Yuriana mod, decisions made and ETA :o

After answering some things about the mod related to the last post I made about it. I think it would be better to point out more about what I'm doing with the mod and the ideas/thoughts behind those decisions.

To begin with, I would like to talk about why I think Yuriana main quest needs changes. I think it was "okish" but I think the main issue is that is starting to get too long and trying to keep adding more and more stuff after specific quests or situations is a mistake that will be harder to fix later on.

I believe most people play Skyrim from time to time and they just prefer to do/replay stuff/quests that they like, have "fun" with npcs, or even just walk around listening to Skyrim soundtrack. Talking about the mod some people could just prefer to rescue Yuriana and not bother about anything else or maybe just get their preferred wench and continue with their playthrough checking other mods. Sure people can do that by ignoring the quest log and/or just using commands but it's not the same as if the game/mod gave you the option for that.

One of my main inspirations to try to follow the idea of giving the player more choices is Dragon Age Origins, I really love that game and how it was possible to refuse to do some things or kill npcs that you didn't care about. Obviously with some limitations. Baldur's Gate 3 and other RPGs have that "lack of fear" of the player missing out on stuff because a decision was made.

Those kinds of different options give more replayability which I think works great to how most people would play Yuriana mod. For example, having the option to just do Ethel's quest and ignoring Yuriana's quest or other quests should be fine if you want that.

Evolution of the mod to what it is now

The mod started being the usual follower mod for Skyrim with the extra steps of getting Yuriana from the mine. The player rescues her and then they are teleported to Riverwood inn and that was it. There was no quest and Yuriana at that point worked as any other follower.

After several years the mod got more quests/wenches but the base structure of how it worked was not exactly decided. There were some attempts to make the slave path but it wasn't something that worked well enough. It was more of a test.

After making Ethel's quest I always wanted to change how the main quest works since after that I knew I could make it better. The problem was that the mod was built by someone who didn't plan to do that (aka I didn't plan anything and I just wanted to make situations for Yuriana to get "in trouble" :P) and to make things worse some aspects of the mod where made using those "unplanned quests" as a base for several things to work.

Enslaved Inquiry Problem

This is part of the "old Yuriana mod" that is the main cause of issues. When I made this quest I thought it could be just another opportunity to have Yuriana act as a slave again. I didn't think the option to refuse to sell Yuriana was necessary (I just wanted to see her act as a slave, there were no slave options or anything like that back then). There was no curse or certificate and the issue with this forced decision was that it became an important plot point of the main quest, aka Yuriana getting captured.

The problem when trying to give this quest the option not to sell Yuriana is that the mod was not made for this kind of option. It was all forced and the player just had to do it regardless of how it feels to be able to continue with the quest.

This quest is the example of the main thing I am changing in the main quest since more parts of it will be considered somewhat "optional".

What ifs and what makes sense?

Ok so let's say the player refuses to sell Yuriana in Enslaved Inquiry, so now what? Yuriana doesn't get info to find Ashra, Yuriana doesn't get a certificate, Yuriana isn't getting captured, Thally doesn't replace Yuriana, no need to go Embershard Mine Underground for Ashra's collar, Arabella's help is not needed, Arabella's phantom doesn't end up at the beggar's club and Hateful Ruins is blocked since you shouldn't go there because the quest requires you to do all that before finding it BUT you should be able to find it even if you "don't know".

One of the things that could make sense here is that the player could start the game near Hateful Ruins and by chance (or not) the player should be able to go in there and find Evelly there. What about going with Yuriana there if you refuse to sell her? The quest should still be able to progress regardless of how you get there, it shouldn't be blocked but still, some things should be different like going with Yuriana or not.

Why do I think this change is important? It goes with the idea of giving players the chance to get the wenches there faster if that is what the player wants for their playthrough. Let's say you want to get Evelly as a follower because you like her. In the current beta, you have to progress all the quests again and again just to find her. When it should be possible to just go meet her right away.

One of the problems with the main quest requiring steps that could be "optional" is that some wenches could have their quests "blocked" until you do several stuff. I think, when possible, it would be better if several wenches were not tied "technically" to the main quest similar to how Ethel or Shavanne works.

