Bay of Voices - In Development

[NShade13]

Wow. This looks awesome. Will be following this with great interest. Thank you for this.

[Huckleberry]

Hi everyone. So some bad news. My former PC blew up. Not blew up with flames and all that - just a motherboard that decided to fry itself and take my CPU down with it. Soooo ... new rig up and running but I just got it today and still have to try and install my old drives. Doable, just time consuming and I have about two weeks worth of RL work to catch up on now.

 

The good news is I managed to save my esp of this file as my former PCs last act - bad news is that if the old drives are corrupted, I will have to reload all my mod assets and that might take a few days of downloading ... a couch from here, a cup from there, etc ... you know the drill.  I am optimistic that I will be able to recover most, if not all, of the data from my former drives. I will keep you posted.  I thank you for your patience.  

[Nazzzgul666]

Sorry to hear that, good luck on recovering your stuff.

[Highborn]

Yeah, hope everything turns out alright.

[goldust]

20 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Hi everyone. So some bad news. My former PC blew up. Not blew up with flames and all that - just a motherboard that decided to fry itself and take my CPU down with it. Soooo ... new rig up and running but I just got it today and still have to try and install my old drives. Doable, just time consuming and I have about two weeks worth of RL work to catch up on now.

 

The good news is I managed to save my esp of this file as my former PCs last act - bad news is that if the old drives are corrupted, I will have to reload all my mod assets and that might take a few days of downloading ... a couch from here, a cup from there, etc ... you know the drill.  I am optimistic that I will be able to recover most, if not all, of the data from my former drives. I will keep you posted.  I thank you for your patience.  

well i know how that goes..but stick with it..and i hope to be playing your mod one day

[old cat]

Looking very promising. Missed this for over a month until tonight. I definitely need to scan these forums for projects like this.

 

Good luck getting your new pc setup for the dev work.

 

The structure you have thus far looks to do what you intend in providing a lore story line that would tie multiple mods together.

 

Your following list will grow and the positive feedback and reviews also.

 

Look forward to a testable mod.

[Huckleberry]

Thanks for the support everyone. It means a lot.

 

Okay dev status and update:

 

1. Previous esp corrupted (ugh)

2. drive holding all modding assets accessible and stable but esp corruption makes that irrelevant

3. story and quest Word and pdf files intact

 

Way ahead:

 

1. rebuild Bay of Voices in CK. Note: this seems like a bad thing but I am not too upset about it. This is my first big mod and I made a lot of rookie mistakes in setting up and building the worldspace. Even before this calamity, I was struggling with the stability of the world space due to my mistakes. Sooo ... this rebuild will positively affect the stability of the mod itself. Which is good. Plus, now that I have a better understanding of the CK and its capacities/limitations, I will be able to move much more quickly. 

2. Oldrim vs SSE: I am going to build this out in Oldrim and likely port to SSE once out of beta (since you can convert Oldrim mods to SSE and not vice versa). In order to achieve this as painlessly as possible, all Sexlab (oldrim or sse) or Flower Girl content will be added at the very end and only into the quests themselves so the Bay will exist regardless of which framework players are using to access the adult content.  

 

Thanks for sticking with me on this guys ...  

[CGi]

4 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

1. rebuild Bay of Voices in CK. Note: this seems like a bad thing but I am not too upset about it. This is my first big mod and I made a lot of rookie mistakes in setting up and building the worldspace. Even before this calamity, I was struggling with the stability of the world space due to my mistakes. Sooo ... this rebuild will positively affect the stability of the mod itself. Which is good. Plus, now that I have a better understanding of the CK and its capacities/limitations, I will be able to move much more quickly.

Why not use the released plugin and what could you have done, that a whole new world space is unstable?

[Huckleberry]

2 hours ago, CGi said:

Why not use the released plugin and what could you have done, that a whole new world space is unstable?

I never released the plugin but I have a backup esp on USB.

 

I am such an idiot sometimes ... *facepalm* ... so, I was able to load the esp in CK after all ... I just had a pathing issue.  Anyway ... *facepalm*

 

So, as to the unstable worldspace rookie mistakes ...

 

all of the problems are related to the exterior cells (there are only really two and a bit but they are at weird angles so there are four edited cells) ... and even though the esp appears to be okay, I will probably go ahead and change those ... I am not sure if it is instability per se or just performance but the exteriors would glitch out in certain areas and I would rather fix those than ignore them. 

 

Most of them have to do with the location coords (middle of the map), parent worldspace (tamriel, so aforementioned coords meant it was in the middle of Whiterun ... it would load Whiterun distant LOD which you could see through the windows at the top of the bridge door),  and type of worldspace ... I was trying to build an island but I built an EEC Warehouse type of space ... where I built on top of the land and pushed down into the dirt to create the Bay, instead of the other way around.

