I and several other modders/teams are currently working on some rather large mods: custom worlds, provincial expansions to Tamriel, total conversions based on works of fiction or other games, etc. I have always been interested in the kinds of experiences people are looking for in a major expansion of this nature so I thought I'd start a poll to get a rough idea.

When answering the poll, please try to forget about the feasibility of your desires and just focus on describing exactly the kind of world that you would like to play in. You may use an existing mod/game/work of fiction or describe your own preference. Please describe it in a little detail so that the concept is fairly clear. Feel free to add any additional details you like. Please be as honest as you can be with yourself. If you really wouldn't download a new world mod unless it was absolutely huge, say so! If you can't stand the thought of installing an incomplete mod that will require numerous updates, please let us know. The accuracy of this information is very important to people working on these kinds of mods.

Note: I am not interested in negative replies that simply regurgitate the conventional wisdom that large mods of this scope are just vaporware/doomed to failure. Everyone has heard these statements before. They're pointless and not constructive so don't waste other people's time by posting them.

To give you an example of the kind of thing I'm looking for, here is my dream mod:

A dark fantasy/horror setting either based on Ravenloft (a D&D setting, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it) or similar to it. Mood and atmosphere are most important, so a good story with interesting characters is a must. I'm looking for something creepy and haunting that will send a chill down my spine. I'd also rather play a smaller world with a lot of detail than a larger world with sparse detail. I would love to see some sort of sanity system implemented using visual and auditory effects. Custom creatures and architecture are a big bonus, but not absolutely essential. I am perfectly ok with WIP mods. I'd rather get my hands on something I can play, even if it's incomplete, than spend years looking at screenshots of a mod I may never get to play.

Edit: Note that IP stands for Intellectual Property. ie. something created entirely by the modder, not based on someone else's work.

I would like a game with truly unique creatures, very detailed gameplay, life-like gameplay, and the such. I would like more than just the regular creatures just suped up to be bosses. I'd like new creatures for bosses like the Resident Evils'. Everything else from Oblivion would be just fine.


FIRST POST! YAY!

I like Tamriel expansions. I can't honestly stomach any mods set in other periods/universes, not because I think they're bad mods, they're just not for me. I have to have my mods fit into the lore and word of TES. I prefer detail in mods because as they say, quality over quantity. I prefer episodic content because it shows you what the mod has to offer and gets more people into the mod project. Plus I'm not a very patient person, and I like to see something done after a while. Plus releasing mod land in episodes helps ensure us that the mod project isn't dead.

We need Hammerfell and Argonia!

I voted:
1: Tamriel Expansion (I'd like to see more along the lines of the Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina mod, but for other provinces as well)
2: Other (size first, but with a lot of detail as well)
3: Completely done, though I wouldn't mind each province done as an episode.

I'm partial to classic Tolkeinesque fantasy settings as long as they are done well and show at least some level of originality. My absolute favorite fantasy world is the game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcanum:_Of_Steamworks_and_Magick_Obscura. At first glance it looks to be a standard derivative of Tolkien: hobbits, elves, orcs, a very important ring, and magic. Of course, if you look past the surface you realize the game is set in a fantasy world undergoing an industrial revolution. That important ring you get at the beginning of the game is given to you by a dying gnome who, along with you, was a passenger on a zeppelin that crashed thanks to crude flying machines piloted by half-orcs shooting it down. Magic is on the decline as technology begins to take over thanks to the Dwarven-discovered mysteries of steam power. Hobbits and half-elves mingle in high society while thrifty, business-minded gnomes deal in finances whilst being protected by their ogre bodyguards.

Arcanum had a steampunk setting that felt *just* right. It didn't go to the extreme of having clockwork robots walking around everywhere. Technology was presented as being a rather young discipline with crude steam, gear, spring and black-powder powered devices failing as often as working properly. There were Molotov cocktails, spring-loaded traps, gear-assisted plate armor, and my personal favorite: a lever-action rifle with a spyglass strapped to the top to make a crude sniper rifle. The game allowed you to wield either classic magic or technology and one of the core gameplay mechanics was that the two were incompatible with each other. For example, if a powerful wizard were to duel a gunslinger decked out in mechanically-assisted armor the combatants would stalemate. The wizard's spells would fizzle and the gunslinger's revolvers would jam or misfire. The reasons for the incompatibilities were explained in-game through books and had to do with how magic and technology interact with the laws of physics.

Aside from the vaguely Victorian time period and presence of technology, Arcanum contained all the goblins, imps, skeletons, and demons a good RPG needs. It was just the slight twist to the standard formula that made it so memorable. I have been dying ever since it was released in 2001 for a modern update. Is it so wrong to want to fend off the hoary denizens of the underworld with an enchanted revolver instead of a sword while svcking down health potions? I think not. Remember: no matter what universe you're in, health potions are always red.

