Animal Mansion 4??? (Dev Thread)

[raeder87]

At this point, i would be happy with any edition.

[PippinTom]

6 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

At this point, i would be happy with any edition.

 

Who wouldn't ?

[tasairis]

Yeah, I know. Been distracted for a couple weeks on something else, and the AE thing preoccupied me more than I thought it would. But the distraction is mostly out of my system and I don't need to sink any more time into the AE stuff and I have three days without any relatives or work or obligations so I'm back.

 

I've been wrestling with a problem for a while so I might as well poll for it. It's about clients in the Mansion.

 

I originally had it unlock "slots" as you progressed through the main storyline, but then I realized that I didn't have enough for there to be people waiting around. Meaning that when you start off there's a couple slots open for NPCs to fill, and while having two clients waiting for work is fine, those slots also have to hold NPCs who are travelling too. And it can take a good while for them to travel, so while the slot is occupied that doesn't mean there is actually a client available to work with. At the start this is somewhat intentional as there are only supposed to be a small trickle of people visiting, then over time "the word spreads" and more people arrive. People will also leave automatically after some time has passed, which you can pretend means that Thaena got around to serving them.

 

But I need to balance that with having clients available to play with. Because they are the bread and butter of this mod. So when that first happens you shouldn't have to go off doing other quests while you wait for someone to arrive (except maybe at the beginning when there's really nobody new yet).

 

So what I've changed to doing is having more slots available to fill and unlocking them as you serve clients. You start with one or two open for "nearby" NPCs, then with some progression series, more NPCs are available to show up. The downside to this is that more slots means more people means the Mansion gets more crowded if you stay away for any length of time (such as when running main quests).

 

Now with Mod 2.0 I can solve that easily enough, but until then it gets crowded. Which isn't too bad if it's just like 10 people, considering that there are more than 10 chairs in the waiting room. But that also means only 10 slots to do things with. But nobody would really notice the differentiation between them anyways.

 

So the current state of the slot system is

- There are about 10 slots to fill, most are general-purpose and based on distance from Falkreath, but this is highly subject to change

- The system will try to fill as many slots as it can (subject to unlock conditions) every 5 hours during the day

- Beyond the first one or two slots, more unlock after 1/1/2/3/5/8/etc. clients are served by the player, but I could also give a base rate of like +1 per 3 days or +0.25 per "unserved" client or something like that to imply that Thaena is contributing

- If you serve all the clients in the Mansion, that means there's nobody left for a few hours until the system does another sweep and someone new comes to visit, but I think this makes sense

 

The added difficulty is that this is kinda hard for you to judge without actually seeing it in the game, so I should probably shut up and pick one and prepare to change it later.

 

 

Also, probably going to name the mod "The New Animal Mansion". Not the most creative thing ever, but I couldn't find any name more accurate and descriptive than "Animal Mansion".

[monty359]

8 hours ago, tasairis said:

Yeah, I know. Been distracted for a couple weeks on something else, and the AE thing preoccupied me more than I thought it would. But the distraction is mostly out of my system and I don't need to sink any more time into the AE stuff and I have three days without any relatives or work or obligations so I'm back.

 

I've been wrestling with a problem for a while so I might as well poll for it. It's about clients in the Mansion.

 

I originally had it unlock "slots" as you progressed through the main storyline, but then I realized that I didn't have enough for there to be people waiting around. Meaning that when you start off there's a couple slots open for NPCs to fill, and while having two clients waiting for work is fine, those slots also have to hold NPCs who are travelling too. And it can take a good while for them to travel, so while the slot is occupied that doesn't mean there is actually a client available to work with. At the start this is somewhat intentional as there are only supposed to be a small trickle of people visiting, then over time "the word spreads" and more people arrive. People will also leave automatically after some time has passed, which you can pretend means that Thaena got around to serving them.

 

But I need to balance that with having clients available to play with. Because they are the bread and butter of this mod. So when that first happens you shouldn't have to go off doing other quests while you wait for someone to arrive (except maybe at the beginning when there's really nobody new yet).

