Deeza's Plan for the Abacean Isles release

[Deeza]

Captain Alusan... not bad.

[drmccoy]

OH MY GOD! Why!! Why god, whyy?? Why did i volunteer for this awful job?! Alright, joke's on me. The boat interior's are a BITCH to build. They're not calculated whatsoever, so forget the snap to grid function. That's gonna take a while.. Anyhow, where was I. Oh yes, Thank you for the note! =D


Edit: alright, i guess they're calculated on somewhat. Still it's gonna be weird. I took a look at some vanilla cells, so it shouldn't be too hard. I can build a boat X(

Final: Alright, the boat is really gonna take some time. But that's fine. I'll make it rather good and take a long time than making it fast but really crappy. However, I will have to leave you for tonight. -doc out

[Deeza]

I had no idea the boat tiles were so bad... strange that should be so when the others work so well. Good luck with that!

It's more important to take your time and get it right, as you say. In the meantime I will modify the original story (I wrote it without seeing the finished islands, so some parts need to be changed now) and rewrite the dialogue for the characters.

I just thought, we could make a joke out of the ship not being docked at the Anvil docks, Olurion could say something about the Captain not wanting customs officers to look at his ship... turns out he's smuggling skooma in the hold or something.

As for the player waking up, I guess the bottom of the ship would be best, next to a bed (that way they have to walk past all your work on the way out ) The bodies could be one of the orc mercenaries, or maybe a sailor you could add to the ship.

@simonp92
Yes I do mean town crier. Believe it or not, it was a real job in the middle ages before they had advertising billboards, getting some poor guy to go round shouting about what you wanted to sell

[drmccoy]

Well, I got the interior outlines, they are working. What's not working are the walls the part the body of the ship into several rooms. I'm thinking about also creating a lower deck, depending on wether I get to fit everything in the one deck.

As for the ship: I will set it noth-west of the docks, out on the sea, and little paddle boat on the shore including the ticket guy, which will take you to the main boat. I suggest to teleport the player aboard the Ship in anvil and start the journy once he activates the cabin door or something like that. Gives him freedome to talk to some of the passagers onboard and to look around first (this solution would also allow me to spare the not-wrecked ship interior)

The player will wake up at the front of the ship interior, having to make his way through the ship's body, at the back of the ship, there'll be a door leading to the captain's room, and from this one you'll be able to enter the exterior.

I'll keep on working on it as soon as I come home

Edit: Alright, slight change of plans. I realized that the outside model of the wrecked ship has the captain's room door destroyed, so coming out of there would be highly .. not possible. The ladder leading up to his room is now blocked by something heavy, probably by the mast piece that crashed into the cabin. Another ladder leading to the deck has been created in the middle of the ship. I'm using a slight blue, dark color for the ambient light, no other lightning resources. It's tipped and filled with water, sounds of thunder rain and wind have been included. Looks surprisingly good. I'm about to clutter the interior, but i don't want to overdo it. Anyhow, I came to hate the ship tileset. If you have another ship in plans, I'm so not gonna do that

[Deeza]

No more ships, don't worry I'd very much like to see this when it's done at last!

I will post up the revised main quest tonight.

[drmccoy]

Take your time. I'm taking an off time of the ship atm and corrected the position of the ship in anvil. It's out on the sea now, a rowboat including the ticketseller NPC is on shore. The note will lead you to him via quest targets. If you pay the ticket price (I would at last need some dialogue ideas. How much is it gonna cost and where's the ship heading?), he will take you to the ship and, if you're not ready to go yet, back again. Talking to the captain or entering the captains cabin will result in the ship departing.

[simonp92]

its good to hear some progress is made!!

[Deeza]

I guess the ticket would be quite expensive (at least a few hundred gold pieces), this is why I wanted to make it an item (just a rolled-up scroll called "Passage to Valenwood" as a quest item in the player's inventory). This way the player could haggle over the price with Olurion.

The ship is going to Southpoint, which (I've just made this up) is an Imperial colony in the south of Valenwood, the headquarters of the South Sea Company, who trade Bosmer goods for Cyrodiil wood (its against the Bosmer religion to use wood from their own trees, so they have to import it all). The ship is mostly carrying supplies and Company staff.

[drmccoy]

Your note says, it'll be 300 gold. Want me to stick to it or create an item and have the player trade it?

[Deeza]

I reckon we should create an item you can trade, that way gamers won't complain that you can't start the quest without being rich.