elder scrolls mod development thread

[smortt]

version 0.18 released !
download page

done so far : (this list is mostly for me, I keep updating it)

- brand new tech tree
- units
- buildings
- national wonders
- world wonders, including static movies
- unique traits (the idea is to have 1 civilization- specific trait, and another leader-specific)
- some new civics
- about 10 new resources, 4 new improvements ( this proved useful). Actually more, but who counts?!
- religions - simplistic model excluding argonian and bosmer religions.
- unique city styles for all races.
- era-specific city styles (maybe 2)
- graphics for flags

Need to do for next version
- more great people names...
- race-specific-looking missionaries (on hold) and great people (partly done)
- fix some mess with special techs & eras; era pics.
- edit the evil CIV4PlotLSystem for some new resources & improvements to show properly on the map. cry:
- re-think about new units balancing; my initial approach was flawed
- map generator
- think about implementing undead & daedric units
- new animals, monsters, etc.
- change the spaceship parts graphics to fit into my vision.
- graphics for arcane university wonder.
- sounds
- various texts
- add fx & team color support to some units
- change shrines movies.

-----------------------------------------------------------

civilizations:

argonians ("lizard people") - leader "an-xileel" (I realize it's not a single person, but it's the only argonian leader I could think of)
bosmer (wood elves) - leader - camoran anaxemes
altmer (high elves) - leader - thalmor
imperial (humans) - tiber septim
dunmer (dark elves) - vivec
orcs (orsimer) - Gortwog gro-Nagorm
nords (humans of the cold province skyrim) - harald
bretons (humans) - Lysandus, Elysanda
redguards (dark skinned humans) - thassad II
khajiit (cat-people) - the mane

 

[smortt]

deleted

 

[4lexander]

I'm trying to bring tamriel into life in civilization 4

The Nine Divines Bless you man. See below:

religions - 6 religions, all need graphics... - aedra worship, daedra worship, ancestral spirits, 8 divines, monoteism (alessian doctrines...), tribunal.

(I realize it's not the perfect representation, but it's the best I could come up with)

Heresy! The Divines are 9 in number! Seriously, religions variety should not lead to such a break of TES lore.

May I suggest to have the canonical cult of the 9 Divines and add paganism to bring the desired variety?

As you may know, beside the Empire and its worship of "Akatosh and all the (other) Divines" there were other cults, marked as "pagan" ones, this is lore-fidelity.


You may find evidences reading ingame the book "Guide to Bruma", where many Nords are told to "worship pagan gods" instead of the Divines, a very deprecated religious practice.


This is the very only (constructive) criticism I have to point out.

For all the rest, this is simply great!

May The 9 Divines Bless you...


As a final *proposal*, may I suggest you to use FFH as a resource? It already has many features that are either planned or that can be added to the mod.

E.g. Magic (schools) system of FFH can be edited to represent the TES Magic (Schools).

So long you can have your battlemages specializing in Conjuration (summoning skeletons is already present in FFH) instead of Destruction (fireballs are in too).


The list may continue for very long, ranging from FFH Infernals spawning through Portals as a technical base for Oblivion Gates Opening to Guilds give XP to units...


FFH community is very very big and modmods are pretty common, you should soon find very talented people interested to help you out with all of this, artworks etc.

TES is well-known, after all!

Let me know what you think about it.


Anyway, I support your project!

 

[Vylinius]

Don't forget the Argonians and their hist trees that they kind of worship. Anyways good luck I am looking forward to his one!

 

[smortt]

Before Tiber Septim there were 8 divines; and while Tiber is a leader I considered he couldn't be a god too, so I opted for eight divines.

