[WIPZ]Amarantha

[Vouivre]

I thought I would update this since a decent level of progress has been made. On the hand drawn map I have(not on the computer) I got better idea on what i want for regions. Location wise, name wise? That's something all together different. Now on the side I figured out with playing with weather systems how to make a nice little add on. Only problem I have is this. Do I want to include it only in my world space, or make it into a resource of sorts for others to use (it's simply done really) Or try tweaking the vanilla weather system hoping for compatibility with other weather mods to include this new one. Never the less I plan on adjusting things so I can have the new weather type. It's a very rare phenomenon in weather, so chances of seeing it are very very very small. Vanilla's thunderstorms are at 5% as is. The snow thunderstorm probably would be down to 1%. I've found that for it to work best, a darker night mod is ideal to see the flashes at night. during the day, it can go either way. Just hear thunder, or see the occasional flash(hard with the vanilla daylight being so bright)

[Vouivre]

Update: I don't like necroing things but I've put it off for a long time. So here's the latest

My activity is minimal in terms of my time in the shouty and such however project wise, I've restarted working, one of these projects is this one. Now I have one region drawn up and generated, a second one I am currently working on and it will be in numerous sections. But I need your help guys as it's a small(me and small means massive) problem. The mountains I created are a tad steep. Now this could be a good thing. My question is this: What should I add/do to add flavor to the slopes to make it look better, before the region creation is started? Things like paths, fissures rifts plateaus cliffs?

[the-manta]

I'm glad you're still working at this I think cliffs are always good, and if you want people to be able to get onto the mountains, paths are essential. Perhaps there could be precarious rickety bridges and walkways? They're always nice Fissures and rifts are probably not really achievable within Oblivion's landscaping system, but I suppose they would be pretty cool. Also, I think the odd ruin or ancient monument really adds to the overall effect of the region, so that would be nice. Oh, and waterfalls, never enough waterfalls

Hope that's given you some food for thought

[Vouivre]

I'm already working on some paths, I got some ideas to play with the notion of fissures/rifts. One path lead me up to a 40kft mountain peak. Needless to say, the walk up there's gonna be a long hike, The hardest thing really is working the regions so everything gets coated/created. I got some ideas to as how/what I'm gonna do. be prepared for some screenies of both CS and ingame workings.

[Vouivre]

Small update:

Added a new landmass area to explore. This one will be something special. You'll know it when you see it.

Regions are going smoothly as well. Going to start working on the southern continent starting with the Forest south of Haven and working on down to the coast which will be a swampy/marshy area. Definitely look out for actual screenshots coming in the future.

[the-manta]

just posting so you know I'm still watching this. Sounds so epic ^^

[Vouivre]

Thanks I'm still working on the regions, they're about... 50% done being drawn. I'm contemplating adding a desert/arid region. Question is do I add it to what I have already? or do I add yet another behemoth land mass? I already added one for a new special location So far basically I got the following regions set up with 'rough' looks

Haven- Great forest region style

Mountains- obviously mountains

waterways/ocean/bays- obvious

Armantha forest- Great forest with some west weald works for the red trees and such.

Southern region near the coast on the west side of Dragon Tail Mountains- Swampier region like Blackwood/Blackmarsh(in my mind)

Northern region- Greatly much like Bruma area possibly some unique areas like a frozen lake if I can find such a texture. And I'm playing with making a rift(tear in the earth like a canyon perhaps)

Special area between north and south- This will be an interesting area, a lot of mountains in the beginning a lot more landscaping for numerous waterfalls After this it'll be a very broad river probably some islands if not more built up land.

Eastern side of the Dragon tail mountains- I'm debating on forests and plains, or adding the arid region in there and extending the landmass a little bit Thoughts?

Eden- Island which will probably make use of the camoran's paradise maps.

NEW!

Recent screenshot of mine shows my "take" on the argonaths. This region will be very mountainous but will house a magnificent city but most importantly it will house the new Varlasel and it's towers that pierce the heavens. This region will not be snowy(except for the highest mountains) instead it will be much like the paradise but also mixed with the great forest. This will be perhaps the one region that will be hand done more than anything else.

