WIPz working title : bizarromod

[opal]

Mod in making. Been working on this for some time now. Up until now, every time I think it's ready for release, I get a new idea that I just have to put in there somewhere. Sigh.

But now I'm determined to finish the remaining parts of it and stop adding to the already finished parts. I have lost count of how many times in the past I've said to myself that

mission 3 was finished only to add even more content.

ok

What is it about?

there is some stealth gameplay (mission 3),

some run and jump for your life gameplay (mission 2),

some first person shooting (mission 4),

some space exploration (mission 1)

and some good old fantasy adventuring (mission 5).

Everything here happens before the main game begins. So you go through character creation and the mod starts immediately after.

story :

you want to go to tamriel. There is a way to get there. If you go to your friend's house and drink a magical potion, you will embark on several missions.

Successfully completing all these missions will allow you to travel to Tamriel, where you can begin playing Oblivion.

I got some old pictures to show, haven't made any new ones because modding this badboy takes up all my sparetime.

No pictures from mission 1 and 4 yet. Which is unfortunate i guess. Maybe somebody's reaction when playing mission 1 for the first time will be:

What the.. this isn't anything like whats shown in those pictures, why am I flying a spaceship through space!!!

Here's a lonely picture of mission 2 (Racing Death)

And here are some scenic pictures from mission 3 ( Through the Lookingglass)

BTW Here's a pic from mission 5

So mission 1,2,3 is finished.. If I can just learn to keep my hands off them.

Mission 4 is 50% done,

mission 5 is 80 % done.

[opal]

I thought I'd just post a video showing some stealth gameplay from mission 3.

Sneaking around in the dark in this mission is key to survival. Some people are more into hack & slash than stealth so, might as well show in some small way what it's all about.

Some tools can be of use for stealthy characters

.

shown in this video are:

waterarrows

firearrows

the invisible blackjack : short range, makes npc pass out 40 secs

scroll of tranquility. : long range, makes npc pass out 40 secs

video contains:

Firstly in the video, fire and water arrows are demonstrated.

Then it's shown how to stick to the shadows when moving around.

Then it's demonstrated how to enter and exit an apartment unseen.

Next it's showing how to approach a npc guard unnoticed and whacking him over the head with the "invisible blackjack" without him entering combat mode.

Then it's demonstrated what will happen if you approach a guard in a well lit area.

After making him pass out using the scroll (he's still in combat mode though because he saw me before I hit him), it's shown how some banners actually covers hidden passages that can be usefull for a quick getaway.

And video ends........

*obsolete link*

And that's all there is, this time.

oh and here's a video of mission 1, it's a few months old now so most may have seen it already.

*obsolete link*

Edited December 7, 2012 by opal

[Tigersong]

Nice. I'd love to try out your mod when it's finished- seems like it adds quite a bit to Oblivion. (Or should that be the time and place before Oblivion?)

[opal]

thanks Tigersong, hope you'll enjoy playing it

and yes before oblvion it is

Working on mission 4 now, finished part of it and it plays ok.

Here's some pics I shot this evening.

Mission 4 takes a lot of time to create because it is overall so different from Oblivion

and coming up with design ideas is such a big timeconsuming part of the process.

Luckily It's al lot of fun still:)

edit desember 6 2012:

figured I'd post a video of the shooter gameplay of mission 4, since I already did so for mission 1 and 3.

*obsolete link*

Edit desember7 2012.

The video host site started deleting my mod videos for whatever reason, so all 3 videos are down for now. I have no idea why.

edit desember 8 2012.

because the vids are down for the moment, I felt like posting something, well anything at all really.. So I figured I'd just get my character to pose in one of the npc uniforms and have my picture taken.

It's like one of those, "look what I did on my holiday mum" kind of pics.

well here it is.

edit desember 11 2012

progress has been slow due to a lot of texturing lately.

I do cut corners whenever's possible, so textures are not good in any way but I don't have enough time to make them detailed and pretty.

I don't have enough new stuff to show to warrant a new post yet so I'll just update this one for today.

Here's a pic.

and here are some weird examples of recent texture works

.

Edited December 11, 2012 by opal

[Tigersong]

I hate to nit-pick, but... if this is a Star Wars mod, shouldn't it be named as such?

[opal]

well Tigersong, I have been scratching my head for ages trying to come up a fitting name for this mod.

bizarromod is kinda pointless.

Should the mod be named after one of it's component's? Maybe.

And maybe not?

A little bit like naming a rainbow after one of its many colors, like orange or red.

Think of a box of chocolate, each chocolate tasting differently. This mod is more like that really.

The different parts of this mod are inspired by different games I've played in the past.

Games like Alien trilogy, Quake, doom, and Thief.

For mission 4 it was either doing a SW themed mission, or doing a replica of the Liberty Island mission from DeusEx.

Allthough the Liberty Island replica would be easy to make, I decided to do a SW themed shooter,

I used to love playing Dark forces and Jedi Knight.

