Vapourware Daggerfall Unity isnt Vaporware

[Luzur]

More or less. Luzur, that first image doesn't look quite right (lower left of helm from our point of view). Incorrect rendering priority with the base character model, perhaps?

Looks like the fur brim of the cloak clips over the helmet texture there, abit.

 

[Luzur]

lol

I mean, like finding unique dungeons or points of interest, or enemy encounters? Or is the landmass so large that you rarely stumble on dungeons or things out in the wilds?

From what I remember of my research, enemy encounters and general "points of interest" are easy enough to find. But anything super worthwhile like a dungeon, mainline story area, or town ain't happening without fast travel. Not unless you enjoy actual weeks and months of manual walking.

They are working on mods that will fix the empty wilderness, though, so thats abit of a comfort.

wilderness is quite empty, farms, small villages can be hard to find without fast travel, and unknown dungeons are very hard to find period.
Since it seems roads are a long way ahead (no pun intended), could there be alternatives?

Wanderers

NPCs/monsters walking around the land, minding their own businesses; Most of the time coming from, or heading to, some relevant place in the vicinity.

That could be seen as a smaller/achievable relative of Random Encounters idea

Details

Each time some terrain zone is instanciated, have a small percentage of chance to instanciate NPCs or monsters in that zone. The mix could be similar to random attacks mix, or only the weaker ones, I'm not sure.
They always start walking straight ahead in some direction, peacefully; and stop when they're too far from the player and despawned, as usual:

- animals: go in any direction, but try to avoid cities/farms/temples directions. They don't pay attention to the player (or even try to walk away from you once you're detected) unless you get too close in which case they become aggressive.

- humans (not sure if villagers can be added, maybe not in 1st version): either come from or ahead toward cities/farms/temples around, if there's any. Otherwise random direction. Don't attack unless you attack (there's already random attacks in game, wanderers are just minding other businesses).

- monsters: either come from or ahead toward dungeons, if there's any. Otherwise random direction, but try to avoid cities/farms/temples directions. Switch to aggressive if they detect you, so the only way to know where they're going is to not be detected. It should require patience and some luck, but not be impossible.

and:

Pretty sure most people have thought of such feature or mod, the idea is very simple - add some more fun to the vast world of Daggerfall. While there are some random encounters in the original game, I want to improve the system and make it more varied.

First of all, I believe random encounters should happen in three cases:
1) While you are sleeping in the wilds (you already can be attacked, I wish for more possibilities)
2) While you are fast travelling (especially if you decide to move recklessly and stay outside at night, chances should be higher)
3) While you are exploring the world (just randomly appearing as cells load)

I also believe that random encounters could best be classified into three categories:
Negative - most simple, usually involve enemies attacking you or some other unfortunate events
Positive - also quite simple, usually something good happening to the player
Neutral - a situation which is either just peculiar or a situation in which the outcome is dependant on player's actions

The type of the encounter should depend on player's Luck, current location, time of the day, reputation, guild standing, etc.
I am pretty sure people will come up with some brilliant ideas, especially since we are not limited by the need to voice act each conversation.

Some basic ideas for encounters:
Negative
Highwayman on the Road - robber asks for money, attacks if you don't give it, unless persuaded not to.
Ambush - a lonely woman or a child beckon player to come, once player initiates dialogue enemies ambush player from all sides.
Regular attacks - just some enemy attacking the player.

Positive
Hidden Treasure - dead adventurer and a treasure map to find the treasure
Travelling Mercenary - allows to pick a new bounty quest.
Wandering Merchant - can sell or buy various merchandise.

Neutral
Vampire Encounter - vampire NPC found at night in the graveyard or on the streets of the city, offers joining his clan if player is strong enough.
Daedra with a Puzzle - Daedra Lord encountered in the wilds, offers player to solve some puzzles and rewards for the right answers or attacks for the wrong ones.

-----
These are just some examples I've thought of, there could be hundreds if not thousands of different encounters. It would be especially cool if their outcome will depend on a lot of factors and could be different each time.

Think of Skyrim random encounters or Witcher side activities, but with more depth and detail, as well as more possibilities. I hope it can be done as either a mod or a new feature, so later modders could add more and more types of encounters.

The landmass is much too large and empty for casual wandering. You will have to fast travel everywhere.

