Reading over some of the lore-related comments in this thread, I'm totally down for making an alternate version of this mod where the ebony ore veins are replaced with quicksilver ore veins, or where there's one or two iron ore veins and one or two quicksilver ore veins. If anyone's interested in that just say so :)
OK, quicksilver version is up, for those who prefer it! <3 Be aware, changes might not take effect properly on an existing save. Otherwise, let me know about any problems!
All of the in-game dialogue is very clear on this. The NPCs all call it an iron mine. The blacksmith especially. Even the official Prima guide for the game, which is sanctioned by BGS, says it's an iron mine. Bottom line is there's zero in-game evidence given by the residents that any ebony should ever have been down there. Only the spider infestation has kept people from working. Which is where the player enters the story.
The "mystery sample" is a piece of Quicksilver. Even assuming you were correct that it should be ebony, the blacksmith is not going to hand you a piece of ebony claiming he doesn't know what it is when there's already a bunch of veins down there and cartloads of the stuff outside.
It's pretty clear to me from your citation of the reddit post that you have not actually done the research necessary to validate the conclusions we reached 8 years ago when this was originally fixed. Nobody ever does. They just assume "hurr durr, USKP changed all the ebony to iron for no reason". So, yeah, you correctly guessed that we will not be reversing this decision. We aren't in the habit of removing legitimate bug fixes from the patch.
While it would indeed make sense for one Quicksilver vein to be down there after the quest is over, that's also not a bug and not something we'd address ourselves.
For those who may not believe what I've said, here's the post where the evidence is very clearly laid out that Red Belly Mine is an IRON mine and nothing more.
I posted this because someone pointed this "mod" out to me and I felt it was worth correcting the misinformation it's propagating.
The irony in all of this is that you spent considerable time in our thread trying to convince us to incorporate a mod which is very clearly NOT a bug fix, and then post this in an effort to chastise us because you think we fixed something that's not a bug.
I stand by all of the evidence we've documented on the subject. There is no evidence to support that the mine should produce ebony beyond a tenuous association with the village's name. There could be any number of reasons for why Shor's Stone is called that, but they're not offered up anywhere in the game as a valid source. The iron mine dialogue is though, and so is the Prima guide which specifically lists it as an iron mine. It's very clear that whatever happened after that guide was printed and distributed was a hastily made half-broken decision.
Trying to weigh in on this neutrally Arthmoor. From what I can gather, it seems to me that the USSEP team doesn't believe there's any possibility whatsoever that they could have accidently unearthed Ebony ore afterwards? I don't see how being an Iron Mine makes it impossible for them to uncover Ebony, in the real world mining can be a mixed bag, you never know what you'll unearth.
Unless there's some lore that states Ebony cannot be found near Iron, I don't see why a mine originally intended to be a mine Iron might have found another type of metal that they could use, dig, sell, etc. Does the Prima Guide make reference to them uncovering any new metal, iron or otherwise? Because unless stated otherwise, I'd treat promotional material like Guides as before the Player character comes across them, leading to the guide being outdated in a sense.
"The misinformation it's propagating", dude, it's a Bethesda game. It might as well have been either of the ores, it's not like it's the only bug fix that might deviate from the "real, intended" feature.
At the end of the day, its 1 mine of all of the existing mines in the game and it's just a mod, not that deep, relax. Surely you've learned to ignore the mods that you think aren't in line with the "immersion" or "reality" of the game.
It is objectively either Ebony or Quicksilver (personally I slightly favor the quicksilver interpretation), changing it you Iron is a mistake on your part Arthmoor as it is a reinterpretation not a clear bugfix and thus is outside the jurisdiction of what the unofficial patch should do.
The sample quest proves definitively that a non-Iron ore was found, either Quicksilver (the sample icon) or Ebony (the ore in the mine), those are the only two options.
You will of course never let this go because it would require you to admit to being wrong.
From what I can gather, it seems to me that the USSEP team doesn't believe there's any possibility whatsoever that they could have accidently unearthed Ebony ore afterwards?
The reason for this is because it's made very clear by the associated quest to identify the sample that it's not ebony, but quicksilver.
@Arthmoor If it's not supposed to be an Ebony mine then why are there Ebony samples around the forge and in the carts, or as you put it "cartloads of the stuff outside". Where did this Ebony ore come from, if not from the mine? It's a legitimate question that focuses around not only original dev content, ie the game itself but several sources that are considered official, stating that Ebony is present in Shor's Stone. I'm not asking you to change anything but just trying to figure out the logic of the change when so much Ebony is already present around the mine.
