs and anti-heroes.
Jonathan Silgals Kevin Evers Josh Jones Robert Dotson Linwood Oakes Julian Javier Lopez Pajuelo Jeremiah Simpson Christopher Chu Cheong Björn Falkenbach Stephen White
Thank you kindly. Let me just make some tweaks for public consumption and I'll throw it up for the masses. Right now it's a fairly sloppy edit since I just wanted it for myself.
I don't play with any cheats, and I still cannot activate the journal by the end of the Covert Action part 1, despite the fact that all the point in the quest journal have been fulfilled. I have checked the CK to see what are the conditions to make the journal work and they all have been fulfilled, so I had to manually move to quest to stage 40.
Great mod, but I can feel it is crawling with bugs, smaller or greater. It desperately begs for a bugfix or redone version, though I fully understand how difficult it might be.
So im on the quest right after you exit the paradise and i spoke to Gaban, but he won't start rigging the explosives. He just stands there. Also im stuck and cant jump or move and cant access my inventory. I tried waiting a bit and using the enableplayercontrols command but Gaban offers no dialogue.
I have a problem with activating "my journal" after having killed the orc smith, the option is there, the marker is there but it's refusing to activate so im stuck and can not proceed further how can i fix this problem??
For anyone interested, I uploaded a tweak that moves the Shrine of Stendarr to the outside of Winterhold, to make it compatible with ETaC, JKs etc. (I also added some clutter and Stendarr statues.) http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69832/?
Anyone can help...? i finished "Infiltration" and when picking up Mission2 book "Covert Action Part 1" quest won't start... how do i find out the quest id? or how to fix it? i mean i would like to start it using the console... but no idea what the quest id might be
Can you please tell me the quest id of the quest: ''Infiltration''? I am having unsolvable problems with it, only way to do it is console. Please tell me.
Yes, we need the quest id to use the setstage command. "Mission 2" (kill the silver smith) will not start!
** update ** Using setstage or completequest dreearmquestmq02 or dreearmquestmq03 ( the Nirtius note "Mission #2" is supposed to start '03' ) does NOT work. That will 'finish' the quest in question, but the next quest STILL will not start. I tried this with dreearmquestmq04 as well. Again, that quest will complete, but the next quest (05) will NOT start. I am not using TCL, and am using very few mods (including Born and Dawn). Does A.R.M. need Hearthfire?
Does anyone have a known working fix for this? If so, PLEASE let me know here (spell it out in detail).
Those having a problem with activating the journal after the covert action mission, which is after you kill the smith, you can try using console setstage dreearmquestmq03 40. It worked for me.
I am also stuck with Gaban, who is supposed to be working on rigging the fuel depository but instead he's just standing there and I can't do anything (it won't let you access maps, inventory or move). I can find lot of other people with the same issue but I can't find any answers at all on it. :(
How do I fix the bug on the third quest where you go into the prison. When I say that I'm ready it loads and goes straight into a black screen rather than continuing the quest.
Really loved this mod. I am always replaying skyrim as vigilant type characters and I love the world building that the agents of righteous might adds to Stendarr. A whole different approach to fighting evil, that gives the player a lot of role playing opportunities. The story was great and the atmosphere I really loved. Obviously everyone knows that this mod is old and has many bugs. I played it in 2023 and had to learn a lot of console commands to get through it. But if you are good with console commands and enjoy problem solving the technical side of your mods, this one is a must. I think the fact that I pushed through after so many quest bugs is a testament to how much I like everything this mod brings. I love the story, the characters, the world building, and I love the memories I have with it.
Good work on this one, I think you should be proud.
I just finished playing this mod. It's already an old quest mod but I'll still voice out some if its good points and bad points. Some suggestions too.
Pros: - Go undercover. Way better, immersive, and longer than Diplomatic Immunity quest. - Giving the Mythic Dawn more roles than the official quest had. - Choices. Will you remain true to the will of the Agents, or go to your own accord while still holding onto duties as an Agent? - The inquisition quest. Man! I thought I'll blow my cover there... - The plot and concept as well as that big plot twist. - That dunmer voice acting. Reminds me of Jiub and other default male dunmer voices from TES3 Morrowind.