Notes on the Northern region

I will be making some caverns, or rather perhaps 'placeholders' for them. Have not decided these could be ideal for clutterers, or just a means to explore. There will be one that will serve as a tunnel between areas, this will be cluttered fully. There'll be a few little spots here and there I'll add architecture. Including the savage garden

Other notes:

A small fishing hamlet of sorts and wherever I do the arid region I'll be making sure to have some desert style constructs and making it as pretty as I can.

A few misc islands maybe created especially a volcano as I already know how I'll handle the volcanic islands. rest assured it'll be a dynamic area.

UPDATE:

Almost all the regions are drawn in with the exception of the large open areas the gorge, the new northern region and the arid/desert regions. All that is left for regions is generation. which will take hours and hours to do, which would bring me to thursday at the earliest. My birthday is a more probable time period. From there on everything else will be hand placing, touch ups hand tweaking and painting paths/roads, making little vistas and scenic spots. I'll clutter only the things that I feel that need to be cluttered. As it stands everything is there for eye candy. I have a lot of landscaping to do especially in many mountains, this will take the longest as I need to carve paths out paint the paths in and adjust anything/everything back to terrain.

Current percentage to completion is about 30-50%. ETA if all goes well a month before skyrim at the earliest. Before 2012 Spring Semester beginning is more plausible. Expect more updates in the future.

Status completed:

Region Drawing: 95%

Region Generation: 0%

Land Creation and height map: 99%(possible chance of a few special islands)

Land clutter, unique locations, misc structures(towns caves ect ect): 0%

Misc: 0%

Weather/Border:0%

Edited July 26, 2011 by Vouivre

[Vouivre]

Been 2 days and time for an update. I'm nearing the home stretch of things to do. Here's the list

Region generation: Generate everything

Hand do certain areas such as the newest area where there'll be plenty of awe inspiring things to encounter.

Possibly add volcanic islands a new little thing I've been playing with ideas for.

Hand tweak/paint everything to blend seams together

architecture and caves/dungeons

possible villages/cities- I think certain people in the community can enjoy making places in there, their own little home.

The final thing to do is packaging, this is the ONLY thing I'm purely worried about, I'm thinking extracting everything and then putting them in BSA's simply for organization and easier to deal with.

[Vouivre]

Hitting a rather nasty impass at the moment. My esp file... does not want to merge with the master. Which is bad because it sets me back by at least a week's worth of work and hours of region generation.

[Vouivre]

update: If gecko plays nice tonight, then the latest set of regions will be completed. One more mountain patch and then all will be go for the wide open areas, and finally hand touchups. Hopefully if all goes well on the technical side, I will be done with the hard computer work and the rest is artistic.

[the-manta]

So I take it you worked out the merging problem then? Muchly good work from this thread Will there be WiPz shots when you start the artistic work?

[Vouivre]

There will be. Right now I'm fighting with gecko because even a smaller esp file to merge is taking forever and I'm thinking the master maybe too much for it. I might have to re-generate the mountains on another esp and break it down into smaller pieces. Overall this will be done one way or another, The only complications is the tools I have to use not having enough memory/power to handle the workload.

Edit: Looks like gecko will not merge the latest work. So I'll be redoing the generation and have to split it up in smaller sections.

Edit 2: I'll have to do some.. cheeky work for things meaning regions will have to be broken down in smaller pieces for generation and proper merging. Which I think this MAYBE why games like oblivion takes forever. Basically here's what I'm looking at for regions numbers will be the probable esp's used.

