Wheel of Time - Morrowind Mod

Gameplay

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Gameplay_Scripts.htm
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Description

Gameplay consists of how the world of Robert Jordan will be built in the Morrowind engine.  This includes the magic system, transportation methods, events, and anything that needs discussion and design to make the mod behave as much like the Wheel of Time world as possible.  The objective is to make the player feel as if they have entered the world of the books.  The game engine will never be able to mimic that exactly but our main mission is to provide a realistic framework.


 

Table of Contents

NCP's

Companions and groups

Children

Sitting characters

Transportation

Slow transport

Fast transport

Non-magical

Boats

Horses

Carriage and wagons

Ways

Magical

Traveling/Gateways

Skimming

Traveling Circles

Book Story

 


NCP's

Companions and groups

We need to discuss how companions and groups will work.  Morrowind is not great with companions.  Lots of issues.  Do we want to have specific small quests that use companions?  Do we want the player to be able to pick up companions and carry them through the whole game?  

Children

Children are needed.  Hopefully, by the time we get to placing characters, children will be a reality in another mod.  This is listed at a medium-high priority in the model section

Sitting characters

This is a nice to have.  It is on the list of models but at a low priority


Transportation

This section will detail all the types of transportation the player can use and how it will be implemented.  Details may be found in the scripting section.

Slow transport

Obviously just walking and running.

Fast transport

Non-magical

Boats

Normal boats like in Morrowind.

Is there any real need to have the player see his passage or own a boat or anything?  There are existing mods out there that do this.  I think it is a low priority to pull in that scripting.  Comments?

Horses

Big problems with horses.  We need a good horse model.

Minimum:  Horses are like silt riders.  You go to a stable and hire a horse and are immediately transported to your destination.  No riding animation needed.  No seeing the sights along the way.

Companions, if we have them, will automatically come along.  In fact, best thing would be that your price would be higher if you have a companion.  Script testing needed to see if this is possible.

Model:  there is a current model of a horse out there.  Need to find the artist who is doing it.  Need to make sure we get the minimum of what he develops so that even if we go with this option, we have a horse.

Optimum:  The ability to buy or hire a horse, get on, ride it.  See your companions riding a horse as well.

This will all depend on whether the current efforts to create horses are successful.  

Carriage and wagons

Same as silt riders.  Player comes to a carriage stand and hires the carriage.  Player is immediately transported to destination.

Can player buy a carriage or wagon?

Do we need to have start and end points like they do in Morrowind?  Where when you get to your destination, you are always at a carriage/wagon stand and can hire another?

Ways

Ways are listed under non-magical because you don't need magic to use them.  You do need to know how to open them.  How will the player learn to open them?

Magical

Traveling/Gateways

Predefined locations:

There is a mod out there that scripts traveling to predefined locations.  One for each region/nation.  The scripts just need to be modified for the WOT mod.

Issues:

  • Player would pick from a menu.  Not like the books but no other way to do it.

  • Menu would only have a small number or would end up too unwieldy.  Maybe one for outside each major city and town and special site.

Player defined locations

Player can set a specific location. Nice to have since it would allow a magical player to travel inside buildings or other locations to fulfill quests, steal, etc.  It would be nice if the player could set 20 or so of these locations.

Issues: 

  • Player must set the location prior to later wanting to go there.  This is not like the books.

  • Only a predetermined number could be kept.  Player would have a menu that allows them to pick the defined ones.  Not like the books.

  • Scripting is large.  Good thing is that it is not hard.  I have scripting that does this already.  It just needs to be modified for the WOT world.  The MultipleMark mod comes with a perl script that can be run on a mod that builds the list of all cells.  

Companions:

Companions can be handled in several ways.

  1. If we have only a certain set of NCP's that can be used as companions, scripting can take care of this if companion is within x distance. Maybe have an option that says "take companions with?"
  2. We could also have an amulet, scroll, whatever that you get when you get a companion.  This would allow the player to activate it and the companion comes to you no matter where you are.  See section on companions for other limitations such as what happens when you leave a companion.

Skimming

Since Rand is the only one who actually does this, it is a very low priority.  Player either learns traveling or not.

Traveling circles

Possibility of this, but only to go from one stone to another.   Unless we find ourselves way ahead of schedule.  Those who would use this would need a lot of research at the various libraries.  And would slowly learn them.  

Create a "traveling circle journal."  It would be updated as the player learned different locations.  Not sure if this is possible without making 100 different journals.  It would be nice to make the player pick the destination and only figure it out by guess or what they have learned.  Mapping all the locations by just trying them all should be discouraged.  Maybe the rest period will be long or a global variable that counts the traveling circles used for a period.  If it hits too high, the player is told they cannot use the circle until they get rest and food or something.


Book Story 

This section will describe how the player will know of events that happen in the book. 

Possibles:

  • Rumors
  • Topic discussions
  • Town notices
  • Parts of the player main quest
  • Something else
 

The Wheel of Time and all its subject matter is copyright by Robert Jordan.  Morrowind, the gaming engine, and the modules created for it are copyright by Bethesda.  This project is a not-for-profit endeavor.  It is done in homage to a great fantasy series.  It is not intended to be an official representation of the works of Robert Jordan.
For problems or questions regarding this web contact the webmaster: Kiriel@direcway.com.
Last updated: August 31, 2005.