Alright guys, more updates on the new park.

The rollercoaster was...too boring for me. So I made into a rollercoaster/mine ride. It's the same concept, horse drawn cart, but you're underground in an old mine.

Here's the plot: The first part of the ride is a walkthrough; you walk through a castle where a story unfolds. The royal family lives in peace; you see them eating and partying. Unfortunately, a sinister assassin lurks behind a curtain, unseen. You pass into the lower regions of the castle, where you see a gathering of multiple assassins in teh wine cellar. You come back up on the other side to see the castle in flames. The guards are desperately fighting off the oncoming enemies.

You then see a door that leads to the underground mines. You enter to find yourself in a mine with several carts and a miner. Talk to the miner and he'll tell you to escape the castle using the horse drawn cart. You get on and immediately embark on a mine ride. Thing is, the mine is old and unstable. You'll face terrfying drops, falling rocks, and sudden stops. And you'll be in almost total darkness.

Sound fun? That's just the beginning. You'll have to dl to find out more.

Wow, that sounds really cool! Have you already updated the mod on nexus with it?

Oh, sorry, I should have clarified. When i said, "you have to dl to find out", i meant you should dl it when it comes out. Sorry, it's not out yet. But I hope to have the release ready asap. Which may be a while. So far, I have the following things to do.

1. Plan and execute two more rides.

2. Build a carnival game.

3. Build the expansion park.

4. Insert food stalls.

5. Finish two other rides.

6. Add dialogue

7. Redo part of Haunted Mansion, by popular request.

Sorry again.

Kroot

Mine ride has been built, and upon initial testing seemed to work.

Btw, I've really given up the idea of having a traditional rollercoaster. The new mine ride/rollercoaster hybrid is ten times more exciting.

Let me explain. When you go on a rollercoaster, what makes it so great and exciting? Why, it's the feeling of your stomach dropping, your heart pounding, and your body coming inches from a hitting the ground. Now, the problem with a virtual rollercoaster is you don't feel any of those. It's like riding a kiddy ride with little hills and turns. Nothing.

By adding in the mine aspect, you'll have something to look at. I'm thinking about adding some extra stuff like NPCs and falling rocks to add to the ride.

Finally, I'm still looking for ideas for one or two more rides for the park. The theatre has been simplified, but is still confirmed for the moment. However, I still need two more rides for the park. Keeping in mind what I've told you about both my and the game's limitations, do you have any suggestions?

Kroot

Ugh...

I haven't had any time lately due to other issues in life. I might be able to mod some this weekend.

So far, I am proud to announce that three of the four attractions in the expansion park are undergoing construction.

1. Escape the Castle (Aka The Mine Ride/Rollercoaster)

2. Famous Battles Ride (A boat ride of little dioramas of the greatest battles in history)

3. Cyrodiil Wildlife Reserve.

The third one is new; you'll simply be able to watch some animals of Cyrodiil wander in their natural habitat. If I'm lucky, I'll also be able to put in some new animals, like wooly mammoths. But that's a big if.

The fourth ride is still undecided. I simply am out of ideas.

Anyway, I might take a few steps back here, recollect my thoughts, fuel my imagination, and then come back and give you guys the release you have all been anticipating.

Kroot

Alright my friends, looks like there's going to be one more change to the previous list of rides.

Instead of just a wildlife reserve, I've planned a reserve/paradise type place. Just though I should bring that up.

Oh, and I'm trying to get an approximate release date, and it looks like the first week of April is the goal. Hang in there guys!

Kroot

The park is starting to take shape. It's not to the point where i can take screens, but I will be able to once the park has developed a little more. Escape the Castle (Mine Ride) is almost done, if I can refine it a little, it should be good to go.

There will be one or two more carnival games, though I can't say what they are yet.

Finally, I'm still trying to find a fourth ride to build, any ideas? If I cannot come up with somehting, there will only be three rides in the release.

Ok thanks for waiting patiently. I have a pic up of the new park.

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt317/Kaw434/AmusemantParkofCyrodiil1.jpg

This is a very rough concept design of the what the park will look like. As you can see, there aren't that many flora or trees, that will be added later.

I'm also working on landscaping the wildlife reserve, as well as building the exterior of all three rides.

Still looking for an idea on that fourth ride.

Thanks,

Kroot

They say that in your darkest hour, you face your greatest triumph.

I literally had no idea what I was going to do for this mod. I was pretty much out of ideas, and had no idea how to find a fourth ride.

I was looking through the old thread when I came across a suggestion by Sharonhorste about an airship. Bored and resigned, I decided to look into it further. Upon dling and playing the file, I found not the airship, but the parachute interesting. It was like a homemade-glider.

I then went on to play a couple hours of Assassin's Creed II. While playing around with Da Vinci's glider, an idea hit me. Why not make a glider ride for the park?

I went to work and was able to isolate and rebuild the glider in my own mod. I then built a medium-sized island and a tall tower offshore. I then flew the glider from the tower to the island. After a few successful runs, I came up with the following idea.

