AndyPandyW Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 FIRSTLY, I posted this in another topic, but only after being persuaded I can trust people here, and after realising that holding back from publishing the actual idea was putting people off. Also, I would like to make sure people don't confuse this with a request for a moving home, because that is not what it is, I don't believe that a moving home is feasibly possible with the game engine and the current mod tools, without it being full of bugs. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to make everything work without overcomplicating things, and how to get it to fit naturally into the game without using menu's etc... and using minimal scripting. So please don't just go off with my plans and claim it as your own, the idea of an airship might have been done before, but this is a lot more than that, I would like to be involved if someone intends to make this, and I would like people to work on this who have the experience to make a clean, bug free mod.----------------------------------------------------------- Ok, so here is my proposed plan for what I feel could be one of the best "house" mods out there, due primarily to it's uniqueness and practicality. Before I start, I would like to say that I have not just thought "hey, that would be cool, lets get someone else to do it for me", I made a few mods for Oblivion and I know the limitations behind the game engine and the modding tools, and have tried to think of the best and simplest way to make this work, but I am 100% certain that I lack any kind of skills to be able to make any of this happen, so I need some pro's! I tried to figure out ways to make this as "simple" as possible, reducing the chances of conflicts or people skipping over it because they are afraid it will conflict. My idea is basically for a home that is essentially a massive floating pirate air-ship (I will go into more detail as to what I would like to see in the ship later) that will be waiting for the player when he/she enters a major town, or that the player can use to travel to each city (or so it will seem). Thinking about a way to create this illusion, I came up with this (hopefully) fairly simple solution. Have an instance of the ship moored up at each major city, for example, it could be moored up against dragons reach in Whiterun, against the accessible battlements of Solitude, the rooftops of Riften etc... In the captains cabin, a map of Skyrim with flags at each "port" to take you to that particular instance, giving the illusion that you have traveled there on the ship. It could be on deck but I have a little idea that I think could be possible that would require it to be in the interior of the ship. Now, this all pretty much hinges on whether or not there is a way to script doors or objects to lead to certain places based on conditions. When activating the door from the exterior to the interior, it changes the behavior of the interior to exterior door to send you to the exterior you just came from when activated, and when activating the "navigation" flag, it also causes the door from interior to exterior to send you to the correct exterior when activated. This way, there could be only one interior and there would be no need for shared storage etc... there would only have to be multiple instances of the exterior of the ship, which doesn't necessarily have to have any storage containers. You could also have time pass when using the navigation map, along with a quick fade out-fade in so it seems more like you have waited. So there it is, the basics, if you are still interested I will now get really excited and list all the little idea's I've had to make this truly brilliant! ------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, so with the details, first and foremost, to give this mod some real visual punch, I think it would be amazing if we could take The Katariah, and retexture the hull (the original sucks). http://www.giannipc....tlas_1b-028.jpg Would have to modify the mesh to include a large "hot air balloon" above the ship. I'm thinking this sort of balloon to ship ratio http://www.stardustm.../gallery/12.jpghttp://image.shutter...ip-60492190.jpg Also, I think some fins and stuff like this would look awesome http://2.bp.blogspot...0700c232bab.png A more piraty figurehead and pirate flags would be good too. ------------------------------------------------------------- Secondly, also a texture/mesh thing, it would be awesome if we could have the crew in proper pirate clothing with cutlasses, bandanas, hats etc... (not posh pirate clothing, just the rags and belts/straps you see on movie pirates), and some unique clothing for yourself (the captain) and the first mate etc... would be nice to be able to use the Flintlock Pistol mod in this. ------------------------------------------------------------- The large pirate ships in Skyrim are sparse and boring, so would be nice to clutter the deck with rigging, barrels, more hatches etc... and of course, crewmen! Could anyone modify a hawk into a parrot? lol. ------------------------------------------------------------- Audio: Player homes are always better when they are pleasing to the ear as well as the eye! That wood creaking sound would be nice all over the ship, and on deck, that sound you hear when the wind is blowing a sheet of material. I am not sure how the music system works in Skyrim, I