Construction of a City

[Psyborg]

Hi all. Now this is a thread to discuss possibly the coolest quest in the history of quests (well, to me at least): the [TOPIC NAME]!

A quest such as this has 'limitlessss possssibilitiessss', to quote the G-man. Building buildings, finding workers for the jobs, taking care of crime, dealing illicit goods, evading taxes (cough cough), and other GREAT STUFF! Not only that, but if it's possible, you could get a STATUE OF YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL! That would be so cool, I would wet myself. But anyway, let's hear it, folks. What do you think of the idea?

[Stalker]

STATUE OF YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL!

Aren't u Indoril's brother or relative at least ?

CORE !!! What do u thing about building a city (small one, one cell or less). W\o a statue of course. Maybe some great House quest. But PLEASE not Telvanni one.

[Haplo]

I wouldn't call it a city...more of a village/peaceful town.

[Psyborg]

For the second time, I don't KNOW INDORIL! Not a brother, not related, not even a nod of recognition at some social gathering. I only have one friend who actually has ever played TES (well, and enjoyed it), and he's never been on the site.

And I truly was just kidding about the statue thing. There really would be no reason for it (but it was cool in BGII. Does anyone remember that?).

[Stalker]

"Build your own Narsis"... Now THAT could be fun But yes, small Imperial\Redoran\Hlaalu town would be OK.

[Anonymous]

Great idea! But yes a small peaceful town but I really like the idea about Narsis Anyway that idea about the statue isn't so bad i think i like it

[Haplo]

read the FAQ please Aleric all of them.

[Sniper4]

um....bloodmoon basically did this already

[Anonymous]

Could you be more specific haplo ????

[Morden]

In bloodmoon you could become a colony manager or something and build a village.. i don't see why we can't do it again.

[Garriath]

If we keep this up, the Nerevarine will own 1/4 of Tamriel by the time TR is over .

[Suhn Tarsis]

HAHAHAHAHA, true. But would that be a bad thing? who better then to lay the fate of Tamriel too, then the conquer of Red Mountain, the Bloodskaal of Solstheim, and the religious cleanser of Mournhold? Why not have another side main quest. One where those of you who have read the book Mysterious Akavir will know what I'm about to talk about. Why not have it that the Tiger-Dragon, ruler of the Ka Pon to, finally builds up his lives by his dream and decides to take over the Tsaesci Snake folk on Akavir and then move on to take over Tamriel. The Tsaesci that are able to flee their conquered homeland, go to Argonia were they are moderatly accepted by the Argonian native, them being lizerds too and all. Then with the defeat of the kingdom of Tsaesci the Tiger-Dragon now wishes to conquer Tamriel. (NOTE* this was attempted once before by the forces of Akavir but now the Ka Pon To are much more powerful.) Thats only a little taste of what could be a rather good quest if anyone else believes so please feel free to give me the go ahead to continue. writing it. (NOTE II* if anyone else has already stated something like this please feel free to tell me so as well, the last thing I want to do is step on anyone elses toes, or quests for that matter.)

[Anonymous]

Sounds Great!!

[Indoril]

Aren't u Indoril's brother or relative at least ?

OMG, You Bastard!

J.K.

[Psyborg]

Aren't u Indoril's brother or relative at least ?

OMG, You Bastard!

J.K.

Oh, thanks a lot.

Anyway, I wasn't really talking about a House quest. There's lots of other reasons that you could build a town (city/village, or whatever). In example: the Pilgrims came to the Americas searching for religious freedom, many MANY towns began as fishing towns, docks, or just a place to stop and get a drink on your way to the Wild Wild West. It could even be something such as an aging man wanting to make a mark on the world before he kicked the bucket, and thought he could employ the use of a 'hardy young adventurer such as yourself' to do the tough work. What are some examples of the beginning of cities in real life? Besides exploration and settling a 'new land' (like the city in Bloodmoon) or a House quest. I am getting sick and tired of House quests, sorry to tell you all. A fishing village would be one of the better idea, or manipulate the pilgriamige for religious freedom so it would work better.

See, this idea is so cool cuz' there's so many POSSIBILITIES to do such COOL STUFF!

[Stalker]

If it'll be allowed by the core count me in to help u out.

[Eyeball88]

I personally didn't think that Raven Rock was involved enough... you basically got to choose "Store or Armory" and then "Where should your house be?" I guess it kind of bothered me that in building Raven Rock, I would make a decision, then have to run away for a week.

