My first steps into the world of Daggerfall Unity modding came when I realised that making quests was as a form of interactive fiction. As those of you who have noticed the wealth of novels, short stories and screenplays that I haven’t published here over the years, I’m not great at finishing things. The short nature of quest-writing appealed to me, despite having numerous unfinished D&D quest modules on my HD going back almost 30 years.
Creativity
Making stuff in one way or another.
I struggle for expression. I think trying to find a way to express what we feel is an important aspect of life. I’m a jack of all trades really. As the hackneyed expression continues “…master of none.” People often leave that bit out. You can be stretched too thinly, but without stretching you can’t grow.
I dabble in various arts; culinary, dramatic, thematic, melodramatic, systematic, and dusty-attic.
Some of it I display here. Some I display elsewhere. Most I don’t display at all.
Modding Daggerfall Unity
I’ve been exploring Daggerfall on and off for a few years now, but I’ve only been exploring the world of Daggerfall modding for a few months. I’m still somewhat of an amateur so excuse any numptitude and hamfistedness in this guide…
Turning an old tablet into a photo frame.
Many years ago I bought an Acer Iconia 10 tablet. It’s not a great tablet and their support for it seemed to cease around the time I got it in my hands, so it’s spent a lot of it’s time on a shelf other than the occasions I tried to find a use for it. I’m always concerned about the massive pile of discarded tech being recycled shipped to developing countries to be landfilled or dismantled by kids with inadequate safety kit. So I’m always looking for ways to repurpose tired tech.
Pixel Art
I’ve started dabbling in pixel art. I like the constraints, it’s retro feel, and the fact I can do it on my phone or tablet when I’m have free time. At the moment I’m using Pixel Studio.
The Hatch
Something I wanted to do for my houses revamp mod was to add cellars and basements to the NPC homes. This had been done for taverns in the Taverns Redone mod and temples in Finding My Religion. The stumbling block I quickly hit was that the Transparent Windows mod, by moving the house interiors within the exterior model caused the ground level to appear under the floor. For the above mods a workaround was implemented by Transparent Windows developer Macadaynu, but my houses were more numerous. Rather than expecting them to spend countless hours cutting holes in the ground for each and every building I put a basement in I came up with another solution. I would just place a static trapdoor in the floor that would act like a ladder and teleport the player between two markers. Such already exists for attic access. This would merely require the hatch to act like a ladder.
Simple.
Or perhaps not.
Creating new pixel flats
Another issue when revamping the houses of Daggerfall is the limited clutter. We are used to clutter in Triple-A games, rubbish, detritus, object d’art… but Daggerfall was from a former era. PCs were limited. Everything non-essential added bloat that PCs of the time couldn’t cope with. Also, with a game Daggerfall’s size there was only so much they could add. So peoples diets were limited to meat, fish and bread with some basic fruit. They drank only out of goblets and are off bare tables. As part of the enrichment I plan to add I want to give them more luxury. Tankards, mugs, plates etc. Some of this has been covered by the Daggerfall Expanded Textures mod, but I want more and rather than hectoring the creators of that mod for more minutiae I though I should try my hand at doing some myself.
New Paintings
One of the (many) problems I came across when I decided to overhaul the NPC houses in Daggerfall Unity for my houses2homes mod, was the lack of variety in the paintings you can place on the walls of the buildings. There is basically six. Six different paintings that hang in the countless houses within an estimated 15,000 hamlets, towns and cities in the game.
Houses2Homes
I’ve been working on a mod for Daggerfall Unity that overhauls the layout of NPC houses in the game.
She’s Upstairs
The thump from the room above either meant her or the bottle had fallen out of bed. Either would mean I’d have to go up there, if it was the bottle then she might wake and try to get it which would cause her to fall out anyway.