Enderal - The Shards of Order
 

As I recently started helping out with Enderal's PR (especially on ModDB) I thought about making a thread in this forum, as there is undoubtly a fanbase here but no place where to discuss and ask questions about it.

I think most of you know already Enderal, but nevertheless let's start with some general information:


Instead of making this similar to a compilation of available information (turning this into an unreadable messwall of text) I'd rather have you asking me questions about it which I will try to answer if I can/am allowed to ;-).


As posting it just like this is boring I'll talk about 2 things many people not only in this forum but everywhere are curious about:

#1 The release date: As always with non-commercial projects it is hard to give an ETA - currently the development is in its last phase and the translation/localization is in full swing. The end of the 1st quarter of 2016 is not impossible, though an exact release day or even month remains to be seen and won't be announced until the SureAI team is sure of that date.


#2 The story of Enderal: Instead of posting a long-winded text about it, I let some videos speak for me ^^:

1. Enderal's 2014 Trailer - it shows you the superficial side of Enderal's story, the thing you would see as a summary in a news site or something similar.



2. The "Ashes" story teaser of 2013 - this one dives deeper into the story and sets its tone.



3. Not a video but a book, called "The Butcher of Ark" - this book is written by Nicolas Lietzau/latiro, who is also responsible for Enderal's story writing and it further shows the tone of Enderal's story and world.

The book will have nine parts ingame, 8 of which were published till now:


Book I
Book II
Book III

Book IV
Book V
Book VI
Book VII
Book VIII

As I said before - if you have any questions concerning Enderal (not only about the story but in general) feel free to ask them ^^

EDIT: Btw just today SureAI announced that the german localization is almost finished, now they will start with the english one for real :D

My only question is can I have it now :), I have been following it now for the last two years.

Hmm…such a horrendous first question :P

Well I am waiting for it since Project 5 was announced - which was shortly before Skyrim was released. The wait was long but now a release seems to be rather close (as in just some more months).

Hi Caleb!

Congratulations to the whole Enderal team for the excellent work being done. Enderal is really a very professional, well-developed project.

a) Enderal's web page says it will feature, among others, survival mechanics. What exactly survival mechanics you're talking about ? Could you be more specific ?

b) The exsperience points will be more like Nehrim (gaining xp after combat, completing quests, etc) ?

Thank you!

Thank you, I'll be sure to convey this.

a) Survival in Enderal is not Frostfall or Realistic Needs ;) - the reason survival exists in Enderal is not purely realism but stems more from actual gameplay reasons.

If you don't eat, drink and sleep you won't die - instead the auto-regeneration of health and mana will stop. Why mana is important should be obvious, health is more complex:

In Enderal just like in Nehrim potions heal over time instead of instantly, this already means you can't stack many potions to heal you up from rock bottom in a fight.
Enderal further punishes potions/healing spell spamming by introducing a new attribute called "Arcane Fever".
This fever raises whenever you cast a healing spell on yourself/drink a potion or by staying in magically contaminated areas (similar to radiation in Fallout); once it reaches 100% (its unit is %) you die. Problem is that the only way to lower the fever is by taking Ambrosia which is turn is very expensive.

I guess you already know about Enderal's class system, hence I'll skip the explanation but if you play a healing mage you will be able to get skills which lower the amount of fever you will get from one spell/potion, hence making healing more cost-effiecent. Another way to lower the cost is by becoming a good alchemist as those can brew their own Ambrosia - beware though that because of the strict limit of skill points you have in Enderal taking both ways at once will end in you being unable to fight well ^^ On the other hand being a strong close-quarters fighter results in very high costs for Ambrosia.

It is a complex system which was hard to balance and is just as hard to explain in all of its facetes.