Cons: - Dalamus. Ironically, I hate his snail speed and pianissimo speech. - The chef's painfully loud voice recording. You don't want him and Dalamus be in the same room having a conversation. - No ARM armor set. Just robes and some light armor gauntlets and boots. You won't use them anyway due to your undercover duties. - Not so good quest rewards. Well the story itself pays it off. No worries. - For crying out loud! That unnecessary vast labyrinth-ish multi-floor layout of the Mythic Dawn Hideout and generic Mythic Dawn members blocking your way. - The Helanu girl deserves more role in the story.
Bugs: - Confusing quest marker location adding up to the complexity of the Mythic Dawn Hideout structure. - Quest NPCs who are supposed to move to their respective quests objective don't move sometimes.
Suggestions: - Add signages and arrow signs to important rooms in the MD Hideout. Particularly the Logistics Room, Inquisitor's Office, Dalamus' Office, dormitory rooms, Fuel Depository, and every Hideout cell. - A feature to ask generic MD members, "Where can I find ____________?" or "Have you seen ____________?" Since their voices are from the vanilla assets, they can just respond with generic "yes" lines. Then a misc quest marker will appear. This will be useful for newbies of this mod and also to help to somehow spot some side quest that are easy to miss and cannot be completed if you're way ahead of the main ARM questline. - A main lobby where you can access every Hideout cell. - If there would be a sequel, since it smells it would have one due to the epilogue, Helanu deserves more roles: If you eliminated Helanu: - She actually survived and escaped the blast as well due to the Dragonborn feeling soft on her. She avenged their demise and become a secondary boss. Upon confrontation, she can be either eliminated for good, or convince her to turn over a new leaf - join the Agents or adopt her and also become a follower. If you spared Helanu: - Helanu will still despise you. But upon your second encounter, battle starts which can also have two choices upon defeating her: eliminate her, convince her to join the Agents, or adopt her.
I Just finished this mod and enjoyed it very much! only one this I did not like, was once I finished I came of here hoping to find the sequel! Its a shame there is no sequel as yet as I really enjoyed this mod and was hoping to play a sequel so we could learn the consequences of the choices we made etc. Even what happened to certain characters? I hope one day you will continue this mods sequel, Even a epilogue to the ending.
i dont think he's coming back. Which sucks since i might play this later. due to people being ungrateful and a ton of negative comments he kind of stated he packed it in. I think that sequel's been cancelled.
I've been on a downloading spree of quest mods since finishing the main quest in my 1,000,000,000 play through. Though I've installed 4 different mods, this review will not be a comparison to others I've played. This is just my opinion on just this mod. Firstly, I chose to endorse it. Me editing photos and my basic knowledge of HTML and webpage creating is nothing compared to the work video game modders do. It takes time and it takes a lot of patience. The latter, I definitely don't have. So on that front, I couldn't help but to respect and endorse this just for the effort that was put into it from the modder and the voice actors.
That being said, I'm most likely going to echo the cons of this mod that others have in the comments. While I enjoyed going undercover and using my high level sneak abilities to succeed in the quests, there were a lot of things that put a damper on the overall mod for me.
- I'm not big on the whole followers thing as far as Skyrim is concerned. My characters are almost always a lone wolf. So for the very quest to be, "Escort Salms to the Mythic Dawn Hideout", I was already sighing in depression. Even though I have a mod that forces NPCs to walk/run faster, the fact that I couldn't just fast travel there instead, did a little dance on my nerves. - I have Dawn of Skyrim installed, which overhauls all cities. I also have Tropical Skyrim, grass overhaul and Trees of Skyrim installed. All of these made it more difficult to find the entrance to the hideout because the cave was hidden behind giant rocks on the mountain. This was resolved with disabling a few objects but running around this mountain for over 5 minutes while trying to avoid being interrupted by a dragon, again, did a little dance on my nerves.
- Speaking of dragons, maybe it's because my character is over level 50 (and I've defeated Alduin) but every.single.time I left the Mythic hideout, I had to sneak run quite a distance away before I could fast travel without the game telling me I couldn't because "enemies are nearby." This alone made the back and forth from Rorikstead to Mythic hideout teeth gritting.
