Animal Mansion Plus

[Narcolepsy]

If I wanted to add more patrons in the lobby that were available for private shows, would I just have to add them to NA_GuestFaction and put them there and they will work? I see that there are guests and visitors, and the only difference I can tell at a glance in Tes5Edit is that guests are placed directly in the mansion, and visitors in the Tamriel worldspace

[runebar]

Any new updates on this? I haven't looked at any skyrim "news" for about 4 years now so I'm going around and trying to get caught up on things. I remember animal mansion going through something like two different versions made by two different people.

[Highborn]

4 minutes ago, runebar said:

Any new updates on this? I haven't looked at any skyrim "news" for about 4 years now so I'm going around and trying to get caught up on things. I remember animal mansion going through something like two different versions made by two different people.

Sadly, mybrainhurts vanished from the site years ago without concluding the mod. I believe Animal Mansion Redux is still ongoing though.

[runebar]

2 minutes ago, Highborn said:

Sadly, mybrainhurts vanished from the site years ago without concluding the mod. I believe Animal Mansion Redux is still ongoing though.

I see, thank you.

[JesusKreist]

2 hours ago, Highborn said:

Sadly, mybrainhurts vanished from the site years ago without concluding the mod. I believe Animal Mansion Redux is still ongoing though.

2 hours ago, runebar said:

I see, thank you.

No it is not.

JMathers, the developer of Animal Mansion Redux, has gone missing several month ago.

Previous to his vanishing he started a controversy about paywalling the mod on patreon and allegedly had a hdd failure that wrecked his mod files.

Albeit JMathers did go AWOL once before I have no reason to think he will return any time soon.

 

Btw. AMR essentially is AMP + building quest for the mansion.

He had the though process of fixing the building first before fixing the mansion so in the end there are minor changes to the inhabitants and quests therein.

 

That said AMR is several month younger than AMP and does support recent mods/patches.

[nomkaz]

On 8/15/2019 at 9:51 PM, LucidPariah said:

So im playing a file someone converted from oldrim to SE and uploaded here but I cant seem to get any quest progression. No matter how many times I have sex with something or even use the MCM to skip to the next chapter and have sex with that, it never progresses to the next part. Am i missing something or is it just broken on my pc? Thanks for any help!

You may just need to generate a new SEQ file with SSEEdit. Converting mods is not that complicated despite what some people like to lead others to believe. I've converted and uploaded over 70 mods from oldrim to SE. This mod is no different. The only thing that makes a mod " Unconvertible" is the presence of an SKSE.dll. Those need recompiled for SKSE64, and the source code is needed to do that.

[JesusKreist]

Yes. Converting mods from Skyrim to Skyrim SE is easy.

But the result often is a Todd Howard i.e. It just works™.

 

There are multiple small differences between Skyrim and Skyrim SE. Like for instance a building being elevated a few centimeters in SE and if the mod uses a fixed load door that results in texture flickering and spots where no texture is at all. Another example is the "new" navmesh in some places which can result in NPC's in weird poses or inside objects at worst.

Simply "flicking a switch" to convert a mod does not net a fully converted mod. It for the most part nets a converted mod that is usable but some things may or may not work without further editing and/or access to the source code.

[nomkaz]

7 hours ago, JesusKreist said:

Yes. Converting mods from Skyrim to Skyrim SE is easy.

But the result often is a Todd Howard i.e. It just works™.

 

There are multiple small differences between Skyrim and Skyrim SE. Like for instance a building being elevated a few centimeters in SE and if the mod uses a fixed load door that results in texture flickering and spots where no texture is at all. Another example is the "new" navmesh in some places which can result in NPC's in weird poses or inside objects at worst.

Simply "flicking a switch" to convert a mod does not net a fully converted mod. It for the most part nets a converted mod that is usable but some things may or may not work without further editing and/or access to the source code.

Says someone with ZERO mods uploaded. 

[JesusKreist]

10 hours ago, nomkaz said:

Says someone with ZERO mods uploaded. 

Go to a random mod you updated "the simple way" and have a close look around. You very likely will find small bugs that weren't there in the oldrim version.

 

Btw. you are 110% wrong.

I just don't upload mods I updated for myself.

Major part of the reason:

Mods will end up "archived" on scammers websites that profit of the authors work.

[nomkaz]

1 hour ago, JesusKreist said:

Go to a random mod you updated "the simple way" and have a close look around. You very likely will find small bugs that weren't there in the oldrim version.

