Quagmire.

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DiegoDraw
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Post by DiegoDraw »

Hmm...I have a few proposals...Tell me if any of these don't work:

The PC is stranded on a tiny, yet tall island in the middle of a bunch of lava. After allowing him to look around for a while, a "trapdoor" drops the PC into a pit beneath the island. He/she suffers no injury, but there are a number of monsters and such that he has to fight. There's a portal at the end of a tunnel or something.


The PC is standing in a monestary. He/she has to walk around for a while, but soon, when he/she is walking around, the Altar of the Nine in the monestary let's out a yell, saying that the PC is a blasphemer, and that he should die. The monestary gets really red (simple ambient lighting) and smokey, and a minotaur or something leaps out from the altar. Kill the minotaur and then walk out.


The PC is underwater. Really far underwater; able to see light way up there, but it's obvious that it'd be impossible to swim all the way up. Will-o-wisps start floating by and surround the player (or something), as he/she frantically tries to swim to the surface. The door appears half-way up to the surface. I'm not sure if this would work and/or if it's already on the list, but I know that I, myself, am really afraid of drowning. Has to be the worst possible feeling ever.


The PC is in an unidentifiable area with a circle of fire surrounding him. Before long, a few fire atronarchs, scamps, clannfears, or whatever else emerge from the fire, and the player must fight them. I was thinking what you could do is have the creatures start out paralyzed on the other side of the fire for like five seconds or so, just to give the ambience of the area before the player is attacked, then when the creatures become unparalyzed, they'll go and attack the player, and, to the player it seems like they'll just be birthed out of the fire. Player is warped after he kills the beasts.


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Post by lb003g0676 »

Harke!!!


The Shottle Bop idea rocks.

In a room of giant objects, I think that could be VERY VERY intersting. The only problem is I don't think the bottles that are currently in OB, have an 'inside' to them, a new bottle mesh would be needed. But palying with physics like that would be awesome.
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Post by Sload »

Harke, most of your ideas fail in one of four ways. There are probably ideas on the original list that fail in these ways too.
  • 1. Not scary. A fight with drunks is not particularily nightmarish. This isn't just random fights, but nightmares.

    2. Not unique. Vampires in a moonlit garden are not unique. It needs to be interesting to keep the player's interest after 8 of them.

    3. Not a fight. We have a few atmospherics, but the whole thing is a Daedric portal you're closing.

    4. Not possible.[/quote]

    There is one I really like:
    II. A courtroom, you’re guilty.

    Kill the executioner to get the key out of the courthouse and into the next Realm.
    If we made this courtroom and executioner terrifying and had it be like, you're guilty of killing the emperor, this would really pwn.
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Post by lb003g0676 »

Shottle Bop idea might work if there were a huge scary giant. But I think It would be a great physics induced idea.
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Post by DiegoDraw »

Speaking of playing around with the physics engine, I just thought of something...Halt me if I sound like a n00b (I most likely do), but would it be possible to make things like really "bouncy?" In that case, we could drop the player in the middle of a long hallway, and they can just see the door at the very end, and it's sort of dark and stuff, but it seems easy enough. But then some things (balls? bats? animals?) fall from the ceiling and start bouncing everywhere, completely disorienting the player (maybe even throw some key-changing madness to make it even harder to go straight through). Eventually they would settle and the player could get through, but not without difficulty.


Also, I'm sorry if this was on the original list, but...If you had just a really dark room and when the player drops in, he drops all of his torches and light/night-eye spells and then he has to search for the door in complete darkness. Throw in some really eerie sounds and explosions and stuff, and I know that would at least scare the bejesus out of me.

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Post by Gez »

I'm mannimarcking* that thread to say that I think [url=http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=554354]Slof's nifty retex of the Clannfear[/url] could be used to make an unique type of monster (like the Painted Trolls, if you see what I mean) for a Quagmire nightmare. No spaceship of course, but for a claustrophobiac daedric cave (maybe even using scaled-down tiles, to 0.75 for example, it should allow to keep using the snapgrid), with darkness and secret tunnels, it could be nice.