Now back to the actual question: the only ways to get health back without raising the fever is either auto-heal (btw waiting won't get your health back anymore in Enderal, just sleeping) or eating+drinking food/drinks. In turn the regen from food is abysmal when fighting so you can't sustain yourself only from eating in battles ;-)

b)Yep, though there were new ways added to get experience points: by talking much about Enderal with its inhabitants you will get points, also reading many books results in the same.
To make this possible, in turn the amount of dialogue in Enderal is huge: It has around 1,5-2 times the amount of dialogue some of the newer Bioware titels (Mass Effect, Dragons Age:Origins) have. Just your 2 followers and comrades Jespar and Calia alone each have around 2 times the dialogue of a Bioware side character ;-)(most of it is 100% optional btw)

Such a noob question. Sorry. I have completed skyrim on the ps3, but to play this I would need a copy on pc. Yes. I have never modded anything in my life. Will it work with a steam copy or does it require a disc. Is it hard to set up or is it just click an icon and go go go?

I would love to ask about optimization and performance compared to Vanilla Skyrim (or maybe better to 'vanilla' modded Skyrim with HD Pack and some graphical mods, etc…).

I played Nehrim and it was far, far more demanding than even heavily modded Oblivion.
Is this a case here too? Lets say that i can run Skyrim in 40 fps+ on max with mods… will i be able to play Enderal with the same machine and with decent settings?
Have you optimized mod for older machines?

I have AMD FX-4100 (4x4000Mhz) 8 GB RAM and GTX 560Ti 1GB. Skyrim runs awesome on max with mods but im afraid (i still have Nerhrim in memory) that i will not be able to play Enderal.

Can you give me some info maybe?

Yeah it will work with a steam copy, you won't need a disc - also you will only need Skyrim, no DLCs required.

And it will come with its own .exe-file which installs Enderal. Afterwards the most you will have to do is going to the data file manager in the Skyrim/Enderal launcher and check whether the Enderal.esm box is ticked or not ;-)


Before answering perhaps posting the system requirements is better:

This means your graphics card is good enough to run Enderal on high without AA or on slightly lower settings with AA.

Your RAM is also good :-)

Just the CPU could get a bottle-neck - but if you lower the settings for playing with AA (which I recommend) it should be doable ^^ Obviously some fine-tuning is required there but you should be able to play at least on medium settings with 40+ FPS - if you take your time to test it should work with higher settings as well, just not everything max.

SureAI really tried to get the maximum performance out of Enderal while still adding much clutter and new textures in the world.

Hi again Caleb!

Another bunch of questions here, if you don't mind :)

a) Since Enderal will bring its own set of graphic assets, what will be the new texture resolution (vanilla is 512x512, IIRC) ? How about sound effects, will Enderal reuse them from vanilla Skyrim ?

b) How about the UI that Enderal will feature ? The same one from vanilla Skyrim ?

c) Are you planning to do other language localizations for Enderal ? Not even text/subtitle localizations (without VO, as I know VO is far more expensive and time-consuming) ?

d) Let's suppose (just a supposition :)) I wanna apply (for free) to make some text/subtitle localization in a language other than English/German. Since I am no modder, could I still apply to ? Would I need a mod knowledge or another specific knowledge to do that ?

Thank you again!

This is what i wanted to hear. Thanks Caleb! Now just release it!

Or maybe you can answer this very generic question… :)

How big is Enderal? Compared to Nehrim. Both content wise and landamass size.
I think Nehrim was BIG. :)

and…

Is everything still so masterfully handcrafted when it comes to world and location designs? Some places from Nehrim are very well designed and they have this mystical atmosphere of ancient, forgotten places shorouded with mystery. Skyrim for example and Oblivion lacks this.
Maybe you understand what im talking about… :)

Some nice questions you have there :) and don't worry answering them is part of my help and job.

a) Most of the textures in Enderal are between 1 and 2k. 4k textures are only used for big objects, for example the huge Malphas statue you could see in the trailer. There are 2 reasons for that:
#1 The amount of detail in Enderal is so high that the constant use of 4k textures would result in a Nehrim 2.0 in terms of performance.

