Soluthis' Farmland Region [Finished]

[Razorwing]

I lost my internet connection around May 14th and didn't get it back until after the weekend - and then it didn't do me much good because my classes were in "crunchtime". But now I've tied up most loose ends and can coast for the rest of the week, and after that it's even smoother sailing for the duration of the summer. I'll take one summer class and space that out with some paternity leave. Anyway, onto the business at hand.

Great to see this region claimed

There's two kinds of Farmland region in Soluthis, so to speak. The focus of this claim is one kind, and the other kind will eventually be generated by sandor. Hopefully the future Farmland region will see some modifications to it, but if it remains as generated wilderness that's ok too. (It's not like there are signs declaring the area as farmland hehe, it's just a descriptive name used between us modders.) So nope, you won't need to do any region generation to complete this job. It will still be quite a bit of work to complete it though because no matter how good a region is generated it will still feel generated, and manual modifications are needed to make it look and feel interesting.

The staple crops ash yam, comberry, corkbulb, hackle-lo, scrib cabbage and roweed (and potentially saltrice) are the ones I figured wouldn't feel illogical to be farmed in northern Morrowind. I kinda like the idea that there's an overall theme of ruggidness to the area around Soluthis. It's not a blatantly obvious theme of being far north, and I think it would have been hard to make it obvious without making it feel like you were in Skyrim instead of Morrowind. Or at least, make you feel like you weren't in Morrowind. So I figured it was a better choice to rely on traditional TES3 crops than create or use non-traditional ones to play into that theme. I hope they're enough to provide the variety you'd need but if you find the selection restrictive then it's ok if you use stock Oblivion crops as well. (Preferrably ones that would be logical in a temperate climate i.e. tomatoes, blackberries, potatoes etc).

Regarding the roads, please use the brownish cobblestone for main roads between towns & villages and the road dirt texture for sideroads to farms, dungeons, tombs and other locations.

I think all houses should have windows, which provide both logic and visual detail.

The talon is an old model I created back in the pre-work era and included on a whim once. It looks kinda bad so it's best not to use it. The barrier thorn is meant for military/security purposes.

The chimney is an exterior model that for logical reasons can be placed on houses that lack an integrated chimney, but who's modded interior has a standalone hearth.

I agree with TID that the round- and oval homes would be best for farms. The manor building is good too but only if it's a really big farm on the scale of Morrowind's Dren Plantation.

If I recall correctly StDoorRedMAINloaddoor is used on all house models except the guardtower. The one with rounded top is used in the tileset, and also to separate worldspaces in Soluthis. The hatch door is typically only used on guardtowers, but it can certainly be used generally if wanted.

If you have a small patch of areable land I think you should fence it off with gardenwalls. If it's a medium-sized patch you should use farm fences. If it's a large patch then I think the mediumwalls would be the most suitable. Beyond that you can use pathspears and mediumwalls for any purpose you like.

[Zurke]

Thanks Razorwing. The area 'staples' will be fine, I just asked because on a "really big" farm, which might be a possibility, it would be nice to have a little leeway and not see alot of repetition.

When I send you esps to look at and approve they will be marked as StZkSolFarmland####Ext.v1.1, with the number being the coordinates. eg. 0932 being -9 32.

All item creation within the esp will be marked as StZkSolFarmland0932ITEM with item being whatever it is(quest,script,npc,container etc.)

I just got your pm. If I have any more question I will post them here(TID and Sandor have help alot) or I will pm you. I have already started on a farm to be approved it will be the first so I expect alot of possible changes, but that is what it is for I guess. It should be ready tonight.

[Razorwing]

True, but I rarely shy away from an opportunity to model something new so if you want I'm sure I can make a new crop or two that would be unique for your big farm jobs

I don't have any opinion on the esp filename nor the way you choose to organise your StZk Construction Set entries, but I can see the advantage of organizing the entries like you said.

[Zurke]

Originally posted by Razorwing
True, but I rarely shy away from an opportunity to model something new so if you want I'm sure I can make a new crop or two that would be unique for your big farm jobs

I don't have any opinion on the esp filename nor the way you choose to organise your StZk Construction Set entries, but I can see the advantage of organizing the entries like you said.

Well I am not sure what other food would be prevelent but I may go into tes3 later.

I can thank Sandor for my organization. It really is a plus in finding things.

[TheImperialDragon]

Originally posted by Zurke
Also when I am comfortable with how these 'farms" are gong to be modded it is my understanding that I will mod a farm or area with a farm as an esp and submit it. In the end there could be 83 esps submitted depending on the amount of farms(the 83 comes from the 83 existing cells in the farming region). Does this sound like a plan?

