A Vote! (For Realsies this time)

So, after the Last poll got canceled, here we are with a new one. 

The two leading options last time were the Whiterun court trial and the spawnable pyre, but after a some consideration I´ve decided that both of them aren't quite ready yet to start working on. The Whiterun trial requires a clearer picture on what I actually can and want to include, and our writer is heavily busy with some more worldly chores. A spawnable pyre on the other hand would probably greatly benefit from finding a solution to the high poly preset incompatibility issue first. 

But I think this is actually a great opportunity to try some other Ideas I´ve been brooding over for some time now. Both of which wont be directly dependent on Prison alternative, but are intended to complement its place in the game world.

So, lets look at the contenders.

Number 1: Orkish bounty Hunters (need to come up with a better name...)

One of the larger issues from a gameplay perspective is the fact that its actually incredibly difficult to get jailed. Even with mods, Guards almost never pose a meaningful threat.

And so I´ve thought about establishing A dedicated bounty hunting company/guild of sorts.

Their main goal would be to hunt down the player, subdue him, and deliver him into the jail of whatever hold he has a bounty in. In order to avoid issues with combat defeat mods, they would fight with nonlethal weapons which deliver some sort of scripted sleepyness/paralysis effect. They will employ increasingly refined tactics as the players bounty increases, for example paralysis Runes placed on common travel paths. This forces the player to stay on their toes, even if they have high combat capabilities.

If the player has killed to many of their members, they might even decide to forgo the bounty, take them back to their stronghold and deal with him themselves.

Which nicely leads us to the next Point, their stronghold. They will get their Dedicated base of operations (already scouted out a nice place near Lake Honrich in Riften) from which they will launch their hunting parties. This base will provide many spots to place devices, as well as their own underground dungeon. And furthermore is intended as a hub for a larger quest line, similar to the thieves guild or the companions (maybe a bit more loose though). This means that the player can pick up bounty quests here, and bring the targets back to the base where they will be dealt with.

And the main story line associated with this also provides good opportunities to place new areas and smaller dungeons in the world where scenes can play out.

Which is probably a better course of action than merely imitating Babo-dialogue and place even more extra stuff in existing locations.

Anyway, the possibilities with this are endless And its my definite favorite for this poll

But wait, there´s more

Option 2: Elusive Necromancer Laboratory.

Another Gameplay issue is that after being killed by a device, regular combat defeat mods cant really hook into that and so the Player is left with a simple game-over and reload.

Therefore I have though about Introducing a special Necromancer group/organization to the Game. With resources far beyond their cave-dwelling counterparts, they have control over a special laboratory which exist between the planes of existence and can only be accesed by portals.

Being powerfull mages, they do of course have a keen interest into the Dragonborn and will take possession of their corpse if they have been executed somewhere.  After they managed to restore the body and revive the player, you will effectively have a microcosm of PA. a daily routine of getting experimented on, dying, and getting revived again. Until the player manages to escape.

As the functioning of the escape portals is unknown to the player, they will emerge in a random spot in Skyrim, with no way to return to the lab on their own accord. Other than getting themselves killed again somewhere of course.

Maybe there could be an option to talk them into becoming allies over time if the player has ended up being executed several times in Skyrim and has made multiple visits to the lab. But I´have to spent more thought on that one.

Anyway, while not quite as extensive as the bounty hunters and more situational, It might still make for an Interesting option

Thats it.

I hope you can forgive me for just having 2 options this time, but I have only a limited amount of Ideas for such large scale Mods, and I don't think there's much point in pitting them up against smaller devices or extensions.

Happy voting :)