Finalizing the Road Network

[TheImperialDragon]

We are nearing a state where we can release ST 3.0. One of the goals that was mentioned for our ST 3.0 release was having a completed road system. In order to complete it, we need a way for the player and NPCs to cross water.

Refer to the map:

(click to enlarge)

All bridges are in grey.
Proposed ferry routes are in red (they are numbered).
Completed paths are in tan while proposed paths are in pink. Note that these were not made to be accurate, and should only be used as a general guide as to where the roads are.

There are several river/water crossings. Each ferry route would need a ferrymaster and a ferry on either side. In addition, these ferry crossings would also need to be accessible to NPCs somehow, in case there are packages that involve travel between cities.

The way I see the ferries working for the player is this (hopefully fairly straightforward):

• Player talks to ferrymaster
  
• Player asks about traveling
  
• Player pays a ferry toll
  
• Result script handles moving player to other side

In order to make the ferries compatible with NPC's traveling on their own because of AI packages, one possibility that was suggested was having ferry interiors. NPC's would have an intermediary package which would have them sleep inside the ferry for a bit. When they are done, they would proceed to leave through an invisible, non-collisioned door which leads to the other side of the crossing. Only NPC's can activate this door since it has no collision. With this plan, NPC's will presumably be able to cross to the other side while the player still needs to go through the process outlined above.

After I set up the first ferry and test it thoroughly I could use help with the implementation of ferries, in setting up huts/small homes, ferry interiors, NPC dialogue, etc. Of course I'm perfectly fine doing all this alone, but the help would be appreciated nonetheless and it would give me more of a chance to work on quests.

A small aside: The pink road leads to the Forgotten Garden. However, I'm not sure whether this is something we should be focusing on for our ST 3.0 release, since it is a very long road, and it would inevitably take away from more important tasks on our list of things we need to prepare (such as seamless transition, quests, etc). One possibility instead is to have someone who can ferry the player from Steadhelm, and if we decide to later on, we can also mod a road to the Forgotten Garden. However, it isn't a major settlement, so I don't think this road should necessarily receive priority treatment.

[blackbird]

Do you have anything in mind for the road to Veranis Hall?

[TheImperialDragon]

I'm terribly sorry blackbird, that completely slipped my mind (I've been away too long ). Thanks for pointing that out. My road plan was based on the original three cities. With Veranis Hall taken into account, the road to the Forgotten Garden would probably branch at some point, and lead south to Veranis Hall as well.

EDIT: Come to think of it, I'm not sure how the Veranis Hall world space is going to be accessible. From what I can see in the world space, it looks like it'll be connected via cave? I seem to maybe recall discussing this.

[sandor]

Originally posted by TheImperialDragon

A small aside: The pink road leads to the Forgotten Garden. However, I'm not sure whether this is something we should be focusing on for our ST 3.0 release, since it is a very long road, and it would inevitably take away from more important tasks on our list of things we need to prepare (such as seamless transition, quests, etc). One possibility instead is to have someone who can ferry the player from Steadhelm, and if we decide to later on, we can also mod a road to the Forgotten Garden. However, it isn't a major settlement, so I don't think this road should necessarily receive priority treatment.

I agree, if we decide to mod the road we should link it to Tel Gavos as well.

[TheImperialDragon]

Indeed! And it probably wouldn't be bad to have it linked to Dumac ruin either, actually. And the Silgrad Glassmine.

With all this along the road (Veranis Hall, Forgotten Garden, Dumac, Silgrad Glassmine, Tel Gavos), maybe the road should have a higher priority?

Alternatively, we might be able to mod just the road nearest the Forgotten Garden. That way, the player can ferry to the Forgotten Garden, and then access the other settlements from there.

[sandor]

Originally posted by TheImperialDragon
Indeed! And it probably wouldn't be bad to have it linked to Dumac ruin either, actually. And the Silgrad Glassmine.

Sounds good!

Originally posted by TheImperialDragon
With all this along the road (Veranis Hall, Forgotten Garden, Dumac, Silgrad Glassmine, Tel Gavos), maybe the road should have a higher priority?

I think that's a good idea.

[Zurke]

I could get to doing the road when I get done this all consuming overtime at work. With that(the road) as being my only focus it should be easy enough. I have a couple of interiors nearly complete,(a few packages and testing) after I submit those I will get to work on the road. As I said previously, I only have about an hour to myself on a night so it will have to wait another week. If someone chooses to accept the road in the time it takes me to get started then I am sure I can find another objective.

If for some reason I lose the focus on the road, someone please remind me

Have a great day
Charles

[TheImperialDragon]

Okay, well, I'll focus on the ferries for now. If I don't finish them before you get back, then I'd really appreciate the help with the roads. Otherwise, if I get them done, then I'll work on the middle section of the road. Once you return, we would then divide up the work so that I work on one section while you do the other. Hopefully with the combined effort, we can have the road network completed very quickly and can shift our attention elsewhere, like Silgrad City and quests. Does this sound good? (Thanks so much for the help!)

(Beyond that, there's still the seamless transition, but I'm not sure if we want to start working on that yet. Would we want to wait, sandor?)

sandor: If this happens, would it be possible to post an ESM update (for the part of the road I finish before Zurke is able to help out)?

blackbird: You would need to mod the part of the road that extends from the pink path to Veranis Hall. But any other help you can provide would be much appreciated.

[blackbird]

As you know and said before, there is a cave near Veranis hall. I have made that cave because I didn't make much changes to the heightmap. My question is: Should we make a mountainous road to Veranis hall or create first a road and continue with a cave to Veranis Hall.

If we create only a road, then I guess we need some changes to the hieghtmap or having/creating some cliffs (or cliffroads). Some models based on the in_ar pieces from vanilla MW could also work together with the wooden dock objects.

[TheImperialDragon]

I set up a testing world space to play around with ideas for the ferry system.

The player conversing with a ferry master and having all transportation handled through dialogue is pretty straightforward. Changing the time with the gamehour variable, taking gold away, and activating an invisible door connected to the opposite shore are all that is required.

Likewise, setting up an intermediate cell where NPC's stop between ferry ports also works fairly well. An NPC, Fara Way, will activate an invisible door near a rowboat and spend two hours of her day inside an inaccessible cell while she is "en route" to the opposite port (this package has the "Must Reach Location" flag). When time is up, she appears on the opposite shore.

Everything would seem to work except in two kinds of cases:

1) If the player has someone following, and then activates the invisible door through the result script, the NPC will not follow through the door, but will instead attempt to travel the water itself to get to the player's new location in the world space.

2) If the player rests for long enough, the NPC's "en route" AI package, where she needs to activate the invisible door near the rowboat to enter the intermediate cell, will be skipped altogether. Again, the way the game tries to deal with this is by having the NPC traverse the water itself while completely ignoring the ferry.

Again, apart from these, things seem to work decently well. And even in these cases, the NPC's do seem to find their way to the other side eventually (although not by ferry). I would like to solve these issues however. Any ideas?

If anyone wants to play around with this on their own, I'd be willing to send over the testing files.