 

Btw. you are 110% wrong.

I just don't upload mods I updated for myself.

Major part of the reason:

Mods will end up "archived" on scammers websites that profit of the authors work.

Fine. You keep saying that, and I'll keep converting mod after mod to Special Edition that don't have floating meshes like you seem to have in yours. You could be helpful to people in this thread instead of someone that discourages people. I choose to be helpful, and honest. If you ever need some Conversion help, feel free to message me.

[JesusKreist]

2 hours ago, nomkaz said:

Fine. You keep saying that, and I'll keep converting mod after mod to Special Edition that don't have floating meshes like you seem to have in yours. You could be helpful to people in this thread instead of someone that discourages people. I choose to be helpful, and honest. If you ever need some Conversion help, feel free to message me.

Please keep at pointing out that you are the "Chosen One" in terms of converting mods from Oldrim to SE.

Maybe one day you try at actually reading and not just assuming text.

For instance the first to mention meshes is a certain individual you see in the mornings looking at you from the mirror.

 

And maybe some day you can acknowledge that "simple" ports for Oldrim Mods are never perfect like you multiple times claimed.

Usable? Yes.

Features working correctly? Maybe.

100% perfect? No.

[tasairis]

I might, and I really do mean might, consider picking up development of The Animal Mansion. Because I really like the questline of this mod. It sticks with me. And when I hit the end I was surprised just how much of an emotional reaction I had to it. What happens between the player and Thaena? What does Jesper do? Is there any animal our protagonist cannot tame? Too many questions!

 

Now as far as I know, Animal Mansion Plus is the current successor to The Animal Mansion because Redux is... well, let's not talk about Redux. Thing is, if I let my imagination run wild then I end up in an awkward situation where there's a lot of new additions I want to add but also some existing parts that I'd like to change. If released publicly that means choosing between a new mod that would be incompatible with AM/AM+/AMR or updating an existing mod (AM+).

 

Frankly, I would rather make a new mod. AM+ is complicated, and I mean that in a good way. There's a lot going on with it and trying to jump into it will take time and effort. I'm also not sure I could get permission from mybrainhurts, though I think after a couple reasonable attempts we could consider the mod abandoned. So if I did pick up development I would probably start over, reusing some parts of AM (especially the cells) and borrowing others (like dialogue and the questlines). Downside is that means requiring a clean save; a cheater quest to jump to the new parts isn't out of the question, but I think I could fit in enough changes to make replaying the MSQ worthwhile. And no, I wouldn't make you build the mansion before you could start playing with the animals.

 

If I did then I would continue with the groundwork that's been laid by sky_mds/mybrainhurts: everything more or less as it is now, plus (super minor spoilers):

1. AM+ has the initial setup for a new MSQ quest called "The Imposition". It takes the story in a bit of a dark direction and seems like it is intended to happen after the troll MSQ.

2. There is a fair amount of work done around a coworker named Jala. She's new and needs a bit of on-the-job training.

3. Speaking of new NPCs, there are three Khajiit sisters named Merle, Naria, and Eriya, but I can't quite tell what their purpose is. Also a skeever named Skippy?

 

I'm hoping that sky_mds (who the forum says was last logged in January) and/or mybrainhurts would have suggestions where they had wanted the mod to go: the less I need to copy their styles, the better.

 

 

tldr: I want to resume development on the Animal Mansion saga and I need people to push me into actually doing it.

[Highborn]

On 4/12/2020 at 1:59 AM, tasairis said:

I might, and I really do mean might, consider picking up development of The Animal Mansion. Because I really like the questline of this mod. It sticks with me. And when I hit the end I was surprised just how much of an emotional reaction I had to it. What happens between the player and Thaena? What does Jesper do? Is there any animal our protagonist cannot tame? Too many questions!

 

Now as far as I know, Animal Mansion Plus is the current successor to The Animal Mansion because Redux is... well, let's not talk about Redux. Thing is, if I let my imagination run wild then I end up in an awkward situation where there's a lot of new additions I want to add but also some existing parts that I'd like to change. If released publicly that means choosing between a new mod that would be incompatible with AM/AM+/AMR or updating an existing mod (AM+).

