Initial topic posted, let's get down to ideas.

Here's the direction I'm THINKING OF taking the mod. CONSTRUCTIVE feedback is always welcome of course.

STEP 1: (currently working on): Give each hold it's own Dawnguard Sentries and change the factions so that each Sentry is aligned with the Dawnguard and the local hold's guards instead of EVERY hold's guards.


STEP 2: In order to keep the mod a tiny bit more lore friendly, change the mod so that the Dawnguard Sentries are replaced with Vigilants of Stendarr from level 1 to the point that the character either starts the Dawnguard DLC or perhaps the vampire attacks start at around level 8. I have to figure out how to have the game switch them though. Also along these lines, once the player beats the Dawnguard AND had advanced far enough in the main questline to recruit new Blades, replace the Dawnguard Sentries with Blades members. The idea here is give the player a visible sign of achievement in the game, AND keep a type of sentry around to help with crime and Dragon attacks.

This would be getting a bit complex, but maybe I could figure out how to rig in an option that switches the Dawnguard to Vampire Sentries IF the player finishes the Dawnguard DLC on the vampire side. Thoughts?

At this point, I might even change the name to Skyrim Sentries. O_O


STEP 2B: Figure out how to make the Dawnguard Sentries disappear during the Civil War seiges of Whiterun and Solitude or Windhelm, or at least make them inactive during the fight.


STEP 3: Add quests into the game to recruit the Dawnguard as Sentries for each hold per ElfenDraco's request. It's more realistic after all. MY personal thinking here is something along these lines: Vampire attack occurs in Hold... Talk to Vigilant Sentry about the attack... Vigilant mentions the Dawnguard and suggests talking to the Jarl as well... Convince Jarl to upgrade the Sentries... Travel to Fort Dawnguard and talk to Isran... Isran complains about lack of manpower but says he can spare the Sentries if you take care of a vampire issue in that hold... Tie into one of the Dawnguard radiant quests (maybe make similar quests of my own to avoid conflicts with the DLC)... Finish quest, return to Isran, get Sentries sent... Return to Jarl, report success, collect minor leveled reward for helping protect the hold.


STEP 4: Along the lines of Step 3, come up with a swap out quest to assign Blades members to each hold. Coming up with something reasonable and lore friendly would be the key there. Either way, it would doubtless be based on the assumption that there were more Blades than origianlly believed in hiding around Skyrim, so that you have recruits to draw on.

Based on the ideas you mention here, I think the potential name change would be worth considering since you appear to be expanding the scope of the mods intent beyond that of protecting the major holds from vampire attacks.

Also, I like your idea for including the Blades as possible sentries for those who choose to side with them instead of Paarthurnax and the Greybeards (sounds like a rock band lol). However, for those who choose not to side with the Blades, maybe you could set up "renegade" Blades sentries who chose to remain loyal to the Dragonborn despite his choice to spare Paarthurnax. I'm not sure how that would be worked out though, but just a thought. My thinking is that until Paarthurnax is dead, Esbern and Delphine won't help the Dragonborn beyond giving him/her Ohdaviing's name until Paarthurnax is dead. So I don't know how Blades Sentries would "behave" around the Dragonborn while Paarthurnax still lives. Of course I am probably thinking too hard on this. I tend to do that sometimes.

Areas I think Blades Sentries would be best suited would be Kynesgrove, Rorikstead, and other unwalled places known to suffer the occaisional dragon attack.

Good points McQuire. It's been ages since my last full playthru, so I forgot about the Blades vs Paarthurnax issue. *IF* I go that far with this mod, I may come up with some sort of work around for that issue. Your renegade Blades idea is the best one.

The more I think about it though, I may just develop the Skyrim Sentries as a whole different mod. Some folks just want quick and easy protection for cities and may not want all the drama of chasing down mini-quests to get Sentries.

All things to think about.

Thanks for the reply. I agree with your thoughts that people may not want to chase down mini-quests. I often pass up mods that include mini-quests myself. So, I probably wouldn't have a problem having Blades sentries anyway. I would just assume Esbern and Delphine took initiative to do their own recuiting and sent them out to their posts.

For a renegades option, just a stanger in blades gear could approach the Dragonborn and volunteer on his/her own initiative. That would be a quick and easy way to explain how some members disagree with the DB's desicion to pardon Paarthurnax for his help. The dialogue would initiate the appearance of the Blades sentries at their assigned posts.