You see, the entire mod is not a SW mod as such, it's more a mod about a person living in a small village on an island

somewhere, and this person (you) wants to go to Tamriel.

And in order to get there

he/she will have to survive going through quite a few dangerous scenarios, or missions if you will.

One of those missions, the one I'm currently working on, just so happens to take place

in a galaxy quite some distance away. And all the other missions will take place in totally different universes and have

nothing to do with SW or each other whatsoever. It's an unusual approach to a mod, I guess.

Good suggestions for a proper name for the mod, are always welcome though.

Not much new giant leaps of progress to report though, Things are progressing but not at hyperspeed

here are a few, sort of cool pics, of various things & stuff.

..

edit desember29.2012

Since there has been many SW themed pics lately, I decided to post a couple of pics from mission 1.This mission has more to do with the BSG universe than SW.

here's a cockpit view one:

and here's a scenic shot

...

Edited December 29, 2012 by opal

[Tigersong]

Again, an interesting mod! The title "Odd Mod" just popped into my mind. I've also noticed that the space-themed pictures aren't quite as Oblivion-like than the others. Remember, there are lots of texture artists here at the Alliance.

[opal]

the Odd Mod is a good suggestion and maybe I'll go for it, too early to say. Thanks for the suggestion.

The textures for the space related missions are not very oblivion like, I know, but that's actually the look I'm going for.

mission 4 so far only accounts for 78 megs of textures so far.

Well, my textures are really bad compared to what many here at tesalliance can conjure up, so I am humble enough to realize that most people can do a better job at this than me.

Btw I haven't mentioned it much before, but there is a training mission in this mod also.

It's 100% complete, and what it is is it's mainly a training facility located in a old castle, in an unspecified modern city somewhere.

There are instructors there guiding you through your training, where you'll acquire the necessary skills to complete the first 3 missions.

Certain things are perhaps not so easy to learn on your own.

Things like how to safely enter and exit a spaceship, how to solve certain puzzles whilst under attack, how to discover secret passages etc...

Therefor I took the time to make this training mission to make it easier to learn this kind of stuff in a safe environment,

it's also a lot of fun to play through I think.

Of course this will be optional, so those that wants to figure out everything on their own, can go right ahead and try to do so.

Mission 5 will be very oblivion'esque and I think it will be the only mission that draws its inspiration from TES games.

But first I have to finish mission 4.

Status 13.01.13:

So far finished an imperialbase on a moon somewhere and a rebelbase in space, currently working out a flight path between the rebelbase and a planet.

Once I get that bit up and running, I'll begin working on the part of the mission taking place on the planet.

[Tigersong]

Good show! If this works, you may be able to claim the very first Oblivion quest set in outer space... but who knows?

[opal]

Thanks Tigersong, who knows

'made some progress.

I finished the part where you fly to the planet, I decided to make it easy on myself by not making this spaceship pilotable.

A big part of the mod's first mission, is piloting a spaceship through space along side a moving fleet,

So to keep things fresh, I didn't want to just repeat that sequence in mission 4.

Instead, you just relax on the stealthy spaceship as it moves on autopilot through space, passed the enemy armada who fail to detect you, (because your two brave escortfighters draws everyones attention away from you), and finally into the planet atmosphere where the flight ends.

You can look around you during this flight, move your head freely, but can't move your body. It's an elegant solution, kinda like watching a movie

Perhaps later in mission 4 there will be another pilotable spacehip and maybe I'll add the ability to shoot also. Not sure what will happen at the moment.

Here's a picture taken through the side window of your cockpit as you approach the planet, where you can see one of the escort fighters flying besides you.

a small part of the planet you're flying towards is visible in the background of the image.

And here for some obscure reason is a picture of a storage area on the rebelbase .

I'm starting work on the planet part of the mission now, must include a city I guess. no pictures of that now of course, but here's image of a possible transport for this part of the mission

....

[opal]

Time for an update,

been working on mission 4 steadily since last post, and it's progressing nicely.

The mission is more structured now as pieces are again finally falling into place.

I've talked about a planet and a moon before, but nowadays, I'm only using the moon.

There is an imperial base on the moon, it's in a remote part of the moon where there's ice and snow. And there is now a big city on the moon located in the dry sandy dessert near the equator.

I thought earlier that the imperial base was finished, but the story of the mission has forced me to expand the base quite a bit.

Right now I'm doing interior cells for the expanded base and for the first part of the city. The first part of the city right now is basically 44 buildings ( it's a big city) which are all in need of interior cells. Some buildings require more than one interior cell, so it's timeconsuming work, and I'm reusing a lot of interior cells with minor variations to save time & energy.

As for pictures this time, I thought I'd show off some characters.

Here's a picture of characters from mission 3.

and here's another one pretty much the same, but showing some thieves also.

And here is a snowtrooper from mission 4. He's part of the new expanded imperial base.

[opal]

time for update.

still working on the scifi inspired shooter part of the mod.

Have taken the time to decide on player uniform. I got some inspiration from the scificowboygenre for the outfit, so it ended up

looking like a futuristic sheriff outfit. I'm happy with how weird it is, it is a weird mod afterall.