 

Frankly, I would rather make a new mod. AM+ is complicated, and I mean that in a good way. There's a lot going on with it and trying to jump into it will take time and effort. I'm also not sure I could get permission from mybrainhurts, though I think after a couple reasonable attempts we could consider the mod abandoned. So if I did pick up development I would probably start over, reusing some parts of AM (especially the cells) and borrowing others (like dialogue and the questlines). Downside is that means requiring a clean save; a cheater quest to jump to the new parts isn't out of the question, but I think I could fit in enough changes to make replaying the MSQ worthwhile. And no, I wouldn't make you build the mansion before you could start playing with the animals.

 

If I did then I would continue with the groundwork that's been laid by sky_mds/mybrainhurts: everything more or less as it is now, plus (super minor spoilers):

1. AM+ has the initial setup for a new MSQ quest called "The Imposition". It takes the story in a bit of a dark direction and seems like it is intended to happen after the troll MSQ.

2. There is a fair amount of work done around a coworker named Jala. She's new and needs a bit of on-the-job training.

3. Speaking of new NPCs, there are three Khajiit sisters named Merle, Naria, and Eriya, but I can't quite tell what their purpose is. Also a skeever named Skippy?

 

I'm hoping that sky_mds (who the forum says was last logged in January) and/or mybrainhurts would have suggestions where they had wanted the mod to go: the less I need to copy their styles, the better.

 

 

tldr: I want to resume development on the Animal Mansion saga and I need people to push me into actually doing it.

Yeah, sadly mybrainhurts seems to have disappeared. I used to follow this thread for updates because the quests were really engaging and it wasn't just sex, but it had a story. It's a bit scary to think what could have happened to him. 

 

It would be really great to have this mod updated. I'm not sure if I would start over, because everything seems to work fine to me (and I'm dying to see the story progressing), but you know better.

[JesusKreist]

Great idea.

Especially since the contender (AMR) is abandoned as well.

 

But question.

Would it be a new project for skyrim or a new project for skyrim se?

[Guest]

8 hours ago, tasairis said:

I might, and I really do mean might, consider picking up development of The Animal Mansion. Because I really like the questline of this mod. It sticks with me. And when I hit the end I was surprised just how much of an emotional reaction I had to it. What happens between the player and Thaena? What does Jesper do? Is there any animal our protagonist cannot tame? Too many questions!

 

Now as far as I know, Animal Mansion Plus is the current successor to The Animal Mansion because Redux is... well, let's not talk about Redux. Thing is, if I let my imagination run wild then I end up in an awkward situation where there's a lot of new additions I want to add but also some existing parts that I'd like to change. If released publicly that means choosing between a new mod that would be incompatible with AM/AM+/AMR or updating an existing mod (AM+).

 

Frankly, I would rather make a new mod. AM+ is complicated, and I mean that in a good way. There's a lot going on with it and trying to jump into it will take time and effort. I'm also not sure I could get permission from mybrainhurts, though I think after a couple reasonable attempts we could consider the mod abandoned. So if I did pick up development I would probably start over, reusing some parts of AM (especially the cells) and borrowing others (like dialogue and the questlines). Downside is that means requiring a clean save; a cheater quest to jump to the new parts isn't out of the question, but I think I could fit in enough changes to make replaying the MSQ worthwhile. And no, I wouldn't make you build the mansion before you could start playing with the animals.

 

If I did then I would continue with the groundwork that's been laid by sky_mds/mybrainhurts: everything more or less as it is now, plus (super minor spoilers):

1. AM+ has the initial setup for a new MSQ quest called "The Imposition". It takes the story in a bit of a dark direction and seems like it is intended to happen after the troll MSQ.

2. There is a fair amount of work done around a coworker named Jala. She's new and needs a bit of on-the-job training.

3. Speaking of new NPCs, there are three Khajiit sisters named Merle, Naria, and Eriya, but I can't quite tell what their purpose is. Also a skeever named Skippy?

 

I'm hoping that sky_mds (who the forum says was last logged in January) and/or mybrainhurts would have suggestions where they had wanted the mod to go: the less I need to copy their styles, the better.

 

 

tldr: I want to resume development on the Animal Mansion saga and I need people to push me into actually doing it.

Sweet jesus, that would be amazing. Let me help with the pushing: DOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIT. there.

[Evilhomer]

13 hours ago, tasairis said:

 

I've always hoped somone would pick this up, so if you did that would be awesome ?, this mod is always in my load order.