only know that it is completely different to so called system in Oblivion. Would it be possible to (maybe not on deck as that would be part of the town) have custom pirate music, and maybe even in the "tavern" (whatever you call social area of a ship) have jolly singing of sea shanties etc... or maybe a custom bard that sings sea shanties and plays pirate music (I have awesome sound files for this). ------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Room: This would only really be feasible if the scripted door thing works. I think most people secretly love to hoard in Skyrm, I personally find myself scattering hundreds of coins, gold ingots, rings, amulets, elven weapons, gemstones, and claws around a chosen room in my home, currently using the (Treasure Room in Mons Deus for this). Scattering gold coins all over the place has it's physics and performance issues though, so maybe have a room in the ship (maybe the very bottom of the ship) with loads of open chests lying in a pre-made mesh of a massive heap of gold coins and gemstones. That way you can drop your circlets, rings, amulets, claws etc... into the chests so they don't roll around everywhere. Could include a large number of weapon and shield racks in here.http://farm7.staticf...92ddb7a0c_z.jpg ------------------------------------------------------------- Making sure the instances are consistent: Ok, so the interior of the ship would be fine, it's only one instance anyway, but the exterior instance of the ship is actually going to be like, at least 9 unique instances. If you killed one of your crewmen in one instance, he would be mysteriously alive again everywhere else (unless you scripted that too, but I think thats getting too complicated), given the crewmen will probably be generic, it's not a massive issue, but a dead body re-appearing on deck whenever you are in a certain place would be more than a little weird, so I propose making the crew invulnerable, and taking every step possible to ensure they don't leave the ship (immune to rag-doll?). ------------------------------------------------------------- No-Mans Land!Ok, so this is a kind of extension to the scripted doors idea that would possibly make it a lot more interesting and interactive, and give the player something to do with his pirate ship and crew that would make it more than just a house mod. Create a custom world space that is literally just your ship in the sky. Clouds all around above and below so you can't see that crappy square of water that is always lurking around at the bottom of custom world spaces. Next to your ship, is another ship, with gangplanks across to your's. You have a number of leveled friendly sailors on your deck, they have a number of leveled hostile sailors on their deck, and a captain. All the sailors in this instance are killable, and can be knocked off the ships. Now, with this world space created, you could have a small chance every time you use the navigation map to go anywhere, to instead take you to this space, where you are under attack by another air ship! Since you are below deck when you activate the navigation panel, you would think you were there, but you would come up on deck to find yourself in the middle of no where, another airship next to yours with the gang planks over, and enemy sailors all over the place fighting your own sailors. Repel the attack and board the enemy ship to take all their treasures. (maybe make it so you can't go back below deck until the last enemy is dead).This world space could have a VERY short respawn time, or, if it is possible, just respawn as soon as you leave, so that the next time you randomly get sent there, it is all reset. ------------------------------------------------------------- Further expanding the idea! Obviously I'm talking about things far in the future, as it could be a momentous task to simply get the very basics of this mod working, but there is a future for this mod that could be so much more than just a player home. We could create new custom world spaces that are only accessible by navigating your airship there, and they would be able to be completely separate from the Skyrim world since the only way in or out is your airship, an idea of mine is: A town build into the side of a cliff. Think this sort of thing but with docks set up with other airships in it and stuff. http://fc04.devianta...n_by_Jhaaan.jpg Could also collaborate with other mod makers to include a dock in their mods, such as Moonpaths To Elswer and I still can't pronounce this, Neiheleim. Even though it is a house mod itself, I would love an Airship dock at Deus Mons. Anyway, there it is guys. Again, I know it is a MASSIVE project I am talking about here, but if it works, you have to admit, it would be the king of all housing mods! Let me know what you think. I have a great passion for seeing my imaginations made reality, I only wish I had the talent to do this myself, but I quite obviously do not :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurron Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 I just wanted to let you know, I'm very interested in this idea and I'm willing to help in any way I can - though you should consider my abilities fairly limited, I am moderately capable at scripting and AI and have experience with the CK (and CS for that matter). I'd like to point out that the dynamic door idea can probably be accomplished fairly easily by