These kinds of changes affect several stuff and how they were set, some things need to be remade or deleted for this to work but especially because of something else.

The Enslavement Curse

One of the main things I'm also changing is how the curse will have stages depending on the amount of enslaved cursed wenches the player claims and other quests. To make this work the curse needs to be handled in several quests where is relevant (main quest/captured wenches/Tigra quest, using the enslavement scrolls, selling wenches, etc).

So again, everything needs to be tweaked for it to work and since I'm rebuilding how the mod works is the perfect opportunity to do this.

Interactions and awareness

One of the important things about giving these choices to the player is that the npcs should interact differently with the player depending on that. For example. It shouldn't be the same if you go meet Ashra with Yuriana in BSY/BWY path or alone.

Interactions between wenches should be different too, similar to how Yulia interacts differently with Yuriana depending if she is in BSY/BWY path.

Yuriana going to Riften should be important and more npcs and her should react to that.

Reducing the "bugginess feel" of the mod

The mod also has several issues because of trying to do stuff like the hair change script, subjugated wenches duplicates, or the shield/card quest. These are not game-breaking bugs but it does give the feeling that the mod is "buggy". The hair change script will be removed and the other things mentioned will be handled in a more controlled way since the cause of their bugginess was mainly their randomness letting the game handle that. I think it should be more of a "controlled randomness".

I didn't decide yet but I think getting some subjugated wenches is too random for people who prefer some which it may be better to just place them somewhere and similar to how you can get the captured you like, it may be better to do the same with the subjugated wenches.

Tweaking and improving.

Changing some stuff that was suggested like making the area where you fight Evelly bigger. I will also reduce a little bit the difficulty of the mod. Most things should be accesible at level 20 or less (or at least I will try to do that) Bringing wenches always helps :P

Reducing also the need to travel around too much for some quests for no reason. The pacing of some quests should get improved.

Several dialogues also shouldn't be mandatory like In Raca's case. She explains stuff but it's better if thats something requested instead of her saying a lot of stuff everytime when you already know about what she says anyway.

Overall several tweaks here and there that were suggested or based on things people didn't like so feel free to suggest more stuff that may be annoying and needs some tweaking :P

New Stuff/Quests

Some specific wenches who dont have anything or limited stuff related to them will have more stuff. In some cases is somewhat of a "continuation" after how the mod currently ends. Several tweaks and changes to how some other quests start related to what was mentioned and preparing the mod for things after the current credits :P

I will also add some more items for the wenches like different collars or other accesories ;)

Too many buxom wenches is a problem.

I think having all immersive wenches being captured is a mistake. The problem with this is that it pretty much "disables" immersive wenches and the player has to go and rescue them. If the player doesn't do it he ends up with too many wenches to deal with and the taverns empty, destroying what immersive wenches mod is about. Sure it's fine the first time but doing that over and over again to just have what you already got using immersive wenches is too much.

Some immersive wenches will be considered buxom and will get captured but the taverns won't be without wenches. I think the feel that buxom wenches are special is important and other wenches should mention that as well.

I think using generic wenches like it was before worked better. I will also reduce the number of them in some dungeons since it seems too much but I will add some walking around.

Capturing more should still be possible but using the enslavement curse or other stuff.

One buxom wench lover vs games studios

One of the advantages is that I can make a quest like Ethel's quest :P but I'm just one buxom wench lover dude after all. Making enslaved wenches have several adventures and what I mentioned does take time so I hope you understand that. Things like the high poly head, improving the gladiator wenches and some patches will have to wait. u.u

ETA

At first, I thought I could upload it around this time but as I mentioned this update is kind of remaking 2 mods (Yuriana and Immersive Wenches) + adding some more stuff.

I now aim to release the update at the end of the year.

The main objective is to have a functional main quest, BSY/BWY paths working with the new changes, working/fixed optional quests, working specific wenches quests, previous bugs fixed (less "bugginess feel"), and immersive wenches out of beta.

Please let me know if you have any questions or doubts. Thanks for supporting the mod and patiently waiting for more stuff. Thanks for reading and have a nice week ;)