Steampunk Oblivion - Recruiting

[phayze81]

Shred: Wow, thanks! I'm glad you liked it so much. :D

 

I love the idea of "Mad Old Tobi" telling the kids his crazy stories about sailing between the stars. I really like the idea of Tobias picking up a little street urchin friend, too - she is absolutely required to wear a flat cap, and I highly recommend jodpuhrs and braces/suspenders (depending on which side of "the pond" you're on) to go with it. ;).

 

Some (rough) Character Write-ups:

 

 

Dr. Tobias Archer is an aging man who gets little respect from the majority of the townsfolk. He doesn’t say much on the subject himself, but when asked about him the other townsfolk will say he washed into town many years ago rambling on about sailing the sky with pirates or somesuch. They find him odd, but harmless, and though he doesn’t practice the craft anymore he was once an excellent doctor and contributed much knowledge on the subject to the current physician. These days he mostly tends a small garden and works at compiling a full biological survey of the various flora and fauna found in the wilderness.

He’s generally a very kindly and soft-spoken person, more depressed by his status as outsider than angered by it. He likes to help people and he’s very pleased to see the PC whenever they come to visit because he gets so few guests aside from Mina. He doesn't do well with superstitious types and can become quite roused if the subject comes up.

-Quest ideas: Parts of his precious journals have gone missing, and he needs help recovering them. He implores the PC not to read them if found (obviously, they can anyway and are free to lie about it if asked later. If they admit it and claim to believe his stories there might be a special reward?). Also, he might be able to pay/trade for “biological samples” (alchemy ingredients, creature parts, that sort of thing) that may further his research - particularly the rare and dangerous stuff that Mina hasn't been able to acquire.

 

Wilhelmina “Mina” ?? is a mischievous young lady who has become something like Archer’s apprentice. She admires him greatly and wants to believe all of the incredible stories he told when she was younger, but she’s not sure she can. True or not, she’s very sad that he doesn’t tell them anymore.

She regularly goes into the wilderness to collect samples and draw pictures of the creatures for him. She has secretly discovered his stash of old journals and snuck off with several of them. Most of them she’s managed to sneak back in without Tobias noticing, but several were left behind in the wilderness and she’s afraid to tell him about it because she doesn’t want him to be mad at her and stop letting her help.

-Quest idea: Obviously, she’ll be tied up with Archer’s journal quest, because she’ll have the clues for where they might have been left. Maybe she could be recruitable as a companion, offering to act as a guide, since no one else would have the time to waste on watching an outsider get eaten by the monsters there. There should probably be some requirement for this (like helping her solve a puzzle to unlock something that was confiscated from her after some prank she’s pulled)

 

Dr. Phineas “Phin” LaCroix is the current resident saw-bones for Oldtown. He’s still rather young, and a bit over-optimistic about his capabilities as a healer (he will insist that there is nothing he cannot fix), but he means well and takes his commitment to the craft seriously. He admits that while Old Tobias may be a bit cracked, he was a top-notch doctor in his day and taught Phin a great deal on the subject. When not tending to the regular and frequent injuries resulting from prototypes-gone-wrong around town, he busies himself with studying the anatomical texts that Tobias wrote, and devising advanced mechanical prostheses.

Quest Ideas: Definitely something to do with the prosthetic research, but maybe also helping to upgrade the equipment in his surgical suite?

 

[unnamed] is Phin’s fiancee, and assistant. She was injured quite seriously in an accident at the workshop and Phin himself was forced to amputate both of her legs as a result (this being the reason behind his obsession with prosthetics). She doesn’t say much, but she’s usually very cheerful and encouraging to those around her. She gets around in a contraption devised by the Engineering Couple at the workshop (I’m thinking some kind of steam-powered chair on spidery legs, though it might be a trick to make it small enough to maneuver well indoors).

Quest ideas: Help Phin with his experiments and she’ll ditch the chair and walk on shiny brass legs! Part of her schedule will have to be winding the keys to keep the gears moving. ;)

 

 

 

One a side note, whether Fairlayne and Co. are criminals or something more noble is largely up for debate in the story. I have a conversation in my head concerning the hazy distinction between "Privateers" and "Pirates" and quite a bit of potential banter about the meaning of morality and it's application in these matters, but I haven't actually written to that point yet. ;)

 

I’ll get on coming up with something that describes, at least briefly, Archer’s falling into Cyrodil.