disabling and enabling different doors based on certain variables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyPandyW Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 I'd like to point out that the dynamic door idea can probably be accomplished fairly easily by disabling and enabling different doors based on certain variables. That is music to my ears, as I think the whole concept kinda relies on that. Would it be possible using that technique to have it appear to be just one door? As in, all the doors in the same place, but only the one we want active to be interactive? I guess this would be done by placing all the doors in the same place but only one of them having a texture (so you don't get that weird texture effect you get when textured mesh faces are placed in the exact same place)? Or is is possible to get the other doors to disappear entirely when not active? If you think you can get the scripting to work whilst keeping it simple, I would be happy for you to work on this, and thank you very much for your interest!I think that finding out if it is possible was step one. If you think you can do the rest of this stuff, then we could start on it as soon as you are ready? If not, we could at least start experimenting with the doors idea while we look for someone to do the bits your not sure about. - Experimenting with the doors.- Re-texturing/meshing the ship and balloon.- Plotting out and placing the static objects inside and out which will make it home.- Creating NPC, invulnerable crewmen.- Replicating the completed exterior part of the ship into all 9 major cities.- Integrating the scripted doors and navigation map. At that point the main bulk of it is pretty much done, I have a strong hunch who I would like to get involved for creating the home itself, and I am contacting him at the moment, fingers crossed. Any ideas who would be good at meshing/texturing? After that is all done, the next steps I suppose would be:- Creating the new world space and placing the exterior model there along with another airship, enemy crew, and vulnerable versions of our own crew.- Adding some script to the use of the navigation map "flags" to cause a random chance of activating the door to the combat instance instead of your intended destination.- Adding NPC merchants to the interior cell.- Creating new pirate clothing for the player and NPC's.- Creating a "treasure pile" mesh and texture for the treasure room.- Integrating some nice pirate music and singing sailors!- Possibly a tall order, but maybe custom voicing the crew. Although silent NPC's are preferable to NPC's with bad voice acting. That would be all the frills done, and then your just left with future possibilities such as integrating other peoples mods, creating new towns accessible only by airship, quests etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurron Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 (edited) That is music to my ears, as I think the whole concept kinda relies on that. Would it be possible using that technique to have it appear to be just one door? As in, all the doors in the same place, but only the one we want active to be interactive? I guess this would be done by placing all the doors in the same place but only one of them having a texture (so you don't get that weird texture effect you get when textured mesh faces are placed in the exact same place)? Or is is possible to get the other doors to disappear entirely when not active? There's really no need to go into anything complex with textures and so on - the game does it for you. When an object is marked as 'Initially disabled', for all intents and purposes it won't exist unless or until a specified script variable is triggered, thereby putting it in the 'enabled' state. When something is disabled, it can't be seen or interacted with in-game - even its collision box disappears. This can be done with a virtually limitless amount of objects in one place. An example of its use would be where the player is required to buy furniture for an owned home before it will appear. The furniture is actually there, but all marked as initially disabled. One piece of furniture per set (example, 'wall hangings') will be flagged as the parent and the rest as children. Lets say for example, an orange tapestry is the parent and the rest are blue tapestries. When the player buys the set from the merchant, it enables the orange tapestry and because it is the parent, the children - in this case the blue tapestries - will be enabled as well. If you think you can get the scripting to work whilst keeping it simple, I would be happy for you to work on this, and thank you very much for your interest!I think that finding out if it is possible was step one. If you think you can do the rest of this stuff, then we could start on it as soon as you are ready? If not, we could at least start experimenting with the doors idea while we look for someone to do the bits your not sure about. Like I said, I'm willing to do everything I can to help, but I'm being careful not to guarantee anything. I don't like to disappoint. I want you to understand that if we begin work on this, it may take longer than expected but I'm willing to stick to it. - Experimenting with the doors. Little to be done here, besides planning and organization and making sure the script works flawlessly. - Re-texturing/meshing the ship and balloon. This will be a job for