#2 4k textures for everything is nonsense in itself - a small bush looks with 1k textures nearly the same as with 4k ones, unless you zoom in greatly.
The rule is: The bigger the object, the bigger the texture :-)


Trees have a special position there - let me show you a picture:

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160112/6z5eloyv.jpg

The texture of the trees shown there have a resolution between 1.2 and 2k depending on how big the tree is. The special thing: These textures were made by photogrammetry (3d-scans) and then optimized so that they use as little texture space as possible ;-)

Sound effects will also be overhauled if possible, though that is sth for the last finishing touches, so nothing promised yet :)

b) Welp after I already wrote about it in a newspost here I'll show you the german charscreen as that is better than just trying to explain it (english one isn't finished yet, but that doesn't matter for the design):

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160112/q9xihtzh.png

Its base it uses SkyUI, which is part of Enderal.

c) As there is nobody in the team who is good enough in other languages, those would have to be done by fans, just like they were for Nehrim ;-)


d) In accordance with c) yes you can translate it without any problem. Localization
itself is medium on the difficulty scale: You need to translate the books, subtitles and menus - this is the easy (as in technically easy) part. The harder part is doing the so-called string-files. Skyrim unlike Oblivion doesn't use translated .esp+.esm files but instead these string files.
These are special text-files which basically assign each dialogue and menue text ingame a corresponding translation into the language you want to translate. (you can think of a chart which has 3 columns: an Unique ID for each text you want to translate, the text in its original language and 3rd the translated text.

When if you start e. g. the german version of Skyrim, it loads the german string files which assign the german texts to their english version and are responsible for replacing them.
Making string-files themselves actually isn't that hard (the explanation is harder to do than the actual deed XD) as you can use some user-made programs for that, e. g. the TESVTranslator .
Just a heads-up doing it alone is impossible - at least from the moment onwards you try to translate the books as there are simply too many of those in Enderal :(

:biggrin:

In general Enderal has around 75% of the landmass of Skyrim - if you compare it to Nehrim it is a bit bigger.
In terms of content - much bigger! There are way more sidequests and other things to do in your "free time" (you can play a card game in taverns in the evening for example)
Also the main story of Nehrim had a length of around 20-25 hours, Enderal's has at least 30-35.

As for your second question - yep everything is still handcrafted (each tree included) just like in Nehrim; I'll show you some screens:

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160112/n7z8opb7.jpg

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160112/ecs7qr42.jpg

Oh my this looks awesome. :) Srsly… nehrim was good, really good. Maybe even GOTY material but this looks even better.
And its a mod!

Last question. :) Can you elarorate a little about itemization and crafting? Will some magical effects/affixes will be added to itemization for more variety?
How will crafting work? Like in Skyrim? Alchemy will be expanded? Will there be enchanting/spellmaking? soulcapturing? Or all of this is removed due to we not in Tamriel?
Will items be mostly static or mostly randomly generated?
Will there be hidden static stuff like in Morrowind? Maybe even some OP stuff that you can earn very early if you know the game and you are clever (again like in Morrowind?)
Will there be unique named items? What with staple of TES series… artifacts? Will there be some replacement for it and deadric quests (that usually have them as a rewards?

Sorry its more than one question but overall - itemization and crafting, :P
Thanks and i promise its last one ;) Im hyped enough now.

Ok, so one thing leads to another: then would still be possible to translate all voiced-over dialogues OR just the static texts (text from menus, books, skill names, skill descriptions, etc)? I know translating everything would be a damn-hard job, near impossible to do it alone, as you've said yourself, but my real question is: if (big, enormous IF) I were to translate all voiced-over dialogue would I need authorization from SureAI team ? Would I need some piece of source code containing such "string-files" OR will they be available as soon as we download the mod (after release date, obviously) ?

Regarding in-game books: what will be their function ? Just in-game lore ? Will they also improve stats ? Most important to me (even more important than stat-improving): will some of them contain hidden hints or reveal valuable quests when we read them ? :)

PS: Before I forget: will there be a quest-compass or whatever it is called ? Can it be disabled/enabled from menu ?

Thanks again!

For this simply watch this video - it explains crafting in Enderal:



Alchemy works the same as in Skyrim, there are just more potions/poisons to create and all things you "brew" yourself will have almost no value so that you can't get rich just by leveling Alchemy ;-)

Enchanting yes and it also works the same as in Skyrim (this also means yes to soulcapturing ;-))

Spellmaking no, as that is incredibly hard to balance and neither Morrowind nor Oblivion managed to do so, so they wash their hands free of that.

