The Evolving Society Mod

[QQuix]

Objects left in the houses and shops are lost when the buildings are upgraded, I am afraid.

 

This would be a problem at the player's house, but, there, improvements come as new rooms, not upgrading the existing ones (this makes the idea of new buildings to a Villa, instead of new rooms to a palace, even more appealing - see this thread)

 

But your concern applies to the player's 'office'. I was considering creating an office where the player could check the evolution of the island, talk with his aides and give orders (kind of a war room). If this office becomes true and is upgradable (I suppose it must), I will have to move a lot of things to the new interior. Containers could be moved to new, planned locations in the new interior. I suppose I could make a list of everything that is original to the office (Pluggy again) and, at the upgrade, move everything in excess to the new interior.

[QQuix]

Has been a while, so I thought it was about time I told you how things are going:

 

I am working on the mod several hours every day and had a good progress the last few weeks:

 

I have been working on two things:

 

1) Reworked the way buildings are handled:

Although I am working with just a handful of buildings to test the engine, it became very difficult to have them all in the CS. I mean, every building has 3 levels, which means 3 meshes previously placed at the same spot, that are disabled/enabled as needed. Problem is that you cannot 'disable' then in the CS. All 3 are visible, one over the other. So it became too awkward to even just move them a bit, let alone choosing a proper combination of meshes.

 

I could imagine the pain when I had to handle a few dozen buildings and, since I think it worthwhile to invest some time now to get things easier later, I reworked the whole thing and now I only have to position an XMarker. The houses are all in a hidden cell and are moved to the XMarker as needed.

 

This way things got much more flexible for the testing phase: if I decide to use the AnvilHouseMC01 instead of the ChorrolHouseUpper01 for the House level3, it is just a matter of changing a line in a script (which, ultimately, could even go to an .ini file).

 

2) Developed a simulator

You may not imagine it, but setting "The Numbers" for this mod is one of the major challenges (and one of the major satisfactions). By "The Numbers" I mean things like

As a farm grows to levels 1-2-3, should its production be 1-2-3, or 3-4-5, or maybe 2-4-8?

A Leve1 house should cost 10xLogs and 20xStones or 20xLogs and 10xStones?

 

So I wrote an external program to simulate production and consumption of goods along many cycles (days) in order to get those numbers balanced. Anyway, I think I now have a decent combination.

 

On the simulator I am working with the following scenario:

 

(Disclaimer: the scenario below is just something I developed to test the Engine. It is a coherent scenario for testing purposes. The final version will, most certainly, be quite different.)

 

One conclusion from the simulations is that the mod should have two major cycles: a building cycle and a export cycle.

During the building cycle, you start from nothing and get to a flourishing city (the original idea).

At this point, top level materials start to pile up, since you don’t have anything else to do with them.

The export cycle starts by building an Export Office, a shipyard and a couple of shops to produce exportable goods from the surplus materials, like furniture from excess planks or weapons from metal surplus. The main result is money in the treasury, that will be used to build/upgrade the player's Villa, I guess. This cycle is still in the theoretical stage - nothing really done here - ideas welcome, as always.

 

BUILDING CYCLE

Four 'building' categories: Houses, Places, Buildings and Improvements.

 

HOUSES:

Where the NPCs live. You have to have a free house in order to hire a new NPC.

One NPC can live in a level 1 house, two in a level 2 house and three in a level 3 house.

 

PLACES:

Farms, wood cutting areas, quarries and mines.

Produce food and raw materials (logs, raw stones and ore).

 

CITY BUILDINGS:

Specialized buildings to process raw materials or provide services.

Each building needs an NPC to run the business.

ATM they are:

Raw materials processing shops: Sawmill - Masonry - Stone works - Foundry - Blacksmith

Service providers: Boarding House/Inn/Hotel - Guards - Chapel/Church/Cathedral - Health facilities

Exporting facilities - Import/Export office, Shipyard and additional buildings to produce exportable goods

 

CITY IMPROVEMENTS

Granary - required to store food

Sewer - required to upgrade buildings

Dock - Parks - City lights - Paved Streets - Paved Roads - self explanatory

 

I am working with a 'General Satisfaction' indicator composed of three other indicators:

- Health satisfaction - affected by the level of the sewer and health care facilities

- Security satisfaction - affected by the level of the guard station and city lights

- General happiness - affected by the level of the parks and religious facilities

 

 

Now I plan to place the concepts/numbers/buildings from the simulator into a test esp

I may have something to show you in a couple of weeks.