- Here's where I echo the comments of others. The Mythic Dawn Hideout. Before the last quest of the mod (I believe it was the quest involving the Sigil Stone, before the court questioning), I said out loud that I couldn't wait to blow the entire place up with everyone but Helanu still in it (and Oleema because sweet argonian.) From the repetitive interior, to the unnecessary levels of the interior, to having to TCL to get to the fuel depository because the door wasn't accessible, I completely relied on clairvoyance to get me through. (Even the NPCs would get stuck on each other or stuck in hallways because so many of them were going through one door at once.) By the 3rd quest, I wanted to punch every single NPC who said, "Speak!", "Need Something?", "Yes?", "Hmm?", "Make it quick, I don't have all day."
- The voice acting. This is not a major critic. I just wish some of the dialogue that was too quiet, would've been a bit louder and clear to hear (Dalamus) while other dialogue was entirely too loud. The chef. The first time I heard any of his dialogue, I was taken aback because he was so loud. Speaking of Dalamus, he spoke with the speed of a snail. Oy.
- The bugs. I haven't experience the same bugs as other users. Mine were quite random. The first bug I encountered, was my game freezing after speaking to the priest and starting the "infiltrate" quest. I'm guessing it was the intro to the mod? Either way, I had to skip it in order for my game to stop freezing and finally start. The next bug, my game would CTD going to and from the hideout. It wouldn't happen all the time and sometimes it would happen going from room to room within the hideout. Auto save helped with this. The next bug was Torene. After reaching the secret passage from the boat, she kept circling around the beginning of the snow cave. She just wouldn't advance at all. I had to disable a few objects within the cave, to get her to move. Once we reached the book, she kept standing there with her fists up. Of course trying to talk to her, or get her to move will have her telling you, "Not now." It took a minute or 2, to progress the dialogue and the objective. The next part of that same quest, the heretics. I'm not sure if the infinite spawn of heretics and saber cats was on purpose but because I had a bit of difficulty getting out of the area, my game CTD from all the havoc, explosions and everything else during the fight scene. Finally getting back to the original path, my game would freeze after fighting the Vigilants and trying to access the boat to get back to the hideout. I had to use the Save cleaner tool to get the freezing to stop (though the tool couldn't find anything left in the save that shouldn't have been.)
The last bug was at the very end of the last quest. After leaving the inquisitor and having to flee the hideout before the explosion. When I got to the main door of the hideout and there were 2 initiates standing in front of it, the game would CTD before I even took them out. Again, used the save tool and was able to get through the last sequence. I skipped the outro simply from the experience with the intro.
Though I did have quite a few laughs during a few of the quests, I enjoyed my interactions with Helanu and I was quite surprised at the Inquisitor and his role in it all, the ending of the mod felt lackluster. It felt like a cliff hanger and I'm not sure if that was on purpose too but honestly, I was too exhausted to put anymore energy into any of it. I finished the mod in the wee hours of the morning and I just didn't have a feeling of, "I really liked that" after closing my game. I hate that I was glad that it was over but I just chalk it up to, this mod wasn't really for me and that's okay.
This is a very well done mod and I have endorsed it. It's well-written, well-conceived, emotionally-gripping, has no more "wait that doesn't make sense" moments than anything in the vanilla game, has cool locations, has cool references to Elder Scrolls lore, and is in general a very unique and cool experience to play.
Having said that, I wasn't actually able to finish it and there are a couple of things folks should know.
One, this mod is not easy to do if you roleplay Paladin or similar type characters. You're undercover and you'll need to be pretending to be very, very bad. The other good guy NPCs actually warn you about this and I, like an idiot, didn't listen, assuming incorrectly it'd be more analogous to, say, the embassy infiltration sequence of the main vanilla game questline -- short term undercover followed by a more traditional sequence. It's not like that at all. This is some harrowing work. It last several in-game weeks and you're in very serious danger every second. One mess up and the entire cult will attack you. You are mostly deprived of your best gear while you're undercover and you risk, say, a dragon attack while you're not prepared. Which is how it should be when you think about it.