Static, though I can't speak for every single container out there xD

Yes to all of these, though OP is hard to define. As enemies won't scale with you in Enderal weapons from enemies way above your level are OP against all "low"-level chaff.
Problem is how to get those (though there are always ways for obtaining them). Just be adviced that running around randomly will certainly get your low level char killed ^^
As for the unique items - at the end of nearly every dungeon you will fight against a dungeon boss - these are higher leveled and always have some special stuff with them; be it strong weapons, a blueprint or parts of armor sets.

Neither Aedra nor Deadra exist in Vyn, the world in which Arktwend, Myar Aranath, Nehrim and Enderal play. This world has its own lore, written completely by SureAI themselves. As such there won't be deadric quests :(

BTW: This doesn't mean that demons don't exist in Vyn - Nehrim e. g. had a very active underground demonic cult which sacrificed humans everywhere.

Don't sweat it - I'm happy with every question as it shows interest :)

Well you would certainly need to ask them at least once ^^ But as long as your translation's quality is high enough they should allow it - after all it is in their interest to have as much publicity as possible ;-)

As for your first question: both :-)

Well the string-files come with the mod, after all it needs them to localize it - but you won't need any program to extract them or sth, they are in your Skyrim/Enderal folder. Where exactly I can't tell you yet as nothing is finished in that regard - Skyrim's string files are in Skyrim/Data/Strings - this means they should be located at Enderal/Data/Strings later.

Books are there for lore (in turn for gaining experience), for investing skill points (Enderal doesn't have learning-by-doing like Skyrim instead like in Gothic you earn skill points with each lvl-up which you can invest in your skills by paying gold to skill trainers or by reading certain books) - and yes they WILL contain hidden secrets and also sidequests. If you read what I posted in the newsbit about this thread here concerning the skill system - in the last paragraph I wrote that you need to find out which talents are affine to each other by traveling the world, one way to find them is by reading books ;-). But these are just some of the things you can find.

There will be less quest markers in Enderal than in Skyrim and even if they are there they usually only point at the dungeon, cave, ruin, etc. you need to go - not at your specific quest target.
The only times you will have concrete markers is when trying to find a normal inhabitant of a city for a quest. Reason being that Enderal uses more complex daily routines and that Ark, the main city of Enderal, is simply too big.
If a NPC would just leave a note "I am walking through the Undercity" you would probably search for him/her around 1 hour - thats how big it is - and yet it is only half of Ark ;-)

Will there be romances?

*ducks and hides* :p

Yeah, there are romances in Enderal ^^

While doing the main quest of Enderal you will meet 2 comrades - Jespar and Calia - who will aid you. These followers are a bit special as they only stay with you while you are doing the main quest - you can't take them with you while exploring.

Reason being that they are humans just like you and they don't have the time to follow you around everywhere - both Jespar and Calia are no mere puppets following you, they will give you advice and have their own motives and moral values.

Whether you take their advice to heart or not and how you interact with them while doing main quests and between them (they won't just vanish after doing these, you can still talk with them and both also have their own side quests - 6 each to be precise) will affect how they see you.

Also both of them don't mind their own gender as partners ;)
In the end though the romance is 100% optional, you can also just build a good friendship or even antipathy with them.

Caleb,

After completing the main quest, can we still continue playing and doing the remanescent quests ? Or will be endgame, roll credits and bye-bye ?

How different our companions will be from vanilla Skyrim ? Please, tell us more about companion's inventory management, assigning orders, companion's general behavior. (PS: if there is a video regarding this topic you can, alternatively, point us out the URL)

Thanks!

No, the ending of the main quest is the ending of Enderal ;) Don't worry though, it is obvious when you reach that point so that you can go back and do sidequests/exploring/etc. before finishing it.

First question I actually don't know a definite answer for :-P

Inventory management and orders are the same as vanilla - that I know.