* Mannimarck (verb): performing weak, lame-ass necromancy that embarass everybody.
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Post by El Scumbago »

Necromancy to bring this to your attention:
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=606639&st=0

Since Quagmire is the realm of nightmares, imagine skeletons patrolling the place on their skeletal mounts.
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Post by Hemitheon »

hey why not have special creatures in Quagmire, like Vaernima's ministers. They could be female and they could wear these strange headpieces made up of knives or syringes (like the Queen in the movie Titus) and strange chokers made of hooks which pull their skin away from their faces, so the flesh beneath is exposed. Kinda like a Cenobite. I don't remember if you can see teeth during dialogue, but if you can, their teeth can be shattered and maybe their tongues have been torn out to stop them from screaming. MD had his hierarchy of daedra. Perhaps Vaernima has the same hierarchical system.
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Post by Sload »

In fact there will be such a creature (not necessarily of your descriptions, but still a female Daedra subservent to Vaernima) in Quagmire.
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Post by Eyeball88 »

This thread hasn't been posted in for a few weeks, but I just had an idea about Quagmire and thought I'd share it. Instead of just having randomly appearing Quagmire Oblivion gates, I've got an idea for a quest chain to bring Quagmire to life. This could be the main "Oblivion closing" quest chain to parallel Cyrodiil's, if we plan to make Oblivion a strong focus.

In every town around Hammerfell, a small number of people (maybe two per city) have fallen into deep, unexplained comas. They show faint signs of life, but every attempt made by the locals to wake them up has failed. The player can hear about these coma victims through rumours around town. If the player does act on one of the rumours and visits a coma victim, the family will ask him/her to visit a (high priest? yoku shaman/spirit healer? some sort of authority, though I am leaning towards a tribal yokudan authority.)

Upon finding the shaman/priest, he escorts you to the first coma victim you visited. Nothing he tries has any affect, but he senses a great evil turmoil within each person (he can ask the player to perform a few fetch quests in this portion, if we feel we need to flesh out the action, but it's not necessary.) The shaman/priest says he will go back to his home and meditate on the problem, and asks you to check back with him in a week. After a week passes, and another few people have fallen into the coma-state around the player (to make it seem like an epidemic that is happening all around you) the player returns to the home of the shaman/priest, to find him in a deep coma as well. The player has no clues and nothing to go on, and the quest is put on hold until the next time the player falls asleep.

Without knowing the limits of "cinematic scenes" in the CS, my next thought is that the player would wake from the sleep completely unable to move, laying down looking up as worried NPCs stand over him/her, talking in distant voices that the player can only vaguely hear, about how nothing can be done to wake him/her. After a few more moments of this, the player blacks out again.

Upon waking again, the player is inside Quagmire. The chain of Quagmire portals isn't necessarily important and can be completely random, as long as the player manages to find his/her way out and captures the Sigil Stone. Upon waking in the real world, a quest update suggests that the player visit the shaman/priest again. There is no change in the shaman's state, but a worshipper from one of the Yokuda shrines (perhaps HoonDing) has come to help. He/she tasks you with finding a variety of ingredients, one of which is a Black Soul Gem (the item required to summon Vaernima in Oblivion.) He grinds the ingredients up into a powder and hands it to the player, then tells him/her to cast it upon the fire in the shaman's hut. After he departs, the player activates the powder on the fire and blacks out again. He awakes inside of the shaman's own version of Quagmire. After making it past the first few nightmare situations, the player stumbles upon the shaman cowering in a nightmare situation that depicts something about the Yokudan gods (perhaps the statues of each god being torn down/destroyed, this needs fleshing out.) It is meant to be the most terrifying nightmare for the shaman, the destruction of his core set of beliefs. The player escorts him through the nightmare realm and steals the sigil stone, and when the player returns to the world the shaman is awake as well.

Now that they know Vaernima is the source of these comas, the player and the shaman return to the first victim. Outside of the house, guards are fighting with Quagmire daedra. The player is sent inside of the house to find it slightly twisted, the floors and walls covered with blood/black ooze, whatever, the house is a huge disgusting scary mess. Fighting through a few daedra inside the house, the player returns to the room where the NPC was lying comatose. From the body of the NPC, an Oblivion gate has sprouted, and the player ventures into it.

