Claims Map Drafts

[Razorwing]

I thought I'd make drafts for Oblivion claims maps, which may be of some use to the region steward(s) for Silgrad Region when setting up the exterior. The Silgrad Region will undoubtedly be the most work-intensive project, so a bit of pre-work can't hurt I think.

I think it would be a good idea to divide up the town into districts (which it already is, to some extent). The districts would be tightly built just like before and the buildings be arranged to preserve as much of the layout as is possible and wanted. However, spacers would be put inbetween the districts; areas which in various ways doesn't demand much of the game engine. Spacers can be anything you imagine, but examples are lakes, parks, patches of forest, and open plazas. The advantage is two-fold; we get the benefit of building very detailed districts with all the frills and whistles the game gives us, while the spacers ensure it doesn't hurt the framerate. Plus, parks and ponds are very pretty to look at and gives serenity in the midst of the bustling megacity I hope to see built.

I don't plan to go into depth with regard to the spacers, preferring to leave them blank on the claims maps so modders have free hands to unleash their creativity. If you want to throw ideas out on spacers you'd like to see or perhaps even mod yourself, that'd be good. A box of ideas to pull from in the near future.

The symbol on Fraenyth Plaza no14 is just to note that it's supposed to be a guard tower. The gray field is an outline of the city walls.


[1st]F[/1st]raenyth Plaza consists of 22 buildings. The district is recognized for it's many upper-scale and specialty merchants, and is a popular venue for tourists coming off the boats that moor on Riverside to the northeast. The prime land value effectively blocks out most non-commercial buildings, although some merchants have residencial areas on the upper floors of their shops.

Among the more famous locations one can find in Fraenyth Plaza are Eru Onaye's Fine Weapons, where exquisite and unique weapons are crafted by the skilled Nord who runs the shop. Apart from bringing with us Eru's existing collection I think it would be a great idea to scale up the shop to include more wondrous community swords that don't have broad modding use, but can exist as uniques in that shop alone.

House of Wisdom is situated at the heart of Fraenyth Plaza, and its imposing structure can be seen from far, far away. The location is Silgrad's version of the ancient Library of Alexandria; the place where we store copies of all books we write that are meant to exist in duplicates. To that end we would need a structure that can be tiled upwards as needed to hold an ever-growing collection of books. It's not a book shop.

The Plaza is also home to Silgrad's Guild of Mages. As the Guild is one of the base factions that come with Oblivion, this is where our Mages Guild quests would start.

Apart from those three buildings I would like to suggest that we don't necessarily restrict ourselves to the content of the existing mod. There's a core vote regarding misc buildings to the effect of: you want it back? you make it. :]

[1st]d[/1st]wendawyr Plaza and "Quevavir Road". I made up the last one as it's currently called Tower Road, but as the tower won't be northwest of town but right smack in the center of it, I figured the name needed to be changed.

As a district, Dwendawyr Plaza doesn't have any really distinguishing traits to set it apart from other districts.

[1st]U[/1st]pper Chambers is the most luxurious of the city districts, where the wealthy and influential have residences, notably most of the representatives on the Council of Elders. Half the residences are spread along a circle around the pond, while the rest swing around Ashunor's fountain head to the east. Would be lovely if there was a bridge between 10 and 11, to connect the fountain head with the main river while allowing pedestrians across. Number 7 is Bseije's Bakery, our much-fabled candy shop with all sorts of sugery delicacies (In Silgrad Tower: Morrowind, mostly cookies I believe).

[Cenobite]

House of Wisdom is situated at the heart of Fraenyth Plaza, and its imposing structure can be seen from far, far away. The location is Silgrad's version of the ancient Library of Alexandria; the place where we store copies of all books we write that are meant to exist in duplicates. To that end we would need a structure that can be tiled upwards as needed to hold an ever-growing collection of books. It's not a book shop.

I propose that the House of Wisdom include a copyist's service. The ground floor could be devoted to many tables of scribes, who do nothing but copy manuscripts all day. This gives the library a good source of income. It also guarantees book exchange. Another library may have a rare copy of a book, and if they loaned it to the House of Wiisdom (or anybody else), they would certainly want the original book back. By making a copy for themselves, the House of Wisdom STILL gets to add the book to their collection.

[Quentin Fortune]

Wow, that's an excellent idea and one we should definitely implement.

Good thinking, man :goodjob:

Greetings

Quentin

[Cenobite]

LOL

This is simply how every library in the Middle Ages operated...I cannot take credit for repeating obscure library history.

Oh yes, that reminds me: the scribes would also make money by reading documents to illiterate folk, and helping them write documents as well. The most senior and trusted scribes were often hired to handle sensitive correspondence, such as wartime communications between a king and his lord-commanders. In fact, we find the earliest examples of code writing in medieval manuscripts.

[Quentin Fortune]

Hehe, I'm quite aware of that, but I tried to hide my embarrassment that I didn't think of it earlier. And I want to make sure that the idea won't get lost in the process.

Greetings

Quentin

[Razorwing]

Cenobite: Your ideas sound really great, and I definetely think we should incorporate many of them into the House of Wisdom in Oblivion. If you compile a description of the location, including how it operates and what they do, and what sections the building has, then we could add that article to the "Location Pitches" on the website. Doing that is a good way to ensure the information you came up with won't get lost or forgotten.

The practical point of the building is to store a copy of most of the stuff that the team has written, and the nature of the building gives a logical loophole to add just about any book imagineable. If someone wants to write a novel about a pauper in High Rock, placing that logically in a Dunmer world would be, well, just plain silly. But with the House of Wisdom, the work will still be enjoyable by the player in that little bubble where lore has no reign. So, that's the practical side of the place, but with Quentin's permission I would say that anything else is up to your imagination and creativity to decide

[Evenios]

several "new" books would be nice too :-) i.e not included in the orginal game but nothing that "breaks" lore.

[Ben Vagara]

A few books or NPC dialog describing any significant changes to Silgrad would be a nice way to bridge the redesign... since the time between Morrowind/Tribunal/Bloodmoon until Oblivion is only a few years... not long enough for big changes to occur "naturally".

Ben

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Ben Vagara
A few books or NPC dialog describing any significant changes to Silgrad would be a nice way to bridge the redesign... since the time between Morrowind/Tribunal/Bloodmoon until Oblivion is only a few years... not long enough for big changes to occur "naturally".

Ben

It might, but perhaps we shouldn't restrict ourselves to explain all content in Silgrad Tower: Oblivion as successors to the content in Silgrad Tower: Morrowind? I wrote some material to bridge the gap in House Redoran, though if what I wrote will be used or not is an open question (mostly I just found it entertaining to write during that period). Personally I view the transition as taking our base concepts and rebuilding them, and so in my view we don't really need to explain what happens to individual NPCs which were there in Morrowind but aren't there now. Don't misunderstand me though, I'm not opposed to anyone doing that... it's that there are plenty of things I downright just don't care about, and jumping through hoops on those wouldn't be much fun for me personally. And I'm quite sure the same can be said for the stuff I created myself for the current mod; I don't expect anyone to care about it like I do. That's just natural. Having said that, feel free to embellish on your idea - perhaps you have an idea for a book you'd like to write? =)