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Use this version for fun only if you don't like killing Thalmor but just want to explore instead.
Main file is still required but just override the Valen_assault.esp from the main file with the 0.30 one.
Enjoy!
--theblackfist
A lot of great mod authors have simply stopped sharing their works because of trolls and bullies making comments acting like they know something when they don't know how to produce anything for the community (except their vile hate). Please let's all be respectful to each other here in the comments!
--theblackfist
I didn't know about ESMifyer Addon at the time when I was developing this mod though. It's like stupid easy to make any .esp as an ESM flagged with that addon! Just load any mod into SSEEdit, right click on the mod in SSEEdit and apply that script! I use the optional file available in the downloads since it both ESM's a .esp and sets the Persistent flag to any NPC set as unique (so that way these NPCs start their schedules whether you're in their spawned cell or not).
--theblackfist
I so want to play your mod... but...
I did not see a comment or a requirement listing the Bosmer Armor Pack by Maty743
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5597
It is a required Master plugin...
Loot gave me a heads up, and I started digging
Master Required By
BosmerArmorMATY743.esm STHorses.esp, Valen_assault.esp
I installed the Bosmer Armor, but your mod does not recognize it. The mod name is the same (BosmerArmorMATY743.esp)
There is no hit when I search this forum for this problem, I must be alone with this problem. What am I missing?
The book talks about exploring the island, but to stay on the roads. Once the first fight was over, I tried to stay with the soldiers, and the first thing they did was go directly north, away from the roads. It became a hunting expedition.
The other poster talks about gathering forces and coordinating attacks, but I see no such thing. In my view of what I have in front of me, it is an open Island. No Quest markers, no statuses. I tried to talk to as many NPCs as I could, and they have no dialogue (besides merchants).
Am I missing something? Or is this exactly the experience I am supposed to have. I don't mind, just need a validation. Still fearful that there is something wrong since the book was not on the ship.
And again thank you for the amazing work. The world does look beautiful, and I already saw a Giant tree fighting. Very cool.
His clip starts with a Deckside motivational speech by Ulfric (apparantly the Stormcloacks won in his playthrough). The setting looks like the ships in the ocean. I am in one of those ships, but I have no speech. All I can do is either click on the hatch for Valenwood, or the hatch to return to Skyrim. Is my install broken? Using latest release.
These assault mods I setup to be just like an Unreal Tournament arena match with large battles, small battles and everything in between. They're like capture the flag game modes but it's capture the city instead!
And not just the cities, but some of the towns, villages and rural areas have skirmishes too. Some villages are ran by friendly NPC's so you can rest up and get supplies, but others have been taken over by the Thalmor so be on your guard!
"Unreal Tournament 2004" is my all time favorite game! I wanted to have that experience in Skyrim too, so hence the assault mods were born. This one here for Valenwood I originally was just going to keep for myself (and not share it) since it was just the province with NPC's in it, but I hadn't setup any of the assault components in it at the time. After turning the province into a large battlefield, I decided to release it here since I had already released one for Summerset Isle.
Only the Thalmor and some of the local animals are hostile towards you (and a few bandits), but everyone else, the Wood Elf natives, Stormcloaks, Imperials (no matter what side in the Skyrim civil war you fought for) will be friendly with you and help you out.
There's no actual quests with this one, so yeah, you're not missing anything, but I am attempting to make a main questline for my Assault on Elsweyr one (demo version is available, but full version is still being built). This quest will be similar to the civil war where after you clear a city of Thalmor, that stage of the quest will complete. Assault on Elsweyr will also take place in the whole province. I released an overview map of it back in August 2024 and just a couple of days ago, posted in the comments an update on how the south peninsula is progressing if you'd like to have a look!
--theblackfist
Thank you sir.. for the attention.. and this great mod
The book... not there.. I searched really hard. Started "disabling" barrels using console commands. There is no book. I jumped in the water, thinking it had done one of those famous falling from the sky Skyrim moments and maybe it had bound off in to the ocean. Nope. I saw the clip/picture. I know where the book was supposed to be. But there is no book. All the folks who are posting the same are not crazy (at least, in a very narrow sense). :)
May I suggest you just place another copy on the boat AFTER you enter the hatch. A wondering explorer takes the hatch to check it out, finds him/herself on the ship, spots the book and after reading decides if the trapdoor to Valenwood is what they want to do, or if they need to head back to Skyrim for a supply run.
Second suggestion:
A very small "patch" for "The Second Great War" that points the player to Valenwood/boat if their desire to kill Thalmor has not yet been satiated. Perhaps a copy of the book could be just laying on the same table as the skyrim map.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17204
Valenwood looks cool. Unique Flora and Fauna along with Architecture. I am excited to explore the Island. And ok. Now that I understand the setting, I will liberate that Island. The thalmor will get their due, and interest.
