What now?

[Seniosh]

Well, as i'm sure everyone knows, InsanitySorrow is retiring (for now) from modding, which includes Dumac. That means a transition is going to be had, from Insanity-lead Dumac, to whoever's leading this next (i hope Bob, that'd be awesome) I hope this will be a fairly smooth transition (and if Bob doesn't intend to lead, the question of what happens)

I'm not sure how long insanity can or intends to stick around, which is primarily what i want to know. How can we make this less abrupt, so as not to just leave a giant gaping void, but instead make sure all the correct files are transferred, the proper jobs taken care of, the proper plans implemented, ect.

I know Dumac will live on, I just want to know exactly how it's happening.

[Razorwing]

His retirement came out of the blue for me as well. A new guy needs to take over its development, but it's different than in similar cases because InsanitySorrow came before Dumac. There wasn't any preceeding claim. Indeed, the idea of bringing it back wasn't even on the immediate table until he chose to oversee it.

So I think the first question we need to discuss is, now that Dumac won't be influenced by InsanitySorrow's concept of the Return of the Dwemer, should we go back and use the Dumac that was modded in the TES3 mod as our design guide as we do for a lot of other jobs in the mod? I think we should, but I also think that the extent of the TES3 mod's influence over its development needs to be largely decided by the modder of the TES4 version of Dumac -- for no other reason than to keep it fun for the modder, as it was fun for Zalzidrax to design it from scratch.

I would love it if Bob volounteered to mod it, and I would be all for that

Perhaps we could get some concept art made? Especially of Dwemer furniture, tools, misc items and anything else that needs to be modelled for the ruin to be modded to completion.

[Seniosh]

Well basically everything still needs to be made, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's good, because it means that we can take this mod in whatever direction we wish to take it, but a curse because it means we'll be running around with minimal established framework for a while, which is part of the reason i posted this thread. I think Bob is going to take over, which is quite good. He can lead, and i'll just do the modding.

Much concept art will need to be made. Most of the models from tes3 still need to be made, but we will want models additionally that would be expected for a civilization. Things like beds, more chairs, some tools, tables, ect. My experience with the dwemer in TES3 is small, so but i've been given the impression that dwemer ruins were not very lived in. Do you think we should have a concept art thread specifically for Dumac? Even with insanitysorrow, there were never that many people here at one time, so we'll have to make the most of who we have left, as well as try to attract concept artists and modellers.

[bob196045]

Are you sure I'm gonna take it hmmmmm....just kidding

*********************************************
Yes thier are lots of ideas in place and a basic plan is formulated
One of the things I always like to do is a re-group of what is going on, I have missed lots of posts about things and I'd like to take a few days to look at it all and compile it and get a new plan of attack together

Concept art is a good thing I have often thought of doing some, I'm not the best artist in the world but I can draw up a good layout, I just don't have a scanner, so if we can get someone that would be great

I'll have a look here and see if anyone is interested in joining as a concept artist

http://conceptart.org/forums/


Enjoy
Bob

[Seniosh]

Excellent - we'll need to look through everything that's been done so far, and re-cap what's been done. I like organization, so it'd probably be good to have a list of assets that we need, as well as assets that we have. Just so people know what they can model. Then we need a plan for moving forward with Dumac. Here's a few rhetorical questions that might be of use in the future

- Do we want a quest
- How closely should we keep to TES3 Dumac
- What do we need
- When will we start opening levels
- What should they look like
- How large should they be

I'm sure i could think of more, but those are some considerations. Right now we really aren't ready to start really building levels. For levels we'll need a functional dwemer tileset, a replica of moldcave, and a fair amount of clutter such as pipes, machines, ect.

TheImperialDragon is working on the dwemer tileset, so we don't have to worry about that. Moldcave may not be strictly necessary, as most of a dwemer ruin IS the halls and such, but the grandeur of the moldcave cannot be questioned, when combined with massive dwemer structures. Clutter and stuff - there IS a dwemer modellling thread, but it's slightly dusty i think. I'll have a look over there. All in all, we've got a bit to go before the levels really open.

[Razorwing]

I've set up you guys as moderators on these boards now. Please go ahead and move the threads you don't want to keep to the Dumac archive board

The plan sounds solid :goodjob:

An additional concern could be to investigate the Dwemer stuff that was created during TES3's heyday. I know there is a dwemer Batyskope model on the net, but I forgot where it was. Perhaps we would be allowed to feature it (if you guys want to use it). The upshot is it's really easy to carry over those kinds of models intact to our TES4 mod.

[IAMTHEEMPEROR]

Batyskope? Wait, do you mean the Bathysphere?

[Seniosh]

There was a dwemer bathysphere mod? Sounds cool, though very non-essential. This forum needs a complete overhaul. Things like the progress thread, sign up thread, claims, ect. All need to be edited, moved, or closed. I've begun the cleaning, but i'll do the rest tomorrow, or just let Bob do it. He did wonders for the quest forum, so i think he can do just fine reorganizing Dumac. (he'll probably organize it far nicer than i could)

Tomorrow as well i'll create a list of Dwemer assets already in existance, and then a list of the ones that need to be modded.

[Razorwing]

Oh yes, batysphere, thanks IATE

I googled "dwemer batysphere" and was surprised to see that the first hit was a package I uploaded to Oblivion Online 1? years ago:
http://www.elderscrolls.co.uk/Downloads/.../id=40.htm

[bob196045]

So I guess we've answered "what now"

I will move this to the archive as well and we can get busy


Thanks RW and Seniosh This will be lots of fun I am sure !!


Enjoy
Bob