Large Scale Daedric/Aedric Story Mod Planned HELP NEEDED

[SireDarko]

Fellow Nexus Modders

 

I am extremely new to the world of modding (by a couple months or so) but I have managed to get the hang of the basics thanks to the amazing community tutorials.

I am currently In the process of wrap-up for the storyline, screenplay, and major dialogue for a quite large scale mod in which ALL of the Daedra and Aedra manifest onto Nirn sparking many epic conflicts and uprisings of several great factions (both original and familiar) along with many other anomalies disasters and just bad@$$ happenings in general.

 

As expected, I've hit many a snag and would welcome help with the following (I'll give a few minor spoilers and clues as to catch curiosity)

 

~ A human/elven skin with four arms ( to accomodate the true forms of Mehrunes Dagon, Mephala and a few others)

~Creation of several creatures/races (Scamps, Dwemer, Sangmer, New breeds of dragon, Cryloks, Manticores, etc.

~Help with changing the colour of creatures like Dragons, Wispmothers, Trolls, etc.

~Help with scripting several HUGE Setpieces, Props, and Weapons.

~Help creating vast worlds (Recreation of Tamriel's Continents, Thras and the shores of Atmora, Pyandonea and even a sunken world thats not Atlantis and a (air/water)ship travel system.)

~I would also like to team up to create mods with large scale combat overhauls, magic system additions, city/town/hamlet expansions and so forth.

~LOADS MORE.

 

I have the plots for over 100 sidequests and 27 Main Quests that all tie together and reward players with many different scenarios, possible endings, and each choice will effect the world in major ways.

I know all of this sounds like a witch to deal with, but with help from even those as novice as me it can be a chance to create amazing experiences for players to talk about for years to come. And this project is not the end by a long shot. This will be my first ever mod but gathered from the first works of art of many modders on the Nexuses it will not disappoint.

 

Any interested, Please drop a PM.

Edited June 14, 2012 by SireDarko

[62firelight]

For your first mod, this sounds very big. You might want to start small with this project by creating houses, dungeons, etc.. for the mod and do the mod by phases. Like for the first phase, you will be planning the quests out and concept art could be provided, then you would start small with the mod (which means "don't do vast worlds, huge setpieces and several creatures, just do houses, dungeons and small villages)"

 

Also, over 100 side quests and 27 main quests have been planned? That's a huge amount :biggrin:

 

I don't have too much experience with the Skyrim CK, so I guess that I could offer encouragement instead. Good luck on this :)

[Lanceor]

@OP You do realise what you wrote there is larger than Skyrim, and that it took Bethesda (with a staff of a hundred or so professional full-time programmers and artists) several years to create Skyrim?

[ResolveThatChord]

Lanceor knows all about working on a mod for several years.

 

If you're planning to create a mod of any size, it's wise to plan it so that you can do ALL the legwork. If you manage to acquire team members, expect to do NEARLY ALL of the legwork.

By no means should you ever deny your creative impulses. By all means, give this a shot, but trust us when we say what you're proposing is too big.

 

My advice would be to consider the core conceit of your mod idea, and cut away everything that does not contribute to or reinforce it. Merge characters, merge locations, use vanilla/existing modders' resources wherever you can. Take your idea and cut away at it: it'll be a better design, clearer in your mind, easier to create and more fun for everyone to play.

 

Better yet, put the idea to one side and learn the skills you'll need to make it. Head over to TESA and do a course on the Creation Kit or Papyrus. Make smaller mods; studies in a particular, neccessary skills.

[SireDarko]

For your first mod, this sounds very big. You might want to start small with this project by creating houses, dungeons, etc.. for the mod and do the mod by phases. Like for the first phase, you will be planning the quests out and concept art could be provided, then you would start small with the mod (which means "don't do vast worlds, huge setpieces and several creatures, just do houses, dungeons and small villages)"

 

Also, over 100 side quests and 27 main quests have been planned? That's a huge amount :biggrin:

 

I don't have too much experience with the Skyrim CK, so I guess that I could offer encouragement instead. Good luck on this :)

 

Exactly how I hoped to relay the idea. Phase by phase. I do admit the new landmasses are FAR too ambitious for me ,save The Atmoran Shores (Think Ysgramor and Hermaeus Mora's parts in this mod.