I think if this is done, there needs to be NPCs for each building, with their own needs. There needs to be a way for the player to have to get the building supplies, like 40 planks of wood and blocks of stone, or escort caravans that will bring those supplies once a week. The player should be able to actually help build.

Maybe have one area of forest that is being logged (which is another thing, I never saw any signs of logging in Morrowind) with a sawmill that you need to pick up planks of wood, and a stone quarry (almost everything in Morrowind was made from stone, but there weren't any of those either!)

Things that the player should have to do:

Hire a team of loggers/woodworkers and stoneminers/stone masons from NPCs around the various taverns of the mainland, then escort a caravan bringing planks and boards every week. Then the NPC should be able to choose from 3 or 4 different "blueprints" for each type of building, so that it's not a "pick one building and place it somewhere." Then the NPC should have to keep his workers fed.

Man, if all of that could happen, I would create savegames at the beginning of the town and go back to them every week, just to rebuild the town over and over again.

Edit: If this is accepted, and there is a possibility for the logging/quarrying/caravan/whatever, I'll help model and texture it. I may not be too great with creatures yet, but I know how to do statics.

I guess what I kind of want is a resource-gathering scenario in Morrowind, where you're actually fully responsible for who gets how much wood/stone and making sure that the mess-tent is fully stocked.

[Stalker]

A bunch of nice ideas Eyeball. Would take a lot of work but would look extremly cool if done properly. The hardest thing is different interiors for each building. No, it's easy to implement but imagine decorating 3-4 interiors per building ! And I really think that it should be a House quest.
Core !

[Kothloth]

Too much work.

[Stalker]

But a lot of fun if done properly. Maybe one interior per building, buildings in fixed positions 9most of them), but leave the rest of the features ?

[Eyeball88]

Well, what if the big part of setting up the town is a bolt-on that can be added once everything is said and done?

[Psyborg]

I thought bolt-ons were just to make it so you could change the original gameplay or Vvardenfell, not because it was too much work. I would be willing to do much of it after I download the various downloads I have to download to do it (OoT, BoT, Map 1-8 bajillion...), which may take three or four years depending on whether anybody puts a high-speed hub near my house.

I could make interiors with only a few downloads, though. And NPCs, right? Just with the OoT and BoT... and if there would be any new interior statics I would need.

[Eyeball88]

Wait, what about that Morrowind Sims Manor mod? I saw it a few months ago on the official forum, though I can't find it again for the life of me. That's going to have a house that you build and then decorate, maybe once they finish that, the scripts from it will make this project easier?

[Stalker]

Scripts are the easiest part of this project. It's simple enable-disable commands.

[Garinator]

lets get morrowind done first. We've still got heaps of map 2 interiors to go.

[Stalker]

So what does it have to do with Morrowind not being done ?

[Psyborg]

I hate to sound like the annoying little goober that I am, but could someone please answer this question? I kind of liked my idea... and I wouldn't like to see it go the way of legwarmers or- heaven forbid- Pokemon. So... please?

[Zalzidrax]

Well, compose a quest proposal.Probably need to think up a good background to get the player into the construction project. Perhaps a newly discovered mine - but that's already been used with Raven rock, or some sort of industrial town. At any rate, I'm quite willing to help you on this one with ideas, interior design, (maybe) scripts, etc.

[Sniper4]

So what does it have to do with Morrowind not being done ?

Well, we need all the people and resources we can get to finish Morrowind. If a massive percentage of our membership is working on boltons, then we will be getting Morrowind done sometime in.....2012

[Zalzidrax]

Morrowind isn't done until it kicks ass. If we don't do something that kicks ass, then it won't get done as fast.

[Psyborg]

Amen to that, Zalz.

percentage of our membership is working on boltons

Why does it have to be a bolton? It's pretty much the same idea as in bloodmoon, so it's not drastically changing gameplay or anything.

[Dragon]

Become the leader of a expanding necropolis, defend against raiding barbarians, fight crime, kill political enemies, plan expansions, make traderoutes with neighbouring city, hire an army, conquor land..

[Sniper4]

Requirements to not be bolt on:
-your own exterior claim (unless this was strictly a quest....however it would still have to go through all the layers of review to become official and not a bolt on)
-Approval from the core (just to start this)
-Follow lore 100%, as well as following realism.
-Everything goes through the proper layer of review (including exterior detailing, interior review, NPC review, quest review, and also including the individual claiming of all the above at the appropriate time).
-All layers must be submitted and passed by the proper reviewing authority seperately.
-This must be properly planned out before construction and approved by the core layer by layer (when each time comes).
-Nothing may be deliberately hidden from the core.
-more requirements may exist as well

Other things to acknowledge:
-The core may halt this at any time, for a variety of reasons, especially for breaking the above terms.
-This will take forever. There are other ways to make Morrowind "kick ass."
-One small problem at the beginning of construction can unravel and create a bunch of huge problems later on.
-This will require alot of scripting manpower. We have a very limited supply of scripters.

