LE Skyrim Building & Trade Co

[Tempest203]

Snip

 

As for a lore friendly approach, we could say the player meets an NPC who’s discovered a vast underground cavern (on the scale of Blackreach). For whatever reason the NPC wants you develop the cavern and hire him to manage it. Giant underground bases are nice as they don’t take up much surface room and can be expanded infinitely.

 

I was thinking something roughly cylindrical in shape, deeper than it is wide. Ring shaped platforms could be built along the curve extending toward the center every 10 meters, with 2 or 3 story buildings between the rings. The center would hold a massive spiral stair and or elevator. You might leave it partially open with walkways to keep that that massive cavern look.

 

Edit: Something along these lines.

 

Edited January 4, 2012 by Tempest203

[SyberSmoke]

Ever played the Morrowind mod Erengard Mine?

It allows you to run a mine. Several workers can be hired:

Miners need a pick and create daily profit. The money is added into a small money chest which you can plunder.

The foreman handles buying food and drinks. You can also do that yourself by adding edible items and booze into the appropriate storage crates.

Guards prevent miners from stealing some of your profit.

For this Skyrim mod, resources should be created instead of money. The resources can then be sold/exported or refined. For example, iron ore can be turned into an iron ingot thus allowing a smith to produce weapons and armours.

Let's hope it's possible to move resources from one container into another to simulate the transportation of resources.

 

 

I'm already thinking about the mod. It is quite easy to create upgradeable stores/mines/houses. Enable/Disable flags in combination with quest progress IDs will take care of that.

Updating AI packages is possible and the features of the Erengard Mine (and the Balmora clothier + the Caldera smithy which allowed you to sell items that you have put into a container) can most likely be added to Skyrim.

 

The transfer of goods around would probably be a scripted addition. There is probably no reason that an actor or event could not take a set quantity from a chest, then deposit in other chest over a set time frame in world time. The real thing I wonder about is if there are any remnants of the economic system they were developing for Skyrim then ditched. If there are then it may be possible to tie into that code for some of the basics...assuming it is functional.

 

 

As for a lore friendly approach, we could say the player meets an NPC who’s discovered a vast underground cavern (on the scale of Blackreach). For whatever reason the NPC wants you develop the cavern and hire him to manage it. Giant underground bases are nice as they don’t take up much surface room and can be expanded infinitely.

 

I was thinking something roughly cylindrical in shape, deeper than it is wide. Ring shaped platforms could be built along the curve extending toward the center every 10 meters, with 2 or 3 story buildings between the rings. The center would hold a massive spiral stair and or elevator. You might leave it partially open with walkways to keep that that massive cavern look.

 

Why start out with such a large area. Why not have it set up that the player clear one of the many bandit mines. Then recieve a message from an old prospector saying there is something odd about it and he was wondering if you would fund an effort to excavate some of the collapsed areas. A mod could easily add some Dwemer artifacts to one of these mines giving a hit at something more while it is being cleared. This could be a continuing project that after a few additional quest links gets you to finding an old Dwemer ruin and elevator shaft.

 

This sets up an area for not only outside the mine as a small camp or fortification (guards, bandit attacks...etc.) but also can set up a path into the cavern and any quests, expansions, and additions to the cavern complex and mine system.

Edited January 6, 2012 by SyberSmoke

[Eurosubstance]

Not bad, I actually like these ideas. Would be nice to have some form of economy creation going.

 

May I suggest that your companions you gain could also assist with work and protection of your "business"? They could look after the fine detailing and act like bosses for your hired workers. Probably leave the more important tasks to them - i.e transport convoy protections from Solitude to Riften.

 

And I'm pretty sure that transferring goods would be tracked by the game? Saw basic forms of it when your companions were following you on the roadway. Unsure how detailed it could be but maybe some forms of it could work.

 

And when CK comes out try to expand out into "easter-egg" lands of Morrowind and Croydiil? Someone may make the ground solid and travel-able to the player. Actually, that is what I'm hoping.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Eurosubstance

[Risuun]

Those are some awesome ideas! Would there be a way to allow the player to choose their involvement with the company? I would definitely look into the more advanced options you have to offer, but right now, I'd like something a little more simple.

 

Think of this: people notice how much good you sell and the quality of said goods. You could be approached by someone who says, "Hey, you. I've seen you in here a lot with some quality merchandise. I think you and I could strike up quite the deal."

 

This would then set it up where you can offload your stuff in bulk, but not selling - just drop in a chest, talk to the NPC letting him/her know you've dropped off merchandise then the game can clear the chest and tabulate your paycheck to divy out over time (this would cut down on the tedium of hopping between shops, or the classic save, kill, reload trick.)

 

It would be good to leave in a normal store for when you want the money up front... but that also opens up the door to instances where you'd be eligible for store credit. I can also see asking them to find items for you or for you to give them one of an item and days/weeks/months later, they could have another one for you.

 

Here's something that could work for all of you ideas about too: let the player train the NPCs... I get a better paycheck because I let them know what I know!

[Dustylion]

This very much reminds me of the East Empire quest in the Blood Moon expansion of Morrowind. Basically its a series of quests to build a profitable mining operation. Now naturally your involvement was little more then "beat that guy up" or "kill that thing" and choosing wether to build a shop or a mead hall but the concept is there.

 

This seems like a very big undertaking but it will be fun, and possible with the Radiant story system IMO. Hell the great great great great great great grandson of that one Nord you had to beat up for standing in front of the mine could start a worker's strike. That should be a possibility if your set you worker's pay too low.

[Bismarck]

The Creation Kit is out. Anyone interested in this mod idea?