Insurrectum: 1775-1783 is a planned total overhaul for Bethesda Softworks' "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion"?. This modification aims to bring a completely new gameplay design to The Elder Scrolls IV, whilst also adding in an entirely new tactical, political, and economic depth to the game never thought possible.



The Concept

Insurrectum, as its entire name implies, is set in the years of the American Revolution, from the Dawn of War at 1775, to the Franco-Spanish-American victory (or Anglo-Hessian victory, depending on how the modification is played) in 1783. The modification will feature:

1. Gunpowder weaponry

2. An entirely new world map based on the 13 Colonies

3. Cavalry, artillery, and possibly naval warfare

4. An overhauled political and economic system

5. Native American factions that can be joined

6. Entirely new factions, items, quests, etc. etc..



The Plot

We at the Insurrectum team have attempted to allow as much open-endedness and freedom to the modification as possible.

The main character begins as one of the following races:

1. Caucasian

2. African-American

3. Native American

in a prison in New York. You are called forth from prison by the new Continental government to fight the British, Hessians, Loyalists, and Natives allied with the British. This is where the path branches off: you may choose either to fight for the Patriots and their allies, the British and their allies, or simply escape and fight for no one but yourself. The main Patriot quest is to liberate all of the 13 Colonies from British control. The main British quest is to kill or capture all members of the Continental Congress and General George Washington. Playing as a lone man has no main quest, unless you enlist as a mercenary for either side.




OTHER FEATURES

Diverse Weaponry!: Numerous firearms and melee weapons are available. Numerous types of muskets, including Charlevilles, Kentucky Long Rifles, Jaeger Rifles, Brown Besses (including long-pattern, land-pattern, short-pattern, naval-pattern), Blunderbusses, pistols, sabres, knives, swords, axes, even farm tools and bottles!

Spells Revamped!: "Magic" spells are completely removed, and are replaced with item functions. Use the Mud effect to cloak yourself from wildlife and troops! Use a variety of tactical abilities, such as Rally, Feign Retreat, and more!

Overhauled AI!: The AI has been completely revamped, using a combination of numerous modifications for AIs (credits to be listed at Insurrectum's release). Soldiers march in lines, fire accordingly, use various tactics! Townsfolk trade, talk, go on their own "quests", follow full schedules, and even form such things as witch hunts and Loyalist/Patriot hunts!

Varying Accuracy!: Tired of ranged weapons always hitting 100% on their mark in The Elder Scrolls IV?? No more! Muskets are wildly inaccurate, rifles are accurate but very slow, and so on and so on!

New Factions, Nations, and Warfare!: Factions are (numbers coinciding said factions represent allegiance, 1 for British, 2 for Continentals, 3 for Bandit, 4 for hostile Native, 5 for Civilians. Hostile Natives are hostile to all factions, even themselves, Bandits are hostile to all factions but themselves, British are hostile to Continentals, Bandits, Patriots, Hostile Natives, but neutral to the Colonists. Continentals are hostile to the British, Bandits, Hostile Natives, Loyalistis, but neutral to the colonists):

1. Kingdom of Great Britain (1)

2. Continental Rebellion (2)

3. Kingdom of Hesse-Kassal (1)

4. Non-aligned Cherokee (4)

5. Non-aligned Iroquois (4)

6. Empire of France (2)

7. Kingdom of Spain (2)

8. United Dutch Provinces (2)

9. Bandits, thieves, etc. (3)

10. Colonists (5)

11. Loyalists (1)

12. Patriots (2)


Revamped Warfare

Unscripted battles! Watch regiments of men engage in fierce gunfighting completely on their own thanks to InsuRadiant AI!?





What We Need!

We realize this modification is extremely complex and definately has very high aspirations, but we are certain that, if some of the most professional modders, scripters, and designers can join together with us, this mod can truely reach its potential. This modification isn't meant to be an overhaul in technicality, but a completely new game, in essence.

If you are interested in offering us your assistance, please send me a private message with what position you would like and your past experience. We are strongly hoping Bethesda Softworks may even pick up on this mod and make a fully new game out of this concept. They've done the Middle Ages, the post-apocalyptic future, so why not do the time period in the middle of those two? Remember, many famous games such as Valve Corporation's Counter-Strike: Source? started as user-made modifications!


We hope this mod will reach its potential, and we hope the community will enjoy it!
-Our best regards, the Insurrectum Mod Team.