 

 

PS. And I would appreciate if you could suggest meshes that could be used as a Granary. Ideally 3 meshes, one for each level. If not, a single mesh scaled to 3 different sizes will do fine.

 

PPS. Suggestion to name the three level of the health facility are welcome. I am using First Aid / Doctor's Office / Hospital, but I don’t like it. (I like one-word names)

[ihateregisteringeverywhere]

I'll take up the granary.

 

As far as the export phase of your programme goes... Well, I think you can waste the excess money on maintenance and import of luxury consumables items (which would have a short term effect on happiness)

 

The occasional attack or other calamities and therewith connected repairs could keep the budget down as well. I'd try to balance the numbers so that you couldn't go too high into the positive numbers. To avoid those "I've finally beaten this mod/This is kinda unreal" feelings.

[Fangdreth]

I'd like to add some of my own thoughts, too.

 

So far, the processes remind me a lot of another game, Stronghold 2. It dealt with the founding of a city around your citadel. It worked in about the same way -- for example, build a wheat field, which sends wheat to storage. Miller comes, grabs the wheat, mills it into flour. Flour to the baker, makes bread...etc.

 

Some had a myriad of uses -- a cheese farm, for example, would have cows. If you want soldiers with leather armor, you needed leather, so you'd need to kill off a cow or two. In this way, you could start small with preparing your guards, and even your people (a lumberjack may want to be kept safe from wild animals, but to do so in a suit of heavy armor would probably just be a mess). From there, you could develop to chain mail, or even plate. This would allow the player to customize his/her guard force, between heavily armored, slow moving troops to lightly armored, swift soldiers. Plus, the cows on the farm could not only help support the population (Say, cows give off enough milk to make cheese, adding 50 units to the 100 needed for the next person. Cut that in half if you plan to make leather).

 

Now, I also had an idea for the presence of a guild on the island. I usually play a mage-type, and I usually have a measure of disdain for plain fighters (they whack things, I make explosions...etc.). So, I doubt I would just welcome a guild full of fighters to the isle. Perhaps there is an available Guild Hall, but you the player have to choose to whom it goes?

 

For example, let's say that there are a few groups who see the Hall and say, "Hey! I want that!" Let's also say that those guilds are the Fighter's, Mage's, the Imperial Legion (for a post), a group of Monks/Priests, and the Thief's (under another guise -- private investigators, specialists, whatever.) You can only give it to one, and each would give some benefits. Plus, each to have their own set of quests.

 

Fighter's Guild: Gives training and weapons to citizens, resulting in, say, +5 or +10 to all weapons, strength, agility, etc. Plus, having the Fighter's Guild establishes their own trading stall during the market, selling off excess weapons and armor. They give a small boost to feelings of security. A quest for them may involve getting enough ingots to produce weaponry.

 

Mage's Guild: Enchants tools and makes potions. They give an island-wide bonus to production and income (potions to sell). They set up a stall, too, and sell weapons/armor with minor enchantments, as well as potions -- all in small quantity. They cause a slight drop in security (people don't trust magi) but give a boost to general happiness, possibly health (from potions). A quest from them may involve the opening of a library or sending a farmer or two to help with a garden.

 

Legion Post: The Legion uses new soldiers there, who patrol the land. They do not offer help directly, but Legion horsemen are always on patrol. They give a large boost to security, a slight to general happiness, plus they will protect the roads. A quest for the Legion could involve calling in a shipment of horses and supplies, or giving support on matters (A goblin cave, perhaps)

 

Priory: Monks and Priests come to live on your island. Monks are hard workers, and can be directed to do a task -- which they do, for a longer period of time than a normal citizen, and to a slightly greater degree (150%). Priests tend to the wounded, the tired, and preach at the village square and parks. They give a boost to production (monks) and a large boost to happiness (priests). The Priory would likely ask for expensive things, perhaps even their own Cathedral of the Nine, or a library.

