The Evolving Society Mod

[squid blorg]

Would it be possible for a random number generator to choose side quests? So numbers choose who has quests and what they are:

So 1-10 = farmer

11-20 = milita

21-30 = miner

31-40 = builders

Then once the class/job of the quest giver is done, then you have the actual quest, so for farmer:

1 = diseased crops

2 = lack of seed

3 = mudcrabs kidnapped my daughter

4 = pirates stole my stuff

And so on. If this could be implemented then I think it could allow side quests to feel more varied to allow for replayability.

Thanks for your time.

[QQuix]

Interesting idea and easy to implement.

 

But, thinking about it, I would adapt it a bit: instead of random, how about getting quests only from dissatisfied NPCs? If an NPC gets dissatisfied, he may give you a quest to get an item or to solve a problem, which, upon completion, raises that NPC satisfaction (and, therefore his productivity)

 

If we have enough side quests, I will certainly consider implementing something along these lines.

 

Thanks

[FireFlickerFlak]

Sorry if I'm repetitive, I read that whole description and then decided to post, haven't read any other comments. I have a lot I'd like to suggest for game play, but it seems you want to get the story line on its way. So here are my suggestions:

 

In my opinion, the best stories are mysteries. If the player does not understand something mysterious about the island until he has completed the city, it will provide, I think, ample motivation to continue. A mystery can be built either by having some other character(s) who know something and hides this information from you in a creepy way, or it could be from little physical clues the PC discovers hinting at something that doesn't seem possible. I'm sure there are other ways to write a mystery, but those are good methods.

 

Either way, building the city must be paramount to solving the mystery, so what sort of mystery requires building a city? Well cities attract people, so anything that require lots of people to solve could work. Maybe there is a need to attract lots of people for a labor intensive goal like digging a deep tunnel or constructing a huge observatory. Maybe there is a strange material on the island and you are searching for its source. I read that there is a new type of currency here, maybe the material used for this currency is rare and has something to do with the story?

 

Three suggestions for central mysteries:

 

1. I found maps of cities that have been here before, but no other traces of civilization anywhere. What would happen if I tried to recreate one of them?

 

2. An NPC who discovered the island with me seems to know a little too much about the island. What is this NPC's story?

 

3. Natives seem to only be interested in stopping me from building in this one area of the island. Why? What is hidden there?

 

The quests would ideally have something to do with the central mysteries. For example, if you went with the first suggestion, maybe weird things start happening as the construction continues and you get news of a complaint from a local cook who says a group of customers she had never seen before came for food today and kept whispering, laughing and pointing at the recent construction. Should you tell the cook to respect the customer's privacy, or will you ask her to pay closer attention next time?

If you went with the second suggestion, quests could include complaints about the NPC in question or about something of interest to that NPC. Maybe the NPC is really interested in the local forest and a side quest has something to do with a strange and extremely painful rash that has been spreading among the people gathering wood. Should you tell them to gather elsewhere like your companion NPC suggests, or are you curious to see what happens if you keep going?

With the third suggestion, quests would probably serve more as a tool for showing aspects of what the natives are trying to hide. Maybe a group of natives attack a mine, one of them is captured. Your job is to figure out what to do with her, but as you do you see a shell like the type you use for currency tied to her ankle, only it seems to be glowing. Should you take it from her and examine it closer or try to build trust with the natives?

 

 

Anyway, I thought this was a cool looking mod so I figured I'd give some contribution to the creative juice flow. Sorry they aren't full stories, but I figured it would be best not to put entire plots into the forum for the mod as it would kinda ruin the fun if we all knew the story before we tried the mod. Plus I don't even know where those stories were headed, I just made up random stuff.

[QQuix]

Thanks for the suggestions. They will be taken in consideration, of course.

 

I liked the concept of a mystery or secret that would be unveiled at the end of the 'game'. As you said, it would help to keep the motivation. My only concern is that this mod has, by design, a high replayability and the secret would not be a secret on a second run.

 

Anyway, the concept is good. Thanks again.

[Beefyh]

I think the motivation idea is good, but don't make it clue by clue. I get annoyed by the hand - holding in oblivion's quests and think it might be better to just have a huge plot twist at the end. In Oblivion, anything that happened got a quest entry explaining what just happened. .... I'm phrasing this weird :P . I don't think you should make lots of things leading up to the secret, just make the secret contradict the original purpose of the island? I'm confusing myself. Good luck with this, will get a download from me :D

[QQuix]

Beefyh, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

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A quick 'state of the mod' report:

 

Last month I decided to start the main mod engine from scratch, since the there has been a lot of script language improvements since the first prototype.

I have most of the economy algorithms figured out and will start scripting them soon.

 

Since I have a very powerful tool to controls the NPCs (NPC ACE- no modesty here) I will give the NPCs some intelligence and their decisions will drive the mod, as opposed to my initial idea of a big-brother-like approach that would see things from a macroeconomic point of view.