I have already found an unkillable character... I ran away since it was only my second city. The enemy was not at all what I would have expected, but looks very cool. I understand that the ruins may hold the secret to defeating such character (keeping it light not to spoil for those who have yet to face it).
I am using extra mods that make my enemies extra super duper hard (I am a masochist)... this has been hella fun so far.
Yes, I was slightly misled by the artistic rendering of The Enraged Bard... I suspected as much, but wanted to be sure.
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you so very much...
and a Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy new year to you and yours. May this new year bring you a bountiful harvest of joy and love.
I have a boxed copy of Unreal Tournament 2004 on my bookshelf... no joke. We are in the same wavelength.
To The Enraged Bard... keep making them brother. You have a flair for the story telling.
Also: I noticed the SLEN prompt on your dialog menus. I have migrated away from Sexlab entirely. Ostim has similar addons, and the animation interface is much nicer. I can control all the action with my game controller (could not do the same with SL). If it has been a while since you checked out Ostim and related add-ons, you may be missing out.
Thanks!
--theblackfist
I say that because when I fast travelled to the boat, it placed me on the water. Perhaps the book shared the same fate.
I will just additem and get this party started.
Belgeode (in the comments below) pointed out that he uses a couple of mods to enhance the landscape grass. I don't use any of these but perhaps you'll enjoy them!
Origins of Forest
Folkvanger
--theblackfist
--theblackfist
My question. I reinstalled this (new save) 2 ingame days ago. I gathered my forces and 2 days later we went to Avenger (yes i read the book).
Arrived in woodhearth to fierce battle, used EFF leader's teleportation to get my follower army on the docks. There were not many imps at all fighting. The ones there pretty much died. The civilians held their own till we arrived.
I know we are SUPPOSED to follow the imps to the next town but now that we secured Woodhearth, will there be reinforcements spawning we can follow? If so, do we just wait overnight or something?
I don't want to advance my Ebon Valkyries till we have the rest of the invasion force with us, so i have them in defensive positions and patrolling the surrounding woods near the bridge.
Also..... what is that passage near the docks / shore? Do i need to go in there? Looks awfully steep to get down into.
Yes, there's a very powerful villain wondering the province and reading that book on the Avenger would save your characters life!
All the npc's in the mod are set to re-spawn after 2 in-game hours. I set the re-spawn timer that high to keep the action going in a fast-pace manner and to have the player on their toes while exploring the province. There should be around 15 to 20 Imperials to start you out in Woodhearth city, but if there's not that many, then it's likely some went on ahead to the next city.
Each city in Valenwood will have some allies fighting Thalmor. Some cities will have more allies but most will only have a few allies to help you out.
That's where you come in to clean up!
City battles will vary in difficulty depending on how many allies you save in previous city battles. For example, Greenheart city is labeled as a "challenging battle" but if you've got a bunch of Imperial allies you saved from the Woodhearth battle, then Greenheart will be more of an "easy battle" for you.
Were you talking about the one near Woodhearth city? Just off the shore to the east? That's a tunnel connecting Woodhearth city to Haven city (east side of the province connecting the west side). I don't recommend taking that since your allies won't go there and Haven city is a very hard battle!
--theblackfist
I have been planning, strategizing, and taking note this time around instead of running around like a crazy person (like i did the first time i played this).
It is night now of Day 1 of our seige. The Ebon Valkyries and myself have secured Woodhearth and set up camp (basic camping gear mod). I was planning on waiting till morning to see if more Imperials spawn in that we can follow southeast. We have decided we will take the Haven route.
I did notice on the compass a cave and ruins north of the city, so I think I will push back our advance timeframe in order to take my ranger squad and explore those. We are also on the lookout for Ayleid ruins (We saw the one off the coast near Vullen Haven, but I assumed that is unreachable since I did not see a clear path to the shore). Along the way we did see a squad of Imperials in the woods, apparently being harassed by a griffon. We took care of the griffon for them, as they were not doing too well. We cleaned out Vullen Haven btw. The Thalmor never saw us coming. Ha!
I'll ignore the passage on the coast near Woodhearth for now. Yeah I am not traveling anywhere without the Valkyries. Those girls would have my head if I had fun without them.
So next time I log into Skyrim VR it will be morning of day 2. I'll clean up any new "visitors" we may have gotten, and it's off to the cave to the north.
