The Stormhold Missionary

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I can see how this might seem to an outsider now.

The main point is that Oblivion employs the LOTR-style storylines and, like LOTR, it's on an epic scale. Therefore, the narrative (and its construction) does not follow a linear pattern. It's expansive. As such, the lore that goes into it forms the bedrock of the whole thing. If the lore isn't set in stone then the storyline will flounder. Likewise, if a central thrusting narrative is imposed upon the whole from the outset then it's likely to have a number of inconsistencies and weak points.

The downside of this is that the central storyline must await the consolidation of everything else before establishing itself. The whole project of creating a large worldspace mod is something that takes years rather than weeks or months. As such, you can lay foundations but you can't confirm everything until later. Many authors do not know the ending of their novels when they start and this project must take the same approach.

Rest assured that the whole thing, however, is more fully fleshed out in my own mind than it appears on these forums. Deeza and I have discussed at length various dimensions of the storyline but a) I'm unwilling to reveal the full details online (that's for the private core forums) and b) there are holes in the plot as yet as we seek to establish the complete worldspace. I don't want others to know what happens because I don't want my ideas stolen and I don't want to develop it further until I know more about other areas of the storyline.

Nevertheless, this particular storyline is one that I have already written. In the Thief storyline I wrote, Constantine is ultimately consumed by his desire for transcendence. I wrote the plot for this storyline for another mod that wasn't eventually created so it's fully fleshed out and the reason why the Nine banish Constantine should be made clear then. Codex Alexius serves to reveal that but, at present, it remains sealed to all but members of the Order.

In the past, I've held people back from contributing to storylines because. hey, everyone wants to write, don't they? The problem is that it's my project and I did a lot of the hard work so no one is going to waltz on in here and finish my story for me whilst I'm doing the hard work. The whole reason I joined here was to write the storylines but it takes far more time to create the thing in the first place.

Welcome to OB storytelling....I'm afraid it may come as frustrating to you....it ain't straight-forward! =) You just have to conceive of the whole thing and build it up. There WILL be a stronger backbone than OB though....rest assured.

[jb3]

I see. Well, thank you for explaining that.

I do wish to contribute to your project. I am happy to take on mini-claims or more anvanced ones, as you see fit. I enjoy it so far and with your permission, I humbly ask to continue.

At the same time, I wish to respect the structure of BM. It is difficult to build, especially such a large project.

And what's most important, I think, I've always enjoyed working with people like you or Alexius, who are cool friends. :bananarock: :banana:

I read your post Pledge of the Lizard King, from which I deducted that there must had been people associated with this project whom were either too demanding or too lazy or both. One can have a great vision, but it takes a team and a humble cooperation to actually get something done. I admire you for all the efforts.

Well, yet it's human nature to evaluate, ask questions, think... Please don't blame me for that. Yes, I comapre to Thief and to other games. I guess I can't help it.

As to the storyline discussion: I understand that such big projects are more of a saga and a Tolkien-style epic narrative. Yet still, I believe there should be a mainline story nested in this world (Hobbit's quest with the ring nested in the rich Tolkien world. Luke Skywalker's quest nested in a rich sci-fi world. Etc etc...) Are you willing to open a private forum or exchange PMs concerning the story for BM?

With all due respect, I disagree that everyone wants to write stories. Some people prefer modelling, texturing, animations, music... plenty of other elements of a computer game.

Finally, once again I wish to reassure you that I would like to cooperate. I asked all these questions in an attempt to understand your project, so I can better contribute to it.

In case you do not want me to ask these questions on the forums, please let me know, so I will limit my posts.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

No, it's no problem, JB. Sometimes stuff like this can produce highly useful stuff that we can use as a reference point for future posts. The only issue I sometimes have with the forums is that I sometimes have to repeat myself or go over old ground but it would be selfish of me not to respond especially when you're offering your services.

It's when we come across timewasters that I resent posting....

Anyway, I tend to write when inspiration takes me. I realised after HI that lots of people contributing to the big storylines makes a mess of things so I guard my gate firmly against writers. As long as they don't get above themselves and start assuming they're going to be writing the whole MQ then I'm fine. Anyway, you'd be very welcome to join our discussions when we reach points at which we're consolidating things.

We will indeed need to get the MQ underway shortly but I have shedloads of stuff to do a lot of the time so it has to be when I'm ready for it, I'm afraid. Only today I spent the whole morning getting items ready for the new creatures (skins, ingredients, spells, poisons etc.) and people sometimes don't even notice it's happened. The levelled lists of creatures is my next task and it's a really big one but without it we won't have creatures parading around.

I expect a barrage of questions when someone joins. As long as there's a little commitment then that's fine by me and you already completed an interior.... :goodjob:

[jb3]

No, I completed 2 interiors so far. Henri is the 2nd one. Gimme the 3rd one. lol

I understand. Just consider that contributing is much better when you have this "big picture". Otherwise it's a bit of walking in the dark. Building tons of interiors by just filling them with BM stuff is colorless, isn't it? Actually one could write a script or macro to do it for you, no? It's much better to build a house of Henri or Kaasha the Khadiit or whoever, rather than just replacing the objects.