 

Greyguard: A fancy name for the outpost of the thieve's guild, a choice for less-than-reputable leaders. They cause no change to any of the meters (having them would drop security, but they offer advance information -- it'd cancel out). Members of this guild are able to steal things for the player, thus generating a hidden, personal income. They may offer information, which the player can use (a rival is seeking to do X to person Y, you need to stop them).

 

Another thing I thought strange was the talk of how each house could be upgraded from a shack to a manse. While it would be positive, such a lavish home wouldn't exactly breed workers. On one hand, perhaps doing that could cut production but boost happiness. On another hand, there are always going to be poor people (in medieval times, at least, they made up the bulk of society) so having a number of shacks with simple workers would be more realistic.

 

I think that this would excel if each action had a reaction. If you build a port, you will get shipments from outside the island -- people would send things, perhaps even invest on island companies. At the same time, a ship may come (periodically) with brigands, who seek to overthrow the island or overtake the port-city. Perhaps building a port is a milestone, and a company comes. They want to do business - do you accept it? If they do so, you take in less money (the company would take a good chunk of the profits, since they are the ones working) but you suddenly free up all of those, for example, mine workers.

 

Perhaps the player could guide the direction of the island, too. Does he/she want the island to be some sort of 'retreat' where rich people come to stay? Or perhaps have the people worked to the bone, suffering always but knowing they can never escape, because his/her thugs control the ports? Decisions could determine this, such as having an advisor ask "What should be the standards of work?" Having them work each day would bring in vast amounts of wealth, but the people would suffer. Having them work once or twice a week turns out horrid profits and income, but the people become so happy that word spreads, and others flock to live in luxury.

 

Guards of the isle, I think, ought be customizable, as well as being able to have player interactions. And ranks. They would start out as simple recruits, work their way up the ladder to a certain point (let's say recruit - footman - soldier). Does the player have soldiers who wear bulky armor, chainmail? Perhaps sword-dancers who just wear simple clothing, but are highly agile? Military encounters would be interesting, as well. The island would not likely be uninhabited -- are there goblins, perhaps lead by some devilish minotaur? So the troops would have to engage them. If the player joins along, he/she could see them in action and judge for his/herself how things go. Maybe he can raise soldiers who performed well to a higher status (Elite soldier) which improves their level and equipment (at the cost of only having a few, max.)

 

Or maybe Elite soldiers are captains, and each captain can have a few soldiers. That would keep the player from getting some gargantuan army, and would add another level to the mod. At a certain point, the player can hire or create a captain. The captain expands the number of available guards by, say, three. Depending on the size of the island, there could be two or three captains, guarding a small place, or a dozen spread out over the entire area.

 

As to income, Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir uses a merchant system that, instead of gold, has 'trade bars'. Trade bars are described as a bar of metal with their company's mark stamped on them. They had no value of themselves, but were instead representive of some value. That would make them less cumbersome (which is easier: one trade bar, or 150 gold coins?) and a thief would not find them useful at all. To steal a trade bar would steal a piece of metal, with no value in and of itself. And to get value, a thief would have to trade it in for gold somewhere -- thus, the thief would have to turn his/herself in.

 

Naturally, gold would still have some value on the island. While trade bars would be used to trade for things on the mainland, giving it to a farmer for a loaf of bread would not seem to be a fair trade. So, income could come in two forms: trade bars, to help build the island and expand the populace. Gold, in a periodic payment, would be the the player's paycheck for being the island's leader/rulers/tyrant, etc.

 

As to how the player acquires the island, I have an idea...

 

"Dear [Charactername],

 

For the last X years, my fellows on the Elder Council have had some problems on a myriad of issues, but one that still exists could potentially be of vast use in these dangerous times. There is an island under Imperial dominion that has been used for practically nothing since its discovery. Normally, a single island would not be of great concern to the Council, except that this one has verdent farmlands, expansive forests, and deep mines filled with valuable ore.