Along the chain of nightmare events, the player will stumble upon the body of the NPC. This will let the player see how far that NPC progressed through the series of nightmares before finally succumbing/dying. The victim's death triggers the tear that Vaernima needs to open the gateway between worlds, so every coma victim that has died will trigger another gate. The player fetches the stone, the gate is closed and the body of the NPC is returned to the mortal realm.

Now there is a sense of urgency to these portals; the player and the shaman have discovered that an Oblivion gate will open inside a city walls whenever a coma victim passes away. The player must travel from city to city as the reports of gates reach him/her, finding the coma victims and closing their portals. If at all possible, the last city the player visits will have a larger number of victims, and the streets will be in a state of chaos similar to Kvatch. Once the portals are closed and the immediate danger is abated, the player needs to find a way to open the main gateway, similar to Cyrodiil. The only way I can think of achieving this is by having the city guards taking the remaining victims from the first wave of comas and bringing all of their comatose bodies to a location of some signifigance, and then killing them one by one. As they die in the mortal world, they die in the dream world as well, so the gateway is still triggered. All of the gateways being triggered in a small confined space triggers a larger gateway.

This gateway can have the most horrifying nightmares that we have managed to come up with. Some sort of significant daedra fight at the end, maybe finding the daedra responsible for inducing the comas watching the progress of various victims of a second wave of comas through a viewing pool, or perhaps surrounded by the ghosts/spirits of a number of victims. Either way, the daedra threatens to kill the victims himself to bring the final destructive wave of gates into being. The daedra opens a small portal and jumps through it, and the player must chase him/her to save the NPCs. The player does not actually fight the commanding daedra until all of the NPCs are taken care of. Then the player must face off against this daedra in one last twisted, amazing-looking scene. Perhaps the odds are so overwhelming that HoonDing comes to offer the player a hand (if we decide that the savior of the Redguard needs a cameo, that is. he doesn't have to appear.) The player destroys the daedra, takes the main super-sigil-stone and is returned to the world.

From here, the main sigil stone is taken to some temple and a bright light (noon sun in an important temple, or something) shines down upon it, causing it to shrivel up and die. The invasion is over.

---

This was a lot of typing for a quest idea, because I'm not sure if we intend to even focus a main quest on Quagmire. The idea sounded really good in my head, and with some fleshing out I think it could make a much cooler Oblivion quest than Cyrodiil's. With "specific" gates based around specific NPCs, instead of random gates we can give each nightmare realm a theme. Each NPC has something that they fear; drowning, heights, whatever. Certain events within Quagmire can be based around this base fear, making each gate feel real and personal. Additionally, instead of having random gates popping up in the wilderness, the Vaernima invasion is tactically brilliant, because the gates are opened within the cities, making city walls and siege preparations useless. It will make it seem more urgent this way.

I also had a cute idea of an easter-egg gate. Hidden somewhere in a basement or a sewer, a tiny tiny Oblivion gate has been opened. If the player finds it and ventures in, he is faced with a giant cat (the models already exist) slowly chasing him. The player must escape from the cat into another portal, which brings the player into a maze. On a pedastal in the center, the player can see a large wedge of cheese. The player runs through the maze, then gets to the center to find the dead body of a rat stuck in a rat-trap. The next portal is inside one of the holes in the block of swiss cheese.
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Post by El Scumbago »

Fantastic idea, and at least 9/10 of its contents are doable.
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Post by Morgoth Bauglir »

Some ideas:

- The player is bound to a wall with ropes or something. Zombies will cut into your flesh, when you gave up all hope that you'll escape and your health is dropped with 70 or something the ropes will be released and you'll kill your torturers. You can see the ropes on the wall afterwards. When you're stuck you shouldn't be able to go to 3th person and ofcourse can't move. Getting tortured seems like a nightmare to me... After you killed them a portal appears.


