Lilmoth is going to be fun to make. It's been variously described as a "festering Jewel of the East", a "beautiful but horrifying city", and home to "mossy, crumbling manors". It's going to be one of the biggest cities in the province, and it's the headquarters of our Royal Court faction and unofficial capital of the Marsh. The plan is that it will cover the whole of the large island in the bottom south-east of the Marsh.
I propose that we use a heavily modified version of the Jurad tileset developed by Mr Siika. I have used it myself for the city of Wayrest in High Rock, and it is very versatile, especially if it were to be combined with retextured Anvil manors in the more upper-class areas. Also by Mr Siika is the Imperial Cathedral which I thought would be a nice symbol of the Royal Court's intent to Cyrodiilise. I was thinking that the huge stone structure might have partially sunk into the marshy soil, like the leaning tower of Pisa.
Another advantage of the Jurad set is that it includes the meshes for a network of canals along the lines of Venice. Transport between these sections would be provided by Argonian-rowed canoes (through teleport scripts, like with the gondoliers in Vivec in TES3). This means that the city will be very easy to divide up into sections, which could be walled off to reduce FPS if necessary. We know that one of these, a lower-class district, is called Pusbottom, which should give some idea of what the rest of the names should be like. I'm thinking of Emerald Estates for one of the richer areas, and The Maw for the city's market district (because if you're not careful it'll eat you alive...)
Also:
In Arena there was a village to the north of Lilmoth called Rockpark. I believe that we decided to make it a literal park, a demonstration of the Royal Court's attempt to tame the Marshes. I had the idea that it would be dotted with the Lilmothlit ruins that give the nearby city its name, possibly with some creative "reconstructions" of Lilmothlit life along the lines of 18th-century Pompeii (opprtunity for some good jokes here).
The city would need to be very decayed. I was thinking we should have architecture models that have their doors higher up and we could then have most of the city underwater with only walkways providing access by foot. Our own current Lilmoth models have wooden walkways leading up but these are very much the LC variants. We may best off creating original models but we'll see how we go when we get to this point. I'm sure it's something our modellers can get their teeth into, if needs be.
We'll make maximum use of the hanging moss here along with various other bits and pieces of random growth and perhaps luminous fungi that will previously only have been encountered in Paatru locations.
That's yet another advantage of the Jurad tilset. All the floors of the buildings are modular, so it's easy to put a door on the second floor. Yep, death and decay seem to be the order of the day here.
I also absolutely loved KuKulza's original idea that in some districts the Royal Court release crocodiles into the water to discourage intruders.
Also, according to Infernal City, there is at least one buried Argonian pyramid under the city. Also there are several layers of buried older settlements below it that have sunk into the mud.
Sounds like an architectural delight. I'm not sure how the crocodile thing would be implemented though. Even if the croc cannot make it up to reach the citizens, as soon as some NPCs see a crocodile, they'll jump down and attack them. At the very least, the danger alert will take place when a PC drops by and the music will change to battle mode.
Hmm. I think it might be possible to assign the crocodiles to the Royal Guard faction so that they attack intruders only? Not very realistic I know, but it might fix that problem.
Okay, so I did a bit of work on Lilmoth. It's very, very far from complete but here are some of the tentative first steps with the tileset.
Shot #1 shows how I plan to organise the South-Eastern corner of the map. I plan to use retextured mania rocks (I already have some excellent textures for that) along with some of Koniption's own to create a maze-like construction of rocks that is multi-levelled and uses bridges to cross over some places. It should be quite disconcerting in places and strewn with hanging moss and vines. This area should have an effect on some parts of Lilmoth such as the LC district. It will also be the basis for 'Rockpark'.
Shot #2 shows the outer walls of Lilmoth as they currently stand. There are presently two ship entrances on the South coast and a dry dock that you can't see here but contains one of our own ships and should also contain a warehouse model and towers.
Shot #3 shows one of the most completed parts so far viewed from under the main bridge that crosses East-West banks of the main river. This is the more upper class area and contains a few watchtowers, drydocks and plenty of bridges over canals and under walkways.