 

here is a few shots.

 

first the female uniform.

 

 

and here's the male counterpart

 

 

not much difference between the two, but the male version comes with glasses.

 

 

and while I was lining up for the photoshoot, I figured I should take a picture of some of the hostiles which the player

will encounter in this part of the mod.

 

here's a few of them

 

 

this concludes the update

 

[opal]

Recently I flushed my integrity down the drains and opened up a youtube account. 

Uploaded something today to test it. Quality is not too bad when being watched at 720.

The video is just glimpses of flying to the moon and entering the enemy base, shooting stuff.

"Oh no!! It's OBLIVION WITH GUNS!!!"

[media]http://youtu.be/dO3_DzQYT4E[/media]

 

I'm not good at aiming so the shooting kinda sucks.

 

[opal]

Been working on the moon city and it ended up looking seriosly scifi I think. don't think anyone will mistake it for somehere in Tamriel.

It's not pretty or anything, but it looks alien with it's unusual coloring.

 

 

Decided to post a video of the moon city of mission 4. It just shows what you might call the lay of the land, architeture and some locals "burnin' rubber".

Essentially I'm just cruising the city on my bike in this vid' looking for some trouble...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edit! Posted some videos in a previous post but they got deleted and lost unfortunately.

 

Well I found them and uploaded them again, so here are those old vids making a comeback:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figured just posting  a new video wasn't enough, so here are some pics from the other missions, just for fun. 

 

Mission 2

 

 

 

Mission 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and to round up the picture fest,

a pic from mission 5:

 

 

 

Tada for now then..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2015 by opal

[Zole]

this looks fantastic, Keep it up!

[opal]

Thanks Zole 

Love making this mod, proved to be a tremendous amount of work for one individual but a lot of fun so far.

[opal]

Ok status report.

 

so one of my least favorite things to do is to add collision to stuff in Blender.

That's where I'm at right now, as usual it's taking me forever and as always slows developement.

 

So I expect really another two weeks atleast just doing this awful but important task. 

 

 

 

 

 

But hey I uploaded a vid just for fun. It's footage from mission 3. 

 

 

 

Mission 3 was inspired by the first Thief game and one of the missions in that game was this old Cathedral haunted by dead Hammerites... Loved that, so I knew I had to put such a cathedral in my mod but I didn't want to make it exactly like the original, so I just went ahead and designed my own version. 

 

 

 

So that's whats showing in the video.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small note!

I wanted to set the mood by using some totally unrelated music, so the song playing in the video will not be part of the mod. The undead sections of mission 3 are what I concider the more scarier parts of the mod... so I figured some metal music would be apropriate.

 

 

 

( It's an old backing track of an OZZY song that I use occasionally when I practise my guitar skills. I thought it might go well with the tone of the video. It's not a lorefriendly mod so ...

 

So yupp, for better or worse, that's me playing the lead guitar right there )

 

 

 

Oh, and here's the ehm... video  

[opal]

progress report

small update on developement.

Mission 4 is "almost" finished, still have lot's more work to do but still.... there is an end in sight.

 

here's a picture of some new characters.   

-  Introducing a new enemy soldier:  the "dark trooper".

 

 

cheers

 

[opal]

Time for an update.

 

OK so these past two weeks have been pretty intense. I had this idea that I could somehow pull off blowing up a "Deathstar" in this mod, even though I did not know how. I pictured the following scenario, you're onboard a ship, you fire a missile/rocket/torpedo whatever at the "DeathStar" and it blows up.. Simple and easy?  Well after countless sleepless nights I managed to come up with something, A 15 second long sequence that sort of gets the job done.

Here's a vid. Nothing fancy as you can see, it shows  just a place to stand and a primitive switch to activate the rocket, pluss a nice view of the "DeathStar" as it blows up. It's really more of a tech video/proof of concept rather than anything else.

 

So, I'm very happy to put this ordeal behind me now so I can focus on other parts of  mission 4  for a while.

 

cheers!

opal

 

[opal]

OK, so, feeling a tad bad cause the Deathstar blowup  demovid vid was so lame, raw and technical, I juiced it all up a little today. Here is the polished version....

 

 

cheers! 

opal

[jamochawoke]

Man >I LOVE< your ambition!!!

 

I also have to say that as a massive fan of the Thief games I am very excited for your thief oriented mission.

[opal]

Thanks jamochawoke

 

Yupp ambitions thru the roof and beyond around here.

 

Great to hear from a fellow Thief fan, best sneak'em up series ever. What's your favorite Thief game? Mine is T:TDP and T:Gold. 

 

Thanks to your post I decided to make a new gameplay video from the thief mission.

Which was a very good thing in deed, going back and playing it again, I found lots of stuff to fix and improve upon.

 

 

I started making this mod knowing it could never be easy to recreate the feel of the Thief universe in Oblivion but I hope I pulled it off at least to some degree.

 

Cheers jamochawoke

opal

 

Edited March 16, 2015 by opal