I was going to start by expanding the towns/villages then adding the dungeons, adding NPCs, quests and so on.

I have many of my actors and weapons set up in the Kit already, I just need tto know how to create other things like majorly-modified races, skins, and creating unique armors and props and whatnot.

Truth be told a few days in the Tutorials Sections wouldnt hurt at all but this is just the bare idea

I've also got quest outlines written in CK Quest Planner format.

Your well-wishings are greatly appreciated :biggrin:

 

Even now I'm thinking of mods for Necromancy, and Magic Expansions. :dance:

 

I know many of you see this as a big load of :hurr: but trust me, I plan to make this/these mods a huge success.

Edited June 14, 2012 by SireDarko

[Matth85]

Too ambiteous.

Start of small. Make a few quests yourself, and release it. Then expand on it. You'll most likely get help if you actually got something done allready.

[Lanceor]

Our suggestions were given freely. Whether you want to take these suggestions and make something small, or choose to proceed with something grand, that's up to you.

 

Unfortunately, a LOT of people do come here with their ambitious master plans, start to work on it for a bit, and that's the last we ever hear from them. We'd rather that not happen to you.

 

Anyway, if you still wish to proceed, here's a rough idea of how long it takes to get things done, based on my own personal experience:

 

• Creating a small dungeon fully filled out with clutter - one week.
  
• Creating an elaborate castle/dungeon fully filled out with clutter - 1 - 2 months.
  
• Creating a simple town sized worldspace with nothing but trees, rocks and water - a week or two.
  
• Creating a hold sized worldspace without towns - one to three months.
  
• Creating a detailed Skyrim sized worldspace - my head hurts just thinking about the work involved.
  
• Creating a simple quest with no NPCs or scripting - one week per hour of gameplay.
  
• Creating an elaborate quest with NPCs and scripted set pieces - one month per hour of gameplay.
  

 

If you want my advice for an "ambitious" first mod then create a short quest that has a bit of everything - half a dozen quest stages, one NPC with a dozen lines of dialogue, one small dungeon, some scripted effects and a couple of custom meshes. It will take you a month or two to do, and IMHO, that is the best way to prepare yourself for something big.

[LargeStyle]

@ SireDarko

 

I share and admire your ambition scales and enthusiam, so I'll help out on one matter that I think I can...

 

~Help with changing the colour of creatures like Dragons, Wispmothers, Trolls, etc.

 

I believe this can be done by editing textures. If you're not aware, the process to do this would be...

 

- Extract textures.bsa from Skyrim\Data directory to obtain individual texture files (you'll need a .bsa extractor app for this)

- Import the required texture (like troll.dds) into an editing app such as Photoshop or Gimp (you'll need a .dds plugin for the program of your choice)

- Change texture as desired

- Save texture

- Either remake the textures.bsa file (using CK's Archive.exe app) with your new texture within it, or manually create the directory path within Skyrim\Data\Textures folder so the file(s) can be loaded "loose".

 

That's a very simple method, and it won't cover everything (as I don't know everything) but it's a start.

 

Adjusting a charactors entire colour scheme such as a troll could be a fair bit of work, but that'll depend on how you want it to look, how much time you're willing to spend on it etc. You could be er...lazy and just apply a full colour correction / adjustment to the entire troll texture but that'll obviously affect everything about it's features - if you just want to adjust say its hair colour then that'll be more effort and time to get it looking right.

 

As for the scale of project topic - I totally understand where you're coming from. I want to change Skyrim completely - new textures, new weather, make vast cities, rescore the soundtrack, write actually interesting missions (not just collection / assissination / very basic puzzle solving stuff) etc. This said I do agree with 2 factors already mentioned - working with a team often causes unreliability and inconsistency with work progress and direction, and to not bite off too much at once (I have 4 major and unfinished mods on the go now, and would like at least one of them completed and released)! Personally speaking though, I won't release anything to the public until it's damn near finished, or fully finished so that people won't complain about unfinshed work, and that it won't negatively affect anyones general gameplay while trying to use your mod.

 

Good luck with it all either way