QQuix

It is one of my Conceptuals If you need any help, just ask (not sure the readme and code comments are enough to clarify how it works)

XanAlderon and all, Be aware that battles are not possible, if you intend the player to participating. As I have read many times, the engine just can't handle too many NPCs fighting at the same time. Don’t restrain your creativity, thou. I think small fights are possible, like 3 against 3. And large battles could be part of the lore, if simulated. Example: - The player receives a message saying that pirates attacked and were defeated . . . player goes to the area a sees some minor damage to be fixed. - Or the pirates wan and there is major destruction (to be rebuilt) and part of the surplus is gone. - - - - - - - - - And something to add to my previous post: PLAYER's REWARD First of all, a player's house is definitely in my plans. After all, this whole idea grew from an initial intention of building myself a house. One possibility that I think would fit for a reward - A growing house or castle composed of independent rooms - Initially, it would have only the basic, usual rooms: living room, bedroom, etc - As the island grows, the player would have the option of reinvesting the surplus back into the city (building new shops, hiring new skills, etc) of build himself a new, special room in his castle, like an armory, a library, a pool or even a bathtub (Jacuzzis are out) Maybe the rooms themselves could be leveled and the player would have to use society's resources to redecorating them

OK. Here are my initial ideas about the 'TES engine' (that is The Evolving Society engine): SOME GENERAL RULES/ALGORITHMS: a) Things flow like this: A + B + . . . + Z >>[Process]>> Product b) A, B . . Z are inputs for the process. They may be raw materials, tools, places etc Some are required, some are optional c) Each process is a cycle that takes a fixed amount of time. Not the same for all processes Examples: Seeds + Land >>[Farmer]>> Food after 3 days Axe + Trees >>[Lumberjack]>> Lumber after 1 day d) A process will not start unless all required inputs are available e) The quantity produced at the end of the process cycle is variable and will be affected by the presence/absence of optional inputs and external variables and events. Conceptual examples: Availability of fertilizers would increase food production for that cycle. A completed side quest would increase a global variable (like happiness, health or Khet's Prosperity) f) The product of a process is stored in a global, virtual warehouse and may be input to other processes, consumed or exported. With these mechanics, the player will be able to influence the speed and direction of the society growth by: - Assigning an NPC to perform the process - Providing the required inputs - Providing optional inputs to improve production - Somehow affecting some global attributes of the society. PROCESSES and PRODUCTS FOOD Food is mostly used to keep the population alive. A quantity of food is consumed by each individual resident in the island A vanilla farmer should be able to produce food to keep 2 people alive Food surplus is a requirement to increase the population Required inputs: land and seeds Optional inputs: Fertilizers, improved tools (plough?) Other variables: Farmer experience, global society attributes Other possible ideas: - Different food products like: cereals supply basic food to keep the population alive, while fruit production adds to a general attribute like health or happiness - Maybe an individual would require an increasing amount of food along his life (this would be good for the general mechanics of the engine as it would allow the society to grow fast at the beginning and slow down as it gets bigger and more sophisticated) - A second process to produce more elaborated food, which complements the previous idea WOOD Wood is mostly used to build/improve houses/shops (initially) and boats/ships (later) Wood is stored in the warehouse to be used by other processes or exported Required inputs: Trees and tool (axe) Optional inputs: Improved tools (?) Other variables: NPC experience, global society attributes Other possible ideas: - Improvements in wood production could rely on an improved shop instead of an improved lumberjack - Maybe two processes: an initial, basic wood cutting, good to build basic houses and a second, refined process to allow improved houses and ships STONE Stone is needed to build/improve houses/shops (maybe roads) Stone is stored in the warehouse to be used by other processes or exported Required inputs: Quarry and tools Optional inputs: Improved tools, some transportation technology Other variables: NPC experience, global society attributes Other possible ideas: - Other later processes may be based on stone, like stone clutter or sculptures and statues ORE Ore is needed to improve houses/shops (initially) and boats/ships (later) Ore is stored in the warehouse to be used by other processes or exported Initially, miners will explore existing caves, later they will be able to excavate new mines Required inputs: Mine and tool Optional inputs: Improved tools, experience or technology (a book?) to excavate mines Other variables: NPC experience, global society attributes Other possible ideas: - Maybe two processes: an initial, basic ore processing, good to build