 

Some new quests would be great, there are still plenty of creatures out there with the dlc's etc.  One thing I've always felt was missing was the ability to hire girls to work at the mansion.  In the original you hire the npc you mentioned Jala but i think mybrainhurts took her out cos it was buggy.  Looking forward to what you (hopefully) come up with.

[theonebullet]

I'm with the idea, tasairis.

[tasairis]

12 hours ago, Highborn said:

It would be really great to have this mod updated. I'm not sure if I would start over, because everything seems to work fine to me (and I'm dying to see the story progressing), but you know better.

Starting over would make it a little easier for me to build a more scalable system. I want to have something where it's straightforward to add new creatures or new side quests, and hopefully cut down on the number of dialogue fragment scripts (since there's a lot of dialogue in this mod). And it helps that the Animal Mansion concept really lends itself to a gradual build-out: I could do an initial release of the prologue and a creature or two, then release more content as it's ready.

[tasairis]

12 hours ago, JesusKreist said:

Would it be a new project for skyrim or a new project for skyrim se?

I'd prefer SE, but if very many people are still using LE then I would think about supporting both. Meaning build for LE and convert for SE. The two main issues are (1) stability of Skyrim LE and Creation Kit 32 and (2) I have Skyrim SE already and I don't want to have to reinstall and set up Skyrim LE.

 

Theoretically I could build for SE and backport, but I haven't spent much time looking into that process. I'd still have to install and set up Skyrim LE though, for testing.

[Twycross448]

@tasairis

 

The prospect of a new version of AM does exite me in a certain way, but also reminds me that after sky_mds dropped it, 2 individuals picked it up to continue it respectively give it their own spin... and ultimately, nothing much came of it, as they abandoned their versions after some time. (Not judging here, maybe they had good reason to, I don't know.)

 

Are you sure you have the time, tenacity and will-power to take this on so this does not end up as another failed attempt?

 

If you think you do, then "Yay!" and more power to you. ?

 

 

 

As for the subject matter itself, I highly suggest you make your own mod from scratch (code wise). As you yourself already noticed, AM/P is a very intricate beast and is sadly prone to bugs. So putting it on a fresh code base would be the preferable path as I see it.

Also, do not worry about savegame compatibility. As far as I recall, there is no such thing as a "clean save" due to the way Bethesda coded Skyrim. Adding or removing a plugin during a playthrough just plain shouldn't be done. Always start a new game if you make a change to your plugin loadorder. That is the "Golden Rule", as some modders call it.

 

 

As for content, I will say to you the same thing I already said to mybrainhurts and JMathers: please think of us people with arachnophobia and/or insectophobia and make the spiders, chaurus etc. an optional part of the mod. (A MCM toggle or somesuch, for example.) ^_^"

 

One thing that I liked about the AM Redux version was the possibility to have the mansion in another place than just Falkreath. Though I must confess that first having to run around for who knows how long to build the house is a bit too much in my opinion.

I think the whole thing could very roughly go like this: player meets Thaena somewhere (an existing inn, on the road or maybe shopping at the market) and gets involved with her plans for opening an inn after the two have talked some time. There are 2 or 3 pre-existing buildings (say, the one in Falkreath, one up around the Dawnstar/Winterhold area and one somewhere in the Rift) that Thaena and the player can chose from and buy one*. After moving in and opening the place to the public, it takes a set amount of time (say, 2-3 in-game weeks) until Thaena complains to the player that there are nearly no customers. From this point forward, the already existing "storyline" of AM takes place in the chosen locale. Player walking in on Thaena and Bailey, etc.

 

*((The 2 buildings the player does not buy get disabled and removed from the gameworld to avoid cluttering up the landscape. Storywise, they got demolished by the respective holds gorvernment to avoid "undesirables" squatting in there.))

 

What, still reading? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Why, pray-tell, aren't you already modding? ?

 

But seriously, you have my support if you really decide to take this on. ttu

[tasairis]

1 hour ago, Evilhomer said:

Some new quests would be great, there are still plenty of creatures out there with the dlc's etc.

 

And that's one of the advantages to SE: I know the DLCs are available to use. Don't have to make additional plugins to add those creatures.

 

That said, I would still be making additional plugins because there are other mods I would want to support. Subject to availability of animations, of course.

1 hour ago, Evilhomer said:

One thing I've always felt was missing was the ability to hire girls to work at the mansion.  In the original you hire the npc you mentioned Jala but i think mybrainhurts took her out cos it was buggy.  Looking forward to what you (hopefully) come up with.

