Skyrim: New Age of Prosperity Wiki

A community project that will combine the efforts and creativity of many existing mods or works-in-progress into a Skyrim experience that has the gamer playing in a pseudo reality about a decade on from the original game.

This is intended as a community project. I have spent some time going through a large proportion of mods (still large number to go however) on Nexus that deal with the expansion or changing of the environment of Skyrim. First of all I have been blown away by the level of effort that people have put into their creations and just how incredible everything looks and plays. It is staggering. The result of this in my opinion is that through a combination of these (around 50 at the moment, but expanding rapidly), shows a very rich tapestry of how the realm might look like under the expansion of a prosperous period in Skyrim, compared from the original look that Bethesda released. There are new cities, towns, settlements and hamlets. Some existing places have almost doubled in size. There are numerous new castles, mansions, palaces, estates, abodes, ruins, forts, dungeons, etc. Some have been restored, while others have a look of slight disrepair. Also into this fold are a number of new quests that can be under taken. Last but not least there is a wealth of masterfully constructed armour, weapons, clothing, companions, NPCs and spells that can be applied to this world.

With this material the main aims of the project are as follows:


 * Create a platform that connects together new or expanded upon cities, towns, settlements, hamlets, abodes, forts, landscape, dungeons, quests, armour, weapons, companions, NPCs and spells to obtain a look and feel of what Skyrim *might* be like under a pseudo reality period of great prosperity. This will probably be within 10-20 year time frame from the original game setting.
 * The purpose of SNAP is to mainly expose the many efforts of the modding community on work that has already been done or are works-in-progress, so that gamers can easily immerse themselves into the vast new changes that can be applied to the Skyrim world.
 * Create a community that can help each other with future goals, solve problems and encourage creativity with a big picture plan in mind.
 * Create and use a WIKI and forum to communicate the many facets that will be involved in this project.
 * Create a community based story and lore around events and characters, to reflect a 10-20 year passage of time under a period of vast economic growth. It probably should be a period of relative peace to reflect the expansion of cities, restoration of buildings and population growth. There could be regions of faction fighting however. The lore will probably not be as intended by Bethesda, as I’m sure they have something in mind. It will be a fan take on events and characters, but primarily needs to be based on the works that modders have already created.
 * Coordinate and recruit people for various aspects of the project.
 * Create quests around the community based lore, and the editing and creation of the NPCs to fit into this framework.
 * Manage and coordinate the world space of these and potential future mods that feature in this series. This might mean the relocation of existing dungeons/caves/mines as some of them take up the same world space. For example a tendency to put them around Riverwood for convenience.
 * Manage the level of questing and loot for balanced game play.
 * Offer a platform for future authors to incorporate their work into planned content.

The intention of the project is not get too technical with the back-story, as the prime objective is to create a world that fits in with the already created environments. The idea will be to have as much fun with the lore as possible.

Because of the large scope of this project, I have broken it up into what I would consider more manageable objectives and phases.

The intention is not to actually combine them into a singular mod. This will NOT be an all-in-one mod. All web-pages, uploading, updating etc will remain at the discretion and creativity of the authors, allowing them to pull out of the project at anytime. Those gamers wanting to play the game under this format will still have to visit the authors webpage and download each mod separately. There will likely be a separate file to download which is the snap-compatible version of the mod, say under optional files in the download section. So you are never committing your mod to just to work with this project, and your users have the option.

My motivation behind this project is simply that I feel that based off the relatively low number of views/downloads/endorsements that many of these have, that it is not a reflection of how much enjoyment can be achieved through them, especially when in combination. There are over 10 million Skyrim players; I’m sure many of them excited about being introduced to new content for the game. The goal is to create a platform that will capture the imagination of the gamer and thus a greater audience for the author’s creations. Everybody is a bit happier. I hope you agree.

I’m also going to outlay some reasons why many people probably don’t view, download or endorse more of these. These are assumptions based off my own experience.


 * People are wary about installing mods that change what was intended for the original look of the game.
 * There is a fear that it might be buggy or break the quests or story line of their original game.
 * For those that are looking for new quests, armour and weapons a worry that they are not lore-friendly enough and/or that the loot and items are not in keeping with the standard intention of game balance.
 * For those locations where there are numerous mods (i.e. Whiterun, Riverwood, etc) a tendency to pick one over another based on personal preference, rather than an actual back-story setting. This is not a problem in itself, but SNAP has a real focus on restoration and expansion.
 * There is not quite enough incentive or reasoning behind why they should download and install to see a particular change. This is a subjective statement, it's their loss, but covers that individually some mods don't quite have enough features/change to entice the user.
 * There are over 10,000 mods and they simply haven't found it yet!