The reason all of those were changed is because the locals make it crystal clear the mine is an iron mine. Which means the stuff they've already dug up would be iron, not ebony. It's all part of the same bug.
The local blacksmith would not have needed to send you to identify an unknown sample of either of the two ores - if it was iron, it would be mundane and obvious. If it was ebony, there were cartloads of it all over, thus not unknown material. It's clear from the presented data that the unknown sample is quicksilver.
So I see no legitimate reason to assume ebony to be correct when the writers went out of their way to have dialogue recorded for iron instead.
We wouldn't even be here if the devs had recorded the dialogue for the NPCs as mentioning ebony instead of iron, but they didn't, and they printed it up in published official sources as being iron.
The reason for this is because it's made very clear by the associated quest to identify the sample that it's not ebony, but quicksilver.
Then, shouldn't it be Quicksilver then? To me it seems like there was either a mistake by giving it a quicksilver model, or a mistake by using ebony ore veins instead of quicksilver. I think one of these is wrong but I think it's very fair and valid to assume there is more than just Iron down there. This might be a stretch, and completely impossible. But if there's any way to contact the people who originally made Shor's Stone or the Quest associated with it, maybe they can help clarify and put it to rest for good. I'd be happy on either outcome.
No, I think the singular sample is correct as given. It's quicksilver. The blacksmith goes out of his way to mention he wants it identified before they go back and mine it out. So if anything, there COULD be a logical justification for having a single quicksilver vein in the mine once that identification is made.
It's unlikely we'd ever be able to get developer confirmation one way or the other. It took considerable effort to get an answer out of them regarding the Salmon Roe issue, and this is a much more complicated thing. All of the planning for it is very likely to cover iron anyway because they would have had it pre-written before handing it to the VAs to record.
What we do have though is an official strategy guide for the game which also clearly states it's an iron mine. Not that it was originally iron, or that it ran dry, or anything, just that it's definitively an iron mine. We take that as clear evidence of intent, otherwise why would they approve that to be published if it was incorrect?
?otherwise why would they approve that to be published if it was incorrect?
Does the same guide give out spoilers? No one is arguing that Redbelly Mine isn't an Iron Mine, I fully believe that 100%. But perhaps parts of the guide were written for entertainment and wanted to keep surprises? I just don't think the Guide is meant to account for how when the Player discovers the mine it has apparently dug up something new. I'm not big on physical merch so I can't say I've seen or read that guide.
idk about the official guide but the blacksmith also says it's an iron mine while a miner says it's all but dry. And yet there are perfectly good ebony ore veins down there and the ore the blacksmith gives you is quicksilver. There are a lot of ways this inconsistency could be addressed and I think replacing the ebony ore veins with iron ore veins is the least good method. Also not sure the official game guide provides any real clarification on the matter. But oh well, c'est la vie
Yes, the guide most definitely gives spoilers. Including about this mine and the associated quest. Such information would need to be vetted before publication.
If the composition of the ore veins being down there not having one be quicksilver is that big of a problem, then the solution is obvious: Put one in there. My suggestion would be to add it as a new piece though rather than trying to edit existing veins. That way the game won't lock it in based on the Papyrus properties.
I couldn't care less what the mine is called in a guide or what the NPC's refer it as. Dig up iron for years and the miners aren't going to suddenly start calling it something different just because a they stumbled on a new ore. Old dogs new tricks??? Redbelly was obviously and intentionally(IMO) written with multiple ores. Mines IRL and even in Skyrim frequently have multiple types of ore. But by your logic the rest of the Ebony around the mine should have been swapped out to in order remain consistent with the changes that were made in the USSEP. Fortunately for me I can freely download a mod like this one or edit the USSEP as I see fit after downloading it. Anyway, not trying to flame anyone, just playing a little devil's advocate and have an open dialogue on an obviously sensitive subject. One last question though, I followed your logic for the change but how was it a bug that affected playability? Could the change just as easily have been made into its own separate mod? Just a thought.
?Yes, the guide most definitely gives spoilers. Including about this mine and the associated quest.
Well, this might seem like an excuse but it's been in the back of my mind for a while now. What if the Guide itself is wrong or mistaken? Might seem unlikely that they'd intentionally ship out guides that have errors, but I doubt Skyrim was intentionally released to be buggy. Stranger things have happened than a mistake in a book. Again, I can't check for myself but the guide might have more errors.
