 Arenthia from the Elder Council mod |
Ibsen's Ghost
ST Modder
Registration Date: 14.12.2007
Posts: 1,386
Location: UK
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03.06.2008 09:25 |
   
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Ibsen's Ghost
ST Modder
Registration Date: 14.12.2007
Posts: 1,386
Location: UK
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Good news! I'll contact him as soon as I've posted this and announce
myself properly on the voice actors thread. I'm new to Valenwood as
it's one of those that I've not looked into much yet, but SACarrow is
certainly very familiar with me since we created the voice acting core
board together for ST.
__________________
Cunning Linguist
(Writer and Voice Actor - Lost Spires, Giskard's mods inc.
Mage/Necromancy Guild, Silgrad Tower, Gates to Aesgaard, Painkiller's
mods inc. Forgotten Shields & others besides ESIV.)
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04.06.2008 14:47 |
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SACarrow
The Voice Guy
Registration Date: 26.04.2006
Posts: 1,800
Location: Tampa, Florida, USA
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Just to add that I'm happy to give tech advice and help with VA on
other BC mods as best I can. If there is interest in re-voicing Bosmer
in VW so as not to sound like every elf in OB, 
I can help with that too. I've been working on a new version of
TES4Gecko that contains a lot of VA-helpful stuff, including a way to
distill quests and topics from a 1.2-based plugin into an ESP that can
be loaded into CS v1 for LIP file generation.
Steve
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04.06.2008 17:54 |
  
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giskard
Journeyman
Registration Date: 04.06.2008
Posts: 12
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Hi all.
Razor and Baracus released stuff previously that I used in my mods
previously and have my enternal respect and grattitude for that.
SACarrow, I believe is Steve the Audio guy that tried to help be before
I quit in march and also has my thanks and gratitude. Ibsens just been
fantastic, a real pleasure to work for.
Durdain I do not know but given the company he keeps, as far as I am
concerned, this is an all star team I'm seeing in this forum. All good
eggs in my book
Anyway I guess you want to know a little about my Arenthia.
I reseached this heavily first as I always do and have the whole broad plot outline in my head right now.
From nothing to a city with nearly 100 people, all guilds working, all
NPC packages working (fingers crossed), plus some scripted features,
shops, baths and other things was all done in 30 days.
Feel free to use anything from my mods for your own, I really dont
mind. If you wanted to extract the whole of Arenthia, thats ok too,
I'll let you do that first. If you want to do that before I add voice
lines, now is the time to do it.
What you see in the vid is the 20 day mark, making the town takes a lot
of work so I used resources found on the Ore website that built up the
city I wanted (Ewoke village was to look for the woodelf side of the
city), adding the NPCs is not so bad after that.
A lot more detail needs to be added but frame rates may be an issue
later so I have got the city up to beths own standard and will add more
features and more detail as I go and monitor the frame rates to make
sure they stay playable for low end machines.
I went a little crazy in kvatch so I'm going to avoid that in Arenthia.
Arenthia is about factions anyway, eg people, kvatch is about ruling
and customizing. Its important to have the whole thing painted in your
head when making something like this I think.
I am using a sledge hammer to make points of lore this time around, for
example Arenthia is the place of at least 2 revolts, one involving
Camoran the Userper (pretender to the valenwood throne and not related
to the Valenwood Camorans at all).
Juicy plot stuff for use later, so I added a clan for his desendants.
False Camorans you might say. Hense they are high elves not wood elves
and disagraced daedra worshippers that have a power base in arenthia.
The other I called Banchee, totally made up, more traditional woodelfs those.
The is a palace which the strongest clan rules at all times, so as the
ballance of power shifts, so will who rules the city from the palace.
The empire is the law in the city but they allow the locals to believe
they rule.
Current lore says the Empire gave independence to the smaller city
states to stop anybody like Camoran rising to power again, it also says
there are lot of Mercenaries and it also says the Clan or family group
are the only thing people are loyal too these days even if they do
follow imperial law. Basically Valenwood is a lost region, its national
identity gone.
I joined the dots to say Clan and Mercs groups are one and same, each
clan having a small army of their own. Not an unreasonable assumption.
The whole political situation is small scale, in fighting between the
clans whilst the Empire watches its rivals beat the crap out of each
other instead of revolting against the Empire. This is a real point of
lore btw.
In a much more interesting spin on things we have the wild hunt being
spotted for the first time in years, a tree city (i forget its name)
rooting it self for the first time in living memory and what appears to
be a prophet preaching some god is about to return.
So lots of really cool plots to follow up there for all valenwood fans.
Its exciting stuff actually, enough to want Valenwood finished right now in fact.
