LE Player City Mod: Built From the Ground Up

[immortalfrieza]

If anyone out there is willing, I have an idea for a player built city that I thought up that I hope can be made. For the short version check the bottom.

 

First thing's first, I'm aware of the Build Your Own City mod here: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50097/? and it's not quite what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something a little more intricate and involved than "get lots of gold, spend it, the town magically appears" like that mod, more something that takes a good deal of work on the part of the player, sort of a continuous quest, but also would be something that would eventually become self sufficient. I'd also like something that the player could customize to an extent. The intent is a nice city the player could put work into and make into something they could proud of, as well as being something new players could jump right into without needing boatloads of cash first.

 

Here's my idea. To begin with, somewhere in Whiterun one could find an NPC who the player could buy a useless looking piece of land for cheap. After doing so, the player heads to the land on the map.

 

At first, the land is an empty, decrepit, piece of crap with nothing but a chest where the lord's house would be. Inside the chest is a book explaining the mechanics in a lore friendly manner that I shall now describe.

 

The player must find materials to build a lord's manor. How one accomplishes this is they find wood, stone, and iron and place it in the chest, which they then interact with to build the manor. A nearby mine will supply the metals and stone that the player can mine for, and the player may chop wood at any chopping stump. Though one could also find them in merchant's inventories to buy them if one has lots of gold and the wants a less micromanagement way of doing things.

 

The manor will be built in a couple days, this is when the player decides what sort of city it would be. This would determine the look of the lord house, resident houses, what sort of residents it would have, how the guard were equipped, and the products the eventual merchants sell. The manor itself would start out small but could eventually be built into something massive if the player decides to invest their time into it. I've come up with 3 types of cities so far:

 

1. A farming/fishing/etc. city. This would look like Riverwood and those sorts of places, with wooden fences gates around it. The people would be dressed in simple garb and the products would be selling game, vegetables, light equipment, (leather, hide, elven, that sort of thing) which the guards when you got them would wear if the budget allowed it (more on this later).

 

2. A walled city with stone and metal sorts of buildings, kind of like Whiterun or Solitude with a manor along the same lines as Dragonreach. The people would wear more fancy looking clothes than the previous but not to extravagant. The merchants would be selling jewelry, heavy equipment (iron, steel, orcish, etc.) while the guards would wear if it was in the budget. Maybe a few dogs running around too.

 

3. A city with a more dark and supernatural bent. The design of the houses would look more similar to various forts and the Lord's Manor would be like something out of Castlevania. The people would be varied among the shunned and supernatural of the Elder Scrolls games, Vampires, Necromancers, a few Werewolves, and so on. The products would be varied among the sorts of things you'd expect to see, the Dawnguard Vampire equipment for instance. The guards would be skeletons and wraiths and that sort of thing. A few Deathhounds around would be nice. I suppose this is probably the one I'd personally use.

 

As for the mechanics of how cities would work, they'd all be about the same regardless of the type. First the player must make 3 houses via the same method as the manor, then the player must obtain some food, either buying it, hunting for it, or gathering plants and place it in the chest that's now in front of the manor. Once the player has put enough in, residents will come for each house within a week. The player will be paid rent by these residents once a week, and the player can either use that rent to buy more food, materials, and hire people to do these things for them, and any extras go into the player's own gold count automatically. The city will also be attacked by creatures and bandits every couple days or so, and if they kill a resident, there goes their rent for the week, so at first the player must stop these attacks themselves. The player must ensure that food and protection is provided from that point on, otherwise the residents will leave and the player will have to get them to come back by doing so. The demand for these resources would increase as the number of residents do. The player can eventually hire guards once the city gets large enough to have enough rent to pay for them, the extra protection will also result in an increase in rent to compensate.

 

The player will build more houses, stalls, and businesses that would result in more rent, argo more rent money to pay off the guards, hunters, farmers, and so on, eventually getting.

 

Eventually the city will become a sprawling self sufficient metropolis and will no longer need the player to babysit it and just has to sit back and watch the money roll in.

 

TLDR version: The player at first starts out alone and has to provide for the new city alone, but as more residents and businesses move in the rent will allow them to hire more people to do things the player used to do, eventually allowing the player to just sit back and enjoy their new city.

 

Thanks in advance to any modders who can help make this happen.

Edited April 7, 2014 by immortalfrieza

[MJAB98]

I have ideas and knowledge on building a city but sadly i just don't have the time :( damn GCSEs

[Th3Duke99088]

Well, I personally would love for this to happen... I can't do anything but i WILL be lurking here from now on...

[immortalfrieza]

I have ideas and knowledge on building a city but sadly i just don't have the time :sad: damn GCSEs

Don't worry, there's no hurry. If you can make it happen or know someone who can, don't be concerned about if it takes awhile. Just find an hour or 2 every day or so to work on it when you have some free time.

 

I'm guessing this would probably take an entire team to do anyway.