plumata

I'm glad to see that this thread is at least still going, even if most people aren't interested it's nice to get a bit of encouragement, so thank you. Although some of you guys keep using words like "illegal" and "impossible", I don't think they mean what you think they mean. I actually haven't had time to do much with this yet, we've got a contract at work to make 20 suits of elven armour for The Hobbit movie and it's a rush order so that's been keeping me pretty busy, it's a really cool project though so I'm not going to complain. I have been working out a proof of concept idea for 2 player co-op Oblivion based on the Fallout 3 mod in my spare time, the only thing I can't find a solution to yet is camera sharing. Everything else can be done well enough for my purposes, but there just doesn't seem to be a way to display from two cameras at once. Here's a question, can I take the third person camera and move it to the 2nd player's mesh? That way I could switch the camera from player1 to player2 by toggling the 3rd person view. If that would work then perhaps I could also set a quest to toggle the view every other frame and have an external program split every other frame to a 2nd monitor or a similar solution. Anyways, I haven't given up yet, still looking for solutions and would love any constructive input.

I'm just talking about the minimum specs, just running it, not running it on HD or anything else. The thread is about whether it will run, not really about how well it will run. Also, in comparing apples and oranges one can pretty easily say that both are roundish fruit of about the same size. Direct comparisons are also available, take any game for both console and PC and run it on both at the same settings. Your 2x figure doesn't stand up to close scrutiny in any way. The CPU of the xbox360 is a triple core and clocks in at 3.2ghz, by that logic we'd need around a six core cpu at 3.2 ghz or a 3 core cpu at 6.4 to play it on a PC at console settings. It just doesn't work, consoles are at best moderately more efficient at playing games on a 1:1 basis. They mainly have an advantage due to their manufacturing efficiencies and subsidized prices which leads to a much lower cost per computing power for the consumer.

I'm working on my second childhood, this is a forum about fantasy games after all. It's a bit lame, but I think it could be quite funny if done right. NPC and PC reactions would be the bit that could make or break it. I remember my reaction the first time that wizard fell out of the sky in Morrowind, that was pretty funny in it's own right. Good thing I saved before using the scrolls.

Because dragons pooping on NPC's is actually pretty hilarious.

Actually there is pretty strong archeological evidence that wolves attacked mammoths, frozen mammoth carcasses are still being found in the arctic regions of Canada and Russia, many of them have injuries consistent with being taken down by a pack of wolves. I assume that wolves used similar techniques to what they use to hunt bears and bison, it would likely be only in the winter when easier prey isn't available. The wolves will generally harass the larger animal and try to herd one into deep snow. The large animal's weight breaks the crust on the snow and they are slowed and not able to fight back or escape easily. The wolf pack slowly kills it by running around it on the snow pack nipping at it until it is exhausted and then move in for the kill. Given a choice though wolves will quite happily just hunt mice. I once had a wolf follow me at night in the woods of northern Alberta, I didn't even realize it until I crossed my own tracks through the snow and saw his tracks on the crust beside them, I turned around and there it was about 20 yards away.

Thinking about it logically, Skyrim will also be released on the xbox360 and ps3, it stands to reason that any PC with comparable or even slightly less processing and graphics ability should be able to run it. RAM might be an issue, I'm a little fuzzy on how consoles use it. In any case upgrades are cheap and easy for RAM, even on laptops.

I see your point about the network code. However, correct me if I'm wrong here, it seems to me that the type of co-op mod ub3rman123 pointed out doesn't require any network code to function. Of course it requires both players to be in the same physical location, but generally speaking so does a LAN.