 

To everyone in general:

I have some good resources for steampunk fashions, so I put together a list of links, and put some of my own pics that I've gathered someplace easily accessible. Hopefully they'll be some inspiration to the talented modelers on the team.

 

 

 

http://www.ohalloranco.com/designer-vintage-breeches-jodhpurs.html - Classy equestian-wear. Steampunks love those riding breeches.

 

http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/ - This livejournal group has and endless parade of steampunkery of all sorts - jewelry, clothes, hats, props, what-have-you. Check the sticky for the list of tags for easier navigation.

 

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104 - if you’re not reading Girl Genius, then you’re not really a steampunk fan. :P Prof. Foglio has the whole “improbable machinery” thing down to a literal art, and the clothes are simply awesome.

 

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php This is your one-stop shop for pics of awesomeness. Just decide what you want to see, pick the right forum and peruse. Anatomical and Tactile come highly recommended.

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/31445104/superbia-under-bust-leather-corset?ref=sr_gallery_19&ga_search_query=steampunk+under+corset&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title Example of etsy-punk weirdness. Just search for steampunk and browse. Mostly jewelry, but bling is a necessary addition to the world, too. :D

 

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=steampunk+goggles&search_type=handmade Search for “steampunk goggles” on etsy.com

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v295/reverendz3n/Steampunkery/ This is (most of) my collection of cool steamjunk that I’ve collected over the ages. I take no credit for any of these pictures, or the items/people in them (okay, there are a few of me and my own steampunk streetwear, but I’m not pointing them out. :P). I just copied them and forgot where-from so I can’t give proper credit. With that in mind, remember that these are being shared for the sake of inspiration - contacting the original creator for permission would likely be difficult/impossible, so I would ask that none of these items be recreated with any degree of exactness.

 

 

 

Oh, and one more thing! Did anyone else notice the raptor and t-rex resources that got uploaded to the nexus the other day? These might make fun monsters for the mod. Doyle's "The Lost World" is often considered a rather classic piece of steampunk, after all.

[Raathas]

This would be good as a new set of dark brother hood armor for the Steampunk Mod,

or some sort of new enemies we could introduce:

 

http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/2704511.html

 

Thanks for them links.

[phayze81]

Nice find! Glad the links are helping already. :)

 

EDIT: On a completely separate note, I was thinking today about melee weapons that might be good for the mod, and somehow that thought crossed over with another thing that I thought would cool and the two ideas merged.

 

I know that combat probably won't be a major part of the mod, but all the same some people are going to have weapons (and acquiring them might even being a good quest for a military-oriented NPC, like an old retired general of the Imperial Artificer's Corps, to give out), so I thought it might be cool to do something other than the usual straight swords, and maybe use things like punch-daggers, pata or tonfa-style grips, which got me thinking about sci-fi variations on that theme . . .

 

(To preface, I am a Gundam fanboy and I know it, so bear with me here. If you're not familiar with the shows, that's okay because I have visual aids! :D)

 

Gundam Exia has an extraordinarily awesome BFS with a unique folding mechanism that I thought would look really cool in Oldtown - scroll down to the lineart for GN Sword/Rifle - as well as a pair of more oridinary swords that have a unique blade shape that I just thought were worth pointing out while we were here. If this were modeled without the gun portion, and some gears and such showing through parts of the shield section (which would probably be better off part of the tex, than the actual model), this would look really cool in brass and copper. Not sure if it's possible to create a custom sheathed position, though . . .

 

Here is a badly weathered variation that lacks that folding mechanism. Somehow, the broken blade just makes this even cooler. And here is another variation with a slightly different blade shape.

 

There's also the next-gen version that's even BFS-ier and lacks the shield, and the prototype that's a bit more rationally sized (again, just scroll down to the bottom and you'll see them). Oh, and for a dagger version, there's this.

 

Last one: the Spiegel Blades, which are similar, but a bit lighter.

 

That concludes my random thought/link deposit for the day. :P I should probably go write something now . . .

[Shredator]

Corthian- Is the model freely licensed for use Corthian? Probably, but it's good to play it safe.

 

Robibot- Feel free to post if you have any ideas you'd like to share, we may be able to integrate any that fit well with what's currently planned.

 

Sarac- What kind of texture work do you do Sarac? Are you able to work with UVs, or more on the side of retexturing current models?