Two, and this was what caused me to not be able to finish...I can't tell you if this is a bug or something I did....But there's a part where you're following one of the bad guy leaders at a discrete distance. He was attacked by a wild animal and that somehow blew my cover and caused me to fail.
It was frustrating but I went with it and wrote my own ending: I suited up properly, went back to the bad guy hideout, and slaughtered every single one of them I could find. While this was not likely to be as complete a victory against the cult as actually winning the main quest would've been, at least I managed to do some damage control. Then I uninstalled the mod just to save space.
If this happens to you and you go this route: Do not kill the character they roomed you with, the main bad guy's daughter or niece or something, because that will freeze you until the Inquisitor arrives. And in my case....I'd killed him already!
I freely admit that it's likely that most problems I encountered were me, not the mod. I have gladly endorsed this mod. I didn't mind failing the main quest and I enjoyed my character doing what he could do to make up for his loss. I even got to make some cash doing it.
I can't tell you if this is a bug or something I did....But there's a part where you're following one of the bad guy leaders at a discrete distance. He was attacked by a wild animal and that somehow blew my cover and caused me to fail.
I assume you're talking about the quest "Under The Moonlight". I've got the same bug while doing this one. What helped me was fast-travel to the point of destination (Ivarstead). Just teleport there right after the start of the quest and wait until they come.
Fantastic mod about an everyday life of a secret agent! As in old song, "Our service is both dangerous and difficult and at first glance does not seem to be visible."
Hello, and great mod! I've been enjoying it thoroughly. Yet I've encountered this bug that has kind of blocked the quest entirely. In Under the Moonlight quest, Vaden and his party won't leave, at all. I've tried moving them to a different spot (moveto player), disabling him and enabling him, restarting the game, waiting... Nothing works! Could you help me out with this?
cananyone show the map where the hideout is located when you suppose to follow salms as he sees to always disappear or i die prematurely cause of frostfall and maybe where is is located from where outside near whiterun
Give Feedback
1248 comments
I've been quite busy in real life, working nearly 60-65 hours while maintaining complicated social life. It is hard to say I will be supporting any of my Fallout 3/NV/TES5 mods. If you are hoping for updates on any of my public mods, it is unlikely to happen...not anytime soon.
As for ARM quest, people having asking for update or sequel....both of them were at work till end of 2013. I was working on overhaulling the interior cells of the Mythic Dawn and quest structures to provide alternative ways to progress to the last mission, in the middle, my desktop (Intel D800 with HD 4800...yup all my mods were built from this ancient PC) finally died. This is where my mod making session kinda stopped. Later that year I build a new PC but I couldn't really be motivated to work any further.
Simultaneously, I was designing a sequel to this mod. I've seen people saying Helanu would have been a companion after the end of ARM...truth to tell you, depending on the choice made in this mod, she was supposed to come back as one of essential NPCs in the sequel. After seeing all the people writing ungrateful and negative reviews, I kinda lost the spirit to work any further on this mod. In the late 2012 and earlier 2013, I was working 12-17 hours a day everyday for this mod, I even literally coughed out blood onto the screen while working on this mod. I am aware that my mods contain bugs,glitches, plotholes and etc, but it was my joy being able to share my imagination with so many people in the community.
Since I am here, I might as well answer some questions people posted below:
1) "My journal will not activate!!"
-> I think I figured out why people have this problems and I never had this problem while testing out this mod in 2013. Journal has a script attached that is waiting for player to complete certain part of quest stages in certain order. And each stage can be completed while moving into the invisible trigger boxes located throughout the mod. I've seen some youtubers playing this mod with TCL console command on...if you use these cheat codes, it disables all the trigger boxes in the level, thus, even after you progress the mod, the journal object will still be on "waiting-mode" for player to progress the already-completed-quest-stages.
2) "I cannot pick up xarxes! also infinite number of enemies spawn in that area!"
-> Xarxes can only be picked up by the female NPC companion. Also, infinite enemy spawn is intentional. Player was supposed to escape while everyone else was fighting. The design flaw in this mission was that I expected players to follow the NPC to initiate the Xarxes grabbing scene. If friendly NPCs engage in combat and does not withdraw, the quest will be halted.
