[REQz] Individualized city walls

[Arthmoor]

So. In the course of discussions with various people about Open Cities and the fact that the ginormous city walls aren't really necessary, I went looking to see what I could find as suitable replacements. The giant walls may not be needed, but shorter ones like the cities of Morrowind had would fill in nicely. Unfortunately in my hunt for resources, I've found nothing that strikes me as workable.

So what I'm looking for is this:

* Walls that are at most 1/2 the height of the dominant building architecture in each city.

* Walls that are about as thick as the ones found in major cities of Morrowind, such as Balmora.

* Walls shaped and textured to fit the character of each city.

I do realize this isn't exactly an easy thing to ask, but I've been through the CS and looked for things I could salvage as retextures but found nothing that works without the city walls looking like they're about to fall apart. They may well be, but I'd rather avoid them actually looking that way

There should also be at least one wall piece that can be seamlessly mated to the giant walls since they will still connect to the ones left at the castles. By that I don't mean one end short and thin and the other end tall and fat. Basically something that looks like a joining of the two pieces was intentional and not an afterthought like so many other pieces in the CS.

[Nic-V]

Well not to turn this into some off topic flame war but I think the big walls suit the cities very well. Besides imagine if there had been no walls in Kvatch ;-)

[WhoGuru]

Well not to turn this into some off topic flame war but I think the big walls suit the cities very well. Besides imagine if there had been no walls in Kvatch ;-)

LOL I actually prefer the lower walls myself. I mean, in a classic medi-evil city, you had the castle and perhaps the important buildings within a fortified city wall, but then the outlying buildings, Inns, shops, people's homes were often not as well protected, defended by lower walls, as in Morrowind.

I think this is a great idea myself though I can certainly see the logic of your view on it.

[Critterman]

Well not to turn this into some off topic flame war but I think the big walls suit the cities very well. Besides imagine if there had been no walls in Kvatch ;-)

Playing so much Age of Empires has made me want to agree with you . You always got to build giant walls around your farms or risk raiding from other players . But it really isn't logical nor historically accurate (as in accurate of earth's history of civilizations). The farms were usually the less fortified and the more important buildings were near the center with heavy fortification.

Come to think of it, for the sake of making the cities more interesting you should have shorter walls. Then, if you were on a top level of a building, you could see out over the walls of the city and out onto the landscape; which is pretty much the essential beauty of open cities isn't it?

Whoguru's point pretty much sums it up. In vanilla oblivion I had trouble differentiating between the castle and the walls of the city because they were all the same height and size. The city walls should be smaller so that the castle will look more like the fortified heart of the city, rather than an addition to a fortified monolith that is the city walls.

Just my

[Arthmoor]

Now just imagine the chaos if I decided to one day rearrange the layouts to actually put the castles in the hearts of the cities and string the buildings around them PROPERLY

Sort of like how the Leyawiin Reborn layout is already done right from a strategic and logistical standpoint

[WhoGuru]

Now just imagine the chaos if I decided to one day rearrange the layouts to actually put the castles in the hearts of the cities and string the buildings around them PROPERLY

Sort of like how the Leyawiin Reborn layout is already done right from a strategic and logistical standpoint

For that I would use the rest of the open better cities! Leyawiin is the only one I currently use because I adore the more realistic approach to the city. and it's just damn beautiful.

[Critterman]

For that I would use the rest of the open better cities! Leyawiin is the only one I currently use because I adore the more realistic approach to the city. and it's just damn beautiful.

I would use it too... but 3 fps isn't exactly playable (yes, I really do get that with better cities )

Good luck with this though, maybe one day I'll have a machine powerful enough to look over the walls of a city and see proper wilderness for once

I would help but I don't even know how to open blender

[Arthmoor]

For that I would use the rest of the open better cities!

*cough* that's not my project *cough*

It's Open Cities, that other one has nothing to do with this

[WhoGuru]

*cough* that's not my project *cough*

It's Open Cities, that other one has nothing to do with this

LOL Oh you know what I mean. I'm allowed a mod related typo once a day. YOUR Leyawiin is the only one I use.