Yeah, seconded. I just don't think the guide should be taken too seriously. At the end of the day, it's merch. I wouldn't expect an in-depth explanation of the lore of Shor's Stone from it or rely on it to clarify why an in-game inconsistency like this exists.
Isn't the ebony ore right at the end of the mine as well? This would suggest that it was the most recent of discovered veins that was hidden deeper in the earth than the iron. It's obvious they uncovered another type of ore whether it's ebony or quicksilver. I think it's sillier that they found a single chunk and absolutely nothing else was uncovered from the mine.
Because the guide isn't "just merch" - it's an official publication made with Bethesda's blessing and is clearly in line with what the NPCs are saying should be there. The preponderance of evidence does not support an ebony mine.
This whole debate hinges on the assumption that there is a clear intention behind what bethesda did with everything lore wise. Maybe assume their writers did what most writers do and just made it up as they went along, with the single fact of ebony or iron being completely unimportant either way to them. So much more makes sense if you stop assuming there is an idealized perfect skyrim lore, where everything makes sense, somewhere behind all the mess that is the real skyrim. Does not make it less beautiful, but much less of a headache.
Human error is a thing that exists. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that you've been making countless fixes and even towns that Bethesda overlooked, forgot or retconned.
@TI36X - pretty much my thoughts on this. I doubt Bethesda really gave it that much thought and ebony ore veins make more sense to me, so that's what I did.
Official Guides made in print are often wrong and never corrected, because who is going to reprint a video game guide over a small mistake? Taking it as a 100% word of God is foolish.
We should go by the in-game information.
NPCs call it an Iron mine, the sample is quicksilver, and the ore in the mine is ebony, those are our three options. Iron can be 100% ruled out as then the sample quest wouldn't make any sense, it must be a new ore or they wouldn't need it identified, combined with the mine being talked of to in game as running dry on Iron.
It's a matter of taste whether you prefer quicksilver or ebony, but it's objectively not Iron.
Redbelly mine was no bug. There are to many ebony veins/ores to be just a mistake by the dungeons or towns designers. Just cut that cell from USSEP in my game.
So in short Bugthesda is to blame. Talking about this change only: It seems @Arthmoor and the team, really looked at all details and reached this conclusion and it makes sense. A logical fix IMO But in the same time i agree with @nojyr, knowing Bugthesda they probably wanted to add ebony veins but they failed XD. Anyways its about a choice: if u want Ebony veins and to be more in line with Bethesda decision go with this mod. If u like more a logical fix keep using USSEP. Still thanks for giving an alternative to choose for players
For the record, here's the image from the guide. Honestly, I initially sided against Arthmoor on this, thinking that the guide probably didn't want to spoil stuff, but honestly, the way this is written clearly showcases that at least the people who wrote the guide *really* thought there was iron in this mine, or they would've 100% marked it down as Quicksilver/Ebony. That being said, I still agree that basing ourselves on what's present in the actual game, ebony OR quicksilver would make more sense. And I think that it's very easy for Bethesda to overlook an error in a manual such as this (they overlooked so many errors in their game, so why not their manual too).
All this to say... Why can't we be friends? Arthmoor was clearly justified in his "fix" to fit with established, published, official documents, just as the mod poster is within his right to want to cater to the lore as displayed in the game. Both could be wrong. One could be right. We'll never know for sure, given how buggy and unpolished Skyrim is. (I'll repost this as a separate post in the main thread)
Arthmoor was clearly justified in his "fix" to fit with established, published, official documents
It wasn't just about the guide, but about all of the other in-game information you're given. The NPCs all say iron, and the blacksmith only buys iron ore from the "help us do our work" kind of quest.
Wild that such a simple open-ended problem that could be interpreted 3 different ways (iron, ebony, quicksilver) generated so much unnecessary heated discussion. Mostly because one person with too much power in the mod scene thinks their headcanon is the ultimate and only correct choice. Good thing other games going forward won't have to deal with this clown show.
I feel a bit weird necro-ing this thread, but I was involved in a fairly big discussion about a year or two ago regarding this same subject and the changes made by USSEP, and I feel like talking about it for no other reason than because I want to.
So in a nutshell what this mod does is revert changes made by USSEP which edits every instance of Ebony Ore in the mine into Iron, and instead places the Ebony Ore in a nearby cave. I'll go ahead and say I 100% agree with the logic of the change in USSEP even if it doesn't technically constitute being a bug fix. I think it's a subjective change that resolves a consistency issue with the information the player is given. That being said I don't agree with the actual execution of the change.