 

[smortt]

work progress:

coding is nearly complete (xml)

graphics: currently making dds icons for buildings and technologies and incorporating various modded buildings graphics...

still needed - graphics for various units... I can't do that...
- wonders, of the listed in one of the above screenshots
-people who know how to change spaceship graphics to turn it into something completely different

 

[4lexander]

Excellent news

 

[Pakhawaj]

Hey, to continue the discussion on religions, the Redguard have a very particular religion similar to the Aztec religion entirely different from all the other religions on Tamriel.
Every race other than the Orcs (as far as I can recall) have their own unique Gods although many Gods are shared, I think every race, maybe even the Redguard worship Akatosh for example.
Aedra worship is redundant since the vast majority of the Gods whom are worshipped as a pantheon (Imperial Cult, Nord Pantheon etc.) are already Aedra.
My memory is a bit fuzzy since I lost interest in the Elder Scrolls with Oblivion but I used to be a big fan so I think this stuff is accurate.

You could include the Sload and the Tsaesci as playable races since both these races have or have had a fairly big influence on Tamriel.

 

[4lexander]

The same could be said about the Akavir


About religions, the dicotomy Aedra/Daedra cult is kind of fundamental good/evil distinction in TES lore.

So I think we should keep at least those two as they are.

While we can have some more liberties with others. The addition of Nord pantheon, Redguard religion and such would be great IMO.

 

[smortt]

Right now the religions work just as in unmodded civ, but with that limited religions mod (alows each civ to found only one). - Religions are discovered by tech, and each religion's effects are exactly the same .
I realize "aedra worship" and 8 divines are essentially the same, they're just names for cyrodiilic and nordic (or altmer??)aedric pantheons ().since religions are not pre-civ-defined, I just can't name them "nordic aedra worship" (what if altmer will get it??)

Thinking of adding 1 or 2 other religions (redguard\ orc-malacath\ hist).

green pact is not a religion but represented differently, uniquely for bosmer. Right now religion's graphics (buildings, missiomaries, founding movies) ARE the original religions (aedra= judaism and so forth...) ; I'm nill at graphics (other than icons), so if anyone is willing to do them, I'll be more than happy.

 

[4lexander]

Well, if you ever want to "lock" religions to their lore owner, you can just make their founding tech a civ-specific one

All in all, the player already made its choice when choosing civ, he has a tons of other choices and he could even change its religion.

What about a Good-Evil-Neutral alignment just like that in FFH? It's a one more reason to use it as a base for the mod. Do you remember my suggestion about magic etc?

 

[smortt]

I'm afraid FFH it's too complicated and big for me to get into right now . So meanwhile I'm using just the bare game. (I read and played it a bit, and trying to borrow some ideas though) Besides, I can't see any civ in elder scrolls which is "bad", "good" of "evil" (maybe thras, but they're still not in).

for now the playable races are the regular 10. May add a few more in the future (more distant one).

Anyone want's to make a map? As I said, I have one made by -sr, but I fear it's too big, and random maps won't be balanced (bosmer won't do well if spawned outside their forests, argonians - jungles, etc.)


p.s. the scope of this project is limited, but I do hope that after the release of this first version more skilled people will join me to expand upon it.

 

[4lexander]

p.s. the scope of this project is limited, but I do hope that after the release of this first version more skilled people will join me to expand upon it.

I wish you to complete this project AND to expand it too. Maybe a further release with proper aid could even see FFH...


As long as for Alignment, I agree about Tamriel races/civs, but what about Dremora? Arre they going to be added? It could be pretty fun using their units


Good work

 

[smortt]

dremora with mehrunes dagon as a leader


Fleshed out the promotions tree ... now mages with many promotions can become extremely powerfull; but for that one really need to specialize.

Regular buildings kind of finished (somewhat erratic collection of graphics from various mods).
- that's excluding religious buildings and national and world wonders.
- archery range graphic from age of ice mod (I think) lags the game... anyone know why? or can suggest another graphic?

I think the timing of this mod is the worst possible - with civ fans moving on to civ5 and elder scrolls fans getting skyrim this weekend. Well, my computer can't handle either of them that's why I'm here

 

[andy12750]

I'm a HUGE Elder Scrolls lore buff, and would love to help you develop this mod. First of all, I would consider changing some of the heads of the civilization. In Valenwood, you should make the leader someone of the Cameron dynasty, as they are the most prominent leaders in Valenwood's history. In TES V, it is revealed that a cult called the Thalmor took over the Summerset Isles, so they would make for a better lead than 'Karoodil of Firsthold'. And in Cyrodiil, I wouldn't suggest using Tiber Septim. He was arguably the greatest leader in the Empire, but like you said earlier he is also a god. And if you are going to have the Divines as a religion, Talos should probaly be a part of that instead. Another leader for Cyrodiil could be a different Septim, Titus Mede or his heir, or maybe even Reman Cyrodiil, the provinces namesake. Same thing with Vivec, he is a member Of the Tribunal.

