Finally a first look at it, even though it was supposed to be out in early January... Any thoughts? We have pretty amazing creative minds around here, so I assume some of you already have plenty of ideas for mods and maps in Skyrim. Care to share them?
I personally would like to create a prison mod, not just like Markarth where you have to talk to 3 guys to get out, but rather like a "prison break" mod where you really have to make a plan to escape a heavily guarded prison (dealing objects with prisoners and ultimately crafting your own weapon, corrupting guards, planning the best escape route, unexpected events like shakedowns, being moved from a cell to another, daily routine like eating at the cantina and such, etc...).
First of all, nice to hear that the creation kit is coming out finallly!
Yea, I thought about modding for skyrim, but that was before Zelda started the RuneCraft project again (About every 2-3 months he says "Oh yea, Im working on RuneCraft again" and I say "Oh, cool. Ill try and do my part as well" and then we both give up the next day. Luckily for us this time we went through with it.) This thread and seeing the SkyrimForge bookmark on my toolbar recently made me think about modding again. What I had in mind was a possibly very large mod.
To explain a bit... I write as a hobby. I've got quite an active imagination and can't help myself to think of stories, especially when listening to music I like (Just dowloaded the AC2 OST, I like , which is pretty much the main soundtrack of the game) One of the stories I wrote (and the one I wrote the most on. 380ish pages currently, A4, arial font size 11, although 100 of those pages got scrapped, still have em though) I called "Valkyrie", and I thought something like it would totally fit Skyrim. In short, the Valkyrie, just like in norse mythology, leads the souls of fallen warriors off the battle-field. In my story, there are "Reapers" that usually do that job, but sometime during the middle ages one of those Reapers asked the souls of the dead to give her their remaining power. Using that power, she became a powerful magician and warriors, and the first Valkyrie, and used her death to seal a deal with the Grim Reaper to have her and the other three Valkyrie's souls reincarnate and keep the power they collected. The story itself is in a present setting with a girl that is the reincarnation of that first Valkyrie as the main character, and therefore one of the most powerful people on earth, and the other powerful people don't like competition.
Now, about the Skyrim mod, I thought about using the basis of that story to replace the Dragonborn part of the game (First just add alternative spells and ways to collect power, once I got that down add special equipment gotten through completing a seperate quest line, and eventually just completely replace the main quest with a Valkyrie questline (It fits in with the current story. The big black dragon whats-his-name (Alduin?) is practically eating souls before they reach Sovngarde. A Valkyrie wouldn't like that, would she? I could probably keep most of the main questline intact, would just have to swap out dialogs that say "Dragonborn" and give alternative powers to replace the shouts that are absolutely needed by the game, then maybe switch out a few NPCs here and there, and completely avoid the greybeards and add something Valkyrie related instead)
It's a big idea I have, and I highly doubt I'd ever finish it. I doubt I'd ever get to the part of replacing the main quest.
About those extra spells/powers... I thought about letting you talk to the souls of dead people. Some would just outright not like you and pass away, others would be grateful for you being there and give you their power, others would require you to do a certain task first before getting their power (Like delivering a messaged to their family, getting revenge, or whatever) The power would then accumulate, but it would be sort of 1-use only; you use it, you don't get it back (Perhaps I'd add some form of regeneration, would have to see how the system works out)
Then the spells you would get to use instead of shouts would consume that energy, and in general you should be able to easily wipe out any enemies rather quickly if you use a lot of those spells (which would of course end up expensive)
It's the best idea I could come up with.
Another idea I had, before that one, was to recreate something along the lines of Shivering Isles. Sheogorath is by far my most favourite character in the game (and Oblivion), and I'd like to see more of him. But I haven't really gone into detail with that idea... I'd just like to do something with him, something absolutely ridiculous, absurd, and obviously insane.
It's a big idea I have, and I highly doubt I'd ever finish it. I doubt I'd ever get to the part of replacing the main quest.
It makes me wonder how much we can edit the game with the toolset. I doubt you'll be able to do everything you planned, but it's worth trying. I never actually made a mod for Oblivion but I used to love Neverwinter Nights and its toolset, and each time I had a good idea for a mod I realized sooner or later that the coding part is a real hell for anyone not into programming. I assume it's pretty much the same with Skyrim and Oblivion, everything has to be scripted so it's pretty much impossible to do it alone (unless you're OK with spending months, if not years, on a single mod with no guarantee of it being worth).
EDIT: The editor is finally available! You can download it by selecting View > Tools > Creation Kit on Steam.