Either way, theoretically, the final result from the player point of view should be the same.

 

But this new approach spawned a few ideas, the most significant being:

As you know, we will have upgradable houses, shops and other facilities. The initial idea was that the player, based on available resources, decided which one to upgrade at any given time.

I am seriously toying with the idea of the NPCs deciding it themselves. In other words: NPCs would make money from their trade and, when dissatisfied with their house or workplace, would buy the necessary materials and upgrade it themselves.

The idea of NPCs making money also raises some nice possibilities: successful NPCs may get rich and may want to hire employees to work in their shops. Upper and middle class NPCs may want to marry. Rich, married NPCs may want to have servants in the house.

Kind of a teaser, but it seems doable.

 

Back to the ground . . . next steps:

Finish writing the main mod engine (mostly production, satisfaction and service facilities algorithms)

 

Then I will start two activities in parallel: (1) [finally] decide on the storyline and side quests and (2) start looking for a team to help me with the things I don't really know much about.

 

So, if you like to do any part of the modding business, please consider joining the TES team when the time comes (October? November?)

[squid blorg]

The idea of NPCs doing upgrades them selves sounds very interesting, but the player should still be able to have their imput into upgrades.

 

As for joining the team, I don't have much time but I would certainly like to come up with the basic ideas for quests and such, but I'm not that good at putting quests into motion in the CS...

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, but you need to make sure that no matter how badly things go, the situation on the island is still salvageable.

[QQuix]

You have a point there. Especially in a scenario where there is not enough building materials for all NPCs that may want to upgrade their homes and shops. We will see how it goes. If needed, we may require the NPCs get a building permit from the player.

 

As for a salvageable game, i suppose the game will be always salvageable, since you hardly could get worse than the scenario you started with: you and a couple of friends in an empty island. Anyway, this mod is supposed to be replayable (in a sense that each run thru the mod should evolve differently from previous runs) and the player can always reinstall the mod and start from scratch.

[Elvenmage]

you could try to create as said before, different civilisations on different continents or islands that you can create an ally or an enemy through gifts, deporting and I think each race should have a quest for the allying and building a society of the other island. And each race could have a tresure, like a reasource of money could be a diamond or gold mine or a special type of gem or material that could be even more expensive, as well as building helpers like for example slaves or, as I think might b a good idea, if anyone here has played Wow, you could try to remake something near the isle of Quel' Thalas, ande the wquest could be to 1. Stop the demons from attacking the society 2. stopping a rebellion, and finally, 3. rebuild the sunwell and burn away the scourge magic with that. You wont need to create something exactly like quel thalas as it is in Wow, just like with the giant floating gems with the buildings and the extreme magical prowess. Their reasouce could be mages for your army and subjects like a healer or royal battlemages to protect you in your castle. You could create a new race, or it could start with imprereal breton oblvion races mages landing on the beach ad seeing this place and feeling the magic of it, and you can either help them make a society there stable and controlled...ish.. and then you can just kill them and help the elves there to make the society there, powermad and NUTS unless you open the sunwell again, as the obilvion mages would turn into deamons given the power of the sunwell, but sill an ally but demons instead of elves. They could give you recruits and building ideas that would be stable as well as beutyfull. You could build viallages on your island, each their own style or an area of so, we could make it as so you talk to the locals there and give them money and materials and blueprints of other races villlages or seperate buildings. But if this wonrt work, when you become lord of your island another island appears right next to yours where you can ally the locals by helping them get rid of a tormenting evil, and build each village with ideas of each allied nation or seperate buildings so. You vcould start religions and summon the entities, use them as in deadra princes and so to build a capital city, as well and other nation ideas to make a capital city, for examle sheogorath made bliss and crucible, you could use other nations to build main cities on the neibouring island, 2 max or something for the main cities, but eventually, since the island blots away, you could have already gotte the elven sunwell opend and create a portal so you can just put reasources and people and you to go through that, a demonic type of design if its the obvlion race mages opening the sunwell, or you cna try to build and archipellago connecting you to it, you could even try to make something lie teldrassill in Wow t create a druidic archipellago, each type of design for it and buildings from other nations, but the archipelago/portal iddea can olny be done by 2 or 3 nations.

 

 

Just an idea :)

[QQuix]

Thanks for the suggestions, Elvenmage. Registered.

 

I am afraid that everything involving a second island or a rival community will have to wait until the first version with a single island is released and adjusted. But a second and third islands are on the long term plans and your suggestions will be considered at the time.

 

The capital city and the villages will be in the first release, thou.

The island has several specific regions that will fit nicely with specialized villages, like a miner's village in the mountains, a farmer's village close to rivers, etc. And the player will get to choose the architectural style of each building.