I think this project can alleviate some of these problems and misconceptions.

My first point of call is for the authors to express your level of interest in this project and what might be involved for you. My aim is to try and make this as seamless to you as possible, but it will always come down to what your mod does and how it might need to be changed in the future to work within the new setting. The most involvement will be with the city, town, village and hamlet mods. Most of you won't have to do anything, as you've made something that stands alone nicely indeed. However it would be great to get everybody involved, as key to this project will be modding experience and people willing to work on it as a whole. Is this something you would be interested in helping with?

The other thing that everybody should know is that almost all of the mods are still works-in-progress of varying degrees. This is fine, almost better, as hopefully as a community we will be able to shape a big picture. This is a long term project, that will always be growing in depth and diversity.

For mods that I would like to be in on this project, please use the links below:

Cities, towns, villages and hamlets

Castles, mansions, palaces and estates

Abodes

Ruins, forts and abandoned structures

Dungeons

This is just my list of what I have come across so far within a few weeks of trial, and is no indication of what will be the final mods that will feature in this project. It will come down to who wants to be involved more than anything else. There are over 10,000 mods, so although I have looked at a large number of them, there are many to go. The community will be able to decipher what will best fit the SNAP model, but I thought it important to get an indication for the direction of this project and important and in contacting the authors who have created some great work already.

Have you got something you would want to add to this project or know about one that might be a good fit? I have not set up a forum yet, but please leave some suggestions here and in the coming weeks I'll have an official place you can leave these ideas.

In regards to most of the mods based around quests and dungeons, although they don't reflect a "new age in prosperity", I feel that so much hard work has been put into them, that under this framework it will give gamers a choice of discovering these many wonderful adventures. They will add fun content and this project is about exposing the great additions that can be found for Skyrim and trying to do it in a way that is seamless for the gamer.

The first phase is to simply have a mod page that introduces the idea of “Skyrim: New Age of Prosperity” with the intentions of the project, a bit of lore, and with links to the various mods. Will need to warn people that most locations are *wip*, so many elements are not working, will feature bugs, etc. Cool, not much effort here people. I just need you to confirm that you are on-board with this idea.

If I can briefly set the scene: ''The legendary Dovahkiin rides the back of his loyal drah-gkon, clearing the skies of his breeds kind. Order has been restored to the realm. Cities have been built due to the rapidly swelling populations. The city of Saviik on top of a hill overlooking the Eastmarch and Riften. The underground city built in a cavern under a mountain. The tree town inhabited by the Bosmer. Other mysterious towns have risen, with dark secrets to uncover. Solitude, Windhelm, Winterhold, Riften and most of the other major towns have been fully restored with additional markets, inns, shops and other buildings necessary to fit their status. Whiterun has become a hub of trade extending its walls to accommodate the many travellers seeking shelter. Villages have cropped up all of the place, and many of the non-human races now have settlements they can call their own. People build where they can, and the land is scattered with abodes. Many of them showing the wealth that has come into the northern-end of Tamriel. Even the more modest homes show that they have proud owners. ''

This will leave a fairly incomplete scenario for the gamer however as the world will look and feel that a decade has passed, but unfortunately their quests, characters, etc will not reflect the proposed timeline. But it’s a start and the idea is to get people exposed and tracking which mods are involved and to see what level of interest there is in this project.

Second Phase:
 * A quest line that ties together the locations loosely. It will have minimal story telling and only have fragments of the planned final community based lore. It is important at this alpha stage that gamers are guided through the new additions so that feedback for each location is possible.
 * Organized placement of world objects, mainly dealing with dungeons, caves, etc, so that they can all run in parallel.
 * Cleanup of layout of structures that overlap. Should be minimal.
 * For the quests and dungeons organize a system of relatively balanced loot.
 * Try and offer a sequence of events that will match the level the player is at. Quest and dungeons will be sequenced, based on the difficulty. However this is Elder Scrolls so if they want to do them in any order then they are more than welcome, they might just get their butts kicked however.
 * Because this is very alpha stage, have an in game method of progressing quests, just encase they have already played it or encounter bugs that prevent progression.
 * A method for players to be able to pull up information at a location to find out what the mod is, who the authors are, and a link to their webpage. This could be done via a spell, power, book, map marker, etc. Important for feedback when a person likes something they see and use, and allows for easy tracking, updating, bug reporting, endorsing, etc for that gamer.