- A long hall wich seems quiet and peacefull, but suddenly when you reach the middle of the hall two traps swings towards you from two sides and secret doors in the walls will open and creatures swarm out to kill you. The player should be really confused by the things happening and hopefully freak out. Past one of the secret doors there's a portal. (live detect should be turned of, if possible ofcourse)


- A misty room with a person standing in the middle. You walk towards it and regonise Martin Septim in it. You start to run but just before you reach the moveless person he changes in an undead creature (a lich or a zombie perhaps) and attack you. A couple of other creatures will join the fight. And afterwards a portal might be found behind the place where 'Martin' stood.
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Post by Dexter »

I highly encourage everyone at this project to buy a copy of the Oblivion expansion when it comes out. It will be focusing on Sheogorath's realm. Lucky they didn't pick Quagmire, and lucky that they picked another Daedric realm in the first place. What we should be looking for in the game itself, and in the teasers ahead of time, is the similarities and differences between the two realms, so we have a base of what to work off of.
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Post by Eraser »

I only read through the first page, but I like alot of the ideas, very dream/nightmarish, but also kinda sheogorath mindfuck-like

I was struck by an idea: In these nightmare vaermina realms, you don't actually die(like how nobody ever dies themselves in a dream) but instead you become transported back outside the gate. Could be done like in the canals of vivec where you had to drown in MW.

Similar ideas aren't too big of a deal, especially if we're going for a nightmare feel...many dreams and nightmares seem to be very similar, yet different.

A few of my own:

The beginning prison scene, but the emperor and blades are undead. -similar to others I know, but after such an event, multiple nightmares would stick with someone for a while.

Being in Caius Cosades house and having an ash zombie attack you(normal zombie retextured to save modeling time?)

Being on the prison ship in MW(I think a MW mod did that as a nightmare already though)

Variations of being trapped somewhere.
-one of those cages in oblivion with dead mythic dawn guards, an adventurer(maybe MQ character?) comes along and opens the bottom of the cage, you teleport just before hitting the spike.

-Hanging upside down like those bodies we see everywhere in the deadlands.

A few based on dreams I've had:
You're in some city of cyrodiil, easily recognizable, but everything is different, yet familiar at the same time.

You're in some giant structure (that should be oddly familiar) being pursued by something, but you don't know what or why.

Scenes from various quests, but you're on a different side, or things happen differently.
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Post by lb003g0676 »

Heres some more ideas from me.



1. You are on a HUGE spindly bridge. Basically there is a sense of hope at the end of the bridge. (maybe there is a special sign that Quagmire portals are going to end, and this can be the sign on the otehr side of the bridge)

As the PC starts to cross, Ghosts appear out of nowhere, you fight these off, but as you begin to reach the other side, the bridge collapses, and you fall into blackness.


2. The PC for this level needs to ahve his speed and acrobatics enhanced. Basically as the player appears in a huge Dwemer corridor, it's atleast 50 feet high, and so long, you can't see the end of it. then theres a rumbling, and the PC sees loads of Fireballs and Flame atronachs heading towards him. Really fast (thigns are scarier faster).

While running from the flame atronachs and fireballs, the player sees Frost atronachs and iceballs heading towards them. The only way to escape is use the enhanced acrobatics powers and jump up and out of a passage, into blinding light.
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Post by CleverClothe »

Since this is a general idea, I will put it here.

After watching my brother play Wario Ware, I think it would be cool to have a series of cells that have to be solved in a simple but fast way (no more than 15 seconds).
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Post by El Scumbago »

Here's another idea; the pc's in front of a series of sharp pendulums (like these in the Ayleid ruins), and it seems he needs to synchronise his moves to get on the other side in one piece, but there's no chance he can make it. After some thinking he attempts to and -of course- gets sliced, only to find his health isn't reduced at all. So he moves on, confident that this trap is just an illusion, only to suddenly fall in another trap which he didn't expect, just before he gets past the pendulums.

This was an example of course, the general idea is fake traps that hide real ones, so that the player can be caught totally off guard.
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Post by Gez »

