The Evolving Society Mod

[bshaeffer]

Sorry you're not getting more feedback.

That can be frustrating - especially on something new.

 

I'd be testing this (and your building placer) but I'm swamped.

It used to be that I couldn't find enough cool stuff to fill the time.

Now it's the other way around.

[QQuix]

I would appreciate your comments if/when you have the opportunity to check the mods.

 

The lack of feedback is kind of frustrating but not discouraging/ dis-motivating (?) as I have my fun developing it.

 

Thanks for the sympathy.

[andyprime]

sounds good hows it coming along?

[madman132]

Another Thing, i dont know if this came up yet; I recently remembered "Breath of fire 2" which is a nice RPG for SNES/Super Famicom. In this Game you found a rundown Building and you can hire some People to rebuild the House and build some more houses. After a while you'll have a "city" which consists of 7 Houses. The Carpenters there may be a bit hyperactive as the build more houses then they need.

So you can travel around in the Gameworld to "recruit" homeless People which will then live in your City. Some of those People have some nice Things to offer; There is a doctor which will give you shots so that your Party wont be suffering Poison Damage from the Monsters.

 

I always wanted to have a Place for NPCs i resurrected during my Adventures. With the "Toastie says share" mod i'd place them somewhere in Bleakers Way. My own personal zombietown :D

 

Not everybody playing your mod will use the companion mod, so it would be cool if there where some Conversation Option with certain NPCs. The PC could ask them if they want to start a new life in this new Place. People could "recruit" the Beggars and they'd life and work on the Island, maybe they'd have even some real functions, like shopkeepers or trainers.

 

If possible, something like a "overwrite blank" would be nice. Any NPC "recruited" to start a new life will be disabled to be replaced by a clone with the same Body but new scripts and new quests for conversations.

 

Of course, this would lead to the arduos Task to make some NPCs which are needed for Quests "unrecruitable".

[Deleted269910User]

I took the mod for a spin and it was interesting, although a bit frustrating at the same time.(Loading doesn't work if you screw it up, you need to restart Oblivion.) The basic concept seems working and the problem with the materials/facilities using them, could be easily countered by giving the "raw" materials slightly faster rates of production and each state of refinement a bit slower than the previous stage, which could then be sped up with upgrades. Basically the ingredient speeds would be; raw - grade 1 - grade 2 - grade 3 so on so forth, until the last stage of refinement, where/whatever it might be. You could with a little refinement, add this into the game as a "mini-game".

 

Looks good, really good, so far and I'm anxiously waiting for further development.

[QQuix]

sounds good hows it coming along?

The main engine is on hold at the moment. Mostly for a technical reason: OBSE v0017 will be released soon with new array functions. I will recode the whole thing to use them instead of the Pluggy arrays I am using now. Therefore any effort on new development using Pluggy arrays would be partially wasted.

 

Meanwhile, I am working on some 'building blocks', like a way to allow the player to choose where to place new buildings (I've just released a Dynamic Building Placement proof of concept), and a way to position a perimeter line/fence around the construction site.

 

 

Not everybody playing your mod will use the companion mod, so it would be cool if there where some Conversation Option with certain NPCs. The PC could ask them if they want to start a new life in this new Place. People could "recruit" the Beggars and they'd life and work on the Island, maybe they'd have even some real functions, like shopkeepers or trainers.

 

If possible, something like a "overwrite blank" would be nice. Any NPC "recruited" to start a new life will be disabled to be replaced by a clone with the same Body but new scripts and new quests for conversations.

 

Of course, this would lead to the arduos Task to make some NPCs which are needed for Quests "unrecruitable".

I have not started working on this yet (so the following is just a general idea as good as anybody else's).

As I see it, during the initial phases the player will have to recruit people in the mainland. Later on, some skilled NPCs will visit the island for a couple of days (after you have docks and an inn/tavern, of course) and the player may hire/invite them.

 

In any case, I suppose they must be new NPCs included in the mod, in order not to mess with the game and prevent incompatibilities with other mods.