My current strike force-
20 Ebon Valkyries
divided into 2 1/2 squads
Midnight Squad - 8 mostly heavy hitters and mages (currently guarding the back half of Woodhearth and the bridge)
Ebony Squad - 8 mostly sword n board and healer types (currently guarding the port region of Woodhearth)
The Unseen - 4 rangers all with invis capability, potions, etc. (with me at all times, double as my personal bodyguards)
And of course me, the Redguard lvl 59 dragonborn spellsword
You've got quite the setup there with your squads and who goes where! Don't forget to also check out the "videos" tab where one user made a story out of all the battles and exploration he does while traveling through Valenwood with his followers; similar to what you're doing
Don't forget about the (quite powerful) villain wandering around the whole of Valenwood. This dark force starts out in the middle of the province but will branch out randomly to other areas of the province too! It's beneficial to you and your followers to explore those Ayleid ruins
--theblackfist
Day 2- The day began with myself and The Unseen (the 4 rangers) heading north from Woodhearth to explore the cave and uncover the ruins.
The cave was unremarkable BUT.... technical issues exist. Cavern wall and floor meshes kept disappearing for me, depending on where I was looking, or how close I was to them. I do not know if it is because I am in VR, or if it is something with the cave itself. The meshes were still there and I could walk on them, but in some cases I could not see them till I walked a little more, then they reappeared. (I am talking about Glenpoint Caverns)
After we finished exploring the cavern we went to the first nearby Ayleid dungeon. That was definitely an interesting one. Not quite sure what to make of the items i found in the three chests... Only 2 seemed to be helpful, the third I could not find out what it was for (trying to not spoil it for readers). Also the navmesh at the front door is a bit sketchy. My squad could not follow me inside, and when I teleported them inside, they were stuck in the first hallway down the stairs. I tp'ed them to me and they were fine in the rest of the dungeon. I had to tp them back outside though.
With the dungeon cleared, and that third treasure chest item in my inventory unused, we made our way back to Woodhearth. We are going to camp out one more night, before heading to our next objective- Greenheart. Needless to say, the town vendors love having us here, as we bought up almost everything they have. It's a lot of ladies to feed.
But this afternoon I decided to do something that i hope you do not mind (for my own benefit). Remember I said I use mods like origin of forest, folkvangr, and enhanced vanilla trees? Well in particular Origins of forest was a little TOO zealous in putting bushes everywhere. I discovered that when you made the roads around valenwood, you put the actual road objects on top of the "grass" paint, which of course causes the game to render whatever we have as grass or forest shrubs. For most users with vanilla skyrim setups, not a problem really. For crazy people like me who love unruly wild forests, I cannot see the road.
I went into CK and used the default dirtpath terrain paint and basically traced all your roads, so that no grass grows on them. Some areas I kept overgrown because it made sense, but most of the areas where you designated as a road is now clean of foliage. I just hopped in Skyrim VR and took a short walk to Vullen Haven with The Unseen, and it looks much better. Still a very overgrown forest as it should be, but now I can see the road and not have to worry about getting lost and eaten by whatever supernatural horror you have waiting for me.
Oh btw, I AM actually video recording my experiences. I do not plan on putting it on my youtube channel though. It is kind of a video diary for me.
So yeah, sorry about that in advance! If I knew then what I know now about the CK, you'd be good to make any edits you'd like without having to worry about breaking anything. You can get those same cell values back using SSEEdit though. Load in the original Valen_assault.esp and your modified one, the just compare the Packages section of the two and copy over those cell values from the original to your new one .esp and done!
Haha yep, I hear you! I don't post anything on youtube either, but every once in a while, I'll post some test videos up of some of my works I've done while developing Assault on Elsweyr on my Rumble channel here: https://rumble.com/user/theblackfistTestChannel
--theblackfist
Anyway... DAY 3-
Today was a fun one. Two cities taken. Early in the morning we mustered the entire strike force in Woodhearth, and began marching to Greenheart. Along the way we did see Imperials headed to somewhere... Every now and then they ran past us. (so their city to city pathing still works) Patrols engaging the enemy, we helped out. And the squad that was being harassed by the griffon (remember we saved their butts a couple days ago), I commandeered them to come with me to Greenheart (EFF force recruit). The battle got particularly fierce near Marbruk, and again near Greenheart. Those areas are areas I did not "remove grass", so it is fully wooded, very overgrown, and hard to see a bosmer archer or a thalmor mage in the undergrowth. It was perfect... we got ambushed and we fell for it.
After some intense fighting (and myself being on my butt a couple times thanks to paralysis arrows) we finally were able to take Greenheart! I had the girls relax while I climbed the ramp to get to the tree city.
I fell. Through the ramp. No idea why... but yeah, ramp was not what it seemed. Thankfully I did not die. Being an alteration mage has its perks.
After about an ingame hour to catch our breath and gather lunch, we began our forced march onto Elden Root. I left the 5 Imperials I had commandeered at Greenheart, and my 20 ladies braved the overgrown forest to find the road to Elden Root.
Holy heck, it is pretty clear you intended this one to be a major battle because as soon as we started approaching, it felt like all oblivion let loose! We really did not need to do much here, because the Bosmer fought impressively and ferociously to reclaim their city/tree. We did pitch in and help out however after we crossed the first root bridge, because a second thalmor force was waiting for us near the base of the tree.