I do want to add at least one NPC, such as Jala. Probably in a way similar to how some prostitution mods work. But later: my first goal would be to get feature parity with AM+. I have an idea for how to add someone after that, but (and I say this carefully to avoid spoilers) it would have to happen after The Imposition and either during or after that event's repercussions.

 

Side note regarding The Imposition: having now looked at the original The Animal Mansion, I see that The Imposition really is new to AM+. From a rights perspective I can't copy it without mybrainhurt's permission, but it's a ??? idea that lends itself towards other necessary purposes, and one that's going to be very hard to avoid borrowing. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

[Reesewow]

14 hours ago, tasairis said:

tldr: I want to resume development on the Animal Mansion saga and I need people to push me into actually doing it.

While I haven't played AM/AM+ in quite a while, it would definitely be cool to see the mod be expanded upon again.

 

I seem to recall mybrainhurts having lots of issues trying to "finish" the original mod and fix/complete all the half-done ideas that were still in the mod data. 

 

My suggestion would be to keep only the core functionality that you like from the mod (example, the main animal collection quest mechanics and repeatable activity quests) and remove outdated/broken or inconsistent parts as a starting point.  Then you can add in your own version of the story, with your own characters and style - that is probably way more likely to result in an interesting replay for fans of the mod and hopefully would be more fun for you to create.

 

I think the main thing the mod could still use is simply more content in and around the mansion - the semi-randomized entertainment quests were always what impressed me most with the original mod, and I found myself doing the party scenes over and over just to see all the dialogue options, even if they were essentially the same scene with cosmetic differences.

 

Also, random ideas for a "platinum extended addition" of the mod (pure idea dump - most of these would take a lot of work):

• Interior/exterior re-design:  the mod always ended up striking me more as the Animal "Dungeon" rather than mansion, simply because of the way the base floorplan was copied as more creatures were added and you spend most of your gameplay in the basement in same-looking cells.  I think having the mansion be more like a zoo, with areas themed after Skyrim biomes and populated by the creatures you find could be much more visually interesting.  I also don't think it's important that every creature have its own individual room - there could be one "show room" where the player meets a client and the creature is brought in (aka spawned offscreen just for the scene).

• Ability to "recruit" Skyrim NPCs to staff the mansion - it could be awesome if you could recruit any unique Skyrim NPCs to help out in the mansion Underground Bathhouse style.  Ysolda does want money, and seems willing to get into some shifty business to get it...  This would be more for eye candy, so players could bring their favorite NPCs in to participate in the shenanigans at the Mansion.

• Enhancements to make the Mansion usable as a permanent player home, so the player has more reason to come back often.

• NPC schedules around the mansion, with random small scenes happening.  If the mansion is supposed to be making money off of shows enough to afford expansion and all that feed, then the employees should be working without your direction.  I think it would be cool to be able to hang out at the mansion and just be able to watch the employees bringing in random animals for short shows every few minutes, or "tending" to the larger creatures outside.

Good luck if you do decide to continue the mod, would definitely give it a try if you did.

 

[tasairis]

1 hour ago, Twycross448 said:

@tasairis

 

The prospect of a new version of AM does exite me in a certain way, but also reminds me that after sky_mds dropped it, 2 individuals picked it up to continue it respectively give it their own spin... and ultimately, nothing much came of it, as they abandoned their versions after some time. (Not judging here, maybe they had good reason to, I don't know.)

 

Are you sure you have the time, tenacity and will-power to take this on so this does not end up as another failed attempt?

I think so. I've spent a long time thinking about this - months, not days - and I'm confident I can: I have a good degree of modding experience, I've proven to myself that I can keep some of my other side-projects in development, and most importantly I personally want to see more of this mod. (Though authoring a mod does tend to reduce the enjoyment a bit.)

 

But thank you for challenging me on this. I would have been disappointed if someone did not.

 

To be honest, I'm still second-guessing myself. It's hard for me to motivate myself to do things that nobody else cares about. But I've learned from my experience maintaining the conversion thread that I can get my motivation from other people. Like, I wasn't expecting a half-dozen replies to my post in less than a day. As long as people are still interested in the Animal Mansion saga, I can do it.

 

And I keep multiple backups of all the projects I work on so I won't have to pull out That Old Excuse ?