 

The other political powers, be they a duke or just a councillor, have wanted to turn the island into one thing or another. Some feel it ought be strip mined, but the councillors of Valenwood are steadfast in their defense of the forests. Some feel it ought be used as a noble's retreat...yet others disagree, given the problems that have arisen in Kvatch. With the assault of Oblivion, the island has far more use practically than that.

 

Therefore, a few of my allies in the Council have given me their support in a dangerous choice -- one which, I hope, you will not fail me on. Hell has broken loose, and with the Legion pulled away to defend all of our territory, we are in danger of having the Empire fall to pieces.

 

You proved to be valiant in your defense of Kvatch, and when I walk the halls I can hear bards composing songs, calling you a hero, a savior, a champion of our people. The late emperor himself saw greatness in you, the hope of our empire, and I plan to honor my good friend's last wish.

 

Therefore, Hero of Kvatch, I have made a bold move. We barely managed to secure the vote, and I am placing my position on the line. This island has so much opportunity, and could easily be used to keep this empire whole. You have the island -- I have included the deed to the lands with this messenger. However, the whole island is not just yours, and you are expected to aid the empire during this troubled time.

 

Your first task is to produce (a mid-sized amount) units of stone, wood, and ingots. You will have three weeks, from when you present this letter to the quartermaster on the island [iE: Three weeks after you start the island quests, so the player isn't forced into moving to the island] before a collection ship will come. By then, please have the goods ready so we can continue to support the empire. Should you not have the amount available, I will give you a short extension -- but we need those resources more than ever during these trying times.

 

I also send warning. Many of my peers are unhappy with my move, and want to reap the rewards themselves. Be prepared for them to act against you.

 

Chancellor Ocato

Imperial Battlemage"

 

Reasoning: With the fall of Kvatch, the people need a hero. They look to the player for salvation, especially since the red-tape-loving Council seems intent on pursuing their own agendas. Ocato needs to maintain a hand on the Elder Council, so that the empire stays whole. By backing the Hero of Kvatch, Ocato strengthens his position politcally and morally, in the eyes of the people. Plus, the player gets a goal: three weeks to produce a modest amount of resources (a small enough amount to easily be excess, but still a goal that the player must achieve) and the mod gets antagonists: the dukes and duchesses of the empire, who want the land for themself and want to ruin the player.

 

Anyhoo...just some ideas I thought of while reading the thread. Hope it proves to be useful!

 

-F

[QQuix]

As far as the export phase of your programme goes... Well, I think you can waste the excess money on maintenance and import of luxury consumables items (which would have a short term effect on happiness)

That is an idea.

NPCs could have several levels and would require some sort of imported goods to upgrade to the next level. Each level requiring a more sophisticated/expensive/rare item.

As they upgrade, their productivity improves and they generate goods faster, so they can afford the more expensive items.

The goods would have to be consumables, so there would be a need for a constant supply.

Lack of supply would drop their level, resulting in insatisfaction.

 

I have not started on the NPCs leveling yet (postponed to the next development phase), so there is time to discuss this idea further.

 

The occasional attack or other calamities and therewith connected repairs could keep the budget down as well. I'd try to balance the numbers so that you couldn't go too high into the positive numbers. To avoid those "I've finally beaten this mod/This is kinda unreal" feelings.

I suppose the mod has to have a final objective.

ATM I am considering the player villa as the final prize for a good management.

When the villa is finally built, I hope the feeling will be more like the one you have after finishing a difficult quest.

 

At that point, the player may just disable the mod or keep the mod to use the villa. Which means the economics must reach some sort of stability so the player doesn't have to manage the island anymore.

 

Come to think of it, this is another good reason NOT to have excess of anything, even profits.

The player villa would be built by the people as a result of some satisfaction indicator.

 

 

Fangdreth, just noticed your post. Will read it and comment later

[QQuix]

Fangdreth, thanks for the contributions.

As usual, I will comment only on the engine related aspects (I want to leave the lore completely open to ideas).