[Arthmoor]

All is forgiven

If you've ever seen the concept art from the collector's edition DVD (I'd link it, but Gstaff says that's a no no) then you know what I'd eventually like to do in Anvil. You can tell we got gipped there too, though not as badly as with Leyawiin.

[WhoGuru]

Oh I've seen it and yes, they totally gipped us! If that's next on your list I can not wait to have it in my game! and any help I can give is yours.

[Arthmoor]

Immediately next, no. I've still got more to do on the DB project, the update for Faregyl, and more work on Feldscar too. Plus there's a pair of ULs in the pipeline to QA now, and I'm still trying to bring AN Real Lights up to 1.0 status.

I do want to get something worked out for Anvil though. It'll be a rather ambitious project on my part. I've never really done anything as large as a full city overhaul. At least its on relatively flat land. I'd die if I had to do the kind of work Leyawiin Reborn must have taken. It's part of why I load up that copy of Sutch every now and then to fiddle and get an idea of what's involved. A lot of work!

[Uglulyx]

I'm not a supporter of Open Cities, no offense to all the hard work you've done, it's just not to my taste. But I too would like to see some more unique walls. The only ones that I find to really fit in game are the ones of Skingrad. Skingrad just suits to high walled city theme to me.

Oh and a completely off topic question, is All Natural compatible with Elsweyr? If you could PM with an answer it'd be great.

[C. Nial DeMencha]

I'm not a supporter of Open Cities, no offense to all the hard work you've done, it's just not to my taste. But I too would like to see some more unique walls. The only ones that I find to really fit in game are the ones of Skingrad. Skingrad just suits to high walled city theme to me.

Oh and a completely off topic question, is All Natural compatible with Elsweyr? If you could PM with an answer it'd be great.

Well the problem with lower or removed walls w/o Open Cities is that there's nothing behind the walls except for some low-res LOD houses which are really an ugly sight. Before I knew about Open Cities I tried levitating over the city walls with Supreme Magicka's levitate and believe me, the only way to descripe it is hideous.

Can't wait for the new layouts (or old, I guess, if it's based on concept art) Arthmoor!

[Arthmoor]

The only one based on concept art is going to be Anvil, and given that it looks like it should be a naval fortress in that picture, I'll probably keep the existing high walls there. The concept art from Chorrol would be highly impractical to implement, and none of the others besides Leyawiin had any that I can recall, so those layouts will be whatever I come up with. Assuming suitable walls can be found, otherwise there's not a whole lot of point.

Bravil and Bruma are in their finishing touches stages though. Bravil's actual layout remains largely unchanged since its islands were already more or less perfect. The city has lost its walls though outside the castle. Hopefully people like what I've done with Bruma. The new layout is in place and the palisades look cool. Just putting finishing touches on that. I suppose somewhere along the way I should start a thread for the actual project

[Uglulyx]

I'm curious, can you give me a link to the concept art?

[C. Nial DeMencha]

I'm curious, can you give me a link to the concept art?

If you've ever seen the concept art from the collector's edition DVD (I'd link it, but Gstaff says that's a no no) then you know what I'd eventually like to do in Anvil.

I think that answers your question.

[Uglulyx]

I think that answers your question.

OH silly me. Thanks.

[Arthmoor]

One last stab at seeing about getting somewhere with this - read up on the OP. I'm still fairly surprised there aren't any alternative city wall resources out there for this sort of thing.

[InsanitySorrow]

I think it's a rather long job, hence no one doing it . Would be nice to see some alternatives

[Section_31]

One last stab at seeing about getting somewhere with this - read up on the OP. I'm still fairly surprised there aren't any alternative city wall resources out there for this sort of thing.

Do you have any sketches or images of the walls that you'd like to see in the game? Something like photos of real exotic walls on Earth could be great help, and I might make something in Blender as I am also searching for new custom meshes of fort architecture (including walls) as well.

[Arthmoor]

Unfortunately no, I can't draw worth squat so sketches are out. I also haven't been able to find anything on Google that stands out. Seems we were very unoriginal in our past construction habits.