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About this mod
Shor's Watchtower- we've all found the dead bodies, and the note saying reinforcements were expected to arrive, but they never did in vanilla. Now you can see what might have happened if they did.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Dead bodies, bloodstains and a note saying reinforcement were expected, and... Well, that was pretty much it. We were left hanging.
Until now.
Entering Shor's Watchtower or the area of its future barracks (The broken down old house added by Arthmoor's Shor's Stone) starts a fixing up and reclaiming process that proceeds over the course of several days.
Yes. You have to visit Shor's Stone several times over several days. That's right, the place most people probably only visit once or twice. Now you have a reason to go back.
Day 1: Reinforcements arrive. They set to work cleaning up: the bodies are removed and loaded into coffins on a cart. Temporary sleeping accomodations are set up by the future barracks, a cot under its porch. Piles of supplies for the rebuilding appear.
Day 2: The cart and coffins are gone, hopefully on their way to the nearest Priest of Arkay. Bloodstains and strewn hay piles in the tower have been cleaned up. Guard are working at removing rubble from the future barracks site.
Day 3: Rubble has been removed, some building supplies have been used up, some trees, shrubs and rocks have been removed from the nearby landscape.
Day 4: Barracks has been built. Archery range added just to the West of the barracks. Several lanterns added.
Day 5: Final stage. Finishing touches appear- several banners, Riften or Imperial depending on Shor's Stone's allegiance. A second shift of Shor's Stone town guards arrives.
There are six tower guards total. They operate in two shifts of three each. At any time, three of them will be "on duty" and patrolling the tower and surrounding area. On Day 5, a second shift of Shor's Stone town guards also arrive. They operate in a similar manner- 3 are on duty patrolling the town while the other three are off duty.
Off Duty town or tower guards may train at the archery range, followed up by grabbing a pint at The Tapped Vein (Inn). they may hang out around the barracks porch, or sleep in the barracks.
If The Rift's allegiance changes before you visit the Tower for the first time, the bodies you find will be Imperial, the note will mention a Stormcloak patrol, and the banners on the tower will be Imperial ones instead of Rift banners. Same as in vanilla.
If the Shor's Stone allegiance changes after the reclamation process is complete, the allegiance of the guards will change to match.
If Shor's Stone allegiance changes in the middle of the reclamation process- expect a bloodfest. The tower guards won't update until the process is finished, but the town guards still will.
USSEP:
This was made with USSEP. But it is not a required master. If you don't use USSEP, expect NavMesh bugs. But you're probably ok with that, as I expect anyone who doesn't use USSEP enjoys bugs anyway.
SKSE64:
Guards won't do weapons training without it, but the rest should work.
Installation:
Like most other mods, with a mod manager or manually based on your preferences.
Mid-Game:
Should be ok, assuming you're not in Shor's Stone or the immediate vicinity at the time...
My Falkreath Guard Overhaul gives Falkreath guards realistic schedules, sleeping arrangements and patrol routes.
Technical Details on how to advance the progress:
FAQ:
Q: Why Shor's Stone?
A: There's several reasons.
It's not a real popular area for mods, so there's less chance of conflicts.
There's also limits to how much the game's AI Package Manager can handle at once. Shor's Stone isn't heavily populated, so I can add more NPCs with AI Packages without pushing things too far.
Then there's that note. Vanilla really left us hanging there. Something should come out of those expected reinforcements.
Q: Did you change the guards?
A: A little. Not their basic stats, they'll fight just like any other generic Rift Guard. But I did change the outfits slightly.
- The traditional guard helmet, body armor and shields didn't change. But as the player levels, the guards will get better gauntlets and boots. Up to a maximum of Heavy Imperial (if imperial) or Scaled (if Stormcloaks)
Q: What's the difference in the versions?
A: The standalone version is flat-out incompatible with Arthmoor's Shor's Stone. Using it will break the NavMesh link between the Dead Trees Inn and the outside world, leaving NPCs stranded. Use the appropriate version. In addition:
- In standalone, off-duty guards may spend their time hanging out at Sylgja's firepit with the rest of the townsfolk. In the version for Arthmoor's Shor's Stone, they may spend their time at the Inn.
- In Standalone, the military garrison is strikingly large for the size of the settlement. There's more guards than there are residents! It's not as bad with Arthmoor's Shor's Stone, because he adds several buildings and residents.
Until now.
Entering Shor's Watchtower or the area of its future barracks (The broken down old house added by Arthmoor's Shor's Stone) starts a fixing up and reclaiming process that proceeds over the course of several days.
Yes. You have to visit Shor's Stone several times over several days. That's right, the place most people probably only visit once or twice. Now you have a reason to go back.
Day 1: Reinforcements arrive. They set to work cleaning up: the bodies are removed and loaded into coffins on a cart. Temporary sleeping accomodations are set up by the future barracks, a cot under its porch. Piles of supplies for the rebuilding appear.
Day 2: The cart and coffins are gone, hopefully on their way to the nearest Priest of Arkay. Bloodstains and strewn hay piles in the tower have been cleaned up. Guard are working at removing rubble from the future barracks site.
Day 3: Rubble has been removed, some building supplies have been used up, some trees, shrubs and rocks have been removed from the nearby landscape.
Day 4: Barracks has been built. Archery range added just to the West of the barracks. Several lanterns added.