 

So what I've changed to doing is having more slots available to fill and unlocking them as you serve clients. You start with one or two open for "nearby" NPCs, then with some progression series, more NPCs are available to show up. The downside to this is that more slots means more people means the Mansion gets more crowded if you stay away for any length of time (such as when running main quests).

 

Now with Mod 2.0 I can solve that easily enough, but until then it gets crowded. Which isn't too bad if it's just like 10 people, considering that there are more than 10 chairs in the waiting room. But that also means only 10 slots to do things with. But nobody would really notice the differentiation between them anyways.

 

So the current state of the slot system is

- There are about 10 slots to fill, most are general-purpose and based on distance from Falkreath, but this is highly subject to change

- The system will try to fill as many slots as it can (subject to unlock conditions) every 5 hours during the day

- Beyond the first one or two slots, more unlock after 1/1/2/3/5/8/etc. clients are served by the player, but I could also give a base rate of like +1 per 3 days or +0.25 per "unserved" client or something like that to imply that Thaena is contributing

- If you serve all the clients in the Mansion, that means there's nobody left for a few hours until the system does another sweep and someone new comes to visit, but I think this makes sense

 

The added difficulty is that this is kinda hard for you to judge without actually seeing it in the game, so I should probably shut up and pick one and prepare to change it later.

 

 

Also, probably going to name the mod "The New Animal Mansion". Not the most creative thing ever, but I couldn't find any name more accurate and descriptive than "Animal Mansion".

 

The current idea sounds good for me.

 

Some questions, if i may:

 

10 slots, does it mean, that there are 10 npcs in the mansion per "shift", if you served them, the mansion will be empty, untill the next "shift" arrives? How long is the travel time from the npcs to the mansion (instant per teleport to the dor, or do the npc have to actually travel? if so, can they get killed, while traveling?)?

If there are 10 npcs per "shift" in the mansion, in my opinion it is plenty. The old mod has more npcs roaming the mansion in it feels sometimes way too crowded.

 

Is it planed, the customers to recognize you comment accordingly in and outside the mansion, after the first show?

Are radiant quests, that start upon entering of holds or towns (auto-start/currier) planned in the future? Is the radiant quest system set up the way, that it can be done? Maybe make it so, that radiant quests( dog trainer, dog seller and co. ) can start now, when entering the area, where they are placed (auto-start, dialogue start or currier)

 

The best name in my opinion is "The Animal Mansion". It does not matter, that there is already another version of it. With your next update, content vise, you will be roughly on pair with the old variant. An update after that your mod will be the dominant one out there and the other will not matter anymore. The "New" in the name is out of place and everyone will later thing, "what happened to to old Mansion (in-game).

Thanks for your hard work.

 

cheers

[tasairis]

4 hours ago, monty359 said:

10 slots, does it mean, that there are 10 npcs in the mansion per "shift", if you served them, the mansion will be empty, untill the next "shift" arrives? How long is the travel time from the npcs to the mansion (instant per teleport to the dor, or do the npc have to actually travel? if so, can they get killed, while traveling?)?

If there are 10 npcs per "shift" in the mansion, in my opinion it is plenty. The old mod has more npcs roaming the mansion in it feels sometimes way too crowded.

 

More or less. If there are 10 slots available then that means there are 10 NPCs selected by the radiant system to use - meaning they could be on their way to the Mansion, inside it and waiting, or on their way back home (which is mostly a teleport). If you went through all 10 in one go then there wouldn't be any more until the client system did another scan, which currently happens every 5 hours.

 

 

4 hours ago, monty359 said:

Is it planed, the customers to recognize you comment accordingly in and outside the mansion, after the first show?

 

Planned to happen in the future, yes, and will likely be somewhat connected to the business's notoriety (aka main story progression).

 

 

4 hours ago, monty359 said:

Are radiant quests, that start upon entering of holds or towns (auto-start/currier) planned in the future? Is the radiant quest system set up the way, that it can be done? Maybe make it so, that radiant quests( dog trainer, dog seller and co. ) can start now, when entering the area, where they are placed (auto-start, dialogue start or currier)

 

Not sure I follow.

