A kind of crazy idea
Posted: 10 Dec 2018, 00:09
So, I know you wonderful folks have been working hard on this engine. With that knowledge, I assume you have an "idea" of it's limitations. Now, I'm a completely crazy N'wah and often ponder ideas that, to many, seem like a waste of time or just down right weird. The other day I had an idea that I wanted to ask about. What I'm asking is two questions I shall pose prior to explaining the idea.
1. Can the engine handle it?
2. Can such a thing be done in the OpenCS?
The idea I've come up with I've dubbed Morrowind Amplification Project, or M.A.P. for short. That was done on purpose, because the idea behind it. If any of you are familiar with the early thoughts on Morrowind development, the original game was to be MUCH larger than what we ended up with. I'm talking landmass. I don't know the exact size, but I suppose that's irrelevant to this idea. The idea is to increase the size of the island of Vvardenfell, and thus make room for larger cities, more towns and inns, more wilderness, and so on.
However, one can't just simple make the island bigger by scaling everything up. Instead, what I'd like to see done (not by you folks of course, but modders and someone who shares my passion but has a clue as to how to make it happen)... ehm... what I'd like to see done is each "biome" of Morrowind be separated, and land be filled in between them. Basically, cut Morrowind up, leaving Read Mountain as the center and anchor point, spread each section far away, and fill in the land with randomly generated terrain, or just bland land that will be given to modders to work on (something I can actually do that's not code based).
The island could be expanded up to 10X, or more, and then filled in with all kinds of things. This makes distant land even better, and gives people the chance to make places like Balmora much larger. There could be forests, swamps etc. The issues arise in having to move, and resize Solstheim, and of course, Tamriel Rebuilt would have to be taken into consideration. The other issue is, would this cause far too much strain on the engine? Would it lag out the wazoo? Would the game even start? Am I stark raving mad? Those sorts of things. This would also be a great time for modders to raise the land to make higher mountains (Make Red Mountain Larger) and make valleys even deeper feeling by raising the sides. NPC directions would have to be updated, as would sign posts, and many other things. The shore line would have to be reworked I suppose, to match closely to the original game, if anyone cares for that sort of thing.
Now, these thoughts may seem jumbled, and possibly hit and miss, and I know I've forgotten to say something I probably took into account before... but I have been working 60 hours a week recently and getting very little sleep, so I'm not as focused as I'd like to be.
I look forward to all thoughts on this, and I hope that such a thing would be feasible without making the engine crash. Mind you, 10X bigger is just a placeholder idea. The increase could be any size that seems rational and workable. Also, please keep in mind, this is just an idea, a concept without any backing or someone to do the math bits to make the land appear where it must. Just a fan with some thoughts.
-Kind Regards,
The Crazy N'wah
1. Can the engine handle it?
2. Can such a thing be done in the OpenCS?
The idea I've come up with I've dubbed Morrowind Amplification Project, or M.A.P. for short. That was done on purpose, because the idea behind it. If any of you are familiar with the early thoughts on Morrowind development, the original game was to be MUCH larger than what we ended up with. I'm talking landmass. I don't know the exact size, but I suppose that's irrelevant to this idea. The idea is to increase the size of the island of Vvardenfell, and thus make room for larger cities, more towns and inns, more wilderness, and so on.
However, one can't just simple make the island bigger by scaling everything up. Instead, what I'd like to see done (not by you folks of course, but modders and someone who shares my passion but has a clue as to how to make it happen)... ehm... what I'd like to see done is each "biome" of Morrowind be separated, and land be filled in between them. Basically, cut Morrowind up, leaving Read Mountain as the center and anchor point, spread each section far away, and fill in the land with randomly generated terrain, or just bland land that will be given to modders to work on (something I can actually do that's not code based).
The island could be expanded up to 10X, or more, and then filled in with all kinds of things. This makes distant land even better, and gives people the chance to make places like Balmora much larger. There could be forests, swamps etc. The issues arise in having to move, and resize Solstheim, and of course, Tamriel Rebuilt would have to be taken into consideration. The other issue is, would this cause far too much strain on the engine? Would it lag out the wazoo? Would the game even start? Am I stark raving mad? Those sorts of things. This would also be a great time for modders to raise the land to make higher mountains (Make Red Mountain Larger) and make valleys even deeper feeling by raising the sides. NPC directions would have to be updated, as would sign posts, and many other things. The shore line would have to be reworked I suppose, to match closely to the original game, if anyone cares for that sort of thing.
Now, these thoughts may seem jumbled, and possibly hit and miss, and I know I've forgotten to say something I probably took into account before... but I have been working 60 hours a week recently and getting very little sleep, so I'm not as focused as I'd like to be.
I look forward to all thoughts on this, and I hope that such a thing would be feasible without making the engine crash. Mind you, 10X bigger is just a placeholder idea. The increase could be any size that seems rational and workable. Also, please keep in mind, this is just an idea, a concept without any backing or someone to do the math bits to make the land appear where it must. Just a fan with some thoughts.
-Kind Regards,
The Crazy N'wah