What personal experience do you have in Oblivion modding? How will you be contributing?

Most of us at Insurrectum have a fairly good deal of modifcation experience. Little The Elder Scrolls IV? experience, however, which is why we are urging any experienced moderators to join us.

We're more of the idealists behind it.

Idealists or not, you and the team will need to work on things, know your way around the CS and check if your features are doable in with Beth's CS, which is much different than other modification tools in terms of scripting and customization. Scripting wise, you can't program/script as much as what you can see in Valve's games for example.

I see

Your enthusiasm is great and it's good to see people driven to create such mods, however, being an idealist isn't really enough to get a mod going

I think you've started too big. Experienced modders have there own ideas. It's not a case of there's so much time but so few good ideas, it's a case of there are so many thing I want to create but so little time

Sadly...this sounds like an idea that will die out...

this kind of mod sounds like it would fit better in fallout 3. at least then you would have proper fire arms working then.

Be aware, OP: A massive project spearheaded by a team of "idea men" with no CS experience? Threads such as these usually go over about as well as a fart in church. People here will want to see what you are capable of accomplishing before committing their valuable time to the fruition of someone else's ideas.

Showing some examples of what your team has already accomplished, even in modding for other games, would go a longer way towards attracting assistance than just stating your ambitions for a possible modification.


Good luck.

Nehrim (AFAIK the only finished big total conversion) took years to make with a whole lot of very experienced TES modders. :shrug:

Indeed, as Cliffworms said, overhaul mods are extremely rare for TESIV, if not solely because of how limited scripting is for Oblivion. (Compared to modding for Half-Life, or Diablo II, or Warcraft & so on, Oblivion has very limited script capacity.)

As GreenWarden said, proof of your modding experience would help establish yourselves better in TES's modding realm. (Be it TES mods that you've made or mods for other games.)

Not going to happen. Seriously. If you want to make a mod, you've got to go at it as if you're the only one that's going to work on it. If you've already got a team committed, you've got to approach it as if that's all the modders you're going to get, and you've got to be prepared to lose most of them along the way.

That's the reality of the situation. Even a cohesive team will lose members, and the longer a mod takes, and the more complex it is, the more likely it is people will leave. Most 'professional modders' are such because they're extremely busy - either they've got their own work that makes them the standard they are, or they're in high demand due to their skills, so it's unlikely that you'll get any help from them.

If you're already aware of the hardships ahead, then don't mind me, and good luck. If not, well, you have been warned.

So that is about 99% can't be done and 1% we got this made

EDIT...I noticed the OP joined yesterday and has a grand lifetime total of 2 posts. Just sayin...

EDIT2...I'm not saying there is no chance, just sayin...

Hopefully they've taken the advice, there's no reason to poke at them like that

Still, I agree that posting any work they've done on other games would build on their credibility

Someone else already sort of suggested it, but I'll mention it again. This idea would probably work better if you used the Fallout 3 engine as a basis instead. It already has firearms support and deals with weapon inaccuracies in a far better way than Oblivion can. There's nothing that says you have to stick to using post-apocalyptic materials. You'd be having to create your own models and textures anyway since neither game has assets appropriate to the American Revolution.

We thank you all for your help. We'll take up your offer and switch this to Fallout 3?'s engine. Obviously it can handle our gunnery mechanics much better.

If an administrator would please move this thread to the Fallout 3? modding section, we'd appreciate it.


Regards, the Insurrectum team.

Well, you have to start somehow, don't you?

OP, good luck and good decision about switching to Fo3.

Yep, makes a lot more sense

Project sounds interesting, best of luck with it

It would be interesting to see if they can solve that fact that using muzzle-loading weapons in a game just svcks. There was an American Revolution mod for a valve engine a few years ago. My brother gave it a shot and didn't like it. You'd fire, there'd be a puff of smoke blocking your vision and then you'd either charge with a blade, try and reload (which takes forever) and then see if you can hit the guy this time.

As soon as FO3 was mentioned I thought what would be hilarious is not a TC based on that war, but a mod depicting a version of it as told by the characters in FO3. Their interpretation of the so-called "Evolutionary War" sounded hilarious.

Anyway, best of luck. Most ambitious mods (even the ones just to make 32 DOOM II maps) end up being frustrating projects. If you make part of it and that part is cool you will have some people who want to help out. That aside, everything these other guys has said applies too.

I play a western mod for Mount & Blade once. Battles of muzzle loading armies facing off were actually quite fun