Queue:
This is a summary of the Skype meeting that took place on Saturday, January 24, 2015 based on my notes. The topic of the meeting was Old Ebonheart, though a few other matters were discussed on the side.
Most of the two hour meeting involved figuring out what we want to put in Old Ebonheart Castle and where it should go. Both to keep this summary short and because that information will be posted in the applicable thread anyway, I'm not going to write it all out here, and will instead focus on the periferal matters discussed in the meeting. This summary will therefore be rather eclectic:
-the Imperial Coastguard is to have a small headquarters at the Old Ebonheart docks, probably in either i3-281-Imp (Harbormaster and Census and Excise shared office) or i3-287-Imp (Imperial Navy Command Post). The Imperial Coastguard is an unimportant faction, (in that it isn't even really a faction in in-game terms), and we probably won't do much with it if anything, but it should nonetheless have a presence in Imperial ports.
-Old Ebonheart Castle will naturally contain Ducal Guards, at the very least to guard the resident Duke of Deshaan, but aside from them the possibility of a unique uniform for Old Ebonheart guards will be further explored. Part of the purpose of the unique uniform would be to contribute to the impression Old Ebonheart is supposed to give of being a slice of Cyrodil transplanted to Morrowind.
-The topic of an Imperial Navy uniform was also brought up, but not really discussed. We're still aiming to provide the Imperial Navy with its own uniform, but there's no great hurry, as such things can easily be added in post.
-The OE sewers were also shortly discussed, but I seem to have forgotten to keep notes for that topic, so you'll have to wait for updates in the applicable thread.
A few random ideas that came up while discussing the castle layout and are worth noting:
- A court physician will provide alchemy services, and a smith working in the Legion headquarters will also provide the player with services. While there may be other service providers in Old Ebonheart castle, there's no great demand for them, as there will be plenty of services for the player in town.
- The Imperial Guilds will not have a presence in the castle. Again, the town already has that covered.
- Following the same line of though, while there will be some form of shrine in the castle, it will not be designed for a large congregation, as the Grand Chapel in town already has that covered.
- There will be a restaraunt near (under?) the High Rock mission, staffed by said mission, and many dignitaries and diplomats choose to eat there rather than using the castle's official kitchens, for convenience as well as -- perhaps -- quality. Some sort of rivalry might exist between the kitchens and restaraunt. The High Rock mission naturally had more than simple good-will in mind when setting up the restaraunt.
- The idea of a ghost haunting Old Ebonheart castle was discussed as well, as the castle is well-suited to such a haunting. A few ideas were discussed, such as the ghost being the former Indoril lord of Old Ebonheart who commited suicide at the time of Tiber Septim's invasion of Morrowind, and the ghost haunting Old Ebonheart Castle's gatehouse, raising and lowering the porticullus/opening and closing the gates at inconvenient times. (Which makes the ghost sound pretty petty, if it's supposed to be the Indoril lord, now that I think about it. Not really a bad thing; might make for an amusing quest, if that's where we want to go with it, and there are a lot of places we could go with it).