Wanted: Co-op LAN mod for Skyrim.

[plumata]

First of all;

 

Just to be perfectly clear since this has been misunderstood by some, I'm not offering to buy or sell a mod. The bounty is a reward for hard work, the actual mod itself would still be free and freely available to anyone and everyone.

 

$100.00

 

Greetings everyone, my name is Eric Matwe and I'm posting a bounty for a co-op LAN mod.

 

I'm setting aside $100 of my own money that I will pay to the first person or persons who come out with a co-op mod or add on for Skyrim that meets the minimum requirements outlined in this post.

 

I would encourage anyone else who is interested in co-op play to contribute money to the bounty. We could attract some seriously talented modders to the project and have a co-op mod shortly after the release date, maybe Bethesda will even take an interest.

 

Here's how it could work:

 

-I will accept paypal payments towards the bounty via my e-mail address( plumata at g mail dot com ) and update the amount offered in big bold red letters.

 

-As you can see I'm posting under my real name, if you want to know more about me, go ahead and google it. It's pretty dry technical stuff about armour mostly but it should be enough to see that I am who I say I am and I have no interest in scamming anyone.

 

-Anyone who chips in will have input into the requirements for the mod, cash talks BS walks.

 

-After the release date the first to submit a mod that is tested and passes all the requirements gets the entire bounty.

 

-Potential modders should register with me beforehand, I will keep them up to date and when the first mod is finished they may also submit their mod for consideration.

 

-If in some unlikely event the mod doesn't happen within 1 year of release, everyone gets their money back, minus any fee paypal charges.

 

The requirements are:

 

1. Co-op LAN 2 players for vanilla Skyrim on PC.

 

2. Developer will update mod to work with any and all official patches.

 

3. Free of game breaking bugs.

 

In the event that two or more mods are submitted preference will be given to mods that:

 

1. Are released before Christmas 2011

 

2. Support 4 or more players.

 

3. Support internet multiplayer.

 

4. Are mostly bug-free.

 

5. Add spears, and an idle animation of characters polishing their spears.

 

And finally a bit about me personally. I'm a 32 year old male and a professional armourer by trade. I live in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada and own my own business there. I've been playing TES since Morrowind(I played Arena and Daggerfall later, thanks Bethesda!) and I've always thought it would be better with a co-op option. I never had any one in particular to play with so I never bothered much with it. Now I have a beautiful wife who is interested in playing Skyrim with me, so that's my motivation.

 

Any helpful comments and suggestions about how to make this idea work better are always welcome. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Additionally, I'm a pretty busy guy so if you think co-op play is a bad idea you might as well just move on. I won't likely bother to respond to/care about your opinion here. Sorry.

Edited June 3, 2011 by plumata

[scot]

I thought selling mods was illegal...

[Corakus]

I'm pretty sure it is too, considering that you're using Bethesda's Creation engine to make money.

[plumata]

No one is selling or buying any mods.

 

A bounty is not the same thing, it's a reward for services rendered, the mod itself would be freely available to everyone.

Edited June 3, 2011 by plumata

[Skevitj]

You do realize that this is no different than all those attempts to make multi-player addons for Oblivion?

 

This is not something the game engine can support without an absolute mountain of shoehorning and kludging which renders it far past anything even the most modern networks and computers are capable of handling. The Creation engine is just a heavily updated version of the old GameBryo engine, both being pretty much the complete opposite of what you need for a multiplayer game. It's not a matter of making a "mod" for it, it requires modification of the core game files.

 

If a game is to be multiplayer in any sense (2p co-op to MMO) the engine needs to be designed specifically for it, Skyrim's isn't, but now I'm just repeating the same argument made every time someone suggests something like this, money is irrelevant, it's not going to happen. Search through the site and look at all the requests for Oblivion/FO co-op, there are posts that explain it better than I could, it's just something which is a technical impracticality, not impossible, just never going to be viable.

Edited June 3, 2011 by Skevitj

[bben46]

The game has not even been released yet, for all we know, Beth may include a co-op mode with it. :rolleyes: But - just in case, don't hold your breath.

[ub3rman123]

Yeah.. It's probably too early to start thinking of modding, especially stuff so complex as co-op. The best co-op mod I saw for Fallout 3 operated by controlling an NPC with another part of the keyboard. It worked, but it wasn't pretty.

[Strobelight]

Something Bethesda always lacked was Co-op, but I think for a good reason..

[plumata]

I'm well aware of the challenges, but I don't let that bother me. I've been making a very good living every day for the last 6 years doing something that almost everyone else considers to be impractical. All it needs is the proper motivation and creative thinking. If enough people contribute to the prize money in this little contest there will be plenty of motivation. I don't have much for modding skills myself but I'm nothing if not creative.

 

ub3rman123, thanks very much for that insightful post. If we were to build on the concept of that fallout3 mod and then make it more elegant we might have something practical.

 

Consider this;

 

One computer, running one copy of Skyrim.

 

Connect a ps/2 mouse & keyboard plus a usb mouse and keyboard. It should be possible to seperate the inputs, yes?

 

The video output could be a simple split screen that is seperated onto two monitors.

 

One person controls the protagonist the other controls a companion.

 

If the Creation engine is actually very similar to the Gamebryo engine it should be very easy to do.

 

The fallout3 mod that you mentioned could be expanded upon and modified as a proof of concept.

[Vindekarr]

Doesn't work mate, take that from me.

 

I worked with one of the original multiplayer mods, back in Oblivion, and it's the most unreliable, unworkable, anguish enducing pile of misery I've ever attempted to make work. $100 isn't nearly enough of an enducement to try and make people go through that suffuring asgain. You really have no idea just how unpleasent these "hard-code" mods are-it's like making an entirely new game, while the entire core code tries to stop you, while in turn adding new content, and simply creating the pathways to bind it together. Then you've got to balance the miserable thing which in turn takes months, and then you've got to test it, and inevitably spend hundreds of late nights fixing, always fixing, the code you spent so long writing, and I was only a test pilot!

 

Lastly, think on this: ES games are designed, ground-up to be solo content, the only companions you get are usualy pets, rather than actual companions, adding P-2 throws everything out, and I mean everything. Just buy a co-op game, it's not worth bashing your own brains out for this, because trust me, you will have to shed a lot of your own blood to make ANY sort of basic multiplayer mod work, let alone anything playable.

 

Tl;DR-this is completely impossible, the closest thing would be an incredibly dumbed-down version comparable to Runescape's dificulty level and level of combat involvement, don't bother. Lastly, you're making big assumptions that people will even let you do this, and they may well not, "building on that FO-3 mod" may simply result in snarky letters and threats of legal action.