Another idea for leaders could be to have separate factions in charge of each civilization. Ex. Thalmor- Summerset Isles, An-Xileel- Black Marsh, Cyrodiil- The Empire, Elsweyr- The Mane,
Valenwood- The Tribal Council, Hammerfell- Na-Totambu, Morrowind- The Grand Council, High Rock- Five Kingdoms, Skyrim- The Moot.

Corporations could be replaced with guilds, like the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, the Mages Guild (or the College of Whispers and the Synod), the Fighters Guild, and the Morag Tong.

The religions seem all in order, except Aedra Worship would be the same as the Nine Divines, the Nords have a dragon-based religion whose name I can't remember, the Bosmer worship a forest-god known as Y'Graffe (replace Monotheism?), the Summerset Isles official religion is Daedra Worship, and Khajiit worship Masser (The Moon).

The Tamriel map by -sr does seem like the best idea, and I think he has a smaller version of that map too. It would be a lot easier to just use that than create a new detailed map. But it's your mod and your decision.

If you need anymore lore info or ideas, just ask me. I'm looking forward to seeing this mod released!

 

[4lexander]

First of all, I would consider changing some of the heads of the civilization.


And in Cyrodiil, I wouldn't suggest using Tiber Septim. He was arguably the greatest leader in the Empire, but like you said earlier he is also a god.

And if you are going to have the Divines as a religion, Talos should probaly be a part of that instead.

Another leader for Cyrodiil could be a different Septim Same thing with Vivec, he is a member Of the Tribunal.


The religions seem all in order, except Aedra Worship would be the same as the Nine Divines,

It is exactly what I meant.

Corporations could be replaced with guilds, like the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, the Mages Guild (or the College of Whispers and the Synod), the Fighters Guild, and the Morag Tong.

I think this is an excellent idea

I share all of your post, I just underlined the most important part for me.

 

[smortt]

I'm a HUGE Elder Scrolls lore buff, and would love to help you develop this mod. First of all, I would consider changing some of the heads of the civilization. In Valenwood, you should make the leader someone of the Cameron dynasty, as they are the most prominent leaders in Valenwood's history. In TES V, it is revealed that a cult called the Thalmor took over the Summerset Isles, so they would make for a better lead than 'Karoodil of Firsthold'. And in Cyrodiil, I wouldn't suggest using Tiber Septim. He was arguably the greatest leader in the Empire, but like you said earlier he is also a god. And if you are going to have the Divines as a religion, Talos should probaly be a part of that instead. Another leader for Cyrodiil could be a different Septim, Titus Mede or his heir, or maybe even Reman Cyrodiil, the provinces namesake. Same thing with Vivec, he is a member Of the Tribunal.

Another idea for leaders could be to have separate factions in charge of each civilization. Ex. Thalmor- Summerset Isles, An-Xileel- Black Marsh, Cyrodiil- The Empire, Elsweyr- The Mane,
Valenwood- The Tribal Council, Hammerfell- Na-Totambu, Morrowind- The Grand Council, High Rock- Five Kingdoms, Skyrim- The Moot.

Corporations could be replaced with guilds, like the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, the Mages Guild (or the College of Whispers and the Synod), the Fighters Guild, and the Morag Tong.

The religions seem all in order, except Aedra Worship would be the same as the Nine Divines, the Nords have a dragon-based religion whose name I can't remember, the Bosmer worship a forest-god known as Y'Graffe (replace Monotheism?), the Summerset Isles official religion is Daedra Worship, and Khajiit worship Masser (The Moon).