 

The quests imagined so far have all been like actual quest quests you accept from an NPC (ie. Thaena). But there could certainly be "world encounter"-type quests that happen randomly in the world as you travel, such as that dog seller guy from the first quest being an actual thing where he periodically shows up in random towns.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, monty359 said:

The best name in my opinion is "The Animal Mansion". It does not matter, that there is already another version of it. With your next update, content vise, you will be roughly on pair with the old variant. An update after that your mod will be the dominant one out there and the other will not matter anymore. The "New" in the name is out of place and everyone will later thing, "what happened to to old Mansion (in-game).

 

I get that, but there is "The Animal Mansion" (the original mod) and I don't want to copy that name exactly because this is neither that mod, nor a rewrite by the same author, nor an SE conversion (which already exists as "Animal Mansion SE"). And there's also "Animal Mansion Plus" (and SE) and "The Animal Mansion Redux" out there, of course.

 

So I do need to use a different name. I think "The New Animal Mansion" is sufficiently similar and sufficiently different, and I'm also favoring that name because "new" will actually have two meanings.

[bluestun]

What about the Pet Shop?  Instead of buying animals to take home, you simply buy animals to diddle

[tasairis]

2 hours ago, bluestun said:

What about the Pet Shop?  Instead of buying animals to take home, you simply buy animals to diddle

 

You mean as a new mod that's separate from the Animal Mansion concept, right?

[bluestun]

No I meant an idea for a different name for animal mansion

[tolrond]

Hello tasairis and company. For the last few days I've been messing around in xVASynth working on creating voices for all the characters in this mod and wanted to share with you guys my progress so far. Let me know what you think of it. I've also included a short demo sound file to showcase the voice lines. As of right now, these files cover am4_MQ00 and thaena's backstory in am4_Main. Most of my attention has been spent on trying to get thaena to not sound like a robot, so the other voices may be a bit lacking, and some of her voice lines still need work. Ya'll are more than welcome to preview it. Install it like any other mod

Animal Mansion Voices 1.0.zip

[PippinTom]

12 hours ago, tolrond said:

Most of my attention has been spent on trying to get thaena to not sound like a robot

 

I've only listened audio files via media player (still waiting for new-NewAM...),  and for my taste she indeed does not sound like a robot - her voice is really pleasant - good job. ?

[Chrystalline]

Sorry to ask this, but is there any update as to when 0.5 will be available for testing?

I'm asking not to rush anything, but because I am starting to get the itch to start a new game again and this is one of my favourite mods to lay through. I am only asking because if it is going to be soon then I can hold off for a while, but I am happy to install the older versions if it is going to be a while. I am more than happy to wait for a release you are happy with.

Also, while I was looking through my other mods I had a thought - have you considered an plugin for Live Another Life to start as an investor in the original inn? It would make for an easier way to rush to the start of the mod for testing purposes. Although I suppose starting out as Thane of Falkreath (or any other Falkreath start) would work just as well...

 

Anyway, looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!

[PoisonsDicku]

Was there a non-con version of AM? I played one of them and remember you kind of just agree to be a co-owner of the place. I didn't know if there was a route to perhaps make you a slave to the mansion, maybe even a Simple Slavery option or something. If there was, then rad, but if not I think it'd be kinda fun to have. :3

[tasairis]

52 minutes ago, Chrystalline said:

Sorry to ask this, but is there any update as to when 0.5 will be available for testing?

I'm asking not to rush anything, but because I am starting to get the itch to start a new game again and this is one of my favourite mods to lay through. I am only asking because if it is going to be soon then I can hold off for a while, but I am happy to install the older versions if it is going to be a while. I am more than happy to wait for a release you are happy with.

Also, while I was looking through my other mods I had a thought - have you considered an plugin for Live Another Life to start as an investor in the original inn? It would make for an easier way to rush to the start of the mod for testing purposes. Although I suppose starting out as Thane of Falkreath (or any other Falkreath start) would work just as well...

 

Anyway, looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!

 

Relatively soon. Because June has 214 days. However I still don't recommend installing this on a save you care about because I'll be adding a big piece of craziness that I can't promise will work right for everyone the first time - not that it would corrupt a save or anything, but it might need some TLC as bugs are discovered in order to make things work, or worst case a clean reinstall.