boats and a second, refined process to allow improved houses and ships - Many other later processes may be based on ore, like building weapons and armors, clutter etc Those are the basic ones I detailed so far. Many other basic ones could be considered, like hunting or raising animals, fishing or even mud>>pots MECHANICS OF EVOLUTION Population growth: The population will grow by one when: - There is food surplus in the warehouse enough to keep the new member for a certain period - There is an empty house Considering all of the above, I imagine the initial evolution like this Initial setup: An island inhabited by 2 farmers, 1 lumberjack and 1 mason. Since the farmer produces food for 2 people, the population will not grow. In order to start growing we need food surplus and a house (wood & stone). The player will have to do something Some options in this case: - Get her hands dirty helping the farmer - Reassigning 3 NPCs to farming and do the missing chores herself - Just wait until there is enough wood & stone, build the house and then reassign all 4 to farming - Go back to mainland and fetch some optional input to get more food production (like fertilizers) Once there is the required amount of food in the warehouse, the population increases by one. The new member occupies the new house The player determines the profession of the new member Based on some variables (population size?, happiness?, etc) new professions/processes will become available and the player may assign these new professions to new members. These new professionals will bring some benefit to the island, but will also consume food, so the player will need to be careful to balance food production and population. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION MECHANICS I am planning a final scenario with a midsized town in the initial landing place (population ~12) and 3 or 4 small villages (population 4 each) scattered around the island. Max population: 25-30. I imagine half of them (the villagers) producing raw materials and the other half living in the city (merchants, smiths, shipbuilders, whatever) At the beginning, let's say each NPC consumes 100 foods per day and one farmer produces 200 foods per day. At the end, maybe 6 farmers will have to produce food for 25-30, meaning, a farmer will be producing around 500 foods/day. More if we have an increasing consumption over time. Kind of the same logic goes for the other raw materials. Back to the initial scenario: The initial 4 NPCs live in 4 houses at the initial landing site (where the city will grow) New houses are built in the far villages, so the new arrivals will live there. I mentioned improved houses before: all these houses so far are Level 1 Somewhere along the line, city professions will be available and they will displace one of the original residents from the landing site. City professionals will require Level 2 houses, so the player has to spend some resources to improve one of the original houses or build one, or the new professional will not come/appear/whatever. Some possibilities: - Level 3 houses - All professionals, including the initial ones, require/demand better houses as they become more experienced in their respective careers. - - - - - - - - - - - - All of this, of course, will change depending on the technical or mental difficulties I may have when implementing. Again, ideas are welcome. And again, if you like any of this, feel free to use it in your mod at any time.

Khet and exanimis: The way I see it, all ideas and suggestions presented in this thread are public. I certainly don’t see them as exclusive to my mod and would not mind if anybody uses them. I suppose that asking permission from the original contributor would be a necessary courtesy. I actually would be happy if some ideas from the people who tried to help me here were put to good use sooner than expected. And I would be pleased to help you guys with some scripting, if I can. Preferably covering some common ground between our mods. Not sure if I mentioned before that I am no modeler. This mod, if proven feasible, will not be ready in less than one year. What I have in mind as the next steps: - First, I will not do anything else like the farming thing. I did enjoy doing it, but, after seen what the NWJ - NPCs With Jobs team is doing, I realized that all I could ever imagine (and more) has already being done. - In the last couple of days I have started working on the dynamics of the evolution, and I can tell you it will not be a simple task. It is along the lines Khet mentioned, but not quite. I will try to write down the general ideas and post here in a couple of days (I am a very slow writer. Believe me! This text took me well above one hour to write) Khet: As I said, I will answer you in a day or two. SteeleMagic42: I loved the music too. I will certainly check with you when the time comes. Meanwhile, there are many mods closer to completion that, I bet, would welcome your work. exanimis: I checked the site. As an old Tarzan fan, I wish you all the best. BTW, I have that "Tarzan of the Apes" movie made in 1918. And I encourage everybody that got interested in my initial description to check the "NPCs With Jobs" mod. Good chance it is what you want. [EDIT] and chek this page at their forums. It links do a dozen videos of NPCs doing their jobs.