I plan on making the grounds for the wild hunt a cloud forest world
(ive not actually told this to anybody yet so mums the word). Its a
world that floats in the air above Valenwood and is accessable via a
door in a shrine to one of the valen wood gods (need to research this
first). The spear used on the hunt will remain in that world at all
times as it should according the the book "the wild hunt" and have a
rabit with 50% reflect damage running around so when the player stabs
the rabbit, the player feels the pain too (according the book, thats
what the hunt is about, the link between the prey and the hunter). In
game terms, thats as close as you get to being on the real hunt.
Thats going to be shrine quest btw whos sole intention is to immerse the player in Valenwood beliefs.
The Camoran stuff is to do with threats to the Empire for my Elder
Council mod. I thought I would have the Duke of Nibany be the bad guy,
trying to get Leyawiin and Bravil to revolt whilst he recruits various
groups from Valenwood to build and army for him in Arenthia to march
against the imperial city and put it under siege whilst its weakened by
the oblivion crisis (2 revolts here remember, perfect hot bed for this
sort of thing, hense the choice of city and province).
After I've done all that, I'll be having fun making Arenthia come alive
as I did with kvatch. Until then it remains what I call a Beth Special
sort of city, looks nice but theres nothing under the hood worth
sticking around for.
Feel free to use any of this your self, you know the mod your making
better than I, you probably have all this info worked out so deeply by
now that you can name the citizens in your towns. If not, why not ?
Planning the key to success, a good plan is both achievable, realistic
and something that will excite people in to working harder. At least
thats what I found.
The only province more interesting than Valenwood is The BlackMarsh,
every race is said to represented there and the lore surrounding it is
QUEST Heaven
Odd because it sounds the most boring on paper but its the best one I think.
Hope this little rant of mine is entertaining, I am busy right now but
if you need me, let me know and i'll do what I can for you
And remember, you reap what you sow and what you guys sow has all be
good stuff in my book, so you have my support. Wish I had more time but
perhaps in a month or two when TEC is done I might have.
Giskard
__________________
To enjoy the
creative process, you must suffer with the problems fame brings. To
survive fame you must understand life is not fair.
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05.06.2008 00:24 |
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Ibsen's Ghost
ST Modder
Registration Date: 14.12.2007
Posts: 1,386
Location: UK
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A typically informative and interesting post, Giskard! Thank you for dropping by 
I've been planning on doing a bit of work for the Black Marsh team as
well so what you say sounds very encouraging. We must discuss it more
at length sometime. Perhaps you could settle into the team there by
that time - another excellent mod in development on these forums!
I hope that helps, guys...
__________________
Cunning Linguist
(Writer and Voice Actor - Lost Spires, Giskard's mods inc.
Mage/Necromancy Guild, Silgrad Tower, Gates to Aesgaard, Painkiller's
mods inc. Forgotten Shields & others besides ESIV.)
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05.06.2008 02:59 |
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giskard
Journeyman
Registration Date: 04.06.2008
Posts: 12
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To be honest Ibsen.....
I expected more progress, Valenwood is a 1 year job for me. So for a team I was expecting a little more.
giskard
__________________
To enjoy the
creative process, you must suffer with the problems fame brings. To
survive fame you must understand life is not fair.
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05.06.2008 20:50 |
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windsurfer
Seigneur
Registration Date: 03.10.2006
Posts: 639
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Well the islands have been my year project with a lot of help on lore
and interiors and quest ideas from the guys here. Almost all of the
models (including a coral and cave tileset) and retexs I have created
with a few resources from a Morrowind mod.
I am very impressed with you arenthia and if we could link it with our
heightmap then its another step closer to a complete Valenwood
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10.06.2008 08:53 |
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llamaranger
Baron
Registration Date: 06.05.2007
Posts: 439
Location: York, England
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I dont want to p*** on anyones bonfire here, but its something that should be asked:
Is Arenthia a Green Pact city? 'Cause thats a lot of wood right there,
and if the citizens there are GP compliant then that's pretty
lore-breaking.
Edd
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An Old Man is sitting on a Bench eating Soup. He is a fool.
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10.06.2008 18:45 |
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Siegfried
Archduke
Registration Date: 07.03.2006
Posts: 2,684
Location: With Your Mom...
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That's what I thought when I first saw it, but then it occured to me
that its across the Cyrodill border, and green pact only applies to
Valenwood Forests. |
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10.06.2008 19:48 |
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Alasdair
Jarl of Skyrim
Registration Date: 29.08.2006
Posts: 1,194
Location: Somerset, England
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| quote: |
Originally posted by giskard
I expected more progress, Valenwood is a 1 year job for me. So for a team I was expecting a little more. |
You could make an entire province in a year? Suuure... I'll believe it when I see it. 