Once the fighting was finished I opened up the POI for the ayleid ruin (that will be day 4's adventure), and teleported all the girls to the top of the great tree! We camped out there that night.
The last thing I did was swap out the 7 music files for ESO Valenwood music files (yes i converted them to xwm and made back ups of your originals) I cannot explain the feeling of hearing ESO Valenwood music while standing in a giant treehouse in the clouds, watching the sunset... IN VR. It was the most sublime experience ever. I do not know if you ever tried Skyrim VR, but you really should play your own mod with a VR headset on... It is an absolutely incredible experience!!!
You've got around half of the province under your control now after only 3 in-game days? Keep up the good work!
I love reading about your adventures throughout Valenwood! Keep them coming; I'd love to see what happens next!
--theblackfist
Ok so DAY 4- We had problems....
The night passed quietly, and I woke up to everyone camped out in the treetops just where I left them. Today we wanted to visit the ayleid ruins behind Elden Root, so I gathered the 4 rangers (The Unseen), and we descended the Graht Oak. (BTW just an FYI, the navmesh inside the tree is really sketchy. I took a look inside CK and it is all over the place. I am thinking you may have used "Auto generate" to make the interior cell navmesh. I was able to fix that interior cell so that the girls will walk inside the tree with me, then also take the teleport beam to the top. But it was not easy)
We walked over to the Ayleid ruins (Laeloria) and I went inside. I had to tp the girls in... again, navmesh issue. To my great surprise, no enemies awaited us! I am so used to everything trying to kill us that I was genuinely shocked that I found the treasure chest, got all the items, and never had to draw my weapon once! Once I got outside and teleported the girls to me, I did notice a curious effect. The sky changed color... it looked as if the sky was from Aetherius, or Sovngarde. The only way I could change it back to regular sky is with dragonborn's "Clear Skies" shout.
In any event, I got what I came to the ruins for, and went to improve it back on top of the tree city, but discovered it could not be improved. No worries. It was time for me and all the strike force to head for Southpoint. By this point it was already midday, and I wanted to be able to secure Southpoint by sunset, so we could make camp.
The journey to Southpoint was filled with ambushes from would be thalmor assassins, and wizards with murderous intent. On one occasion, I saw a guy standing on a small hill to the side of the road. The rest of his thalmor friends charged in to attack, but he must have seen around the corner to get an accurate count of how many women were following me... he goes "I'm getting out of here" and RAN for the hills. LOL. My ace sniper Jaimie cut his trip short. Extra pay for Jaimie tonight... She is worth her weight in gold.
After passing the bridge in between the mountains, and taking care of the Thalmor sent to guard it, we ran into our biggest enemy ever... the one that stopped our advance for the rest of the day.... I am talking about the dreaded Crash To Desktop.
I tried three times to get past the stables and into the city, each time the scripted battle inside the city began, it caused me to crash to desktop. There was no crash log generated at all. Needless to say I am confused as to what happened. Fighting any enemies placed outside the city is fine. It specifically happens when I get close enough to the city for all the inside fighting to trigger. If you have any ideas, let me know please....
Otherwise when next I log in, we will skip Southpoint, and head on to Haven.
As it stands now, I left myself and the girls at the bridge leading into Southpoint.
Interior navmeshes will be a little wonky. I pretty much concentrated on perfecting the navmesh for all the outside parts (Valenwood worldspace), and didn't do a whole lot for the interiors. It's quite the job to just lay the navmesh! I'm mainly just focusing on the outside parts, because I want these assault mods to be more combat focused and not so much sandboxing. The interiors for Valenwood are mostly bonus areas where you can gather cool new equipment and items. For Assault on Elsweyr, I'm building out interiors for that reason, but also to give the player shortcuts to get from one area to the next.
This other user was however able to get around it by approaching Southpoint city from the south. He was able to clear out all the Thalmor from Southpoint and explore the city coming at it from the south. Give that a try and see if it works for you too!
--theblackfist
I just took everyone to Haven and had the same issue on the main road in, just after we opened up the POI.
I am thinking maybe too many actors, especially mages? I do have the vr version of the increase actor limit installed, and i set it to a high number.
Part of what i love about this mod is that after the combat is done for the day, i can explore the unique cities, and in the case of Elden Root, sooooo much love was put into the interior spaces that it seems a shame to not rest and recover there. So for me, yeah i had to sort out the navmesh, just so i could have the girls wander and awe, just like i was doing.
Most players probably rush through to the next fight, then the next, but i am an explorer at heart.
That city alone is worth the whole mod... it is so incredibly beautiful!! Sunset in the clouds is beyond words!!
Oh and Elsweyr is on my list too for next adventure.
