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[WIP] Eitherflow Tower - The Remake (3rd times a charm?)


IronBlockGames
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A little creation History

Eitherflow Tower was my first real attempt at making a mod for Skyrim, after having messed around in the CK and following a number of tutorials, I thought I'd figured out enough to settle in and give a real mod a try, learning more as I go. I was wrong.

As I found out after joining here, most the tutorials I had been following often left out very vital NEED TO KNOW tidbits, and had me doing many DO NOT DOs, like deleting objects and navmesh, duplicating cells, and dirty edits throughout. It became a disaster when the method I was shown on making a new interior cell left behind a dup of the original... (and it was even there in the tutorial), deleting the dup sadly also deleted the original... that was the end of that.

I did give it another go, considering the first go a failed 'alpha', the new version got much further, almost to completion. But I was still following tutorials that were showing many no-no's in modding, like deleting objects to clear space, and duping cells to make new, though this time I just renamed the dup, vs edit and make new instance from it like other tutorials showed. It left a * on the original cell, but I figured that was just a given.   It was looking up adding NPC's that I found TESAliance, and the lessens.. I had a big time face palm over the stuff I learned, PROPER stuff... sadly no amount of cleaning would fix the amount of objects and nav mesh I deleted. *sigh*

SO scratch all that. On to v2. This time I am taking everything I learned from here and putting it to real use. I will also be using this for my Final in the basics coarse.

3rd Times a charm? I sure hope so.

 

Starting Anew

The first thing on the list is reclaiming the area of choice. Wilderness 25,27.

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One big thing with me and modding, I like picking locations that are out of the way, in spots the player may rarely if ever have gone to. Much better than the nearly 300 mods centerd in and around Riverwood/Whiterun. @.x I am also happy that the original tower was centered in the cell, as I had no idea you could view the borders like this back then. (I was going by the grid image) Also now that I know I can rename wilderness cells, it's going to make coming back to this spot a whole lot easier.

Now this area has a huge red triggerbox for some kind of camera effects or such that spans this cell and the one beside it,I'll have to be mindful about not touching it... first time doing this I just deleted it as it was in the way... stupid tutorials...

Eitherflow Tower is a mage themed location thus why it's also near Winterhold, though it can work for other class's as well.

 

Reconstruction

I want to focus on the outside first, as that is what ended the life of the last version.

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Remaking the tower and placing it where it was before was the easy part as I knew the objects I had used. The bigger issue is the rock it sits on. This thing is huge, and last time I had to lower it for the walkway and steps to fit. My worry is this thing spans two cells, I always worry about touching stuff if it cross's between  cells. The only real change I made to the tower thus far is changing the fire light at the top to a purple flame, as well as giving it a custom light.

I really wish there was a version of the tower that had no lights. This goes for the inside ones as well where they have the light holes in the walls.

Oh well, this is off to a good start thus far.

Edited by IronBlockGames
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Did you try adding emittance to the tower? There might be one that could block the lights. Just a suggestion; I haven't tried. Adding "null texture" to the model might do that as well. :)

The issue is in the mesh. it's not so bad on the outside, I don't mind the windows too much there, but the inside one there are just holes in the mesh for a separate window mesh to fit into. I had to get (in a bit of a messy way) creative to hide the unwanted window holes. As seen from the outside, the bottom floor should have none.. but the inside mesh has them all around. Just wish there was a solid version so I can place windows where I want.

 

Building a Path

So that big rock that the tower is sitting on that spans two cells? Yeah I tried to work with it where it was, but it just make thing's look off.. plus the design I was going for with the walkway wasn't going to work.. too much up and down. So in the end I did lower the large rock down, as well as the tower.

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This time I was able to make the path up a lot cleaner. I use to use a lot of the 1 step walkways to add onto the steps and fill in a smaller step way leading to the curved walkway by the door. This time, I just used two three step erum.. steps to fill them in... the side path linking them is also pushed more to the right to allow more room.

I would love to add railings to this, but nothing fits the overall look of what is there and I've not found any outside resources that fit either.

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Finishing the walkway. At this point I added in all the markers and made a location for the place, as well as some collision box's to prevent the player from stepping up onto the bottom walkway from the ground and clipping through the front posts from the outside (sense you can't go through once inside) as well as one for the little gap on the other side of the stairway to prevent getting hung up in the small space that's there.

You can also see what I mean my theme for the railing. I'd love to continue that roped railing all the way around (with out the roof) even down the steps. But those posts don't exist outside those mesh bits. I have tried the other rope mesh's and adding in small posts, but it just looks bad. If I knew how to add in the collision to mesh's, I'd be making my own as I know how to model (3dsmax 2010, don't use or care to learn blender).

Next up, lighting, the back shed, and cluttering the outside.

....also looking at the nav mesh and going how in the world am I going to edit it with out deleteing any bits.

 

Edited by IronBlockGames
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Cluttering it up

The pathway is done and all that is left is adding lighting and clutter. Being in a frozen corner of the world, clutter outside is going to be a bit sparse.

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Like said, there wont be that much clutter outside. Mainly a bunch of crates and box's under the steps. Already three safe storage containers are sitting there. Also added in the light posts and lanterns. The area don't need that many lights as the location don't get very dark even at night.

 

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Next big (or small) thing to add was this shed behind the walkway. It'll contain a trap door that will lead to a cellar area. Inside the tower will also be another pathway inside. Think of this as a hidden exit. These doors will likely be locked by their own key.

Speaking of keys...

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This is located by the fallen trees along the beach just below the bridging walkway. I already set the front door to be locked and needing this key. There will be the body of a NPC along the cliffs to hint at its location... as well as something darker having happened here.

and going on the lines of NPC's.

