[WIP] My Rival

[grond]

Name: My Rival ALPHA

Version: 0.0.2

Date: 7/02//2008

Category: Companions/Quests

Author(s): grond

Forum: TES Alliance Thread

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THIS MOD REQUIRES OBLIVION SCRIPT EXTENDER (OBSE) AND PLUGGY ( AN OBSE PLUG-IN )

OBSE: http://obse.silverlock.org/

PLUGGY

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Description

===========

This mod adds one NPC, and 664 X-Markers to Fighter's Guild Halls, Cities' shops, and over 600 caves/mines/forts/ruins.

This is an NPC I've been working on for my own game. I don't want a meat shield. I don't want a toadie, or a flunky or a lackey. I want a companion that feels real - one that never follows six feet behind me ( unless I persuade her to ) one that doesn't care if I walk away without her - she might come along on her own, and she might not. I want a Companion that's as close to sentient as I can make her. I want a rival.

So that's what I'm making.

The Anti-Companion. Not your enemy. Not your friend. My Rival is neutral toward you. My Rival wants little to do with the likes of you. Friendship will come later, after you do some things to save her. And yourself. After the mod's main quest, my Rival will be less hostile towards you, but still will have a life seperate from yours, and that will cause the NPC to be less available than other companions. So you'll depend less upon her/him as a tool, and more as a fighting comrade.

My Rival is no meat-shield, but he/she might act as your bodyguard - if you stay out of the way.

In this version, I have created one Rival of either sex of the vanilla Oblivion Races -- you can choose ONE.

This is an ALPHA TEST - Version 2.

Location

========

My Rival travels extensively throughout Cyrodiil. In this version s/he's a quest target, so simply make "My Rival" quest active to find her/him on your map. In a future version My Rival's quest targeting will be toggleable.

If you can't find your rival, wait an hour ingame.

Type "~" to go into the console. (You will see a message "New Location set to "x". That's my mod telling me where the rival is.)

Type "movetoqt" then press Enter, and hey presto! you'll be in the middle of whatever your Rival's into.

But you'll probably want to be in god mode - "TGM" in the console.

THE PRESENT

============

***This is the second ALPHA TEST. To play it safe, make a copy of your save game BEFORE using this mod.***

In this version there is a Male and a Female Rival of each of the vanilla races. In this ALPHA the rival will simply travel, walking from dungeon to mine to cave. Run alongside My Rival. You'll have an excellent opportunity to practice your weak skills as My Rival tangles with even the biggest OOO hordes of enemies and monsters. Don't expect much in the way of love, or friendship, or even acknowledgement from My Rival. There is no custom dialogue, no quest, and no sharing between the two of you. Not yet...these things will come with time, but for now, please follow the Rival around and record any odd behavior she displays.

I want to hear from you. Any suggestion will be taken into consideration, and will be included in a final version, if it fits in with the plan I have for this companion...

...help me make the companion we both desire.

THE FUTURE

===========

-More custom races.

-Several loot caves.

-A house and a mount.

-A background, several crises, a hard path, and possibly a homeland.

-The ability to make more life choices for My Rival (Name, Alignment, Battle Technique...)

-The Rival will become an independent NPC who:

...will choose when s/he desires your companionship.

...will not always agree to join you when you ask.

...will know where most places are, and how to get there without following you.

...has a separate life, and a personal goal, which you can choose to aid or thwart.

...has his/her own loot stashes throughout Cyrodiil just as you do.

INSTALLATION - The Base Rival is a Female Nord, so if that's your choice, you may skip step *5*.

===============

1. Copy your save (.ess) file, and rename it (MySaveBackup). This step will ensure you don't lose anything by testing My Rival.

2. Extract the contents of the archive to a temporary folder.

3. Copy RivalTestCOPY.ESM to your (install folder)\Oblivion\Data folder. **This is the NECESSARY BASE MASTER file.**

4. Copy RivalTestCOPY.ESP file to (install folder)\Oblivion\Data\. **This is the NECESSARY BASE ESP file.**

5. Copy your Race/Sex choice - i.e. - RivalBretonM.esp - to your (install folder)\Oblivion\Data folder. The Base Rival is a Female Nord, so if that's your choice, then skip this step.

6. Start Oblivion Launcher, click 'Data Files', place an X beside the .esp file(s).

Uninstall

=========

1. Start Oblivion Launcher, click Data Files, uncheck RivalTestCOPY.esm, RivalTestCOPY.esp, and the racial choice .esp you've added.