Estimated time to complete:
Planning: months
getting acknowledgement: about a week
finding a good claim: varies
building the base exterior claim: a month or more
approval of exterior after submitting: varies
interior building: for a small town, about a month if done properly. Maybe two months. Don't forget that that map has to be open for interior claiming as well .
interior review: weeks, months. Depends on what map it is on. If it's on map 6, then deffinately quite a few months
NPC completion: unknown
NPC review: all depends....
Scripting: months
Script review: months

So there ya have it .

[Dreadmaster Errtu]

ouch...long time for Grunk. Grunk want now!

[Psyborg]

My brain... overload...

Maybe you're right. I can "see where you're coming from" (which is now SWYCF, and is my new hip 1337 speak-ese phrase. I will now transmit all thoughts to this glorious language).

IMHO, i ddnt thnk it wuld take so much time, now i SWYCF. sertanly many lay3rs 2 go thru 2 get sumthing like this dun. ): oh well thers alwayz nxt time.

(Never mind, that's too much work. I quit and resign as a 1337 speaker for today. Though what I said still stands: it would take too much work and I can SWYCF.)

[Eyeball88]

Ok, I've always known that this would be difficult, and probably wouldn't make the final cut, but I felt it was worth pitching anyways. Here's what I had written down in a text file, that anyone can feel free to criticize/add on to.

Possible ideas (ie: I think they're a lot of work, so if other people don't think they're worthwhile, they can be cut.)

Construction of a City

With the recent success of the Raven Rock settlement, and the end of Vvardenfel’s quarantine after the defeat of Dagoth Ur, the East Empire Company (EEC) is looking to expand it’s trade borders. A new demand for lumber and stone to help build housing, as well as raw materials from neighbouring Cyrodill, has convinced the EEC to construct and populate a new border settlement. This future settlement will serve as a trading post between provinces, as well as offering protection from bandits and wild creatures.

As one of the biggest private projects undertaken in the Morrowind province, the EEC is looking for a skilled, trustworthy leader to take control of the construction.

Pre-requisites:

Construction of the Raven Rock settlement.
This can be explained as evidence that there is a lot of profit to be made in Morrowind, as well as a damn good thing to put on a resume for a job like this.
Defeat of Dagoth Ur.
This is necessary to help accelerate trade, as well as open up the possibilities of new trade with the quarantine being lifted. This also means that it’s a quest that the player can do after they finish the game, giving a bonus difficult mission for further playability.

Duties:

Quest 1:
The player will have to set out and find an acceptable location to build, harvest wood and mine stone. There will 1 location that the player may go to set up the settlement, along the border of Cyrodill (One of the various “passes,â€Â￾ along the border, Septimsgate or Shadowgate or whatever.) This location will just be an open, flat area with a tough ogre living in a nearby cave. The player must kill the ogre. The ogre will have a huge log club.

Because the pass is nestled in amongst mountains, there will be an abundance of stone. The player must find a natural stone pit with stone for construction work. The pit will be filled with water from a nearby stream. The player must follow the stream to its source, and dam it. There will be two big rocks at the mouth of the stream acting as an activator.

The player must find a suitable log to dam the stream. The ogre’s club will fill this position, so the player must carry it to the other rocks, and then use it. The club will fit into place, and when the player returns, the stream will be gone. (This can all be achieved using the various water and stream meshes.)

The last bit will be to find a fairly dense forest (as dense as the engine can handle,) with a clearing to set up a logging camp. Some minor quest could be involved with his as well, something like killing some bandits to clear the area. (There has been a request for new Morrowind-styled bugs, similar in hierarchy to Kwama (small, medium and large evolutions of the bug,) so maybe an infestation of these can be in the forest.) Once all three steps are complete, the player can return to the EEC headquarters.

Quest 2:
After finding and clearing the spot, would be to recruit workers. He will be given a few locations to find good workers (certain pubs, etc.) and he must go and convince at least 20 people to join.

Possibility; Then the player must choose one foreman for each job (the company will list 3 possible candidates, each with their strengths and weaknesses.) The foreman could affect things like this; a foreman who gets the job done faster will work his men harder, requiring more food and pleasurable items to keep the men happy. A foreman who is a great hunter could eliminate the need for the player to gather food, but would take longer to build. Etc. Each of these foremen can be assigned by the player to one of the sites; building, logging or mining.