As for their behaviour that is the question: I guess same as Vanilla, too, though there are situations in the story where they take the lead :-)


BTW: I have to correct myself…SureAI today announced that the main quest will take ca. 44 hours to finish and that there are all in all 93 quests in Enderal (as comparison Nehrim had around 50) Both numbers include the main quest and subquests of side quests ;-)

Caleb,

Does SureAI still maintain the Q1-2016 release date for Enderal ? Could you be more specific in terms of releasing date (day/month) ? :biggrin:

Thanks

Well right now, yes they do. Problem is that this can change any minute while bugfixing - sometimes fixing a bug results in new bugs in other parts, hence it is impossible to give a specific ETA.

This also means that it is possible that SureAI announces a release date just 2 weeks (or shorter) before release.

I looked at Enderal a bit lately. I'm now quite interested in this I guess.

SureAI has awesome environment designers.

Any reasons to start installing Skyrim again yet?

I'm keen to try this - tired of the current stuff I'm playing

Well 3 days ago SureAI announced that they currently have fixed more than 6500 bugs with around 700 bug reports remaining - though the 700 is also just a current number and can go up any day.

In the translation team there are currently more than 10 people helping and our progress is steady :-)

My personal estimate puts the end of March as earliest and the end of Q2 of 2016 as the latest release date.

Remind me, will this mod have English VO? Because as darn good as it all sounds, I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach playing a game in a language I don't understand.

Yeah, though that version most likely will take the longest to complete - first one to be finished will be the german one, shortly thereafter the german version with english subtitles and textes und lastly the english voiced one.
Reason being that SureAI wants to release each version whenever it is ready and not hold back any of them ;-)

The timeframe between the 2 german versions should be quite short, maybe they can even come out at the same time, depending on how long the bugfixing and polishing still takes.
The english voiced version is currently being voiced but it still takes some time till everything is recorded (as there are often retakes needed ;-)) and after that SureAI has to cut and implement it which also takes much time (especially the cutting) hence it will be finished last, barring some kind of setback with the release of the german version.

I'm often quite happy with original language and subs. When the English VO is weak, I think the subtitled experience is much better. I end up skipping loads of VO work anyway, as I read a lot faster than they talk.

To be fair, SureAI aims for a as-high-as-possible quality with their english version - while they don't think they can trump the german version (that one uses actually some famous german dubbers) they want to put at least talented and experienced hobby VAs with good equipment as their base for the aimed quality. ;-)

Well, that's nice to hear. I honestly wasn't expect full English VO, so that's a nice surprise. I don't mind waiting a little longer for that. :)

Give me now please and thank..

Though I think I might have posted that before.

Caleb,

a) Will the game have some kind of in-game achievements, much like Nehrim had ?

b) Can Enderal accept mods ?

Thanks!

I'd love to see something in a kickstarter from SureAI.

I am sure after this game and the fact that Bethesda has shown interest in this game there is something in the works.

Not sure it will need mods like Bethesda games do to make them playable…

Celtic, I don't intend to use mods to make it playable. But maybe some graphics/textures mods, or gameplay ones, who knows?

Hey everyone, sorry for the late answer - currently Enderal (translation + testing) eats up most of my free time :-)

The future of SureAI is currently undecided, after Enderal release there will be obviously patches, some of which also have additional content.

What happens afterwards entirely depends on how much people are willing to donate for Enderal - first there will be a (quite long) break for SureAI, especially so that the team members can finish current work projects (the team leader of SureAI e. g. works in the german studio which currently develops Spellforce 3 ;-))

After that break, who knows. They want to go Indie but as I said much of that depends on their income from donations.

a) Unfortunately no.

b) What do you mean by accept mods ^^

Basically all mods work which do not refer to anything in Skyrim's Skyrim.esm.

These are: Texture mods, other graphic mods (but pls carefully test each of them) and some gameplay mods (again there are some which work, and some which will either break your game or the balance).

Quest mods and follower obviously won't work, as well as any mod which adds armors, weapons, dungeons, settlements, etc. to the game as Enderal has its own worldspace ;-)

Enderal already has both SKSE as well as SKYUI included, too.

Glad to know this :)

SureAI replied to my question on twiter about release date

So we are only 3 weeks away! Yay :)