Creating a house

[Reizoko13]

Once the creation kit comes out, I'm planning on building a house to better suit my terrifying hoarding habits. It would also have a forge, because seriously, there aren't any houses with forges. I'd like some ideas on what I should include, though.

Basic plan for the house is an old dragon's lair--it will be styled after the word walls/ruins, and probably built into a cliffside. Note that all internal rooms would have to be able to fit a dragon, as well. It'll be fairly large by necessity. After obtaining it, the player would need to outfit it with human-sized furnishings.

The exterior would have a forge/tanning rack/etc, because you don't want to do that stuff in your house. Considering including an animal pen and garden.

The main hall will include a massive fireplace, cooking/dining area, and some storage. Considering adding a balcony with alchemy and enchanting tables, and possibly some respawning ingredient racks. Will definitely include a chest for reagents, considering that's one of the things I tend to stockpile. Off of the main hall will be four smaller rooms, listed below.

The armory will be exactly what it sounds like. A room full of weapon and armor stands; maybe a target or practice dummy. It will ideally have enough stands to house most unique sets--I'm not quite sure on a number; help would be welcome here. Also considering adding taxidermied 'trophies' that you would need to supply materials for, similar to the castle DLC in Oblivion. Not entirely sure how to implement this, though.

The library will have a massive amount of empty bookshelves, for the book hoarders out there. Will also have a comfortable sitting area for perusing said books.

The treasury will have a bunch of shelves, display cases, and possibly other misc. storage containers. It would be able to hold as many gems/gold bars/curiosities/pieces of jewelry as the player can manage to collect.

The bedroom will be...a bedroom. Not really meant for storage, but it would be a very silly house that didn't come with a bed. Considering adding a small pool to be used for bathing, because every cave-based home should have its own hotspring.


All comments and criticisms are welcome. Looking for help in any specific details, such as what you would like to use to showcase your hoarding obsessions, what types of reagents should be harvestable, or other touches you'd like to see included. Oh, and how should the player end up with the house--a mysterious deed, purchased from some Jarl's assistant, or some sort of short quest? Should it come with any sort of treasure itself, or be completely empty for the player to fill?

[Musicman247]

I'm guessing this is going to look like a big cave? If each room has to fit a dragon, then the hallways and doorways would also have to accommodate the beast as well, right? Kind of like a bunch of Dragonsreaches put together, I guess.

[Reizoko13]

I was having it be more ruin-ish than cave, but yes. Each room will be pretty large. The main hall will probably be half the size of the the main hall of Dragonsreach, and the other four rooms a little smaller than that.

[Iamgoofball]

Oh, BTW.

Mannequins are broken. Their bodies turn invisible no matter what armor you put on them.

Oh, and you should add a Embalming Room, because if it's an Nordic Ruin, it would likely have a spot to prepare the dead for burial.

I think you should get it by finding the place inhabited by Skeletons/Dragur, and then have to fight a Skeletal Dragon in order to conquer the lair for your own. You should also add a Smelter, too, while you're at it. And maybe a Mine and a Garden, the Mine having lots of minerals such as Gold, Iron, Silver, Corundum, ETC, and the Garden having various herbs (NO LAVENDER! TOO MUCH LAVENDER!) and mushrooms.

[Reizoko13]

I haven't had an issue with mannequins myself, but I know of the glitch. Hmm, I could always turn it into a 'feature'. Yanno, magic invisible armor stands.

An embalming room might work, but I was planning on having it built as a dragon's lair--a dragon would have no reason to keep around a bunch of dead humans. Unless, of course, it wanted servants in the afterlife. I do love the idea of having to defeat a skeleton dragon in order to claim the lair.

Also really love the mine idea, and I think that would make sense for the theme. I was planning on having the smelter outside by the forge, along with all other crafting tables. The garden would definitely have various alchemy plants as well as food ones, possibly some that are a little difficult to find in-game. Definitely wheat. I love wheat.

[Iamgoofball]

Oh, and I almost forgot:

Patch 1.2 made the bookshelves swallow whatever books you put on it permanently.


Anyways,

Maybe you could make it so that

Spoiler:

The dragon you get from the main quest as a shout

Will stay at the lair when you're not calling him?

[Reizoko13]

Haven't had the issues with bookshelves, either. Hopefully a patch to fix both issues will come along before (or with) the creation kit; I really would like to include mannequins and a library.

Maybe you could make it so that

Spoiler:

The dragon you get from the main quest as a shout

Will stay at the lair when you're not calling him?

That would be awesome, but I'm not sure I could get it to work. I'll try, though--if not, maybe having another

Spoiler:

friendly dragon that acts as a guardian for the house--in order to prevent thieves, of course. Maybe another dragon that listened to Parthy and decides to side with the Dovahkiin?

[Iamgoofball]

Actually, yeah, that would be pretty good instead!

Also, instead, the ruins could be populated with Necromancers, as well, because of them setting up camp inside the ruins, and have them raise the undead dragon when you reach them, and then add a Necromancer's Lair, that would allow you to make Black Soul Gems Oblivion-style, by going to a specific altar located in the Necromancer's Lair and putting in a Grand Soul Gem, and casting a Soul Trap spell on the altar. The place would also have a Ritual Room inside the Necromancer's Lair add-on to the house, which, provided you have black soul gems, the right Conjuration level, and the right items, allows you to summon various undead followers, such as skeletons, and the different forms of Dragur.

Skeleton Archer- Black Soul Gem, Skull, Ancient Nord Bow
Skeleton- Black Soul Gem, Skull, Ancient Nord Sword
Dragur- Black Soul Gem, Ancient Nord Sword
Dragur Archer- Black Soul Gem, Ancient Nord Bow
Dragur Wight- Black Soul Gem, Ancient Nord Greatsword

[Reizoko13]

Ooh, I really like that idea. I do miss not being able to create black soul gems, and having some more follower options is always nice. Might be fun to have the occasional 'friendly' skeleton wandering around doing chores, too. Someone needs to make those lovely respawning banquets.

[AeraDunmerMoon]

Oh, and I almost forgot:

Patch 1.2 made the bookshelves swallow whatever books you put on it permanently.

Patch 1.3 fixed this, just so you know.

[Reizoko13]

Well that makes things a little less complicated. Good; a full library will be a viable option.

That leaves one more issue: where should this lair be? Probably shouldn't be close to any of the external word walls. A mountaintop or cliffside would probably be best; extra credit for a nice waterfall nearby. Maybe somewhere near Markath?

[PigsAteMyFace]

Where would you put it, as there obviously wouldn't be enough space in the towns, also I think you should include a fishing pool? You could stock it with salmon etc. you could even RP and if you had to eat every say 4 hours then that would be a great help. Apart from that it sounds awesome! Stick some pictures up in the thread once you've started and pm me when you do

[Reizoko13]

Where would you put it, as there obviously wouldn't be enough space in the towns, also I think you should include a fishing pool?

See previous post. Probably some mountainside without anything nearby. If I could find a waterfall, I could widen that up into a fishing pond, maybe with some ingredient fish as well as salmon. There's also going to be a set table inside and maybe some harvestable salmon/rabbits/etc, so starvation shouldn't really be a problem.

[PigsAteMyFace]

I really don't know what people can do on this, but, what if you had guards and stuff or traps and you could script stuff to attack the house perhaps? I don't know if you can :L

[The-Shadow-One]

Mhm I would say if you place yours around falreath? There is a lake there.. Oor off the coast of valthiem towers there's a water fall there IIRC and it's not close to a word wall.