Blackwood

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Official 'Black Marsh' Claim for Region Claim: Blackwood

This is a trial claim template to be used by the Core team as a model for future claims.

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Blackwood
Claims Status: Claimed by sandor (and Ibsen's Ghost)

[title]General Information on Blackwood[/title]

The most memorable feature of Blackwood is the storyline that connects the Black Marshes with Cyrodiil, the 'Blackwood Company'. The region of Blackwood stretches beyond the borders of both Cyrodiil and the Black Marsh and is typified by very lush, green (and rather wet) lands.

Much of this area sees a lot of rainfall and, unusually for the Black Marsh, it is possibly one of the hilliest areas in the country besides the Northern jungles and occasional ranges of small hill regions elsewhere.

As it is a borderland that remains famous to those of Imperial origins, there is likely to be a lot of traffic between this borderland. Tribes and peoples of both countries are likely to be found, including the more rugged types that are likely to have been the dominant source of the Blackwood Co's recruits.

At the time in which the mod is set, this area will probably be swarming with a rich variety of peoples coming and going besides providing an introduction to different flora and fauna exclusive to Argonia.

The region is situated southeast of Leyawiin (vanilla Oblivion) and to the mid-west of the Black Marsh. Please check this early regional map for more detailed info.

[title]Info for region modders[/title]

Please check this space for any important future modding information that will help us to organise and plan the claim that may be added.

In the meantime, check out this tutorial: Oblivion Region Editing Tutorial and this post should assist with height mapping and landscaping: Height map creation and landscaping tutorial. .

Discussions on what to include in a region claim take place on this board: Claims Forums .

Once familiar with Region Editing in general then please refer to the procedural guidelines posted up here: Region Generation Procedures .

[title]How to Start - Generation Preset[/title]

* Choose a set of landscape textures for the region and use/generate them on the alotted land as appropriate. You can use landscape textures from the main game if you like, that wouldn't be a problem, but custom textures are better - not only because they'll give variety compared to the main game, but also because it gives such excellent control over them afterwards. If a better replacement for a particular texture appears six months down the line all one would have to do would be to switch files, without any need to mess up your work.

* Detail the landscape with the following assets:
[indent][/indent]- White Pine trees (From the Tree list)
[indent][/indent]- Great Forest Moss rocks (from the Static>Rocks list)

Note that these are basic presets. Other trees that might appear include the following: SnowGum Trees (good for swamps), Deodar Trees, Black Locust Trees & Cypress Trees (also good for swamps - can prosper in water) (From the Tree list) You can also add 'knees' (treestumps) from the stock Oblivion assets if you like (Static>Landscape)

You may wish to add shrubs such as: Boxwood, EuonymusSU, DaphneSU (Also from the Tree list).

The regions surrounding the Black Marsh contain the following rock sets so these are advisable models to work with: RockGreatForest###Moss (where ### = 045, 050, 085, 105, 150, 255, 390, 560, 970) & RockGreatForest2080GMMoss. (from the Static>Rocks list)

Common Blackwood flora includes: Clouded Funnel Cap, Pitcher Plant, Somnalius Plant & Foxglove. (From the Flora list)

Bear in mind that I have a list of the Editor IDs for each of these items, should you need them.

Please request the addition or deletion of items such as this as you see fit.

[title]Roads[/title]

Add roads as you see fit. An official 'border entry' may be included, depending on what decisions are made regarding any eventual merging with the vanilla Oblivion map. However, it would make sense to establish a road in this region that perhaps follows or crosses the Panther River and ultimately reaches Helstrom. In the case of the latter option, you can, if you wish, work on the Panther River beyond the claim to create a bridge but please bear in mind the heightmap and that some things may change beyond the realms of your claim.

Try to keep the road a relatively safe place to travel, apart from the occasional hostile tribesman or swamp creature. And feel free to add some sort of hindrance to keep monsters inside the forest. It might help to set up a Royal Argonian or two to patrol the road in order to make it safe for noob PCs.

Be sure to mod the road within the boundaries of the BW claim.
See the following link for a cell map guide:
http://files.filefront.com/BM+Mapsv3ppt/...einfo.html .

[title]Reference[/title]

Please check any reference to 'Blackwood', including in the game itself, for inspiration. It might also help to take a look at what other modders have done with this region. Although the Panther River is not included in this claim, you might want to work on it afterwards. In which case, this mod is an excellent guide: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20332 .

The region's boundaries are as follows can be found using the cell map guide (the same link as above): http://files.filefront.com/BM+Mapsv3ppt/...einfo.html .

Relevant links to discussions and expected content will go here, particularly for the towns/cities of Rockguard, Gideon and, possibly, Sloughpoint.

[Deeza]

Just thought I'd mention, Storm Forest has I think a very similar climate to Blackwood, since its located right next to it, but you'd have to check along the corresponding border area to make sure.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Added some height mapping and landscaping advice to this template as notified by sandor at ST.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Added a much more detailed cell grid map to assist with Region Generation - see the link above.

[Deeza]

That looks great! I can't really see how you improve on that - now we just need to decide on the region presets...