 

Exterior lighting was a mess ... I couldn't keep the sun from throwing shadows in weird directions even using black panels (this was a coord issue too since my north, and the mods north were different and I haven't discovered a way to change the north marker in exteriors. I guess you just have to orient your build correctly in the first place (this is a cosmetic issue rather than performance but it resulted in the water current originating from the direction of the butcher, rather than the ship doors and the sun coming in at strange angles).

 

Climate would act weird too sometimes ... I told it I wanted it to have a northern sea of ghosts type climate, which it would do - most of the time. However, I suspect due to the coords on Tamriel map, it would also sometimes just give me Whiterun weather. The coords are fixable. So too is the parent worldspace issue.  BUT ... the lighting and sideways water really bugs me and the limitations of never being able to go outside the cave bubble due to my "Bay" being in the middle of a bunch of dirt, is something that should be fixed. 

 

I also had some rookie no-no problems such as duplicating cells and items and not naming them properly, etc. I think I caught and fixed most of those already but will need to go through with a fine tooth comb to make sure. 

 

Other than the coords and orientation issues, it is entirely possible that the glitching I was experiencing was due to a hardware problem. The glitches didn't start showing up until about a week prior to the computer failing.

 

TL;DR - I will likely rebuild the exterior cells to improve performance and correct cosmetic issues. On the plus side, all my packages, NPCs, and interiors appear to be good to go. So yay!!!

[cailic]

Well then.  Sounds like you have had it kinda rough.  I remember times like that.  Ahhhh... fond memories..... of pulling out my hair and possibly breaking a few things. 

So, it's been a month.  Is it done yet?

[Huckleberry]

Hi,

 

Sorry for long silence. Had a RL thing to deal with. I am back and will post new information soon.  

[Highborn]

56 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Hi,

 

Sorry for long silence. Had a RL thing to deal with. I am back and will post new information soon.  

Nice, good to hear!

[Huckleberry]

I am almost ready to release the first phase of the mod. Finally. I'm just getting a couple of scripts in there that are related to the basic, early side quests (like fetch quests for merchants) and we should be ready to go.  Regardless of how far I get with the side quests, I will do a preliminary WIP release of the town itself this weekend just so you can start wandering around in there. 

 

I decided not to scrap the exterior locations and just made some changes that I hope will improve the performance. As for the water going the wrong way and some of the lighting issues that were bothering me so much ... the water I will just accept for the time being, the lighting I will fix as I go along.  Your patience on this issue will be most appreciated. The first person to tell me my water is going sideways will get a very stern look and be locked into one of t.ara's zap devices for an attitude adjustment ... oh wait, most of you little pervs (like me) will probably like that, so it will just be a stern look ... LOL

 

First WIP release will include the town itself with a few basic side quests. This release is still a very early WIP and is designed to solicit feedback on basic functionality, usability, frame rate impact, etc.  Depending on how much progress I make with the side quests, it may include some of the planned sexlab content, but, it may not. There is no reason that you won't be able to use the space alongside your other mods and it will play nice with TDF Prostitution and the wandering around looking for customers stage of Radiant Prostitution (home delivery, etc, may not function within the town itself yet ... I will look into it, but you have been warned).

 

Our road ahead:

Spoiler

The first four phases (including the town WIP) don't care whether you are Dragonborn and will ignore that status

 

Phases three and four overlap each other, so each phased release reflects the start of the faction line, not the end. This is due to the fact that I intend the main NPCs to be aware of each other and know what you are up to.  To not break immersion or logic, I have to limit how far you can go until I can catch up with the next block of content. 

 

Second phase: the pleasure gardens including brothel, gambling and arena. A custom prison system (it has one now but it behaves the same as vanilla at this time). Second phase will have fully functional custom prostitution (both work and hire), the scenes and content associated with the VIP suite will be up and running, and the sexlab based side quests will be complete. 

 

Third phase: the third phase sees us finally setting up the factions themselves. First up are the pirates and the meadery/drug lines. The release of this phase will have new quest lines, new locations, a working ship, new merchants and options for how you choose to complete each stage, "pay" the crew, etc. The ship is NOT a player home. 

 

Fourth Phase: Bridgers.  I've already posted my plans for their quests so I won't expand here.

 

from a gameplay perspective, the following phases will make the most sense if you actually play as a Dragonborn. Mysteries and Keepers won't trigger until you are the acknowledged Dragonborn and one of the NPCs will send you to Helgen to make sure you find Alduin and trigger the start of the main questline if you haven't already done so. As these phases are intended (but won't be required) to be played after the Bridgers line, I feel comfortable forcing a player to act in order to engage with the content. If you really don't want to be a Dragonborn, Mysteries and Keepers will not be available to play.

 

Fifth Phase: Pearls and Mysteries. Our Pearls are our courtesan/assassins. The Pearls will include a very dark and, I hope, exciting quest line.  The Mysteries is actually a lore based lead up to the Keepers line. I won't spoil the surprise here, but, I think that you will like it.  