2. Delete the files from \Oblivion\Data\

3. Try to live without your Rival...

Known Issues or Bugs

====================

--Rarely you might experience a loss of controls. This has happened to me twice in testing. If it happens, you'll probably need to exit the game.

--The Rival has severe pathing problems. Simply waiting for an hour or two will get things moving again.

--S/he has Fighter's Guild sales talk in her greeting.

--There are other packages on the Rival that might run in odd places, i.e., eating in a cave while monsters approach. Remedies will come in the next version.

--Your enemies might ignore you completely, in favor of the berserker that is My Rival.

--Your Rival wears what the base Rival wears. In a real release every rival will wear different clothing/armor.

--Due to the XMarkers strewn around Cyrodiil, there are bound to be ( very minor, so far ) conflicts.

--Please report any odd occurance you find.

THE PAST

=======

0.0.2 2008/6/18 - ALPHA .2 Release:

*Added 600 locations to My Rival's Itinerary.

*Added all vanilla races as choices for My Rival.

*Made Base Rival a Master File.

0.0.1 2008/4/28 - Initial ALPHA release.

*Added 30+ locations to the Rival's Itinerary.

Contact

=======

You can find me at the official Elder Scrolls forum as 'grond'.

You can find me at TES Alliance as 'grond'.

You can find me at TESNexus as 'Tad Nugent'.

You can send me an email here: grond AT Comcast DOT net.

Credits

=======

Thanks to:

Bethesda for creating Oblivion and letting me use their toolbox.

The creators of OBSE.

Elys for Pluggy.

The Wiki Gods.

The Gurus at the TES CS Forums.

Kyoma for the script that loops through the array.

Migthegreat for the inspiration for the reverse order system.

Greenwarden for detailed criticisms of the early travels of my rival.

reallybigjohnson for input regarding true rivalry.

Jonathan D. Wells for his Annotated Map of Cyrodiil.

The makers and maintainers of the outstanding interactive map at UESP: http://www.uesp.net/...map/obmap.shtml

TESNexus.com for the one-stop-shop resource for authors and players.

LHammonds for the Readme Generator this file was based on.

Thanks to YOU for trying this mod.

Thanks to The Flying Spaghetti Monster for creating us all.

Tools Used

==========

Readme Generator - http://lhammonds.gam..._generator1.asp

Licensing/Legal

===============

Do you like the Rival? Then feel free to take it and make your mod. But - don't you dare pretend that you made her. Give credit where it's due, including the makers of those mods I used to make this one. Include those readmes as well.

Stay tuned to this thread and the thread at the Official Forum ( but mostly this thread ) for updates!

Please let me hear your comments!

PM or post if you'd like to test.

[DarkRider]

Grond,

This project is rather interesting in its complexity. I'm looking forward to seing this one released in all it glory!  

I too have been working on making the companion more than a human shield; my biggest issue with many companions is that they are literally disposable. Is your companion marked as essential or does the player risk him/her dying in the field?

Keep working hard and Happy Modding,  

DarkRider

[grond]

I prefer an essential companion.  I don't want to worry about the companion's health.  I don't want to have to take care of him.     I feel my Rival ( or any companion ) should be able to heal himself when he needs to.  My NPC does that, but he won't back off from a fight when his health is low, so he'll just go down.  I ignore the fact he's immortal.  I just roleplay that he's taking precautions.  But for the sake of the mod there will be a reason your Rival doesn't die.  It's hush-hush right now, as it's part of the quest...

That's also why I've set the Rival's level to a minimum of 30.  Then he seems to be able to handle himself the way I can at level 2.  The Rival also levels with the player.  I've fought my Rival and won, so I don't think 30's too high.  

Good luck with your companion, DR. . . can't wait to see what you make!

[DarkRider]

I am trying to give life to the companion character by including some smaller side quests that directly relate to the companion. It is the companion's journey in these sidequests, and the player is along for the ride. I 'm hoping such a role reversal will give the character more dimension.

It sounds like you are also working on an expansive backstory for your companion. That is one of my tricks as well. By developing a captivating story, the character becomes more that just a nameless follower!

I will be watching your mod's progress!  :clover:

[grond]

Quote

I am trying to give life to the companion character by including some smaller side quests that directly relate to the companion. It is the companion's journey in these sidequests, and the player is along for the ride. I 'm hoping such a role reversal will give the character more dimension.