The Tamriel map by -sr does seem like the best idea, and I think he has a smaller version of that map too. It would be a lot easier to just use that than create a new detailed map. But it's your mod and your decision.

If you need anymore lore info or ideas, just ask me. I'm looking forward to seeing this mod released!

thanx for the post!

leaders - I think I'll go with camoran anaxemes for valenwood, and some factions in provinces without obvious leaders - thalmor, mane, an-xileel. for hammerfell, well, I don't know, "five kingdoms" seems kind of weird. I chose Jolie of daggerfall (the one who led the siege of orsinium), well, I don't know. Vivec and Tiber, well, I prefer to keep them meanwhile. You could say that Tiber the leader turned into talos the god. and vivec is too cool to not to be a leader! Well, I may change that if there's too much objection .
p.s. the "personalities" of the leaders are already completed a couple of weeks ago. I tried to take into consideration the "spirit" of the races. Some unique diplo texts are already in as well ("Hand this over or defy me and feel what it is to stand against a god" ). (most are vanilla though).
Graphics for leaders needed - currently vivec looks like gilgamesh , thassad like zara yaqob, etc. Will static picture leaderheads be better? Or will someone who can create leaderheads will do it?


corporations - guilds : that was my initial idea but after giving it a thought I realized it's better not to, since guilds are imperial idea. so... fighters & mages are unique buildings for imperials, morag tong is a unique national wonder for dunmer (along with the 5 great houses )

religios - I want tech-researchable-religions (like vanilla civ). By 2 aedric pantheons I wanted to represent different kinds of aedra worship - alessia "composed" the 8 divines out of a mixture of aldmeric and nordic gods... so I don't know. "Monoteism" is the alessian doctrines and marukh. I would prefer less race-specific religions.
One of my ideas is 3 race-specific-religions for khajiit, bosmer and argonians, plus the 5 of 6 tech-researchable-religions (aedra, daedra, ancestral spirits, marukh, tribunal, ).
But, again, I'd prefer just 6-8 more "general" religions - 2 aedric pantheons , ancestral spirits, marukh monoteism, daedra (may be couple of different religions too - orcs, pre-tribunal-dunmer, altmer, etc.), tribunal, maybe something else? Maybe skyrim gave some insight on the nordic religion (I don't have it because my computer'll never run it)?


another thing - what do you think about orc cities: since they presumably had only 1 city, someone on beth forums suggested they won't be able to found cities, just conquer them. What do you think about that? (I'ts possible to balance it, just does it sound reasanable )

 

[andy12750]

Guilds are in fact, not Imperial. The Mages Guild was founded in the Second Era, by Vanus Galerion, an Altmer in the Summerset Isles. After the Mages Guild destroyed the Necromancer Army, they received a charter from the emperor allowing them to practice throughout Tamriel. The Fighters Guild was started during the reign of the Akaviri Potentate, by mercenaries from Akavir. And long after the Empire broke up, the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild still operate throughout Tamriel.

Orsinium isn't even technically a province, just a part of High Rock that the Orcs claim to be their own. Perhaps Orcs would make better barbarians than an actual civilization?

In Skyrim, it is shown that Dragon Worship has more or less died out in Skyrim, and the Nords now worship the Nine Divines, in particular Talos. After the Great War, the Thalmor outlawed Talos worship, but the Nords continued to worship him and defy the Thalmor. So the Nordic religion would either be dragon worship or the 8/9 Divines.

Vivec never had any real power in Morrowind, the power was held by King Helseth and his mother, Queen Barenziah. The Queen would make for the best figurehead.

Do you plan on having Great People? Because I could make you a good-sized list of famous people throughout the Elder Scrolls.

 

[4lexander]

I share all of your post again.

Guilds and lore-fidelity Great People would be a nice feature and would go a long way to add depth to the mod.

Hope to see this released soon, smortt, you're not the only one that does not have Skyrim or Civ V yet.

 

[4lexander]

Appendix:


About the Orcs as a replacement for Barbarians, I think it's a good idea and also an original feature.

But what about a Bandit faction instead?

It would be even more effective for immersion in TES world and more lore-friendly, imo.