I think I will end day 4 by saying we had to "retreat" back to Elden Root. On day 5, i will leave half the strike force in Elden Root and try Southpoint again, doing the "flanking stealth approach" idea.
We'll liberate that city yet!!! Dragonborn's promise!!
After retreating to Elden Root and once again camping out at the top of the Elden tree, we woke up bright and early in the morning, and I decided to take roughly half the strike force with me... Midnight Squad and The Unseen... 12 women total.
We walked back to the bridge just outside of Southpoint and I had Midnight Squad wait there, while the Unseen and I headed due west to the sea.
Unfortunately since the water is not navmeshed, it ended up being a solo swim, but as I mentioned before, I am an alteration mage... which means i can teleport my friends (EFF leader's teleportation). So I swam out a ways then turned inward towards the beach, being careful not to trigger the assault. Thank the divines the beach was long enough for me to teleport The Unseen in, and we immediately began living up to our name... we all went invisible. We snuck up to the warehouse near the docks and hid behind it, as the battle began. (NO CTD, YAAAAAAAAY!!!)
I deliberately waited till the explosions and fighting stopped, even though I knew it meant certain death for our Imperial and Bosmer forces. But I used that time to silently and stealthily get all 4 scouts and myself up to the hill where the farm animals are penned. As soon as the Thalmor were satisfied in their slaughter and returned to their posts, it was time to strike.
One of the best parts of being a mage fully trained in destruction is that lightning storm is quite an efficient spell for taking out groups of enemies that decide to bunch up at the gate. With the fury of Akatosh, I unleashed "UNLIMITED POWER" on the Thalmor, and the rest of scouts broke their stealth to take out the reinforcing enemy archers.
I put out the call for Midnight Squad to back us up (the signal was dragonborn clear skies shout), and the girls came running through the gate in a classic military pincer movement. The thalmor, surrounded on both sides stood... no... chance. Not even their best battle mages survived.
When the smoke cleared, the only living beings left in Southpoint were my strike force, and the farm animals.
I summoned the other half of the strike force to reinforce us from Elden Root, and we waited till sunset for them to make their way to Southpoint. When they arrived, we decided that was enough fun for one day, and all went into the temple to set up camp inside for the night. (Since I left all our tents in the Elden Tree, but we still had sleeping bags we can lay out in the church).
I don't know why i did not think of doing a flanking movement before, but suffice to say it WORKED! Tomorrow we will decide if we want to go to Haven yet, or at least clear out the area between Southpoint and Haven, saving Haven for another day.
Be on your guard if you do decide to go to Haven city. There's a Thalmor boss there and the Thalmor soldiers are elite types... and there's a lot of them. You've only got a small group of Khajiit allies inside the city to help you out, however there's a hamlet west of the city called "Greenhall" where you'll get a large group of Bosmers to help you take Haven. They'll travel to the town "Eagle Vale" first to take care of the Thalmor there, then they'll go head first into Haven. These Bosmer are some tough, battle-ready elves, but they'll quickly get outnumbered so they'll need your help!
Falinesti city is also a heavily Thalmor fortified city with elite Thalmor soldiers. There's a boss here too and she's up inside the graht-oak tree. You'll want followers to help you defeat this boss, since she's also got a few teammates to deal with you!
I'm happy to hear the Southpoint battle worked out well for you! Careful though since flanking a city may not always work out! There's Thalmor scouting parties scattered throughout the province and don't forget about inhabitants of the wilderness. Especially the centaurs!
--theblackfist
(Funny you mention centaurs, Greenhall, and Eagle Vale)
We decided to fortify Southpoint as our staging area, due to the lack of inhabitants. I tasked Ebony Squad to patrol around the temple and higher elevation areas of Southpoint, and I assigned The Unseen (the rangers) to patrol from the stables to the docks.
I took Midnight Squad (7 women) deeper into the forest. We found the aforementioned centaurs, and my attempts at diplomacy failed. They were put down.... sadly. I actually thought they would help us, but alas, they had other plans. We also ran into bandits, who while still hostile to us, had done us the inadvertent favor of destroying a Thalmor patrol for us. Unfortunately for them, their reward was also death.
Battling hostile creatures intent on diseasing or poisoning me, we eventually caught sight of Greenhall through the woods. We rendezvoused with the elves there, and as a group made our way to Eagle Vale.
Upon arrival at Eagle Vale, I decided to set up camp there as the elves did their thing. We dispatched any Thalmor between Eagle Vale and the bridge to Haven, but I pulled everyone back to Eagle Vale... I have a plan.....
(At this point i saved game, but I will tell you my plan for later)
Since i have a nice defensive set up for the squad at Eagle Vale, my intent is to engage the Thalmor from the Haven side of the bridge at long range, to draw them across and into the wild lands. I am in no rush to do a full frontal assault (aside from which that was what caused my CTDs before). So I plan on "pulling" units to me and just past the bridge, where the girls will be waiting. If we can take the lower docks area, as well as the outskirts, then I will set up Midnight Squad there, summon The Unseen, and begin guerilla urban warfare.
