The Company She Keeps & the Crystal Derby - New SDA + Ashe Update Breakdown

(Screenshot of Ashe and Serana (looking like) they're interacting by Wooden Knight. Actual interactions are coming in this update!)

Hey everyone! Thanks for your patience - here’s the full breakdown of what’s coming in the next updates: SDA 4.3 and Ashe 1.3.

This post includes a summary, timeline, and highlights for both updates. For the detailed changelog, head over to my website:
[Ashe Link] // [SDA Link]

The highlights I mentioned here are most likely to end up in the update, other contenders (seen on my website) can possibly end up depending on the current scope and their doability.

🔹 SDA 4.3 "The Company She Keeps" - What to Expect

I've named this update "The Company She Keeps" due to Serana's ever-growing companion interactions, and conversation/drinking buddy awareness. She'll truly be a BFF (rivaled only by Ashe hahaha)!

The biggest feature this time? Ashe Banter - hands down the most requested integration since Vigilant. Because I created both mods, this will be the deepest and most cohesive crossover yet. They’ll be fully woven into each other’s worlds:

• Ashe will react to the Dawnguard questline

• Serana will respond to Crystal Heart’s story events

• Romance-aware dialogue and dynamic interactivity

Whether you meet Serana or Ashe first, the writing supports both scenarios. For those asking: yes, you’ll be able to travel with both - there’s a lore-friendly route (choose one) and a fantasy gameplay option (have both), though only the former is acknowledged in the story.

Other SDA 4.3 features:

• Civil War Awareness (Imperials + Stormcloaks)

• New Drinking Buddies conversations

• Awareness for Soul Hunter Armor (by Wooden Knight)

  I'd also really love to include Squelch and Celine banter (Squelch is Kerstyn's follower and Celine is Taylor's!). If that isn't ending up in 4.3, it'll definitely end up in the next update - either way, pre-production is getting started with that collab.*

  

(Screenshot by MeironDeigon of their player character, showcasing the armor. Sourced from fan images on the Soul Hunter Armor Nexus page)

*Same goes for other followers like Aniya, Deimos, Kaidan. Depends on their scheds and mine and how everything lines up for a particular update.

🔹 Ashe 1.3 "Crystal Derby: Starting Run" - What to Expect

I've named this update "Crystal Derby" since I'm playing the heck out of Umamusume right now hahahaha 😅 Also (besides Serana) the update is kinda horse-themed.

Aside from her banter with Serana (covered above), Ashe is getting several highly requested features:

• Her own Dwemer-themed horse!
  → Given automatically for now. A quest to earn it comes in a future update.

• Expanded radiant and romance dialogue, world interaction and reactivity improvements

  

  (Proof of Concept for the horse - its Elder Scrolls Online art. I'm still deciding on the art direction - whether or not to go full on horse robo or a regular horse with dwemer armor. Either way, the horse will compliment Ashe's color scheme (so greyish with black accents).

Idle behavior upgrades (PC only):
Ashe already has dynamic sandboxing, but now she’ll perform custom animations—like slashing practice or sword sharpening - to further express her character even when silent.

Also coming:

• New romance scenes (still no marriage - yet!)

• Custom name support (requests still open!)

• A new grounded/vanilla-plus outfit option

• Optional cutscene skip power for repeat playthroughs

  • (decided on a spell power since it doesn't require skse (xbox friendly) and its also intuitive - book menus are too clunky and buttons would be too hard to find)

• General dialogue rewrites and polish

Note: Main Quest + faction commentary is coming in 1.3+ updates. Dawnguard is the main focus this time - alongside SDA awareness.

And as usual, for both mods, bugfixes and improvements! If an issue isn't super duper urgent and I'm aware of it, a fix is prolly gonna be in these updates! Super duper urgent fixes usually get immediate hotfixes hahaha

Both updates are subject to change, and I’ll keep you posted as development continues.

Now let's talk production timeline!

🗓️ Production Timeline

• July 29–August 31 -- Scriptwriting Phase

• August 2/3–August 31 -- Initial development interspersed with writing

• August 31 -- Deadline for Ashe custom name submissions; final script lock for both SDA and Ashe

• Early–Mid September -- Planned Recording Period

• Early–Mid September -- Final Implementation

• September 21 -- Early Access Release for both mods (yes, this lines up with "Do you remember the 21st night of September"😆)

• September 21–October 20/21 -- Final polish + bugfixing based on playtester feedback

• October 21 -- Public Release (one month after early access, per usual protocol)

💬 A Few Notes

I'm deliberately using conservative timelines here to avoid burnout. I used to be a lot more ambitious with deadlines, but that led to staying up late and still needing to delay. Not saying delays can't happen (I really want to hit that September 21st mark!), but it's way less likely now - and I'll be a much happier dev because of it. 😅

Also, name requests for Ashe are still open! Subscribe to get your names in!

Appreciate your support, as always!

Stay awesome folks,
- Marty