[WIPz] Beyond Skyrim: Now Recruiting

[Deeza]

NOW RECRUITING: BEYOND SKYRIM

 

Calling all modelers, texturers, landscapers, level designers and scripters!  This is your chance to be part of one the largest and most ambitious modding projects of all time!

 

Beyond Skyrim is nothing less than a community effort to recreate all the lands of Tamriel in the Skyrim engine.  Perhaps you are skeptical that such a group of projects can succeed?

 

Then we invite you to visit our Tumblr and Facebook pages, and our forums, to see just how much has already been completed - and how much we are still working on.

 

As you can see, a great deal of progress towards our goals has been made.  But we're still in need of your help!

 

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Modding Tamriel is a slow and painstaking process, and the more hands that we have on deck, the faster that we're going to be able to get Beyond Skyrim's various projects released.

 

If you have skill and experience with the Creation Kit, 3D modelling software, texturing, or Papyrus scripting, and you've wanted to see all of Tamriel in a single-player Elder Scrolls game, then please join us and help make that a reality!

 

We've also attached a list of the highest priority current jobs lower down this post, so if you're interested in any of those in particular, you can contact our Administrator directly and he'll point you in the right direction.

 

Otherwise, head over to our forums and introduce yourself - we'll soon find you something to get to work on!

 

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Game Informer Article on Beyond Skyrim

 

Kotaku Article on Beyond Skyrim

 

Game Rant Article on Beyond Skyrim

 

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PROJECT STATUS

 

Cyrodiil - Fully Active.  Bruma Region nearing completion, multiple other regions commenced.

High Rock - Fully Active. Landscaping for the majority of regions well underway.

Roscrea - Fully Active.  Landscaping largely completed, dungeons in progress, quests in planning stage.

Hammerfell - Partially Active.  Several regions in the early stages of development.

Valenwood - Partially Active.  Planning for the Islands region underway.

Elsweyr - Planning Stage.  Additional recruitment badly needed.

Morrowind - Planning Stage.  Additional recruitment badly needed.

Lost Isles - Planning Stage.  Newly commenced project.

Black Marsh - Inactive.

Alinor - Inactive.

 

Note: We are not currently planning to start any additional Beyond Skyrim projects, unless it is by accepting a pre-existing external team to join our collaboration (as recently happened with Valenwood and Lost Isles).

 

POSITIONS AVAILABLE

 

Actively Recruiting = Green

At Full Capacity = Red

 

Cyrodiil Team

3D Modelers

Texturers

2D Artists

Landscapers

Level Designers

Dungeon Designers

Interior Designers

Scripters

Writers

Quest Writers

Dialogue Writers

Lore Scholars

Voice Actors

 

High Rock Team

3D Modelers

Texturers

2D Artists

Landscapers

Level Designers

Dungeon Designers

Interior Designers

Scripters

Writers

Quest Writers***

Dialogue Writers***

Lore Scholars

Voice Actors***

 

Roscrea Team

3D Modelers

Texturers

2D Artists

Landscapers

Level Designers

Dungeon Designers

Interior Designers

Scripters

Writers

Quest Writers***

Dialogue Writers***

Lore Scholars

Voice Actors***

 

Hammerfell Team

3D Modelers

Texturers

2D Artists

Landscapers

Level Designers

Dungeon Designers

Interior Designers

Scripters

Writers

Quest Writers

Dialogue Writers

Lore Scholars

Voice Actors

 

Valenwood Team

3D Modelers

Texturers

2D Artists

Landscapers

Level Designers

Dungeon Designers

Interior Designers

Scripters

Writers

Quest Writers

Dialogue Writers

Lore Scholars

Voice Actors

 

Elsweyr Team

3D Modelers

Texturers

2D Artists

Landscapers

Level Designers

Dungeon Designers

Interior Designers

Scripters

Writers

Quest Writers

Dialogue Writers

Lore Scholars

Voice Actors

 

Morrowind Team

3D Modelers

Texturers

2D Artists

Landscapers

Level Designers

Dungeon Designers

Interior Designers

Scripters

Writers

Quest Writers

Dialogue Writers

Lore Scholars

Voice Actors

 

Note: I'm sorry to say that the only two areas we don't have any vacancies for at present are general writers and lore scholars.  This is because both of these areas are hugely over-subscribed, and we already have more would-be contributors in these areas than we could possible find work for. It is always possible, of course, that this may change in the future, but in the meantime we will most likely not be accepting any additional applications in these areas.