3) "The Mythic Dawn guy is not moving once I escaped from the cave."
-> The AI marker is placed in the exterior cells. If you have other mods that occupy that region, or used TES5Edit to "clean" (seriously, it is not dirty, it is harmless), it will be deleted along with it. Thus your companion will not lead you to the Mythic Dawn hideout.
4) "Going back and forth to the Inn? this is stupid!"
-> I know. The reason why I used that Inn as main source of player-Nirtiuss communication was to minimize the possible conflict with other mods. I could use 10 other interior cells but that would already put more burden on compatibility issues which this mod already has few.
5) Mythic Dawn hideout is too big to navigate.
-> This is my fault. I made it big and made each cell interconnected with every other cells. Apparently, this is not what everyone wanted. I apologize. The unreleased update contained about 25% of overhaul which recreated the main hall and the dormitory. At this point, it will be as it is.
Lastly, super thanks to all the donors who supported this mod beyond simply clicking endorsement. I've been struggling financially in last couple months and this has been a great help. I truly appreciate it and if I ever come back to create more quest based mods, these donors will likely show up as badass NPCs and anti-heroes.
Jonathan Silgals
Kevin Evers
Josh Jones
Robert Dotson
Linwood Oakes
Julian Javier Lopez Pajuelo
Jeremiah Simpson
Christopher Chu Cheong
Björn Falkenbach
Stephen White
Thanks again guys.
journal work and they all have been fulfilled, so I had to manually move to quest to stage 40.
Great mod, but I can feel it is crawling with bugs, smaller or greater. It desperately begs for a bugfix or redone version, though I fully understand how difficult it might be.
** update **
Using setstage or completequest dreearmquestmq02 or dreearmquestmq03 ( the Nirtius note "Mission #2" is supposed to start '03' ) does NOT work. That will 'finish' the quest in question, but the next quest STILL will not start. I tried this with dreearmquestmq04 as well. Again, that quest will complete, but the next quest (05) will NOT start. I am not using TCL, and am using very few mods (including Born and Dawn). Does A.R.M. need Hearthfire?
Does anyone have a known working fix for this?
If so, PLEASE let me know here (spell it out in detail).
At present, A.R.M. just will not progress.
Will you be updating this mod for the 64-bit Skyrim Special Edition? I think it comes out two days from this post.
Awesome mod. Stuck at guilty until proven innocent quest, what do I do please help
Good work on this one, I think you should be proud.
Pros:
- Go undercover. Way better, immersive, and longer than Diplomatic Immunity quest.
- Giving the Mythic Dawn more roles than the official quest had.
- Choices. Will you remain true to the will of the Agents, or go to your own accord while still holding onto duties as an Agent?
- The inquisition quest. Man! I thought I'll blow my cover there...
- The plot and concept as well as that big plot twist.
- That dunmer voice acting. Reminds me of Jiub and other default male dunmer voices from TES3 Morrowind.
Cons:
- Dalamus. Ironically, I hate his snail speed and pianissimo speech.
- The chef's painfully loud voice recording. You don't want him and Dalamus be in the same room having a conversation.
- No ARM armor set. Just robes and some light armor gauntlets and boots. You won't use them anyway due to your undercover duties.
- Not so good quest rewards. Well the story itself pays it off. No worries.
- For crying out loud! That unnecessary vast labyrinth-ish multi-floor layout of the Mythic Dawn Hideout and generic Mythic Dawn members blocking your way.
- The Helanu girl deserves more role in the story.
Bugs:
- Confusing quest marker location adding up to the complexity of the Mythic Dawn Hideout structure.
- Quest NPCs who are supposed to move to their respective quests objective don't move sometimes.
Suggestions:
- Add signages and arrow signs to important rooms in the MD Hideout. Particularly the Logistics Room, Inquisitor's Office, Dalamus' Office, dormitory rooms, Fuel Depository, and every Hideout cell.