 

ATM I am not planning to go into that many variations of the supply chain. At the beginning, I was thinking along those lines, but discovered that it is (very well) covered by the "NPC with Jobs" mod.

 

I liked the suggestion of a single guild with the player choosing which it will be. It fits well with my original request of 'choices'. Each choice giving one advantage and one disadvantage.

With enough of these choices, the player could find some balance that would fit his style (or completely umbalance the game and suffer the consequences).

The way it is now, all buildings affect all indicators negatively (the bigger the city, the more you have to compensate by building specific buildings) and some buildings affect one indicator positively. An alternative might be to have each (and every?) building causing specific negative and positive effects.

 

As for the houses: the way it is now (up to 3 NPCs living in a level 3 house) is just to save me some troubles during the test phase. This way I can have only 5-6 houses in the city and they will house all the city population.

The city will 'spawn' two or three small villages, and the simulations showed that the village buildings don’t have to go all the way up. So this would supply enough lower class people to keep it realistic.

 

Your mention of medieval communities, gave me a few ideas:

1- a typical society pyramid: the island would have classes (e.g. the typical lower-middle-upper classes) with a limited number of members (a percentage of the population) in each class. The player would choose who to 'promote' each time there is a vacant slot in a class. The higher the class, the happier and more productive the NPC. This would be another way the player chooses which way the society goes. Example: the player would improve security by raising the class of the captain of the guard. It would also open the possibility to demote someone whose 'improved services' are not needed anymore.

2-Or the other way around: instead of switching NPCs in the upper classes, the player switches their assignment: "Joe, my friend, security is a mess. I need you to put it back on track. I will find somebody else to handle your current job". Hey, I like this much better: it is more like the medieval times (lords and nobles and all) and fits one of my original ideas of having the few NPCs you start with growing with you all the way to the top as your friends/secretaries/aides.

 

The guard's ranks and a promotion system is a good concept. Guards are bound to be killed, so there would be a need for a constant flow of new recruits.

 

To have a possibility of determining the island 'purpose' (a tourist paradise or a slave pit?) is also a good one, as it would make the mod re-playable with different outcomes. But I am afraid it would be hard to implement. Anyway I will keep it in mind.

 

About money: the more I think of it the more I am convinced it should be completely isolated from the game money. Actually, as I see it, money has no function in this mod, all buildings and upgrades are based on the availability of raw materials. Money has only some (conceptual) function as a return from exporting goods. But, ideally, it should be totally used to import goods, as mentioned in the previous post.

Of course, the player can use his vanilla gold as in any other city to buy&sell at shops, bribe, rent a room, etc

 

And, of course, any ideas I drop here are just like anybody else's and may or may not be used. (although I really liked the classes idea)

[Fangdreth]

Perhaps the use of promotions/demotions could have more than just a simple effect (IE: Promote Joe from lower to middle class, and make him turn out more stuff.) People of the classes would work in a varied manner. The lower class *has* to work to get anywhere (I'm reading "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair -- it shows the poor quite well) while the middle class would have some amenities, and still work. But the upper class, the rich noble types, wouldn't work to save their life. So, here is another idea about the pyramid idea:

 

Lower class: Following the pyramid scheme, would be the most numerous. They form the brunt of the workforce, and the vast majority would live in groups in shacks, flats...wherever there was space. Buildings would not be classy, like the IC Waterfront slums: poorly made houses, tightly together. Perhaps, post-test-phase, shacks could give more population (If a middle-class house holds 3 people, a lower-class hovel may be around 5 or 6). For players who favor work over happiness, cheap and plentiful hovels would allow for maximum population over a thin area. They aren't as bad off as beggars, for they can buy food, shoes, etc., but they aren't that far off.

 

Middle Class: The medieval middle class would be more like a Guilded or professional character. The professional alchemist who sells her wares, or many members of the Fighter's or Mage's guild would fall into this category. People who live like this would easily live a 'good' life by the lower class standards, as they can have food on their table that has susbstance, perhaps a little wine, etc. Going along with the houses, the middle class may favor a larger home than a shack -- perhaps like Bruma, usually having two floors, a kitchen, etc.