 

AM Plus still has the most content available to play and replay, and as long as you don't mind the deja-vu of playing the story twice in a relatively short timeframe, I'm like 95% sure it's okay to uninstall that one and install this without problems. And once 0.5.1 comes out, I can go back to adding content again (gods I miss that...) it should be stable enough to install and play for a longer period.

[tasairis]

47 minutes ago, PoisonsDicku said:

Was there a non-con version of AM? I played one of them and remember you kind of just agree to be a co-owner of the place. I didn't know if there was a route to perhaps make you a slave to the mansion, maybe even a Simple Slavery option or something. If there was, then rad, but if not I think it'd be kinda fun to have. :3

 

This one explicitly calls you a co-owner, but I thought that was implied in AM anyway.

 

I don't know of anything related to the Animal Mansion that's markedly non-con. For this mod itself, the furthest I expect it would go along those lines would rape, but that doesn't preclude (in fact, I'm deliberately including) interacting with other mods - such as adding some thing(s) that can kick off Simple Slavery or however that works.

[PoisonsDicku]

3 hours ago, tasairis said:

 

This one explicitly calls you a co-owner, but I thought that was implied in AM anyway.

 

I don't know of anything related to the Animal Mansion that's markedly non-con. For this mod itself, the furthest I expect it would go along those lines would rape, but that doesn't preclude (in fact, I'm deliberately including) interacting with other mods - such as adding some thing(s) that can kick off Simple Slavery or however that works.

 

Bless you for that. I always love kink mods that interact with one another in fun ways.

[Violence6884]

Not to add more on your already filled to the brim plate, but have you considered adding a quest for each of the Mansion's attraction that has them run off for this or that reason- And having the PC deal with all that?

You could keep it as simple as scripted quests with a beginning and an end, set dialogue, no choices, one time only and triggered by X number of encounters with each creature. Or not do it at all, I don't know. But... Supposing you'd consider this...

Also consider offering multiple paths, with different results? Or tying such events to some sort of simple(I use the term very lightly here) status tracker, tracking interactions between the PC and each attraction? Or have certain creatures cause issues inside the Mansion instead of running off? Having to deal with a creature gone too wild drastically, could even lead to trying to acquire a new one.

 

I may be asking for too much. Well, worth bringing it up all the same.

Edit - You know, if the NPCs frequenting the Mansion aren't randomly generated and are specifically added for it, maybe they could also stir some trouble.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Violence6884

[tasairis]

4 hours ago, Violence6884 said:

Not to add more on your already filled to the brim plate, but have you considered adding a quest for each of the Mansion's attraction that has them run off for this or that reason- And having the PC deal with all that?

 

I had that sort of thing mentally filed under "quests involving the animals themselves" but hadn't put a whole lot of thought into what those might be.

 

 

4 hours ago, Violence6884 said:

You could keep it as simple as scripted quests with a beginning and an end, set dialogue, no choices, one time only and triggered by X number of encounters with each creature. Or not do it at all, I don't know. But... Supposing you'd consider this...

 

I like the general idea but I'm stretching to come up with actual quests... Still, I think there's potential for something that feels a bit more ad-hoc than normal.

 

 

4 hours ago, Violence6884 said:

Also consider offering multiple paths, with different results?

 

I plan to. For the most part by supporting multiple variations of the same quest, but certainly could support some degree of player-driven decision making affecting the outcome.

 

It'll be a lot easier to think about all that when the time comes to actually write those quests and I can get into that mindset.

 

 

4 hours ago, Violence6884 said:

Or tying such events to some sort of simple(I use the term very lightly here) status tracker, tracking interactions between the PC and each attraction?

 

Already plan to do some kind of progression thing. Not sure what or how yet.

 

 

4 hours ago, Violence6884 said:

Or have certain creatures cause issues inside the Mansion instead of running off? Having to deal with a creature gone too wild drastically, could even lead to trying to acquire a new one.

 

Yup, I already want to do those.

 

 

4 hours ago, Violence6884 said:

Edit - You know, if the NPCs frequenting the Mansion aren't randomly generated and are specifically added for it, maybe they could also stir some trouble.

