Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

Size: 81 cells.

The Steadhelm Region Area Claim #08 (SHRAC08) is a large forest/swamp situated southeast of Steadhelm. It borders to the sea, other Steadhelm region claims and an ungenerated area to the south, so currently there is only blank canvas to the southern border.



I would like to thank Razorwing for creating the claims map and for the excellent Soluthis landscape claims template. I decided to use this landscape claims template as a basis for a more or less standardized landscape claims overview.

[title]The particulars[/title]
The area is lush with tall trees, rich plantlife, and a variety of fungus.
Plants and fungi that grow here include violet coprinus, luminous russula, bungler's bane, hypa facia, slough fern, and occasionally hackle-lo. There are only two farms in the higher Steadhelm areas because the rest of the land is too salty.

Do not add other types of trees/shrub, rocks, use the existing types (the only exception, you may add buckthorn to every cell when not already generated). The same applies to the existing rock types.

Use the existing landscape textures.
If you have another idea please send a PM.

You're welcome to move around or delete the generated content in your area if you wish, as well as changing the land heights. Make sure that your height changes don't affect other areas. Keep the facecount of an exterior cell between 125,000 and 150,000. Don't forget to add vertex shading underneath rocks/trees where needed, because it looks bizarre without it. Please also use vertex shading to break up the monotony of landscape textures, but naturally never as dark as you use underneath rocks. You can often use very light green and very light brown to create subtle shades on the ground that help break up the monotony without the player really realizing it.

If you notice floating rocks/trees/flora in your area, please fix them. Either by realigning them or by deleting and replacing them.

Don't mod outside the bounds of the area; no object you place should protrude beyond your cells, even if the object belongs to a cell within your area.

Please use leveled monster lists, so it's easer to change/adapt these later on. Don't forget to create pathgrids for the creatures to move about on. Do not add more than one M-marker per cell (to keep the FPS performance acceptable).

You could add a new weather profile for your claim, just send a PM and we'll discuss the details.


What to do with the swamp?

• Add more SilgradBlackGumBC trees.
  
• Create many small islands (look at the screenshot from TES3).
  
  
  
  A typical TES3 swampy area, click the image for a larger version
  
  
• Make it interesting for the player, add caves, creatures etc.
  

What to do with the forest/land?

The majority of the generated area is fine except for things mentioned in the following list.

• Add as many StFloraBiCoSloughFern as possible on locations where the player has a high chance to see these plants, for example along a road or a new location.
  
• Add StFloraBiCoBunglersBane/StFloraBiCoHyphaFacia01 to the trunks of trees on locations where the player has a high chance to see these fungi, for example along a road or a new location.
  
• Add one Hackle-lo to every tenth cell.
  
• Add one StFloraBiCoVioletCoprinus01 to every sixth cell.
  
• Create muckpools and add Draggle tail and Ampoule pods (they only grow in muckpools).
  
• If you want to reduce the total number of trees in a cell, please do so, don't forget to remove/change the vertex shading.
  
• Set up entrances (see below) for caves etc.
  

[title]Time for some adventure[/title]

You can find remnants of years gone by here and there - Velothi tombs, you'll definitely not find villages, farms or inns.

You're expected to set up entrances (caves etc.) to locations in your area. You're welcome to mod them too, but you don't have to - you can issue claims for them instead. Please do that in a new thread on the Dungeon claims board. On average there should be one location for at least every fifteen exterior cells. When you pick a cell which will contain an entrance to a location, please name the exterior cell SteadhelmRegionAreaClaim08### where ### is an claim number. (In the cell list window just left-click on your cell slowly two or three times and a cursor will start to blink, letting you choose a name for the cell.) You can pick an arbitrary claim number, like SteadhelmRegionAreaClaim08210, which will then be re-numbered/renamed when your area is slated for merging. The interior cell for that claim will be named SteadhelmRegionAreaClaim08210lvl1 and so on depending on how many cells it encompasses. Sticking to the template makes it very easy to playtest the location.

You have to use the Moldcave tileset to mod the caves.

You'll find a house for the ferry master in cell 54,0 (SteadhelmRegionFerryToLatrysSouth).


[title]Technical info[/title]

How to check the existing textures in an exterior cell and how to remove blocky (screenshot) textures?


Make sure you look north (select something and press "C" or "T").
Open the landscape editor (select the render window, press "H") and select a texture (CTRL and rigth-click on the texture). Press "I" and you'll see the textures for that cell.

The cell is devided into 4 quads (screenshot).


The bottom left one (#1) is the bottom left part of the cell.
The top left one (#3) is the top left part of the cell.
The bottom right one (#2) is the bottom right part of the cell.
The top right one (#4) is the top right part of the cell.


Right-click on the texture (in the texture overview) and delete or replace it. If you can't delete it, replace the texture. If you see a black texture, save the esp and reload the esp.

Extra info.


How to raise/lower the water level of a cell?

Select the cell where you want to create the muckpool, go to the cell view window and edit the cell (right-click) in question. Finally change the water level (height) to your liking.

If you want to see the cell grid lines, select the render window and press "B".


Where do I find the SilgradBlackGumBC trees?

You'll find these in the object window WorldObjects>>Tree>>SilgradBlackGum.


Where do I find the Velothi tileset?