 

Upper Class: The rich and wealthy usually would have houses like Chorrol (Skingrad would be something that only the wealthiest of the wealthy would own) plus some would have space for a servant or perhaps two. The only problem is that they aren't the 'salt of the earth' sort of people -- they have luxury, and would probably not want to give it up. Therefore, most wouldn't work as one would in the game; they would not gather herbs, or polish a sword unless they were showing it off. These would be wealthy merchants and company heads. Likely, an upper class home would add one or two to the island (a man and wife, etc.).

 

However, this idea just struck me: the upper class would probably want servants, and some would even build lavish mansions with servants, etc. So perhaps a 'super upper class' would exist, or even possibly come into existance later on. Here's what I think:

 

After, say, one month of game time has passed, the player's island is flourishing. There are 30 lower class, 10 middle, and 4 upper. Of the lower class, all but 5 are employed doing some task. The player has no place for them, for whatever reason (A limit on the mine, a risk of deforestation, personal choice...) and they are just taking up space. The guard is filled, and no matter what he/she does, these five people will stay. So, he/she walks over to some Upper Class guy, tells him that there are five people, and the Upper Class guy hires them as servants. It could be a whole new place for the workforce to go -- servants of nobles. Joe goes from just sitting around, doing nothing to earning a wage at some upper classman's house.

 

It would also allow the player to hire people for his/her own estate: cooks, butlers, maids, whatever. They could gain a rank for it, and perhaps have some comment/abilities tied to that rank (The player hires Joe as his cook, thereby promoting Joe to the 'chef' rank of the faction. Being in that rank gives Joe two new comments: food and drink. Like Eyja.)

 

As for buildings, perhaps building choices could reflect the wealth of the island, and their effects determined by their natures. Building a highly expensive, immense cathedral is going to take a lot of resources, but it would likely raise all levels (security for feelings of the Nine guarding them, happiness for obvious reasons, and production (the Nine are watching). Building a park may increase happiness, but where that park is, people could be living. So, if the player has a large number of poor people, they may take to using the park as a home. From here, it would probably crush morale.

 

Another idea would be using the island-money to try and get people to flock to the island. It would be a great way to expand, rather than just having the houses built (perhaps it would be included in the cost?) and it could be modified to have greater/lesser effectiveness depending on the status of the community.

 

And as to the status, I've seen mods that use a sort of counter. If a positive rating, for example, the island would be doing great -- a negative would mean that the island is a slave pit. The value could be determined by a number of factors: if you build shacks, the value would drop, say, one point. But if you build a noble's manse, it would go up three. In the middle would lie the 'safe zone' while going to either extreme would result in gains in fame/infamy, lessened/increased production, greater/lesser happiness, etc. Perhaps include structures that can be built at certain points (IE: If the worth value is -25 or more, build a torture pit instead of a prison to instill fear and force workers to give it there all, under pain of torment)

 

I'll keep thinking up new ideas.

 

F.

[QQuix]

OK. Here we go: the first Alpha version of The Evolving Society Engine Test Environment - TESETE

 

The main reasons for the release is to help you guys getting a better understanding of the general purpose of the project. Keep in mind that every single click while playing TESETE represents something much bigger in the final mod, from simple tasks to whole side quests.

 

I think you will like it, provided you don’t raise your expectations too much and always remember it is an environment to be used during the engine development. And is the very first version.

 

Actually, there is only part of the engine: the buildings construction, upgrades, dependencies and costs are implemented. NPCs are not implemented in this version.

 

The esp is kind of hidden among my other conceptual mods in TESNexus, as it is intended only to you, the reader of the discussion forums. Not to the general public. As so, there is no readme in the archive. The only, quite reduced (on purpose) documentation is below. If you have read at least part of this forum, you know what it is all about.

 

Here goes some information that will allow you to play the mod:

- You can play the whole mod without moving from the spot where you arrive.

- Time flashes - a whole game day takes less than 10 seconds (it is a test environment, remember?) so you can complete the game in 15-30 minutes

- Click on the little house at your feet to choose what to build.