 

 

I took the mod for a spin and it was interesting, although a bit frustrating at the same time.(Loading doesn't work if you screw it up, you need to restart Oblivion.) The basic concept seems working and the problem with the materials/facilities using them, could be easily countered by giving the "raw" materials slightly faster rates of production and each state of refinement a bit slower than the previous stage, which could then be sped up with upgrades. Basically the ingredient speeds would be; raw - grade 1 - grade 2 - grade 3 so on so forth, until the last stage of refinement, where/whatever it might be. You could with a little refinement, add this into the game as a "mini-game".

 

Looks good, really good, so far and I'm anxiously waiting for further development.

Thanks for the feedback.

As for loading a game saved along the way, I must confess that I have not tested that much. At each load, I reset a lot of data coming from the ini files (to allow for parameter changes in the future) and there must be a bug somewhere resetting something that should not be reset. I will check.

 

As for the core of your text, I am not sure I follow you. I would appreciate if you elaborated.

 

But I have a few comments on the production speed:

 

Production speed will be variable.

I have not worked the details yet, but I will implement some kind of 'experience level' for the NPCs: the more an NPC works on a job, the better he gets. So a master smith will work faster that a rookie. This will match with the visiting NPCs idea mentioned above, in a way that the player may decide not to hire/invite a visiting inexperienced smith, and wait for a more experienced one to show up on the following days.

 

Satisfaction with several aspects of the community (heath, security, progress) will also affect productivity.

 

I would also like to have some additional variables that would affect individual shops and would give opportunity to add a few side quests. Something like a special tool the player has to find, or a book that teaches a few tricks of the trade, or finding an old, retired craftsman to teach the inexperienced one you have. Things like that. But I am afraid this would make the general engine too complex and too difficult to balance.

 

The general idea is that, if the player detects that the saw miller is slower than the lumberjack and logs are piling up, the player has a few alternatives to balance things, e.g. upgrade the sawmill, find a book to improve the saw miller skills or, maybe, build a Hospital (in case the Saw miller is unhappy with the health of the community). Or maybe ask the lumberjack to help the saw miller for a couple of days. Lol.

 

And, out of curiosity, have you played it to the end?

[madman132]

If you'll have a Hospital there, make two NPCs who'll fight all the time: Dr. Cox and Dr. House :D

 

 

Well, not really. Instead have some little Doctors House there with one Doctor. Who has some drawings of the Human anatomy in his office.

[Deleted269910User]

Ok, I'll try clarifying my point; Basically, the "pure" and "raw" materials, which don't have a pre-requisite other than the said material such as wood for lumber camps, would be produced slightly faster, than the speed a sawmill would process the logs through(=Refining the logs into planks.). That would leave you with a small surplus of logs, meaning you would also have some of the raw material for other uses, such as crafters, trade etc.

 

The main effect would be that you wouldn't have the risk of running out of materials, due to having refinement workshops and would also have the added effect of actually enabling you to control what you want to trade with the outside world, meaning you could also trade for some "special goods" that are unavailable on the island, which could then be added to the stores or to shops for sale/use, basically adding a limitless amount of possibilites that could be done with it aswell.

[QQuix]

I see!. In part, that is covered by the fact that you can have up to four of each raw material producer (lumber camp, quarry and mine) and only one processor of those materials (sawmill, masonry, and foundry).

 

And you are right for the rest of the chain, as there is only one of each shop. I really felt that sometimes there was a shortage of cut stones. To finish the prototype, you have to delay the construction/upgrade of the Marble Works, or it will 'eat' all the cut stones that you would need somewhere else.

[ZyniX69]

I must say this is an awsome idea and thank you for all the work you are putting into it!

 

I don't know if this was mentioned before but I have an idea for the guards. I think it would be great if depending on the skill of the blacksmith and/or the amount of resources he has to work with, the player could pay the blacksmith to upgrade the weapons/armor of the guards. Or maybe even have a Weaponsmith/Armorsmith instead.

 

That way not only will you be able to replenish guards as you mentioned before, but you will be able to gradually equip them better as the town grows.

 

I mean wouldn't the player be leveling up as this town is growing? Now even though guards and enemies alike will level up with the player, wouldn't the enemies be wearing better gear at higher levels?

 

I think it would be kind of silly if the guards just happened to automatically get new weapons and armor once the player levels up. Just an idea you can take it or leave it :P