bshaeffer Loved the suggestion of rotating and tilting to get a more natural look. Thanks. I implemented a random 0-360 Z rotation and 0-10 tilt on the X and Y axis'. It happened to be quite easy to do it. New esp just uploaded at TES Nexus. Juderodney and Boss171 Thanks for contributing. As I said before I am not going to give my opinion. First of all, because I dont have one. I like all the ideas. Second, because I want to keep all approaches open. I hope this don’t sound rude or inappropriate or inconsiderate or negative in some way. Besides, I am still a long way from the point of deciding the main storyline. I suspect that whatever the final lore will be, it will be a merge of all the contributions and will have a little bit of every one that contributed.

Took me a little longer than I expected, but I uploaded the farming esp here. It is mostly a visual thing, but the script may be of interest for other modders. Let me know what you think and of any suggestions you may have And the link above is to a TES Nexus entry that I created to hold all my 'proof of concept' esp's. The Realistic Farming is the second one. [EDIT] Just noticed that the The Evolving Society initials are TES. I am tempted to release a few versions in a quick succession: TES1, TES2 . . . I bet this mod will get a lot of attention when it gets to TES5. LOL

Khet, you wont need to beg, or even ask. Everything I do, I release as modders' resource. And, for being planned as modders' resources from the beginning, I try to make my scripts as adaptable as possible. In this case, the field in the pictures is about 1200x1600 units. But the size of the field is determined by two XMarkers at the SE and NW corners, so it is easily adaptable to whatever size is needed. The number of rows and columns are parameters in the code. It would be possible for a modder to code some additional script to change the XMarkers positions and the row/col values dynamically to get the progressive effect you mentioned. I was thinking along the line of some external factor affecting the speed of the farmer, e.g., an unhappy farmer would work slowly and would not fill the field at the end of the season, or would take longer to fill the field. A progressive, dynamic field size would be a good alternative. I will keep this in mind. I will check your mod after I release this one.

Hi, again. First of all, let me thank you again for the contributions. Every single word will be considered when the time comes. It would be nice if you keep the ideas coming while I work on the technical stuff. Speaking of which, I am about to finish the first building block: the Farmer script. I think it came out quite good and I will upload it tomorrow (I hope), after I finish the tests. A little teaser for you: The farming cycle is composed of three seasons: Planting, Tending and Harvesting 1-In the Planting season, the farmer goes to each spot in the field and plants a young, small strawberry bush 2- In the Tending and Growing season, the farmer goes to each and every one of the plants and the plant grows. At the end of the season all plants are full size. 3- The Harvesting season is self explanatory, I suppose. The script turned out quite complex as it controls almost every single movement of the farmer. And it is quite parameterized to make it (sort of) easy to change things like season duration, number and length of the rows of plants, size of the field etc. I will let you know when I upload it A few sample pictures of the seasons:

I said that I would not interfere, but I feel uncomfortable not saying anything while you are adding lots of good, promising ideas. It might seem like I didn't care. But I care a lot, and all ideas and suggestions are precious. But I will not interfere by saying which ones I like better. Mostly because I am not doing this type of assessment. For the time being I like them all and I am not ruling anything out. And, Khet, since your mod will probably be out before I even start this one, I will make sure the story and events are different from yours so they won't overlap. In the meanwhile, I am working on the first technical building block: an immersive, realistic farming script What I am planning to do in the farming area is around these lines: (The farmable (?) land will be previously divided into lots, but this will not be noticed as the land would be covered by the island’s original vegetation.) 1-Player provides the necessary resources (farmers, tools.etc) 2-Player provides the seeds of [whatever] 3-Trees and bushes are removed from the lot (first time only, of course) 4-Farmers start to work on the land 5-Every few days (?) a new row of [whatever] plant/bush/tree grows in the patch 6-When the lot is filled, the farmers start to harvest 7-Every few days (?) a quantity of [whatever] is added to a container 8-When the lot is completely harvested, the cycle restarts. The next season, the lot may produce a different item, depending on the seeds the player provides. I will keep you posted on the progress.