Maybe you could get further than Valenwood in one year, but getting further than Silgrad, TR, etc... That's a pretty bold claim.
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11.06.2008 00:53 |
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Siegfried
Archduke
Registration Date: 07.03.2006
Posts: 2,684
Location: With Your Mom...
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It's not implausible to create the worldspace for an entire province in
a year with the region generator, and maybe even a number of cities.
However that is assuming you don't have to wait on new resources to be
created, which is what slows down so many of the teams around here. |
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11.06.2008 04:46 |
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llamaranger
Baron
Registration Date: 06.05.2007
Posts: 439
Location: York, England
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| quote: |
Btw
this city is lore based and perfectly safe to use, your team mates are
basing their lore on a story not actual game lore and that story says
valenwood does use wood, providing its not from valenwood. Since I made
the mod, I will tell you every plank of that wood came from the ORE
website not valenwood so its ok to use as is
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Thanks for clearing that up, now hostile or not I think that Valenwood
would be foolish to turn down an offer like that... Not that I can
really speak on the behalf of valenwood, not being part of the team,
but as no one else seems to have done it, thank you Giskard, I'm sure
this contribution is much appreciated.
As for boldness and such, its pretty much irrelevant, and you have no
reason to boast on these boards, so why would you, if its any
consolation, if you say you could make valenwood in a year, then sure,
why not believe you? Stranger things have happened.
Regards,
Edd
__________________
An Old Man is sitting on a Bench eating Soup. He is a fool.
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11.06.2008 18:38 |
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Ibsen's Ghost
ST Modder
Registration Date: 14.12.2007
Posts: 1,386
Location: UK
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The great bonus of being a single modder is that you get the chance to
organise everything and build things up gradually. You don't have to
wait on any one person or be held to ransom by someone's skills, nor
have to explain your ideas, facilitate for other people's skills (or
lack of them) and be undermined by the efforts of others who might
appear to be misguided or have very different conceptions of the task
at hand and what the end product might be.
Furthermore, Giskard is a very, very experienced modder who has a wide
range of expertise at his disposal plus a very large network of
contacts to whom he can turn to for inspiration, ideas and extra
support if needed. In light of these facts, I find the claim quite
credible.
And yet, in consideration of a topic that people appear to keep
returning to here - the lore, it is possible to feel restricted by the
implications of such things. Giskard has an excellent reputation in
interpreting and developing the existing Bethesda lore, which is highly
admirable, and something which I myself have learned from him. Yet I do
not see Giskard actually 'doing Valenwood' for that same reason - the
lore. There are more interesting projects that require his remarkable
ability to 'answer the unanswered questions' in Oblivion.
But where the Valenwood team exhibit a much stronger claim towards such
a thing simply lies in their diversity, creativity, individual and
specialist expertise and ever-present likelihood of springing more and
more surprises on the players. I'm sure that even Bethesda themselves
often look to mods for people who bring that unknown quantity to their
games, perhaps just one small thing that they couldn't possibly have
envisaged for themselves. I mean, how much intel are they getting
already on ESV just by browsing the many forums?
So a single (and single-minded) modder would indeed be likely to make
tremendous progress and yet I worry that it may descend into somewhat
stale practices for something so large. And Giskard, for example,
appears to work on well-grounded inspiration at times. The take-home
point for me after all this then is the following: As far as it's
possible to do so, ensure clarity, structure, team-work and individual
flair receive equal measure. And if you have a few Giskards that are
willing to work within the team on cross-sections of the project then
all the better.
I only write this because, when I see some things written on forums, I
often fear a clash of personalities will damage a project rather than
doing what I think should happen, which is to stimulate its growth.
__________________
Cunning Linguist
(Writer and Voice Actor - Lost Spires, Giskard's mods inc.
Mage/Necromancy Guild, Silgrad Tower, Gates to Aesgaard, Painkiller's
mods inc. Forgotten Shields & others besides ESIV.)
This post has been edited 3 time(s), it was last edited by Ibsen's Ghost: 12.06.2008 01:07.
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12.06.2008 00:59 |
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FLESH
Archduke
Registration Date: 23.06.2006
Posts: 2,824
Location: Ireland
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Durdain
Wow to both counts, I''m all for contacting him and having you voice our Bosmer when the time comes.
I dont know how far along FLESH's Arenthia is at the moment but this one looks very advanced. |
Just dropping in, haven't read any of the thread, just the first two
posts, I haven't started working on Arenthia myself, just been playing
around with resources, but you guys are free to give the claim to
another modder to work on because I will be away for quite some time.
Progress ftw
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12.06.2008 18:01 |
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