 

Tibato- I appreciate the lore research, it is good to know what's happening in the time period we're interrupting. The 200 years is an approximation at the moment, we can work with any number in that range (187 for example). If you find any interesting history to play into, time period is still a flexible area. (If anyone knows anything about the founding of the Arcane University in Cyrodil lore, we're wondering about a few dates.) I'd say some of the steampunk technology would be inspired by dwemer technology, part necessity, and the rest an evolution of machines created for the first two.

 

Phayze-I appreciate the list of references, very helpful. As Corthian said a few pages ago, it would be great to get an inclusive list of reference sites and pictures for everyone to use. Especially your last, which is very useful for costumes.

 

 

Hopefully you don't mind if I suggest a bit more for your characters, Mina especially.

 

Dr. Tobias- After Dr. Phin learns and generally takes over the doctor's workload, Tobias is able to concentrate more fully on wildlife research.

 

Wilhelmina - Mina is the little sister of Cassandra, and they've lived together since their parents' death.

(interrupting to tell the tale of the sister's parents) Maria and Tony Drake were a cool and confident couple, who acted as the makeshift leaders of Oldtown (since each member of the city is caught up in their own interests, government is generally not very important to them. As such, the leaders are generally volunteers who step in only when necessary, unconcerned with power) for years. Both were fairly adept warriors and in their time living in Oldtown have fought of several strange threats (attempts by the villain on the city, we later find out). Finally, when the mine begins pouring with enemies, Tony and Maria know that only they can hold the torrent off long enough for the engineers to build a blockade and run in before anyone can object, trusting the village to raise their daughters. Their death, despite being since regarded as heros, has been very hard on both Cassandra and Mina. (this all happened almost 7 years ago). Cassandra tries to become a parent to her young sister, and fights to fill the void left by her parents. Mina, on the other hand, is more deeply traumatized by their deaths and becomes distant for a long time.

Like Cassandra, Mina trains in the art of weapons to become able to protect herself and others, but using short knives rather than a bow. Smaller than average, Mina is very quick on her feet, agile, and acrobatic. Tobias recognizes her abilities as well as her interest in wildlife, and asks her to help his research (though he's actually more capable than he acts) to help draw her out of her shell. Through everything, Cassandra largely raised Mina, and Mina respects and loves her deeply.

 

Claire- Owner and operator of the clothing store, Claire enjoys working with the small and intricate. Every outfit and item is a challenge to Claire, and she'd be happy to create items for you if you bring her the needed materials.

[phayze81]

Shred: I don't mind a bit, I'm just helping out. Technically I think they're you're characters. ;) Admittedly, I was mostly concerned with the relationships between Phin, Tobias and Mina as wrote that out, so it's good for some one with a bigger picture view to help integrate that little circle with the overall community. Not sure if it's something that will likely come up in the dialog, but it occurred to me that Mina would remind Tobias quite a bit of little Pandu from his journals (for those who playing along at home, Pandu was a slave/cabin-boy who apprenticed himself to Tobias). That nostalgia would probably be a significant part of his feelings toward her.

 

Also, I thought some more about the weapon smith:

 

The Brigadier (not sure about lore-friendly ranks and titles) was once a high-ranking member of the Imperial military, having worked his way up the ranks from a lowly weapon smith in the forges of His Majesty by demonstrating a keen understanding of various metals and their properties as related to making things that hurt people. He doesn’t necessarily want to do the hurting himself mind you, but his gift was undeniable and he took great pleasure in his work, which , unfortunately, lead to his eventual downfall. His designs became increasingly complex and ornate, requiring higher and higher quality materials as his career advanced. In time, the military slashed his budget and insisted that he restrain his fanciful imaginings in favor of solid, serviceable weapons that were cheap to produce and easy to maintain. His artistic integrity insulted, he opted for early retirement, moved to Oldtown and invested his ample savings into starting up his own smithy, which failed spectacularly when the access to the mine became restricted and the exotic materials he required were not longer available. Now he’s a valuable, if unsatisfied, member of the Oldtown community and mostly stays busy with recycling scrap metal into usable parts for the workshop and occasionally firing up the forge to bang out a few specialized pieces for some project or another. He desperately longs to make weapons for something other than the small bit of hunting that goes on it town, or blunted toys for the children to play with.

