Halt! Who goes there?

vrover · Post by **vrover** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 7:20 pm

So the other night we were talking about this.. I forget who, just some people on the IRC channel. Btw, I recommend going there, it's extremely helpful and productive at times. Anyhow. I remember one of them was the maker of the Imperial gatehouse, which is how this idea was formed. Sorry if you didn't want me to post this guys, but I thought I might as well put it out here.

We had the idea of Imperial guardhouses, which you have to pass through to get into some or all Imperial cities. A guard at the top would automatically shout "Who goes there!" (One piece of dialogue only, and the Imperial voice isn't too hard to do, I hope.. just sound imperious).

He would then talk to you, and you are given some options to choose from, such as "I am a travelling merchant" or "I am on a mission from the Blades" etc, etc. If you have a valid reason, the gate opens for you. It might be a teleporter door or just an opening door, either one works. Possibly have it locked 100, but have the guard in full sight of the door, so you'd have to kill the guard to get in?

However, and this is the brown crunchy bit in the middle of this french fry, if you were a criminal, the guard would not let you in. I think this works out beautifully game-wise, because obviously they kept law-breakers out in medieval towns. Besides, even if you were a criminal, there would probably be another entrance in the wall somewhere, assuming there is a wall.
Also, like I said up there, we could make it possible to just kill the guard. Is it feasible to script it so if a guard sees you passing through illegally, your crime is reported? Suggestions, additions? Anyone? Perhaps this should go in a different forum, it's just that it's mainly dialogue-based.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 7:40 pm

I'm the 'maker of the gatehouse' vrover mentioned, and while I haven't actually made anything (he sorta sounded like he was refering to a mesh) I have assembled an imperial gatehouse with a working portcullis which is where I got this idea from originally. The portcullis will be closed by default, and the player on approaching the gate will be hailed by the guard as vrover said. He'll be asked what his business is and then if the guard will open the gate. But as vrover said, if you have any bounty the guard won't open the gate, and if your bounty is high enough the guard should start shooting at you from the wall or something

There's of course other ways into the city (at least in the case of Darconis, which is the first city we're adding these gates to - ie: down at the waterfront there's gatehouses without gates, these gates will only be at the main roads), but not by killing the guard, since he's up on the wall and killing him won't open the gate. Other ways in will include levitating over the walls, going through back gates in some cases which don't have portcullises, or sneaking in through a tunnel or something similar if it exists. Hell a character with high acrobatics can even jump over the wall in some areas

Anyway, yes, a voice greeting would be awesome to have, especally concidering the fact that these gates may be used in several imperial cities (there's already plans to put them in old ebonheart as well, and I'm hoping we can get an actual gate mesh rather than using the gates I made out of 60 regular imperial meshes hehe).

sirwootalot123 · Post by **sirwootalot123** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:59 pm

I could TRY the voice for these guards. I think that we should implement guarded gates in most dres towns, with how paranoid they are. Heck, it would be fun to have a town or two where beast race players are automatically imprisoned under the assumption that they are an escaped slave (Silnim Dale and Balsan Mar seem to be the most shady in my mind); and must prove otherwise in a murky interrogation room.

Dreadmaster Errtu · Post by **Dreadmaster Errtu** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:33 pm

Whoa, good idea wooty. Although, I'd assume that the beast race char would have to have a high speechcraft/personality, and that can be quite hard on most.

Idea: probably wrong, but maybe orcs could have the same treatment, assuming the city views them for what a lot are (monsters)

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:07 pm

Hah, excelent idea woot, I'd love to see the dres be openly hostile to all beast race characters. Personally I don't play beast races, but if they actually got really different treatment like that (as I think they should, it's fitting with their status in Morrowind) I would play them

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 6:10 pm

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15433&st=0
Praise Dongle

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:13 am

Honestly I think my hackjob looks better than that for this purpose. Those models are great, but they're gates, and single-door gates too, which is unrealistic for a doorway that large, they'd be double doors for something like that. Plus on a gate this large if it actually had doors, in real life it would have a large set of doors, with a small door set inside one of them to allow people to go through without having to open the big gates (for carts and animals and such). I think this portcullis looks better, and it definately looks better when in motion

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:18 pm

ha, orcs would be gratefully allowed in if they were affiliated with the imperials, they use them as there soldiers

GangstaPenguinz · Post by **GangstaPenguinz** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 6:18 pm

and this is the brown crunchy bit in the middle of this french fry

That is definately the most unusual and interesting metaphore I have ever seen

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:33 am

sorry to ask, a lil of topic, can you jump over your gates? (as in is thre not a locker) and if you do do tey start shooting at you/ give bounty?

Abramul · Post by **Abramul** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:04 am

Yes, you could jump over the gates. I've jumped over the Ghostfence (100 point jump spell, 3 second)

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