 

*** We may be open to applications for dialogue & quest writers or voice actors for individual, specific quest lines (please see below for details)

 

PRIORITY JOBS

 

We would be particularly eager to receive applications from interested individuals or groups who would like to perform the following high-priority tasks for Beyond Skyrim:

• Conversion of several hundred custom meshes originally created for TES4: Oblivion mods, which we have permission to use but now need to be converted to the TESV .NIF format
• Nature assets such as trees, rocks, flora and landscape textures.
• Design and modeling of a Yokudan Ruins tileset for Hammerfell.
• Completion of missing meshes from a recreation of the Ayleid Ruin Interiors Set for Cyrodiil.
• Unique Cyrodiilic and Breton clutter and furniture.
• Dialogue and scripting for High Rock introductory quest - "the Penumbrae".
• Dialogue and scripting for Roscrea's main quest.
• Concept art for architecture and clutter for Elsweyr and Morrowind.
• Weapons and armor (various projects).
• Creature creation.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BEYOND SKYRIM (FOR THE CURIOUS)

 

The basic idea behind Beyond Skyrim is an old one. Recreating the other Provinces of Tamriel which (until the release of Elder Scrolls Online) had only been featured in books, has been a dream of the Elder Scrolls modding community since at least 2002. The first Creation Kit for the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind allowed users to create their own original content (or “modsâ€) and add them into the base game. One of the oldest of these attempts, the legendary Tamriel Rebuilt, is still going strong today, and regularly makes new releases of the mainland of Morrowind.

 

Over the years, many other teams and individuals have attempted to repeat this achievements with other areas of Tamriel, but the vast majority never enjoyed the same longevity or success. With the release of TES IV: Oblivion in 2006, the now-defunct website Silgrad Tower became the home to many of these projects, and from 2007-08 onward a community of long-term collaborators developed, known as Beyond Cyrodiil, many of whose members are still with us today. Their debates and discussions laid many of the foundations for the projects which would one day become Beyond Skyrim.

 

Beyond Skyrim itself arose out of the dissatisfaction among many members of the community with the way in which large-scale worldspace mods had been developed for Oblivion. In the runup to the release of TES v: Skyrim in 2011, many modding veterans felt that too much effort had been scattered across too many projects, with duplication of effort and lack of resource sharing becoming endemic problems in the community. The question was posed as to how we should do things differently once Skyrim was released, and the proposal was made to create a new collaboration forum which would seek to bring disparate projects together – the seed from which Beyond Skyrim would grow.

 

Beyond Skyrim was not the idea of a single individual, but the result of the contributions of many to an ongoing discussion between modding teams as to how they could work together more closely. Nevertheless, the date of our foundation can be traced to 23 November 2011, when a post by a Bethsoft forum member named Candlemaster started a discussion thread which eventually snowballed into full-blown negotiations between teams of modders. As a direct result of those talks, the Beyond Skyrim forums here at Dark Creations were established later that year, and have been growing ever since.

 

Originally, our collaboration was quite limited in scope – we were mostly interested in avoiding any incompatibilities between fundamentally separate mods, and sharing resources and expertise. Most of our member projects were hosted on other sites, and our forums on this site were limited to inter-team discussions. However, as 2012 wore on this rapidly began to change, as our members started to move their operations to Dark Creations to facilitate further collaboration. The interconnections between our teams started to get broader and deeper, as we began to work ever more closely together, and members began to divide their work across multiple teams. The greatest triumph of this phase of our development was the adoption of Morcroft’s All-Tamriel Heightmap, as a result of which all our members agreed to use a common landscape canvas on which to construct their work.

