Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

[blockquote]"The Slums" is the general term for the poor area in Soluthis' southwest corner. The folks are somewhat reclusive, and tend a large communal saltrice plantation which provides the bulk of their diet. The city grew and prospered over time, but the slums remained the same as the stubborn farmers didn't give a damn about Areya's pleas regarding property value. Their reasoning seems to be that, "So what if it's a prime spot adjacent to the Skyrim road city exit when one's forefathers have lived, loved and died for countless centuries on the same soil?" Areya gave up trying to convince the farmers to sell their homes some twenty years ago and just erected a wall around them, keeping the eyesore from merchants travelling the busy road.[/blockquote]

Location: MAP #13
House type: Round Home
Claim size: Small
Neighbourhood: The Slums

Status: Claimed and mostly finished by IAMTHEEMPEROR, finished in part by sandor and Razorwing.

There is a starter cell for this location, so load up Oblivion.esm + Silgrad_Tower.esm and open the cell Soluthis1306, and then you can get started. The owner(s) of this building are Dunmer belonging to Great House Redoran. Please use the name generator to come up with good male/female names. Don't use any Imperial stuff in this location, whether from TES4 or from our mod, apart from clothes and weapons. You can modify the layout if you like, but don't sprawl it too far. This is for suspension of disbelief only, as some players might wonder if he wasn't going under someone else's house. If you need more space just add another vertical story under the existing basement.

Please set up AI behaviour for the NPC(s) in your claim at your discretion, but do make sure they wander around outside for a part of the day so the neighbourhood feels alive. Note that the exterior is situated in SoluthisWorld03, not in SilgradTowerLand. Try to use existing xmarkers when possible to avoid clutter but don't let them limit you if they don't work for your needs.

[title]Information.[/title]
Extended information on modding in general can be found in sandor's excellent thread Technical Info concerning Interiors, and naturally the articles on the CS wiki are always worth reading. But don't forget to run forum searches here as well, because often you'll find the answer here instead of the wiki. If you don't find the answer, feel free to post the question here in your claims thread But beyond that it's worth remembering that trial-and-error is an integral part of modding and it's only natural that you have to playtest your work to see if what you did worked or not.

I'd like to claim this one, if I may. Finally sorted out the problem with my copy of the CS, thankfully (Ebddin.esm does not agree with the change to Silgrad Tower.esm, it seems). So until Ebeddin gets fixed, I've got nothing on my plate.

Great :goodjob:

Sorry to hear about the problems with Ebbedin though. But I'm a bit confused. All the assets needed to mod a house in Ebbedin is in the latest release? So, if I'm not misunderstanding something, you could mod that house to completion and then it would just be a matter of setting up the door teleportation once the new exterior for the village is set up.

*Shrug* I was given to understand that all Ebeddin mods were required to be dependant on Oblivion.esm, Ebeddin.esm, and Reich Parkeep.esm. The recent name-change to Silgrad Tower apparently screwed things up for Ebeddin. Not entirely sure, really. All I know is I couldn't mod with Ebeddin installed, and now I can.

Anyhoo, what limitations and requirements do I have for modding this? Given the background and general tips, I presume I'm meant to make a house with at least one occupant, who has an AI package including the ability to go work on the communal saltrice plantation. Is there anything else?

I understand the confusion. Before Silgrad_Tower.esm was released our mod was made up of several settlements totally isolated from one another, so one used Reich_Parkeep.esm (because it had the assets) and Ebbedin.esm (because it had the village exterior). Silgrad_Tower.esm replaces both of them, but we haven't moved/recreated the Ebbedin exterior yet.

If IAMTHEEMPEROR said that the Ebbedin claims are on hold then they are, but it's theoretically possible to mod the actual location with Silgrad_Tower.esm even though Ebbedin itself doesn't exist yet (but will soon). But in either case; yes you're right on the money. It would be perfect if you were able to make the homeowner go outside on one day of the week and use an 'animation item' on the saltrice plantation. The 'animation item' could be a rake or a scythe. A scythe would be best, although I should say *cough* I don't know for certain which objects can be used in character animations. To play into the impression that it's a communal plantation I figured it'd be cool if the homeowners rotated their shifts, so a different NPC would work outside every day of the week. Preferrably they shouldn't all be harvesting, because that'd be kinda weird. An NPC could rake the general area instead, for instance. (just throwing out ideas)

The only other direction I can think of is to keep the impression of poverty when possible.

Quote:Originally posted by Tal
*Shrug* I was given to understand that all Ebeddin mods were required to be dependant on Oblivion.esm, Ebeddin.esm, and Reich Parkeep.esm. The recent name-change to Silgrad Tower apparently screwed things up for Ebeddin. Not entirely sure, really. All I know is I couldn't mod with Ebeddin installed, and now I can.

Right, I'll fix the posts for that. All of Silgrad Tower's claims are now to be dependant on Oblivion.esm and Silgrad_Tower.esm, since the name change.

just a suggestion...
I think it would be cool if the slum's buildings had a retex that made them look very muddy and dirty and worn... and cracked plaster and all that.... and maybe have weeds growing around and on the huts?

Okie dokie, current progress: the interior's mostly finished, still working on some minor details which I'd rather work out before posting screenshots or an ESP.
It's inhabited by Aldaves Sarano, a Dunmer widower in his later years. After losing his wife Tanvala to an attack by highwaymen while on a journey twenty years ago, Aldaves retreated into himself, emerging from his house only to work on the communal farm. The remainder of his time he spends within his home, praying to a small statue of the Tribunal (currently uses a scaled Altar of the Nine as a placeholder) he keeps in prominent position opposite the entrance, or staring blankly at his most prized possession: a portrait of his lost wife.

Possible quest idea I thought up in a free moment at work:
- Another inhabitant of the Slums asks you to destroy the painting of Tanvala, claiming that her spirit is trapped within it. In fact, the quest-giver loved Tanvala, and was heart-broken after she chose Aldaves over him. When she was killed, he blamed Aldaves for her death, and now wants to take revenge.

Sounds interesting, I'm sure he'll be a rememberable character!

Feel free to post a description or (even better) drawing of how you'd like the statue of the Tribunal to look and I can have a go at making it, if you like =)

Yes, please go right ahead and mod that quest :goodjob:

Hadn't really thought of anything in particular, though the three-sided shrines from Morrowind with the handmark of the Tribunal on the front would probably work quite well, no? *shunts the quest over to the dev forum for further development*