Even with the Bosmer help, it would be a foolish act to try and take on the entire Thalmor force head on, in their well defended city... but I love to instigate a fight by drawing small groups of them to US! The Unseen have proven themselves... I think we can do this.
I'll let you know tomorrow how the rest of Day 6 goes. So far if you are keeping track, all of Greenshade region is under our control, and most of Grahtwood region. That is half the province. We have not ventured into Malabal Tor region or Reaper's March region yet. But I am under no illusions... Haven will be a tough nut to crack.
With the Bosmer forces spread out on the hills flanking the road to Eagle Vale, and Midnight Squad backing them up, I began my hit and run tactics, starting with the docks area. I used lightning storm to take out the Thalmor before they were able to get up the hill to me, then turned my attention to just making a general racket in the direction of the housing neighborhood.
As expected, I stirred up a hornet's nest... Elite soldiers and wizards began lobbing projectiles my way. I got hit with a paralysis arrow as I was making my retreat to the bridge, but I got up in time to avoid a killing blow. I called upon my Yokudan ancestors to grant me the speed of the winds, did a whirlwind sprint, and beelined it for the bridge with a bunch of angry Thalmor chasing me and cursing my name.
How could one lone redguard be such a thorn in their side? I am sure they immediately called for a bounty to be paid to the one who brought their leader my head, because all I saw when I glanced behind me in VR were black and gold with a bunch of magic projectiles.
The trap was set, the bait was taken, and as soon as I crossed the bridge to the Eagle Vale side of it, the trap was sprung.
From the hills, the bosmer warriors came, even a couple nords in bosmer gear! Quickly followed by Midnight Squad, all trained assassins in their own right, now turned dynamos of violence.
Every single Thalmor who dared cross the bridge to get at the "impudent redguard dog" harassing them, found the bridge to be their graveyard.
Three times I did this hit and run tactic. Each time inching a little deeper into the Haven suburbs, launching lightning from my fingertips to gain their full attention, then whirlwind sprinting back to the bridge with the mob in tow. On the third time (by this time it was close to sunset), the bosmers got tired of waiting and went full tilt onto the bridge!! BAD IDEA... They were cut down by all the forces pursuing me halfway onto the bridge.
With our allies down and a horde of angry high elves calling for my blood, there was only one thing left to do...
Dragonborn fire breath along the span of the bridge, while my magically inclined ladies rained fireballs and lightning walls onto the bridge.
When the flames finally died down, all that was left were incinerated bodies of former thalmor. I took the time to loot every single elite soldier, and collect their flawless diamonds, and 1000 septims each.
Satisfied with our work, I left the bridge of blood, regrouped with Midnight squad, and we made our way back to Southpoint, to sleep in the church another night.
We were still holding out at Eagle Vale, and the previous attempts to whittle down the Thalmor forces was largely successful. Bands of Bosmer would routinely head into the city for mop up operations, but they failed to stop the bulk of elite Thalmor forces holding the far side of the city, and the farms.
When my entire strike force arrived from our march from Southpoint, there were still corpses littering the highway and bridge... both Aldmeri and Bosmer. I decided to split up the strike force to ensure we could properly prevent a breakout from whatever Thalmor forces remained.
I left Midnight Squad (8 women) at the stables area to guard the bridge, and direct any Bosmeri reinforcements coming into the city.
I took Ebony Squad (8 women) around the west side of the city to the gate and watchtower near the castle.
The Unseen (4 women) and I took the other path around to where the farm was, with the intent to draw the Thalmor into our three pronged trap just beyond the church. Along the way, we were horrified to learn that the Thalmor had effectively slaughtered every civilian, except for a couple of khajiit who fled the town yesterday. The Thalmor would pay for this with their own blood. And i was ready to be the bait!
As predicted, the Thalmor could not resist the sight of public enemy number one, the Redguard thorn in their side. They proceeded to chase me into the city, running right past my stealthed rangers. Once they made it to the obelisk in the town square, I gave the signal (dragonborn storm call shout), and as the skies turned nasty, all of the strike force converged to town center for the final push to oust the Thalmor.
A few tense minutes later, it was all over... their elite soldiers and mages lay dead in the town square. As the rains washed the Thalmor blood into the sea, I went house to house in search of, and eliminating holdouts... mainly Thalmor clerks and the like.
Satisfied that the work in Haven was done, and just in time for a large Bosmer reinforcement to make it to Haven and take over, I regrouped with the 20 woman strike force, and we all marched back to Southpoint to spend the night.
Tomorrow... we march back to Woodhearth to begin the journey home. The conquest of the northern cities will have to wait for another time soon... provided the stormcloaks and imperials still need the help.