Eyeball88 wrote:After a week passes, and another few people have fallen into the coma-state around the player (to make it seem like an epidemic that is happening all around you)
Possible, these NPCs would be somewhat like the town Sleepers from Morrowind.
Eyeball88 wrote:Without knowing the limits of "cinematic scenes" in the CS, my next thought is that the player would wake from the sleep completely unable to move, laying down looking up as worried NPCs stand over him/her, talking in distant voices that the player can only vaguely hear, about how nothing can be done to wake him/her. After a few more moments of this, the player blacks out again.
Look at the quest "Unfriendly competition", when you have to eavesdrop upon Agarmir and Thoronir. It's definitely possible, although I don't think we can force the "sleeping" animation on the player... But maybe with a paralysis effect...
Eyeball88 wrote:I also had a cute idea of an easter-egg gate. Hidden somewhere in a basement or a sewer, a tiny tiny Oblivion gate has been opened. If the player finds it and ventures in, he is faced with a giant cat (the models already exist) slowly chasing him. The player must escape from the cat into another portal, which brings the player into a maze. On a pedastal in the center, the player can see a large wedge of cheese. The player runs through the maze, then gets to the center to find the dead body of a rat stuck in a rat-trap. The next portal is inside one of the holes in the block of swiss cheese.
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Post by Noirgrim »

Gez wrote: Look at the quest "Unfriendly competition", when you have to eavesdrop upon Agarmir and Thoronir. It's definitely possible, although I don't think we can force the "sleeping" animation on the player... But maybe with a paralysis effect...

There is a function to stop all movement and keyboard commands (used in the final scene when the player is forced to watch Dagon fight Akatosh), but there is no way to make the PC lie down.
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Post by Morgoth Bauglir »

Noirgrim wrote:
Gez wrote: Look at the quest "Unfriendly competition", when you have to eavesdrop upon Agarmir and Thoronir. It's definitely possible, although I don't think we can force the "sleeping" animation on the player... But maybe with a paralysis effect...

There is a function to stop all movement and keyboard commands (used in the final scene when the player is forced to watch Dagon fight Akatosh), but there is no way to make the PC lie down.
Perhaps you can make everything turn around and make the player 'stand' on the wall so it looks, from first person view, that you're lying down.
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Post by CleverClothe »

Morgoth Bauglir wrote:
Noirgrim wrote:
Gez wrote: Look at the quest "Unfriendly competition", when you have to eavesdrop upon Agarmir and Thoronir. It's definitely possible, although I don't think we can force the "sleeping" animation on the player... But maybe with a paralysis effect...

There is a function to stop all movement and keyboard commands (used in the final scene when the player is forced to watch Dagon fight Akatosh), but there is no way to make the PC lie down.
Perhaps you can make everything turn around and make the player 'stand' on the wall so it looks, from first person view, that you're lying down.
How would the NPCs stand up then?
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Post by Morgoth Bauglir »

CleverClothe wrote:
Morgoth Bauglir wrote:
Noirgrim wrote:
There is a function to stop all movement and keyboard commands (used in the final scene when the player is forced to watch Dagon fight Akatosh), but there is no way to make the PC lie down.
Perhaps you can make everything turn around and make the player 'stand' on the wall so it looks, from first person view, that you're lying down.
How would the NPCs stand up then?

I couldn't find the post of Gez... But isn't there a function wich makes the whole world turn around?

Edit: Found it, perhaps make the player stand up in the chest(by making a really high chest), or where he should stand and make the player stand still. The player can look around him (not in third person ofcourse) and it seems like he's lying in a coffin (that was the intention, right?)
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Post by groza528 »

Noirgrim wrote:
Gez wrote: Look at the quest "Unfriendly competition", when you have to eavesdrop upon Agarmir and Thoronir. It's definitely possible, although I don't think we can force the "sleeping" animation on the player... But maybe with a paralysis effect...

There is a function to stop all movement and keyboard commands (used in the final scene when the player is forced to watch Dagon fight Akatosh), but there is no way to make the PC lie down.
I've never used the Ob CS, but is there a command to simulate a knockdown, perhaps?
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Post by Morgoth Bauglir »

groza528 wrote:
Noirgrim wrote:
Gez wrote: Look at the quest "Unfriendly competition", when you have to eavesdrop upon Agarmir and Thoronir. It's definitely possible, although I don't think we can force the "sleeping" animation on the player... But maybe with a paralysis effect...

There is a function to stop all movement and keyboard commands (used in the final scene when the player is forced to watch Dagon fight Akatosh), but there is no way to make the PC lie down.
I've never used the Ob CS, but is there a command to simulate a knockdown, perhaps?
Don't know either but knockdown is always is third person mode.
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Post by Gnomey »

Well, when you're in first person in Morrowind the camera does go down to the ground, so it is also in 1st person there. If Oblivion has it the same way then it should be fairly easy to implement, as long as you make sure that the player doesn't get up again.

