Volundr
Volundr is a new, multi-wing dungeon with a variety of settings, enemies and unique rewards.
I just wanted to say a sequentially larger THANK YOU to everyone played, enjoyed, endorsed, and commented on this mod. In that order. No really, the feedback I’ve gotten has blown me away and I have rock solid motivation for my next project to bring something incredible to you, the players, who have so generously given me your time to play Volundr. Again, thank you all.
Version 1.4 is now out! Check below in the “NEWS” section at the bottom for details.
Volundr is a multi-winged dungeon with a variety of settings, enemies and dangers. You’ll delve into mysteries locked away since the beginning of
time, and at the apex of your journey you’ll be granted an audience with the very makers of the world. You’ll walk away with a mere glimmer
of their primordial power, but Skyrim is a land of mortals – a fine line divides the world of men and divinity.
Okay, here’s the nitty gritty:
Volundr is a new nonlinear dungeon with three main wings (each different in theme and gameplay for a little variety) and a long “central” area that serves as a beginning and end to the dungeon. The level is mainly nordic, with some cave and dwemer elements. The quest you undertake is to get to the bottom of the dungeon, where an ancient secret awaits those with the audacity to look upon the world’s makers with no fear.
If you don’t want to watch the trailer, here’s what you can expect from this mod.
90 minutes of dungeon diving
3 wings to divide the gameplay and scenery
Varied environments ranging from claustrophobic trap hallways to gigantic, multi-level expanses
Craploads of secrets
New items and spells with unique and useful effects – less boring than “it does frost damage”
Lore that was made with Bethesda’s own canon in mind
3 boss encounters, each with their own environment and reward
Scalability – you can enjoy this dungeon from about level 12 onward
700+ hours have gone into the making of this dungeon. You’d think that
amount of time would result in a much bigger dungeon, but I spent the
majority of that time creating a more moderate sized area with a high
level of polish and detail. That’s not to say I don’t like huge epic
dungeons – I loved Blackreach. The size of Volundr just felt right to
me.
Some more technical “features” are:
Cleaned with Tes5edit
Fully hand-navmeshed, zero automation
Many divided roombounds per floor for better performance
Efficient lighting, both ambient and focal, with no “red zones” and room left for
player-cast light sources with no visual artifacts
Music changes several times in each environment to enhance that area’s mood. Turn your sound up!
Balance tested with 6 different character types to ensure the right amount of challenge and opportunity for anyone
Load Order: This mod does not modify any base references or textures, models etc. so there is no danger of your other mods overwriting this one or vice
versa. As such, you can put it anywhere in your load order.
Conflicts:
This mod places the entrance to the dungeon just east of Rorikstead (see screenshot below). Any mods that place objects in that spot will cause conflict.
The dungeon’s lighting was made with no interior ENB or dark dungeon lighting mods in mind. Try it with your mods installed – it might actually look great! If it’s too dark or washed out, try not loading your lighting mods while you play the level. That said, if your mods reduce light radius, it may affect gameplay because each room’s shadows
was specifically made with enemy AI pathing in mind. If you’re not a Sneak user, you probably won’t notice or care.
New Stuff (RussiaX had a great suggestion to list things you can look for)
Books (these are havok-disabled so you shouldn’t lose them to shouts ‘n crap):
“Divine Error” in front of dungeon front door
“Berthol’s Log” in front of the grate in the main hub
“Spell Instruction: Gutwrench” in the Library wing on an enchanting altar
“Outsider” and “Judgment” on pedestals in the final area
“Runed Parchment” on final boss corpse
Items:
Meteoric Hammer after the optional “death hallway”
Amulet of Lunar Orbit at the end of the Library wing
Fallen King’s Seal at the end of the Crypt wing
Spinal Skewer at the end of the Cave wing
Spell Tome: Gutwrench in the Library wing on an enchanting altar
Spell Tome: Dark Star on final boss corpse
*VOLUNDR CHANNEL 9 NEWS*
To install the latest update, overwrite the current Volundr .esp and .bsa files with the 1.3 versions. I recommend a clean save to ensure ambushes and scripts work right.
Update 1.4 is out and fixes an issue that was still causing the floating head glitch, while fighting the final boss.
Update 1.3 is out. Two small fixes – the “floating head” glitch when selecting a race at the beginning of the game (whoops!) and a music repeat fix.
Update 1.2 is out. Three simple fixes – AI pathing in the Library, a better Tes5edit clean, and a fix for some placeholder items that were giving a few people trouble. If you haven’t been able to play because of the latter two issues, I hope you’re able to give it a try! Thanks!
Update 1.1 is out now! I’ve made fixes like exterior navmesh for better follower pathing, better balance on knockbacks throughout the dungeon, visual issue fixes, and now the whole dungeon resets. Except the wispmother, because apparently they are strictly disallowed from respawning by the CK. You can view the full changes in the Change section, the button on the far right below the image slide.
Also recently, MaximilianPs has generously uploaded his Italian translation.
Volundr – Italian
Grazie amico!
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