 

Seventh Phase: Keepers. I have to leave this phase to last, but, I am very excited about working on it. Everything before it, leads to this Keepers line.

 

 

[Kriegera]

Will this be voiced eventually?

[Nazzzgul666]

Just wanted to let you know that i'm still very excited about this mod, but i'm afraid i won't be able to give much feedback any time soon. I've decided i'd like to play FO:NV for the first time two weeks ago and so far all i did was to install some mods and test if it still starts.

[Huckleberry]

12 hours ago, Kriegera said:

Will this be voiced eventually?

Yes, that is my intention.

[Huckleberry]

4 hours ago, Nazzzgul666 said:

Just wanted to let you know that i'm still very excited about this mod, but i'm afraid i won't be able to give much feedback any time soon. I've decided i'd like to play FO:NV for the first time two weeks ago and so far all i did was to install some mods and test if it still starts.

LOL ... so many games, so little time.

 

 

[KLongad Sirtup]

@Huckleberry I also happen to be interested this modification too as it looks to be a really well detailed world. I'm wondering whether your going to be using something like SlaveTats as a soft-dependency (detected and utilised via SKSE)?

 

That way those slaves could be branded possibly with a number somewhere on their body and a slave ledger held by the organisation that captured and/or trained them. This ledger would be updated or would update (where appropriate) as the record of the slave changes.

 

It would also help to add even more detail to the world that you are creating and aid in showing that the slaves in the story are no-longer people only property. The branding when applied would utilise the branding (tattoo) locking feature preventing the player from removing the branding themselves. Showing that in essence it is something that will last forever.

 

It's at the moment looking as if it is going tell a really good story where sex just isn't something that is tacked on "like an after thought"; but is properly integrated in an appropriate manner to the story.

[Huckleberry]

Hi everyone ... sorry it has taken me so long to post an update. BUT ... things are cooking along nicely. In order to save performance, I have moved the pleasure gardens to an interior location however there won't be any load doors once inside and you will be able to move seamlessly from the brothel to the theatre/arena to the bar, etc.  All exterior and interior locations (thus far) are navmeshed and optimized ... I am consistently able to get 60fps in all locations during game play, however, like all mods with lots of assets there is a drop in fps when loading an area. 

 

I've got my "basic" scripts in - lights, fires, water taps, stripping - and the NPC packages and some preliminary ambient dialogue is input and working (these are the little convos that happen between NPCs as they wander around, etc).  Yay! For some reason, calling actual SL anims continues to elude me ... having some sort of mental block on that but I think I've got it figured out ... sort of defeats the purpose of a SL mod if I can't call SL anim ... lol. I mean, I can make them strip and screw on the spot, just having some issues integrating the anims as part of quest stages. Like I said, I think I have it figured out but we'll see. 

 

Anyway, some new teaser pics:

 

 

Overviews and harbour area:

 

 

Bridge and Libby in game:

 

 

Transport Ship Cargo Hold:

 

Pleasure Gardens New Entrance:

 

Pleasure Gardens Atrium Teaser (view from Brothel Area):

Pleasure Gardens Private Party Room:

 

The Feral Cat VIP Tub Tap (room also has working shower and sink):

 

[Highborn]

Wow, it looks fantastic and really professional!

 

Great job!

[Reesewow]

Looking like some pretty great world building so far, thanks for the teaser pictures.

 

If you get to the point where you want some Sexlab scripting help or ideas for your more complicated mods, I'm sure some of the more active modders may be willing to offer advice.  At the very least, most of their mods include script sources that you could look at for examples.

 

I think most of Hugh Reckum's mods would be good examples.

[Huckleberry]

a few more pics 

 

Feral Cat details



 

 

Garden District

 



 

Future Player House

 



 

Bridge Gallows

 



 

Pleasure Gardens - View from brothel area

 



 

Brothel again ... each of those doors in the distance are a separate room

 



 

Pleasure gardens - upper atrium walkway - I'm going for a belle epoque gentlemen's club feel in the main areas of the Pleasure Gardens

 



 

Upper atrium bar and lounge area - still need decor but I love how the textures work in these places

 



 

Future brothel bathroom area 

 



 

 

[Highborn]

Looks amazing, like a gem.

 

So, this whole town is inside a cave? It looks pretty, but kinda misty, even inside the buildings. Not sure if you are aiming for a gloomy atmosphere, but I can't help but imagine how good it would look with a more clear climate. But it looks great anyway. xD

[Huckleberry]

Yes, the whole town is inside a cave. The misty feel is due to the lighting mod I use. I do like foggy and misty areas though so there are some areas that the effect is deliberate ... ie. in the skooma room of the Feral Cat

 

Edit: Oh, and there are very few lights in the Pleasure Gardens so far so it is darker in those pics than the finished rooms will be

 

 

 

 
 

 

[zwdragonbone8314]

Wow, the picture looks awsome. I can't wait to play this mod.