 

All the visiting NPCs are real NPCs so I wouldn't want to do anything too drastic or against their personalities, but there's no reason why some quests can't spawn fake, throwaway NPCs for stuff like that.

 

I do have plans for some "troublemaking" stuff (a quest arc, actually) that this idea would fit into.

[raeder87]

The previous mods biggest weakness was the fixed npcs in the mansion. It was disappointing and boring to see the same few faces over and over again. The party option could be the lifesaver there, but unfortunately that feature didnt work too well. So yeah, i like the idea of the randomly populated npcs.

 

To me, the "acquire animals or replace the old ones" type of quest wouldnt be great. It was okayish in the beginning to fill up the mansion as a mandatory step, but constantly dealing with such quests arent really entertaining on the long run.

I think for the main quest line, it would be more interesting to see more of the characters: 

-Thaena: how we manage to grow the mansion reputation and influence with her

-the chick: who wanted to rebuild the mansion because she didnt like the animals are stored in the underground (maybe she can get a questline where she just want to save the animals from this sex thing and she isnt really interested in all this but after a few quest we can convince her to try out and she will work there as well)

-the forsworns: the guy who sold us the horse told us some interesting story, maybe some investigating quest line (find them and join the party or even become a shaman) and to develop some good friendship in the end with a repeatable sex quests (maybe getting new animals from such places like fox or something like that). that part was interesting enough to put more from it into the mod

-something with rieklings and falmers

-jarls hidden perversion with more quests (earn some trust before they can tell what they really want, for example the solitude jarl elisif want to try foxes/falmers or rieklings) so she send us to a servant we have to show her how this works in total secrecy and after we can reach certain level of trusts with tasks when she will be available to finally try out by herself

 

and ofc the ending quests can be repeatable so we can visit them again (more variety than a simple client service) -maybe not the last quest, but +1 extra ending quest which can be repeatable and it can be the same as the ending but with a new dialogues where the npc recognize us as a returning "guest" that we did that before so it alters the text lines to reflect this (for example: (ending)-oh a dog, im not sure.../action/ (repeatable ending)-here we go again... /action/)

 

personally i dont like the large monsters, they are just way too big and the animations doesnt look good, the penis is just clip everywhere, more smaller animal or humanoid creature in focus would be much better than dealing with bears, trolls and other large beasts.

 

some ideas for the main story

[tasairis]

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

To me, the "acquire animals or replace the old ones" type of quest wouldnt be great. It was okayish in the beginning to fill up the mansion as a mandatory step, but constantly dealing with such quests arent really entertaining on the long run.

 

It's heavy-handed to start with because there aren't any animals, certainly, but I do have that tapering off after those first four quests so that the main storyline is about half acquiring animals and half other things.

 

 

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

-Thaena: how we manage to grow the mansion reputation and influence with her

 

Thaena and the other important NPCs will have quest arcs dedicated to them. I even have them mostly mapped out in my head already.

 

 

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

-the chick: who wanted to rebuild the mansion because she didnt like the animals are stored in the underground (maybe she can get a questline where she just want to save the animals from this sex thing and she isnt really interested in all this but after a few quest we can convince her to try out and she will work there as well)

 

Actually I have her planned to be the complete opposite of that...

 

 

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

-the forsworns: the guy who sold us the horse told us some interesting story, maybe some investigating quest line (find them and join the party or even become a shaman) and to develop some good friendship in the end with a repeatable sex quests (maybe getting new animals from such places like fox or something like that). that part was interesting enough to put more from it into the mod

 

There will be a Forsworn arc, and the story the horse guy told was meant to be super blatant foreshadowing of that.

 

 

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

-something with rieklings and falmers

 

The Falmer will get a quest arc too. Because Blackreach is just too good a setting to pass up.

 

Rieklings... well, yeah, I guess. I don't know DB/Solstheim as well as I do vanilla Skyrim, but there is that friendly settlement on the island that could be useful. I don't know if I could come up with a whole arc just for them, though. At the very least I do intend to do a quest arc set in Solstheim (because travelling to/from it is a pain) so I assume rieklings would feature prominently there.

