[WIPz] A Brotherhood Renewed

[Cliffworms]

I'm willing to wait until after New Years, but after that I'm going to move ahead with things even if that means building Leyawiin content for it myself because this thing has been stalled out long enough and I know I for one would like to see this get released.

If this happens, would you be willing for me to build it? Somehow, building Losing My Religion's chapels bring too much holyness in me and to keep the balance of things, building another sanctuary would be excellent to return to the state of neutrality.

[Arthmoor]

Wouldn't mind that at all, if it comes to that. I know manta said he had a nice fort style one set up, and I think that's probably good to go with unless you'd like to toss up something using a different tileset from forts or Ayleid bits.

[Cliffworms]

Great! Let me know when you'll want me to start on it.

About the design/theme, if the sanctuary is located under the drug dealers house, I don't think that seeing Ayleids pieces could fit. But it could be a mix of both Fort tiles and Cave tiles. For instance, (brainstorming mode: Active) it could start as small narrow cave tunnels leading west, towards Leyawiins. So instead of having direct access to the sanctuary from the city itself, it would be from outside it. The tunnels then lead to the Fort theme, where the sanctuary actually is.

On some of the cave walls, bits and pieces of Leyawiin's city walls could be placed, so that the player gets the feel that he is really under the city now. If direct city access is needed, perhaps using a grave as an entry point could work? If we're talking lore/world wise, the grass and dirt in front of the one of the tombstones is fake. And should the Assassin say at a low tone :"Sanguine my Brother" in front of the tombstone, the dirt/grass can be pulled out and a trap door is discovered under, unlocked. All of this can be described via a MessageBox.

I noticed in your first post that the Anvil sanctuary is occupied by bandits. If you are still interested in having a sanctuary that has been purified by a paranoid speaker, Leyawiin could be the one. Maybe even encountering him inside the dark, lifeless halls. Mumbling to himself, sitting in a chair in the middle of a room, with a light-source behind him so you only see his silouhette.

Other brainstormed idea concerning the purified setting:

Arquen tells you that the sanctuary is still operative and asks you to go present yourself to the speaker, so he can see you in person. Upon arriving on the location, seeing a dead Dark Brotherhood brother/sister will make the player go "Okay, so something's wrong here."

If the speaker is still inside, alone, mumbling, the player could hear him sometimes from afar. For example, there's a corridor that leads to a room. It's pitch black, yet with a torch or spell you can see the door frame at the end. As you advance, you notice that you are getting closer to the mumbling.

"It had to be done. It had to be DONE! Lucien was only the beginning. The beginning! Then who? Belisarius? Arquen? ME!? Cheydinhal purified yet Lucien dies. One traitor? TWO!? Or even three! One traitor cannot act alone. He inspires OTHERS!

(Yells) SITHIS! Oh SITHIS! I SIT WITH THEE IN THE VOID! SURELY YOU UNDERSTAND ME! UNDERSTAND MY ACTS! "

Thus, the Leyawiin sanctuary could be place of insanity, paranoia and creepyness. A place to put fear in the player as he uncovers the dark fate of the sanctuary.

I'm planning to get myself a good microphone to join the voice actors' guild. Should you take these ideas, I would love to do the madman's dialogue.

(Brainstorm mode: deactivated)

[Arthmoor]

I suppose I should probably update the synopsis of locations on the OP... Anvil is using the two sancs you provided me nearly as-is. All I really did was make single-cell sanctuaries out of them and then populated the one with all the dead folk with some wrath of sithis wraiths. The Speaker who ran the place more or less did the berserk insane thing and killed everyone there.

The wrappings on Leyawiin are already in place, the drug dealers sitting on top of something they don't realize is there. The Speaker who runs the place simply up and vanished one day, so that could leave some wiggle room for the insane maniac operative if you want to do that again since "vanished" could just as easily mean "we haven't heard from him".

I already have the two possible hirelings to place there ready to roll.

As far as alternative entries via the city itself, they would have to be indoors as I don't want any outdoor worldspace edits done to keep down on the need for more patchwork/compatibility juggling. Especially since there will soon be another version of Leyawiin on the market once Bananaman is done with his, and that would severely complicate things.

[Arthmoor]

Right. So here we are, post New Year, and no sign of the-manta in very nearly a month. I don't want to hold things up any longer, so Cliffworms, you've got a green light on Leyawiin. If you need to see the current ESP+Assets, let me know and I'll pack things up and PM you a link.

[the-manta]

Hi guys, really really sorry about that. We moved house and found we weren't allowed to transfer our internet connection. Still, its back now and the Leyawiin sanctuaary is as finished as I'm gonna get it. It seems theres a lot more ideas around than i had. My version is only really a skeleton of the sanctuary at full functionality though, i havent worked in any background or dialogue or anything. If you still want I'll upload it.

P.S. I didnt actually do ayleid in the end, its pretty much like the cheydinhal one, and I havent put in another entrance in the city, although I could if you want.

[Arthmoor]

Ah. Wondered what happened. Welcome back

Yes, I'd like to see what you have even if you don't consider it much more than a skeleton. Perhaps it's something Cliffworms could build on, or if he doesn't want to, something I can build on. Either way, it's more than we have so far and I'd be happy to take a look at it.

[the-manta]

Great, I hope it is useful, there are NPCs but they're more or less blank templates really, the only one who I'm really attached to Felyx Alysus, who certainly fits in with the "place of insanity, paranoia and creepyness" idea, so I would be much obliged if he were to be included in the complete sanctuary if you use my interior. I'll PM you the link shortly.

