ACCEPTED Enhanced Skyrim Factions - Companions Guild (by DreamKing)

[DoubleYou]

Moved it back to how it was.

[Shadriss]

Most likely does - Everything seems to conflict with it. If this DOES get (has been?) accepted, I think the Requirements Only version is the one that should be used, for exactly the reasons you mention.

[baronaatista]

using the requirements only version right now, and loving it.  I'm only at the very beginning, doing quests for the Circle members, but already it feels much more natural.  barring some odd bug or performance issue, this one is staying in my LO forever.

[Greg]

I am finally the Harbinger for the Companions and this has been one long ride. I wanted to better track my progress through each stage so I accepted one radiant quest per day and returned to the Companions no earlier than the next day with the general notion that my journal would show something like one radiant quest per day. This generally held true, although a few of the radiant quests (notably collect six sabre cat pelts) took longer than a day given the small population of snowy sabre cats.

 

Overall this strategy worked out well since it allowed me to track 14 radiant quests is about 14 days so I could know when the next stage should trigger. For the short quests I spent the remainder of the day and night exploring caves and dungeons I came across or completing miscellaneous radiant quests I had collected.

 

I've pretty much cleared out most locations in Skyrim that aren't locked, became Thane of Whiterun and Solitude, and kicked Alduin to the curb. I still have lots to do since I haven't begun the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood questlines (I didn't think it would be appropriate to do these while working my way up the ranks) and I haven't been to Soltheim yet (saving this for Detailing the Eldrich).

[TechAngel85]

What is your review of this mod after completely the quest line?

[Greg]

I think this mod has found a permanent spot in my load order. It does take a long time to finally become Harbinger, but it's well worth the effort. I want to try to the full version at some point in the future, but I think the requirements-only version is perfect for STEP Core or Extended.

[Darth_mathias]

I am a big fan of ESF Companions been using the Full version for a while (althrough I can never seem to past level 5 but that's not this mod fault but my own.) One thing I wish the MCM would tell is how many radiant quests you have done for the companions for a given section before you can advance.

[TechAngel85]

I might have to create a character just for this and play it through. I've never been a fan of the companion story line so I've never completed even one quest of it. However, I'm willing to take Greg's word and review as being good enough. If it's anything similar to Thieves Guild Requirements, then it'll be good to toss in. I can't play the thieves guild story line without that mod and I play that side story every time I play.

[redirishlord]

The "requirements only" version is very much like Thieves Guild Requirements & Timing is Everything from the STEP wiki. As stated above, possible candidate for STEP.

The "full version" expands on the quest line & adds unvoiced dialog; but Fuz Ro D-oh, also in the STEP wiki, helps with that. Conflicts with other mods with this version, so not perfect for STEP, but definitely worth a MO profile & a play through. Not sure about green pact violations*, but a Bosmer might benefit from optional wolf form.

 

* orthodox vs. non-practicing Wood Elves? Chalk it up to a daedric rumspringa, find the cure when you've matured a bit.

[Darth_mathias]

personally I would agree with Greg that the requirements only version is a better candidate for STEPS the the full version.

[Ganda]

The requirements only version has become a staple for me since I found out about (a looong time ago :p). Definitely recommend it.

[Greg]

The requirements-only version is very similar to Thieves Guild Requirements and Timing is Everything so I think this is perfect for STEP Core. As other have mentioned, the full version of this mod includes significantly more changes (including the ability to join the Companions without becoming a werewolf), but I dismissed this version because it steps outside the bounds of the vanilla game to some degree and introduces potential conflicts with other mods. From here on out, I am describing the requirements-only version...

 

The basic premise is very simple. The player speaks with Kodlak about joining the Companions and Kodlak has the player spar with Vilkas, take Vilkas' sword to Eorlund, bring the shield to Aela, and follow Farkas to your quarters. This is all straight vanilla Skyrim. At this point the player must complete 10 radiant quests (including at least one radiant quest for each member of the circle) over 14 days, have a weapon skill of 30, an armor skill of 30, and be level 10 before the Proving Honor quest triggers.

 

Once the player completes the Proving Honor quest, the player must complete 20 radiant quests (including at least one radiant quest for each member of the circle) over 28 days, have a weapon skill of 50, an armor skill of 50, and be level 20 before The Silver Hand quest triggers.

 

After the player completes The Silver Hand quest, Aela sends the player on the Stealing Plans quest, the Retrieval quest, and another Stealing Plans quest. Now the player must complete 10 radiant quests (for either Vilkas or Farkas) over 14 days, have a weapon skill of 70, and armor skill of 55, and reach level 55 before the next stage triggers. At some point near the end Aela sends the player on one more Stealing Plans quest and finally the Blood's Honor quest triggers and the remainder is pure vanilla Skyrim.

 

One potentially confusing point is that in the last stage (after The Silver Hand quest and before the Blood's Honor quest), Aela's only role is to send the player on various quests to steal plans from the Silver Hand so she can't assign the player radiant quests and has no dialog options even though she has an arrow over her head. When the player tries to talk to Aela, she says something about giving a beating to the Silver Hand and Kodlak hasn't caught on to the schema. Yet.

 

I think Darth_Mathias has pretty much read my mind because the one feature I would love to see is an item in the MCM menu showing how many radiant quests I've completed and how many days have passed since the last stage. I mentioned that I tried to complete one radiant quest per day and the only reason I did this was to try to keep track of my progress with the general notion that one journal entry is one day.... even though it doesn't really work out quite this way. I even dug through the console to see if I could find a way to deduce this information from script properties.

 

One important point to note that is that pretty much everything is configurable in the MCM menu, although I played using only the default options. I should also note that the appropriate section in the MCM grays out and becomes disabled when the player meets the requirements for that section so it is easy fairly easy to know when the next stag is ready... it's just not so easy to know how much further the player has to go to reach the next stage.

[rootsrat]

I did almost the full storyline back in a day with this mod and it worked very well. Made the Companions questline rewarding and interesting. Didn't notice any bugs and I was using the full version (required a lot of patches though!). The only issue I've had with it is that the initial scene when the 2 members brawl with each other laster forever - but that was because of another mod that raised the difficulty by giving more HP to various creatures, so the 2 guys never could beat each other to the point one surrendered. 

 

Hope it makes sense :)

 

I'd defo recommend it and I agree that requirements only would be better for STEP (although the full version is more interesting for sure).

[Darth_mathias]

I did almost the full storyline back in a day with this mod and it worked very well. Made the Companions questline rewarding and interesting. Didn't notice any bugs and I was using the full version (required a lot of patches though!). The only issue I've had with it is that the initial scene when the 2 members brawl with each other laster forever - but that was because of another mod that raised the difficulty by giving more HP to various creatures, so the 2 guys never could beat each other to the point one surrendered. 

 

Hope it makes sense :)

 

I'd defo recommend it and I agree that requirements only would be better for STEP (although the full version is more interesting for sure).

yes I get that problem cos i use Vigor comabt and injuries so I have to drop the difficulty to novice a pretty much wait until the fight end which can take awhile the put it back up.

[rootsrat]

Yup, same workaround here - forgot to add it to my post. Just drop the difficulty, wait for the scene to finish and set it back to what it was.