If there's no reason for Redbelly to have Ebony then there's no reason for anywhere nearby to have it either. Furthermore, and I admit this is more subjective on my part, it doesn't really make any sense that the "Mysterious Ore" you're given during that misc quest uses the model for Quicksilver, as any miner worth their salt would more than likely know what said ore looks like. Ebony on the other hand has been noted as an exceptionally rare material, especially outside of Morrowind, which is why the Empire coveted it and likely still covets it. The only other place you can find Ebony Ore in all of Skyrim is the Orc Stronghold of Narzulbur which is located considerably farther north than Redbelly.
Lastly there are indeed NPC voicelines directly referencing Redbelly as being an Iron Mine, which is where the discrepancy largely originates from. Using this mod as a base some time back I manually edited it based on what I believe is overall more accurate and consistent. Redbelly is an Iron Mine through and through, but they ended up unearthing a vein of Ebony Ore and, given its rarity, none of them knew what it was. Two of the veins inside the mine are Iron while one is Ebony. The Mysterious Ore now uses the model of Ebony Ore to imply that Redbelly has just unearthed one of the most rare materials they possibly could, which in the long term would make their settlement very prosperous if they manage to find more. The ore veins in that separate nearby cave were also changed back to their original ore, which I believe was Iron.
This, in my opinion, is the best way to handle it overall. Redbelly becomes the only place outside of the Narzulbur Mine with Ebony Ore available in it, but it's only a single vein and so it takes a long time for the player to collect enough ore from it to craft anything, and I believe it enhances the small narrative of the settlement a bit in the process.
Agree, considering they hand-placed ebony outside of the mine it was obviously intentional that the mine has AT MINIMUM one ebony vein. If it was only one of those, I might consider this a "bug" but with the case being that it's BOTH inside and outside, the justification is ridiculous.
Gotta love USEP team being all gung-ho about "official documentation" when we know full well these days that Bethesda themselves don't even document their own games, never have and probably never will - which turns the whole "but the game guide says so!" argument null and void.
NGL I just love that the game is too broken to be played w/o USSEP but you need extra mods to revert their myriad of garbage non-bugfix changes.
Don't know anything about anything and I think I've only been to this mine 2 or 3 times the past 10 years. But if there's a red mist then it's probably supposed to be quicksilver. Which is mercury. Here's something interesting about the red stuff from Wikipedia "Mercury occurs in deposits throughout the world mostly as cinnabar (mercuric sulfide). The red pigment vermilion is obtained by grinding natural cinnabar or synthetic mercuric sulfide."
Based on real quicksilver that's well reasoned, but I'd be absolutely shocked if the devs intended that. There are basically zero similarities between the quicksilver ore and ingots in game, and actual mercury. You absolutely can't make mercury into ingots or weapons, and you absolutely couldn't use Skyrim quicksilver to make a thermometer.
Plus, there is at least one official quicksilver mine in the game, and there's no red mist there.
Might be unrelated to this mod but I'm having a bug where I can't mine the ebony ore. I downloaded the quicksilver version and there's 1 quicksilver ore in the mine and 3 ebony ones, and they look like they have ore available but pressing E doesn't do anything. I can mine all the other ores just not the ebony ones. Waiting 30 days and coming back in doesn't work and attacking it with a pickaxe also doesn't work.
Edit: There was another mod adding the ebony ores in. Going to try and sus that one out.
Could you change Northwind Mine back to an Iron Mine as well? USSEP changes it to ebony because they changed Redbelly to iron, while it is an iron mine in ESO.
162 comments
The "mystery sample" is a piece of Quicksilver. Even assuming you were correct that it should be ebony, the blacksmith is not going to hand you a piece of ebony claiming he doesn't know what it is when there's already a bunch of veins down there and cartloads of the stuff outside.
It's pretty clear to me from your citation of the reddit post that you have not actually done the research necessary to validate the conclusions we reached 8 years ago when this was originally fixed. Nobody ever does. They just assume "hurr durr, USKP changed all the ebony to iron for no reason". So, yeah, you correctly guessed that we will not be reversing this decision. We aren't in the habit of removing legitimate bug fixes from the patch.
While it would indeed make sense for one Quicksilver vein to be down there after the quest is over, that's also not a bug and not something we'd address ourselves.
For those who may not believe what I've said, here's the post where the evidence is very clearly laid out that Red Belly Mine is an IRON mine and nothing more.
https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/5715-frequently-raised-issues-about-the-patch/&do=findComment&comment=177637
I posted this because someone pointed this "mod" out to me and I felt it was worth correcting the misinformation it's propagating.
