LE Project Cyrodiil: How and Why

[IQ88]

Even though it might be a little too early to discuss the creation of entire provinces, especially with the Creation Kit not having been released yet, the thought of remaking Cyrodiil as a playable region in Skyrim always seemed appealing. It would, of course, take hundreds of hours to finish, and it would have to be done by experienced modders (which excludes myself). But I believe it can be done. And it probably will at some point, considering how fond Oblivion's community was of recreating 'new lands', such as Elsweyr, Morrowind, and even Skyrim.

 

http://www2.fileplanet.com/images/210000/213495ss_sm2.jpg

 

Here's why this mod would work: With Cyrodiil, we are at an advantage. Thanks to Skyrim's predecessor, we know exactly what the region looks like, and how the landscape progresses in terms of altitude. I remember trying out the Elsweyr mod for Oblivion thinking to myself ”This mod is amazing, but the characters inhabiting the region needs to be voiced. Badly.” This wouldn't at all be an issue in Cyrodiil. Let me explain;

Modded regions for Oblivion always seemed somewhat hollow, as if there was nothing for you to do there (Note: Or so they did to me). Of course, that wasn't the case at all – some of them had integrated quest lines which took you all around the landscape, into various dungeons and other facilities. Voice Acting for non-player characters was essential to the way oblivion was put together; the 'silent voice' just didn't quite cut it when you had to stare at some character's face for an eternity just to read through what they had to say. Back in Morrowind, players had to read through everything, but in a separate window, which made much more sense than the Morroblivion mod did. The lack of character voices in modded regions standing in contrast to the province inherent to the game made such mods dull by a longer shot.

Again, we are at an advantage. Putting aside the chronology of the games for a moment, we have all the recorded voice files at our disposal from Oblivion. Thus the modders would be eligible to recreate most (if not all) quests from the game, and get a satisfying result.

 

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/15399/738046-imperial_city_super.jpg

 

Despite Oblivion's popularity, the game had it's flaws both in terms of design and lore. I always looked on the Imperial City as an interpretation of the actual city, rather than a direct depiction. I mean come on! The Imperial City was supposed to be the jewel of the empire, and there are, what, some 150 inhabitants in Oblivion? Surely that can't be right. I would expect at least 800 in such a game. And then there is the size of the city's districts. Assuming a modded version for Skyrim would include a larger number NPCs the mod would entail larger districts. This would also be a good thing for the artistic freedom of the authors – the city would benefit from a little more 'dirt' in the streets. Maybe some of the inns could have wooden built extensions on the upper floor. Or floors – two stories isn't nearly enough. Rather three or four would suffice.

 

(Optional read, my ideas concerning transitions between the games' time periods. Skip to next section if you'd like)

In order for the mod to make sense, a small quest would have to be made, in order to ensure that the transition from one age to another wouldn't feel out of place. I've been imagining something along the lines of a time anomaly which causes the player to leap back in time, somehow overwriting the existence of the Hero of Kvatch, right before he meets the emperor. With regard to the player's existing gear, some kind of temporal rift could allow him to retrieve it as he leaves the sewage system, just after having received the Amulet of Kings.

 

As I've said, I believe this can be done. But not by me. That's why I'm reaching out to the more experienced ones, such as on these forums. If you're an experienced Mod-author and you've got time and ambition to start a project of this size, I admire you, and should there be anything of which I could assist with, I will gladly do so. If you are simply an appraiser like me, then by all means, let me hear your opinion on what Project Cyrodiil should be about, and what elements should be key to such a mod.

[willparry79]

I think a Cyrodiil remake is definitely a good idea, but I think it would be even better to just have it be Cyrodiil in TES5 time rather than 4. It just makes more sense that way, and that way the Imperial City could be more realistic and still remain relatively "cannon". Implementing better cities for TES4 would simulate to a certain extent 200 years of development, at least to some degree. Any way you do it, Cyrodiil is gonna need a lot of work IMO. I'd like to see most of the dungeons redone to look more individualistic the way they are in Skyrim, rather than them all just being dirt tunnels. I've been thinking about this same mod for quite some time myself. As for the size of the imperial city, you have to realize that you can run from one side of skyrim to the other in like what, two days? If you REALLY wanted to fix the problem, the entirety of Tamriel would have to be blown up, not just the imperial city. And that's a whooole lotta modding. But yeah, I second this, but I say let's do all of Tamriel. Now just to wait for construction kit to come out.

