1. Will there be distinct classes like dnd, or just stats and skill combinations?
2. Will there be xp, or do skills improve with use?
3. Will there be lore based skills - ancient knowledge, forestry (identify wild plants, etc) ?
4. Will there be languages, and will they be skills?
5. Is there a custom combat system?
6. Will there be crafting?
7. Will there be hunger, sleeping based skills - eg, someone with survival skills can find water in the desert?

I would like to see levelling along the lines of nGCD or realistic levelling. Train skills to improve them, and when the skill is raised ur attribute is also increased.

Wow, I dont think we've really come to a conclusion on this. You raise some excellent points. I dont want to be the only one making the decisions as that will just bottle neck things, so these are my suggestions only:

1. There will be specific classes but we should be able to change them as characters develop. For instance Holorian man could begin as a farmer/hunter (ranger) then train to be a soldier, (warrior) then become a bladesman in the Arenas (a professional gladiator Bladesman) then rise in rank to the highest who hunt down slave-bladesmen who have escaped the Arena (Myrion). A Karithian could start as a desert nomad (Ranger) become a (warrior) then eventually train to be a priest in the Karithian temples (priest). Obviously there are loads of ideas that want fleshing out.

2. I dont know which way to go on this, xp or improving with use. We need to develop this argument.

3. Lore based skills definately, I think these are the main development area and could be quite exciting. I think they should be taught and also learned by trial and error. So a warrior who signs on as a soldier or scout for the Holorian military can increase through training, deployment and so forth.

4. Languages should be a skill I think. If it was at all possible I would have it so that the player couldnt understand a word of another language until taught. Not sure if this is feasible or plain daft.

5. Not got into this combat stuff yet. I dont know is the short answer.

6. Crafting, yes I think there should be. Havent developed the idea so if anyone wants to make their mark here then please do.

7. We should definately have limitations for food, water,scavenging etc and these skills should be improved with use and training.

Absolutely spot on with your last comment. I totally agree there.

I don't think we should bundle too many gameplay changes with the mod. There are a lot of perfectly good mods out there that already handle all of these features very well. People have their preferences in regards to these matters and shouldn't be forced to use one or another simply because we prefer to use one or another. Most of them should work perfectly fine with our mod as is. Additionally, it will just add to the download size and extend beta testing. But that doesn't mean we can't develop our own solutions to these kinds of problems and offer them as optional downloads, so if you're keen to start on something like this Joffenz, by all means, go for it. (Also, we could use some playtesting with existing gameplay-changing mods to make sure there aren't any conflicts.)

[Side Note: Personally, I prefer not to play a class because I find it too restricting. If I want to go off and do something completely different that makes sense in terms of my character, there should be nothing in the way preventing me from doing that. We don't want to impose any limits on gameplay that we don't have to. There are already a lot of players out there who don't like the idea of not being able to play a non-human race.]

One thing we do need to do, and what you could get started with if you wanted Joffenz, is setting up the scripts for players starting a new game. If you haven't looked into this yet, you can find the info here. I've used this technique a couple of times myself, so I know it works. You just have to tweak it for Mesogea. For now, you can just use the vanilla races, classes, and birthsigns and set the starting location to cell 0, 0 or someplace outside one of the cities/towns. We can always change these details later. The important thing is just to give new players someplace to start playing that doesn't rely on cow.

As far as creating new skills goes, this is a sort of tricky area, since they can only be implemented as scripts and won't work the same way as vanilla skills. If you think you're up to it, though, you can always look into it.

Another thing you could work on is some new magic that is unique to Mesogea.

The other area we need scripts for, of course, is the initial quest. We'll need to get the NPCs and locations and whatnot done first, but we'll definitely need some scripting then.

Hope I'm not overwhelming you, I'm just thinking as I type.

I had a look on the wiki about some of the changes. I bow to truants greater knowledge here, I had no idea how tricky some of these changes could be and they will be difficult to implement and maybe put people off.

I was hoping to have some races completed by now but they are taking longer. These shouldnt matter yet though as Iliana pointed out in another thread we can just switch races on any NPC we wish, just giving them a vanilla race initially.

