Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

Note: This claim was deleted in an overhaul of Soluthis in February 2009. A finished plugin was never submitted.




[blockquote]"Ravanil's Valor" is a statue dedicated to one of Soluthis' ancient heroes, and the title is commonly used when referring to the surrounding neighbourhood. At least by the respectable townsfolk; others just say 'near the Sleepy Guar', meaning the Inn. "Northaven" is a tranquil but sinister place, being home to Soluthis' local battlemages. While trained in the deadly arcane arts, most of their time is devoted to scholarly research.[/blockquote]

Location: MAP #02
Interior model to use: NA (see below)
Model Nickname: Guild
Northmarker Rotation: -150.4015
Neighbourhood: Northaven

Status: Closed.

[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 have created an esp which has the basic layout for this Guild building drawn up. It's spread over three interior cells, where the third cell has the third and fourth floor.

If you want to pick up this claim, please extract the attached esp to your Data folder. The ID of your three cells are "Soluthis0214lvl#". The door links to and from the Guild of Battlemages and between the levels are set up as well, as is the northmarker rotation. You'll need to create the faction and finetune the cells' data (ownership etc) but I'm sure you know all about that if you're considering picking up this claim, so.

Screenshots (of an identical layout):




Have fun!

I'd like to take on something else rather than a house again, I think this may be interesting. Mind if I try it?

Quote:Originally posted by Dave_91
I'd like to take on something else rather than a house again, I think this may be interesting. Mind if I try it?

It depends. Could you explain a bit about what you'd like to do with the guild? I would like to see the player be able to pick up at least one quest from the location

Well, the top two floors will be a sleeping area, and a private top room for the guild leader. Middle floor will be for eating and loitering... and the ground floor for where the members train and where you can join the guild etc. I'd like to include someone who offers a service too, like a small shop or something.

The guild itself wouldn't be really lavish or exquisite, just normally cluttered with standard furnishings. I wouldn't want it to be too cliche, know what I mean? It'd be great to make some retextured tapestries or something like that for a guild icon too. Just to make it stand out a little more.

I'm not sure on anything else really because I don't know much about the guild background, if it's just a simple guild specifically for Mage/Battlemages, it shouldn't be too hard to do.

-I noticed the interior lighting was set to a red/orange colour, if I were to claim it, would you mind if I toned the colour down a bit?

Ok, sounds good.

Yes please change the lighting, it was a remnant from the original esp for the Morag Tong guildhall

I saw the battlemages as being a part of House Redoran's armed forces that are skilled in both magic and weapons. House Redoran as a whole is a warrior people, so the battlemages are not as good as proper mages. But they can defend against enemy spells, heal wounded, and other magic forms that are useful on the battle field - but they can also amicably engage in battle. Like the rest of Redoran's armed forces they're purpose is to fight against other Great Houses rather than rebel against the Empire.

So in my opinion their quests would be a blend between warrior-type and magic-type targetted against another Great House in one way or the other. The Houses may be at various forms of peace but they're always trying to take potshots at one another.

One idea that comes to mind is that House Hlaalu is operating an mine a long distance south of Soluthis. Rather than mine of gems or precious metals, they have uncovered a vein of Welkynd stones. House Redoran wants the mine destroyed - unofficially of course - but are hesitant to send their usual saboteurs because with an abundance of Welkynd stones in the mine one can bet House Hlaalu guards the mine with wizards. Why? Because a guy with a sword wouldn't stand a chance against a wizard with twenty Welkynd stones in his backpack hurling a massive fireball every second. A normal strike would only lead to Redoran casualties, so they need saboteurs skilled in the arts of magic if the party is to have any hope of succeeding.

It's just an idea I came up with, but I think it ties in with both magic, battle and House troubles rather well. Not that there aren't other ideas that would too, so I'm not saying you have to mod that exact quest (I'm fairly sure you won't). But if I may be so bold it could work as an example of what I meant.

Sounds good to me. How many NPC's d'you think? I'm thinking about 6-7, maybe other members who have homes in Soluthis can come and visit the guild.

After some slight confusion, I'll be continuing working on this.

I plan to add a quest, maybe a few, depending on how my scripting turns out. I think giving the guild its own logo or banner might make it more interesting, more distinct. This would be something simple, and could be easily implemented onto tapestries and other decorations. If that sounds like good idea, I'll attempt a concept of a logo. As always, ideas are welcome.

I'll post more about the quest/s when I have a more solid idea.

This won't be a straightforward claim if I intend to add all the details that I have imagined for it. Varying the details between levels might be tough, especially to make it appear convincing enough to be aimed at battlemages, but I think I can pull it off.

Quote:^{One idea that comes to mind is that House Hlaalu is operating an mine a long distance south of Soluthis. Rather than mine of gems or precious metals, they have uncovered a vein of Welkynd stones. House Redoran wants the mine destroyed - unofficially of course - but are hesitant to send their usual saboteurs because with an abundance of Welkynd stones in the mine one can bet House Hlaalu guards the mine with wizards. Why? Because a guy with a sword wouldn't stand a chance against a wizard with twenty Welkynd stones in his backpack hurling a massive fireball every second. A normal strike would only lead to Redoran casualties, so they need saboteurs skilled in the arts of magic if the party is to have any hope of succeeding.}

That sounds good... if I were to attempt this, would I be able to mod the mine too?

I love the idea of a custom logo! That would certainly draw player's attention to the location. To further that even more, maybe the NPCs can also have retextured robes with the logo on their chest and be sent out to walk about the city at certain times? And when spoken to they could give the player directions to the guild.

Quote:Originally posted by Dave_91
That sounds good... if I were to attempt this, would I be able to mod the mine too?

Sure! Though my quest ideas are certainly no better than those of any others, so if you'd rather devise your own quest then that'd be quite alright too. Whichever is more fun.

Well this' is great, I kinda lost the modded esp so I'll have to start again. But no worries, I have lots of new assets to include now.

Alright, so how can the guild be laid out?

These are the current floors:

Floor 1 (ground)- (main floor, probably where members will sign up, and members will be training etc. There could be a small supply shop in here)
Floor 2- (meeting area for members? This is where tasks and orders would be given)
Floor 3- (sleeping area with beds, and a small storage space in one of the corners)
Floor 4- (I had this one down as a small office, and a storage room)

Any ideas what else could be included, or does it sound fine?