The irony in all of this is that you spent considerable time in our thread trying to convince us to incorporate a mod which is very clearly NOT a bug fix, and then post this in an effort to chastise us because you think we fixed something that's not a bug.
I stand by all of the evidence we've documented on the subject. There is no evidence to support that the mine should produce ebony beyond a tenuous association with the village's name. There could be any number of reasons for why Shor's Stone is called that, but they're not offered up anywhere in the game as a valid source. The iron mine dialogue is though, and so is the Prima guide which specifically lists it as an iron mine. It's very clear that whatever happened after that guide was printed and distributed was a hastily made half-broken decision.
From what I can gather, it seems to me that the USSEP team doesn't believe there's any possibility whatsoever that they could have accidently unearthed Ebony ore afterwards? I don't see how being an Iron Mine makes it impossible for them to uncover Ebony, in the real world mining can be a mixed bag, you never know what you'll unearth.
Unless there's some lore that states Ebony cannot be found near Iron, I don't see why a mine originally intended to be a mine Iron might have found another type of metal that they could use, dig, sell, etc.
Does the Prima Guide make reference to them uncovering any new metal, iron or otherwise? Because unless stated otherwise, I'd treat promotional material like Guides as before the Player character comes across them, leading to the guide being outdated in a sense.
At the end of the day, its 1 mine of all of the existing mines in the game and it's just a mod, not that deep, relax. Surely you've learned to ignore the mods that you think aren't in line with the "immersion" or "reality" of the game.
The sample quest proves definitively that a non-Iron ore was found, either Quicksilver (the sample icon) or Ebony (the ore in the mine), those are the only two options.
You will of course never let this go because it would require you to admit to being wrong.
The reason for this is because it's made very clear by the associated quest to identify the sample that it's not ebony, but quicksilver.
The local blacksmith would not have needed to send you to identify an unknown sample of either of the two ores - if it was iron, it would be mundane and obvious. If it was ebony, there were cartloads of it all over, thus not unknown material. It's clear from the presented data that the unknown sample is quicksilver.
So I see no legitimate reason to assume ebony to be correct when the writers went out of their way to have dialogue recorded for iron instead.
We wouldn't even be here if the devs had recorded the dialogue for the NPCs as mentioning ebony instead of iron, but they didn't, and they printed it up in published official sources as being iron.
Then, shouldn't it be Quicksilver then? To me it seems like there was either a mistake by giving it a quicksilver model, or a mistake by using ebony ore veins instead of quicksilver. I think one of these is wrong but I think it's very fair and valid to assume there is more than just Iron down there.
This might be a stretch, and completely impossible. But if there's any way to contact the people who originally made Shor's Stone or the Quest associated with it, maybe they can help clarify and put it to rest for good. I'd be happy on either outcome.
As originally being Iron.
It's unlikely we'd ever be able to get developer confirmation one way or the other. It took considerable effort to get an answer out of them regarding the Salmon Roe issue, and this is a much more complicated thing. All of the planning for it is very likely to cover iron anyway because they would have had it pre-written before handing it to the VAs to record.
What we do have though is an official strategy guide for the game which also clearly states it's an iron mine. Not that it was originally iron, or that it ran dry, or anything, just that it's definitively an iron mine. We take that as clear evidence of intent, otherwise why would they approve that to be published if it was incorrect?
Does the same guide give out spoilers? No one is arguing that Redbelly Mine isn't an Iron Mine, I fully believe that 100%. But perhaps parts of the guide were written for entertainment and wanted to keep surprises? I just don't think the Guide is meant to account for how when the Player discovers the mine it has apparently dug up something new. I'm not big on physical merch so I can't say I've seen or read that guide.
If the composition of the ore veins being down there not having one be quicksilver is that big of a problem, then the solution is obvious: Put one in there. My suggestion would be to add it as a new piece though rather than trying to edit existing veins. That way the game won't lock it in based on the Papyrus properties.
Well, this might seem like an excuse but it's been in the back of my mind for a while now.
What if the Guide itself is wrong or mistaken? Might seem unlikely that they'd intentionally ship out guides that have errors, but I doubt Skyrim was intentionally released to be buggy. Stranger things have happened than a mistake in a book. Again, I can't check for myself but the guide might have more errors.
We should go by the in-game information.
