Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

Official 'Black Marsh' Claim for Dungeon Claim: Wrothwyll Fen Ruin

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Wrothwyll Fen Ruin
AVAILABILITY: Completed by SilverAlchemist

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Description & Details

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The gloomy, moss-wreathed ruin of Wrothwyll Fen lies to the Eastern side of Northern Darkmoor. A short wade further East will lead you to the disorientating Talu swamps where so many invading forces finally succumbed...even after braving the horrors of Darkmoor.

Wrothwyll is quite a pristine ruin, untouched for many years so there is little guessing what you might find there. The statues that lie nearby give evidence of it having once been a place of religious rite and ceremony for the Marsh Elves that once called it their home.

The caverns themselves are likely to be very wet with some parts submerged and some parts of running water. It is likely to have a few less roots and whipvines than some Barsaebic ruins on account of the ruin's isolation and water-logging. However, the ferocious denizens of Darkmoor might well have begun to take up residence there (especially in the watery areas where Crocs and Caiman are likely to swim) and who knows what the Marsh Elves left behind?

Residents of RockGrove who know about the place, such as Root-Stream, are likely to suggest the possibility of sacred items kept there that doubtless have some worth or use to those daring enough to engage with them.

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At-a-glance Details

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Tileset: Mossy Ruin
Exterior cell coordinates: (-4,-14)
Cell Name: Cell interior not created yet.
Claim Difficulty: Medium.
Creatures: Creatures (Marsh Elves), Reptillian and water-dwelling creatures & Ghosts / Undead. 4+ for medium levels.
Mission Connections: None as yet.
Amount of Loot: Medium (possibly inc. one of the Artifacts).
General Info: Check this space for a link to a thread detailing completed claims and future plans.

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Modding Directions

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You'll find the entrance for the ruin in the cell WrothwyllFen (-4,-14) of the BlackMarshes worldspace. Use the latest esm (v2.42) or a higher version.

Don't forget to select snap to grid (32-64) and snap to angle, when creating the lay-out for your ruin.

You have to use the new Mossy Ruin tileset (Static>Blackmarsh>architecture>ruins>).

If plans for this Ruin extend, then it's fine to add more than the two levels as suggested. Just give the new cell the same name, except for the last part which should receive a suffix such as lvl1, lvl2 etc.

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Recommended Objects

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This ruin is pretty water-logged so this may be reflected in the initial layout. Activate the water in the cell and, where possible, make use of the flowing water meshes, of which there are the vanilla waterfalls alongside our own fast streams. For any traps I recommend using the whipvines in the activators section under 'blackmarsh'. It may prove possible to propel the PC along some sections where the underwater current is strong and thereby force them into colliding with the whipvines. Some mossy cave pieces may work blended into the construction as long as they are positioned very, very carefully.....

Also, try checking the original Ayleid Ruins and matching up the tileset items. Just right-click on a trap and 'use info' to check the cell in question. Remember that Ayleid Ruins were excellent for traps so much fun can be had here. Don't forget though: if you affect anything in vanilla Oblivion, you will create a 'dirty' esp and totally screw up all your work, making it unmergeable so check this before modding and not during!

Please continue with the use of roots and gnarled trees as you see fit. Additionally, for the caves, consider using the oilplants (under Light>blackmarsh), the land Glow-shrooms (under Static>Flora), BMWallmushrooms (under Static>blackmarsh>clutters) and perhaps the BMHangMoss varieties (under Static>blackmarsh>Environment). You can also use the rockswampmoss varieties with the cave tileset (under Static>blackmarsh>rocks>SwampRocks).

For inspiration check people's favourite Ayleid Ruins such as Nenalata, Vindasel, Fanacasecul, Garlas Malatar and Miscarcand (used by the MQ) and, as the tileset names can be a little confusing and may need sorting, please report any problems to me.

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Cluttering your Dungeon

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You should use leveled lists for the loot but the ruin may be being used by some person or creature so you may wish to select accordingly. Ask around the forums for special loot if you wish to add some character to the ruin such as who once lived there and so on.

There could possibly be some gems, armor, weapons, gold, and other loot from travelling adventurers. If magic-users have attempted to examine the ruins, then you’d find ingredients, books, potions, and other mage-related items. Some special items for Marsh Elves might also be found - for example, we have a nice range of specialist staffs. It is also possible that one of Phitt's artifacts may reside here.

The preferred type of enemy for this ruin is listed at the top of this thread. You might be able to do something else though if you want - just check with the core first and we'll discuss this. At the time of writing, the creature levelled lists are yet to be tested so you may wish to do this yourself or stick to the vanilla levelled lists just to be on the safe side. These can later be replaced.

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Lighting up your Dungeon

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Please look in the object window for any of BM's own candles such as Glo-shrooms. However, vanilla lights are fine. Your tomb can be as dark or as light as you want it to be, probably depending on whether the separate areas were densely populated by Marsh Elves or not. For a good example of excellent use of light of the very, very dark variety which really improves the gameplay of a ruin or tomb, I would advise checking out the early sections of ‘Gates to Aesgaard’ by ThePriest909 which makes for a sensationally spooky and jumpy gaming experience.