 

Quest ideas: He will be the PC’s link to exotic and interesting weapons like the repeater crossbows that Raathas mentioned (forgot to say how cool I thought that idea was, btw), or needlessly elaborate swords. I also had an idea for what I’m calling a “Dynamo Blade” that would use a kinetic generator (magnet+coil=current) when swung to create an electrical charge that’s transfered to the target when hit, effectively adding a shock damage enchantment. Not realistic at all, obviously, but it would be a fun way to let the player power up their weapons without magical explanations, and I can only imagine that automatons in the mines would be fairly weak against shock, what with all the metal and arc-welding and what-not.

 

EDIT: I should really be sure that I'm done thinking before I post. . .

 

Here's another NPC idea.

 

Nicolai is a very old man, and something of a luddite. In his day, life was simple and men worked at real jobs and had real things to show for it, unlike this silly tinkering that goes on all over town. The reckless kids should put away all the ridiculous toys and focus on something that matters, something that would put food on the table, like fishing or ship-building. Damn kids. Get off my lawn!!

He’s cantankerous, uncouth and generally annoyed with everybody all the time, but this is his home and he’s too old and tired to bother with moving away.

Quests: Not sure, but I thought it would be fun to mix in a voice of dissent among all the glorious sparkiness of the townies. I could imagine that he might work with the villain in some small way, though not because he thought it would do any great harm to anybody - he’d just want to break some of their toys to teach them a lesson about "being a grownup".

[Corthian]

I am almost certain the model is free use I have several other creatures that which I have rigged none of which are particularly steampunkish.

 

I went ahead looked for some possible resources.

 

Elegant Vests

 

Colonian Clothes

 

Smuggler Outfit (I already have made version with robotic arm)

 

Captain Molly for HGEC

 

HGEC Butterfly Widow

 

Rose Corset

 

I haven't made weapons in a while. I might make some new ones. I don't know about the Exia's Blades, if we did create two different states we could swap the two on unsheath, but that would require OBSE and wouldn't animate. We could create a Steam Beam saber though.

 

I created a female flight suit, also a trench coat like thing.

[phayze81]

Good ones! I haven't seen the butterfly widow before. Always liked the Colonial Clothes - could be a really nice base for some stuff if the original author doesn't mind sharing.

 

I expected the folding to be the tricky part. I honestly don't know enough (read: "I know nothing at all") about how these things are coded to have the slightest clue how something like that would work. Not sure if it would look weird to have it fold without an animation or not. For my own personal geekery, I don't think I'd care too much because I'd be too busy hacking stuff up and screaming "Orewa GUNDAMU!!" to really notice. ;)

 

Also, more NPCs! An aristocratic music lover, a wayward smuggler, and a boozing restaurateur:

 

 

 

Gloria comes from one of the wealthier families around Oldtown and as such wears much more high-end clothes, has fancier jewelry (because we could probably use some aristos around town to work that steamy-elegance angle) and considers herself a bit above most everyone else. She respects Cassandra’s authority as much as anyone, but rolls her eyes at the defacto-mayor’s unlady-like behavior. Still, she has no interest in the job herself because she feels that her true calling in life lies elsewhere. You see, she’s also a musician and composer who is frustrated by the lack of interest the other townies have for the finer arts. Given no other recourse, she naturally has decided to construct her own orchestra from scratch so that she can finally hear her masterpiece aloud rather than just imagining it (this could be anything from a kind of player piano to a full-blow automaton-bandstand in the middle town).

Quests: I think the mechanical orchestra would work something like an irrationally large and complex music box, with bumpy metal drums on gear-driven rollers running across metal strips that produce the actual sound. The puzzle could involve helping her “tune” the device by setting different drums in the right sequence to create the desired ssound. Might require a better understanding of how musical mechanisms really work than I have to portray it with any degree of realism.

 

Kara grew up in Oldtown, but left in her later teens to seek her fortunes in the larger world. When she returned many years later she was at the helm of her very own little ship and claimed to have started up a profitable “import/export consortium dealing in rare and difficult to acquire goods” (wink-wink, nudge-nudge). The savvier characters around town always knew the impressionable girl would fall in with the wrong sort, and they’re quite sure they know why her merchandise is so rare and difficult to acquire, if you know what I mean. She is supremely confident and has a particular talent for talking her way out of trouble. The lads in her crew are fiercely loyal to her, due to an apparent combination of fear and respect. She doesn’t tell many stories about her business dealings, but she may let slip that she’s gotten the better of some pretty tough characters.