In relation to some of the dungeons and quests there is a tendency to offer up god like items, stacks of cash, etc. I’m guessing as a means to entice people to try them. There will always be a number of players looking for this, but within the SNAP framework I’m hoping to offer up balanced game play, and in the process reach another target audience which are those simply looking for fun new things that feel appropriate for the level they are at. The ultimate goal is to have a main quest line that will have the player becoming one of the primary characters with a fully immersive story, which features many of the locations, objectives and decisions. Obviously this is a lot of work and coordination. So with smaller goals this will be achievable. In this second phase I want to keep it more simplistic, while still giving the player enough purpose to seek out the next location. I have an idea that you can read here, but this will be decided on community discussion.

The third phase is really the one that introduces the player to SNAP as an immersive world. Once the player is ready to adventure on into the next stage of their life, with a decade of history to catch up on in fact, then starting a new quest will put them through the looking glass ready for what-ever awaits them!

Third Phase:
 * Once the main quest and at least one of the faction quests are completed, player can start new quest which is the premise for SNAP, or player or can start a new game with a custom start in this time-period.
 * Existing quests will be managed as not to cause conflicts or confusion.
 * Change as much of the in-game lore that references the original time period. Not sure of the scope of this at the moment.
 * Change existing NPCs to reflect time period passed. For richer or poorer, dead or alive, stuff of legend or still the inn keeper?
 * Those NPCs that feature in original setting will initially have no additional side quests. Dialogue will be based around their history for the past decade. No voice acting, unless miracles happen of course.
 * Introduce additional new NPCs. Realistically no voice acting.
 * Abodes that don’t have NPC to be populated.
 * There will be no faction based quests.

Besides the main quest, a couple of dozen new quest/dungeons and the exploration of the vastly changed environments, interaction will be pretty minimal outside of these. However as a general feel to a period of prosperity I would like to include many travelers between cities because of greatly improved trade routes, compared to the original game. The roads will be much more sociable and adventuring will be encouraged with more NPC interactions outside of city walls.

Some of the original cities will have no quest objectives. They will be filled some of the original NPCs, with lots of non-essential NPCs to give them a lively feel, but the player should be aware that they won’t have objectives within those city walls, other than find out what has happened in the past decade. This project is more focused on the new cities, towns, villages and hamlets, that is where the fun new objectives can be played.

I think at this stage only Whiterun will feature heavily within the main quest, as this is where most of the changes have happened. Whiterun under SNAP really has a capital feel to it and it has a close proximity to the new cities as well.

SNAP is not intended to be Skyrim all over again. No 75 hours of play. But there is still a wealth of content to be had and should have most gamers playing for quite a while, with the final product probably for weeks.

Hopefully there will be a lot of ideas around each faction and each character and what possible quests and interaction will surround them. This will not be included in this phase however for manageability.

With NPC population there is a wealth of existing mods, with companions, NPCs, etc that can be resourced upon to help with this enormous process. this will be a side project within itself.

Managing the original quests leaves a lot of open ended questions about what will "break" in the existing Skyrim world. Lots of locations will be locked, items unobtainable, etc. Will have to be thought through but nothing that can't be solved *imo*. Remember this is not for the player looking to play the original game. Dragon-souls will be sold in glass jars...kidding.

Fourth Phase:
 * Faction based quests and stories.
 * Faction based interaction, i.e. if there are feuds between each other.
 * All essential NPCs have full dialogue interactions in regards to quests. Realistically not voiced.

Now the world is wholly immersive again. There will be lots of people to talk to, lots of things to do. There is so much to catch up on with old friends and enemies alike.

Probably each faction quest lines will be introduced as they become available, maybe even in parts. So this phase is over a long period of time.