O it definitely would deepen any companion.  Flesh him out.  But be careful to give the PC something to do, or you'll lose the player's interest.  Find the line between leaving the player on the sidelines and having the player do all the work.  I have a goal that the Rival NPC will try to reach, after the initial quest is over.  If they have become friends ( I intend on making a couple of different branches to the main quest, giving the player the opportunity to finish the quest without the Rival, thereby making an enemy out of him. ) The Rival will ask for the player's help in reaching the goal.

Quote

It sounds like you are also working on an expansive backstory for your companion...By developing a captivating story, the character becomes more that just a nameless follower!

That's it exactly.  Without a story, the NPC is a mercenary, hired to shutup and fight.  That's useful and fun, but that mod is already out there.  That's one reason why I don't want to put another 'follower' into anyone's game.  There are enough 'follower' NPCs.  And there seem to be plenty of story-driven companions, but I imagine there's room for more well-told tales.  And if you engage the player, by making the backstory involve the PC, then you'll have a hit!

I've been told over at the official forum that some will play the companion quests and abandon the companion afterward.  I definitely don't want that to happen - I hope to make this NPC unique in that s/he won't want to follow, so you can abandon him.  S/he'll have things to do.  Then if you return to the Rival ( who might not be where you left him ) and want him to come with you, it'll take some persuasion, and then if s/he agrees to come along, s/he won't fight for 1st in line, with any other companions the player might have - s/he'll walk beside the player.  Because s/he knows how to get to where you're going.  That'll take some doing, but it's not impossible.

[Guest]

Very interesting approach, i read this WIP on the official forums a week or two back.

This mod has the possibilty to become, very big, keep up the good work  

[Vereta]

This must be very time consuming mod to make. None the less, I hope to see it complete. It has a lot of potential and would be very easy to expand upon since the Rival is his/her own person. What features from Pluggy are you using to make this mod with? Thanks for thee hard work, Grond.

~Vereta

[grond]

I use Pluggy arrays - one that hold the names of cells, the other holds Xmarkers I've dropped into each of those cells.

I use the Pluggy functions SetRefInArray and GetInArray in a script that was started by Kyoma at the CS Forum.  His script didn't work, but it was a great template. I switched some things around and now there's an NPC that travels well, to almost every spot on the map.  

What began as a 1300 line GetInCell script turned into a 75 line script that loops through two massive arrays.  That process took me over a month from start to finish.   1200+ "SetRefInArray" lines for the two arrays...and now that the NPC travels, I'm going to change the script again  ( ! )  so when the main quest starts the Rival will come looking for the PC.

 

There are about 500 different other things I want to do before releasing anything.  Right now I'm outlining the main quest, which is arduous ( because I want to be lore-correct ), and working on the sets for the climax of the main quest at the same time, thinking about one while I work on the other.  I like doing it this way; even though it probably takes more time, it feels more cohesive.  After that there are some books I'll need to write, and at least one Imperial Broadsheet ( a Missing Person Notice ). Then I'll make the main villian in my little show, and the supporting cast and sets.  After that, there will be some more scripting, I'm sure.  Then comes the dialogue, which I'll leave as silent files until the VAP fills up.  

I'm thinking the main quest of this mod will take us into September, mostly because this beautiful hot Midwestern USA sun isn't around for very long, so when he calls me, I gots to go!  :simbe:  Maybe I'll get into the rival and ignore the main quest, and get a pre-quest adventure released as soon as I can. Sort of a proof of concept pre-release, Weynon House type thing.  But it won't be tomorrow, because it's supposed to be hot, clear and sunny, and the WonderDog comes first...

Expandability is what I'm aiming for.  So there is the main file, an esm, and any new quests I will make can be esps.  Then anyone will be able to make a "rival quest" mod!

[Vereta]

Seems like you have it outlines exactly the way you want it to be. Have fun playing in the sun!

[grond]

Well I have a 'roadmap' of sorts.  

My main problem right now is this:

I want to use Hammerfell for the climax of the main quest.  Specifically the Alik'r desert on the western edge.  This desire has me stumped.

I need your help!

Should I:

1. Make a new worldspace to simulate travel to the western coast of Hammerfell?

2. Make a wide playable path through the western border of Cyrodiil leading through Hammerfell to its western coast?

3. Use a finished worldspace ( Zedar ) , abandon Hammerfell altogether and bend my story to use the lore of Zedar?

3 could be the fastest way, but then the player has to download Zedar, and make it work. And the lore isn't canon - it's 'made up'. And with the requirement of OBSE and Pluggy already, it might be more than players want to have to do.

