Main Quest

it's a little early for this, but we need to design a large main quest. Any ideas should be posted here.

HAYABUSA'S WARNING!!! This thread contains major spoilers pertaining to the main quest. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

At first yesterday, I thought about some quests to uncover some conspirators but I scrapped the thought and said, "What problems does Elsweyr face?" I loled at my stupidity when I couldn't answer my own question. C'mon guys, this needs to be great and eye catching. What about a thing where you are mistakenly arrested when you enter Elsweyr? Could go many ways with that. I'm just one person though...

LOL XD I thought of creating this very thread last night.

I think it should be that you come and if you ask people stuff like rumors theres this one random rumor that triggers the quest where you go and investigate a secret dig site. You go there to find everyone, soldiers, animals, digging people, dead. You go and inform the leader what has happened. The leader doesn't know what your talking about and it turns out that the people digger were actually Imperial. The leader is only worried why the Imperials are digging in his desert without permission, what he should be worried about is how they all died. Something to do with an undead army etc.
It's DEFINITELY not set yet but this is just an idea.

Exilian's Minion wrote:LOL XD I thought of creating this very thread last night.

I think it should be that you come and if you ask people stuff like rumors theres this one random rumor that triggers the quest where you go and investigate a secret dig site. You go there to find everyone, soldiers, animals, digging people, dead. You go and inform the leader what has happened. The leader doesn't know what your talking about and it turns out that the people digger were actually Imperial. The leader is only worried why the Imperials are digging in his desert without permission, what he should be worried about is how they all died. Something to do with an undead army etc.
It's DEFINITELY not set yet but this is just an idea.

See? This is something no one has done! But still when we get all lore we will be able to better decide on this.

I was just randomly brainstorming, but I'll take it as a complement.

Hmm... can you do any scripting or quest writing? That would be useful.

Sorry, no. I know extremely basic Python but that's all.

For my 2013-2014 school year, I will be taking a class where we learn all those little html and scripting languages. I might actually be able to make a quest then. I have made quests before but...they were small.

I've never even tried and I don't think I'll be very good if I do.

Hmm... whatever the story, I think we should have some undead. Sort of like draugr, but Elsweyr. That would make dungeon crawling ever so more interesting. (Or whatever 'Dungeon' like things we have)

You enter Elsweyr only to be arrested by the Riverhold guards...I'm stuck on getting arrested. We need to BRAINSTORM!

After being arrested, you wake up in jail. Your cellmate has a lockpick, but doesn't know how to use it, so he gives it to you...

You pick the lock, and have to sneak the fella out. (he has a weapon, yours is confiscated)

He has a...a...a shiv! IDK what he has...y'all sneak out and he thanks you and advises you to visit his friend in Riverhold....

Then he gets killed by a guard (or something) and you run to riverhold, where you meet the person.

Aww...killed? That is a hard mechanic to integrate.

Main Quest so far: You are mistakenly arrested as you enter Elsweyr by road. You wake up in a cell and your cellmate has a lockpick but has no idea how to use it so he gives it to you. You pick the lock and sneak out and he advises you to meet his friend is Riverhold.

Arresting the player when he enters to Elsweyr will be difficult. You'll have to check to every cell of the map where he could enter. And don't forget he could use spells of levitation, jump or Divine Intervention.
And you have to be more generic with the first quest. The player won't be necessarily a thief. He could be a barbarian with a level 5 in lockpicking (never used this skill) and he will be stucked in the cell!
And I think it's a bad idea to force the player to be involved in the main quest. It will be too much if it's also in the destiny of the PC to save Elsweyr. The player could just want to visit the map.
I know it will make the game difficult but I think it will be more interesting if the player has to search for starting the quest. He'll have to discover what is happening and he'll have the possibility to choose his side or to not act.
Or you could just give him a starting point. Something like that when he enter a specific city:
"You feel a hand dig into your pocket. You turn around but the thief has already disappeared. However, he left a note."
For the story, I have some ideas.
We could use Altmer ambition to integrate Elsweyr to their Dominion. They might want to destabilize the country and force it to rise against the imperial occupation. Sort of Thalmor before the Thalmor...
Or, as an agent of the Empire, the player could find that the other Blades need help. (the main quest of Morrowind has to be started)
Or, Azurah needs her Champion helps her others childrens against a threat...

"You feel a hand dig into your pocket. You turn around but the thief is gone. However, they dropped some parchment..." That sounds good. I'm thinking Riverhold. I just got that place on the brains.

BLARG! Any ideas?

Will there be a Census and Excise office type place? If so than the quest should start there because it's an easy place to remember.

I was thinking a proximity script for something near the entrance to the city. Maybe a fountain or something in a plaza? I doubt a thief would steal in a Census and Excise office. If he did, then he'd be gone within a couple of days.

It is easier to use the GetCell function to detect if the player is in the city (for example, GetCell, Riverhold) and use a timer to activate the quest. So if the player stays a certain amount of time in the city, the quest will automatically start whatever the place where he is (interior or exterior).
Of course, you can also do cells where the script doesn't execute like the Census and Excise Office. You can also stop the timer when the player is jumping, levitating, or invisible.
The ony limitation is all the cells must have their name beginning with the same word. So a city is a perfect place to start.

Okay, that's even better. I'm not completely acquainted with scripting myself.

Can someone please answer my question? Ryu just said something about thieves in Census and Excise offices that had nothing to do with my question.

There may be. We are not sure on that yet.