Isla Horste: This ride is actually an addition to the Imperial Wildlife Reserve. Only this time, you can ride a glider from a tower onto the island where the animals reside. Isla Horste is the area where the park keeps the more aggressive and dangerous animals, like mountain lions and minotaurs. Fortunately, the five guard towers insure the guests' safety, unless of course they deliberately stir up the animals. After using the parachute/glider on the ride, you can then proceed to the gift shop and buy your very own. Use it to sail through Tamriel from your the highest peak you can find.

Thanks for reading,

Kroot

That sounds like good fun! looking forward to it!

Alright, some very good news for today.

Escape the Castle is almost done, if I can add in a few more details to the mine cell itself, it should be good to go.

Isla Horste is nearing completion as well, just need to add in an exit, an entrance, and one NPC.

Famous Battles: Progress is very slow. Not much info on this ride.

Imperial Wildlife Reserve: Landscaping done, now need to add trees, flora, etc.

Still need to build that carnival game, along with several buildings.

Thanks,

Kroot

keep up the good work

Since you say you are looking for more ideas ...

Have you thought about making some of the rides in-game full-motion videos? In the Morrowind game mod, the http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6091 does that for both a hot air balloon ride and a "scuba" adventure tour. Requires making Bink videos of ingame play (I used the ZDSoft Game Recorder software in 2007 to make the video .AVI and RAD Video Tools Bink and Smacker to convert to a Morrowind/Oblivion video format - don't know for sure but those RAD tools may be even able to create an Oblivion Bink video from a YouTube type video - you probably just need any video in .AVI format for RAD to work this way) and then including the videos in your download (for extraction to the Oblivion Video folder) with a script reference to whatever the Oblivion PlayVideo script command is when you want your PC to "get on the ride" (using an 'Activator object'). I am not sure if you can start the video from just dialogue options or not because I haven't ever tried that but it may be possible. Really wasn't that hard to do in MW using an Activator so probably fairly easy in Oblivion too. However if you do go that route, be aware that including video can increase your mod download size dramatically since they don't compress much even with 7z - you have to play with the adjustable video frames per second in your game recorder/Bink software to balance visual effect and video size - I seem to remember I used 24 fps for those videos and kept them about 30-45 seconds to make that balance but can't remember for sure!

Great idea you have though for an Amusemant Park. Makes Oblivion more immersive.

Hey thanks dude... I was actually looking for something like this

Im actually planning on using such method to create a fireworkds display. Be kind cool if it worked. With your method, it just might.

Im so glad you took the time to post your suggestion. Anyway, thanks, and I do something with this, I'll tell you.

Thanks,

Kroot

No problem. The only hard part really was figuring out how to do it since Bethesda doesn't really tell you that anywhere, but I essentially "gave the secret away" in my first post. I think in-game videos are a great untapped resource by modders that could really add to the game immersion in some cases. Good luck and I hope to hear that you did use those type videos when you do release your mod. If you do, you might be the first modder to do that for Oblivion mods.

p.s. Here is a "tip" I included in my MW video documentation that probably also applies to Oblivion video play too - don't know for sure because I am not an Oblivion modder:

"Game Crashes when Sky Tour or Underwater Adventures Tour Starts:
SYMPTOM: When attempting to go on a Sky Ride Hot Air Balloon Ride (activating the hot air balloon when you have a Sky Ride ticket from Fartoth) or when attempting to go on an Underwater Adventures Tour (activating the Start Tour crystal when you have an Underwater Adventures ticket from Captain Nebo) the game crashes.
PROBABLE CAUSE: You, or another of your mods, has changed the default setting in the Morrowind.ini file (normally in the C:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Morrowind directory) for the "TryArchiveFirst" variable. Alternatively, your computer/graphics card combination is not powerful enough to play in-game movies.
FIX: Make sure the "TryArchiveFirst" variable in the [General Section] of the Morrowind.ini file is set to "0". If that is already set to 0, do not attempt a Sky Ride or Underwater Adventures Tour until you have upgraded your computer/graphics card combination."

Thanks again Rougetet.

I have finally been able to add a fifth ride to the park. It's based off of Soaring over California from California Adventure.

I used the technique suggested by Rougetet. I've made a minute and a half video of five scenes of some breathtaking parts of Cyrodiil.

I might post it on youtube in teh future so you can see it.

Only problem with this ride is it takes up a lot of space, so I'm making trying to make it an optional download. Finally, some computers may experience some lag, so I've added in a low res and a high res version.

Finally, I've added rope lines to all the rides.

Thanks,

Kroot

Okay, so finally some finalized news on the new ride: Rougetet's Flight.

Rougetet's Flight: This ride is based off of the popular ride Soarin over California from California Adventure. I've always loved that ride, so upon hearing about in game videos, I decided to remake one for Oblivion. The ride takes you to a large basemant area, where you'll find rows of seats. In front of two of these seats are two "viewing orbs". One is marked High-Res Orb the other is Low-Res Orb. Both can be used to watch the ride/video, but one of them is higher quality and more taxing on computers. Upon activating the orb, you'll watch a one minute and a half video that takes you literally soaring over Cyrodiil. You'll fly down snow-capped mountains, skim wide rivers, and even watch a fireworks show at the end (courtesy of Mezlo).