2 is the way I want to do it, but that'll take the longest to accomplish.  I'm leaning toward this choice anyway.

1 can be finished sooner since I have a worldspace waiting to be used.  But there is a "fakeness" to 1 that is causing me to spin in place, and not do any real work.

I want to finish this mod before TESV is on store shelves .  

Please let me hear your thoughts!

edited for typos

[Guest]

Hmm, my opinion may be faltered due to yourself leaning towards "2".

And having to download another mod to play a special one can be an arse, but the outcome is usually very good!

So my vote goes for "3", hope ya get started on that soon mate.

[grond]

I hate to disappoint you Angel, but I've settled on option 1.  I'm recreating the southern peninsula of Hammerfell - called either Hew's Bane, or Hnes Rax, depending on which map you look at.  It'll be dark and dusty, with ( probably ) no setllements, but there will be nomads and interesting fauna, to challenge and attack you.

NEXT ISSUE - LORE!

1. Does anyone have any specific information regarding this area (Hew's Bane) of Hammerfell?  Do you visit Hew's Bane in Redguard?  I did a quick search at TIL and it came up with nothing but a brief mention in a book.  This question isn't too important, unless the game Redguard sends you there.  I skimmed the storyline of Redguard at TIL, but didn't catch the mention of either name.  I'll do more serious research, but I thought I'd ask here.

2.  This issue has to do with "TOWERS."  Certain towers in ES lore are Aylied creations, or landmarks of Nirn, that are designed to harness creatia, and, together with a talisman, generally called a Stone, these Towers also hold back Oblivion.   Here's a quote from TIL:

Quote

“These other lesser towers are - as Hand of Sotha has suggested - the eight other towers we know of that exist on Nirn. These are the other towers that we know of- Adamantia, Red Tower, Crystal-like-Law, Orichalc, Green-Sap, Walk-Brass, Snow Throat. With White-gold that makes eight. But the Numantia Intercept states there are eight lesser towers surrounding it – so we seem to be missing a tower.”[emphasis added]The Imperial Library, attributed to DragonKnight9

More reading: The Nu-Mantia Intercept

Some info:

The White-Gold is Cyrodiil's White-Gold Tower.  Green-Sap is Falinestri, the Walking Tree-City of Valenwood.  Walk-Brass is Akulakhan (sp?), the gigantic Monster/Machine built by Dagoth Ur in Morrowind ( I believe that's Walk-Brass, anyway)  Snow-Throat is a Mountain in Skyrim, and Adamantia is the spaceship Akatosh used to return to Mundus.  I'm not sure of Red Tower (Red Mountain?), or Crystal-like-Law,  though I'm not too concerned about which is which.  I'm concerned with the gap, and I want to fill it properly.  Also, each Tower has a stone.  White-Gold had the Amulet of Kings.  The Ob Towers each have a Sigil Stone.  Again, what stone represents which Tower isn't too important to me, just that each Tower had something - not necessarily an actual stone - which acted like a conduit for Creatia.

THE BIG ISSUE:

The quote above suggests that there is an undefined tower.  I want to create one for this mod.  I have an idea for a 'stone' of sorts that will be used in my mod, but as far as the Tower, I need some inspiration.  I have an idea to use water in some way.  There's a mountain, a tree, and metal and crystal.  SO...Water.  That's the only element ( we're tired of seeing fire columns after the glut of oblivion Gates, aren't we? ) left.  But a waterfall is lame.  I'm completely open to suggestions.  Some kind of column of water?  A pillar in a lake?

Failing that, and in order to stimulate your imagination, I woulldn't mind using Orichalc, as I don't think it's described anywhere.  It's an archaic name for a metal - a combination of gold and copper.  Maybe a mix of that metal and water in some way?

Thoughts?  Comments?  Post away!  Be part of this mod and get a big thank you in the readme.  

[Guest]

Aww, don't worry. I'm not that sad, yet  

Defeing my choice, the only actual reason is because i can't do any landscape editing myself, due to freak-ish computer, so i automatically rolled that one as the hardest one, but if you're experienced with that, good luck

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I Haven't had much personal experience with Redguard other than a few glances

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These towers seem interesting, i like your idea with water. Orichalcum + Water = wicked creation.

