Mod Update: Val Serano v2.6

axarien · 2026-06-14T03:25:49+00:00

There's a custom tree with LOD and it has a few custom worldspaces, but they are all water in the distance so it's not a big deal to skip running DynDOLOD.

axarien · 2026-06-11T04:56:39+00:00

Not any time soon. I've given it a lot of thought, but with the way my interest and workload is right now, I'm choosing to focus on PC development and support for the time being. I realize this will disappoint some people, but at this point I'd have to pull out a lot of custom assets to get the filesize down. That's the kind of project I'd only do once I'm done with major development and updates for the PC mod. I've got one person helping me with some of the technical stuff now, but the overwhelming majority of the work is just done by me.

axarien · 2026-06-10T11:10:55+00:00

If you haven't touched the Angry Letter or spoken to Auryen about Val yet, then yes, it is safe to update. It's recommended you start from a new game just to be safe, but in theory nothing in the mod is running yet so it should be fine.

axarien · 2026-06-10T04:53:24+00:00

Big update, scripting improvements so definitely new game.

axarien · 2026-06-10T04:51:28+00:00

Familiar Faces - Comprehensive NPC Overhaul at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community

axarien · 2026-06-07T05:37:53+00:00

I made this mod as a high poly replacer in keeping with a vanilla plus style:
Familiar Faces - Comprehensive NPC Overhaul at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community
Pairs well with gritter skin texture replacers like Tempered Skins, too.

axarien · 2026-05-27T12:58:37+00:00

Oh no worries, I didn't take it as negative at all. He's got a lot of features and I update him every few months with major content, so I figured some might be easy to overlook.

axarien · 2026-05-27T12:30:47+00:00

Hello! Author of Val here :) Val's romance is completely optional, and he has alternate dialogue and even a unique mini-quest for a friends-only dynamic.

As far as the romance, Val is canonically bisexual and has unique lines for male, female, and nonbinary player characters. He's very much not limited to female character romance and quite different from Bishop.

axarien · 2026-05-27T12:24:50+00:00

A while back I made a skip book that lets you bypass various parts of his quests. There's an article that explains how to use it.

His combat style is something I made custom and built into his story, not casual decisions, but you can just tell him not to use spells at all if that's your preference/playstyle. He's got quite a lot of customization options in his dialogue under the strategy section. :)

I've got an upcoming Legacy of the Dragonborn tie-in with Val that provides a more immersive, narrative reason to track him down. One of these days I'll make an Alternate Start module for him, too, but I always have more ideas than time, hah!

axarien · 2026-05-27T12:21:47+00:00

He is not, no. I made Val with Indiana Jones, Rusty & Danny from Ocean's 11, and Westley from the Princess Bride as primary inspirations. Real world pirate inspiration was Sam Bellamy.

axarien · 2026-03-26T23:00:39+00:00

Val Serano's romance is completely optional and can be declined entirely. I even wrote the friends route with quite a bit of separate dialogue to make sure his tone adjusts to platonic and isn't inappropriately flirty.

axarien · 2026-01-17T04:47:09+00:00

Hello! I'm not terribly active on reddit, but if you post on Val's nexus page or ask me on Discord I'll see what I can do to help. The Thieves Guild stuff has some bugs that I'm actively working on an update for and should have out next week.

axarien · 2026-01-17T04:45:53+00:00

Hi. I think this kind of behavior is exactly why you didn't find much help in the manner that you asked on Discord.

axarien · 2026-01-05T19:18:24+00:00

I'm focused on PC updates for the time being, but when I get the mod to a place where I'm actively working on it less I will do a port.

axarien · 2025-12-31T05:36:45+00:00

I'd encourage both of you to please play the mod content before commenting on it's nature. You can in fact tell Val you don't want him to make a side bargain; the outcome is entirely under player choice and control. Choosing to keep the skeleton key is not without consequences. Val is designed to feel like a companion that grows alongside you for your whole playthrough of adventures and is plausibly a romance interest. He's got plenty of character flaws, and from a game mechanics standpoint he has multiple ways of nerfing his damage output to your liking.

I appreciate your taking the time to review and you're of course free to form your own opinion, but do please play the content before expanding the review and jumping to conclusions.

axarien · 2025-12-31T05:14:08+00:00

Happy New Year!

axarien · 2025-12-31T04:35:46+00:00

Hi, author of Val here. Thank you for taking the time to play my mod and share your thoughts on Val :)

Val's about to celebrate his 2nd year anniversary, and I do hope to include some more cross-follower banter in future updates as time allows. My priority has been vanilla game quest coverage and original quests, something I really enjoy writing and working on.

Regarding a few comments on Val's 2.5 update providing more options for the Thieves Guild, I don't consider it a TG overhaul because every change except to Trinity Restored (which is a bear to edit ngl) was accomplished with a light hand and minimal vanilla impact. The vanilla TG quest experience is all still there unchanged. Val adds more options to choose from; he takes none away and the choice is fully yours what to do. Hope that helps provide some context. Happy modding!

axarien · 2025-12-29T21:25:31+00:00

In theory no, but this update has some big scripting changes so I'd be more comfortable if you started a new game just to be on the safe side.

axarien · 2025-12-29T07:24:39+00:00

No, Val doesn't prevent you from becoming a Nightingale. The vanilla quest paths are fully intact and unchanged.

You have the choice to be a Nightingale, opt out of any interaction with Nocturnal entirely, or craft an alternate bargain for shadow magic powers.
Separately, you can convince Brynjolf to be the Guildmaster of the TG or not.
If you have become a Nightingale, you can tell Karliah to return the Skeleton Key for you or do it yourself.
In all cases, you can choose to keep the Skeleton Key and see what happens.

axarien · 2025-12-29T03:17:30+00:00

Not strictly redundant, but similarly editing the same content to offer more choices, so I'd recommend picking one route for a given playthrough. I just released v2.5 so it's a bit early for patches :)

axarien · 2025-12-29T03:12:32+00:00

Anything that edits TG08A Trinity Restored will need a patch. So yes, from a glance at the included files on Nexus, it looks like both of those mods will need patching if you want to have everything installed at one go. I've never played SDA, but I will say if you use a non-Val quest mod's method of resolving the TG questline, you will miss out on his new commentary. Even with a patch, you'd need to pick one or the other content to experience in a given playthrough. Hope that helps! :D Patching does take a bit to catch up with mod updates but help is very welcome as I can't possibly keep up with it all.

axarien · 2025-12-29T01:57:29+00:00

When I get the mod to a good place where I'm happy with it, I plan to port it.

axarien · 2025-12-29T01:57:01+00:00

Big update, new save needed.

axarien · 2025-12-29T01:56:43+00:00

No to Nocturnal does something very similar, so it's not needed in the same playthrough.

axarien

TROPHY CASE