The Evolving Society Mod

[squid blorg]

Will you just be using vanilla buildings and such or will there be many modders reasources used?

[QQuix]

I am initially planning on using vanilla buildings. But other buildings might be included, although this would not be trivial.

The main reason is that, for dynamic positioning, I need to know the dimensions of each mesh and, AFAIK, there is no way to do it, except the hard way: I spent months developing a mod to do just that.

 

I think we can do fine with most vanilla stuff, like NPCs, interiors, items, etc, but it would be nice to have non-vanilla alternatives. Suggestions are welcome (although it is still early to think about this).

[squid blorg]

Alright, I understand that difficulties of that.

 

I've not seen the NPCs with Jobs island, what does it look like? So is it grassy?, sandy? hilly? etc...

[QQuix]

The island has a variety of terrain types. There is a mountain area good for mining, plains fit for farming, woods, etc. Not too big. Not too small. Just the right size (about 30x30 cells)

 

- - - -

 

I wrote this as a reply to a post elsewhere and I think it came out as a good, short description of the present general idea of this mod, so I reproduce it here:

 

 

I would say that the main focus is the ‘Evolving’ part if the mod: to present the player the challenge of turning an empty island into a flourishing capital city and a few peripheral villages.

 

Half of the mod derives from that:

- To build a city you need materials, both raw and manufactured

- To have materials you need extracting/producing facilities

- The facilities need skilled NPCs to run them

- NPCs need houses, which need more materials

- NPCs also have needs for supporting services (health, education, security etc)

- Supporting services need more NPCs

- which need houses and workplaces

. . . and so forth . . .

 

All the houses and facilities will be upgradable at least twice: from level 1 to level 3, e.g. lower >> middle >> upper class houses, chapel to church to cathedral etc.

 

We might say that the other half of the mod is focused on the NPCs: their satisfaction and their productivity. Happy NPCs produce more than unhappy ones, so it is the player's job to keep them happy (or the 'Evolving' part of the mod will suffer the consequences).

 

NPC satisfaction drops constantly: at arrival, an NPC is happy to sleep on bedrolls under the skies, but, day by day, his satisfaction drops a bit as he longs for a small house roof over his head. When the player decides to build him a house, his satisfaction boosts up again. Then the cycle repeats until he gets his house upgraded to a middle class house. And then again to get an upper class upgrade.

 

In other words: as NPCs get more sophisticated, they demand more and better houses, facilities and services.

 

The player, like a plate spinning circus artist, must keep thing in balance and not let any plate fall (or any NPC getting so dissatisfied to the point of leaving the community).

 

But the player will need to consider other aspects of the decision: suppose the sawyer is unhappy because the city does not have religious services, not even a chapel, and the smith is unhappy with the security aspect of the city. Supposing there is building materials for just one, should the player build a chapel (and hire a priest) or a barracks (and hire more guards)? It will depend, of course, on which product is needed the most at the moment: boards and planks from the sawyer or metal parts from the smith.

 

With the right decisions to increase general and particular satisfactions, the player counteracts the natural decrease in satisfaction due to increasing demands from the community.

 

Well, this is the general idea.

There is A LOT of other details and possibilities that I've been discussing with the mod community since 2008 in the three mod forums.

[squid blorg]

What kind of facilities and services are wanted by NPCs?

And will they just have general dissatisfaction for will they have seperate satisfaction for health, security, food etc?

[QQuix]

Each NPC will have a separated satisfaction calculated toward each individual need, divided in 3 groups: services, facilities and supplies.

The general satisfaction will be the average of all of them and will affect NPC productivity on the job.

 

Almost all of them will have 3 levels, as well as NPCs. So NPCs of a given level will want facilities, services and supplies of the same level or higher.

 

At the moment, I am considering the following:

(but it will be very easy to add new ones - suggestions are quite welcome, as always)

 

CITY SERVICES:

-Health Services

-Education Services

-Security Services

-Religious Services

-Sanitation Services

-Transportation Services

-City beautification

 

FACILITIES:

-House

-Workplace

 

SUPPLIES:

-Food

-Clothes

-Furniture

-Raw materials for his trade, where applicable.

 

And, as mentioned before, needs for spouses, servants and employees may be implemented also.

 

And I will have to re-read all the suggestion posted, as, most likely, I missed a couple.

[WackyAlan]

I was just wondering when you plan on sending out the first beta to the public. I've been watching a thread for the RTS mod for oblivion, but the creator hasn't been heard from since last October (just before the beta release and still not released) and now I see this one which might even be better. ..thanx

[QQuix]

I plan to have the main engine ready by October. Then we will need a team to work on the main and side quests while I deal with the remaining scripts.

 

Bottom-line: depending on how the community answers to a call to join [yet] another team, we may have something first quarter next year.

 

So, if you or any reader likes to create quests (some of the suggested ones and some new ones), please consider joining the team in October.

 

I've been working on a solution for the pathgrid problem and, if turns out to be OK, we will also need a texturer to develop a tile set to be used as streets and roads.

[WackyAlan]

I wish I could help with the project, really, but i have no idea how to do anything. I've been looking at some tutorials so that I can help someone as enthusiastic as you in the future.

[QQuix]

As for tutorials the Beginner's Guide is an excellent point to start.

After that, the WIKI Quest Portal has links to many quest-making info.

 

I hope you try and enjoy modding Oblivion.

And, of course, I hope you join the team when the time comes.