LE Gypsies Caravan

[Guru82]

I've got an idea. This would involve modelling and textures, NPC creation, and a good understanding of mod creation.

I do not posses any of the above, so I need to pass this idea to someone who is skilled, and would also love to see this as both story orientated and practical asset to the player.

 

OK, Gypsies Caravan, my initial concept for creation, if I could do it:

1. Take the carriage model used in the opening cut-scene, re-model into a caravan (http://gypsywaggons.co.uk/).

2. Add an interior to the caravan. Just the essentials. Small bed and chest.

3. Add the carriage with horse attached to Riverwood.

4. Add an NPC, possibly a gypsy women, next to caravan in Riverwood. She may have a quest for the player that results in the NPC giving her commitment and caravan to the player.

5. Add player ownership and control to caravan as quest reward. Hopefully somehow the player can sit up there and drive the caravan. Assign the Gypsy as a follower of the horse/caravan.

6. Gypsy should stay with and defend the horse and caravan till the death.

 

If you decide to take on this great opportunity, please let me know here or by message. Perhaps I could help in the quest's story creation.

 

Regards,

Guru82

 

P.S. To Do, possibly, in no specific order:

* Add a furniture marker to the seat at the front of the wagon, as you can't currently sit there. Or find the marker used in the opening scene if it can be found.

* Use TetherToHorse to attach the horse to cart.

^ Thanks JanusForbeare and NegativeInterestRate.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Guru82

[Guru82]

Ah stuff it... I'll have a go at this modding thing this arvo when I get home. See if I can achieve anything at all. I at least want to find that carriage in the files and see what can be done with it. Will it be playable, who knows? I'll have no clue on what I'll be doing, but I'll be thinking 'I'm doing it!' ,probably, lol at the end result, cry and go to sleep.

[JanusForbeare]

I actually think this would be a great idea. I hope you manage to get this off the ground. For what it's worth, I've seen a vid of a player controlling one of those wagons... from what I could tell, though, it involved riding the horse, rather than sitting in the seat. It would seem to me that what you'd need to do to improve upon that design is:

 

A) Add a furniture marker to the seat at the front of the wagon, as you can't currently sit there.

 

B) Script the seat to transfer your controls to the horse, rather than your character. I'm not a savvy enough scripter to tell you more than that without doing some reading.

 

Of course, all of this is assuming that you find a way to get the wagon to realistically follow the horse, which would certainly be a complicated endeavour. Hopefully you, or some other talent you manage to attract to the team, can make it happen.

 

The rest of the mod would be pretty simple, by comparison. You'd simply have to design an NPC, a small interior cell, and model an exterior onto the wagon mesh. The last step you might even be able to accomplish simply by using vanilla .nifs. Then it's just a matter of putting a quest together, and you're done!

 

Good luck! I'll be watching for this.

[NegativeInterestRate]

Getting the wagon tether to the horse is easy using the "tethertohorse" bit of Papyrus script (look that up). As for driving the cart from the seat I'd look at the opening cutscene as I think that wagon is being driven along a path programmed as a patrol route (and so the driver is actually driving rather than a decoration for a fixed set of events). The opening cutscene is also the (only? Did Beth use it anywhere else?) place where tethertohorse is used.

[Guru82]

Thank you both, JanusForbeare and NegativeInterestRate, for your helpful replies. This may take me quite some time as I will be having to find solutions for every little step.

[SinderionsBones]

Having basically studied a lot of the first several dozen quest stages in MQ101 (the opening sequence) I would almost guarantee that you would almost have to have entire legs of the trip fully scripted. It may be better overall, to make it function much like the existing carriage system, i.e., accomplished with separate setups of the caravan, and dialog to transport between and enable/disable the caravan in various places.

 

The reasoning for some of this is made clear in the comments in the script fragments, other issues are made clear if you have ever had the startup sequence fail due to the carriages flipping around and going wonky on you. Some mods, for no logical reason, cause the startup sequence to fail, despite making no alterations to the starting area. The only common theme I've seen here, is the rear guard NPC get's off his horse and seems to get into combat, probably with a wolf or something. Does simple combat cause the cart and it's horse to turn upside down and move sideways and stop all scenes cold? I have noooo Idea, but it doesn't bode well for traveling among wolves and saber cats.

 

Long story short: The Carrages are buggy as hell, especially with passengers. To even have a chance at successfully navigating a road, I forsee the player controls needing to be disabled for extended periods of time. If some find that fun.. why not lol.

 

Not saying don't have at it, but even if the developers were cut short on making the carriages work right out of the box due to the 11/11/11 deadline or whatever, they probably made the right decision in changing it to the current teleport system. Even the carriage fast travel scripts are full of comments trying to troubleshoot and figure out why they are so buggy, and, in the end, failing to get them working in an animated form.

 

/downermode.

 

I think graphics meshed well with Skyrim or a surrounding province, the fact that you can own the caravan, and good quest/npc interaction experiences would more than make up for less animations. Being able to sit atop a horse carriage and watch the scenery pass like a movie for 10 minutes between settlements may sound kinda cool at first. You know, however, most players would do it once, then just take the fast travel dialog.

 

Good Luck, I hope you get it to work!