- There are a few options to your left. The activator name should be self explanatory. Turn off street lights if your FPS drops too much.

- Look up to see your warehouse contents. The warehouse holds your Food and building materials

- Service buildings and city improvements have no effect in this version but they are needed to complete the mod.

- To complete the mod, you must build all 48 buildings and upgrade them all to level 3.

- As an incentive, I have a little treat for you when you complete the task. I hope you like it.

- Look right to see your progress - try to get to the top of the graph before leaving the graph area to the right (about 100 game days).

- Keep in mind that this is an environment to test the engine: most things are not in scale and many things are symbolic: a tower in the middle of the woods means the lumberjack at that place has been upgraded to Level 3 and has a watch tower to prevent forest fires.

 

Game play and strategy:

- After you activate the mod, load a game and press the Right Mouse Button to go to TESETE.

- If you leave your arrival place, you may use the RMB at any time to go back there.

- Places and buildings have one (virtual) worker that needs a house to live and one unit of food per day.

- Houses Level 1 may have one occupant - Level2 = 2 occupants - Level3 = 3 occupants.

- You start the game with 5xFood and 5xLogs - use them wisely.

- You can get stuck if you run out of logs to build a house and don’t have a house to hire a lumberjack.

- Same thing with Food and Farms.

- Don’t build/upgrade the Marble Works to the same level of the Masonry, unless you have plenty of CutStone in stock, as, with both at the same level, the Marble Works consumes all the CutStone the Masonry produces

- The little moving thing at the edge of the platform represents the time of the day.

 

 

 

Some details

 

WAREHOUSE

- The warehouse holds your Food and seven building materials: Logs, Planks, RawStones, CutStones, Marble, Ore, Ingots and MetalParts (the metallic building materials like nails, hinges, locks, etc)

- A large, 1-per-row object at the bottom = 100 x units

- A medium, 2-per-row object = 10 x units

- A small, 3-per-row object at the top = 1 x unit

- Therefore if you see 1 large cheese, 5 apples and 7 strawberries, you have 157 units of Food in the warehouse

BUILDINGS

- There are five types of 'buildings' - Names are self explanatory (I hope)

- HOUSES

- PRODUCTION PLACES - Farms, Forests, Quarries and Mines

- PROCESSING BUILDINGS - Sawmill, Masonry, MarbleWorks, Foundry, Blacksmith

- SERVICE BUILDINGS - BoardingHouse-Inn-Hotel, Police, Chapel-Church-Cathedral, Healer-Apothecary-Hospital, Import-Export Office and Shipyard

- CITY IMPROVEMENTS - Granary, Sewer, Docks, Parks, Street Lights, Paved Streets and Paved Roads

 

Processes costs and production:

- FARMS - No input - Production: Level 1 - Produce 4XFood - Level2 = 6xFood - Level3 = 8xFood

- Forests, Quarries and Mines - No input - Production according to level: L1=1xunit, L2=2xUnits and L3=3xUnits

- Production Buildings - Input and Output the same as the level. E.g. Level1 Sawmill consumes 1xLog and produces 1xPlank, Level2 Sawmill consumes 2xLogs and produces 2xPlanks, etc.

 

Building costs - generally, the higher the level, the more sophisticated the materials:

- Houses -

- Level 1 = 1xLog

- Level 2 = 1xPlank + 1xRawStone

- Level 3 = 1xPlank + 1xCutStones + 1xMetalParts

- Places

- Level 1 = FREE -

- Level 2 = 1xPlank + 1xRawStone

- Level 3 = 1xPlank + 1xCutStones + 1xMetalParts

- Everything else

- Level 1 = 1xLog + 1xRawStone

- Level 2 = 2xPlanks + 2xCutStones

- Level 3 = 3xPlanks + 3xMarble + 3xMetalParts

 

 

DISCLAIMERS

Make sure you DON’T CONTINUE YOUR GAME after going to TESETE - There is no way out: another reminder that you must continue your normal play from a save before you visited the test environment worldspace.

Save&load have not been much tested - not sure what to expect.