Fifth Phase: '''Ongoing things that should happen in parallel with all phases. '''
 * NPCs are fully voiced...really!?! New NPCs will be achievable, but trying to get voice actors that sound vaguely like the original characters! I don’t have high expectations that this is possible, but let’s see what happens when we get to this stage. Quality of recording is more important than anything else *imo*, as long as "Aela" doesn't sound like she is on helium or James Earl Jones for that matter.

Authors, who have done a great job so far, remain focused on maintaining the work on the internal interactions within their particular location. This will be strongly encouraged. Locations as stand alone modules will be a key to having lots of content.

Those that have player abodes, create a version (separate from your original if you want) that have interiors that are more lore friendly and that will be initially based as NPC homes instead. This mostly means removing some of the loot and perhaps toning down some of the mod cons that usually come with all-in-one player sanctuaries. I think with the release of “Hearthfire” that pre-built player homes won’t need to be as important. But there is still room for having them as a player home. I also thought a system of purchase could be applied, scaled compared to each other within SNAP. Scenic views come with a cost you know and castles really are only for the rich! You can sell one house and use the money to buy another. Maybe you're a land baron and will start renting. These are just ideas however, but shows the possibilities when joined together within the SNAP framework.

Obviously in parallel with this is the continuing evolving back-story on the history of what has happen in this 10-20 year time period, keeping in mind that this is just a story of what Skyrim *could* be like under a scenario of major prosperity to the region. It’s not a story of what *should* be or Bethesda take on events. More importantly it’s the actual integration of the magnificent new environments that will form the story.

I thought it would be more interesting to have the smallest period of time pass which would allow for cities to be created, but gives the potential for some characters to still be in their prime. From a lore point of view, it’s much easier if say only a couple of years have passed, but obviously a stretch on the believability of these new structures.

Once again I’ll leave it to community to decide a period of time, but it would be nice to have some characters still in positions of power and prowess, while leaving maybe just enough time for cities to be built.

I’m envisioning much of the loot to be in the form of some of the extremely impressive armour and weapons that people have painstakingly created. Although most of these get plenty of exposure I still think they fall under the umbrella of creating an immersive world when they can be obtained in new quests. There still remains an audience that might not install them because they do offer up over-powered abilities at no real cost to get them. This project can offer an alternative to balancing this problem for players and still might introduce them to items they might not have discovered otherwise on Nexus.

I will point out that not everything is totally lore-friendly, as the imagination of the modding community tends to go the extra yard compared with the normal fair in Skyrim. With that said however, Elder Scrolls is fantasy and has seen its fair share of things like gaint glowing mushrooms. So keeping this in mind, the mods I have initially reviewed are still true enough to the fantasy world of the Elder Scrolls and nothing is too out of place. There has been a filtering process and nothing breaks the laws of physics...yet.

Unfortunately there are a lot of great Dwemer style structures and cities that I feel can’t be included in this project. It’s a tough ask to immerse players in a world where these new structures have been built, when their creators don’t exist anymore. Sorry. Once this project is completed we can look at going back in time to "Skyrim: Age of the Dwemer"

'''What does SNAP mean for modders in the future? '''

With a framework of trying to marry up various mods, hopefully there is a real incentive to become part of this community. New armour, weapon, items, spells, etc can be found in new dungeons and quests, and levelled accordingly. Real lore can be made for the adventurer by finding these things in dark caves or mysteries abodes that have a story to tell. New abodes will go onto the real estate market, ready for buyers, and in the process not laying demolition to somebody elses stone-by-stone built castle (world space management which will always be accessible). Got a new companion? Why not feature them as new NPC at one of the villages where they can have a real role in the town lore and be part of ever expanding quests, rather than just filling up those taverns. I think I have to jump up onto the table in the "Sleeping Giant Inn" to get to the bar it's so full! The idea is to use a WIKI to fill these roles, along with plenty of discussion and co-ordination.

As you can see it's about spreading talent to create a better gaming experience and should also make it easier for the modding community to find a perfect place for their masterpiece.

The other thing is there is a real flexibility to incorporate almost any idea into this project. If the community wants to see some of the new races feature in say the main story line then this is something that can be looked at. It's much harder to do this within the original concept of the game, and SNAP should in theory not take itself too seriously, so lots of room for humor, slightly out of place stuff and general good fun.

I’ll leave it there, as if you have made it this far you've done well and it is a lot to digest. I have only just started a WIKI, so I will be adding to it extensively in the following weeks to include more details.