Newbie questions

[annatar2]

Hi everybody. I'm brand new here and not sure where this post should go, but I hope this is the right place for it.

I quite recently stumbled over this site while googling for Oblivion questions that I found the answer to in some of your FAQ's. I had no idea that there was a mod group called Silgrad Tower, and have been reading around on the site. I must confess I'm a bit confused though, because this site has obviously been around for several years, so the kind of very, very basic info that I've been searching for is probably very well hidden far down in some old, long forgotten threads where I can't find it.

I will probably seem very stupid to you guys who's been here and working on these mods for years, but please, bear with me. I don't mean to say anything wrong. My questions are:

1) What exactly IS the Silgrad Tower mod? Is it a WORLD with cities etc., intended as a basic place for people to create quest mods - or is it also a STORY or a QUEST (or a series of quests) in itself... like the Shivering Isles or The Knights of the Nine expansions?

2) Is the Silgrad Tower a mod created for the Oblivion game or for the Morrowind game - or for both? I keep seeing both Morrowind and Oblivion being mentioned everywhere, so this is very confusing. Especially on the download page.

3) Is Silgrad Tower a mod/story that is FINISHED and ready for download and play? Or is it still in development? Is it MORE than one mod? I mean - is it a SERIES of different mods/quests based in the same universe, independent on each other, so you choose which ones you want to download?

4) If I want to play the Silgrad Tower, WHICH of the downloads would I need? There is a whole lot of them on the page, some marked Oblivion, some marked Morrowind, and I have no idea what to get and what not to get in order to play the complete mod/story. (If it IS complete...)
(I have both games, but would prefer to use Oblivion if there is a choice?)

(Edit: Spelling errors)

[Seniosh]

Weeeeeeeeell there's a lot to answer, so i'll try to answer everything in manageable, bite-sized pieces.

Question #1:
Well, i was going to try to find a link to a page on the website which would more adequately describe it, but you're right, and i can't find a page which does so... Well here goes my description.

Silgrad Tower is a mod which adds an entire new worldspace to Oblivion. Think of it as an entire other province for you to explore. Lore-wise, Silgrad Tower takes place on a section of the mainland of Morrowind. The bulk of the population is concentrated in three cities, Silgrad Tower itself, Soluthis/Reich Parkeep (it's one city with two areas), and Steadhelm.

It's not just a story, and not just a quest, though we hope to have a Mainquest, as well as guilds, sidequests, ect. Basically, it's an entirely new world for the player to explore, with it's own cities, towns, guilds, dungeons, landscapes, ect.

Question #2:
Long story short, it's being created for BOTH. The original Silgrad Tower mod was for Morrowind, and it is still under development under the leadership of Bob. The more active part of the site is devoted to developing Silgrad Tower for Oblivion.

Question #3:
Well, for Morrowind, the mod is mostly finished, and has a good deal to do. For Oblivion? Not quite. The latest released version is 2.5, which is basically a giant teaser for the cities. Most of the work is behind the scenes, where we're doing landscape generation and stuff.

To answer your other question, it's a giant ESM. You can't really pick and choose different parts of a world, it's all too inter-dependent. It's one mod, and it's in development. you'll see more if you hang out on the forums for a while.

Question #4:
If you want to download Silgrad Tower v2.5 for oblivion, then the first download link will be the one. Be aware that the 2.5 release is basically 2 half-done cities, and a ton of un-generated terrain. v3 is coming sometime this year, and will have 2 nearly complete cities, the beginnings of several guilds, some quests, completely generated landscape, ect.

You could also go to the bottom and download the basically complete mod for TES3

Alright, that's everything. I only hope someone hasn't already posted while i was taking 10 minutes posting, that would just look stupid

Ask away if you've any more questions (we really need to get a PR person to have a look at the website :eek: sorry it's so hard to find basic stuff)
[edit] YES! nobody posted while i was typing, success!

[annatar2]

Thanks a lot for the explanations to all my questions!

It seems to me that the Silgrad Tower will eventually become almost like an extension in itself - given the size of it. A truly huge and brave endeavor! Seems like you're getting a lot of people working on it too.

Personally I can't mod, so I'm afraid I can't help out - but I greatly enjoy playing the mods of others. I'll stick around to see what happens, although mostly lurking. If the recent versions of Silgrad Tower are still mostly landscape and exterior/interior without much actually going on yet, I may wait until there are some quests in place before playing it.

Although I can't use the toolset or make mods, I do write quite a lot - so perhaps I might be able to write some stories, if you need quests or other things, like a companion or a romanceable person with dialogues and maybe a few quests on her/his own. I wouldn't know how to script it though... only write it.

[SACarrow]

Hi there,

I'm Steve The Voice Guy. This is almost always a shot in the dark, but have you ever done any voice acting?

Thanks,
TVG

[annatar2]

Uhm no, I've never done voice acting. I don't know if I would be much help anyway, since I'm Scandinavian and would speak English with an accent. But of course, if you should ever need a female NPC with a Scandinavian accent....