If we work on the premis that anyone can do magic, they just need to learn it, then the races shouldnt restrict it, or any other skill, though maybe we can have the races make it a little difficult for some rather than others. ie: over the millenia the Karith have adapted better to desert than the Holorians but the Holorians are better soldiers, whereas the Skaya can fight better underground, can scavenge from the land, are resilient to disease and can put up with the cold for longer. They should also be able to feed off of anything that they kill.

Joffenz, what do you think to this so far? Any suggestions?

OK I'm looking at the starting script now. I'll get that done first.

I have no experience with skills but I can at least try, IMO just from my own vision of Mesogea it's more realistic and immersive than oblivion, so I think we need to change at least some gameplay features. I agree with releasing an optional gameplay pack, with custom levelling, etc later on. Plus it will take time to code these changes. But I just have alot of ideas about Mesogea, so I'm a bit eager

Ok our point about magic; i made a post on the magic forums.

Valisarius - I don't know much about the lore behind each race, but if we're talking skill modifiers then it should be pretty easy.

What about survival skills? In my vision of mesogea, you need to rest, eat, hunt etc....I don't know if you're thinking the same ideas, but if you are then perhaps I could work on something like that?

Joffenz,

The lore is fairly simple, I based the races on an idea of how the forefathers of the classical races would have been, for instance the Karith are forerunners of the people that would populate North Africa and parts of southern Spain, the Egyptians and Phoenicians (obviously thousands of years would mean huge changes by the time the descendents of the Karith would take their chariots north to fight the Hittites.

The Holorians would eventually diversify populating Italy, Greece and Anatolia (Latins, Etruscans, Achaeans, Doreans) the Hittites and Assyrians are descendents of the Eastern Empire long after collapse.

This is all a very loose idea of who these people are, not at all meant to be a stab at real history as its entirely fiction, all the way. I was going to set it around 30,000-10,000 BC but I reckon we would need another ice age to effectively wipe out all traces (As in Conans Hyborian Age).

So its just modifiers so far as I can work out. Unless someone thinks otherwise.

Survival skills absolutely, we need hunger, resting, thirst, cold, heat, sandstorm affecting life etc.

I'm thinking about all the immersion factors like hunger, etc, I'm going to make a design document of what I'm thinking, and see if you like it.

The starting script is coming along, I just need to test it a few times for bugs. (PC I'm using doesn't have oblivion on it ATM) Should be up by tonight

*edit*

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6648

Flying Pegasus! That is so cool! Who thinks we should have in mesogea?

Hmm, I dont know. I like it, maybe we could have it in there. If so they would be a rarity but it makes for an interesting beast.

Its a good idea doing a document like that, everyone will get an idea of where things are heading in that dept.

Perhaps as a quest reward, I agree it would be a rarity. But Mesogea would look epic from the air.

Getting to work on my thoughts on immersion scripts (hunger etc)

Re-downloading the esm though, because the last download was corrupt.

We might justify a few unique or unusual creatures by saying that they were failed experiments created by the Vandur...this might explain the mythological beasts of legend and keep our players happy as well. Simply make them unique creatures or extremely rare (depending on the creature) and you have all the creatures of lore at your disposal: pegasi, minotaurs, cyclopes, hydras, medusas, etc. Weren't these creatures supposedly created by the gods? Might make for some interesting plot twists. Anyways, just thinking aloud.

Sure, that sounds plausible (well as much as any fantasy can be )

Finding a cave with a hydra in it would be something to see!

@Joffenz, I tested the downloads a few times, just to make sure the upload was ok. I had one corrupt download out of three, its just the size that does it I think.

Are the LODs working? My view distance is very small. Am right in saying distantlod and tes4qlod go in /data, and LandscapeLOD goes in /Texture?

Yes, thats correct. Have you got distant land enabled?

Yes, I think maybe that download was also corrupted Well I can still play but my vision is very short

Download it again as its worth seeing.

Make sure of the following:

Data/
hiboriamain.esm
tes4qlod
testures
meshes
DistantLOD

Textures/
LandscapeLOD

Then make sure in your video options you have distant land enabled and set to max. Go into the game, exit, video options, set distant land etc on the scroll down menu.