However, it would be easier to have it so that the player "doesn't open his eyes", (just sees blackness, maybe by putting something like lava black sqares all around him, or by scripting if possible), and having him not be able to move. He can then listin in on the conversations going on around him. Anyway, the NPCs would notice if his eyes opened, wouldn't they?
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Post by Morgoth Bauglir »

No, if you're knocked down in oblivion the camera changes to third person view and you see yourself falling and eventually standing up again.

BTW, I can't remember getting knocked down in morrowind... Probably me.
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Post by Gnomey »

There are certain requirments before that can happen, I think. Give someone Stendarr's hammer or something similar and tons of strength and you'll get knocked down pretty quickly, especially if you have low agility and are low level in general.

Or you'll die. :P[/off topic]

Anyway, if that's how it works in Oblivion that's how it works, I guess...
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Post by groza528 »

I don't think you get "knocked down" in Morrowind, but you can be knocked out. If someone is fighting you hand-to-hand and drops your stamina to negative it will create the effect Gnomey mentioned.
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Post by Orix »

I've not really added much to this discussion so far, but since Pound recommended I put my ideas on here I will.

Some of the ideas so far don't really capture a nightmarish realm. Nightmares inspire not only fear/anxiety, but sorrow and distress.

Fear/Anxiety - after talking to some friends and musing on the subject, fear comes from:
Helplesness - such as being in an unescapable situation (drowning, falling, being trapped, having no defence, being opressed, facing an unbeatable/larger/scarier foe, impending doom).
Confusion - hearing voices, distorted vision, scary atmosphere, being blinded, taken by surprise, maybe even silence which would induce tension.

Sorrow/Distress - When it comes to sorrow/distress, the concept behind the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse come to mind, Death, Famine, Pestilence and War.
Death - of yourself, beloved others or many others.
Famine - death from starvation, rotting food and people, the rich hording from the poor, people begging for help.
Pestilance - could involve plauged villages, catching disease, people weeping over the dead, piled bodies in a ditch/on fire.
War - could invovle ravaged lands, the Imperial City in ruins, a battle that's being lost, people being shot down, tortured and killed all around you.

Every single room/scneario should induce a state in the player, at least for the first time. Also, perhaps, like a Nightmare, if the player dies s/he is cast out from Quagmire, as if it were a dream. Which would stop players saving in there and dying without a way out.

Also, has anyone come up with a viable reason as to why Vaermina has opened these Quagmire gates? Dagon and Sheogorath have their seperate reasons, so what is hers?

EDIT: Looking back at the first page and reading through the ideas, this could be the work of witches/Vaermina worshippers using liminal bridges to get to her realm, which would tie in well with the Good V Bad mage quests. Or it could be Vearmina looking to pass on some valuable experiance to mere mortals. Maybe a mix of both.
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Post by PoHa! »

Orix wrote:Fear/Anxiety - after talking to some friends and musing on the subject, fear comes from:

- snip -

Sorrow/Distress - When it comes to sorrow/distress, the concept behind the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse come to mind, Death, Famine, Pestilence and War.

- snippage -

Every single room/scneario should induce a state in the player, at least for the first time. Also, perhaps, like a Nightmare, if the player dies s/he is cast out from Quagmire, as if it were a dream. Which would stop players saving in there and dying without a way out.

Also, has anyone come up with a viable reason as to why Vaermina has opened these Quagmire gates? Dagon and Sheogorath have their seperate reasons, so what is hers?
I very much like this train of thought, and the dying thing, at least as far as a concept goes. If you die and then instantly get sent back, then it completely ruins the challenge, no?
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Post by Orix »

If you die and then instantly get sent back, then it completely ruins the challenge, no?
Hmmm... good point, Bethesda certainly hasn't been leniant in the game this way. There are other ways we could do it:
Dying throws the player out of Quagmire then kills them in the "real world" either instantly or a Vaermina Daedra either executes them or hunts the player until they reenter Quagmire and manage to complete it :twisted:,
Dying resets that room (way too easy on the player),
Dying throws player out and seals the gate preventing them from re-entry into that gate (thus robbing the player of the loot)

I was playing with ideas, realities and patterns of Nightmares and Dreams, and how to involve them in Quagmire, I came up with a few concepts, just throwing some ideas out.

