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Obviously it isn't "too" hard to modify the old DOS ES games.. So why don't we try to create a more condensed version of Daggerfall (In keeping with more modern ES games). priorities being: Shrinking the world!!!!! Let's be able to walk about now please... ending the time factors on quests (there's too much to do in the first place, without people forcing you!) And allowing you to bring up the mini map outside of towns and dungeons (like they do in the modern games..)

I am no 1337 whatever they call themselves these days. but I really want this project to work and I am not a trained programmer, so any input or advice or help, is welcome. (i mean who doesn't want Daggerfall to be a playable game within the modern elder scrolls idiom?)

Step 1: How do i muck about with the spacial parameters of Daggerfall. Also, (this is stupid) what do I need to do to modify the base code (for anything in general)?

Daggerfall is a very old game. Very few people know how to modify the game files, let alone well enough to say it is easy. While there are a few mod projects related to Daggerfall, like DaggerXL, you're asking for quite a bit from the relatively small modding community for this game. There are some file editors for this game, but I don't think there is an easy way to just decrease the size of the game world.

Well, I really don't know anything about anything, lol. I just kinda thought that since Daggerfall ran on an older OS that it should be easier to mod than the newer games (which people seem to do just fine with). All the same, i am going to have a lot of spare time over the next couple months, so why not try, eh? But i'm kinda going in blind on my own, so anyone's input/advice/techniques/anything will be appreciated. Maybe it isn't easy, but it can't be impossible.

DOS stuff is considerably harder to work with then modern software. Few people know how to do anything with it, there is little in the way of comprehensive guides. The few mod projects I know about for old software often are worked on for years due to the sheer difficulty of it all, and the overall lack of interest in the old stuff.

More power to you if you do this, but this proposed project is going to be much harder than you are estimating, I believe.

You would probably find it easier and quicker to recreate the game with Skyrim's or Oblivion's engines than updating the original. Beth actually released the development tools for a start, and there are far more people to help with it.


Either way, it will be a vast task.

That is certainly not the case. Without prior experience in reverse-engineering computer applications, you will most likely waste a lot of your time with minimal output, so unless you really want to learn how to disassemble a DOS executable and then analyse it, your best bet would be to contact the XL Engine author via their forums and throw in your mod ideas there. Currently DaggerXL is going in the direction of implementing an accurate reconstruction of the original game, which is accomplished by meticulous reverse-engineering of the game engine, already with considerable results (check the blog for more information on that).

Yeah, the more I thought about what the project would entail the more my premature enthusiasm wore off.. I mean if nothing else, trying to create a smaller game map would mean modifying the code for - essentially everything. Extremely tedious, if not impossible.

Still, though, thanks for the input and the info about the XL project. I had no idea it existed. I agree, messing around with a project within a community will be a much better learning experience than trying to do it alone.