NPCs call it an Iron mine, the sample is quicksilver, and the ore in the mine is ebony, those are our three options. Iron can be 100% ruled out as then the sample quest wouldn't make any sense, it must be a new ore or they wouldn't need it identified, combined with the mine being talked of to in game as running dry on Iron.
It's a matter of taste whether you prefer quicksilver or ebony, but it's objectively not Iron.
Just cut that cell from USSEP in my game.
Talking about this change only: It seems @Arthmoor and the team, really looked at all details and reached this conclusion and it makes sense. A logical fix IMO
But in the same time i agree with @nojyr, knowing Bugthesda they probably wanted to add ebony veins but they failed XD.
Anyways its about a choice: if u want Ebony veins and to be more in line with Bethesda decision go with this mod.
If u like more a logical fix keep using USSEP.
Still thanks for giving an alternative to choose for players
Honestly, I initially sided against Arthmoor on this, thinking that the guide probably didn't want to spoil stuff, but honestly, the way this is written clearly showcases that at least the people who wrote the guide *really* thought there was iron in this mine, or they would've 100% marked it down as Quicksilver/Ebony.
That being said, I still agree that basing ourselves on what's present in the actual game, ebony OR quicksilver would make more sense.
And I think that it's very easy for Bethesda to overlook an error in a manual such as this (they overlooked so many errors in their game, so why not their manual too).
All this to say...
Why can't we be friends?
Arthmoor was clearly justified in his "fix" to fit with established, published, official documents, just as the mod poster is within his right to want to cater to the lore as displayed in the game.
Both could be wrong. One could be right. We'll never know for sure, given how buggy and unpolished Skyrim is.
(I'll repost this as a separate post in the main thread)
It wasn't just about the guide, but about all of the other in-game information you're given. The NPCs all say iron, and the blacksmith only buys iron ore from the "help us do our work" kind of quest.
So in a nutshell what this mod does is revert changes made by USSEP which edits every instance of Ebony Ore in the mine into Iron, and instead places the Ebony Ore in a nearby cave. I'll go ahead and say I 100% agree with the logic of the change in USSEP even if it doesn't technically constitute being a bug fix. I think it's a subjective change that resolves a consistency issue with the information the player is given. That being said I don't agree with the actual execution of the change.
If there's no reason for Redbelly to have Ebony then there's no reason for anywhere nearby to have it either. Furthermore, and I admit this is more subjective on my part, it doesn't really make any sense that the "Mysterious Ore" you're given during that misc quest uses the model for Quicksilver, as any miner worth their salt would more than likely know what said ore looks like. Ebony on the other hand has been noted as an exceptionally rare material, especially outside of Morrowind, which is why the Empire coveted it and likely still covets it. The only other place you can find Ebony Ore in all of Skyrim is the Orc Stronghold of Narzulbur which is located considerably farther north than Redbelly.
Lastly there are indeed NPC voicelines directly referencing Redbelly as being an Iron Mine, which is where the discrepancy largely originates from. Using this mod as a base some time back I manually edited it based on what I believe is overall more accurate and consistent. Redbelly is an Iron Mine through and through, but they ended up unearthing a vein of Ebony Ore and, given its rarity, none of them knew what it was. Two of the veins inside the mine are Iron while one is Ebony. The Mysterious Ore now uses the model of Ebony Ore to imply that Redbelly has just unearthed one of the most rare materials they possibly could, which in the long term would make their settlement very prosperous if they manage to find more. The ore veins in that separate nearby cave were also changed back to their original ore, which I believe was Iron.
This, in my opinion, is the best way to handle it overall. Redbelly becomes the only place outside of the Narzulbur Mine with Ebony Ore available in it, but it's only a single vein and so it takes a long time for the player to collect enough ore from it to craft anything, and I believe it enhances the small narrative of the settlement a bit in the process.
Gotta love USEP team being all gung-ho about "official documentation" when we know full well these days that Bethesda themselves don't even document their own games, never have and probably never will - which turns the whole "but the game guide says so!" argument null and void.
NGL I just love that the game is too broken to be played w/o USSEP but you need extra mods to revert their myriad of garbage non-bugfix changes.
"Mercury occurs in deposits throughout the world mostly as cinnabar (mercuric sulfide). The red pigment vermilion is obtained by grinding natural cinnabar or synthetic mercuric sulfide."
Plus, there is at least one official quicksilver mine in the game, and there's no red mist there.
HOW DARE!
Thank you for this
Edit: There was another mod adding the ebony ores in. Going to try and sus that one out.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/72663