Lucid Dream/Nightmare - One instance could involve dialogue with a character in Quagmire who tries to convince the player of something untrue, if the player believes him he cannot escape, but realisation that it is false and they are in Quagmire allows him to take control of the "dream" and escape.

Reoccuring Nightmares - While we'll be reusing many of the Quagmire scenarios, some could become more complex each time they are experianced, the plot within them develops each time a player comes across it.

Deja Vu - Perhaps as part of a quest, the player has a bad experiance in Quagmire that is later repeated in Hammerfell, thus Deja Vu. The correct course of action might be doing the opposite of the Quagmire scenario, since they know what will happen otherwise.

Sleep - Something else I considered would be entry into Quagmire. When the player goes to sleep in certain instances (possibly linked to a quest), the player would find themselves in Quagmire, but initially think they were in a Nightmare, until they find out they've been taken into Quagmire by Vaermina's Daedra while they slept.
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Post by Macar »

The sleep idea is freaky! It take the player by suprize- perhaps they could have this occur before they see any quagmire gates- to give them their first taste of the realm. These would be short trips- to build up anticipation for going into the gates.
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hmmmmmmmmmm

Post by Darkside1998 »

hmmmmm I have a pretty good idea.

You are on a spiral staircase ascending high into the top of a cave. Thre room is filling up fast with lava, so you have to climb the stairs all the way to the top before it reaches you. If you fall into the lava, you die. Maybe there could also be a few weak flying enemies that attack you from the side as distraction. It would almost be like... Mario...
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Post by Joopson »

how about you are sitting in a chair. and when you look up you see a few dead bodies nailed to the ceiling, and when you get up, they start moving ands stuff (atmospheric)


oh, and how about you are just walking in an abandoned house, and you are surrounded by like 6 zombies. and the only way out is through a few weak floorboards, but you dont know which ones they are ^_^

those are my nightmares!
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Post by Parasite »

i dunno if this has been said before. but the cell transitions might be able to be done like the shivering isles, like when your in a room with that guy and the room shatters... im not sure.
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Post by Gnomey »

Well, in the description of Quagmire I read that every few minutes there is a thunder clap and the scene changes, or something similar. Not having played SI and seen the call transitions, though, I'm not sure whether this means that fancier transitions will seem to out of place or that they will blend together smoothly.
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Post by Lady Nerevar »

i think having it change every X minutes acompanied by a thundercrash makes for some borring dungeons since the player dosent get to do anything. having a fancy transition, acompanied with lighting and stuff, between dream loding is i think perfect. we could do special loading screens between quag cells (if thats posible) for added effect.
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Post by Gnomey »

Well, I didn't say how many minutes, did I? All of the dungeons except maybe the large maze ones would take far less time than half an hour, and you could probably even complete the large dungeons in a "matter of minutes". it's not a very specific term. :P

Anyway, I didn't say that we needed to have only a thunderclap and fade, just that a thunderclap is Lore, so it would make sense to include it, and a thunderclap with, say, a bunch of butterflies fluttering around wouldn't look too good. :wink:

By the way, I also read that every nightmare is supposed to be more frightening than the last. I don't really care whether this is listened to or not, but it's worth noting. I'm not even sure whether we already decided to have the nightmares in a specific order or whether putting them in a random string was possible and preferable for completely different reasons, but either way I just thought I'd mention it. :)
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Post by Rathious Galent »

1 idea i just came up with is your in a nice banquet hall where all these folk are dressed up in noble gowns and dressed, but take a closer look and they're faces look undead. So basically you have to go through this maze they call a castle and get outside which will then teleport you to the next area. Oh and all those nobles will be trying to eat you alive.

Another idea is interesting... you are in the form of a creature (any creature) and you are in a swamp, town, or other plan of existence and you find yourself. You have to kill yourself to get to the next realm.
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Post by Jedak »

About the creature one, howabout as the creature you see yourself, and have to let yourself kill yourself.

Does that even make sense? :P

Oh yeah, and sorry for co-necromancing a thread.
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