[EDIT} Project renamed: VOX POPULI I need contributions from creative minds! I have been nourishing this idea of a large island that starts completely wild and untouched and, at the end, if the player plays right, turns out into a big business with plantations, cattle and small villages all over the place. - - - - - - - - - NEW MOD SPECS - as of March 2010 (the original post is at the botttom) After working for more than a year on several aspects of the mod, I am ready to put them all together now. But, first of all, I want to thank again everybody that posted on the mod forums. I've been classifying the ideas and suggestions from the community. I must have read every single phrase at least half a dozen times and I think I got them well organized for future reference. The specifications below are the result of merging my initial idea with many others that improved and complemented them. There are still many other ideas and suggestions kept in a wish list for future use. The specifications below are the 'best scenario' for the first Beta version of the mod. Apart for some small adjustments, I don't intend to add new concepts during this phase. I may drop some of the concepts described if they prove impractical for any reason. Some comments up front: The mod scripts will be based on my NPC ACE (adapted to these specs) and my Construction Suit (Beta testing) No NPCs enacting their trade (with the possible exception of the farmer, as I already have it [ ]) No interiors - NPCs will go in and out, but the player will not go in - possible exceptions: • the Inn (as the player will recruit there), • the Theater (again, because I already have it - [ ]) • and of course, the Player's Villa and Player's Office (see description) 1. GUIDELINES Playable at any Player level No interference from current game state No interference to current game state  Kind of a semi-TotalConversion? Or would it be a Semi-Conversion? lol 1.1. Player role From the very beginning: Must have the right to order NPCs around Must have the right to determine what will be built Must have the right to determine where to build and which architecture  Therefore: Medieval Lord and serfs (maybe Owner and employees) 2. GAME MECHANICS Game relies on a few major components: Player - recruits NPCs, builds/improves/relocates facilities, manages the island NPCs - the inhabitants of the island: a few that arrive with the PC and others recruited from a steady flow of visiting NPCs Facilities - The places that, somehow affect the life on the island. Most require an NPC and produce some kind of material (e.g Food, brick), product (e.g ships) or service (e.g security). Some are required to go beyond a certain level (e.g sewer, granary). Food - required to keep the population alive Materials - Raw materials are used to build simple building (stone and logs) and to be transformed into more advanced building materials required for better buildings (bricks, planks and metal parts) Indicators and Satisfaction - Several aspects of the island live are represented by indicators, which directly affect population satisfaction and, indirectly, affect productivity. A dissatisfied NPC works slower and may, on extreme cases, leave the island. The player will influence the speed and direction of the community growth by: • Creating and upgrading the facilities • Recruiting and assigning NPCs to the jobs • Keeping the NPCs happy, creating services facilities as the community grows more sophisticated. • Providing the required inputs (e.g. weapons and armor for the guards) • Providing optional inputs to improve production (side quests to be defined) The player will have a 'Player's Office', a kind of War Room, from where the player will follow the evolution of the community. 3. FACILITIES Each facility needs one or more NPCs to run the business. Facilities are built at the lowest level and may be upgraded to higher levels as the NPC gets more experience. Required materials must be available to build and upgrade facilities. 3.1. Extraction Facilities Produce food and raw materials (logs, raw stones and ore). • Farm • Forest • Quarry • Mine 3.2. Processing Facilities Specialized facilities to process raw materials into advanced building materials • Sawmill • Masonry • Foundry • Smith 3.3. Production Facilities Specialized facilities that create products. • Shipyard • Wood works • Stone works • Metal works 3.4. Service Facilities: Specialized facilities that provide services. • Boarding House >> Inn >> Hotel • Chapel >> Church >> Cathedral • Healer >> Apothecary >> Hospital • Barracks 3.5. City Improvements (don't need an NPC) • Granary - required to store food • Sewer - required to upgrade buildings • Dock - required to import/export and attract more visitors • Armory - required to store guards weapons and armor • Parks and other