Region generation:

Shiverpoint mountains- 8

Dragon Eye Mountains- 4

Gorge - 3

Armantha Forest 8-16

Armantha Swamp area- 4-8

Canal(name Pending)- 2-4

Eden- 2-4

Arid region(name pending) 8-10

Shiverpoint Forest- 4-8 (maybe less)

Rhone(name pending) 5-10

Landscaping/texture touchups:

I'm currently looking at hopefully not a lot of work in terms of technical fixing. only aesthetics. Here's my plans for each region

Haven:

couple 'druid' glades and some added waterworks and waterfalls basically it' be the first area to check out(hopefully, or not)

Armantha Swamps:

Some touchups a savage garden region(aka cemetary hoping to make it look good)

Possible landing/starting point.

Fishing village/hamlet?

Armantha Forest(near Haven)

water streams a few bodies of water here and there. Perhaps some custom scripted runestones... maybe lesser powers? We'll see!

Large lake and forest leading north

Gorge:

This will be a central region with a lot of rock bridges and waterfalls and bodies of water. Leading down into the valley where hopefully I'll have a delta formed with a fishing hamlet at the end at the shore.

Area around gorge/gorge valley

Either forested or plains, haven't decided exactly however southwards will be forest which will transition to the more arid region.

Arid region-name pending

Badlands, transitioning to savanna and then to desert. There'll be a couple little places in here like a ruined town which was once great. A desert island( or maybe something very unique and not sure if anyone tried it yet)

Eden-

Paradise maybe a few other things, not 100% sure what will be here. expect it to look nice either way

Rhone-

Newest addition, this will be greeting others with two large statues along the river(think argonoths) which will then lead to the grand city and new version of Varlasel. Hopefully a retex job will do wonders, either way this will be a very unique region

Misc

There will be an aerie in haven a small "village" high in the mountains. Perhaps even some eagles if I can find the resources. Other sites will include

Perfect condition Ayleid fanes

Icy caverns

caverns

areas for people to make a town or a beautiful home(you know who you are!)

Ayleid ruins made just for show

ruined town

Promontory

rock bridges and archways

Stunning views

Perhaps some.. "Spires" which pierce the heavens as special landmarks for highest points in the world.

And quite literally a lot of ground to cover.. literally. Be prepared to run a lot or perhaps fly over the land.

I strongly advise using obge to make the most out of it.

Screenies to come should all go to plan... before september.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Vouivre

[Vouivre]

Update, All regions are drawn up, my current esm is 34 mega. Only things left for me to do is begin the generation and name my arid regions. Any ideas I'm all for them.

So far so good esm is 40 something mb and I have the southern mountains, haven, my delta's water, river, 2 bays and the gorge mountains all generated.

I still got the gorge forest, Armantha forest, ocean region, arid regions, northern forest/artic areas to do as well as the one large island. Hopefully the memory size is minimal so I by tuesday or wednsday begin hand working on things. Screenies ingame will come soon after.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Vouivre

[Vouivre]

An important update

Currently I have some things figured out as regions are being generated as we speak. Here's the stats so far

Desert region will now be known as Rubiss Desert, it currently is nearing the 80-90% generation mark

Rhone's Arctic region is completely generated

Armantha's Swampy region is 100% just needs texture touchups due to elevation/angle issues nothing major imo

Armantha Forest regions will be nearing the 50% mark within a couple days if not 100%

Rhone forest is about 5% completed in terms of generation A lot needs to be done.

Arid regions names are pending, what's left of these?

Bad land hills, plains and forest Possibly Cantlin or Mercadian/Mercado Badlands

Savannah- unknown.. we'll see how it looks when generated.

Eden- 0% it's islands and the mainland itself need to be drawn up and generated. a LOT of area to cover sadly.. I may try doing it all by hand later.. who knows.

Planned outposts(by Region):

Arid:

Isis- Jewel city of Rubiss Desert(Hopefully enough resources are possible aiming to use the Dune resource pack3 that was made available with no ties to have to contribute to the project) And other desert Architecture

Hauksness Ruined aka Dondruma- Desert village in ruin, probably sunken in the ground for effect of desert taken over. Using ruined kvatch most likely

Hauksness/Dondruma- New village all is well and probably using Desert architecture and maybe other influenced bits as well

Cantlin/Mercado(maybe)- In the Badlands, Fortified city

Outposts?