Yes, and all but main quest dungeons are randomly generated. The interesting parts of the game are typically happening inside dungeons. Running into an Ancient Vampire at Level 2 and having to avoid it somehow as you navigate an area. Defeating an Orc Warlord on your last point of HP. Making a Lich blow itself up etc.

I think i read on the forums that they are gonna fix the "Lich blows himself up" feature and also gonna add some more spells for him (i think it was "Summoning skeletons"? something like that). Add to that that "Really, Really Dark Dungeons" mod and the new lightning effects they are grinding on and you gonna have moments like "stumble into a pitch black room with only a torch in a dank crypt and you hear the cackle of a lich somewhere in the darkness ahead of you, and BOUF! fireball ignites in the gloom and heads towards you" happening.

And if they get the "Dungeon monster theme" mod working it will be possible to have quest into dungeons that is populated by one kind of enemies, like "Lich is making an undead army, stop him) type and enter a dungoen with only undead enemies.

 

[Funposter]

They are working on mods that will fix the empty wilderness, though, so thats abit of a comfort.

Just a road network connecting the major cities would be enough for me. All you need to do is paint the landscape a certain colour.

 

[Luzur]

They are working on mods that will fix the empty wilderness, though, so thats abit of a comfort.

Just a road network connecting the major cities would be enough for me. All you need to do is paint the landscape a certain colour.

Road network algorithm is being worked on, although i dont know how far then have come yet.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

So can you at least walk from City to city or town to town? With a map that big it's got to be an interesting game in some way, right?

our trolls change their names too often. which one is this again?

 

[Luzur]

 

[Makabb]

The traveling where you speed up the time and watch the horse run should be in every elder scrolls game....... than again it makes sense in daggerfall due to sheer map size, the newer ones are much smaller so you would instantly travel from one place to another (heck, it would be like the fast travel), but in daggerfall it kind of feels like traveling in fallout 1 on overland map for example, only thing is needed are random encounters attacking you during the travel.

 

[Taxnomore]

Daggerfall is nothing more than a roguelike.

 

[Martyr]

If you can walk to town and find dungeons and encounters I don't think walking around would be that bad, at least not in short bursts. It could add immersion to travel from town to town, hit a dungeon here or there and see what the new town has in store for you. You could spend endless hours exploring this game, saving fast travel for when it's needed (which would be quite a lot, but still.)

think of Daggerfall as if you would wander around in the real world. you won't stumble upon awesome locations every two seconds, it's mostly wilderness untouched by civilization and enemy encounters rarely happen.
yes, you can walk from town to town, but it will take some time. to put it into perspective look at this:

I've walked from the left red spot to the right red spot. this took 48 minutes.

now zoomed out. the place which I've marked as the right red spot is in the middle of the horizontal and vertical lines, so it's not even a third of the size of Tulune.

and now Tulune (again marked red) in comparison to the rest of the map. this game is gigantic.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

But at least you can spot dungeons on the map and fast travel to those, or walk if you're feeling bored. I just like the giganticness of the map. It seems like it would be an immersive game to play, even if you are fast traveling a lot.

 

[Martyr]

But at least you can spot dungeons on the map and fast travel to those, or walk if you're feeling bored. I just like the giganticness of the map. It seems like it would be an immersive game to play, even if you are fast traveling a lot.

if you really want to play Daggerfall you have to fast travel. especially since there's a time limit right at the beginning of the main plot and if you would really intend to wander to your destination I'm sure the time limit would expire before arriving.
imo Daggerfall is the best of the Elder Scrolls games, it's only getting worse with each game after that.
so if you're interested in Daggerfall just legally download it for free or buy any Bethesda published game on gog, Fallout 1 for example and you'll get a free copy of Arena and Daggerfall with that.

 

[theSavant]

This is... crazy. Who's gonna play that?? People already spend like 1000 hours in Skyrim, but this implies 100.000 hours or so.
Also how good can be the quality for a game this size? Isn't it more like a procedurally generated soulless world? Doesn't seem very appealing to me.

Honestly I don't get it - both why anyone would try to remake Daggerfall or even play this. But then again everyone has his own madness

 

[Poseidon00]

Honestly the continued progress on Daggerfall Unity is making me want to start working on a mod for it. Probably one that just adds overworld encounters and more variety to it in general. One thing that it's really missing imo. Absolutely no reason to ever not use fast travel all the time. Nothing to see just wandering around.