city beautifications • Public baths - enhance Health • Public lights - enhance Security • Paved Streets • Paved Roads • Theater • Outposts to contain wildlife 3.6. HOUSES: Where the NPCs live. 4. THE CITY When creating new facilities, the player will choose the position and angle of the building, as well as the building size and architectural style. The higher the facility level, the more options the player has. Within the available building options for the facility level, the player may move the buildings around and change style at no cost, any time (just aesthetics). Besides the facility buildings, the player will have a choice of adding some other constructions that will affect the community, like parks, street lights, city walls, etc. These constructions consume building materials. And, very cheap or free, the player may add all kinds of beautification to the city: wells, trees, fences, flowers, benches, etc. No limits here. Anything! I mean it! Anything she can find in the game, she can add to the city. For those that enjoy it, creating, improving and tending the city visuals may be a game all by itself. 5. NPCS 5.1. Hiring NPCs will show at port and stay at the inn for a few days -or- naufrages? Player may recruit / hire them and assign them a job. 5.2. Leveling NPCs will accumulate wealth, change status and will be more demanding over time NPCs will accumulate experience on the activity and will be more productive over time. Wealthy NPCs may hire other NPCs as workforce or house servants 5.3. General When assigned a job, will occupy a free facility, if available When assigned a job, will occupy a free house, if available There is a chance of NPCs moving together depending on the house level May demand better house to match his/her status (or be unhappy) May demand better work facilities to match his/her experience (or be unhappy) 5.4. Attributes Each profession has a major attribute that determines how well an NPC performs his/her tasks: Strength - for Farmer, Lumberjack, Stone miner and Miner Intelligence - for Carpenter, Mason, Smelter, Smith Agility (craftsmanship) - for Shipbuilder and Wood, Stone and Metal artisans Personality - for Innkeeper, Cleric, Healer None - for Guard 5.5. Production NPCs will go to work at the beginning of the day if: • Has 1 food -or- work at half speed + dissatisfaction • Has a work facility • Has raw material, if applicable At the end of the day: • Add product to warehouse or record the services provided • Go home - if has one • Go to the inn - if there is an inn + mild dissatisfaction based on status • Sleep in the streets + dissatisfaction based on status The quantity produced at the end of the process cycle is variable and will be affected by: • The NPC attribute • The NPC satisfaction • The experience of the NPC • The level of the facility • The presence of optional objects and knowledge subject of side quests [to be defined] 6. CURRENCY Cyrodiil gold has no use in the island There will be some scripted, invisible indicators of the economic activity that could be considered as a currency; As such, we could say that from the 'payment' of a day's work: • Part goes to the worker - as a lifelong indicator of wealth / status • Part goes to the owner of the facility - as rent • part for the city treasure - as an economic indicator • part to the Lord/Lady - as a guideline for gradually building the player home as a reward for the job well done (or game well played). 7. INDICATORS AND SATISFACTION 7.1. Personal Way of Life Affected by • Food - cumulative 10% dissatisfaction per day without food • House - 10% dissatisfaction per difference in NPC status x House level • Facility - 10% dissatisfaction per difference in NPC experience x Facility level 7.2. Personal Services Affected by availability of (*) • Bar • Bath • Theater 7.3. City Services Affected by availability of (*) • Security - Barracks, city lights, security force size • Health - sewer and health care facilities • Religion - shrines and religious facilities • ?? - parks and city beautification 7.4. Economy Affected by • Production - Moving average of the daily production in units of material • Treasury - Moving average of the daily production in units of currency • Population - Moving average of the population size (*) Moving average of the daily state of 1 point per building level, weighed by NPC status 8. MATERIALS Materials are stored in a global, virtual warehouse to be used by processes, consumed or exported 8.1. Food Food is used to keep the population alive. A quantity of food is consumed every day by each individual resident in the island 8.2. Wood cycle: Log >> Plank Wood is mostly used to build/improve houses/shops (initially) and boats/ships (later) 8.3. Stone cycle: Stone >> Brick Stone is needed to build simple houses. Brick to upgrade