Shot #4 shows the central layout of the city with a circular platform reserved for a small upper class market accessible either side by small bridges.
Shot #5 shows what I hope will be a very typical sight along the corridors of the city. It's a canal with lots of small dock areas and bridges over the water. I'm thinking that some of these large buildings will be inaccessible other than via the water. Some steps cling to the sides of the canals that provide access to doors but many of these may be closed to reduce the vast amount of interiors it would take to mod.
Shot #6 shows the circular centrepiece in more detail including the arched walkways of one of the buildings. You can also see the full range of the three main house textures here as the main plaster at the ground level is the most commonly used in the UC district with the general dark brick of the city walls further up. There is also the texture used mainly for the LC district on the bridge model.
Shot #7 is very much a WiP. I ditched mr-siika's Cathedral model in favour of the lavish SI palace that I may choose to retexture if I stick with this layout. The walls are raised here and I'm hoping that broad stairs reach right down into the water as you approach the main stairs. There is a Gate oopening off to the left there which leads onto...
Shot #8 which what I had originally hoped would show the secret entrance to the palace via another waterway. A bridge crosses from the Palace Gate opening to the tower on the right. My theory was that you could go through this using a tiny bay area that I had planned to set up beneath the rocks. This is proving difficult to do as I misjudged the shape/size/dimensions of my pieces. Nevertheless, I'm hoping a sluicegate can be used to cast water down into the channel and vines etc. can be stretched across in the manner of Rockpark.
Shot #9 shows the layout for what I just described.
Shot #10 is the least developed section of the city. The Western walls in the distance use what I refer to as the LC texture. You can see that some of the Jurad buildings use this texture on the right. However, these buildings are still too flash for a slum so there is a selection of others available consisting of the Mayan, Incan and Blackrose buildings, some of which are ruined...I had figured we might circle this area around with the retextured mania rocks, some of which have the arched walkways as entrances. And I was going to use one of the dry docks as a fishfarm.... =)
The whole design covers about 7-8 cells at the moment and there is another great bridge leading out through a North Gate entrance. Bear in mind that hanging moss, extra large mushrooms (from Phitt's mudwater set) and various bits and pieces will be used to make it genuinely festering and unique. There's also plenty of fake window pieces, house extensions, chimneys and so on that can be attached to the Jurad tileset.
Let me know what you think....
I like the screenshots, personally. From what I can see, the city almost looks set up to be a little like Venice, Italy?
I think it looks like Venice, because of all the waterways I'm seeing between the buildings and blocks, so far.
I just had an idea, for this city, or maybe another tribal city (in the future, perhaps):
Because Blackmarsh is swampy over many parts, what if some villages/cities located on water, used a system similar to the Aztecs, for growing certain foods?
Aztecs built reed matts that they then floated onto the water's surface. These reed matts then had a fence built around them, so that the matts would then hold the silt and other organic debris they threw in there, to become soil for crops. Aztecs also grew certain trees around the perimeter of these matts, to absorb excess water, and also keep the matts from floating away. Then they planted their crops, harvested, etc.
Info + second link with pic:
http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/TheAztecs.html
http://www.historywalker.com/officialpap...acFar.html
Such a system would be useful, for areas where viable and dry enough farmland, among wetlands and swamps, is scarce.
Koniption
Nice....but I'm struggling to visualise it...although there is the suggestion of tiered landscapes which appeals...
And yes, the Jurad pieces were basically Venice. I've created a slightly more Argonian and rundown look with my textures:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23604 .
Quote:Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Nice....but I'm struggling to visualise it...although there is the suggestion of tiered landscapes which appeals...
And yes, the Jurad pieces were basically Venice. I've created a slightly more Argonian and rundown look with my textures: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23604 .
Stuggling to visualize what?
I included a link to a picture of what I described, regarding reed water farming matts.
Also, if you go to Google, and type in "Aztec farming", you should get some images of what it all looked like. It'll be pictures showing what looks like square/rectangular garden plots floating on water's surface, like on a lake.
Koniption
Ah, I couldn't really make it out so well at first. Very unusual and distinctive! I'm liking it. =)