Populating Cybiades

[ValkyrWarrior]

Apologies if there's already a topic about this; I did a search and found nothing!

That said: Most of us know that there is a completely uninhabited island in the game: Cybiades. There are no ports there, so there only way there is hours of swimming. I also believe that Tedious Travel adds a few ports there. The only spot on the island is a dungeon, the Ruins of Cosh Hall.

However, the UESP page hints that there is political data for the island, at least hinting that the island was supposed to have some sort of a population. Why not add such a population? A few towns here and there, maybe a guild.

Perhaps one can make it interesting by having the island occupied by pirates or some other similar band of raiders. Initially non hostile, but there could be some fun there, with a potential Privateer's 'Guild'.

[BadLuckBurt]

I've considered this for a future project, it's perfectly do-able.

The only thing that needs a fix first is the way it's displayed on the travel map. If you go there, you will notice that both classic Daggerfall and DFU think you're in the Ocean region when you're on the island already. It's position is shifted to the east so to speak.

[ValkyrWarrior]

I've considered this for a future project, it's perfectly do-able.

The only thing that needs a fix first is the way it's displayed on the travel map. If you go there, you will notice that both classic Daggerfall and DFU think you're in the Ocean region when you're on the island already. It's position is shifted to the east so to speak.

That sounds like a pretty big issue, aye. My modding experience with DFU is mostly limited to file editing; is fixing the map position something easily done?

[BadLuckBurt]

That sounds like a pretty big issue, aye. My modding experience with DFU is mostly limited to file editing; is fixing the map position something easily done?

I have not tried it yet but it basically requires the map data to be altered a bit as it's read from Daggerfall's files so it shouldn't be too hard since the region can be easily identified by it's ID. In my opinion it should be added to DFU's core as it's clearly an error in the game data. I'll take a stab at it at some point unless someone beats me to it.

[ValkyrWarrior]

I have not tried it yet but it basically requires the map data to be altered a bit as it's read from Daggerfall's files so it shouldn't be too hard since the region can be easily identified by it's ID. In my opinion it should be added to DFU's core as it's clearly an error in the game data. I'll take a stab at it at some point unless someone beats me to it.

I would appreciate it if you would. I should start reading documents if any exist, look at the files. I want to start doing these things myself.

This veers slightly off topic but I'm most interesting in fleshing out the Bay itself. Islands and what not. Add controllable ships similar to the released Airship mod by Kaedius.

Maybe find a way to generate actual, visual representations of ports in port cities, but I'm very well aware that most 'ports' are far, far away from any water.

[BadLuckBurt]

TheLacus has set up modding documentation and an overview of the classes and functions available in DFU, that might be a good place to start if you want to dive in eventually.

The source code itself is available on Github ofcourse. DFU has several classes that deal with reading Daggerfalls data files, thats where the changes should probably be made. Either that or directly after the map data has been read.

Ports are funny, theres even some way up in the mountains and are only used to determine if there are ships for sale at a town.

DFU also 'extends' land into the ocean by a few map pixels by default for a nicer coastline which places most shorelines outside the region borders. Im working on a terrain sampler that drops that behaviour but since people are free to use whatever terrain sampler they want, it may prove a bit problematic to create proper shore locations that work with all of them.

Not trying to discourage you in any way, just giving a heads up on what problems to expect

[Dis/Advantaged]

So! Has any progress happened on this?

[Geocalyx]

Hi! On subject of Cybiades, I am a random guy who did some testing, so here are a few notes:
- this place is really tiny. Most of it can be reached within a single day's travel. This is a problem, since it feels like cheating with the mages guild and temple quests; visit Cybiades, explode in rank, return to regular Daggerfall with 100 respect after a week or two in-game. Feels like Skyrim, to be frank.
I tried to at least make the dungeons long and sneaky, but there can only be so few of them. This is easy mode.
To offset/balance this, I'd create a guild or faction that would only benefit the player while they are on the island and would have little impact towards the rest of the world.
- speaking of, this place is really backwater. The populace does not indulge in global rumors or partake in politics at all, unless a new noble takes the local throne. The population does talk about local events and deeds, though.