By the way, regarding the lack of very basic info on your website: How about creating a Basic Facts FAQ with all the basic info that has eventually gotten lost as your website has expanded in age and size?

[TheImperialDragon]

Welcome to the forums, annatar2!

:wave:

Do you think a website update would help? What kind of questions do you think would need to be answered? There is a bit of info here, but really with a mod this size, you can never include everything or have all the information anyone would ever hope to find in a small paragraph like that.

There is a section in the V2.5 release post that explains perhaps in more detail what the mod strives to accomplish.

-=WHAT IS SILGRAD TOWER ?=-


Silgrad Tower creates a region of the Morrowind Province's mainland, which you can reach in this version by following the roadsigns starting at Cheydinhal's eastern gate. The region is situated in its own worldspace, which spans 36 quads (or 34596 cells), effectively making it nine times the size of Cyrodiil. Two major cities are situated on the landmass; the twin cities of Reich Parkeep/Soluthis and the Imperial charter town Steadhelm. A third city, our capital named Silgrad Tower, is in the wings but not fully placed as of yet.

The region is theoretically located on the opposite side of Vvardenfell's western coast, stretching in latitude as far north as Ald'Ruhn and as far south as Hla Oad. To get a better sense of where our region is situated you might want to take a look at Bethesda's old concept map for Morrowind ( http://www.silgrad.com/oblivion/images/map...Concept_Map.jpg ); notice the two cities 'Soluthis' and 'Silgrad Tower' in the northwest? Our mod takes place roughly between those two cities (while at the same time adding in new cities and settlements). The layout of Morrowind changed quite a bit between that concept map and the real game, and our landmass follows the latest official map more closely.

Soluthis lies in the forested hills to the north, and is the district seat of House Redoran. When the Empire took control of Morrowind some four hundred years ago they began constructing fortifications in the city on two hills, which have now grown to become a small town called Reich Parkeep. The Hlaalu metropolis Silgrad Tower, currently not available, is situated in the fertile, pleasant south. It's said to be the second largest city in Morrowind, rivalled only by the capital Almalexia and is a natural center for trade and commerce. Steadhelm is an Imperial charter town on the coast of the Inner Sea, bordered by mountains to the north and a huge swamp to the south. Several smaller Dunmer villages and Imperial settlements can also be found in the region, as can numerous farms.

Our goal is also to have plenty of adventure beyond the comfort of the city walls. Huge burial tombs lie forgotten in the wilderness, mountain strongholds shelter warlords, renegade Daedra worshippers carry out their sinister rituals in remote shrines, highwaymen rob travellers of loot and life alike - and war drums sound from the west, as barbarians from Skyrim prepare to drive Redoran into the sea.

Some of you may be thinking, "Morrowind? Vvardenfell? Is this a TES3 mod, or... what?" And the answer is no, it's not a TES3 mod, it's an Oblivion mod - but we've painstakingly modelled pretty much everything you'll see in our mod from scratch to make you think you're in Morrowind again. Our teammembers have come together with one thing in common above all else - a shared love for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and we want to see the spirit of Morrowind, and the spirit of the lands our team modded for TES3, live on through the new game.

As for helping, there's plenty to do. I'm sure if you looked around you'd find something that interests you. We might even be able to convince you to try modding (though be warned, it's enjoyable and addictive).

Right now, my own main focus is getting more of our regions decorated for the next release. It's probably not as much work as one might expect (especially with tools like the region generator) but it does take a bit of time. It'll be worth it 99999% though.

[Seniosh]

Wow, that description is much much better than the one on the front page. We should probably put that description on the first page of our website, so that others just like Annatar2 can see what's going on.

Should probably be the first thing anybody sees when they go onto the website come to think of it...

And i'm sure you could learn to mod Annatar2, just a matter of time

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Originally posted by annatar2
....if you should ever need a female NPC with a Scandinavian accent....

Correct me if I'm wrong, SACarrow, but isn't that perfect for a female Nord character? I wonder if we can ply her with drinks or something... =)

[SACarrow]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Correct me if I'm wrong, SACarrow, but isn't that perfect for a female Nord character? I wonder if we can ply her with drinks or something... =)

For now, IG, you remain uncorrected. She has offered to provide samples in August upon her return home. But a horn of mead never hurts.

Steve

[blackbird]

Originally posted by annatar2

Personally I can't mod, so I'm afraid I can't help out - but I greatly enjoy playing the mods of others. I'll stick around to see what happens, although mostly lurking. If the recent versions of Silgrad Tower are still mostly landscape and exterior/interior without much actually going on yet, I may wait until there are some quests in place before playing it.

Although I can't use the toolset or make mods, I do write quite a lot - so perhaps I might be able to write some stories, if you need quests or other things, like a companion or a romanceable person with dialogues and maybe a few quests on her/his own. I wouldn't know how to script it though... only write it.

You can always learn that. There are enough tutorials on this forum (see the faq section) or the CS wiki.