[WIPz] Silverhop

[the-manta]

Okay, so some time ago some madness possessed me to build a village. It eventually lost momentum, and the project was shelved for some time. With the release of Wellspring Vale...

.........

.........

(this is a pause for you to go download that mod )

.........

.........

... I was inspired once more to get village-building. Anywho, after a little while, some other project distracted me, and it was shelfed once again. For some time I was busy with a house mod (which is nearly finished and will be one day. I promise), then the ORE 12 Mods of Christmas was announced, and I was suddenly busy with that. Then I realised that I had only a week or so to finish, and had essentially nothing, so I pulled out. I don't know what made me go back to the village, but I did. So, enough about that, here's something about the mod:

The village is named Silverhop, it got its name from its location- it is spread from one bank of the river, on to an island in the middle, and then to the far bank. The river, I believed, was the Silverfish River, hence the village 'hopped' over the 'silver'. I later realised that it was in fact, hopping over te Panther River. Now, Pantherhop just does not have the same ring, so I plan to pin the name on an incompetent cartographer who founded the village. So far, the village has:

- an inn

- a smithy

- a sheep paddock and shepherd's house

- a mage's house with library and other mage-ly stuff

- a graveyard and gravekeeper's house

- a general store

- three more houses

- one home to a bard/writer and the village scout

- one which will be a player house

- one which is currently has no purpose (see below)

So, the purposeless house. What do you think should go there? It's a medium-sized, unkempt-looking house just at the etrance of the village. I'm thinking maybe an old Legion soldier who's kind of retired but works as the village watch, let me know your ideas.

OK, enough writing, time for some pictures:

^The Silverhop Inn^

^A cookie and a hug for the first one to get the reference^

^The empty house^

More pictures tomorrow if you like these

[greenwarden]

This looks great! I love the height variation of the landscape, and the overall character of the place. I'll think about purposes for the empty house.

[Yevic]

Love it!

We need more swamp oriented locations

And Dear old Dampes a long way from Kakariko, don't you think?

Edited December 10, 2010 by Yevic

[Beana]

Dampe? Is a Zelda reference? I really look forward to seeing more!!

*edit.. I need to read better.. I see yev's comment already asks

[Cydonian_Knight]

I love villages, and this one looks like it's going to be great. Good luck with this!

[the-manta]

Well, I know I said that only the first reference finder got the cookie and the hug but...

Yev:

Beana:

Thanks for the comments everyone The height variation is one of the two things I'm really keen to have in the town (the other being its division by the water), but I'm trying to avoid going too far with the whole "walkways and trees" thing. I've included the one walkway around the tree (visible in the first screenie) but I don't think I want to take it much further; that's something that is best kept for villages which will do it wholeheartedly (ewok style ).

I'm slightly concerned that this project could snowball, and end up being a village compilation- I already have ideas for another village, but that's another story. More pictures soon

Edited December 10, 2010 by the-manta

[the-manta]

OK, new screenies

^the signs are just placeholders, I'll have to retex them eventually ^

^gravekeeper's house and graveyard^

^the scout and the writer in their home^

^The library^

[InsanitySorrow]

Looks very nice so far

[greenwarden]

I was waiting for you to update this thread, since I was just ogling the new screenies in the gallery. I am really liking this place. I immediately had questions when I saw the pics- "I wonder who's sitting in that library now, out of the range of the camera?" "Are the bard and the scout as fun to hang out with as they look?" etc.

[the-manta]

Glad you're liking the look of the village so far, and Greenie, I'm glad that the shots make you think Next on the agenda will be to finish the interior cluttering and lighting, and then on to my less relished tasks of pathgridding, AI and some more landscaping. I have one little problem that maybe you folks can help me with: In the picture with the scout and the bard you can see a two-sided fireplace. It's a really useful piece; it fits well with the LC leyawiin set and can be stuck anywhere, but it appears that they are part of the SI settlement set. I've never loaded SI with the village .esp, yet still these items are in the CS, will this be the case for all the users, or will the mod require Shivering Isles if I want to use the piece?

[greenwarden]

With that fireplace, I think your mod will require SI. Not 100% sure though, so hopefully someone else can give a definite answer.

