First order of business: ...?

[Razorwing]

After we've played the game a bit and feel like it's time to start modding... what do you think is the first step in the plan to build our Oblivion mod? What should we start with first?

I think it would be a good idea to prioritize the city plan for Steadhelm (and the imperial part of Reich Parkeep), as we could then rapidly welcome modders who started with "my first house"-type of mod using the resources from Oblivion. So I would suggest we line up the Imperial buildings in those areas to work as a claim map; the final position of the town can be adjusted later.

Next, we should probably whip out our calculators and sketch pads and try to gauge where our most important locations should be on Oblivion's landmass. Silgrad, Reich Parkeep, Steadhelm, Ebbedin. Where they become situated on the exterior cell grid would give us good directions on where the other locations should be.

After that, claim maps for Silgrad, Ebbedin and the Redoran part of Reich Parkeep would probably be good, so we have plenty of open claims early on.

Once that's done the stress is over I think, and we could easily spend six months tooling around with the landscape, creating and importing various things to improve the look and feel.

That's just some things I came to think of. What do you guys and girls think a good plan would be?

[Sebastien (CNA)]

I suggest that we incorporate more caverns that exist in exterior cells. The one I have seen is most remarkable and I think we should capitalise on this feature. A suggestion as well might be to create unique flora and fauna. What sets each region apart is its geographical features and landmarks. I believe by utilising original meshes the player will find entering the landmass that is Silgrad in Morrowind 4: Oblivion (landmass to be) will be a most exquisite experience. For example, what sets Solsteim and Mournhold apart from the rest of Morrowind? Well, its the new meshes and textures, different kind of weather and so on. Why not make the best of that tactic when approaching the new project?

Kind regards,
Sebastien (CNA)

[Razorwing]

Sebastien: Yes, the ideal situation would be a world which for all intents and purposes is a total conversion, though still connected to Oblivion's landmass. The general opinion of the animal poll seems to be to lean mostly on animals from The Elder Scrolls IV, but mix it up with community-made creatures here and there. As animation can't be imported from NIF to 3DS, tweaking the creatures from TES3 would be hard. Except closing the door on Bethesda's animals, it also means the community-made animals can't be transferred unless one gets hold of the original 3DS model and animation. It's a shame really.

Trees are a problem I think, until we get to tool around with the speedtree function in the editor. I can honestly say I don't have the faintest idea how trees in TES4 will work, but I hope they can be tweaked so we get some resemblance in our regions. The ones in the screenies are nice, but they just don't fit in a Bitter Coast setting, for example. Then again I wouldn't object to using static trees if we can't easily tweak the speedtree function.

Smaller flora is another matter though, they should be easy to implement. I don't think it's too hard to find free ones on the internet either, whether as 3DS or as NIF. Anyone who finds a model they like are free to pitch them

[Inferno_str1ke]

I reckon we start with something like the claim system in TR at the start of 03. We could even use their map. have a single map with the cells all marked out, and people just choose a group of cells of whatever (reasonable) size and claim it, then make the cells. then when its done, they give a screen of the area (and separate screens of any towns or stuff) and mark on interiors, which will be listed as to what they are, then interior modders can claim them. For the big cities, you use the system that Kothloth and I came up with for Almalexia - split them into areas and people claim parts of the areas or the entire area and make it, also submitting a screen of the area with ints labeled for claiming. I reckon that, unlike TR, NPCs should be included in both Exts and Ints when theyre made, so that people can easily plan for quests without repeated claiming. And animals etc would be the same.

Whatever happens, I'm going to be working on Exteriors and quest design and thats it, so make sure theres lots of room for movement in Exts, not fixed to what exists already in ST and TR.

[Quentin Fortune]

Erm ... I don't want to sound pompous or arrogant, but the claim system TR used (and still uses) was just a derivation from Silgrad's claiming system Valderon introduced in October 2002.

