Mmmmm new Elder scrolls IV screenshots

[Kakero]

Yes, My thought exactly Harkoliar. I've spend few thousands to upgrade my current computer just so that I can play Morrowind. I shudder to think whether I need to upgrade my computer again just to be able to play Oblivion.

[Thoran]

I also wonder how big a world you'll be able to make using their toolset... I've been contemplating a "Middle Earth" project for years and with those awesome graphics and Morrowind like gameplay... this engine might be the one to do it with.

I made a thread with all SS in the Morrowind forum FYI.

[Link]

Originally posted by Thoran: I also wonder how big a world you'll be able to make using their toolset... I've been contemplating a "Middle Earth" project for years and with those awesome graphics and Morrowind like gameplay... this engine might be the one to do it with.

Can you elaborate a bit more about what you're talking about? Have you designed a Middle Earth type world? Are you in the middle of a project which is supposed to become a game in the future (or you hope so at least)?

I'm interested, because I've been working on an idea of mine for like 6 years now and it's far from finished. But I can tell you that if I actually finish the (complex) storyline it'll be something good. Then again, everyone thinks their own creations are the best.

Originally posted by Thoran: I also wonder how big a world you'll be able to make using their toolset... I've been contemplating a "Middle Earth" project for years and with those awesome graphics and Morrowind like gameplay... this engine might be the one to do it with.

You can create infinitely sized worlds with the toolset. The real thing to wonder is where will these mods be? Vvardenfall was an Island, thus you could build a world out in the ocean. Cyrodil is surrounded by other countries on all sides, and to prevent characters from leaving they make invisible barriers in the game. So I wonder if you just manipulate the size of those barriers or no.

[Thoran]

Originally posted by Link: quote: Originally posted by Thoran: I also wonder how big a world you'll be able to make using their toolset... I've been contemplating a "Middle Earth" project for years and with those awesome graphics and Morrowind like gameplay... this engine might be the one to do it with.

Can you elaborate a bit more about what you're talking about? Have you designed a Middle Earth type world? Are you in the middle of a project which is supposed to become a game in the future (or you hope so at least)?

I'm interested, because I've been working on an idea of mine for like 6 years now and it's far from finished. But I can tell you that if I actually finish the (complex) storyline it'll be something good. Then again, everyone thinks their own creations are the best. [/QUOTE]Not working on a project but I've been thinking about it for years... the big problem has always been that I've never been satisfied with the development environments out there. Morrowind lacked the graphics punch and I didn't like the distance compression games they played. NWN doesn't have the graphics punch and first person perspective I want. The screenshots of this game look intense, and very close to the realistic but almost TOO lush environment I could see working nicely for Middle Earth.

Also, I'm more interested in developing a "baseline" world than a particular storyline (or gameplay). I'm a confessed Tolkien nut. I'd like to see a project to construct an accurate (as possible) Third age Middle Earth. It would be a pretty much enormous effort, I expect even if the toolset is a great rapid development kit, it'd take a team of dozens of developers and artists years to complete... and thats just creating the environment... not developing any particular story. Then others could be "directors", developing quests or games... or my other idea for such an environment... interactive movies.

Interactive movies is this weird idea I have for a future entertainment form. Instead of using the environment to develop a game, a director would use it as an 'Interactive Set', reenacting scenes from the books or imagining scenes that weren't in the books (say the Storming of Dol Goldur by the White council, or the confrontation of Gandalf and Saruman in Isengard during tFotR).

Instead of reading the book (where you get content but imagery is up to you), or watching the movie (where you get abridged content, imagery that's entierly defined by the movie and no interactivity), or playing a game (where the content is only vaguely defined but you have high interactivity), the Interactive Book would have defined content but open imagery and maybe some interactivity. You are not necessarily an actor (or maybe a limited actor), and the actors are following a pre-defined script (like a movie), but you have full control over your 'camera'. While Gandalf and Frodo are talking in the kitchen you can be watching them, or strolling around the house listening to the conversation as you look out the window, check the larder, watch Sam "trimming the verge" (which wasn't actually in the book but I like the line).

Perhaps if you're in a lazy mood you let your camera follow a predefined path that makes the experience more like a movie, or you can control your 'actor' like you were travelling along with the companions... there would be a lot of flexibility to customize your experience within a story defined by a project team. Additionally the project team would be free to perhaps define areas where the watcher could have a game like level of interactivity... maybe playing a horseman of Rohan during the charge on Pelenor.

I maybe be totally off here... but I see a convergance of movies and interactive games some time in the next couple decades, when photo-realistic computer graphics become ubiquitous and the toolkits reach a level of sophistication that dynamic and absorbing performances are possible with entirely digital characters. This is the kind of stuff I see coming, and it'll probably be pushed from the gaming side (the movie side is to entrenched and will likely see it as a threat to their cash cow).

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Thoran, that sounds like a brilliant idea, it could become a revolution for writers etc. But it would take some work. You would need a big team of designers and developers as you mentioned.

I am also eagerly awaiting Oblivion, and have taken the right steps to be able to run it. (hopefully on full detail)

Can't wait.

[Thoran]

Link got your mail but I can't respond to you... your inbox if full apparently. I'd be happy to talk about projects or potential projects. As I said above mine is really just an idea for a project waiting for a capable development environment. And I know it would required a large team to be successful. Then there's the whole copyright infringement thing that would have to be dealt with (assuming Christopher Tolkien wouldn't want such a project to go forward... which is most likely true).

Perhaps if the whole effort was volunteer based and the result was openly available (kindof like the 'open software' model) he may not be able to stop the project.

Given the number of other Tolkien nuts out there I don't think it would be too difficult to get a team together, assuming an environemnt and toolset can be fount that will do the job.