Well I can agree with you on one thing, $100 is really just peanuts. This will only work if more people than just me are willing to put some cash on the line. In any case if anyone does happen to come out with this mod they're going to get at least a small cheque from me. If enough people thought this was a good idea that it got up to $10,000 by release do you think that would be enough then? As far as it being impossible, that's demonstrably false, Bethesda themselves have said that there is no technical reason they couldn't make this game multiplayer. Of course, the catch is that they know everything there is to know about the game engine. I have to assume it would be very difficult without that knowledge. Oblivion had NPC companions, so did Tribunal, I've never used them but they must more than just pets, except maybe that stupid bosmer. I believe they used the same script as an escort quest. I would gladly buy a co-op game instead if there had been any good ones since, like... Baldur's Gate II. As far as legal action goes it's really a non issue, for a proof of concept mod copyright law does not apply, personal research is a clear cut fair use issue. You would have to publicly release it for there to be any infringement. And why wouldn't you just ask the original modder for permission in the first place?

I'm well aware of the challenges, but I don't let that bother me. I've been making a very good living every day for the last 6 years doing something that almost everyone else considers to be impractical. All it needs is the proper motivation and creative thinking. If enough people contribute to the prize money in this little contest there will be plenty of motivation. I don't have much for modding skills myself but I'm nothing if not creative. ub3rman123, thanks very much for that insightful post. If we were to build on the concept of that fallout3 mod and then make it more elegant we might have something practical. Consider this; One computer, running one copy of Skyrim. Connect a ps/2 mouse & keyboard plus a usb mouse and keyboard. It should be possible to seperate the inputs, yes? The video output could be a simple split screen that is seperated onto two monitors. One person controls the protagonist the other controls a companion. If the Creation engine is actually very similar to the Gamebryo engine it should be very easy to do. The fallout3 mod that you mentioned could be expanded upon and modified as a proof of concept.

No one is selling or buying any mods. A bounty is not the same thing, it's a reward for services rendered, the mod itself would be freely available to everyone.

First of all; Just to be perfectly clear since this has been misunderstood by some, I'm not offering to buy or sell a mod. The bounty is a reward for hard work, the actual mod itself would still be free and freely available to anyone and everyone. $100.00 Greetings everyone, my name is Eric Matwe and I'm posting a bounty for a co-op LAN mod. I'm setting aside $100 of my own money that I will pay to the first person or persons who come out with a co-op mod or add on for Skyrim that meets the minimum requirements outlined in this post. I would encourage anyone else who is interested in co-op play to contribute money to the bounty. We could attract some seriously talented modders to the project and have a co-op mod shortly after the release date, maybe Bethesda will even take an interest. Here's how it could work: -I will accept paypal payments towards the bounty via my e-mail address( plumata at g mail dot com ) and update the amount offered in big bold red letters. -As you can see I'm posting under my real name, if you want to know more about me, go ahead and google it. It's pretty dry technical stuff about armour mostly but it should be enough to see that I am who I say I am and I have no interest in scamming anyone. -Anyone who chips in will have input into the requirements for the mod, cash talks BS walks. -After the release date the first to submit a mod that is tested and passes all the requirements gets the entire bounty. -Potential modders should register with me beforehand, I will keep them up to date and when the first mod is finished they may also submit their mod for consideration. -If in some unlikely event the mod doesn't happen within 1 year of release, everyone gets their money back, minus any fee paypal charges. The requirements are: 1. Co-op LAN 2 players for vanilla Skyrim on PC. 2. Developer will update mod to work with any and all official patches. 3. Free of game breaking bugs. In the event that two or more mods are submitted preference will be given to mods that: 1. Are released before Christmas 2011 2. Support 4 or more players. 3. Support internet multiplayer. 4. Are mostly bug-free. 5. Add spears, and an idle animation of characters polishing their spears. And finally a bit about me personally. I'm a 32 year old male and a professional armourer by trade. I live in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada and own my own business there. I've been playing TES since Morrowind(I played Arena and Daggerfall later, thanks Bethesda!) and I've always thought it would be better with a co-op option. I never had any one in particular to play with so I never bothered much with it. Now I have a beautiful wife who is interested in playing Skyrim with me, so that's my motivation. Any helpful comments and suggestions about how to make this idea work better are always welcome. Let me know if you have any questions. Additionally, I'm a pretty busy guy so if you think co-op play is a bad idea you might as well just move on. I won't likely bother to respond to/care about your opinion here. Sorry.