 

[Martyr]

Honestly I don't get it - both why anyone would try to remake Daggerfall or even play this.

Daggerfall is the ultimate unrestricted sandbox - you can literally do whatever you want - while still being a proper, not dumbed-down, open world RPG.

 

[Poseidon00]

This is... crazy. Who's gonna play that?? People already spend like 1000 hours in Skyrim, but this implies 100.000 hours or so.
Also how good can be the quality for a game this size? Isn't it more like a procedurally generated soulless world? Doesn't seem very appealing to me.

Honestly I don't get it - both why anyone would try to remake Daggerfall or even play this. But then again everyone has his own madness

There are a lot of people who really like Daggerfall, myself included, and are impressed with it's scope, but who just can't get passed the sheer bugginess of it and it's incomplete state. Daggerfall Unity is a great project in my opinion.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

Honestly I don't get it - both why anyone would try to remake Daggerfall or even play this. But then again everyone has his own madness

It was a way overly ambitious project, but I wish the ambition remained. The original idea was to make later installations of TES improved iterations of Daggerfall -- keep the massive scope and first person immersion, but fill in the details to make the world increasingly realistic, and eventually add in multiplayer. Basically, it was going to be SAO. Would've been the sickest shit. Hopefully Bethesda tries bringing this concept back.
I disagree with Todd on quite a lot, but I think he made the right decision to significantly decrease the series's scope. Daggerfall was too ambitious. We didn't and still don't have the hardware to make it work. But we are getting close. Misplaced high hopes for the future.

 

[theSavant]

 

[Agame]

Honestly I don't get it - both why anyone would try to remake Daggerfall or even play this. But then again everyone has his own madness

It was a way overly ambitious project, but I wish the ambition remained. The original idea was to make later installations of TES improved iterations of Daggerfall -- keep the massive scope and first person immersion, but fill in the details to make the world increasingly realistic, and eventually add in multiplayer. Basically, it was going to be SAO. Would've been the sickest shit. Hopefully Bethesda tries bringing this concept back.
I disagree with Todd on quite a lot, but I think he made the right decision to significantly decrease the series's scope. Daggerfall was too ambitious. We didn't and still don't have the hardware to make it work. But we are getting close. Misplaced high hopes for the future.

Look guys, Fluent and TemplarGR had a baby!

Its so adorable.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

.Look guys, Fluent and TemplarGR had a baby!

Templar is dead.
Always two there must be; no more, no less.

 

[Modron]

Look guys, Fluent and TemplarGR had a baby!

Its so adorable.

It's just crispy trying to stir up those drama feels again, the avatar is a dead give away.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

Crispy is old. I am not so old. Difference.
Crispy has been here for a decade. I have been there for a decade. Difference.
Crispy is likely a human. I am a birdman. Difference.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I just wish we'd see a modern take on Daggerfall. New engines and technology to run the procedural gen mixed with handcrafted stuff, too. I'd like to see someone attempt a style of CRPG like that again. Hell, I'd like to see Bethesda do it, but that will never happen. Some ambitious, insanely creative team should attempt a huge world like that. Although Kenshi is actually the 2nd largest singeplayer RPG map since Daggerfall, and pretty cool to explore (no fast travel, it's not needed either.)

 

[Mustawd]

Crispy has been here for a decade. I have been there for a decade.

Fucking ESL...

 

[theSavant]

Crispy has been here for a decade. I have been there for a decade. Difference.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

I just wish we'd see a modern take on Daggerfall.

We can hold out hope for TES VI to be Todd's magnum opus wherein he comes full circle to when he joined the company. Highly unlikely though.

I think the best chance we have aside from an ambitious new team, like you mentioned, would be a ground-up engine for Daggerfall. The Unity project is great, and I'm very excited for it, but it lacks the versatility of OpenMW. There has been some (and I emphasize some in its smallest order of magnitude) talk among OpenMW devs about bringing OpenDF back once they reach 1.0. I think that's unlikely too, though. They've spent so much time on OpenMW and taken tons of criticism. Hell, one of the main guys quit out of anger from backlash. And they still want to add more kinds of functionality in a 2.0 and 3.0 release, so I can't picture them starting all over again.