The scripted building animations sometimes crashed the game when building many things at once during tests. Normal play wont have nearly as many as during tests. Turn them off if you need.

There is a fair amount of comments in the scripts, but also a large amount of debug code that I decided not to remove (it is an Alpha release for testing purposes only, anyway). And most are messy. No use to clean up now, as I am planning to review everything in the near future.

I hope I didn’t forget to disable/comment any test code.

 

REQUIREMENTS and INSTALLATION

Requires OBSE v0016 and PLUGGY

In the archive there is the normal Data folder for standard install (just the esp an a few meshes in Data/Meshes/QQTES)

There is also a Pluggy folder containing the mod .INI files. This folder must be copied to your ". . .My Documents\My Games\Oblivion" folder. After the copy you should have the INI files in ". . . My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Pluggy\User Files"

 

CREDITS and Thanks

- To everyone that contributed in the forums

- SkyRanger-1 for the trigonometry code

- TomBrightblade for the instruction on how to keep the apples in the air (MiscItem >> static)

- I know there are more, but memory is bad and discipline to keep notes is worse.

 

 

Have fun! ! !

[Alithinos]

I have to tell you that this is a very nice idea,and i hope you will not get bored during the process.

I hope you will finish it.

Let me tell you some ideas:

 

 

HOW TO START :

 

Scenario A'

Lets say that there is a new rumour acroos Cyrodill,that a big catastrophie is coming.

Maybe an earthquake,or a volcano,or the awakening of an ancient evil.<It hasn't have to be true,it's a rumour>

So some people believing the rumours decide to refuge at another land,and they ask you to help them.

And then you remember the island at the open sea of Tamriel,that you were caught there by the Imperial Guards.

<That also explains why you where imprisoned at the beginning of the game>.

Let the reason that they busted you and what it has to do with the island secret until the end of the "main quest" of that island.

 

Scenario B'

Lets say that there are some very bad criminals or that are exiled from all Tamriel.

So all the exiled people decide to build a new city,for they're own.

<Thats actually how real Rome was created>.

 

WHO THE PLAYER WILL BE:

I think its better to make him a mayor.

I don't know...

King/Queen i think it's too much.....

Make him Founder of <....> and respective Mayor.

 

 

QUESTS:

 

I will tell you some ideas.

 

a. you said about farming and strawberrys.

nice idea.

you may add items like donkey's or cow's poo <excuse me i don't know a proper way in english to tell this natural plant booster,so i tell it as it is.>

Or perhaps some kind of a proccesed chemical that the farmer can buy,or make his own,in order to power up his/her plants.

There may be many kinds of al - chemicals.

Perhaps the best is made from combined ingridients that are rare and the player will have to search for them.

 

b. You may make fruits competitions,or alchemy <cooking> competitions.

The player will have to collect the best quality ingredients in order to succes.

 

c.What about angry people that are arriving outside your home yelling and name calling you because of your bad bureocracy ??? <if you didn't pay the righteous attention,or made a choice mistake ?>

 

 

Thats all for now.

I hope i helped.

[QQuix]

Thanks, Alithinos.

No. I don’t think I will get bored (but I must say that am kind of frustrated as there has been no feedback on the prototype).

 

About the farming and fruits you mentioned: I have just get acquainted with a project that does just that: Craftybits

I have browsed thru its forums and I understand that its goal is to give the player the ability to perform A LOT of crafty actions, like farming, skinning animals, carpentry and cooking.

 

The other project I want to mention again is NPCs With Jobs.

 

I hope I am not wrong in saying that Craftybits adds craftsmanship to the PC and NWJ adds craftsmanship to NPCs.

 

Both projects have competent, experienced modders working on them and, when this project of mine gets its final shape, I intend to explore some way of allow the player to use NWJ and Craftybits mods in the island.

 

All this intro is to say that my general idea is not to duplicate efforts and, if possible, use what is already developed.

 

But, by all means, keep adding craft ideas here as they may well be implemented. Also they may inspire other modders that read this topic. I also suggest you present these ideas to the Craftybits/NWJ teams.

 

 

PS - Just as a teaser - the player will be able to choose the building and place it dynamically