There's a deeper meaning there, I think. Somebody go find it.

-G

PS: Ravenloft. Go for it. Strahd needs a good PC-based beat-down. :toughninja:

I'd really like a steampunk/Victorian overlay to what we already have.

I'd like that grimy steam-age feeling to be apparent throughout the world, with people teaching restoration and alchemy in a shack, and next to it a small factory that makes cheap iron implements with assembly lines. And lots of trash (and I'm talking about people, too). Crime, grime, filth, muck, and every now and then a person that seems a beacon amongst all that dreariness.

Something a lot more like the Thief series of games world with Oblivion style gameplay.

1: Original, a Tamriel expansion would be second choice, but I always go for originality. We've all played Elder scrolls, and seen/heard/played other fantasy settings, heard about and in most cases have pictures of historical things, and of course also played these other game worlds. I'd like to see what this theoretical ambitious modder has locked up inside their head.

2: Story, and such... You could say it's a personal reason. I'm not good at socializing, if I wanted to go outside and wander the world seeing pretty landscapes, sights sounds and all that... I could do it. Actually doing something interesting, and meeting interesting people, well... that's something more in the realm of video games.. for me, and most people in general.

3: Episodic. Well it worked for Integration, Elsweyr, and Kragenir's. Not to mention I love a good beta test, and if the modder suddenly decides to give up we at least have something.

One word: Daggerfall.

I don't just mean High Rock. Or even large scale, though that was a big part of it. I mean quest givers caring whether or not you do their quests in the next decade. Cities that are actually cities, not just pretentious villages. Being able to ask people on the streets what they think about the Dark Brotherhood. Religions that actually feel pagan, not just thinly disguised variants of Christianity. Distances between cities longer than a couple of city blocks. Gold that could weigh you down. Most of all, game content that is algorithmically generated, not hand placed by developers. Developers should be writing or tweaking the algorithms, tools, and building blocks, not trying to manually build an entire game world one object at a time.

Though, Morrowind had better buildings. And better balance. And Oblivion has facegen. And both MW and OB have (for the most part) deeper quest mechanics.

Wait. You were asking what you should do for a mod, not what should be done for TES 5? Er... nevermind.

I would like to see a lot of that in future Elder Scrolls games.

I liked the random nature of Daggerfall, and the themed feelings you get when playing it. Oblivion lacked a lot of the finesse that Daggerfall had, especially so when it came to dungeons. Oblivion always felt premade, especially in the quest department. I would have loved to have seen event based endings, though. (Something I don't recall Daggerfall having, either) And what I mean by that, is for example, you're going to me Sir X-alot outside an inn. In my game, he shows up like he says he would. In your game, he's injured on his way to meet you, and sends you a letter saying meet me here/I'll be there in a week.

I don't know, when it comes down to this kind of stuff. I'm actually rather happy with what Beth made, but I really would love to see more depth to everything.


Something else I kind of want to ask...if anyone has any substantial info on TES5, I could use a tidbit. I heard that 5 will be probably about 200 years into the future. I was wondering how technology might advance. I've heard stuff from ballistic weapons, to the same-old-same-old, and even a mention that enchantment rifles (imagine, a staff just carved like a gun) might make an appearance. I was just wondering, are we talking still medieval, steam punk, Victorian, or what?

For a world to feel like one, size matters a lot. Scale Cyrodiil up by a factor of 5 in each direction (with a few new villages along the roads, but more "empty" landscape off the roads), and it might start to feel like one. Thus I'd prefer a Tamriel expansion which replaces the current map with a scaled-up one instead of a totally new world.

Oh, and while somebody's at it, please make it a jungle again.

I voted "Tamriel expansion", "detail" and "completely done".

Like many others I can't play mods that aren't set in Tamriel. I'd love to, sometimes, but it never works. (I hope somday I'll be able to play Arktwend and Myar Aranath, but it doesn't look good.)
What I mean by detail is not something like complex AI. And also I don't necessarily want so many details in the scene that I can't play the game anymore. I want a world that manages to look big and full of detail without a big performance hit.

