I like this little side quest a great deal, mostly because it takes place in a single town where it is connected with various inhabitants. I first played it in the stock game - where it seems to work properly after assigning the specific dialog files to both Orable Caron and Patric Cardone - then in NH, where it seems that not much has been changed or expanded. But I think the whole business could be structured more clearly and reasonably.
First, a quick recap of the whole events that can (but not have to) happen:
The docker Orable Caron tells you about a smuggling affair, so you go to the harbour master and offer to get rid of the problem for a small fee. You ask the innkeeper, who points you first to a portuguese smuggler, Andre Juliao. You can kill Andre out of boredom or not - either way you find out nothing. Suddenly, the innkeeper tells you to just ask the docker with whom it all started, and I think he could solve the whole story, but the innkeeper also randomly drops the name of a trader, Patric Cardone. Patric tells you his Idols have been stolen by a man named Teodoro "Geronimo" Fernandez, and the innkeeper points you in the direction of Geronimos associate Lucien Bescaneny, who you can kill out of boredom or not. In the meantime, Patric found out by chance about another acquintance of Geronimos - Raoul Calmes, You investigate Calmes too, and find out he's the smuggler the harbour man was looking for. So it all ties up when you report the whole Geronimo gang: Bescaneny to a guard and Calmes to the harbour dude and both Patric and the harbour boy pay you a compensation previously agreed on.
Great Story, but very confusing to even think about and complicated with a lot of intertwined characters. Perhaps I havent' even figured out all the possibilities myself, but here are a few things I can think are to be considered.
- You can just start the Idol story by talking to Patric Cardone without ever hearing about the smugglers. But then, meeting Raoul Calmes and writing in your questbook "he was the smuggler I've been looking for" then dragging him to the harbour fella makes no sense. In the same way innkeeper Antoine mentions Patric randomly and out of context when you talk to him about the smuggler affair, but he also points back to Orable Caron. What happens if you immediately go back to Orable, who (if i remember correctly) knows about Raoul Calmes, then you already accuse Calmes to the harbour buddy and go visit Patric later? Does that make sense? I haven't tested it but it gives me a knot in the brain to even think about it.
And some minor things:
- What happens if you kill Andre Juliao out of boredom? Does it disable the Thomas O'Reily quest or do you risk a dead end there?
- Teodoro Fernandez is sometimes called "Geronimo", sometimes "Jeronimo".
- In my patched stock game, the harbour lad wanted to inspect Raoul Calmes himself and then meet you near the townhall, where he appears and gives you the reward. I found that pretty cool, but when I recently played the quest in NH, he just accepted Raoul as the bad guy and gave you the money in his harbour hangout.
- If you kill Lucien Bescaneny, then talk to Officer Hardouin Aufourt you don't even mention it. You just tell him to search Bescanenys home for the Idols, although his dead, cold, stiff, rotting body lies there.
it's all so much!
Bottom line, I think a few improvements would be good, to merge the whole smuggling business and the Idol story (which are connected anyway) into one proper quest named Smugglers & Idols or something like that. There would be questbook entries for the whole stuff (which I could write), starting with either letting Orable tell you the smuggler stuff or going to the harbour chap afterwards. Patric Cardone has a normal vendor dialog until the innkeeper talks about him, so you can't trigger the Idol stuff separately. Also, the innkeeper talking about Patric could be more speficif, something like "Maybe you should talk to the docker who mentioned the whole affair in the first place. But between you and me, that crazy trader across my tavern could know more. I always suspected him to be a smuggler." If you then talk to Orable, Patrics dialog would be swapped back to generic trader again, and you would never play the Idols part, but the innkeeper drops a pretty solid hint about something being there in between. In addition, we could make the harbour douche going to the townhall (I should have the code in my stock game) and - in the case of Lucien being killed - add a line to the Aufourt dialog about having to kill him in self defense.
again, knot in my brain!
First, a quick recap of the whole events that can (but not have to) happen:
The docker Orable Caron tells you about a smuggling affair, so you go to the harbour master and offer to get rid of the problem for a small fee. You ask the innkeeper, who points you first to a portuguese smuggler, Andre Juliao. You can kill Andre out of boredom or not - either way you find out nothing. Suddenly, the innkeeper tells you to just ask the docker with whom it all started, and I think he could solve the whole story, but the innkeeper also randomly drops the name of a trader, Patric Cardone. Patric tells you his Idols have been stolen by a man named Teodoro "Geronimo" Fernandez, and the innkeeper points you in the direction of Geronimos associate Lucien Bescaneny, who you can kill out of boredom or not. In the meantime, Patric found out by chance about another acquintance of Geronimos - Raoul Calmes, You investigate Calmes too, and find out he's the smuggler the harbour man was looking for. So it all ties up when you report the whole Geronimo gang: Bescaneny to a guard and Calmes to the harbour dude and both Patric and the harbour boy pay you a compensation previously agreed on.
Great Story, but very confusing to even think about and complicated with a lot of intertwined characters. Perhaps I havent' even figured out all the possibilities myself, but here are a few things I can think are to be considered.
- You can just start the Idol story by talking to Patric Cardone without ever hearing about the smugglers. But then, meeting Raoul Calmes and writing in your questbook "he was the smuggler I've been looking for" then dragging him to the harbour fella makes no sense. In the same way innkeeper Antoine mentions Patric randomly and out of context when you talk to him about the smuggler affair, but he also points back to Orable Caron. What happens if you immediately go back to Orable, who (if i remember correctly) knows about Raoul Calmes, then you already accuse Calmes to the harbour buddy and go visit Patric later? Does that make sense? I haven't tested it but it gives me a knot in the brain to even think about it.
And some minor things:
- What happens if you kill Andre Juliao out of boredom? Does it disable the Thomas O'Reily quest or do you risk a dead end there?
- Teodoro Fernandez is sometimes called "Geronimo", sometimes "Jeronimo".
- In my patched stock game, the harbour lad wanted to inspect Raoul Calmes himself and then meet you near the townhall, where he appears and gives you the reward. I found that pretty cool, but when I recently played the quest in NH, he just accepted Raoul as the bad guy and gave you the money in his harbour hangout.
- If you kill Lucien Bescaneny, then talk to Officer Hardouin Aufourt you don't even mention it. You just tell him to search Bescanenys home for the Idols, although his dead, cold, stiff, rotting body lies there.
it's all so much!Bottom line, I think a few improvements would be good, to merge the whole smuggling business and the Idol story (which are connected anyway) into one proper quest named Smugglers & Idols or something like that. There would be questbook entries for the whole stuff (which I could write), starting with either letting Orable tell you the smuggler stuff or going to the harbour chap afterwards. Patric Cardone has a normal vendor dialog until the innkeeper talks about him, so you can't trigger the Idol stuff separately. Also, the innkeeper talking about Patric could be more speficif, something like "Maybe you should talk to the docker who mentioned the whole affair in the first place. But between you and me, that crazy trader across my tavern could know more. I always suspected him to be a smuggler." If you then talk to Orable, Patrics dialog would be swapped back to generic trader again, and you would never play the Idols part, but the innkeeper drops a pretty solid hint about something being there in between. In addition, we could make the harbour douche going to the townhall (I should have the code in my stock game) and - in the case of Lucien being killed - add a line to the Aufourt dialog about having to kill him in self defense.
again, knot in my brain!