- A feature to ask generic MD members, "Where can I find ____________?" or "Have you seen ____________?" Since their voices are from the vanilla assets, they can just respond with generic "yes" lines. Then a misc quest marker will appear. This will be useful for newbies of this mod and also to help to somehow spot some side quest that are easy to miss and cannot be completed if you're way ahead of the main ARM questline.
- A main lobby where you can access every Hideout cell.
- If there would be a sequel, since it smells it would have one due to the epilogue, Helanu deserves more roles:
If you eliminated Helanu:
- She actually survived and escaped the blast as well due to the Dragonborn feeling soft on her. She avenged their demise and become a secondary boss. Upon confrontation, she can be either eliminated for good, or convince her to turn over a new leaf - join the Agents or adopt her and also become a follower.
If you spared Helanu:
- Helanu will still despise you. But upon your second encounter, battle starts which can also have two choices upon defeating her: eliminate her, convince her to join the Agents, or adopt her.
only one this I did not like, was once I finished I came of here hoping to find the sequel!
Its a shame there is no sequel as yet as I really enjoyed this mod and was hoping to play a sequel so we could learn the consequences of the choices we made etc. Even what happened to certain characters?
I hope one day you will continue this mods sequel, Even a epilogue to the ending.
Moderate amount of spoilers ahead:
I've been on a downloading spree of quest mods since finishing the main quest in my 1,000,000,000 play through. Though I've installed 4 different mods, this review will not be a comparison to others I've played. This is just my opinion on just this mod.
Firstly, I chose to endorse it. Me editing photos and my basic knowledge of HTML and webpage creating is nothing compared to the work video game modders do. It takes time and it takes a lot of patience. The latter, I definitely don't have. So on that front, I couldn't help but to respect and endorse this just for the effort that was put into it from the modder and the voice actors.
That being said, I'm most likely going to echo the cons of this mod that others have in the comments. While I enjoyed going undercover and using my high level sneak abilities to succeed in the quests, there were a lot of things that put a damper on the overall mod for me.
- I'm not big on the whole followers thing as far as Skyrim is concerned. My characters are almost always a lone wolf. So for the very quest to be, "Escort Salms to the Mythic Dawn Hideout", I was already sighing in depression. Even though I have a mod that forces NPCs to walk/run faster, the fact that I couldn't just fast travel there instead, did a little dance on my nerves.
- I have Dawn of Skyrim installed, which overhauls all cities. I also have Tropical Skyrim, grass overhaul and Trees of Skyrim installed. All of these made it more difficult to find the entrance to the hideout because the cave was hidden behind giant rocks on the mountain. This was resolved with disabling a few objects but running around this mountain for over 5 minutes while trying to avoid being interrupted by a dragon, again, did a little dance on my nerves.
- Speaking of dragons, maybe it's because my character is over level 50 (and I've defeated Alduin) but every.single.time I left the Mythic hideout, I had to sneak run quite a distance away before I could fast travel without the game telling me I couldn't because "enemies are nearby." This alone made the back and forth from Rorikstead to Mythic hideout teeth gritting.
- Here's where I echo the comments of others. The Mythic Dawn Hideout. Before the last quest of the mod (I believe it was the quest involving the Sigil Stone, before the court questioning), I said out loud that I couldn't wait to blow the entire place up with everyone but Helanu still in it (and Oleema because sweet argonian.) From the repetitive interior, to the unnecessary levels of the interior, to having to TCL to get to the fuel depository because the door wasn't accessible, I completely relied on clairvoyance to get me through. (Even the NPCs would get stuck on each other or stuck in hallways because so many of them were going through one door at once.) By the 3rd quest, I wanted to punch every single NPC who said, "Speak!", "Need Something?", "Yes?", "Hmm?", "Make it quick, I don't have all day."
- The voice acting. This is not a major critic. I just wish some of the dialogue that was too quiet, would've been a bit louder and clear to hear (Dalamus) while other dialogue was entirely too loud. The chef. The first time I heard any of his dialogue, I was taken aback because he was so loud. Speaking of Dalamus, he spoke with the speed of a snail. Oy.