Here are some news about the Skyrim Creation Kit from the Bethesda blog:
http://www.bethblog.com/2012/02/01/first-look-creation-kit-and-skyrim-workshop/
Finally a first look at it, even though it was supposed to be out in early January... Any thoughts? We have pretty amazing creative minds around here, so I assume some of you already have plenty of ideas for mods and maps in Skyrim. Care to share them?
I personally would like to create a prison mod, not just like Markarth where you have to talk to 3 guys to get out, but rather like a "prison break" mod where you really have to make a plan to escape a heavily guarded prison (dealing objects with prisoners and ultimately crafting your own weapon, corrupting guards, planning the best escape route, unexpected events like shakedowns, being moved from a cell to another, daily routine like eating at the cantina and such, etc...).
For those of you who don't know yet, the Skyrim Creation Kit is to be released this Tuesday! :)
Ah, I now remember I wanted to post here...
First of all, nice to hear that the creation kit is coming out finallly!
Yea, I thought about modding for skyrim, but that was before Zelda started the RuneCraft project again (About every 2-3 months he says "Oh yea, Im working on RuneCraft again" and I say "Oh, cool. Ill try and do my part as well" and then we both give up the next day. Luckily for us this time we went through with it.) This thread and seeing the SkyrimForge bookmark on my toolbar recently made me think about modding again. What I had in mind was a possibly very large mod.
To explain a bit... I write as a hobby. I've got quite an active imagination and can't help myself to think of stories, especially when listening to music I like (Just dowloaded the AC2 OST, I like , which is pretty much the main soundtrack of the game) One of the stories I wrote (and the one I wrote the most on. 380ish pages currently, A4, arial font size 11, although 100 of those pages got scrapped, still have em though) I called "Valkyrie", and I thought something like it would totally fit Skyrim. In short, the Valkyrie, just like in norse mythology, leads the souls of fallen warriors off the battle-field. In my story, there are "Reapers" that usually do that job, but sometime during the middle ages one of those Reapers asked the souls of the dead to give her their remaining power. Using that power, she became a powerful magician and warriors, and the first Valkyrie, and used her death to seal a deal with the Grim Reaper to have her and the other three Valkyrie's souls reincarnate and keep the power they collected. The story itself is in a present setting with a girl that is the reincarnation of that first Valkyrie as the main character, and therefore one of the most powerful people on earth, and the other powerful people don't like competition.
Now, about the Skyrim mod, I thought about using the basis of that story to replace the Dragonborn part of the game (First just add alternative spells and ways to collect power, once I got that down add special equipment gotten through completing a seperate quest line, and eventually just completely replace the main quest with a Valkyrie questline (It fits in with the current story. The big black dragon whats-his-name (Alduin?) is practically eating souls before they reach Sovngarde. A Valkyrie wouldn't like that, would she? I could probably keep most of the main questline intact, would just have to swap out dialogs that say "Dragonborn" and give alternative powers to replace the shouts that are absolutely needed by the game, then maybe switch out a few NPCs here and there, and completely avoid the greybeards and add something Valkyrie related instead)
It's a big idea I have, and I highly doubt I'd ever finish it. I doubt I'd ever get to the part of replacing the main quest.
About those extra spells/powers... I thought about letting you talk to the souls of dead people. Some would just outright not like you and pass away, others would be grateful for you being there and give you their power, others would require you to do a certain task first before getting their power (Like delivering a messaged to their family, getting revenge, or whatever) The power would then accumulate, but it would be sort of 1-use only; you use it, you don't get it back (Perhaps I'd add some form of regeneration, would have to see how the system works out)
Then the spells you would get to use instead of shouts would consume that energy, and in general you should be able to easily wipe out any enemies rather quickly if you use a lot of those spells (which would of course end up expensive)
It's the best idea I could come up with.
Another idea I had, before that one, was to recreate something along the lines of Shivering Isles. Sheogorath is by far my most favourite character in the game (and Oblivion), and I'd like to see more of him. But I haven't really gone into detail with that idea... I'd just like to do something with him, something absolutely ridiculous, absurd, and obviously insane.
It makes me wonder how much we can edit the game with the toolset. I doubt you'll be able to do everything you planned, but it's worth trying. I never actually made a mod for Oblivion but I used to love Neverwinter Nights and its toolset, and each time I had a good idea for a mod I realized sooner or later that the coding part is a real hell for anyone not into programming. I assume it's pretty much the same with Skyrim and Oblivion, everything has to be scripted so it's pretty much impossible to do it alone (unless you're OK with spending months, if not years, on a single mod with no guarantee of it being worth).
EDIT: The editor is finally available! You can download it by selecting View > Tools > Creation Kit on Steam.