If above idea is too much work, then convincing the three foremen will be slightly more difficult than recruiting the average worker, perhaps requiring each foreman to ask a little favour.

Quest 3:
Once the player has done this, he must escort a caravan with the foreman to the build site. Once there, the foreman and 8 other workers will set up a makeshift headquarters, and a food store in the abandoned cave.

After this, the player must return and escort another caravan to the stone pit. Once there, the 6 workers will begin construction of a quarry hut.

The final step will be to bring a caravan to the logging site. The final 6 workers will begin to set up immediately.

Upkeep:
A simple quest, the player must wait a week since the last step, then bring food to the logging camp and the quarry. After this, these camps will need food every two weeks (A message will pop up to remind you.)

The player will need to escort a caravan to the camps. When the player goes inside to talk to the Foreman to drop off the food, he will give the player the resources from the past 2 weeks. The player must take these resources to the construction site every 2 weeks, or else they can not continue construction.

Quest 4:
The constant noise from the construction site has caused some animals in the surrounding mountains to become aggressive. The player must defeat a group of (insert monsters here!!!) that have been threatening the camp.

Possible: Then the player must take a woodcutter’s axe and find some certain, unique trees; these trees will be containers holding big logs, that can only be accessed when holding the woodcutter’s axe. The player must go out and obtain a certain number of logs (each one will weigh 100-200 pounds.) Once the player has given the foreman that amount of logs, the workers will build a palisade wall around the camp.

If this idea gets axed, the foreman will build the palisade wall next time the player come around.

---

There's a beginning, anyways. I think it fits within lore (the ogre is mentioned as a Morrowind creature.) and it isn't entirely unrealistic. The scripting shouldn't be too hard, as it's mostly similar to Raven Rock (checks to see if the player has supplied certain NPCs with required goods, statics changing while the NPC is gone, etc.)

[Nomadic1]

Nice start 8) A bit of overkill in places though. Like damming the stream yourself, a bit too much. And cutting down trees yourself, why would you make the player get people to cut down trees when the player is going to have to cut down trees.

I like the parts about finding a suitable quarry, escorting the caravans, recruiting workers and foremen (although I reckon that you shouldn't have to go up 20 people, maybe each foreman has a crew of his own), and forcing the player to keep bringing the workmen supplies.

[Eyeball88]

You're probably right, but I wanted there to be some difficulties in getting the quarry set up so it wasn't just a "run to the middle of nowhere, run back," kind of thing. Oh well. Also, I remember someone was really wanting to be able to cut down their own trees, so I threw that in as a bonus.

Edit: A list of things that I can see us needing.

A unique Guar that is hitched to a wagon. There will be 4 different variations of the wagon. One will have general supplies, one will have stone blocks, one will have wood boards, and one will be empty.

Most of the tools are close to being done.

Big pieces of Stone and Trees need to be created as creatures. The trees need to be two different creatures; standing upright (like a normal tree) and felled tree on its side. This will allow the NPCs to attack the trees and stone, making it look like they are mining and cutting.

Anything else?

[Nomadic1]

Hmmm... maybe you need to escort a professional mason / quarrier to the quarry site, and then back. If he dies, then you have to pay 10,000 gold to get someone in a distant quarry to help you, as well as have to help escort the stone arriving to the settlement and to deliver food to them. Probably not, maybe once you found the site you have to escort a caravan ready to leave 24 hours later to the quarry site?

PS: What about plain striders, always wanted to see them in action alongside the guar.

PPS: What would be in the settlement anyway? Several houses, a general goods store, an armourer / weaponsmith, and a tavern / inn for sure. Anything else?

[Eyeball88]

The settlement would probably have four watchtowers, a big inn for weary travelers going between Cyrodiil and Morrowind (last eats for 50 miles!) an armory, a big trading post, and a stables to rest and feed your animal.

After the stables is built (I think the player should choose which order to build the important buildings in,) there should be a fast-travel option by a Guar caravan. It would just take you to the nearest town.

As for striders, I'm not sure if that would work. I'd like it too, though.

The player could choose to build four different buildings in any order. The armory would get unique weapons from Cyrodiil, as well as making it so that the player no longer has to bring fresh tools every few weeks. The stables allows fast travel between the nearest town. The inn makes it so that you don't need to feed the construction workers, and makes the workers happier. The trade post will have a rich merchant, and unique items, as well as some other bonus.