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Guild Ranks and Progression
AUTHOR: Lord Zapharos (www.lordzapharos.com)
DATE: 1 January 2020
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LICENSE AND CREDITS:
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

You are free to share and transform this work (commercially or otherwise) provided you give proper
credit to Lord Zapharos, provide a link to this license, and indicate if changes were made.


DESCRIPTION:
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Compared to older TES titles, the guilds in Skyrim are a bit of a joke. Within a single in-game day
you can stroll into Winterhold, become archmage, and take over the entire leadership -- all without
casting a SINGLE spell! The Companions and Thieves Guild aren't much better in this regard. While
other mods do exist that expand Skyrim's guilds, many of them introduce changes that aren't lore-
friendly or make the guild life *too* complex.

This mod presents an alternate solution: all guild quests are now locked by basic skill and loyalty
checks. In doing this, you are now required to complete the vanilla guild quests/jobs and also to
hone your guild-related skills. The main guild quests themselves are NOT ALTERED in any way.

An overview of this mod's features:

 - Each guild now has three ranks. At certain points during a guild's main quest line, you will be
   notified of a requirement to progress e.g. "Rank II Required". Until you reach the requisite
   rank, you won't be able to initiate or complete dialogue with the next quest target, thereby
   preventing you from moving forward with that guild's main quest.

 - You can join any guild without prior experience; however, you need a combination of skill and
   loyalty to move up within the guild ranks.

 - To reach the skill requirement for the next guild rank, you must demonstrate sufficient prowess
   in at least one guild-related skill. For example, to reach the first rank of the Companions your
   One-Handed, Two-Handed, or Archery skill must be at least 35. The Dark Brotherhood cares about
   your skill in killing, but does not care how you go about it.

 - To satisfy the loyalty requirement, you must complete a certain number of guild quests and jobs.
   Because there are a limited number of main guild quests, you will need to perform jobs for other
   guild members (e.g. clean-up work for Drevin in the College) to "move up". This requirement does
   NOT apply to the Dark Brotherhood because the latter doesn't have repeatable quests.

 - When sufficient skill and loyalty are attained, you will be notified of your achievement at the
   conclusion of your current or next guild quest. It is possible to continue building up loyalty
   at the College or in the Thieves Guild without advancing the main quest. The Companions,
   however, will immediately direct you towards the next story section.

NOTE: the Bards College is not affected by these mechanics because the main quest is too simple,
there is no way to lead the Bards College yourself, and the Bards College has no real skill focus.
A lore-friendly explanation for this (and for other mechanics) is provided via load-screen.

It is well-established in Skyrim that many guilds don't like each other (e.g. the Companions decry
both the College and Thieves Guild). As such, the loyalty requirement is fluid and will increase if
you attempt to pursue multiple guilds at once. It is still possible to join all guilds and complete
their main quests, but you will need to complete almost 10 times as many quests/jobs per guild in
doing so! The Dark Brotherhood welcomes all, regardless of prior guild involvement.

This mod changes the dialogue script fragments for nearly every guild-related quest and as such
will be incompatible with most guild overhauls or guild dialogue changes.

Due to the large number of guild quests you need to perform before finally leading any guild, this
mod pairs especially well with my Dragon Souls Experience System, for which guild quests provide a
lucrative amount of XP.


REQUIREMENTS:
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Skyrim Legendary Edition
Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch


INSTALLATION:
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1. Copy the "Data" folder from this directory to your main Skyrim directory (this is usually found
   in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\Skyrim").
2. Activate "GuildRanksAndProgression.esp" with your mod manager of choice.

To uninstall, just deactivate the ESP and remove all added files.


KNOWN BUGS:
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Very rarely, you may see the rank summary message in the top-left of your screen when killing an
arbitrary NPC. This bug is entirely harmless.

The reason this occurs is that the Companions radiant quest system always runs in the background.
As a result, you can silently complete the quests CR01, CR02, etc. without knowing it - even in the
vanilla game - and each time you do, a new set of NPCs for the next quest are selected. Users of my
Dragon Souls Experience System will notice that they gain the corresponding amount of experience
whenever this rare bug occurs.


SKYRIM SPECIAL EDITION USERS:
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This mod was designed in Skyrim Legendary Edition and WILL NOT WORK with Skyrim Special Edition. If
you decide to convert this mod to work in Skyrim Special Edition, I would be happy to bundle your
converted version with this mod and give you due credit -- just send me your conversion.


MY OTHER MODS:
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Arrows to Ingots
Better Low-Level Illusion
Dragon Souls Experience System
Finders Keepers (Better Stones of Barenziah)
Guild Ranks and Progression
Inigo Avoid All Combat
Lord Zapharos Default Outfit Changer
Lord Zapharos IO Utilities
Lord Zapharos String Utilities
Necromancy is Hated
Save and Load Cells: Jaxonz Extension
Spriggans Fear Nettlebane
TDF Equipment Restrictions for Duelists and Assassins
The Legendary Red Eagle
Useful Requiem Beverages
Vilja Avoid All Combat
Wait I Know You Bug Fix
Weapon and Armor Etching
Whispering Fang Unarmed Combat