Another option is to have a look at Meo's Modular Fireplaces. The lowerclass Bravil fireplaces work really well in Leyawiin's houses, but they aren't two-sided, so maybe a little less cool that way.

[WhoGuru]

Yep that fireplace is a SI asset. Now, if you don't want a SI requirement for the mod that's easy. You can find a different fireplace to your liking here and there's plenty to choose from!

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27171

[ub3rman123]

SI integrates itself with the Oblivion.esm. The SHiveringIsles.esp actually is just a small placeholder file that starts the SI quests. If you don't use SI resources, your mod most likely won't require it. And if you do, I'm certain that the most that would happen with a static item is that it doesn't appear or shows as a missing mesh.

[the-manta]

Hrmph, I see. Well I'll have a look at Meos stuff thanks guys.

[WhoGuru]

SI integrates itself with the Oblivion.esm. The SHiveringIsles.esp actually is just a small placeholder file that starts the SI quests. If you don't use SI resources, your mod most likely won't require it. And if you do, I'm certain that the most that would happen with a static item is that it doesn't appear or shows as a missing mesh.

yes but using anything that is added by the Shivering Isles will mean that your mod MUST be dependent on SI. Changing that fireplace will save him having a needless dependency.

[the-manta]

EruditeDragon asked me in the shouty how this project was progressing, so I thought I should get back to work on it (it's been somewhat dormant over the holidays). I'll have more pics later today hopefully, but for now, allow me to bounce some ideas around.

I'm probably going to release V1 of the village once it is fully constructed and all the NPCs have AI, then work on quests and dialogue for V2.

So far I only have have one real quest idea (although I hope to add at least one or two more) which I will post in spoilers here just because I can't help but share ideas when I think of them:

The quest will centre (of course) around the spooky old gravekeeper's house, and will most likely be given by the local shepherd(ess?).

-Basically, she will mention in an offhand way that Dampe the gravekeeper recently purchased a live sheep from her, and she has seen no sign of it since.

-This will allow you to question old Dampe as to what he wants with a sheep, and what he's done with it.

-Now there's a slightly hazy patch, which will probably involve Dampe making up a silly explaination for the sheep, and the player being left to their own devices.

-The player, if they have an ounce of initiative, will discover the poorly concealed entrance to the gravekeepers basement.

-Inside they will discover... a vampire!

-The vampire will reveal that Dampe caught him feeding from a fresh corpse awaiting a 'coffin-fitting' ( :barf: ) and after the vampire explained his sorrowful existance (spending his life in the shadows, feeding from humans as rarely as he dares), felt sorry for him. Now he lives in the basement, going out some nights to hunt deer or bandits, but after being spotted by the necromancers in the nearby ayleid ruin, is now afraid to go out too often. So Dampe bought the sheep for him to feed off of.

-Now I'm not quite sure exactly where the quest will go. I think it'll involve taking the vampire to somewhere he can live safely (but where ), with an optional method of giving him a vampirism cure potion if you have one on you.

-Player is rewarded with nifty artifact of some sort.

I have built the basement and added the vampire NPC, but I'm thinking maybe they should be removed for the initial release, and added when I add quests. Discovering a vampire hidiing in the basement and learning that all he does is discuss food production hotspots of Cyrodiil would suck.

So that's the idea. I know it's rather early in the day to be planning the quests, but the idea just came to me while I was cluttering the creepy gravekeeper's house.

What do you guys think of the two stage release idea? Would it be better to wait until it's entirely finished before releasing?

EDIT: one other thing I need an opinion on- the walkway you can see in the very first shot. I don't like it. It goes, rather pointlessly, from a grubby corner behind the sheepfold to a blank wall on the side of the inn. There is no reason to make that journey, even if the little bbit around the tree might be nice to stand on. I'm planning on cutting it, unless anyone really wants it to stay.

Edited January 8, 2011 by the-manta

[Meo]

Im not a big fan of quest being added later in V2, but if you think it would be a while before the second release, i guess its alright.

Walkways are always nice, except when they serve no purpose. Its up to you.

Did you find a replacement for your fireplace, if not, id be happy to make you a custom one.

