Imperial City OneUpmanship

[weyiofef160]

My intent for opening this topic was to see what, if any, ideas people on the forums had for improving the Imperial City. Whenever I play I like the sense of immersion of truly being "where its at". The place where the destinies of nations and peoples alike were decided within these city walls. That being said I felt that while Bethsoft did a decent job of portraying the Imperial City there was something distinctly lacking in the scale and majesty that such a place demanded.....sort of like another Mournhold when people (at least me) were expecting expansive avenues, miniature palaces (at least more gardens, balconies, and manors), and a teeming of life and intrigue.

 

That being said I've had the notion for a while now of adding a hippodrome to the Imperial City. In ancient Rome this was usually the ultimate sign of a truly great and prosperous city and I figured that with the vast swath of arenas and such for other cities this would really out do anything that was brought to the table and would again signify the importance of the capital. However I'm also keenly aware of the vast amounts of *manure* one would have to go through in order to bring this about. What I hope this forum to be is a sounding board if you will.....be it a cooperation resulting in the completion or an experienced modder telling me that I need to check myself back into reality. So please.....post away.

[David Brasher]

Space is rather lacking inside the city walls. you might have to put the Hippodrome right outside the walls. This might require changing the shape of the island so that there would be some level ground for it to sit on. For a building that size, it would be good to update distantlod. Working with horses and NPCs at the same time really stinks. The game engine is not good with horses. But you could probably toggle together some horse races if you worked at it long enough and had a complex enough batch of AI packages.

[Kendo 2]

Hippodrome...hmm. Doable but a whopping big undertaking. I've never tried using subspaces in an exterior cell before but if the game mechanics allow for it that would be one way to get the race horses and riders to the starting line with quest script variables. That, or a holding cell and object scripts tied to quest script variables, forcing the horses and riders to 'moveto' X markers on the race track. Once on the track, I would give the horses patrol packages and have them ALWAYS RUN from one X marker to the next, to the next, and so on to the finish line. When you connect the X markers for the packages the horses would run around for however many 'laps' needed to hit all of the markers to get to their finish line X markers. The mounted Black Horse Couriers and Imperial Horse Troopers have Riding packages and you can pick those apart for ideas for your riders' packages.

 

*there is a goblin in the big cave of the tutorial dungeon and it has a patrol package. That might be a good source for ideas on how to accomplish the horses' race packages and make it appear in-game as a real horse race.

 

As to placing the hippodrome, you could stick a new city gate almost anywhere to get to the place. For the 'right look' from outside the city just add more wall. The scale comparison of the interior/exterior wouldn't have to be exact, only close enough to be believable. The game is FULL of world/cell spaces like that so it really wouldn't matter that much. The hippodrome itself could be done like the vanilla Arena World cell.

 

After typing it all this out the idea is 100% doable and not as hard as I thought. I just came up with this off of the top of my head and I doubt you would need OBSE to get it done. I'm sure someone knows of a better way than what I've put down here.

[weyiofef160]

thanks for the input you two, Im actually surprised on one thought of this before given the romanesque aspects of the Empire and all. I've been screwing around with the CS but my hope is that such an idea would be integrated into one of the Imperial City Overhauls, Like Redbag's or "New Imperial City" but if not then I was thinking a good place for it would be that northwestern corner of the island. I just envision arena sprites, a roaring crowd, maybe even throw in some elephants and camels from Anequina to give it more of a sense of being the heart of an empire.....but again I'm probably just looking at a pipe dream.

[Kendo 2]

...but again I'm probably just looking at a pipe dream.

 

:verymad: Don't make me hurt you. :biggrin: Just kidding.

 

Pipe-dream-shmipe-dream. The CS isn't that tough to beat. I'm a meathead and I can do it. Listen, I'm finishing up an orc revamp mod and then I have one more project that just needs the esp built. After that I'll help you with this if you want. I won't do the work though, you'll be the one doing it all. I'll bat clean up and help you through the rough spots.

 

You have a very good concept with this. It could be expanded on to allow arena style betting and maybe eventually allow the player to participate in the races as a jockey once all of the game mechanics are running smoothly.

 

Your call, but I wouldn't hand over an idea like this to a mod team. I would hammer it for all it's worth if it were my idea.

[weyiofef160]

alright, I'm hoping to take this on but my only thing is is time....post-deployment classes, reintegration, field excercises....HOWEVER, I have started on the basic guide to the CS and I'll be breaking ground on this this weekend....the main thing I'm finding baffling is the scale of it. But fook, wont know till it a shot. Thanks for the encouragement kendo2.

[David Brasher]

The CS is a big shock to the system. I don't know if you should start a giant huge project as your first mod. There is so much to learn. I suggest that you start small. Maybe you could make small things that you could later build your hippodrome mod on. You might start out with a ticket booth and ticket taker. Just stick it in an empty field and don't worry about building anything else yet. You might be amazed at how hard it is to create and equip this one NPC, give him the proper AI package, start a "quest" for him so that you can write the dialog to have him take money and grant admittance to the hippodrome.

 

This might sound really small and pathetic, but you might be surprised. You could do whatever you like as your first project. A refreshment stand, a stable, living quarters for the personnel, an NPC that mounts and rides a horse in a circle. Just don't get overwhelmed and discouraged. We are here to have fun.

[Kendo 2]

alright, I'm hoping to take this on but my only thing is is time....post-deployment classes, reintegration, field excercises....HOWEVER, I have started on the basic guide to the CS and I'll be breaking ground on this this weekend....the main thing I'm finding baffling is the scale of it. But fook, wont know till it a shot. Thanks for the encouragement kendo2.

 

No problem, holmes. Take care of your business.

There's a line of tutorials titled 'My First Dungeon' and I think they're on the official TES web page. I would do those, step by step, duplicating everything they do. It may seem pointless but it will get you familiar with the CS.

[jedimarine]

1. A full realized Imperial Palace

 

2. Street merchants of all kinds...perhaps with a wandering pattern that brings them all together in the Arboretum once a week.

 

3. New events in the Arena...perhaps stage shows and musicians, not just combat.

 

4. Better use of the Prison area...perhaps some entertainments...staged fights...exotic caged animals, etc.

 

5. improvements on the existing "Better Cities" mods...basically to do something about those 2nd floor "doors" that hang out there...maybe add skywalks above street level, or simply remove those doors.

 

6. A refurbished and up-scaled temple.

 

7. A cleaner look to the approach from the bridge to the main gate...seems primitive for an Imperial Capital...paved, more structures...perhaps a Watch post.

 

8. More government offices...maybe in the Prison area or the Temple area...put them in the walls.

 

9. Arcane University Expansion...catacombs! vast archives! giant magical testing spaces...just lots of mysteries hidden beneath the university!

 

10. Entertainments and attractions...jokers and jesters and jugglers...soapbox preachers...dancers...mimes...games of chance...games of skill (can you hurl a head of lettuce that knocks down empty wine bottles?) Stuff that makes wandering the streets of the city amusing.

[3rdtryguy]

All that stuff would be awesome.

 

Don't forget a ZOO!