Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

This will have to be a poll I think.

The policy of ST is not to change game mechanics. Levitation is not in the game because of the walled cities, which are seperate cells. For the same reason those walls are not accessible.

As Zarkis said, our mod shouldn't affect gameplay. I used to reason like this, when the subject came up:

[blockquote]"What is the benefit to adding a gameplay-changing plugin to the main mod, and take away the player's freedom of choice, when one could just as easily inform the player that he has a choice - "download that mod if you want to" - and then he'd be just as happy, as would the many, many others who want to play without the changes."[/blockquote]

I did not intend to suggest that levitation should be mandatory...? K...? However, even if there is a lev spell automatically included, no-one is forced to use it...choice remains. However if lev is not included as an option, there is no choice.

My only concern with this is that there might be technical reasons why lev is inadvisable...but I think someone will come up with a way around any technical limitations whether or not we try to do it. And whoever does so successfully will be offering one of the most popular mods on the web...

If there are several lev mods available then their relative popularity will be a matter of how they are publicised, and how the spell (or whatever is used for the purpose) works, and how it is presented.

Since ST, Blacklight and Vvardenfell are primarily Morrowind Province based I feel that lev is entirely appropriate.

Even if someone learns the spell lev, there is no way to know whether they will enjoy using it in practice, or how they will want to use it. For example they might always want to remain on foot for combat, but lev for exploring an area?

The remaining questions in my mind at this time are not about city boundaries, but rather about RAI NPC and monster reaction...how would they respond to a flying player? Could they be made to respond appropriately at all, and how much extra processing would the whole thing require type stuff...to me those will be the real kickers...

I don't know... Being able to explore a vast landmass and immersing oneself in the rich history, culture and peoples of a whole other province, shockful of playable content like quests and dungeons, is likely to be the main "selling point" of a mod such as ours. I believe the allure of playing or building what is essentially a whole other world will be a big part of the reason for many future Oblivion players and modders to be drawn to us. The scope of what can be constituted as aiding in "building a world" is very broad and personally I don't doubt that most modders can find interesting stuff to do that furthers the impression of a Morrowind Province setting for TES IV. And if a player should happen to be uninterested at the prospect of exploring Morrowind I think they would pass on our mod no matter what.

I think part of the hesitation can be attributed to using the term "we", which can give some people the impression that you mean "not me". Perhaps you did intend to mod it yourself, I don't know, I'm just saying that people can get that impression. If you had started out your thread with proposing that you mod in levitation for the Silgrad Tower mod (and that it wouldn't forcibly affect gameplay) it's likely the impression would have been much different. Do you see how I mean? If you mod something then it only affects your modding effort, so it doesn't really matter if I or anyone else considers it important to the mod. If you do mod in levitation and make it optional then we sure as heck can feature and promote that plugin on our future download page. Does that sound like a fair compromise?

When it comes to the levitation spell, I'm sure there are already tons of people looking to mod it in. We will not have to even think about it. If they want levitation, somebody will make it before we even get our first quest finished for ST.

I know Sabregirl is very keen on making one, since her pet project - the Pharlan race - rests so much on them being able to levitate. She even modded a proof-of-concept Morrowind mod to show how to achieve levitation without using magic.

Me, mod it in? I wish. I thought I had access to a suitable computer at a reasonable hourly rate a couple of days ago, but I have discoverd that there are serious problems with it and had to draw back from the arrangement...so I am n no position to do this - my current machines could not cope.

Of course I am sure that others will be keen to do this, but there will be no guarantee that their mods will be compatible with ST, Darklight and Vvardenfell.

Maybe I could have a chat with Sabregirl and ask her if she would like to check out her mod/s for compatibility with ours? But am not surel that it would be right for me to do this, as I am not core, and there is a division of opinion on the question at this time.

I do accept your reasoning about wanting do play the game in the spirit in which it is incarnated this time around - but of course, I am greedy, and I want more too...

not a fan of levitation... ruins dungeons... except there were a few in TES3 that needed levitation to reach high up stuff
I always used an overpowered jump spell... I think it was faster

raggidman:
I don't see any reason why Sabregirl's planned mod wouldn't be compatible with ours. Modders who make gameplay mods like that tend to want to make them compatible with every concievable other mod, so players can mix and match as they like. But then again I imagine there's no harm in asking her if she would consider keeping an eye open for conflicts of that nature, so if you want to ask her that, go right ahead.

No matter how good a levitation mod is, I don't think it should be made a part of the base mod. First because we'll have the same prerequisites as Bethesda in setting up empty husks for major towns in the exterior world, which can only be accessed through gates. If the levitation spell was in the main mod I'm sure players would ask why over and over again. Second because personally I'm really looking forward to modding places, both in nature and in interiors, that a player can't levitate over. If we instead link to it on the download page we'll also have a good opportunity to communicate the pro's and con's different people see in it.

On another note, and I hope I don't offend you by mentioning it, an area where there's nigh-on infinite amount of potential work that would benefit the mod is fan fiction. I think you've done a great job in editing the works that have been posted here on Silgrad, but I bet there are hundreds of books written around the community that would make great additions to our mod.

Naturally, a big percentage of the total number of books aren't readily applicable to our mod, i.e. they don't tie in with the Morrowind Province. I'm not saying we can't have books like that in the mod as well, but I would imagine they wouldn't be a priority to find. Of those that are applicable there are those that aren't written in book form, or written in a modern style that would break immersion, or just lack artistic value. So, finding them, sifting out the goodies, securing permission and possibly edit them would take quite a bit of work -- but for the many players who love books I bet the collection would be a treasure trove.

There's also the 80 or so books our team has written in the past, which are posted in the Lyrics section of the website; they could surely benefit from your scrutiny. If you'd like to review those books and spot an error in a book that you'd like to change you could start a new thread with the revised text and we'll be sure to mod that version in instead of the old website version. What do you think?

Quote:Originally posted by KuKulzA
and ...I love how my Ash Zombie looks like he is searching for something in his face, and say, "ok, I think I found it!"
...or maybe he is feeling around the gaping hole that used to not be there...

"Damn, I know I put my car keys in there somewhere!!" :elk: