Totally remaking the game in the CS

[Megatarius]

My question specifically would be, just how much can the CS do? Could I actually use it to make my own Oblivion game? (In esp and bsa and omod form; you'd need the real one to run it of course.)

 

I'm considering this to be like the ultimate mod. Use all new land that I model myself (I know it would be a huge undertaking, I'm just throwing it out there right now), use existing textures, existing cave, fort, ruin, and town models, but put in new places, perhaps mix and match castle and house meshes to create cool architecture, use existing monsters, use existing NPC actors, and use existing items (including existing alchemy ingredients).

 

However, new stuff would be:

 

1. An all new story, which means all new quests. It would not have as many quests, or be as huge, as the real game of course.

2. New characters, or at least, recycle the old characters into all new context.

3. All new dialogue, which would have to be reading subs only unfortunately, but that's how I play it anyway, and one of my favorite mods, Hoarfrost Castle, suffers not at all with this restriction.

4. It would not be Lore friendly. It would be my own creation, but it would be similar, and perhaps could conceivably fit into lore at another juncture maybe? Same planet, since it would be the same races.

5. New land means new land. It would not be Cyrodill, nor would the surrounding land be those particular lands.

 

 

I know this might seem silly to some of you. Perhaps it is. But I've been thinking a lot about it, and I would really like to try my hand at it. Oblivion is one of my favorite games, but I have so many issues with it and in part I'm kind of dissapointed in it. It wasn't really what I wanted it to be and I'd love to make this uber mod that would essentially make an all "new" game. I already have story ideas and everything.

 

 

Aside from the time and effort issue, is this possible? Or does the CS only edit the game up to a point?

[paladicprince]

Yeah CS can do what you listed. :)

[Megatarius]

Nice.

 

And of course I'm too busy to get started on it now, but at least I know my daydreams about it are time well spent. :thumbsup:

[Branimirzg]

Well...I hope to see this mod in next 20 years,good luck! :biggrin:

[demonman562]

as an answer to your question, No, this could probably not be done, bethesda did create this program but they had teams of people devoted to separate parts of the game, you have.... one person? would take too long :(

[paladicprince]

@Demonman562

Yes it would take a freaking long time. Especially if you remade EVERY mesh, but the OP was talking about reusing most of the meshes and creating new landmasses, which isn't too terribly hard. But yes it would take awhile.

 

Nonetheless is IS in fact possible.

[Pronam]

Of course it is nice to do a sort of conversion...but why don't you just create a new worldspace?

You could make an alternate start optional, so that the player can choose or perhaps travel between the worlds.

That way you could start of small as this is going to take a long while..Why small? As if your mod is the only thing there is...it should be huge in the first place..but if it would be next to it it'll be totally different.

 

As all said it is perfectly possible, but.....the big problem is that not everything is standard...Although all Game-Settings are there. All the animations are gone, All Globals, Regions, Landtextures, Objects, Shaders have all to be added by yourself again. As you're generally not Loading Oblivion.esm That's a total conversion.

 

Option two is to strip down Oblivion.esm and leaving all in but all the Scripts/Quests/Dialogue/Cells/Worlds/Factions.

 

Option three is to create a new world with an option to start over there like an alternate start mod..this time an alternate start world....

 

I'm not totally sure if you're underestimating it or not..I understand it, sounds all fun. But indeed doing this one your own takes a lot of motivation as this isn't created in a month, probably not in 6...maybe a year or so. Then you'll have a basic fundament...not a complete mod.

It seems that you're target at option #2, I would go for #3 though.... That way you'll finish it for sure, as you could always stop with it, with the others, it is...or it isn't finished...as the game is totally dependent on that mod.

[Vagrant0]

Technically, yes, if all you were wanting to do were those things described, it could be done. However, anyone who has worked on any sort of large project can tell you that things are rarely ever that easy. The problem comes when you have to work around ideas which seem good, sound easy to do, but are not supported very well, if at all, by what you can do with the CS. Essentially, you would still be stuck to the same skill and magic systems, same sorts of dialogue, combat, and AI systems, and have the same limitations on races, equipment, environments, and animations.

 

This is kinda why TC mods just don't exist for Oblivion. Either the TC looks too much like Oblivion, or it doesn't have much of anything in it. And, normally, this leads to the conclusion that making things as a TC is just less practical than just adding those new areas, quests, and characters onto the main game with a standard mod. You have to remember that there is a rather huge amount of work just in defining all those statics, nevermind creating standard scripts, or setting up standard light, npc, item settings. Even if you get some of those from a sort of conversion starter mod, there are still many complications dealing with just getting some sort of chargen working right.

 

Oblivion just really isn't open enough from a systems standpoint to allow for any sort of total conversion.

 

For someone who isn't too experienced in modding, any mod larger than a town is usually much more than they can handle. If you havn't done any modding before, even a house mod with some basic quests, npcs, and scripts can be an incredibly long and frustrating task.

[Megatarius]

At Pronam:

 

Basically, an alternate world-space with an alternate start is what I mean. I'm not talking about total conversion at all. I want to leave as much stuff intact as I could. I envisioned not being able to travel to the regular game world at all, but it wouldn't really ruin anything if you could....

 

I thought I would leave the .esm intact. I would like to do as little reprogramming as possible.

 

Maybe I misunderstand something? I still haven't touched the CS, which is the ridiculous part in all this, but I wanted to get an idea of things before I get involved with the program.

 

 

At Vagrant:

 

I know what you mean about large projects. I've had my fair share of reality checks. :thumbsup:

 

As for how large this could possibly be, well, my idea actually negates a lot of things in the game that are standard, since it's supposed to be smaller anyway. For instance, I'm imagining a world that has already fallen to big epic evil and destruction. Right away that gets rid of guards (thank God), functional towns, and creates a world where the urgency is tangible from the start.

[Pronam]

Really, well good that you go for that one. An alternate world sounds a lot better....as things will get a lot more difficult after the first glance. Creating the world itself will be difficult enough already...the bigger it gets the more difficult.

It would be wise to divide your 'master plan/plot' into multiple areas/regions, I've heard Vagrant saying that before. That way you can finish of parts of the game instead of being stuck with a huge mostly empty world of which only a few small area's are really done. Making little steps instead of one big one increases your chance of success. It would be wise to start of with a little worldspace where they player will start, as you'll have a large task fixing that alternate start already. That way you can get used to the program after a few tutorials and when you might see things aren't the way you thought to be or maybe you'd like to go another way, you'd still have that alternate start wold part finished and could release something if you might quit at all. I say this as many people start with these projects until they realize the task that lies ahead. Mods always take more time than you think, that's a simple fact and is always a factor you'd have to find out again as every mod is different..but anyway...good luck. The wiki will help you on from this.