them 8.4. Metal cycle: Ore >> Ingot >> Metal parts Metal parts are needed to improve houses/shops (initially) and boats/ships (later) 9. MILITARY Military forces affect Security Indicator Military facilities affect Security Indicator Citizens act as militia, until replaced by pros 9.1. Weapons and armor Central armory, when built Guards choose the best equip every morning Player may add equipments to Armory 9.2. Building / Facilities Barracks Armory Watchtowers Walls 9.3. Ranks Guards will go up in ranks according to the general rule 9.4. Pirates/bandits raids: Pirates and bandits attack every once in a while Nearby guards run to face them. Citizens will complement the force, if necessary, or run inside. Player may help Unpredictable outcome Outcome determines destruction of buildings / improvements / goods 9.5. Wilderness Hostile beasts in the wilderness will keep away from improved areas after the player does a first 'clean up'. 10. REWARD: PLAYER'S VILLA At some milestones along the way, the happy subjects will offer their leader a new building for the Playes's Villa. The player will choose where to place it and will be able to 'decorate' the Villa exterior the same way he/she gives better looks for the city. 11. BEGINNING The player arrives with a few NPCs so they can raise the island to a level that justifies visitors (that will be hired to increase the population) The lore is still open. 12. ENDING Events toward the end of the mod are still fuzzy and will be better defined when there is a working prototype to test. That's all, folks . . . I hope I did not forget much . . . comments are appretiated, as always [This same text has been posted in the three mod forums: Bethesda Softworks Forums - TES Nexus Forums - The Wormhole Forums ] - - - - - - - - Original post (18-Nov-2008) Hi everybody! I have been nourishing this idea of a large island that starts completely wild and untouched and, at the end, if the player plays right, turns out into a big business with plantations, cattle and small villages all over the place. Unlike most mod requests, I think I can handle most of the technical stuff (except modeling), but I am no good at all with words: creating story lines, plots, quest etc is alien to me, even in my native language. I could not even come up with a good title for this mod/thread. The subtitle is shamelessly cloned from Lisnpuppy. That is why I am asking for your creative ideas for the main storyline, the side quests and the works. To make sure this is possible, I will spend the next couple of months 'probing' the feasibility of the many technical features that will be needed, like how to turn a forest into farmland, how to get settlers to work the land, how to dynamically place rows of some plant so it looks like a farm field, etc. During this period, I would love to hear the ideas you may come up with. Just dump your ideas in this thread. These are the major guidelines I will stick to, so let's stay within their boundaries: The mod is intended to mimic a small, Middle Age settlement growing into a medium-sized city, including its effect in the surrounding area. There is no Main Quest as we know it. The player will need to manage and balance a few aspects of the game to keep things going. The player plays the cards right, the community flourishes. Plays it wrong or leaves things unattended for too long and things dry and shrink. The evolution (grow or shrink) should be based on player's decisions, not on player's actions. Although some decisions may require some actions. No big hero, savior of the world deeds. The need of the player's combat/magic abilities should be kept to a minimum. Maybe take care of some wild beasts or clean up a mine, at most. But even these could be done without the player. Side quests should be normal, every-day events/situations the player has to deal with (like a bad crop or a neighbor’s quarrel). Some may need some kind of compromise from the player. Some, if left unattended, should interfere with the evolution. No sexual/adult/mature ideas, please. In this area I can be very creative all by myself, thank you. [i will add more as they occur to me] The remaining aspects of the mod are open. These are some of my ideas, so you can get the picture of what I am talking about: MAIN STORYLINE I am not sure whether the player should be: (1) Lady/Lord of the Land and the NPCs her/his subjects. Player rules from a throne room. Subjects are granted audiences to present their problems (side quests). Main quest balancing would be discussed with a group of ministries. (2) Mayor of the community. Hears rumors of problems and has to go somewhere to solve them. Main quest balancing would be done by passing laws and regulations. (3) Anything in between . . . or a mix of both . . . or something else altogether. How would it start? The