Speaking of computers, this ride can be pretty heavy on slow computers, so if you plan to ride this ride, I would suggest that your computer have the ability to play Oblivion on Medium Quality and above. Although its not necessary, the risk of a ctd is ten times higher on slower computers.

In addition, the file size will be pretty hefty, so I'm making the video a different, optional download. You can choose wheter or not you want it.

Anyway, that's all for now.

kroot

Edit: I'm also adding "lines" to each of the rides, including the old ones. I may even have one or two NPCs "waiting in line" for roleplayers to use. More info to come on this.

OMG, appears I have been immortalized in Oblivion. _thanks

No problem Rougetet.

Anyway, Famous Battles Ride has now taken shape. The layout is done, but I still need to add the battles themselves, as well as build the interior of the restaurant inside the ride.

In addition, I've also finalized the size of the park itself, landmass wise at least.

Finally, I've 99% completed the Escape from the Castle Ride. A few timing problems continue to elude me.

Anyway, thanks for reading,

Kroot

Well, quick update.

The park landscaping itself is 100% done. I've added in most of the buildings...but I still need to connect some interiors and create some appealing flora.

Also, all the rides except The Wildlife Reserve and Famous Battles are done. THough FB is like 70% done.

Finally, April still stands as the month of this release...so its coming up soon.

Thanks,

Kroot

Kk guys...I wanna take some time to let you guys respond to the mod so far.

Looking back at the current download on TES Nexus, I have had a few complaints about the original park. What are your guys biggest concerns, disappointments, or questions about the original release?

If you don't have any, what do you expect from this park that would make you download the mod?

Finally, do you approve or disapprove of the rides or attractions I have built, planned, or set up?

Please answer these questions with honesty, but maturity and coherence. I had one comment on TES Nexus that I really needed an interpreter for; so please don't just throw ink on the page.

Thanks,

Kroot

Alright guys, real progress had finally been made. Four of the five rides are done, and connected to the park. What's left?

1. Famous Battles Ride and Restaurant

2. One or two carnival games. (Might need ideas on this one).

3. Voice acting for several parts

4. Finish redecorating of Haunted Mansion. (Layout is done; decorating needed).

5. Add in several snack stalls.

6. Finish decorating park landscape.

If all that is finished, we will see a release first week of April.

Oh, and I'm still looking for comments on the above post. Please, do feel free to share your feelings about the mod so far.

Ok, so some screens (finally).

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt317/Kaw434/ScreenShot113.jpg (Thanks to Mr. Siika for the parachute).

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt317/Kaw434/ScreenShot111.jpg (It's much bigger than the original, and I couldn't fit it on one screen.

In other news, all five rides are done! Hooray!

That leaves a few things:

1. Finish redecorating The Haunted Mansion

2. Add voice acting

3. Add vendors and carnival games (One game, Slaughter the Slaughterfish, has already been started).

4. Move the portal location.

5. Add some interiors to some of the shops.

And, I think that's it.

Thanks,

Kroot

Oh cool! How did I miss this one?

Really easy ride ideas (I know this, from Mournhold Expanded for Morrowind):

Hall of Mirrors
Of course, you can't have reflective mirrors, but you can have shiny silver squares. Create a maze of rooms filled with the 'mirrors', and just have doors facing in all directions, rooms upside down (with the furniture stuck to the ceiling), tilted in odd directions ... anything to disorient the player. Easy to make and fun to play.

Non-lethal combat
I've done this twice - once with a bear in Mournhold Expanded, and once as a team-based paintball-style game in Ghostgate. You just script an opponent to fight you, but script it so that health is automatically replenished if it falls below a certain level.

Betting on a race
Used this one in a few mods, too. You just have script some kind of creature to run between two points, and then repeat it so you have a row of three or four creatures. Set the "winning" xmarker a little further along than the others so that you can see a clear winner. Then you can script it to randomise which creature "wins" each race. Drop me a PM if you need to see scripts - but bear in mind they're Morrowind scripts so they'll need adapting.

Drop slide
Really easy and fun. The player hits and activator and then a script dangles them at a high height and then lets go - but of course catches them before they fall to their certain death! You can also script a forward-and-down move to simulate going down a fast slide - great for waterslides.

Nice to hear from you again Stomper!

I love your hall of mirror idea, its simple and fun. Best of all, since I don't want to do any more dialogue (I'm kinda lazy in that way), it requires no NPC to tell you what to do!

I'll be sure to give you credit somehow....maybe call it Stomper's Mirror Maze. Yeah, I kinda like that.

Thanks again,

Kroot

Edit: Btw...anyone know of a silver tile in a modding resource or in game? I really don't want to add a whole new texture to teh game.