A personal preference would be one of Tamriel's many cities. I think it would be amazing if someone made a mod that takes place in only ONE city, and maaaaybe a little bit of its surroundings. Since that would be the whole game world, the mod would be able to make it much bigger and atmospheric than usual.
The city would have to be cleverly divided into many sections, with a confusing (yet logical) layout that takes some time getting used to. The player should be taking a lot of detours before finding out about the little shortcuts. Quests should lead the player around the town, slowly, so that in playing the game he gets to know the city bit by bit. However, many quests should center around the area in which they were given to the player, so that it feels like a big city where people only know and deal with the people in their quarter or social class (and to safe the player from frustration - I hate simple quests that only take a long time because you have to go to the other end of the world).
Yes, I think that is it... that would be my ideal world mod. Instead of a big world where all the quests are spread over many squaremiles, have it all in one place. Make it really crammed and full of life.

What a wonderful idea!

My ideal mod would be in the world of one of the books I read, probably on the continent of Paravia in Janny Wurts' world.

Why hasn't anyone made Gor so far?
And I'd rather have a demographically realistic world... I've killed twice as bandits as legal citciens of Cyrodiil by now...

You do realise that a true-to-the-source Gor TC wouldn't be allowed on these forums, right?

Tal, brother. Yes, I do, but the true-to-the-source (or By The Books, BTB) could be made parallel as a secondary download not to be discussed on the forums.
Just, the blue and golden caste and their wares would be substracted from the main download, the rest of the world is pretty much not very different from Cyrodiil, except from social, sixual and "racial" discriminations TES is supposed to also have.

Well, my ideal expansion/world mod IS the Dark Spire. Something that is based upon TES lore, but takes it to a whole new level of depth, storytelling, and wow factor, while re-interpreting existing elements of the game. I really want to test the limits of the Oblivion platform - to see how believable and engaging an experience I can make. When I'm playing any game (or watching a movie for that matter), it's vital that I get immersed in the story and the created world. So naturally, the story has to be great. It has to make sense and be enthralling from start to finish. Detail is also incredibly important to me, as is novelty - when I see things I've never seen before, the experience is always amplified. Morrowind was an excellant game for those reasons - I absolutely loved the story and all the unique elements. Very creative.

A good example of this kind of mod is Gates to Aesgard. The atmosphere and cell creation were just outstanding. There were many times when I just wowed at what I saw. Such detail! However, the story was lacking a bit, so I had trouble getting immersed in that way.

I hope that the Forsaken Isles can eventually become a great mod - with great storytelling and detail. Already, it's approaching that - but far from being finished. It just takes so much time! And maybe oneday I can start working on the Dark Spire again...

As a mod, a Tamriel expansion is good, but my favourite would be one that takes a grounding in Tamriel lore, and runs with it in a story aspect. It can't just be more of the same though. For me the best "mod" for oblivion isn't a mod - it's Shivering Isles. I think there could be many many improvements to be made in SI, but still it has a kind of unique imagination in setting, story and characterization that moves forward from vanilla Oblivion on many fronts. Adding content is very good, but I think you have to make something new other than just a landmass. It's a feel I'm trying to achieve in my mod.

Ideas I've had would be like the above idea - a mod set in just one city, with a feel something like Ankh-Morepork from the Discworld. Or a mod set in a different plane of Oblivon, or a really exotic province like Valenwood.

Yes, SI did indeed have that creative spark that Oblivion lacked. I really enjoyed the expansion.

I would like to see a worldspace with "magical" cities, like this:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVQ040IbZ_M :drool:

Um. wow. That is awesome. Makes me want to play Morrowind now.

THIS. I can't say it any better, so I will quote it. :thumbsup:

Valenwood! I'd love to explore it, no matter what the size. In fact I'd be all for helping create it happen.

Now I am back into modding, these are my wishes:


1. Mesogea. Vast, a mix of history, myth and total fiction with an established lore and storyline, total conversion of architecture, races, magic, content, plot, world etc. I am bias as its my project. Consider it a mix of The Lord of the Rings, Classical history with an intended flavour of the HBO/BBC Rome series mixed up with Conan and LOTR.

2. Middle Earth. I'm just getting to grips with Mesogea again and even after a couple of months Blender needs a bit of getting back used to, as does the CS. Then I intend to give M.E a bit of my time too as I think its a fantastic project.

I dont really go much on TES Lore as its just too much of a hodgepodge. Like curry with banana and chocolate in it. I appreciate others love it and I totally respect your feelings so please dont think this is a dig at you guys, its just my preference. TES is just too anachronistic, with modern sensibilities and so forth, all mixed in with a wierd medieval feeling. Not my cuppa, but I will admit I do love playing it. Theres nothing comes close as a game.

I know for someone expounding the virtues of Lord of the Rings and his own Mesogea mod to moan about anachronisms is probably a bit daft (Mesogea is hardly faithful to history, but it isnt meant to be real as some dont seem to grasp :read: :shocking:

Anyway, I hope everyone gets their desires and this poll stimulates people to mod and make more choice.

Read Gor. You'll love it