Armantha Forest:

Port Haven- the port in haven bay whether small or not who knows. Possibly the landing point for players to Armantha

Savage Garden- forgotten cemetary

Forgotten Castle- probably kvatch type area overrun by vegetation(thanks to victoria for inspiration with her reclaimed and chapel mods)

Aerie- High altitude settlement perhaps made more for a dragon's roost?(pending)

others...

Gorge:

Fishing hamlet on the delta- a small fishing village on the delta, similar to bravil but just a quiet fishing spot.

Planning on a small town in the forge itself nestled in the mountains and places can only be reached by bridges and mountain walkways

Rhone:

Savage Garden- frozen marshy cemetary, I have some ideas for it.. may ask the master for artsy stuff.

town/outpost or two

Palace of the Stars aka Varlasel City- Varlasel done completely over, hopefully to find a way to have completely clean ivory tower textures inside and out, to make it look like a proper new ayleid structure. It will be more lush than the surrounding area, only cold places are where the high towers will be. Yes towers. Not only will there be a great fane which goes underground but there will be a full palace and a small taste of the hanging gardens. (real beauty comes later)

Eden:

unknown city, I'm severely contemplating making a small version of Atlantis.. Three ringed city and all. How I would do this? I haven't a clue yet.

Because region generation is past the 50% point and all the hand work is coming closer to being started. I am going to be needing resources and help. Here's what I'm looking at.

Desert stuff:

There's limited resources on desert architecture and I seriously doubt the Dune team will let me use a lot more of their stuff. I'll be using the resource pack 3 for a lot of it.. hopefully the palace section is complete enough(he never finished the interior bits.... ugh) to make everything work how I'd like it too. This being said that'll be used if I can find stuff I can make good use of.

Tower resource- there's a tower resource I saw with some deserty looking stuff I can use.

Any other desert architecture maybe even if I can get my hands on where Iliana got Elsweyr stuff from with permission I'll use that.

Landscape stuff is minimal and miscelanious. Only minor stuff really like plants or rocks.. should be easy to find really(in theory)

Rhone region

I got icy cave resource which will look great, debating on the other bits like the nordic tomb and other nord items. Not too much to go here, any ideas on what to use here is great!

Armanthan region:

a lot of forested stuff with waterways(streams brooks and glades) so woodland stuff is nice, and maybe some medieval resources would do nicely for things. Not too much I don't think I can do.. unless someone can find me something like stone henge.. or something I can use..

Gorge:

My original plan was to make a town build over a land bridge literally a bridge over the land while water runs beneath it. However since I don't see anything large enough or possible of being large enough that won't lose it's collision in the process to use that idea may not work. I do have ideas though on how to get around it.. but eh.. who knows. If someone has something for a rocky area whether for towns or other things to make it look better great.

Things in general:

Because it is such a large mod and so much land, there'll be plenty of opportunities to put something new in where I might have missed. When I am done with the landscaping and ready to begin putting architecture in I will be asking for help a lot. If someone wants to add a town feel free, if they want it to be part of the master I'm all for it. My biggest worry will be the packaging and making sure everything is as bugfree as I can. This will probably require testing. But we'll see

If all goes well on time or earlier. I could be seeing a beta release by the time my winter break ends. Which means I'll probably be taking a break and play skyrim or bounce between skyrim work and this.

Current esm size is 108 mb.. not too bad with all that's generated thus far.

[Vouivre]

Small update(sad I have more posts on here than anyone else but anyway)

Region generation:

Rhone- 100%

Gorge- 100%

Haven- 100%

Mountains(all)- 100%

Armantha Forest and Swamp- 85%

Arid regions redux- 0%

Oceans redux- 0%(will not be a lot to do, as they will not be really traversable)

Expected generation completion- Before or just after my final exam.

Once this is all done I will begin the beautifying and fixing of things.

Armantha Beta Eta- At earliest, before skyrim(depending on schoolwork) More likely should all go smoothly, Winterbreak 2011

Edited August 13, 2011 by Vouivre