Currently, she’s in Oldtown visiting with friends and family for an indefinite period of time (if she likes the PC well enough she might admit to “laying low for a while”, but probably won’t elaborate as to who she’s avoiding and why)

Quests: She could be the town’s one and only fence, for the convenience of those who would like one, and she’ll probably also have some interesting items for sale. She could also provide some kind of stealth-oriented quest for which she will provide an exclusive component of her assuredly badass smuggler’s outfit. Successfully stealing from would likely be very profitable . . . if one can manage it.

 

Kasval and his wife are the kindly keepers of the local public house, The Squeaky Wheel, where most folks in town gather to dine, socialize, drink, and the like. His mechanical skill is somewhat limited, and he fancies himself something of a connoisseur of fine fermented beverages of all types. The Missus feels that he takes his interest a bit too far, but it’s probably best to leave that a private matter. Kasval's wife (who really deserves a name of her own) is a baker and widely considered the best cook in town. They’re quite happy to have their daughter, Kara, back in town for a while and hope to convince her to stay as long as possible.

Quest: There’s been a problem with Kasval’s distillery, and he’s worried that his supplies might not hold out much longer. Help him fix it, and he’ll welcome you as one of the family! With Kara insisting on sleeping aboard her ship at the docks, they have an extra room available where weary PC’s can relax, store gear, and maybe find one or two forgotten articles of Kara's that might be needed for crafting one of the games trophies. Also, making Kasval’s house the player’s house would make all of the food there available for those using one of those hunger/thirst immersion mods.

 

 

[Tibato]

It occurs to me that any NPC in Oldtown could act as a fence for objects from the original Oblivion world - provided they'd have any interest at all in what you're selling. Thinking about price adjustments for objects could be worthwhile, though insanely complicated. It might be that any non-food object just doesn't interest them.

[Raathas]

I think if your going to add them types of weapons, they should be rewarded from quests inside oldtown...

possibly come up with some sort of script that lets you pimp your weapon, like add modifications to it?

That's probably hard but not impossible! :P

i like the tonfa idea, i've actually used them before and they are fun!

I was watching hellboy and looked at the assassin, his character is f*****g amazing, his dress sense and his weapons - watch the film or research him, hes ace!

I would like to see a change in the Dark brotherhood though, maybe some sort of overhaul? maybe make an ancient clan of assassins that were originated in oldtown?

 

Thanks

[phayze81]

Apparently his name is Karl.... o_O bit anticlimactic, but yrah he's totally badass and quite steampunkable. ;)

 

I'll post more on weapons later.

 

EDIT: That was totally the wrong link I posted originally. Fixed now.

 

Raathas: I totally agree that weapons particularly the more exotic and powerful ones, should be quest rewards. I meant to mention that in my earlier post, but got carried away with other ideas, so thanks for bringing it up. :)

 

I've been thinking that getting weapons from the Brigadier would work on basically the same principal as getting clothes from the seamstress - collect the necessary pieces, and he'll forge them into something useful for you.

 

So, for example, a basic punch dagger would require one "unit" of scrap metal (which I imagine would be a relatively common item), a short sword would cost three, plus a unit of brass/copper for decorative embellishments, and so forth.

 

More complex items like a folding sword, or the repeater crossbows and compound longbows would require any number of cogs, sprockets, gears and pulleys that could be salvaged from broken equipment in different parts of the mines, or dropped by the various automatons roaming around down there.

 

Specialty items like the Dynamo Sword would require the parts to make a kinetic generator, like copper wire and a lodestone, in addition to the materials for the sword itself. Seems like it should be possible to "upgrade" your generator with additional wire and lodestones of varying strength - maybe by trading in the original sword and better parts?

 

Corthian - I've been thinking about the idea of a steampunk beam saber (which is a truely awesome thing to see, btw), and I got hung up on how to justify powering it. It's likely that I'm over-thinking it (I have a tendency to do that), but it seems like we'd need some kind of ultracompact plasma generator that doesn't rely on magical energy (or at least not so far as the characters know). What about a very rare glowing crystal formation from the deepest parts of the mines, like raw Varla Stones or something? Might be used to make a flame thrower or a lightning cannon that works like a wizard's staff, too. Not sure if any of that (or anything else I've suggested, for that matter) drifts too far from the intended direction of the mod, but I'm just thinking out loud. For what it's worth, I've seen a number of glowy crystal bits in various steampunk arts and craft.