Has anybody given much thought yet about how to integrate Guilds between these mods and between the mods and core game? Are the Mainland Morrowind going to be linked with seperate ranks? Is Vvardenfell going to be seperate? What about Cyrodill?
Off hand, I think that it would hamper us a great deal to link the guilds at least across the board. I mean, somebody would already hold the highest rank in the game then come to the mods and not need to do anything. I thought that TR had a pretty good theory for seperating guilds, that most guilds and even Great Houses had little respect for those from backwater Vvardenfell, thus forcing the player to start over in rank to prove themselves. Perhaps we could work things that way too, with Mainlanders looking down on Vvardenfell and both ignoring ranks from Cryodill because, let's face it, Morrowind is just a wild and different place not like the "tame" Imperial province. Other ideas?
No, we will not be modding the guilds together. The Vvardenfell mod and Silgrad Tower are two seperate mods entirely.
Yes, it would only lead to confusion and bugs. best to keep'em separate
If Silgrad Tower and Vvardenfell both are made dependant on a master mod above the actual mods -- which I've suggested elsewhere as a way to let both mods exist in the same worldspace, as well as set up transportation between the mods -- then theoretically there is room for some nice cross-over effects.
I don't think we should worry too much about the faction quests the other mod adds (which the 'other mod' is depends on your viewpoint). But in TES3, completing a faction quest gave the player an invisible number of points, and when he had gained enough points he was able to rise in ranks. So if the master mod creates the base for a faction, let's say Redoran, both Silgrad Tower and Vvardenfell can reference that faction in the master mod rather than each team creating it's separate version of the faction in their own mod.
So because the faction is in the master mod, a Redoran player who plays with both the Silgrad Tower and Vvardenfell mods will technically belong to the same faction in both mods. What that can mean is that if the player completes a Redoran quest in Silgrad Tower, the points he accumulates for that can be recognized by the Vvardenfell mod and vice verca. A high-ranking Redoran player who's trekked around Vvardenfell can be similarly recognized by the Silgrad Tower mod and kept from having to do tedius, low-rank quests.
In some ways that would be very nice, but in others, it makes it so that a large number of quests by each of the mods get underused. Is there any way that we could find a middle way, so that the player gets some perks from his previous exploits but not a full ride?
It depends. I was mostly theorizing from how it worked in TES3, it might have changed considerably (for the better) in the new game.
Vrenir, Razorwing, I think both of you brought up good points.
Razorwing, I think your idea is the best we have so far... although I do believe some of the quests will be underused... maybe it is better to keep the quest-lines shorter in each mod so that the Player can choose to play both mods and the common faction in a longer quest-line, or play only one mod, and have a slightly smaller questline....
For example a "generic" Redoran quest-line has 10 quest per say. maybe we can cut it to ~7 quests, where you answer to a Redoran authority.... and lots more mini-quests involving commoners which raise your popularity with the Redoran... and so, when combined, Silgrad and Vvardenfell will have ~20. more or less, big important quests that will be the decisive factor to going up a rank, but the menial tasks and such for commoners, warriors, and others will be point building, not a lot, but combined with a official Redoran quest, can help you rank up... ?
That is supposing the two mods will be separate downloads... as well as the 'master-mod' for factions
if we DO make this one big mod in the end, then we need not worry about it at all.... simply have the 'master-mod'
however, we need to see exactly HOW the TES4: Oblivion game will handle factions, I believe there are MORE factors in it now
I think as for the Telvanni, the Silgrad Telvanni can be a separate faction...
they are a very powerful independent band of Telvanni that is entrenched in Silgrad....
they aren't representative of the Great House Telvanni in any way except their style
and so I think they should be different factions...
like Great House Telvanni for Vvardenfell and Silgrad Telvanni for Silgrad Tower....