Southern Valenwood, the regions of Greenshade and Grahtwood..... are... FREE!
That south half of Valenwood is the hardest part of the mod. However don't let your guard down too much (if any at all!) because eventhough Arenthia city and Silvenar city will be easy battles, Falinesti is also another hard battle like Haven city. Although I'll admit, Falinesti city is actually a bit easier than Haven since the Thalmor forces come at you in waves (instead of all at once like in Haven). Watch out for the Thalmor queen and her forces residing up inside Falinesti's large ghant-oak tree! She won't go down easy
Sounds like the dark force (I call this boss the "Terror of Valenwood") is also still on the loose so keep an eye out! One of terror's many perks is that she moves VERY FAST!! You'll typically find her in the north central part of the province, but she does run around and travel to different spots of the province so if you setup camp, have some followers who will keep watch
--theblackfist
Unless i missed a way to return to skyrim from either haven docks or southpoint docks??
--theblackfist
For now, back to Woodhearth for us.
As we left Southpoint in the early morning, a group of Imperials FINALLY showed up to liberate the city.. Better late than never I guess (At the end of this I will discuss this further)
I did a head count out by the stables, confirmed all 20 women were present, then we began the long march back to Woodhearth. Our first stop was Elden Root, which would prove to be largely uneventful. The reason I needed to stop there, we left 19 tents in the upper city level of the Elden tree, and I wanted them back. I am sure the residents probably appreciated us packing up our things as well. I paid a visit to the king to inform him of our success, and he seemed grateful. I cannot be too sure, as he did not say much.
Our business in Elden Root finished, I traded with the Khajiit lady by the bridge to get rid of some Thalmor loot, then we took the right road that leads back to Woodhearth. Just past Marbruk, I decided that I wanted to try and find Archen Cormount. The stories of this "Terror" fascinated me, and I wanted to meet this alleged terror. I had heard that she could be found roaming around the area, but despite our best efforts, we only uncovered bandit villages such as Meadow Run, dead villages such as Longvale, or decrepit ruins like Elden Grove. Alas, no Archen Cormount... And we were beginning to hit the mid afternoon. Our Imperial ship was set to depart at 7PM for Skyrim, so no more time to go wandering in the woods in search of it.
As we continued west, the massive forest finally gave way to the long bridge I recognized as the main thoroughfare into Woodhearth. FINALLY! We had been marching all day it seemed, and finally around 430 PM, we were about to cross the bridge and head home... Except for the one holdout squad of Thalmor that camped out on the bridge. I am not sure what they expected when they engaged me in attack, but as soon as they saw that we march single file and there were 20 women behind me, it was over for them... quickly.
With the last of the enemy wiped out, we went into Woodhearth, where I decided since we have about 2 more hours till our ship departs, we would have some much needed dinner. (ingame wait)
As soon as i finished my meal and got up from the table, we had a visitor. A very GIANT and FRIGHTENING visitor!! This had to be the one we have been stalking in the woods all day. It appears that SHE found US! Before I could grab my Ayleid weapons, the girls all unleashed unholy fury upon the beast. They fought valiantly and were able to slay the terror, her giant body slumping right on top of our dinner table. Oh well, we were done eating anyway I guess. I looted her two swords and mask (which looked... familiar somehow), and to be ABSOLUTELY SURE the thing was finally dead, I beheaded the corpse with my saber.
All objectives complete. We had a ship to catch to take us home.
And let me tell you, I was never so glad to see Solitude harbor in all my life.
THE END (of this adventure... I will go back at a later date to liberate northern Valenwood)
____
Ok so back to the group of imperials finally showing up. You were right in a way that the ai pathing package probably got messed up after a while. So I decided to open up both creation kit and Xedit to see if I could diagnose why. I saw where you set their AI package to "travel back and forth", and I also saw where the location entries were simply "null". Whatever coordinates you were putting in there looks like they did not stick. So I had an idea... what if in CK I added "X marker heading" as reference points for the various cities that these people should travel to? I added one near the docks of Woodhearth, One in Greenheart near the Graht Oak, one in front of Elden Root's Elden tree, one in Southpoint on the beach near the docks, and one in Haven near city center obelisk. I used your existing package data and instead of setting it to location, i used "reference", selecting the x marker headings I wanted to use for each package path (for example, Southpoint to Haven, or Woodhearth to Elden Root). I made sure each npc type had at least one package assigned to it, some having multiple (which I assume allows for them to travel different places). The last thing I did was go through each AI PACKAGE and make sure i REMOVED the "greet corpse" behavior. I discovered if I did not do that, then groups will stop at each dead person whether a friendly or enemy, make some comment, then take a few seconds to move onward. This ends up breaking up the group because everyone has to comment and the ones who already commented have started running off back on their path. Some NPCs end up getting stuck, because for whatever reason they just do not comment on the dead. So yeah, removing "greet corpse" got rid of that problem totally.
