Oblivion Expanded Q&A with Septim741

[Povuholo]

I had an interview with Septim741 about his unofficial expansion: Oblivion Expanded. Enjoy!

 

Povuholo: Could you give me a summary of what this mod is about?

Septim741: Sure. Oblivion Expanded, which is an unofficial expansion for Oblivion, adds a ton of new content for the player to experience. The following has been announced already: five new sets of armor and weapons, three new races, two new locations, a creature, a companion, at least a dozen miscellaneous quests, and an epic new main quest. Like Oblivion, there will be a collectors edition available for download as well.

 

Pov: That sounds like a huge mod. What is the size of your team, and what do you do?

 

Sep: Right now there are four of us. Alset is the 3d Modeler, and he creates all of the new meshes that we need. Ventus and MantaStyle_89 create the scripts. They help me through all of the scripts that the quests require. As for myself, I do all of the work in the CS, textures, and I create all of the quests.

 

Pov: When and why did you decide to start this project?

Sep: Back in August of 2006, I began creating Oblivion Expanded, and it was only me working on it. The first part, Aetherius, was supposed to be released at the end of December, but a bug came up during the last week before its release, and could not be fixed. I decided to start over with the project. I kept the name Oblivion Expanded and completely recreated the quest and got a team together. Now, there is no stopping it. I wanted to do this project because when I got bored with Oblivion, I felt it needed an expansion. I realized that if I wanted an expansion, I was going to have to create it.

 

Pov: Will there be a new landmass this all takes place on? Where?

 

Sep: Each part will have a new landmass that is not related to the main quest. Part one will have a new landmass for the last half of the quest, but first half takes place in Cyrodill. The other three parts will all have at least one new landmass where their entire portion of the main quest takes place.

Pov: I heard this is a four part project. What parts are they? In what order will they be released?

 

Sep: The four parts are as follows: Part One: The Lost Kingdom, Part Two: Monarch of the Dead, Part Three: Prisoner of Akavir, and Part Four: The Dark Tribunal.

Pov: Will the mod be lore friendly?

 

Sep: I get that question a lot, and I have had to answer it countless times. There are no conflicts with lore that I know of. None of the content in Oblivion Expanded is based on lore though either.

 

Pov: Will there be voice acting?

 

Sep: Yes. I will be doing the voice acting for the new Undead race, and the Oblivion Voice Actors Guild (OVAG) will hopefully be doing all of the other voice acting.

 

Pov: You are working on Oblivion Expanded, Project Serpent, and Project Legend. Isn't that a lot of work? Where are your priorities?

 

Sep: Yes, it is a lot. I usually do my Serpent assignments first, as I don’t usually have a lot of work to do in the CS, and the Serpent assignments don’t take up too much time as there are weeks in between some assignments. But now, as I am starting to do a lot of work on Oblivion Expanded, I am having less and less free time. Thankfully, Legend doesn’t take up much time. Oblivion Expanded is most important to me though, and it is my priority.

 

Pov: What would be the difference between the normal and collectors edition? You aren't allowed to ask for money, so why would anyone decide to take the normal version?

 

Sep: The collectors edition will have a lot of cool features that aren’t included in the regular download. The following features have already been announced for The Lost Kingdom Collec:

• Step-by-step walkthoughs for all of the new quests!
  
• Exciting trailer for Oblivion Expanded Part Two: Monarch of the Dead!
  
• Awesome images from The Lost Kingdom and Monarch of the Dead!
  
• Background info and lore on The Lost Kingdom and new content!
  

Pov: How far have you progressed? Is there a release date in sight? Will there be a public beta?

 

Sep: We have progressed considerably. Mostly we have been thinking about and organizing information about what will be included in The Lost Kingdom. Now that that is finished, we are moving on to creating the quest and the required scripts. There will most likely not be a public beta. It is most likely that we will release a completed version, and then create a patch if necessary.

 

Pov: Anything else you'd like to share with us?

 

Sep: Yes. Please check out the Oblivion Expanded section of my forums. You can find my forums here. This is the place to check for all of the latest updates, screens, and other announcements.

Thanks for your time Septim741, and I wish you and your team good luck with the project!

[Dark0ne]

Nice interview. Why are your forums going down tomorrow, Septim?

[Septim741]

Nice interview. Why are your forums going down tomorrow, Septim?

 

Ha! my version of an April Fools joke. Didn't get the popup working until late last night, so I guess it's osrt of a belated April Fools joke. ;)

 

BTW, I completely fell for the Customer Care strategy on the news Pov! More kudos to Povuholo!!!