obvious "player finds a map of a lost island"? Would the island society start from a few natives or the player must hire a few initial settlers from mainland? I imagine the end being an island with a fair sized city (with a nice port, some local commerce, etc) and a few peasant villages scattered over the island. Most of the area used for production and some wild life reserves to keep the environment healthy. Is there a need for a storyline/lore to get from the beginning to the end? And, of course, a good name for this mod is in order! EVOLUTION – GAME BALANCING My original idea was a farm island, so the player would have to collect a certain quantity of whatever ingredient to work as seed (say 100 strawberries). The peasants would clear a piece of land and grow strawberries (the land would initially show the peasants working on it and, later on, show ordered rows of strawberry bushes). After some time, the peasants would harvest the strawberries and the player would take it to a major city to sell (later on, as the community grows, this would be done automatically by merchant ships coming to the island) To start this process there must be enough free peasants available, money to pay them, . . . what else? Much later, if the player chooses to invest in it (money?, time & effort?, resources?), there would be an Alchemy Factory of sorts and the crops could be sent there and the resulting potions would be sold for a higher profit. A similar concept could be applied to - mining > smithing > weaponry - cattle > food > clothing? - Forests > timber > houses At first, the player should do the hard work (like collecting seeds and selling the crop). Later on [maybe as a result of a side quest or based on the evolution level] some/all of these things will be done automatically [like a specialized peasant will do it or a immigrating merchant will provide the seeds and buy the crops] What would the player gain/profit/achieve from being a good manager/ruler? Money? (I don't think so). Going up ranks within the community? Some very special items that would only be produced by the community at certain stages? Just the feeling of achievement? What kind of things will be monitored and have to be balanced? I suppose some very basic society needs like: happiness, food supply, shelter, public health. Ideas? SIDE QUESTS (some ideas to start with) Some of the farm tools disappeared. Crop is in danger. Production is low because a wild beast is attacking the peasants in the fields [some NPC] is depressed because his/her companion is cheating on him/her (. . . what did I tell you about my creativity? . . . ) It would be nice to have some (or all) side quests that would improve one aspect of the people needs while being bad to some other area. Like the player deciding one way it would improve general happiness but reduce production. Deciding the other way would have an opposite effect. [YES, I am roughly think along the lines of the Civ/AoE games. Not the tech advancement or conquest aspects, just the growing communities. Maybe closer to The Settlers game of several years back. NO, I am not trying to reinvent the wheel or creating a whole new game. I just hope that it will be possible to figure out a small set of rules (within the game engine capabilities) that will make this kind of evolving mod possible] I suppose this brainstorming phase is where one finds most of the fun of creating a mod. I have my fun figuring out ways to make things happen in the game. Later on, actually creating the mod is mostly hard work. So, let's get to work . . . hum . . . have some fun. And don't worry whether it is possible or not. Make it happen is my job. [. . . well . . . just don't go overboard] I don't intend to interfere much with the huge (*fingers crossed*) flow of ideas, besides some shameless thread bumps here and there. See you in a couple of months, when I hope I will have some of the technical building blocks figured out and ready to go.

Check UMPA Disco. Lots of fun casting it in a City or in a throne room. No ball, thou.

I voted 40+ because there is no 60+

Hi, Lisnpuppy. I am also new to mods, but I am good at figuring out how to make software tools do what I want. I downloaded CS about 3 weeks ago, spent a week going back and forth to the CS Wiki following the Beginner's Guide and, now, I have my “Divine Elegance Showroom” mod more than halfway thru. Planning to have an Alpha version in one week or two. So … if you have a specific problem with CS, I will be glad to help and try to figure out a solution. If I can help you, I will do it, if I can´t, I will tell you. But my little experience is limited to the CS. I know nothing about meshes, textures and animations (yet). Besides, been a newbie and all, I’d better follow the rules and pay attention to Jojo’s 5th Commandment