any decent artists you can find. I don't have too much experience, but I know my way around texturing well enough for some simple jobs. - Plotting out and placing the static objects inside and out which will make it home. I'm a decent decorator, but I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm pretty slow when working on a lot of it. Probably best to find someone else to do this if possible. If not, I'm still willing to do it myself. - Creating NPC, invulnerable crewmen. Simple enough. I can program them to do some basic tasks around the ship and to act as followers if needed. - Replicating the completed exterior part of the ship into all 9 major cities. I can't see any problems here, except we'd probably have to play with more scripts that has them enabled conditionally. It could be awkward in-game, unless we have some way of moving the ship to the city the player is in without them having to "fly" it there themselves. Though come to think of it, that's probably a much better idea immersion-wise. Forgive my rambling... - Integrating the scripted doors and navigation map. I think I have a pretty good idea for the map - I'm not sure if you've mentioned a detailed plan for that already... I'll get back to you on that one. At that point the main bulk of it is pretty much done, I have a strong hunch who I would like to get involved for creating the home itself, and I am contacting him at the moment, fingers crossed. Any ideas who would be good at meshing/texturing? Unfortunately, I lost contact with most of the people I used to know and work with on Oblivion and I have yet to settle into the Skyrim modding community. After that is all done, the next steps I suppose would be: - Creating the new world space and placing the exterior model there along with another airship, enemy crew, and vulnerable versions of our own crew. I've gotta say, I'm not sure about this idea - but that depends entirely on the writing, hehe. Besides, I'm not here to design the mod. - Adding some script to the use of the navigation map "flags" to cause a random chance of activating the door to the combat instance instead of your intended destination. Okay, I completely change my mind about that last one. I really quite like this idea. - Adding NPC merchants to the interior cell. Sounds good. Maybe we could add optional support for other mods when we're not focused too hard on everything else. - Creating new pirate clothing for the player and NPC's. Hmm... what if we browse around and try to find someone willing to let us use theirs? I'm pretty sure there are some good ones around. - Creating a "treasure pile" mesh and texture for the treasure room. I think there's something already in-game we could use. If not, I think it would be a good idea to use vanilla meshes and/or textures so it would fit more... seamlessly. I was thinking the same for the ship in general, but that's a job for you and the modeller. - Integrating some nice pirate music and singing sailors! Can't agree more. What'll we do with the drunken sailor earl'ay in the mornin'? - Possibly a tall order, but maybe custom voicing the crew. Although silent NPC's are preferable to NPC's with bad voice acting. I agree that silent NPCs are a better option than ones with bad voice acting. I've always been wary of mods with their own voice actors because I'd like everything to fit with the quality Bethesda have given us, and that's never an easy thing to measure up to. I think you'd be surprised at what can be accomplished with mix'n'matched vanilla recordings however. That would be all the frills done, and then your just left with future possibilities such as integrating other peoples mods, creating new towns accessible only by airship, quests etc... Edited March 25, 2012 by Kurron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyPandyW Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 "- Replicating the completed exterior part of the ship into all 9 major cities. I can't see any problems here, except we'd probably have to play with more scripts that has them enabled conditionally. It could be awkward in-game, unless we have some way of moving the ship to the city the player is in without them having to "fly" it there themselves. Though come to think of it, that's probably a much better idea immersion-wise. Forgive my rambling..." Ok, my thoughts here were actually really simple but I think it could work fine. Basically, the player can only be in one place at any one moment in time, so if he's in Solitude, there is no need to hide the version that is in Windhelm, because he is not there to observe it anyway. I was thinking for simplicities sake, to just say that the crew have orders to wait for the captain at the nearest town.That way, you are sure that your home will be waiting for you at whichever town you go to. It is worth experimenting with your plan, but like you say, it will involve more scripting, which I was hoping to avoid. Depends if it would cause problems, slow down, or potential bugs, I will totally refer to your opinion on that though since you can script and I cannot. Well I am not in a rush, I'm not actually doing this for myself, it wouldn't really fit my character at the moment anyway, I have more of a passion for sharing my ideas for other to enjoy it rather than myself. Although I will no doubt use it anyway.I have no expectations of people who are generously offering me help, if we start