[the-manta]

No need, you already have Im using a bravil style fireplace from your modular fireplaces pack, which works very well with the Leyawiin LC set

[Meo]

I knew i was fast but that must be a world record, the Nostradamus modeler

[the-manta]

predict and provide!

[the-manta]

Well I've been doing some more cluttering, but this bug has slowed my progress. Feel free to take a look at that thread- if you can fix it, this project will be done sooner

[the-manta]

Well, it's about time I added the pictures I meant to ages ago. It became another of those things where I thought, I'll do it tomorrow, then forgot Anyway, I've been doing interior cluttering, so here's a few of my favourite spots:

guess which house:

The scout's personal space:

And (separated only by a thin wall of whatever it is they build with in county Leyawiin...) the bard's presonal space:

And the library:

It looks different now because I decided it was time I replaced the placeholders you can see in the earlier library pic (all copies of common books ctrl+D ed repeatedly). I couldnt face arranging them in the usual way, so I'm using Garak's Booksets

Those of you involved in the Clutterer's Guild may spot some of your work in there

[the-manta]

Well, having read an excellent town modding guide by Shezrie, I have decided not to release this mod until it is finished, which means it will be a while longer. Hopefully, though it will mean I will keep hold of the enthusiasm I need to complete the quests etc. And I don't really think anyone is holding their breath waiting for this Also in the guide is a tip I have already broken, recommending that no overview shots should be released. Oops. Anyway, I'm making a few minor changes to the design of the town (and one major one... [/"tantalising hint"] ) and you shall have no more overviews

ahem.

[the-manta]

Just a little update here so I can pretend people are interested Cluttering is now done except for the general store (the shopkeep's quarters and store-room are done, it's just the shop floor I'm dreading), the inn (sigh, large space), the player house, and the empty house which I completely forgot about.

On that note, if anyone feels like a little cluttering, they're welcome to the empty house (they can do the inn too if they want). This would be a huge favour to me as I am desperate to finish this mod before November, and need all the help I can get and anyone who took on the project would receive hugs, cookies, readme credit and creative license to do whatever they want with the space (well, within reason).

Another favour up for grabs: I need four signs retextured- one for the village, one for the inn, one for the shop and one for the smith. Only the Village sign would need to have any text- the others could simply be the relevant symbols. Again, hugs, cookies and readme credit for anyone who can help me out

EDIT: favour number two has been fulfilled by Meo, who has been duly rewarded

EDIT 2:

Thought I'd post a quick screenshot of Meo's wonderful work

Not the best light I know, but the thunderstorm looked very atmospheric in game

Edited February 26, 2011 by the-manta

[the-manta]

I've been neglecting this thread a little, but that's mostly because I've been neglecting the project somewhat too. Oh well, I don't think anyone's really noticed (including this one, the last six posts in this thread are by me ). Anyway, there's been a little progress. Three things, actually:

- More cluttering, because that's never quite done

- The chapel has been modified quite significantly; I just couldn't live with those walls, I had to replace them

- The inn has finally received some love, and the general layout and cluttering is complete (although it needs a little polishing I think)

The chapel now:

The inn so far:

Once AI is done, Silverhop will be probably slightly more detailed (and considerably larger I believe) than most of the vanilla fillages (that's filler villages)- it is really starting to take shape and actually look finished. It isn't, of course, but it looks like it is

Still definitely to do:

- AI for all

- Script for the inn (rentable room)

- Script for the player home

Still maybe to do:

- The dungeon under the town (not sure about this- it may or may not get done)

- Dialogue (I would really like to have dialogue, it just depends on whether I can get it working)

- Quests (as with dialogue; I would like a quest or quests, but it would require learning a whole new element of modding, so we'll see)

Still maybe maybe to do:

- Voice acting. I am always saddened by silent dialogue, and I find it is one of the greatest separators between vanilla and modded, so if I add dialogue, I would love to add voice acting. Once again though, this would require a whole lot more learning. We'll see.

Looking over this list, the amount of things that would require me to learn new things, while they will slow down the mod considerably, mean that this mod will hopefully make me a far better modder. A well-done village can (but doesn't have to; no offense to the well-done villages that don't) include every aspect of modding, and that is a very nice prospect indeed