That's sounds really cool. I do agree with jhondidfool though that you should have the player earn the trust of the others on the boat would make it flow better. I think that if i was going to get this mod when it was finished i would start a new game and make this the beginning of my game .

All the primary important passengers will already be on the boat so you will have a chance to converse with them. This will give you insight on their backstories, their past jobs (this is how you know that Harf is a farmer and will be able to farm for you, as well Swims-With-Fish is an Argonian who was a fisherwoman in the past - she'll be the prime candidate to collect the fish for the group (and will move on to build and run the fishery as your city progresses)

just a question. The new land, is it on Skyrim Land itself or is it out of skyrim? E.g. out of the borders.
Anyway nice story, cant wait to see your mod. *And be jarl*

Totally separate worldspace - you cannot even swim to it.

The jam week they showed off some new things that the team worked on and im guessing are still working on. So my question if they do bring mounted combat into the game and dragon riding and the other things they talked about like spears well it be easy to implement them in your mod or well you tweak it once they come out or will this have no affect at all in your opinion of things you would want to do ?

I saw that. Mounted combat would be cool but IMO I don't think it will happen. Too many contingencies and it's too much work for Bethesda to keep up the quality and keep it bugfree (If it's buggy it will have financial repercussions, but if a modder were to do it and release it, the worst that can happen is someone comments on the mod page about the bug).

The island isn't going to be extremely large but I may include a few wild horses that you may be able to geld and domesticate.

I'm planning on introducing a merchant system, where because the island is near a shipping route, merchants will occasionally stop by. When you've commissioned a dock to be built (that is, you've collected enough wood and you have Lothrar build it for you), then you may discover that a curious merchant stopped by for a chance to trade goods. Merchants who've been on the seas for a long time are looking for meat - anything but fish. If you've established a farm to grow crops and Thom the hunter has collected enough meat to spare, you can trade the food for some of the merchant's cargo.

As your city expands, the merchants will spread word of your prosperity and entice other merchants to add your port to their regular shipping route. (Building/upgrading the lighthouse will be a key prerequisite for the number of merchants).

Some merchants will be transporting weapons, armour, furniture, livestock (horses), and pretty much everything. You will be involved on some level for the trade, notably in the beginning stages of the city development, but eventually you'll have people to take care of the trade - and a lot of it happens behind the scenes, the citizens will go trade themselves for the new mattress they need, the kitchen utensils, etc. But much of this is simply too mundane for the Jarl to be worried about.
For livestock - Farmer Harf may choose to purchase a draught (draft) horse to help with the farming. IMO having a horse for the player will drastically reduce the perception of the size of the island

I won't be using mounted combat or dragon mounts in my mod but some people may choose to if they have the mod. It certainly may be fun to fly around the island though.

I really like your idea. Have you considered making this mod separate from a normal game? I mean, with a different starting location and all; not connected to Skyrim's main story. I see a couple of reasons to do this. Basically your mod will be somewhat isolated from the rest of the game so it doesn't really matter whether PC is Dovahkiin or not and whether he/she did something in Skyrim or not. Also a player can stop doing most quests and even if it's not possible, it takes how long to complete them? An hour? While this quest line, once started, might take several hours to finish. Some players might not want it as it might interrupt the flow of the main story. And finally you would have greater control over what a player can and can't do with him being level 1, with no history.

The game might start in Solitude docks or wherever you want it with a scene where PC, with player control disabled, goes through the docks and comes to the captain of the ship who says something like "Oh, it's you. Good news, one cabin just got free, so you can go with us." Then some dock official comes and tells him: "Remember that you have to register all passengers. Those are the new laws!". "All right, all right! Let's fill it", responds the captain and the character creation menu is shown. And then it goes as you planned it.

As for the "Jarl" issue I would just suggest a name like chief but you can make it that the people who are with PC call him that, possibly against his will, and it just sticks.

I've had to consider this. I've decided not to go with an alternative start (Maybe I'll adapt something later on, we'll see the direction this takes) - being because it just introduces a whole new area of possible problems to overcome. As well, I think I'm limiting my audience to those willing to start a new game. Plus the mod has to actually be at a certain level, and if u return to Skyrim you'll have to mesh it into the vanilla quest.

it's a good idea though and something I may consider doing after I have the mod at a sizeable content.

I'm making a lot of progress, screenshots to come soon! I've got about 60% of the island done and the introduction quest is completed and working. I'm at the point now where the captain will take you to "Summerset Isles" but before you get there he'll maroon everybody on the island! That's not before he confiscates everyone's gear.

So now you, among several others, are stranded on this island. Everybody is looking to you for leadership - what's the first thing you do ?

I'm getting kind of excited, heh. For some reason I really love the concept of a castaway on an uninhabited (or at least uncivilized) island, be it the Lord of the Flies or LOST. I think that trying to make that wilderness your home is a pure kind of creation. Build something where there was nothing before.

Anyway, I have an idea, although I don't know if you even need it. Some short time after the passengers were left on the island there was a storm and the captain's ship wrecked on a coast of the very island that was meant to be a trap for his prey. So he and some sailors landed on the island and, well, they may think that there isn't enough resources there for both groups. And considering that they have whatever was in the ship that survived the storm, they might become very, very dangerous. They would make the third side of a conflict, using different tactics than the natives. I think it creates many opportunities for good storytelling. Will the player consider joining forces with them in order to defeat the Ra Gada?

As it stands now, the Ra Gada don't speak the same language as the player They are hostile because they won't have seen civilization in the last 3 eras. The ship captain is also poised to be the player's enemy. I can't see any way to team up with the guy who left you for dead on a foreign island. I plan on having another encounter with the ship captain and the player - a final battle so to say.

However I really like that idea of him ship-wrecking shortly after on the island. I'm playing with the idea of him shipwrecking close to the Ra'Gada settlement and becoming captives of them..
hmm..

As for the Ra Gada speaking a different language, I thought so. Anyway, the player would maybe team up with the captain because, you know, an enemy of my enemy is my friend... even if he's also my enemy. Simply the fact that the captain and his men come from the same land as you and are similar to the player in many ways, while the natives are alien and hard to understand, may make this alliance possible. Plus the captain may try to make excuses or lie, and maybe he would manage to convince some people from the player's group... But I thought that it might be the player's decision. Either he joins forces with the captain and has easier fight with the Ra Gada but later there may be consequences when he has to face treason, or he refuses to do that and has to fight everyone alone. Also, I think that introducing "civilized" enemies might make some interesting gameplay. It is an extremely stupid comparison but in Half-Life you face those monsters and all but them come marines. They just make a different kind of threat, for instance they are less resistant but use more advanced tactics. The same way just having superior equipment would make the sailors hard and interesting enemies.

But that's just my idea. Of course I don't know many details of your mod so obviously I'm unable to say if it really fits or not. So I can't really argue more than that, heh.