[Arthmoor]

Quick update:

With the-manta's Leyawiin contribution, this baby is one step closer to done. I've also incorporated the insane guy Cliffworms wanted, with his line more or less intact, though broken up across a few dialogue responses.

I'm in the process of testing everything now to make sure it all works. So far there's surprisingly few bugs in the questing. So I guess I did something right

Manni, if you're looking to get your stuff added, I need to know how far along you are because I'm getting anxious to have this in the hands of players fairly soon.

[Cliffworms]

I'm back from a long holiday vacation. I read the messages, but didn't have the time to reply to them.

It's great that you are back, Manta! As I was on vacation, I did not start CS work, but I did drew a very basic map with paint, only to help me when I would build it.

But seems like it's mostly all done, so no worries.

Oh, you decided to take the insane silencer, Arthmoor, great!

I decided not to invest in a good microphone right now, but should you be interested in having voice acting, that is not a problem with TESA.

Awaiting more Arthmoor goodness now...

[Arthmoor]

Heh, no problem. Looks like everything worked out. I don't know if he's exactly what you had in mind or if the Leyawiin sanctuary is as creepy and insane as you had in mind, but I think it works well. Assuming I haven't broken something there, haven't got to that point in testing yet.

[Cliffworms]

Hehe, well it's your project. As long as you like it from your point of view that is what counts.

I was merely throwing ideas, you then incorporate them in as you see fit.

(But I must admit that I'm happy to see some elements from the original Dark Brotherhood Chronicles finally seeing the light. I'm sure some of the original team's members would be happy to see this. I lost track of them though)

[Arthmoor]

It'll see the light so long as my computer will stop eating hardware. Had to replace the motherboard after the SATA controller went belly up. It didn't harm the harddrive but let this be a reminder to folks - keep backups! Computers can die when you least expect it.

[Arthmoor]

Just an update for anyone following:

The mod is undergoing final testing for bugs and such. Once that's all done, release won't be far behind.

I have left open the possibility for adding Bruma and Skingrad later if those sanctuaries get done.

[Cydonian_Knight]

Just an update for anyone following:

The mod is undergoing final testing for bugs and such. Once that's all done, release won't be far behind.

I have left open the possibility for adding Bruma and Skingrad later if those sanctuaries get done.

I've been following this for a bit now and I really like what I've seen . I can't wait to see this released and be able to check it out. Glad to hear you're almost there!

[Arthmoor]

Almost there, assuming the game will cooperate and stop crashing now

Whatever has suddenly plagued my game is impeding my ability to test things. So there's going to be some delay as I try to figure out what's going wrong.

[Khettienna]

Ohhhh, I remember us talking about this a very long time ago, and I'm really excited to see it coming to fruition!

*cheers for*

[Arthmoor]

Thanks, getting closer by the day. Oblivion is one hell of a fickle game. It's decided to stop crashing repeatedly, though it still jumps out and bites too often to be playable in a long session. So I've managed to get through another round of testing and it doesn't appear to be giving any trouble.

You wouldn't happen to be interested in doing up a sanctuary for Bruma would you?

[Hanaisse]

Hey Arthmoor! Now I've found a new way to haunt you about this mod other than your blog site

How's it coming? I can see by this thread I'm not the only one anxiously awaiting it's birth. I'm really happy to see the positive reaction here and amazed by the work of the team of volunteers. Judging by just the couple of pics in this thread of their work (and Anvil sanctuary... just, wow)it's going to be truly awesome.

I can't wait! Please tell us your PC is co-operating and it's almost ready.

[Arthmoor]

Well my PC has been behaving itself again lately. I'm not entirely sure what broke, but it seems to be unbroken now. Some mod or something that wasn't happy and now is. Such is the way of things with mods.

Of course, I then got bit by the "oh, wouldn't this be cool, lemmie add it real fast" bug and have one more branch quest to test now before I repack to let the testers have another shot at it

[the-manta]

If no-one else wants to, and you can't get hold of Manni (have you tried PMing him BTW), then I'd be happy to make a Bruma Sanctuary, perhaps in a Nordic Burial Cavern coming off of the Bruma Caves? Although obviously this would slow things down.

[Arthmoor]

Yeah, I just sent him another one. We'll see.

I'd like to at the very least get Bruma in, and a sanctuary hidden away in an old Nordic burial tomb would be cool. Especially if it means making use of the Nordic tomb tileset again. That thing is just too cool for only Feldscar to be using it

I'm not going to hold the release though unless someone can give me a firm promise on how soon additional content will be ready. I only have this last minute quest addition to go through in my own testing before I package it up for one last round for you guys to test.

[Arthmoor]

Manni's Oblivion install met with a bit of disaster, so that puts Bruma and Skingrad back on the block. How soon would something in Bruma be ready?

[the-manta]

Hmm, that depends on this Nordic Tomb tileset, I regret to say I haven't got Feldscar, but I've looked in the screenshots and the tombs look pretty awesome, where could I get the tileset? In any case, I should be able to whip up an interior and NPCs by Sunday, possibly before, but I have pretty much no experience at questbuilding, so that's all I could really give, as with Leyawiin.

[Arthmoor]

The tileset. Certainly not necessary but would still be cool. If that's not useful then something with caves would be nice, we already have plenty of fort/Ayelid stuff going on

That's fine if you can cook up the interior and the NPCs. I can work up the quest behind it. Sunday sounds good too, especially since Dwip seems to be finding a never ending supply of bugs to fix.