[Guy97]

Can't be done, it's illegal, taking the contents of one game, and porting them to another is a no no.

[LadyAubrie]

Can't be done, it's illegal, taking the contents of one game, and porting them to another is a no no.

 

The way I understand it is (and to quote someone else in another thread on the same topic) - 'not necessarily'. I read somewhere that Bethesda couldn't do anything legally when Morroblivion was made, but then again I don't know if it was finished. I could be wrong, but for some nagging reason this seems legally possible to me - if for no other reason than that you aren't taking another company's intellectual property...it's all the same company, same franchise.

 

Assuming that it *is* possible, let me throw my voice in and say that I'd love to see this. I've been thinking about this exact idea since I got Skyrim, but I was afraid to say anything. Whether it's revisiting old Oblivion in the time after the death of Uriel Septim or getting to see TES V era Cyrodiil, it doesn't matter to me. I'd be ridiculously excited to see this happen, and I'd happily spend countless hours enjoying this undoubtedly huge mod. :)

[dabears17x]

Can't be done, it's illegal, taking the contents of one game, and porting them to another is a no no.

I have seen plenty of mods for New Vegas that take Fallout 3 content, and weren't taken down.

[Aokami]

I am all for an act of piracy and stealing The Elder Scrolls Tamriel from Bethesda... its just a funny thought 'those who try to go console will be punished, *resounding evil laugh*' ;)

as the war in the northern regions progresses, the other regions go into civil wars too...

Most are on the side of the imperium but many especially the lowe middleclass, the criminals and a few highranking people want to detach and become sovereign again...

But this is waaay too big a project to even want to do it right?

[Guy97]

Can't be done, it's illegal, taking the contents of one game, and porting them to another is a no no.

I have seen plenty of mods for New Vegas that take Fallout 3 content, and weren't taken down.

If your talking about Requiem, it doesn't use any files from F3/vice versa. It requires you to have the files from Fallout 3, it just links them to NV. Otherwise, some stuff for mods for that is kind of foggy. For one thing, they are the same game pretty much, a lot of stuff in F3 was ported by Obsidian to be used in FNV, so it's sorta tricky. With Skyrim and Oblivion, it's a new engine, the Creation Engine, and all new textures/meshes, with nothing being borrowed again.

 

But think of using those voice files this way. You are Sean Bean, you played Martin, you signed on for Oblivion, and only Oblivion. You don't want your name in any other game, but then all of the sudden, here you are in another game, as Martin, but still not with your permission. Would you like someone to take your stuff and use it elsewhere without your permission?

 

Morroblivion also doesn't use the files from the other game, here's what it says on its own websites -

 

" # You must own and install Oblivion, including the Shivering Isles expansion.

# You must own and install Morrowind, including the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions. "

 

So maybe it did at one time, and now it doesn't. If I remember right, at one time it got shut down for awhile, but now it's back (or was). If you pulled a Skyblivion, where you required the person to have the correct files, and didn't include files from Oblivion in your download it's OK. Otherwise it's not.

Edited November 22, 2011 by Guy97

[jmilldog]

Can't be done, it's illegal, taking the contents of one game, and porting them to another is a no no.

 

Then what was Morroblivion then?

[osarion]

Illegal or not, I wantz...

[CemeteryN7]

I have a feeling that this will happen. They definitely downsized population in general for the TES games, but those will get enhanced later on down the road. I plan on being part of that project. And Morroblivion was illegal because it imported another game. If the provinces of Tamriel are created from scratch, then it is completely legal. Edited November 22, 2011 by Lord Revan X