Would it not be easier to go in steps? Like landscaping the whole area first, then about five interiors, then another five, and so on? What I mean is, I would lay the farms out on the exterior landscape, submit the ESP, then work on the interiors after that. 83 ESPs is a lot of extra work because you would need to be careful that none of them affected another's area until after they've been merged. That would mean a lot of ESM updates, and those do take time.

[Zurke]

Originally posted by TheImperialDragon
Would it not be easier to go in steps? Like landscaping the whole area first, then about five interiors, then another five, and so on? What I mean is, I would lay the farms out on the exterior landscape, submit the ESP, then work on the interiors after that. 83 ESPs is a lot of extra work because you would need to be careful that none of them affected another's area until after they've been merged. That would mean a lot of ESM updates, and those do take time.

I was speaking strickly of the exterior. Modding the interiors as you said is another project all together.
So you are saying mod the whole exterior in one esp?

[TheImperialDragon]

Originally posted by Zurke
So you are saying mod the whole exterior in one esp?

That would be easier. If you modded 83 exteriors in 83 separate ESPs, being very careful not to go anywhere near the border of any other cells so you could resume work in another ESP... It could get very complicated and very messy. I would expect a number of technical problems. You'll have much more freedom if you mod all of the landscape in one ESP, or a few smaller ESPs for the whole region over time (waiting for them to be merged each time). Imagine the loading times too. :pop:

I'll quickly explain my reasoning for naming the cells StZkSoluthisFarmland before going to bed. Right now, it is very easy to tell which cells belong to Soluthis city, because all start with Soluthis. Script and dialogue conditions can look for the Soluthis at the beginning of cell names to tell whether or not an object or a character is in the city. Once you start naming cells Soluthis outside the city, it gets a bit harder to tell if something is inside the city because it'll also consider the newly named a part of the city.

Having said that, it might actually be useful to have a naming system so that we'll be able to tell if something is in any of the regions around Soluthis. Maybe SolRegionFarmland would be a good name (then we can use SolRegion to name other regions around Soluthis, like SolRegionGrassland for the Grassland region). I'll give it some thought.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by TheImperialDragon
Having said that, it might actually be useful to have a naming system so that we'll be able to tell if something is in any of the regions around Soluthis. Maybe SolRegionFarmland would be a good name (then we can use SolRegion to name other regions around Soluthis, like SolRegionGrassland for the Grassland region). I'll give it some thought.

That's a good idea - although for practical reasons it might be a good idea to abbreviate it, like SolRgGrl for Soluthis' Grassland?

[Zurke]

Originally posted by TheImperialDragon

That would be easier. If you modded 83 exteriors in 83 separate ESPs, being very careful not to go anywhere near the border of any other cells so you could resume work in another ESP... It could get very complicated and very messy. I would expect a number of technical problems. You'll have much more freedom if you mod all of the landscape in one ESP, or a few smaller ESPs for the whole region over time (waiting for them to be merged each time). Imagine the loading times too. :pop:

I'll quickly explain my reasoning for naming the cells StZkSoluthisFarmland before going to bed. Right now, it is very easy to tell which cells belong to Soluthis city, because all start with Soluthis. Script and dialogue conditions can look for the Soluthis at the beginning of cell names to tell whether or not an object or a character is in the city. Once you start naming cells Soluthis outside the city, it gets a bit harder to tell if something is inside the city because it'll also consider the newly named a part of the city.

Having said that, it might actually be useful to have a naming system so that we'll be able to tell if something is in any of the regions around Soluthis. Maybe SolRegionFarmland would be a good name (then we can use SolRegion to name other regions around Soluthis, like SolRegionGrassland for the Grassland region). I'll give it some thought.

TID doing it in 1 esp sounds great. Easier for me also. I have started using a naming system but I can change it if I don't get too far.

I am posting the esp, it is only one farm. I just want a general idea of what Razorwing and you if you so choose to look at it, think of the model. They will differ greatly from one farm to another in terms of layout but the general items are there. I am very open to ideas and am really just going on what the veteran modders are saying. The area is -9 32 as the esp suggests.

Also:

I am working on a script for the torches to turn on and off.

I wanted to place Guars in the area but the NPC attacks them. How could I place them safely?

Is it possible to have a pen or stable? Which ones would I use?

[TheImperialDragon]

Originally posted by Razorwing
That's a good idea - although for practical reasons it might be a good idea to abbreviate it, like SolRgGrl for Soluthis' Grassland?

Maybe, though I don't think RgGrl is necessarily very obvious for someone just looking at the cells. hrug: But it doesn't *need* to be. My main point is to make sure the game doesn't get confused between the city and the region, and either naming system will work just fine. I would prefer the other. Maybe SolRegGrass?

Zurke: Thanks. I'm a bit (well... maybe more than a bit at this point) too tired to look at it right now, but I'll try to give feedback sometime soon.