THIS WORKS. The Imperials who were last seen near Greenheart were the ones we saw coming to Southpoint this morning. That massive group of 24 Bosmer you have at the front of Elden Root, all march to Southpoint, then Haven city center and back. In short, everyone is going somewhere, and fighting along the way. Of course since I figured this out after the battles were over, they just run around back and forth forever. But hey, at least it is good to see people on the roads helping to keep Valenwood safe. I am not sure if you figured this out yet, but if you have not, there you go... I can confirm that it works perfectly between game sessions.
If i have other ideas or if I get motivated and clean up more navmesh, would it be ok if I message you?
Yeah, you can PM me if you like. This thread got to be quite lengthy on us, haha!
--theblackfist
Before heading back to Valenwood for our second round, I opened up CK, added more dirt paths to remove grass on the actual roads (for some reason the terrain paint you use for roads allows grass to grow through it, which makes it hard to see the road), and i cleaned up some of the navmesh over by Silvenar (the stairs and tree paths too), the tree interiors, Falinesti, and other areas we have already been but did not visit this time around. I also added those xmarkerheadings as location references for Falinesti, Silvenar, and Arenthia, so that the imperial, bosmer, and stormcloak npcs would do their running. That works perfectly now btw. I also made terror a unique no respawn, because one fight with her was enough. Finally, I went to every single waterfall you have on this entire map, and added waterfall sounders, so that way you can actually hear the raging water nearby.
On Fredas (Friday) 18th of Sun's Height (18 July) year 203, we left Skyrim via boat back to Woodhearth. We camped overnight in Woodhearth, which was still free of thalmor, although also sadly free of most citizens (thalmor killed them the first time we came here).
On the morning of 19th Sun's Height, we marched through the woods to Silvenar. We grouped up with the Nords there, and took the city. A lot easier fight than I expected, but then the Nords softened them up by the time we got there. We camped overnight there in the graht oak trees. (One of the interiors of that tree actually goes to the Queen's throne room, which should be in Falinesti).
On the morning of 20th Sun's Height, we marched north through the woods to Falinesti. As expected it was a fevered battle. The Thalmor had slaughtered all the Imperials and Nords who went on before us, but we were able to get rid of the remaining Thalmor and take the city late in the evening. We went into the big Falinesti graht oak, but to our surprise the Thalmor Queen was already dead. (Because we killed her yesterday when we went through Silvenar, again... wrong teleport placement). We ended up camping out overnight in her quarters just like we did the night before, only this time we were in the correct city.
On the morning of 21st Sun's Height we pushed through the gates from Malabal Tor to Reaper's March, and after a brief stop over in each town or village, we made it to Arenthia before sunset. Once again the Ebon Valkyries triumphed, with the help of the Bosmer, and what was left of both Imperial and Nordic forces..... and one... giant... Dwemer centurion. Tiber Septim would have been proud. Looks like we had our own Numidium with us.
With the final city liberated from Thalmor influence and both the Queen, and General dead... as well as Terror... we camped out overnight in the beautiful city of Arenthia.
Tomorrow, 22nd of Sun's Height, we will cross the border into Cyrodiil and head home... Hopefully when we cross the Skyrim border i won't get caught again like that.... last time... LOL
I plan on going back just to explore later on, since there is that whole desert looking area near Elsweyr that I have not yet seen, but for now the bulk of the mod is complete and my ladies did me proud. I will be downloading the Orcrest one soon to play through that.
book.Is there a console command I can use to get it instead? It appears to be an important bit of kit that I need to kick some Elven ass.
Open up console-
help "Province of Valenwood"
it should give you the code
player.additem xxxxxxxx 1
xxxxxxxx = whatever the code is.
That should put a copy of it in your inventory. Just read it and pay attention to what it says. It is not REQUIRED to begin the quest and you will not get any notification or quest progression, but it is information you will find important while wandering the forests.
One issue I had with this mod though is that it overrides my music replacer mod. Would it help if I moved my music mod lower than this or is it just the way it's set up?
Well, I had to make a patch file for the Beyond Skyrim Bruma mod so its music can be compatible with the music from this mod. The combat music in Skyrim uses only one record for everything, so to have the music from both mods play, the .esp will need to be patched with Bruma's and Valenwood's combat music in that combat music record.
Do you have a link to that music mod you use? I can patch it if you like?
--theblackfist
I'm actually using Yggdrasil at the moment. It really adds a gritty, dark vibe to large scale battles (and my mod-list has a lot of those lol).
Edit: Sorry forgot the link:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/21578
Override that patch with your current Valen_assault.esp file and you'll be all set.
--theblackfist
I made one for Assault on Elswyer recently!