Day 5: Final stage. Finishing touches appear- several banners, Riften or Imperial depending on Shor's Stone's allegiance. A second shift of Shor's Stone town guards arrives.
There are six tower guards total. They operate in two shifts of three each. At any time, three of them will be "on duty" and patrolling the tower and surrounding area. On Day 5, a second shift of Shor's Stone town guards also arrive. They operate in a similar manner- 3 are on duty patrolling the town while the other three are off duty.
Off Duty town or tower guards may train at the archery range, followed up by grabbing a pint at The Tapped Vein (Inn). they may hang out around the barracks porch, or sleep in the barracks.
If The Rift's allegiance changes before you visit the Tower for the first time, the bodies you find will be Imperial, the note will mention a Stormcloak patrol, and the banners on the tower will be Imperial ones instead of Rift banners. Same as in vanilla.
If the Shor's Stone allegiance changes after the reclamation process is complete, the allegiance of the guards will change to match.
If Shor's Stone allegiance changes in the middle of the reclamation process- expect a bloodfest. The tower guards won't update until the process is finished, but the town guards still will.
USSEP:
This was made with USSEP. But it is not a required master. If you don't use USSEP, expect NavMesh bugs. But you're probably ok with that, as I expect anyone who doesn't use USSEP enjoys bugs anyway.
SKSE64:
Guards won't do weapons training without it, but the rest should work.
Installation:
Like most other mods, with a mod manager or manually based on your preferences.
Mid-Game:
Should be ok, assuming you're not in Shor's Stone or the immediate vicinity at the time...
My Falkreath Guard Overhaul gives Falkreath guards realistic schedules, sleeping arrangements and patrol routes.
Technical Details on how to advance the progress:
Spoiler:
I added two triggerBoxes: one around the tower, and the other around the (future) barracks. Both extend several meters beyond the buildings. entering either one, start the process.
After you enter either triggerBox, then leave the area for at least a RL minute, the reinforcements arrive. For me, entering The Tapped Vein was considered "leaving the area" but this is based on when the cell unloads from memory, so individual setups will vary. You may have to go further away.
That's the only time you have to actually leave the area- this first step. After this, you can hang around for several more days if you like. But if you're in the area when stages update, you'll see items and people pop in/out of existence. It may be somewhat immersion breaking.
Every day at 10PM, it checks if you've entered either triggerBox. If you have, it advances to the next stage. Otherwise it waits until the next day at 10PM to check again.
Until it hits the final stage. Then "cleanup" occurs. Not the visual kind, but cleaning up temporary objects added by the mod. All those temporary objects, like the coffins, building supplies, etc are all deleted from the game. The "ReclaimationQuest" starts the "FinishedQuest" then shuts itself down- which is more "cleanup". Instead of the more complex quest with a semi-complex script running for the rest of the game, instead it's a simple quest and a simple script.
Show
I added two triggerBoxes: one around the tower, and the other around the (future) barracks. Both extend several meters beyond the buildings. entering either one, start the process.
After you enter either triggerBox, then leave the area for at least a RL minute, the reinforcements arrive. For me, entering The Tapped Vein was considered "leaving the area" but this is based on when the cell unloads from memory, so individual setups will vary. You may have to go further away.
That's the only time you have to actually leave the area- this first step. After this, you can hang around for several more days if you like. But if you're in the area when stages update, you'll see items and people pop in/out of existence. It may be somewhat immersion breaking.
Every day at 10PM, it checks if you've entered either triggerBox. If you have, it advances to the next stage. Otherwise it waits until the next day at 10PM to check again.
Until it hits the final stage. Then "cleanup" occurs. Not the visual kind, but cleaning up temporary objects added by the mod. All those temporary objects, like the coffins, building supplies, etc are all deleted from the game. The "ReclaimationQuest" starts the "FinishedQuest" then shuts itself down- which is more "cleanup". Instead of the more complex quest with a semi-complex script running for the rest of the game, instead it's a simple quest and a simple script.
FAQ:
Q: Why Shor's Stone?
A: There's several reasons.
It's not a real popular area for mods, so there's less chance of conflicts.
There's also limits to how much the game's AI Package Manager can handle at once. Shor's Stone isn't heavily populated, so I can add more NPCs with AI Packages without pushing things too far.
Then there's that note. Vanilla really left us hanging there. Something should come out of those expected reinforcements.
Q: Did you change the guards?
A: A little. Not their basic stats, they'll fight just like any other generic Rift Guard. But I did change the outfits slightly.
- The traditional guard helmet, body armor and shields didn't change. But as the player levels, the guards will get better gauntlets and boots. Up to a maximum of Heavy Imperial (if imperial) or Scaled (if Stormcloaks)
Q: What's the difference in the versions?
A: The standalone version is flat-out incompatible with Arthmoor's Shor's Stone. Using it will break the NavMesh link between the Dead Trees Inn and the outside world, leaving NPCs stranded. Use the appropriate version. In addition:
- In standalone, off-duty guards may spend their time hanging out at Sylgja's firepit with the rest of the townsfolk. In the version for Arthmoor's Shor's Stone, they may spend their time at the Inn.
- In Standalone, the military garrison is strikingly large for the size of the settlement. There's more guards than there are residents! It's not as bad with Arthmoor's Shor's Stone, because he adds several buildings and residents.