You'll find these in the object window WorldObjects>>Static>>ST>>Velothi.
There are two sets: The Small and Sil (Sil == Static>>ST>>Velothi>>tileset) types.
The StExVelEntrance03 is reserved for the Silgrad area.


Where do I find the Moldcave tileset?

You'll find these in the object window WorldObjects>>Static>>ST>>Dungeons>>Moldcave.


[title]In closing[/title]

To claim this area, post a reply saying so. You don't have to wait for anyone to confirm your claim, you can get started right away. But bear in mind you should not have more than two of these area claims active at any one time. If you claim a third one before one of the other two are approved by our reviewer(s) it'll likely get "un-granted" after the fact.
You have to use the Silgrad_Tower.esm v2.95 or a higher version.

Last but not least have fun!

Hi sandor,

I've never done any modding like this before but if I wanted an introduction to something like this, could you recommend landscaping work? Personally, I think it would represent a quite relaxing pastime.

So I'd like to take this on on a provisional basis but because I am totally starting from scratch and don't really have a clue how to get started properly then I wouldn't expect quick progress or fabulous results....

Quote:Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Hi sandor,

I've never done any modding like this before but if I wanted an introduction to something like this, could you recommend landscaping work?

The huge advantage, everything has been generated so it's a matter of adding, replacing or deleting objects.

The CS Wiki has a nice introductory tutorial.

Take your time, for feedback post in this thread or send a PM.

That's great news considering my vast inexperience. I will be gradually learning and putting things together but it may take some time. Thanks for the advice and guidance.

In the meantime, one idea I had before could be usable here and that is to create a Star o' Death X(

That is to say that I use the trees to setup a bandit camp with small, carefully deployed archers holed up into little tree-houses surrounding a central bandit base camp. The idea is for the player to stray into these zones through the gaps in the star shape and then for them to be drawn into combat by the wandering sword-wielding bandits whilst being slowed down by knee-deep and/or uneven patches of water. Out of such a set-up it would be difficult to flee unless the player traces their steps back out the way they came and has an archer-companion to help take out the sentries.

This uses the large trees on offer but could be problematic in terms of creating the sentry tree-houses (which I'm hoping we could borrow from the 'Solace' mod or make for ourselves). Furthermore, a quest may be required although it is just as possible to use this as a well-known (by locals) hazard zone.

Any thoughts on that?

Baffled already ?( . I think this tutorial wiki is using a different version to me. I'm having to go back to doing the Cave tutorial first and I've got all the way to 'First Steps' where it's asking me to delete all of the objects inside a duplicated cell. The problem is that it looks nothing like the diagram and, although it mentions using the 'view' menu, I can't see anything that makes the whole thing look the same as it does in the pic.

At the moment, I'm trying to delete objects so I assumed it was a case of going to my 'object window', which in my case is the large one on the left with drop-down menu of actors, items, magic, miscellaneous and world objects. Well, I've been deleting all the miscellaneous items inside my duplicated cell whilst it gives me loads of messages about how this or that item is essential for such and such a whatever....uhh?

This is the page:- http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/ind...irst_Steps

Quote:Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
In the meantime, one idea I had before could be usable here and that is to create a Star o' Death X(

(which I'm hoping we could borrow from the 'Solace' mod or make for ourselves). Furthermore, a quest may be required although it is just as possible to use this as a well-known (by locals) hazard zone.

Any thoughts on that?

I like this idea.
Could you post a link for the "Solace" mod?

---

blue[/HR]
For the CS.

Which cell did you duplicate?
Just ignore the errors it's prob. related to quest items etc.

I duplicated FortStrand01 and deleting the content produced no errors.
The attached screenshots show the standard windows (object, cell view and render window).

One thing I'll bring up is that objects should not be deleted from the Object Window because that window contains the "base" objects. If you delete one of those, you delete every copy of that object in the plugin I believe.

As sandor showed, the best approach is to use the Cell View window and select the objects to be deleted. In this case, you'd be merely deleting the copies that exist in that cell. Be careful about casually selecting all the objects if you want to maintain the structure of the dungeon or interior, 'cause those pieces are objects too. For future reference, the Render window is the one with the picture.

HTH,
Steve

Hello again,

A revised version of 'Solace' was released here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13599 but this: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4581 was the original.

Yes, I duplicated FortStrand01 as stated in the tutorial. As you can see from the attached image, what you see bears no relation to what is shown in the screenshot in the tutorial at the point where I am deleting objects from the 'cell view'. In fact, due to the size of the 'Object Window' and its contents, you might assume that this was the place where you delete the objects.

Here's the tutorial again, btw: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/ind...irst_Steps

It's confusing me to figure out which window I should be using because what appears to be the cell view here doesn't even seem to have the same objects as shown.

You have to use the cell view window in order to delete the content.

Increase the size of the cell view window by selecting it, then point the mouse on the corner (exactly and you'll see an icon, two small diagonal placed arrows opposite of each other) finally increase the size of the window (hold the left mouse button and drag the window into the desired size).
This works for the other windows as well.

This should make it easer to view the content.

The content can be sorted by clicking on e.g. editor ID, type etc.
So it's possible the author sorted the content in an other way, further you selected the "Creepy cave" instead of FortStrand01.

Load the correct cell and delete the content as described in the tutorial.

Thanks for the link.

Okay, I'm seem to be making progress. I'm on to the third part now. Thanks, guys!