And I'm quite sure that we will stick to it since it has been working very well and very efficiently.

Greetings

Quentin

[Inferno_str1ke]

TRs system does have some problems though. The separate claiming of NPCs and Mobs is something Ive always said isn't right, so I would like to see that amended for this project. Also do you have a system of reviewers who look at claims? I would hate to end up with the TR situation where claims are totally changed by moderators and have to go under repeated 'detailing' by teams and the like. I just look at some of the stuff that TR created and it's fantastic. But the way to get there was arduous and resulted in much wasted time and effort. So this thing has to start as it will end, rather than changing. Ive experienced all of the changes to TR, so I can point out its problems.

[Razorwing]

The system Inferno_str1ke mentions is a tried-and-tested way of doing it, and I don't see any reason as to why it wouldn't work for Silgrad Tower: Oblivion. The new game differs from Morrowind in that terrain is auto-generated, but I don't think that will be a problem as Bethesda surely had several people working on the landscape at the same time in different areas, and so would have built it with several users in mind.

The map used by Tamriel Rebuilt is certainly beautiful. However there's a problem with us using it, as it's marked with towns that TR made up, while towns made up by our team is naturally missing from it. As we've decided to keep our towns for the new mod, we'd either need to get hold of a version of TR's map that lacks text and town symbols, or we need a new map. I hold a faint hope someone will come to the rescue and draw a new map for our team :]

Personally I think it would be a good idea if we only divided between exterior and interior claims, with the latter category encompassing everything from the basic detailed interior to NPCs and dialogue and everything else surrounding that claim. I think all interior submissions should be playable, enjoyable, and finished to the modders and the team's content. I would propose a system like follows, which is similar (if not identical) to what Inferno_str1ke discusses:

If we get a claims map going, like the one Inferno_str1ke refers to, then those who claims areas with settlements would be responsible for setting up the exterior models for the towns and villages in their area. They should preferrably do that pretty quickly after they get their claim. After they've set up the layout of the settlement in their area, a snapshot of it can be used to create a detailed claims map. The houses would be numbered on that claims map, and the numbers correspond to a list of interiors with some general guidelines as to what the content should be. Then the maps would be presented on the forum for interior claims.

It might be a good idea if claims are submitted openly on the forum and left to sit for a few days, so playtesters have a chance at testing them. Even if the modder feel it's finished, playtesters might spot things he didn't think of. If the playtesting yields suggestions to the one who submitted the claim, then I think it should be considered to have bounced back to him for editing and he should fix the problems and submit a new version. If there aren't any objections after a couple of days, the main file admin can check it out and add it to the main plugin.

What do you guys think?

[arcadea]

something that was tried a few timesin TR is haviny mutiple modders work on a mani esp by adding to it with smaller ones like objects and such thus more then one modder can work on a town at a time. this was only done a few times by me and few other got the idea fromn you actualy.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by arcadea
something that was tried a few timesin TR is haviny mutiple modders work on a mani esp by adding to it with smaller ones like objects and such thus more then one modder can work on a town at a time. this was only done a few times by me and few other got the idea fromn you actualy.

That might work as loing as there is a lot of contact between the modders, I think. I remember when I tried to take on the Ancient Gate for example - I couldn?t make heads or tails of it, and it took a couple of days just to figure out how to try and match up an interior with the exterior - so I would imagine that what you mention would make it hard to get an overview of a claim if there isn?t an originating modder to talk to.

One idea is to build a claim until one feels it is finished and then hand it over completely to another modder, for example if the first modder doesn?t know how to create dialogue or if the second modder wants to create a quest. That would make it easier as opposed to adding a quest to a plugin already merged with the main esp, for example. But I?m sure we?ll figure those smaller procedures out in time.

[Evenios]

well now that the worldspaces have been confermed i guess as it was said that it will be in its own seperate worldspace that way no worry of conflicting with other landmasses would be a prolbem! :-)