Concept - Alignment?

[kalosj]

Hi all, this is only my second post on these boards but I've had an idea running around my head the last couple of days, and want to get it out of there onto 'paper'...

 

But first, this is just a concept atm and the concpet is in need of feedback before any thoughts of scripting get underway. So be critcial, be constrcutive if you can and tell me if its worht putting any more though into it. A little about me - I have no real modding experience, though I don know a little (tiny in fact) about coding (c++ and html), but I would like to learn, and I find blender very diffiuclt to use, so I though I'd try my hand at scripting first....

 

Anyway, the concept - Alignment.

 

now this is not your usual, good evil - its slightly different.

 

Using a character fame/infamty scores a simple calculation would assign whether a character is a Hero, Villain, or Anti-Hero (the anti-hero is not quite the usual definition, but would be for character that have both fame and infamty in roughly equal amonts).

 

The general ratios of fame/infamty would be something like

 

Hero has at least 2:1 between fame and infamty

Villain has at least 1:2 between fame and infamty

Atni-hero fills in the inbetwen

 

i think I could put that into basic code if I though about it, though I havent looked at the scripter in CS yet....

 

Once that was working, it would hopeful be possbile to use a character Alignment for quest and diagloue purposes - I'll put forward a couple of examples, though I'd pretty sure that constructing a mod from the following would make the mod very incompatible with the modding community, but this is all concept talk atm...

 

The fighter guild - requires clean records. i interupt that as it doesnt like Villain as such therefore - if the character has the Villian status, any time the character goes to join the guild or ask for a new contract, the npc would reply with "I'm not comforable talking about that with you" - would have audio diagloue already done and would mean that if the character had joined the guild before becomg a villian, they could remain in it, just not advance until they at least got back to anti-hero status.....

 

the same idea could be applied to the Dark Brotherhood, but instead have them dislike Hero characters, not allowing them to join, or if already apart of the faction, not giving them anymore work/advancement?

 

I see this concpet as a potential to begin to ad more good/evil differences to the game.....

 

Thats the overall concept, what do people think of it? I havent played through the entire game yet (not even the main plot) so i may be missing some fame/infamty interactions that I havent come across yet, if so, tell me this idea is already in the game or that a mod already does a similiar thing - I've downloaded the hunting parties mod (cant remeber is full title) but the description of it doesnt sound like what I suggest here, though if this concept goes through scripting, it might work fairly well with that mod

 

Any and all comments welcome, thanks

 

Kal

[kalosj]

Replying to my own post...oh dear....

 

I've spent some time today looking through the CS wiki at the scripting tutorials, and, well, I've come up with a basic script idea. Before I get to it, I know that some thing within it wont work/dont exist, but I'm looking for advice on how to achieve them as I think they are pretty self explanatory.....anyways, the script

 

Scriptname KJAlignment

Begin OnPCFameIncrease || OnPCInfameIncrease

IF GetPCFame >= (GetPCInfame*2)
Set Alignment == 1
ElseIF GetPCInfame >= (GetPCFame*2)
Set Alignment == 2
Else
Set Alignment == 3
EndIF
End

 

So, the first problem the Begin statement. I've looked through the wiki page that lists all of the functions of the scripter and I cant find anything that could be used to perfom the that function, any suggestions?

 

Second, the Alignment term. I envisage this as another term linked directly to the player's character. However, I do not know if the CS will allow me to add such a function to the player character, as just setting short alignment within the script wont work I dont think.

 

I havent tested the GetPCFame*2, but I assume it will work, otherwise, i will need to define two terms Fame and inFame to use within the script.

 

So, as a first draft on the initial idea, what do people think of it?

 

Kal

[Vagrant0]

The question is not so much how to create such a system, but rather how you intend to make it any more useful or meaningful than the existing fame/infamy system. The standard game would not change any with such a system, anything that you would want to achieve would be some changes that you'd have to make to the game. This is the real problem, most aspects of the game, as it is, won't work with such a system. Tecnhically there is only one standard faction that evil characters could join, and most of the good factions already have measures against killing and stealing. So without proposing the creation of more factions, what exactly do you intend to accomplish?

 

Additionally, the game pretty much sets you on the path to hero no matter what. Unless you go around killing everyone you see, you won't be able to keep a 2:1 infamy late in the game. At which point, you've pretty much ruined the game by killing off most of each town.

[kalosj]

The idea behind the basic concept is that it would allow me to start some more complicated vague ideas that add different paths though some quests etc, depending on whether the character is a hero, villian or anti-hero. I do realise that just using fame or infamty could work, but I feel thats just too simple, as there is no inbetween ground and just a 2 point change to one score swings your character to the oppoiste end of the scale. under the formula above, the more fame + infamty you gain, the more it you require to cahnge your alignment, plus we have a middle ground (the anti-hero).

 

Also, like I (hope) i said, i want to learn some modding, but I want to start simple, so I figured getting this simple concept to work would be a good beginning. Now, if you want some ideas of where I might take this if it all works, I was thinking of doing some sort of minor TC, like a Fighter's Guild overhall. Again, it would make it very limited in playability with over mods, but I think it would be a good learning experience for modding and quest writing (stroybording) in general. Beyond that, if it worked, i would look to work on the other major factionsa in the game, but that is getting way way too far ahead of the game....

 

Thanks for the warning of heroism late on in the game, earlier today, I swtiched off OOO to expierence vanillia OB (though I have kept some other mods that effect game play and leveling up), in order to get an idea of what the later aspects of the game are like. And with reference to that Heroism path, again, with the fighter Guild overhall as an example, the goal would be to include more opportunties for players to be able to make darker decisions (though the fighter guild would frown on such things - prephaps a more netural faction would be better to start off with....)

 

Cheers

 

Kal

[kalosj]

Though the thread isnt going anywhere it seems, I have managed to get a variant of what I want to work. Using the wiki's scripting tutorials (2nd one), I've made a new basement in Chorrol with a chest and using an ONActivate script, have managed to get it to output whether the PC is a hero, villian or anti-hero :biggrin:

 

So all in all, I'm happy - managed to create a room, place a chest in it (that even has its own id to not screw around with every other chest) place some ligthning and write a script and attach it to the chest and the formula works as well (used the console to alter the character's fame/infame for testing).

 

Success!

 

Kal