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Making Enemies

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The function of this ruin is up to you but, so that we can adapt it in places where quests use this location, please stick to the levelled lists for now....unless you have cleared your plans for what to use with the core already by using the forums or a PM. Try to make it interesting for the player, of course. If you have any specific ideas then let the core know about it.

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Final Tasks

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Add a pathgrid to the ruins/caves. Playtest the entire layout and make any necessary corrections before submitting it for review.

NB: - Thanks to the 'Silgrad Tower' team for pioneering the claims system and for being such excellent all-round good eggs around these forums.

I'd like to do this dungeon.
Do you mind if I make a flooded ruin with a clearly marked living area, and then a natural cave that leads off of it containing several more animal-like creatures, kind of like a natural drain?

That sounds pretty good to me. Most of BM is below the water level, so I think most of the caves and ruins in the inner marsh should be at least partly flooded.

Absolutely...and given the location of this one and the fact that much of the exterior is water-logged then a flooded ruin is pretty much the only way to go. :yes:

I would make use of our own hanging moss meshes and KP's whipvine traps...and if you're using the mossy cave tileset then remember you have the option of using the green crystals and wall mushrooms. I think we also have other bits and pieces such as the carryable torch that comes with its own bracket. KP made this. You should be able to pick it off the wall and use it. For lighting, consider oilplants in the caves and gloshrooms with ambient lights next to them. Liberal use of roots and vines can also create nice effects. We basically haven't yet made maximum use of our assets in dungeons so have a good explore around the miscitems, lights, static models, clutter and so on first just to acquaint yourself with what you have available. There's some really fun stuff to use...although some things are reserved for specific dungeons (like the gristle and muscle containers for the rootworms).

If it proves possible, I had an idea recently of making one of the levels of a dungeon use tileset pieces set to x2 which, if you were to use the crevasse model, would give you the option of a huge interior space with a much larger chasm that you could use a ruined bridge for. If you fall into the chasm, you can use a killbox as I did with Hixinoag Mines....just a few ideas... =)

Anyway, claim granted. Enjoy! :check:

Done
The layout is designed to be semi-symetrical and is built around the idea that the place is a shrine or temple, with plenty of quest possibilities. The upper level is filled with bandits and thier were-croc desecrators, the second level has undead, bogtoads and mud slaughterfish, the bottom level has centipedes, black mantis' and some tropical spiders. when I designed the layout the tileset was missing pieces so it is a bit simple but still interesting. to get to some of the goodies you will have to back-track, this way you can't just rush through as you will have to think. for the cluttering, I tried to go for the empty and deserted feel of Ayleid ruins but also give it a cramped and decayed feel in some places, the water levels are lower than you might expect because the elves that built it knew they would need drains by building in a swamp, but they're badly damaged now. I have fully play tested it but there were a few errors with the ambient sounds not playing, these errors were resolved by loading a savegame that wasn't inside the cell I was editing so hopefully they won't plague anyone but I'm mentioning it just incase you see a waterfall but don't here it.

Hint-When searching for the gate overide control room in the second level, after being through the under water section walk slowly around the corners, the creators didn't wan't people nosing around, don't worry it only goes off once.
Hint-If you're in a hurry the gate overide button in the control room is fifth from the left, on the second table, only hit it once, otherwise mess around and have fun, don't worry about getting killed, none of the buttons release creatures or set off traps in the room your in, that would be too corny.

Don't jump into the chasm either.
SA

Cheers, SA. Sounds good....and very quick! I'll check it out now and post back later. Oh, and when submitting esp files, don't forget to name it from the start with 'BMSA' before adding any descriptive stuff and a version number. It helps to do this so we recognise who's done what and people get credited appropriately. :yes:

Wow! You did an awesome job of this. You are very welcome indeed here, SA. :goodjob:

I really enjoyed playing through this....until I got my ass kicked by a lich and realised I had things I had to do. For anyone wishing to play through some of BM's features, I would certainly recommend taking a look at this one. You made great use of our unique assets, SA. If anything, I think the lack of tileset pieces helped it as it may actually have contributed in creating a unique look....working with restrictions sometimes brings on creativity....or is that just me excusing my error at not telling you about the other pieces?

Anyway, you mentioned in your PM that you were planning on adding a few things to it now you have the extra pieces. I think that, once you're done, we should be able to merge this straight away as you clearly know what you're doing. :yes:

The one criticism I do have is that maybe you might reduce the number of fungus lights you're clustering together in one place. I think that three is probably too many considering the strength of the lights in-game (see shot #6 here). However, what we could also do is to reduce the strength of the light itself by creating a separate item with less brightness. You'd only see this in-game though.

Oh, and I noticed that the animations seemed to be slowing down a bit where you have water effects, the whipvines and maybe droplets combined....I'm wondering what we can do about that. I may need to speak to Koniption about it. Nevertheless, don't restrict yourself for now and we'll work round it.

I took some screenies whilst I was in there enjoying myself. Congratulations on an excellent first claim! :goodjob:

That's an excellent piece of work. The lighting and the BM parts work together really well. Great job!

I wonder if you'd be interested in working on the Stormhold undercity dungeon? I have done a version of it, but since you're clearly better at dungeons than me perhaps you could give it a few tweaks and touch ups....

Heh, that *is* really good dungeon work. Congratulations!

KP

I sent him a PM to say well done. It is far better then any vannilla cave or dungeon.