on it and you decide half way through that you can't carry on, it's no problem, we can find someone else to pick it up :) Consider yourself in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurron Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 "- Replicating the completed exterior part of the ship into all 9 major cities. I can't see any problems here, except we'd probably have to play with more scripts that has them enabled conditionally. It could be awkward in-game, unless we have some way of moving the ship to the city the player is in without them having to "fly" it there themselves. Though come to think of it, that's probably a much better idea immersion-wise. Forgive my rambling..." Ok, my thoughts here were actually really simple but I think it could work fine. Basically, the player can only be in one place at any one moment in time, so if he's in Solitude, there is no need to hide the version that is in Windhelm, because he is not there to observe it anyway. I was thinking for simplicities sake, to just say that the crew have orders to wait for the captain at the nearest town.That way, you are sure that your home will be waiting for you at whichever town you go to. It is worth experimenting with your plan, but like you say, it will involve more scripting, which I was hoping to avoid. Depends if it would cause problems, slow down, or potential bugs, I will totally refer to your opinion on that though since you can script and I cannot. Well I am not in a rush, I'm not actually doing this for myself, it wouldn't really fit my character at the moment anyway, I have more of a passion for sharing my ideas for other to enjoy it rather than myself. Although I will no doubt use it anyway.I have no expectations of people who are generously offering me help, if we start on it and you decide half way through that you can't carry on, it's no problem, we can find someone else to pick it up :) Consider yourself in? I'm in. :biggrin: ...and so it begins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyPandyW Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 Excellent news! Hmm, ok, well I get the feeling I'm going to feel kind of useless at the moment with my lack of technical skills, so I will be as helpful as I can. I'll start by getting on this search for a mesh/texture artist. Feel free to have a go at anything you like for now, we don't need a great deal of organisation until we have.... well... an organisation. When we get more people involved we'll obviously have to make sure everyone is on the same page with versions and stuff, and I will have a little more to contribute when there is something to play test and feedback/creative-input to give. I'll get working on collecting graphics and concept design, even if it's just finding existing mods that would work well for our purposes, and asking permission to use them. But right now, I need to go to sleep since I have work in 5 hours, lol. Oops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurron Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Excellent news! Hmm, ok, well I get the feeling I'm going to feel kind of useless at the moment with my lack of technical skills, so I will be as helpful as I can. I'll start by getting on this search for a mesh/texture artist. Feel free to have a go at anything you like for now, we don't need a great deal of organisation until we have.... well... an organisation. When we get more people involved we'll obviously have to make sure everyone is on the same page with versions and stuff, and I will have a little more to contribute when there is something to play test and feedback/creative-input to give. I'll get working on collecting graphics and concept design, even if it's just finding existing mods that would work well for our purposes, and asking permission to use them. But right now, I need to go to sleep since I have work in 5 hours, lol. Oops. hehe, don't worry about it, it's pretty late here too. On that note, I have a pretty erratic, though flexible sleeping pattern. I'll start working on the scripts we'll need and maybe some extras either tonight or in the morning, though of course I won't able to implement them until we have the meshes ready. I'll use a placeholder ship model and throw some furniture around while testing. I think we should start using some chat client or other rather than the forums or IM, so feel free to send me your Skype/MSN/Xfire or so on if you have them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jawms Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 (edited) Just saw this on the nexus: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=13641Good job guys! At least i hope it was you :PI remember seeing the original thread awhile back, just wanted to say congrats. Jawms Edited March 29, 2012 by Jawms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinderionsBones Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I don't think that was these guys, it was the dragonfalls manor guy. But I don't think the new one either moved, or did the teleport thing either. Waaay to much stuff on the outside to want to move it around lol. Still looking forward to seeing this mod :D It will be a bit wierd when you put something on the deck... 'teleport' the ship, and it's gone, but hey, still an awesome idea :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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