- The bugs. I haven't experience the same bugs as other users. Mine were quite random. The first bug I encountered, was my game freezing after speaking to the priest and starting the "infiltrate" quest. I'm guessing it was the intro to the mod? Either way, I had to skip it in order for my game to stop freezing and finally start.
The next bug, my game would CTD going to and from the hideout. It wouldn't happen all the time and sometimes it would happen going from room to room within the hideout. Auto save helped with this.
The next bug was Torene. After reaching the secret passage from the boat, she kept circling around the beginning of the snow cave. She just wouldn't advance at all. I had to disable a few objects within the cave, to get her to move. Once we reached the book, she kept standing there with her fists up. Of course trying to talk to her, or get her to move will have her telling you, "Not now." It took a minute or 2, to progress the dialogue and the objective.
The next part of that same quest, the heretics. I'm not sure if the infinite spawn of heretics and saber cats was on purpose but because I had a bit of difficulty getting out of the area, my game CTD from all the havoc, explosions and everything else during the fight scene.
Finally getting back to the original path, my game would freeze after fighting the Vigilants and trying to access the boat to get back to the hideout. I had to use the Save cleaner tool to get the freezing to stop (though the tool couldn't find anything left in the save that shouldn't have been.)
The last bug was at the very end of the last quest. After leaving the inquisitor and having to flee the hideout before the explosion. When I got to the main door of the hideout and there were 2 initiates standing in front of it, the game would CTD before I even took them out. Again, used the save tool and was able to get through the last sequence. I skipped the outro simply from the experience with the intro.
Though I did have quite a few laughs during a few of the quests, I enjoyed my interactions with Helanu and I was quite surprised at the Inquisitor and his role in it all, the ending of the mod felt lackluster. It felt like a cliff hanger and I'm not sure if that was on purpose too but honestly, I was too exhausted to put anymore energy into any of it. I finished the mod in the wee hours of the morning and I just didn't have a feeling of, "I really liked that" after closing my game. I hate that I was glad that it was over but I just chalk it up to, this mod wasn't really for me and that's okay.
Having said that, I wasn't actually able to finish it and there are a couple of things folks should know.
One, this mod is not easy to do if you roleplay Paladin or similar type characters. You're undercover and you'll need to be pretending to be very, very bad. The other good guy NPCs actually warn you about this and I, like an idiot, didn't listen, assuming incorrectly it'd be more analogous to, say, the embassy infiltration sequence of the main vanilla game questline -- short term undercover followed by a more traditional sequence. It's not like that at all. This is some harrowing work. It last several in-game weeks and you're in very serious danger every second. One mess up and the entire cult will attack you. You are mostly deprived of your best gear while you're undercover and you risk, say, a dragon attack while you're not prepared. Which is how it should be when you think about it.
Two, and this was what caused me to not be able to finish...I can't tell you if this is a bug or something I did....But there's a part where you're following one of the bad guy leaders at a discrete distance. He was attacked by a wild animal and that somehow blew my cover and caused me to fail.
It was frustrating but I went with it and wrote my own ending: I suited up properly, went back to the bad guy hideout, and slaughtered every single one of them I could find. While this was not likely to be as complete a victory against the cult as actually winning the main quest would've been, at least I managed to do some damage control. Then I uninstalled the mod just to save space.
If this happens to you and you go this route: Do not kill the character they roomed you with, the main bad guy's daughter or niece or something, because that will freeze you until the Inquisitor arrives. And in my case....I'd killed him already!
I freely admit that it's likely that most problems I encountered were me, not the mod. I have gladly endorsed this mod. I didn't mind failing the main quest and I enjoyed my character doing what he could do to make up for his loss. I even got to make some cash doing it.
Nice mod!!
What helped me was fast-travel to the point of destination (Ivarstead).
Just teleport there right after the start of the quest and wait until they come.
As in old song, "Our service is both dangerous and difficult and at first glance does not seem to be visible."
What's with all the Re-spawning Heretics ?
I gave up after that.
Yet I've encountered this bug that has kind of blocked the quest entirely. In Under the Moonlight quest, Vaden and his party won't leave, at all. I've tried moving them to a different spot (moveto player), disabling him and enabling him, restarting the game, waiting... Nothing works!
Could you help me out with this?