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This fella will be an optional follower who'll be found in the cellar once made. For now however he's just chilling outside.

 

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An overhead view and all the markers placed. I found out a cute trick that could turn anything into a chair. No those are not the invis sit markers.. they don't work for the player. However taking a normal chair and making a new instance of it, and editing it to check 'is marker' the chair does become inviz, but is still useable!

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This leads to a lot of fun areas you can sit XD

 

So it looks like from this the outside is done for decout, apart for maybe some lose statics and the dead body. The real fun part is going to be doing the freaking Navmesh for the area.... that is next.. oh boy.

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Nav Meshing- Getting it out of the way

 

I think this is the hardest part of modding tbh. So unlike the first two attenpts, this time not a single bit of nav mesh was deleted. Nowever sense the rocks the tower sits on have have lowered (it's one huge object) that means a lot of the nav mesh along the path had to be lowered as well.

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I just hope I'm doing this right. A good sum of the mesh had to be moved and shifted. There was also an island of navmesh right under the towers location that I grabbed and sunk deep into the earth.

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There's the island that's now dumped wayyyy below ground. Man their navmesh is so sloppy!

So the next big step is to addon to this mesh.

 

Nav Mesh questions

I know I can't delete the existing navmesh, but can I merge/split it? Like if theres a chunk I don't want or need, can I split it from the main navmesh and lower it like with the island? Of if I place say a tree, can I make a slit in the mesh to make a hole for it? (if so I'd like to know how)

It is safe to add on to the the existing navmesh right? Fill in holes and what not?

What's a good methood to mesh stairs? >.> I find npc's at times have a bit of a fit going up and down them at times.. resaulting in teleporting. (yes its one continus navmesh from the bottom up the stairs to the top)

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I doubt the ones I have are going to cause issues, this is a house mod, nothing super big. Skyui, real wolves, climents of tam, and even frostfall arn't going to effect it. As is I rather test bit with mods to ensure they play nice together. Plus there are 100's of mods out there that take screen shots showing other mods in use. EMB's, skyui, amung others. Plus I'd think the UI is fairly common place for people to not mistaken it... more so sense most mods that display a screeny of an inv also use it.

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Finishing the Meshing

 

So I added onto the existing Navmesh to make my path along the stairs and walkway.

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I didn't include Mesh under the stairs as I didn't want NPC's or enemies to wonder in that space or cause issues for the player going in there.

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The mesh even goes into the shack in prep for the cellar to be made. Now the ledge above the shack wasn't there in the original. Before it was just a rock placed to block the players path from freely walking on top of the shed (and even getting stuck behind it) but this new object I used did a better job, and also made a nice ledge you can walk (and sit) on.

The mesh was also tested thanks to my little ghost puppy that wondered up and down the steps with no issues.

Playing with Bodies

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Meet this poor sod. His job is to be dead, known only when found as a 'Half Frozen Body' yet he is a key figure to this tower.

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I tell you getting a npc to ragdoll down a hill in a manner that don't look like full on derp was a royal pain in the *ahem* I guess this pose works... would have liked his arm to dangle off the edge but that sends the rest of his body over. It wont be long until the player finds out who this poor fool is, and how he ended up dead.

 

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The idea behind the body is so when you look down from the end of the walkway, you not only see him laying there on the ledge, but further down you also notice his staff, as well as the dropped satchel that holds the key to the tower.

Now I use to have the key on the body, however I noticed on a few tests he seems to go poof and not be there. Unsure why, so I chose to add the key to a satchel instead to be sure its always there. The staff was also added to help draw the player to that location to see the satchel as well. There will also be a letter inside it addressed to someone else warning about well.. what ended up happening.

With all this I now say the outside is finished. Now onto the inside.

 

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Setting up the Inside

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Yep... that is the inside of the tower. Or outside view of the inside. So why am I using this, instead of say the tower kit? Simple... the tower kit is TO BIG. Call me picky, but I hate seeing places where the inside is much bigger than the outside. To me it just makes no sense. So instead I use the exterior set bits. The downside is these bits  share an inside and outside mesh making working with in a little harder.

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There it is again with the doorway mesh and the front upper wall hidden. Now it may be hard to see from this, but there is more room in here than you think. No this isn't scaled up, though the bottom is as I was going nuts trying to align it with the tower shell and not have gaps >.>

So first order with this tower is setting up the door and linking them, as well as adding in the trap door to the cellar. Trust me when I say I wish I knew how to edit the collision of mesh's, as I would edit the mesh with the stairs to cut out a hole for a hidden passageway and use the space under the stone steps.

I have thought of using the normal walls like at the top, but there are no extra stairways that would work with a round build like this.

 

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Now one issue with these tower bits is that they have a lot of unwanted windows that are just cut holes in the mesh. I would much rather place the windows in spots I want, vs where the mesh says they go... and trust me as lot are in bad spots. So the fix? Use pillars to stuff into the spaces. They don't look that bad, looking more like supports if anything.

 

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Let's get the floors sorted. As said the space in this tower is a lot bigger then it appears. Enough space for 4 floors really! Here I am adding the 2nd floor. The stairway has a nice flat gap that works well for this. I'm scaling this walkway UP to fill in the space, trying to get that one post centered in the half ring below. There is a gap left in that one corner however.

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But that little gap is filled in with a smaller walkway set so the post is in the corner as a nice split, dupped it and pulled it up for the top, added some railings and that finished the foundation for the 2nd floor.

Now all that is left is cluttering the floors up, this'll be the fun part!

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