 

Quote

Also, do not worry about savegame compatibility. As far as I recall, there is no such thing as a "clean save" due to the way Bethesda coded Skyrim. Adding or removing a plugin during a playthrough just plain shouldn't be done. Always start a new game if you make a change to your plugin loadorder. That is the "Golden Rule", as some modders call it.

There are a number of good practices a modder can follow to reduce the impact of creating a clean save. Basically all problems stem from a mod making runtime changes to forms that it does not own - changing factions, disabling objects, adding itself to form lists, stuff like that which the save system cannot identify as being "from" or "because of" a mod. If a mod is able to restrict changes to its own forms, uninstalling is relatively safe because all records from an uninstalled mod get removed; however changed factions won't be reverted, disabled objects won't re-enable, and entries in form lists aren't removed ? but are marked as Nones (which, fortunately, rarely causes problems).

 

Example: marking plain NPCs as essential. Doing it through the ESP is safe for saves but highly incompatible because it creates tons of conflicts. Doing it at runtime by marking the actor's base information as essential is much more compatible but isn't good for saves because uninstalling won't revert the change. And nobody remembers to hit an Uninstall button in an MCM. The proper solution is to make a quest, put the actor in an alias, and mark the alias as essential: if uninstalled, the quest goes away and the NPC goes back to being their highly murderable self.

 

Anyway.

 

Quote

As for content, I will say to you the same thing I already said to mybrainhurts and JMathers: please think of us people with arachnophobia and/or insectophobia and make the spiders, chaurus etc. an optional part of the mod. (A MCM toggle or somesuch, for example.) ^_^"

Certainly. I'm considering extending that to some other creatures as well, not so much because of phobias but because there are plenty of creature species available so it wouldn't hurt to let the player have some say in what they do (heh).

 

Quote

One thing that I liked about the AM Redux version was the possibility to have the mansion in another place than just Falkreath. Though I must confess that first having to run around for who knows how long to build the house is a bit too much in my opinion.

Right:

Spoiler

The mansion is going to move, one way or another. More detail:

Spoiler

The mansion can still start in Falkreath, I think that should stay just for tradition's sake, but it will have to move somewhere else, and the new location could be the player's choice.

 

Now it would be hard to just say "oh hey, the mansion is over here now". Followers and NPCs teleport, not large houses and basements. There has to be something believable to explain how it moves. Options I'm considering:

Spoiler

1. Mansion hires a general contractor to tear down and rebuild elsewhere. Player might be able to help the contractor move things along, but is otherwise hands-off. Costs money and takes time. (Estimated in-game time: a week or more, given that the player will be distracted doing other things)

 

2. Player offers to build the mansion, using a system like Hearthfires but faster and more streamlined. Could give up and hire a contractor to do the rest. Will not require acquiring every damn scrap of iron in the province, or making multiple trips to a lumber mill, or any of those other "features" of HF that are responsible for me STILL NOT FINISHING MY DAMN HOUSE. (Estimated IRL time: a couple hours)

 

3. Buying "existing" properties. The problem is that the mansion requires some rather special architecture - like a large basement - and that's hard to rationalize. They'd have to be, like, old factories or bunkers or something. Dwemer? I don't know, haven't thought about it that much yet as I'm leaning towards 1+2. (In-game time: a day or two for the move.)

 

 

Quote

I think the whole thing could very roughly go like this: player meets Thaena somewhere (an existing inn, on the road or maybe shopping at the market) and gets involved with her plans for opening an inn after the two have talked some time. There are 2 or 3 pre-existing buildings (say, the one in Falkreath, one up around the Dawnstar/Winterhold area and one somewhere in the Rift) that Thaena and the player can chose from and buy one*. After moving in and opening the place to the public, it takes a set amount of time (say, 2-3 in-game weeks) until Thaena complains to the player that there are nearly no customers. From this point forward, the already existing "storyline" of AM takes place in the chosen locale. Player walking in on Thaena and Bailey, etc.

I'm really hesitant to have the player build the inn at the start. AMR leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and that was its main selling point.

 

I like how the MSQ is designed now where you can get right into the action fairly quickly - the animals are the focus of the mod, after all. And it's not like Falkreath is some remote location like Markarth or Winterhold that you have to trek to every time you feel like cheating on your favorite follower. Moving the mansion also negates some of the existing quests: Siddgeir is the perfect slimy and corrupt Jarl to have to deal with, and

Spoiler

making the player build the mansion once only to have to build it again later because of The Imposition (and because, frankly, the basement is running out of room)

seems cruel.