Stone, stone, stone... The usual armorpiece is a bit cheesy and, imo it's been used too much. But it's not that HUGE of an impact on the mod in itself, so it could do. I'd very much like to see somebody turn down this (probably going to be created) mod due to the stone being an amulet.   And my imagination is completely drained at the moment due to the fecking lack of quest concepts my mod has now....  Ummm... A shield? LOL, fail, i know      That's all i can think of other than a tacky piece of jewelry like a ring.

Which would certainly have the wannabe Amulet of Kings smell to it.

A pillar on a lake could be, nice.     But being a toward i'm guessing it should be pretty, well, i don't know, big?

[grond]

Holy --- a fast reply!  

You don't have to worry.  I've been dry as a martini about this idea.  

The element ( don't want to use Tower, even though the thing should be tower-like; they're homages to the first tower, the ship that brought Akatosh to Nirn - Adamantia ) anyway, the thing should be big, huge in fact.  But the "stone" can be anything...anything at all.  Maybe some relation to the water-tower-shaft-pillar-lake thing that's slowly taking shape.  The "stone" is the crux of my mod - its shape can be anything at all, so long as it's totally awesome!!!  

I've got to run, but my sub-conscious will be turning this over in my head, and just writing this is making it a fraction clearer.

Keep the ideas coming!

[Guest]

'nuff said

Anyways, while playing through the awesomely cool Servant of the Dawn mod, i thought a bit about this, unfortunely i didn't come up with anything.

G'night and goodluck

[DarkRider]

grond,

Are you familiar with the Imperial Library, Mate? Possibly the greatest source for Elder Scrolls Lore online! http://www.imperial-library.info/ it may help you flesh out your ideas more!

[grond]

ahem Here's a quote from TIL:“These other lesser towers are - as Hand of Sotha has suggested - the eight other towers we know of that exist on Nirn.

These are the other towers that we know of-

Adamantia, Red Tower, Crystal-like-Law, Orichalc, Green-Sap, Walk-Brass, Snow Throat.

With White-gold that makes eight. But the Numantia Intercept states there are

eight lesser towers surrounding it – so we seem to be missing a tower.”[emphasis added]

The Imperial Library, attributed to DragonKnight9

expand the quotes!    

I gathered all of my information so far from TIL...very erudite group over there.

I want to do more research before I question them again.  

I'm looking for uninitiated fresh ideas of what might be exciting to see in the mod, and then I'll run it past the librarians, testing for lore friendliness.

Any further ideas?

[grond]

Quote

These towers seem interesting, i like your idea with water. Orichalcum + Water = wicked creation.

Yessir it will be, and I believe that's what I'll work on.  Just need to come up with a design, then learn how to make it. Or beg some talented person.

Quote

I'd very much like to see somebody turn down this (probably going to be created) mod due to the stone being an amulet.

That's true, if the action's original and thrilling, who cares what the object is?
I think that I'll work on how it'll be used, ( original and thrilling ) and then the shape will be less important.  Right now it's a sigil stone, set as a placeholder.  It's got to be a good combination of its use and the lore behind it, then no one will care that it's a ring, or a sceptre, or a little dragon statue, or a minotaur head, or a crystal ball...or whatever.  

Quote

And my imagination is completely drained at the moment due to the fecking lack of quest concepts my mod has now...

That's  when I  go to a completely different idea, and redirect my conscious focus to some other issue.  But I've really been doing that too much these days ~ I might need to work on a certain NPC with a big travel itinerary while my subconscious goes through the tower possibilities.  

Have you posted about your need for inspiration?  I'll check your thread after I post this, and throw out ideas as they come.  Thanks for your ideas so far - they've really helped me think in concrete terms about the lore I need to create.    

Don't stop the suggestions!

[grond]

PIX!!

There's Anvil at the bottom right.

I like landscaping.  A lot.

...I also like water.  

Landscaping plus waterfalls = satisfaction.

Last one.  Did I mention I like water?

[DarkRider]

Those waterfalls look awesome! And you did a really good job sculpting the rivers out!  

[Guest]

I couldn't agree with you more Rider!

[Vereta]

You got some mad skills there, Grond! I wish I was half as good as you.

[grond]

Thanks guys.  I just found out  -   - that you can change the water level from cell to cell, so now I can have a few mountain lakes and true rivers, from source to the sea. Nice!

[DarkRider]

Great work indeed, I should commission you to do a worldspace for my project!  

[grond]

I'd never get it done in time...

If you need it by, say, 2010, then I'm your man!