 

By early 2013, the process of centralization was complete, and Dark Creations had become the sole home of Beyond Skyrim. We had not merged into a single team, but we were no longer separate projects either. Increasingly, our leadership began to make decisions together, and additional common areas of the forums needed to be created to cater for our blossoming collaboration. The remainder 2013 saw steady progress, with new assets, landscapes, and huge amounts of lore and literature development being completed, as well as our receiving our first attention in the gaming press with an interview at Game Informer Online Magazine.

 

By the start of 2014, a collective decision was taken to formalize the relationship between our constituent teams. A Beyond Skyrim Charter was written which regulates how our community and collaboration is managed, and a new central Council of Team Leaders was created to make common decisions on behalf of their projects. We have also seen further integration of some of our development, with the establishment of central Music and Voice Acting departments.

 

Today, Beyond Skyrim has come a long way from its humble origins as a discussion thread for groups of modders. Our first trailers, released in March 2014, show only a glimpse of the immense amount that we have accomplished over the two-and-a-half years that we have been in operation. We hope that you will consider joining us on the next stage of our journey together.

[Vouivre]

This looks truly and really interesting, it's been so painfully long since I've seen such large projects like this. My biggest question is, what are you guys doing about the limitations with the really large worldspaces? I commend and applaud the effort going into this. I would like to talk to you guys about this, to see if I can lend a hand in this. Would it be possible to contact you so we can discuss if I can help or possibly join in?

[SpectralDragon]

Indeed it would be, if Deeza doesn't reply you can chat about it with me. The best option however would be to head on over to Dark Creations and have a look around, post your questions, and Deeza can always be contacted there.

[morcroft]

My biggest question is, what are you guys doing about the limitations with the really large worldspaces?

I can answer that, since I made the heightmap. It's an important consideration in a large heightmap - and Beyond Skyrim's Tamriel would be 336 x 236 cells - if it were all in one worldspace.

 

We originally wanted to make Beyond Skyrim an extension of Tamriel in the original game worldspace but hit too many problems. Instead, I created the whole of Tamriel as a single worldspace, and we intended just to have transition points from Skyrim at the obvious places - the three gates and a couple of points on the coast. 

 

Then we found the havok bugs that limit worldspaces to 128 cells square, so I separated BSTamriel into five worldsaces: Iliac Bay (High Rock and Hammerfell); Heartland (Cyrodiil, Elsweyr and Valenwood); Summerset Isles and Black Marsh. Each is 128 cells square, with an extra region around it for LOD. In the process I adjusted the heightmap to put in a few "choke points" to drive the player to a few specific transition points without having to resort to invisible walls over land. At sea we'll use the game border to keep the player in the right worldspace.

 

Edit: accidentally quoted only half BSTamriel's actual size: 336 x 236 cells

Edited October 15, 2014 by morcroft

[Deeza]

Hi, Vouivre!  To cut a long story short, we solved the "large worldspace" problem by cutting our heightmap up into smaller regions.  It was a painful choice to make, but a necessary one.  So we have three primary worldspaces now - one containing High Rock and Hammerfell, another containing Cyrodiiil, Elsweyr and Valenwood, and a third containing Morrowind and Black Marsh.

 

If you're interested in contributing, please send me a PM, either here or over at the Dark Creations forums.

[Vouivre]

That makes sense, as last I remember the Y axis you still have 16 quads to work with, the X is where the problem lay, which is sad really. I'll definitely send a message as I'm interested in seeing what I can offer if anything.

[morcroft]

Actually, both axes have a problem: you're thinking of the actor-ground collision bug that causes wierd jumping behaviour.  There's also a fault in the collision "activation" - so that an object outside the 64-cell limit can can only be picked up or activated if you're facing "inwards." Kind of hard to explain.

 

In the end I don't think it's going to hurt too much actually. We've worked out LOD so it's not going to look like each worldspace is isolated and the transition points are hardly noticeable.

 

Do drop by - we have a lot of world to fill!