The Evolving Society Mod

[squid blorg]

I would like to write quest lines but I would find it pretty hard to implement, could I just send in ideas for those more skilled than me to implement or should I get learning?

[zprospero]

@squid blorg

 

This is, in my opinion, the best Quest Tutorial out there: Click by Click Quest Tutorial

 

@QQuix

 

First, let me congratulate you on keeping this alive over the years. I know how difficult that can be.

 

I must say I love the idea here, and when I am free I'd be happy to contribute, but I'm not free often sadly.

[QQuix]

squid blorg

This thread was created to collect ideas and they are always welcome.

But, at this point, I suspect we may have more suggestions than we will have people to implement.

 

So, I suggest you follow the WIKI tutorials and, if you enjoy doing it, you could help us here implementing quests.

 

zprospero

As I see it, most of the large tasks (scripting and landscaping) are taken care of.

There is still a lot to be done but what is left are, mostly, a lot of small tasks (side quests, NPCs, etc), so, even with little time available, one still can do a self-contained task

 

We will not have a deadline (at least for a while), so I hope you will have some time to offer here.

[black06]

yo questions if you dont mind.

 

1. will the player be called a king/queen in a faction list?

2. will i need to dissable borders?

3. will the player have a cool castle in a city?

4. is this place your making a kind of kingdom?

[QQuix]

1. The man storyline has not been decided yet, but the player has to be a ruler of some kind, as he has to have the responsibility and the right (lore-wise) to decide a lot of things as the community grows.

As a matter of fact, this mod is all about player decisions.

 

2. No. The island will be on another worldspace, but it will look like it is somewhere west of Anvil.

 

3. Most likely. As I see it, at some milestones along the line, your satisfied subjects will present you with an upgrade to your 'castle'. But, instead of a traditional castle, I am seriously considering a (walled) villa type of home, as it would be easier to add new buildings to a villa than sections to a castle.

 

4. Notice that I am not making anything. You, as the player, will be the one that will 'make' everything: build your own city and villages, hire NPCs, make the community grow etc.

[squid blorg]

I must say, I love the villa idea, and the idea of your loyal subjects giving you a nice gift!

[QQuix]

"State of the Mod" time:

 

I've just finished the scripts for the core of the engine (!!?)

 

Meaning: I already have scripts for the mod 'mechanics':

- Hiring NPCs

- Creating facilities

- Matching NPCs and facilities (the newly hired farmer will find and take possession of a previously created farm.

- NPCs satisfaction algorithm

- Facilities consuming raw materials in the morning

- Facilities producing products at the end of the day, based on the satisfaction of the NPC running it.

- Facility upgrades

- NPC upgrades (social level)

 

It also means that I have nothing visual to show. At the moment, the scripts are completely virtual and are not dependent on the game world.

 

But it also means that, with a few hotkeys for hiring NPCs and creating facilities, I can play/simulate the whole 'game mechanics' from beginning to end. I will spend some time exercising the scripts and fine tuning the many variables in order to get a good balanced game (mechanics-wise, I mean).

 

So, script-wise, we already have:

- The game mechanics

- The NPC control engine (NPC ACE)

- The building positioning engine (Construction Suite)

 

Still missing: a way to work around the pathgrid vs. new buildings problem. (at least three possible solutions conceived)

 

 

I hope that, by the end of the month, I will start asking you to join the team and help with whatever modding skills you may have.

[Pronam]

Oblivion has ways to disable/enable pathgrid with traps using enable/disable LinkedPathPoints.

Any use for that maybe? or is that already one of the three possible solutions >.>.

[QQuix]

I kind of ruled out this option because, theoretically, buildings can be placed anywhere on the island and it would be an insane work parenting every single path node to a nearby rock or tree.

 

The options at the moment are:

 

1-Predetermining city and villages locations and removing the path nodes from the city blocks, leaving them only on the streets. Buildings could only be placed on the areas clear of path nodes. This is the less desirable solution, as I am suborn with the idea of a flexible city planning and I am curious of how creative players can get.

 

2-Removing pathgrids altogether. Requiring that the player start the city by laying out the streets by placing street tiles along the way and scripting the NPCs to walk only on those streets. At the moment, this seems the best solution, as it also solves the problem of the ground texture of the streets, but I am not sure the game engine will like it.

 

3-Hope that OBSE v20 includes functions to detect and disable path nodes and is released on time to be used.

[QQuix]

I exercised the mechanics and they seem sound.

 

I simulated the whole process from zero to a full community by means of an automatic script (a very crude AI algorithm) that decides which building is best to be built/upgraded at any given day in order to keep the population happy and productive and, then, 'fast forward' to the next day (as I said, it is all virtual, atm)

 

The system hired 20+ NPCs, built a work facility and a house for each and every one of them. Atm, there are 4 extraction facilities (farms, quarries, logging sites and mines), 3 processing shops (sawmill, brickworks and foundry), 4 service facilities (barracks, religion, health and lodging) and, of course, houses.

 

All facilities may be upgraded up to 3 times (e.g. none >> chapel >> church >> cathedral) and NPCs 'level up' with time, requiring better services, houses and work places (or else their productivity drops).

 

Many more facility types may be added, but I think I'd better work on having something 'material' to show to the hundreds of volunteers that will step forward to join the team.

 

worm82075 kindly agreed to host the team's public and private forums at The Wormhole.

I will let you know when the setup is ready.