Some people like immersion, and are bothered by the fact that the Dawnguard is just there. That's why I was pondering the extensive overhaul. After hearing you confirm some people just like it simple though, I think I may just make Skyrim Sentries a more immersive second mod and keep Dawnguard Sentries a simple solution to the vampire problem.

Me personally, for what it's worth, I can go either way. I like a moderate amount of immersion, but not so much it kills gameplay. Hence I don't use Frostfall even though for realism it's hard to beat. As for the Sentries just being there even at level 1... I've read enough books and comic books that I can spin almost anything into a pseudo lore friendly rationalization for existing.

Originally posted by rms827:

OK, I'm starting this discussion so that some of the ideas already suggested for the mod Dawnguard Sentries can be discussed and developed in more detail

When I first posted it here, I was simply reposting somebody else's work, with full credit given. With a few changes already made, and my modding skills improving by the day, I feel comfortable trying to truly make this thing my own. Crimson Blade will always get credit for the original concept & release however.

Originally posted by rms827:

Me personally, for what it's worth, I can go either way. I like a moderate amount of immersion, but not so much it kills gameplay. Hence I don't use Frostfall even though for realism it's hard to beat. As for the Sentries just being there even at level 1... I've read enough books and comic books that I can spin almost anything into a pseudo lore friendly rationalization for existing.

Cool. I'm glad to see this mod back up and what you've done with it. I went ahead and subscribed after your comments about the sentries during the civil war. So when I finally get to that, I'll get to see what happens with the sentries.

I look forward to seeing what you do with the new Skyrim Sentries.

I think that the idea for sieges would be cool, but could you maybe have like, a small Dawnstar Guild building in each major city, Solitude, Windhelm, Whiterun, Riften, and Markarth? May be asking too much, but hey, just an idea. And also, I love the Vigiliant idea, like maybe, you could add vigilants to the minor settlements, and Dawnstar to the major ones? But the mod right now looks amazing man, thanks!

Originally posted by wilkesdanny:

I think that the idea for sieges would be cool, but could you maybe have like, a small Dawnstar Guild building in each major city, Solitude, Windhelm, Whiterun, Riften, and Markarth? May be asking too much, but hey, just an idea. And also, I love the Vigiliant idea, like maybe, you could add vigilants to the minor settlements, and Dawnstar to the major ones? But the mod right now looks amazing man, thanks!

I'll see what I can do there. Fleshing out the actual Sentries a little bit so they've got more dialog and such is my first priority. After that, I can try to add small "offices" for the Dawnguard.

For what it's worth, I had planned on adding a few sentries to at least Ivarstead. It always seems to get attacked when I pass through, lol

I like the idea of vigilents for smaller settlements like riverwood and the like, and Dawnguard members for the larger holds like whiterun. I'd also just like to voice my support for the work you're doing, and I'd really like to see the full idea of Skyrim Sentries fleshed out some.

My main problem in using Vigilants of Stendarr as Sentries in smaller towns or earlier in the game for Dawnguard Sentries is that they're squishy (as MMO players put it). How many times have all of us seen a random encounter along the road where a vampire just totally lays waste to a pair of roaming Vigilants?

There are a couple of possible work around here that I can think of... 1) Make Knight-Vigilants of Stendarr decked out in Steel Plate armor and a spellsword AI. 2) Increase the power of Vigilants in the game with magical robes and mage armor spells + a few perks.

Maybe a combination of both actually...

Hmmm... maybe if you added some sort of commander for the vigilants who was decently beefy you woulden't have to artificially make the vigilents tougher. also I imagine that some of the armed towns folk and the guards themselves would get in on the act, as far as pummeling vampires goes.

Rms, I recently made a mod which added a Dawnguard Member to Dragonsreach to protect the Jarl, It might work quite well if the idea was used in your mod

please make them killable

I think that you shouldn't put blades, they are quite ugly and weren't they "banished"? The idea of the commanders is really good. Ah, one last thing: never put the phrase 'vampires are attaking Skyring and dragons coming back to life, this is the end of the world' ( I know this aren't the exact words ) like the city guards say, it would be inappropiate.
thx again for the mod