Mod: Goof Ball 1_0
Game: TES IV: Oblivion
Author: David Brasher
Release Date: 6/20/11
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CONTENTS
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1. Information on the Mod
2. Installation
3. Version History
4. Conflicts, Known Issues, and Troubleshooting
5. Copy Status and Credits
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1. INFORMATION ON THE MOD
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This mod lets you play football (soccer) in the streets of the IC Market District. The
game goes on continuously and you do not need to do anything special in order to join in and
start playing. Just look for the people in red uniforms and blue uniforms chasing a ball through
the streets. You are welcome to play for either team, or change sides after awhile.

The goals are in the gates at the west and south-east edges of the Imperial City Market
District. You can tell which goal belongs to which team by looking at the color of the uniform the
goalie is wearing.

To kick the ball, just run toward it and collide with it. The game is easiest to play in
third person or chase mode. You can just run behind the ball to continuously move it, or approach
it and collide with it to give it a single kick. You might need to kick it pretty hard to make it
go over an obstacle or up a staircase.

If the ball gets kicked into the water, you will have to go in and get it out. Although
your cursor will not change shape when pointed at the ball, you can pick it up and carry it in your
hand by using the "Z" key. You will lose control of it and drop it if you are running, so you will
need to walk when lifting up the ball to carry it out of the water.

When you kick the ball into a goal, a message will pop up giving you the scores of the
two teams.

When the ball goes out of bounds, you will get a message, and most of the players will
back off so that you or one designated player from each team can get it loose and back into the play
area.

If you would like to wear a uniform for either team, you can go get one out of the
small crate by the door to the Imperial Office of Commerce. Extra uniforms are included for if
you lose yours or want to dress up your companions too.

Unfortunately, your teammates and opponents really aren't very good at playing football.
But on the bright side, this means that you can be the star athlete of the team!
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2. Installation
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Extract (decompress) the .esp, meshes, and textures, to your Oblivion directory.
The default is:
C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\
If asked if it is okay to merge folders, say yes. Mark the box next to the "Goof Ball" plugin.

Alternately, extract someplace else. Then move the .esp, meshes, and textures to
Oblivion\Data. If asked if it is okay to merge folders, say yes. Mark the box next to the plugin.
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3. Version History
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V 1.0 6/20/11Initial release.
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4. Conflicts, Known Issues, and Troubleshooting
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The artificial intelligence leaves a lot to be desired. In truth, your opponents and
teammates are no good at the game at all and do not understand what they are supposed to do to score
points. The Oblivion game engine is designed for combat, not for kicking balls past opponents and
into goals. So I guess the mod turned out as well as could be expected.

It can be difficult to get the ball out of the water. See the hints in the information
section.

It is possible for the ball to get stuck in a corner with Goof Ball players surrounding it.
Measures have been taken to prevent this in some circumstances and ameliorate it in others, but it still
may happen. Often the NPCs will knock it out into the open again on their own if you wait a minute.
Sometimes you can shove the NPCs or the ball into a new position and it will break loose. Sometimes
you can grab the ball with the "Z" key and pull it loose. You could cast a non-hostile force push spell
at the crowd of players and the ball, but it could push the ball or players through the wall and you
would have to use console codes to fix things or else back up to a recent save point.

This mod has not been tested with Better Cities, and that mod will likely cause a conflict,
overriding and breaking this one.

The ball is a static object using a havoked mesh with collision. So it does not make sounds
when it is kicked or when it bounces.

The mesh for the ball is not very round. The texture is not so great. I was having trouble
with the UV map. A football has a rather intricate pattern that can only be applied to a sphere. It
cannot be drawn on a flat surface without tearing or warping. But the Gamebryo engine requires that
textures be flat before they are applied to meshes which are not. Between this and the fact that I am not
a modeler and could not create a brand-new UV map, and had to just edit the original, I finally ended up
drastically simplifying the pattern on the ball.

The NPCs talk a lot while playing the game.

This mod is just sort of a silly attempt to do something I have not seen done before using an
unsuitable game platform, so the details, performance expectations, and rules of the game are rather
loose.

If you locate a bug, contact David Brasher on TES Nexus so that the situation can be
examined and hopefully be fixed.
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5. Copy Status and Credits
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Credits:
Bethesda for making Oblivion in an open format anyone can mod.

Copy Status:
Public domain with proper attribution and courtesy notification. Feel free to modify this,
share this, or use it in whole or in part in another mod.
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