BWRL0105 "Blackwood: West" (Completed)

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Official 'Black Marsh' Landscape Claim for Blackwood Region #5: West Blackwood

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Blackwood: West
AVAILABILITY: Completed by Ibsen's Ghost

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NB: All the brown cells in the picture must be modded to the left-hand side of the black line that separates cell -21 (where your claim begins) from cell -20 (where the East BW claim begins). Take note that the x co-ordinates here are all minus values whilst the y co-ordinates are all minus at the bottom but the topmost ones become plus values. Therefore, -31,-02/03 are the westernmost cells in the claim and -21, 07 is the northeasternmost. IG's Note - I'm afraid this pic is not very helpful as the cells begin to mismatch for the picture on the right near the top of the grid. Just work from the bottom up. Gideon is placed in -25 to -27,-01 and -25 to -27, 01.

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Description & Details

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This area of the Black Marsh: Blackwood region adjoins the entrance to BM above but is largely cut off from the mainland by a deep, rocky trench-like river between the Black Marshes and Tamriel. Although very close to Tamriel geographically, it is much different in character. Its main feature is the city of Gideon which, unlike Imperial outposts and Imperially-influenced settlements such as Tenmar Wall, Stormhold and Rockguard, is very much a city steeped in Argonian culture.

Rumours of Shadowscale activity are rife and there are various unsavoury legends connected with the place. Therefore, the Blackwood region is at its darkest around here.

There might well be the remains of a road between this settlement and Rockguard.

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At-a-glance Details

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Region: Blackwood
Cell count: 108
Exterior cell coordinates:
SW Corner = -30,-05,
NW Corner = -30,01,
SE Corner = -21,-04
NE Corner = -21,07
Claim Size & Difficulty: Medium. Most features already generated.
Inhabitants: 'Normal' and/or 'Draconian' Argonians, Imperials and other races.
Settlements in area: Gideon - please do not affect the cells designed for these settlement without notifiying a core member of your actions.
General Info: Please maintain contact about your modding on this thread but, above all, keep posting updates by adding v1, v2, v3 etc. to the end of your files.Take note that any esps submitted must begin with BM followed by your modder initials. For me, this is BMIG (IG for Ibsen's Ghost). Then submit your final claim to this thread: Latest esm and esp updates .

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Modding Directions

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Download the latest bsa details here: Black Marsh Resources: Latest bsa . TEMPORARY NOTE - Please do not take this claim until Koniption's flora and the Baobab trees have been added in the next esm.

Your first task is to make sure that the flora and trees are not floating above the ground or have any edges of the models showing.

You may alter the height map as you wish but please bear in mind that this may affect other cells and the positioning of flora and trees as you will need to alter these accordingly. You are welcome to delete objects and there are recommendations on what to add below but please bear in mind that doing so means that you will probably have to add or delete vertex shading and make appropriate choices for texturing.

Your main task, however, is to make this area denser, darker and more realistic.

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Modding Directions: What to add

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Textures - It has been recommended that the underwater textures be replaced with Imperial sewer water textures (Directions on where to find them to be added here later). This is not necessary for the most part of this claim unless you are adding watery sections and pools.

Otherwise, please use the existing BW textures. In some areas, you may use some of the swamp textures but only sparingly as these are mostly set aside for the Everglades (look in the list of textures in the height mapping window for textures beginning with bm). (These will also be added to the next esm and bsa updates.

Clutter and Flora - You may decorate with the following rocks and flora: pitcher plant, Somnalius plant and various fungi from the vanilla models. You may also use some of Koniption's flora such as the Victorian water lily, bird of paradise (preferably in open spaces), bromeliads (only the green ones in clusters), a little sugar cane (preferably at the base of the Baobab trees), monstera plant (preferably in the shade) and some Sylvan Mushrooms (preferably near water or to replace the Clouded Funnel Cap). You will find these under the blackmarsh\trees\1Koniptions thread in the CS.

Good swampy cells tend to also make use of mossy logs from the Static-Landscape folder in the CS. I would recommend the maple and oak moss logs and, only occasionally, some moths and fireflies (but you may find something in the SI folders, including mists and so on, that you might prefer).

Trees - You should also add many more custom Baobab trees to create a denser swampland and you might want to bring in some of the nearby trees marked out for the jungle region such as the hala trees, redwoods and perhaps even some droothvine models from SI to create that dense effect. You can use Ctrl-D when you find one of these models to duplicate them and then to drag them out and position them where you see fit.

Otherwise, ask if you'd like to use any other models or textures. I'm sure you'll make sensible choices but it would be best to check that out by posting screenshots or offering a suggestion in this thread.

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Settlements and Dungeons

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The best part of landscape claims that I enjoy the most are modding the dungeons. For this, you may use the mossy ruin exteriors (see blackmarsh-architecture-ruins). Later, you might be able to use the a rootworm tunnel once the exteriors have been completed but only in the easternmost parts of your claim. Ask about this.

About 3-4 dungeon exteriors is normal for a claim of this size. As this claim borders on Tamriel, please also feel free to use vanilla forts or caves.

All such dungeons can be decorated with appropriate clutter or you can leave this to the dungeon modder themselves. Please note that it should be your responsibility to post up dungeon claims once the landscape claim has been submitted. Please see the core about acquiring a claims template (that which is normally written in these threads) when you wish to do so.

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Important Notice and Technical Information

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Please notify on this thread the rough proportions of the extra models that you add so that it is easier for the next person who takes a landscape claim to work with you and maintain a degree of uniformity to the landscape. For example, tell us roughly how many of Koniption's striped bromeliads you are using per cell.

For extra help, please take a look at sandor's excellent claims descriptions on the ST site here: SHRAC05 "Steadhelm Region Area Claim" [Claimed] , particularly in the 'Technical Info' section.

Above all, make if fun for the player and have fun with the claim yourself!

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I started work along the Northern fringes of this claim. It will involve including one more Fort and one cave. :check:

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Screenshots of the latest progress. Bear in mind that flora still needs to be added to this region later. And I need to alter the texture in #7 because of the grass poking through the water stream. The cave needs a bit of cluttering as well.

[Senten]

I wanna see swamps! Please change the water..

[Ibsen's Ghost]

On its way...eventually...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

From this thread: Black Marsh Lore , here is a possible idea for Castle Giovesse as seen in the CS. You'll notice that this is the back of the Gideon Castle and it uses the old, unused meshes from Bethesda. The mania bridge merges nicely with the textures but the castle itself might not work as it is. It could be retextured if needs be but the idea is that this is an adjacent building to the Castle with two connecting bridges and featuring a large prison system giving way to a Fort Ruin. The prison itself might well be disused and in serious disrepair. Steps and iron railings would lead to the entrance but we're talking about having a living space and prison that acts as a dungeon here...watch out, there might be spiders!

What do people think of this idea?

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I created a version of Castle Giovesse similar to this which has been merged into the main esm but tonight I finished off this claim by merging the Northern Parchlands with Southern Blackwood. This means that Blackwood is now totally complete (barring a bit of flora distribution) and I can now move on to the Everglades.

When I submit my current esp you will notice that there are a total of around 1300 hand-placed Baobab trees covering the whole of Blackwood from Tenmar Wall on the fringes of the Jungle to Stonewastes that lies between Blackwood, the Parchlands and the Everglades.

[Koniption]

Cool!

KP