 

 

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

-jarls hidden perversion with more quests (earn some trust before they can tell what they really want, for example the solitude jarl elisif want to try foxes/falmers or rieklings) so she send us to a servant we have to show her how this works in total secrecy and after we can reach certain level of trusts with tasks when she will be available to finally try out by herself

 

I will do something special for the Jarls, but I haven't gotten around to planning for them yet. The fact that resolving the civil war swaps around Jarls also makes it trickier to deal with them.

 

 

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

and ofc the ending quests can be repeatable so we can visit them again (more variety than a simple client service) -maybe not the last quest, but +1 extra ending quest which can be repeatable and it can be the same as the ending but with a new dialogues where the npc recognize us as a returning "guest" that we did that before so it alters the text lines to reflect this (for example: (ending)-oh a dog, im not sure.../action/ (repeatable ending)-here we go again... /action/)

 

"Ending quests"?

 

 

37 minutes ago, raeder87 said:

personally i dont like the large monsters, they are just way too big and the animations doesnt look good, the penis is just clip everywhere, more smaller animal or humanoid creature in focus would be much better than dealing with bears, trolls and other large beasts.

 

I am focusing on the smaller creatures if only for the simple fact that it would be a logistical nightmare for Thaena to provide lodging for giants, mammoths, and dragons...

 

Given that the Animal Mansion is one of the premiere mods for dealing with creatures, and that therefore I need to make sure to provide access to as many of them as I can, I expect I'll handle those creatures in a similar way to the original mods: by supplying them through side quests, such as the one with the College of Winterhold and a giant.

[raeder87]

"Ending quest" is basically the last quest of each arc which can be repeatable. But the repeatable variant will remember this isnt a first time. Basically the exact same quest but with a bit modified dialogues.

 

Rieklings: I dont think that traveling to the dlc area is neccessary. I think its enough to put some new friendly tribe into a small vanilla cave or caves, nothing serious.

 

The rest of my writing was just some simple brainstorming if u would need some new ideas. You really did a great job with the reworked quests and dialogs so i trust you can implement your plans you have already figured out. 

 

+the animal rescuer girl: i wrote that because it would be refreshing to see another named npc with unique personality around the mansion. Right now the player character dealing with everything while Thaena is just standing in the building. I always wanted to see more action from her. She is just way to passive in her own business. An extra character with more role can bring some immersion to a well functioning mansion thing.

Edited December 2, 2021 by raeder87

[tasairis]

9 hours ago, raeder87 said:

"Ending quest" is basically the last quest of each arc which can be repeatable. But the repeatable variant will remember this isnt a first time. Basically the exact same quest but with a bit modified dialogues.

 

Some could work that way. Mostly what I had in mind was that quests unlock other quests, so you complete the arc and whatever it was about unlocks something repeatable.

 

 

9 hours ago, raeder87 said:

Rieklings: I dont think that traveling to the dlc area is neccessary. I think its enough to put some new friendly tribe into a small vanilla cave or caves, nothing serious.

 

Right. I mean that they would feature strongly in a Solstheim arc because that's where most of them are, but they do appear in Skyrim too.

 

 

9 hours ago, raeder87 said:

+the animal rescuer girl: i wrote that because it would be refreshing to see another named npc with unique personality around the mansion. Right now the player character dealing with everything while Thaena is just standing in the building. I always wanted to see more action from her. She is just way to passive in her own business. An extra character with more role can bring some immersion to a well functioning mansion thing.

 

Jesper is coming in the next release, who is definitely a unique personality, and a second woman is coming in probably the one after that.

[raeder87]

Sounds good, i wish there would be a release by now. xD

 

 

[swmas]

At this time this mod has more or less content than the AM+?

[tasairis]

15 minutes ago, swmas said:

At this time this mod has more or less content than the AM+?

 

Less than half - I've only gotten four animal quests in. I'm not sure when I will catch up to all of those, but in the coming months I'll at least be putting out a lot of non-main story quests.

[beanman2122]

Could you perhaps include a Multiple Followers Framework integration? It would be nice to allow for the choosing of which follower does the current job for you. I am trying to figure it out myself, (editing the code of animal mansion plus) but am having a bit of trouble finding a program that allows me to edit it.