 

I think I can make everybody happy(ish) by keeping things as they are now and adding the building process a bit later.

[Twycross448]

?

Well, if you believe in yourself to be able to pull it off, by all means, go for it. I'll be rooting for you and ready to give input, should it be desired.

There are far too few story-based beast mods anyways.

 

Oh, and *if* you should decide to support both LE and SE, I highly suggest developing for LE and then converting for SE because if I go from what I read on the topic of backporting from SE to LE, that seems a lot more cumbersome and involved, and thus time consuming.

[tasairis]

1 hour ago, Reesewow said:

I seem to recall mybrainhurts having lots of issues trying to "finish" the original mod and fix/complete all the half-done ideas that were still in the mod data. 

As a professional software developer, I am well acquainted with those sorts of problems. There need to be short-term concrete milestones one can actually feel are achievable, discrete features that can be worked on independently of other aspects, long-term guiding visions to keep in mind when designing changes... yeah.

 

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My suggestion would be to keep only the core functionality that you like from the mod (example, the main animal collection quest mechanics and repeatable activity quests) and remove outdated/broken or inconsistent parts as a starting point.  Then you can add in your own version of the story, with your own characters and style - that is probably way more likely to result in an interesting replay for fans of the mod and hopefully would be more fun for you to create.

I don't want to co-opt "The Animal Mansion" for myself. I like how the characters have developed and how the quests work. Without having identified any particular problems with how things are, I want to stay close to the original vision and style.

 

That said, there are some changes I do want to make, like trying to support male players more*, and most significantly overhauling many of the dialogue trees. But the focus is to improve what's already there, not alter it to become something different.

 

* ...even though I have absolutely no idea how to pull that off. The vast majority of creature animations are for females only, which presents a real technical limitation. (In general there is a lot more I could do if I had animations to support it - like, I've only ever seen one FFC troll animation.) So... what? Do I prostitute my follower? Do I introduce Jala earlier and have her taking most requests? But then what would the player do? I don't know.

 

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I think the main thing the mod could still use is simply more content in and around the mansion - the semi-randomized entertainment quests were always what impressed me most with the original mod, and I found myself doing the party scenes over and over just to see all the dialogue options, even if they were essentially the same scene with cosmetic differences.

Agreed and already planning for.

 

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Also, random ideas for a "platinum extended addition" of the mod (pure idea dump - most of these would take a lot of work):

• Interior/exterior re-design:  the mod always ended up striking me more as the Animal "Dungeon" rather than mansion, simply because of the way the base floorplan was copied as more creatures were added and you spend most of your gameplay in the basement in same-looking cells.  I think having the mansion be more like a zoo, with areas themed after Skyrim biomes and populated by the creatures you find could be much more visually interesting.  I also don't think it's important that every creature have its own individual room - there could be one "show room" where the player meets a client and the creature is brought in (aka spawned offscreen just for the scene).

 

Haven't spent much time thinking about a mansion redesign, but it will happen. I was considering biomes myself, too. The original mansion was intended to be an inn (with some sort of conference room, I guess?) so the design makes sense, but given a new purpose we could have much more fun with it.

 

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• Ability to "recruit" Skyrim NPCs to staff the mansion - it could be awesome if you could recruit any unique Skyrim NPCs to help out in the mansion Underground Bathhouse style.  Ysolda does want money, and seems willing to get into some shifty business to get it...  This would be more for eye candy, so players could bring their favorite NPCs in to participate in the shenanigans at the Mansion.

I like it, and this would fit in with something else I have in mind.

 

Given her storyline in Amorous Adventures, having Ysolda help out at the Mansion would be awesome.

 

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• Enhancements to make the Mansion usable as a permanent player home, so the player has more reason to come back often.

Eh, maybe a little. I wouldn't want it to be Yet Another Player Home, but giving our heroine more than just a room and a bed would be nice. Again, to be considered when the redesign happens.

 

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• NPC schedules around the mansion, with random small scenes happening.  If the mansion is supposed to be making money off of shows enough to afford expansion and all that feed, then the employees should be working without your direction.  I think it would be cool to be able to hang out at the mansion and just be able to watch the employees bringing in random animals for short shows every few minutes, or "tending" to the larger creatures outside.

Agreed and already planning for. Supposedly the Mansion is making quite a bit of coin, so maybe we can teach Thaena about the benefits of reinvesting.