WIPz: Museum of Nirn

[Tigersong]

Nice, Wind. Your mod and Sutch Tavern are two that this one is looking forward to once he finds that pesky Oblivion disc.

[windclan]

270 resources downloaded. That is everything I felt would be useful from the 14 resource pages here and the 70 on the Nexus. Now to take a short break and then go pick out the items I need for this particular phase of detailing

[windclan]

As work presses ever onward with the Museum and the design teams work tirelessly under the guidance of the interior designer Lilith new objects continue to arrive.

Today the great artist Victoria arrived on the island. bringing with her a vast gallery of paintings so lifelike you would think the creatures and people would jump right off the canvas. The Head Curator has declared this collection of art as the Museum's first Special Exhibition.

(A very big thanks to Victoria for allowing me to add her massive collection of amazing screenshots to the pool of images I will make framed artwork out of.)

[InsanitySorrow]

You have help now

[windclan]

Been a while since I posted a status report. Not really a lot to report, Lilith is working on the workshops when she finds the time and I am sort of sitting idle...at least in terms of this project. Could only spend so long planning and tossing ideas around before I had to take a break. Starting to wonder now though, if there is an easy way to merge two esp files.

I know there are ways but whether they are easy to figure out or incredibly complicated I do not know. If I could do that though (and not have to worry about anything being lost in merging) then I could work on the exhibit side of things while Lilith continues to handle the furnishing and decor.

Anybody have any advice to offer on whether my lack of skill could handle an esp merge?

[InsanitySorrow]

Merging ESPs is pretty easy with TES4 Gecko. It's very easy to use with just a couple of clicks, most of which would be choosing the order your plugins are merged.

[windclan]

Just ran a test merge with a couple small quickly downloaded mods and it worked perfectly Hopefully the real thing will go as smoothly

[InsanitySorrow]

I'm sure it will

[windclan]

Ok, my museum merging test worked without any visible problems so while Lilith continues working on her side of things I will start working on creating things for the Art Gallery. Finally get around to using all the screenshots I've gathered from here...Anyone have requests? Weird requests will at least be considered so feel free to make them

[windclan]

The Museum's many art experts are out in the field now, scouring every gallery and private collection in Tamriel and beyond for works of art. Paintings, sketches, even images so lifelike it seems they are ready to jump off the canvas, it is all being bought or traded or borrowed, coming into the Museum storehouses for shipment to the Island. The wonder within the walls of the complex grow grander by the day.

[InsanitySorrow]

Good stuff

[windclan]

Ok people, serious announcement time.

Somehow I've only just realized (with a bit of help from Donnato) that this project has flown vastly out of my control. Another 3 months and this will have been active for a year...with next to nothing to show for it. Considering that this thing originally began as me wanting a nice display area for all my loot and has now become a vast museum spanning multiple worlds I would say the idea floodgates spent a little too much time wide open...or maybe a lot too much time. Put some thought into this and came up with 2 choices: 1: Cut content and lose about 98% of the plans...which considering how much time I've already put in would be more insane then I am quite willing to be right now. Or 2: Stop jumping around like a over caffeinated rabbit, moving between areas to stop from getting utterly sick of whatever I'm working on at the time and focus.

So that is what I am going to do. Work on a single building until it is done and release it so feedback and problems can be taken and fixed while I work on the next building. Since I am already working on the art gallery that is my new main priority. Going to build the gallery and continue to gather pictures from every source I can possibly find while Lilith continues her work on the workshops. With luck I might have something to show off via release by July.

[donnato]

Wait, whut..? There`s a whole world space with exteriors to show for your time...not to mention the content you`ve already shown. WC, a year is only relevant to your expectations. As long as you still believe in the project, time is irrelevant. Rest if you must...take breaks...it`ll come back to you...call to you...much like my Imperial Fleet does me, 3 years later. Keeping track of all the files must be difficult. I have faith that you will succeed.

I wish I could help more, but, I`ll see what I can do with what we`ve spoken about.

[windclan]

More news from the depths of the Museum's halls

I have reigned in my enthusiasm slightly, have stopped collecting pictures for the gallery for the moment. Will resume once Don finishes putting together frames and I can see how many paintings I will have.

I have also settled on a design plan for the Art Gallery. In the interest of A: Not having gigantic spaces when I am only really using wall space and B: Not overloading anybody's computer by having too much in a single cell I am taking a Many Cell approach. My plan is to divide up the paintings I make, giving each forum member their own cell and placing all of their work in there.

The Museum Library is also going to be redesigned (yes for a third time...I am very picky about my Library ) It will have a similar set-up to the Gallery plan, with different cells holding different types of books. The blueprints are also being enlarged due to the fact that several of the Nexus World exhibit halls are being cut from their building.

Realized that having rooms for what would amount to just more pictures and accompanying info sheets in many cases was a lot of work I didn't really need to do. So instead I plan to make use of what seems to be my most developed modding skill: Book-Making. The images and info sheets will now be combined into books and scrolls instead, further enhancing the Museum's main feature and likely saving me untold amounts of work.

The only thing I still need to make that plan work is a good tutorial on how to add images to books/scrolls and whether they have to be a specific size. Anyone know of a good tutorial that explains these things? Could google it but makes sense to ask the experts first

[Tamira]

The only thing I still need to make that plan work is a good tutorial on how to add images to books/scrolls and whether they have to be a specific size. Anyone know of a good tutorial that explains these things?

The CS Wiki always is a good source

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php/Book_Formatting

[windclan]

Ok, got the first dozen or so names on the creature list and a pretty good plan for the building of the display area for the many statues. Rather then my original plan of doing seperate rooms for Animals, Undead, Daedra, Etc...I will instead be doing a larger number of small rooms and displaying as many varieties of each creature as I can find. Small info sheets will give the basics but for a true look into the individual creatures you'll have to peruse the Nexus Bestiary, the Museum of Nirn's compendium of every creature we know of, both on Nirn and on other worlds connected to the Nexus.

[windclan]

Thanks to Don's help I have nearly finished building the Hall of Creatures. The only area remaining is the Hall of Daedra, then I can start adding the statue pedestals in. Also finally decided what to do about golems in the Museum. I have made the decision that they will have a display area in the Tower of Magic rather then inside the Hall of Creatures.

 

So the current areas that will have creature statues on display:

 

Hall of Creatures

                          Hall of Animals

                          Hall of Undead

                          Hall of Daedra

                          Hall of Monsters

Dwemer Hall

Tower of Magic

                          Hall of Golems

[lilith]

Yay!

 

And a for donnato too!

[donnato]

Aww ...t`werent nothin` ... just a little simple selecting and some finagling...glad to be of service.

[windclan]

I am quite amused, find it funny that even though I made the rooms themselves larger the pedestals still have to be made smaller to fit right. At least finding a good height was fairly easy Nice black and white marble pedestals for the statues

[windclan]

25 bookshelves placed so far...think it will be enough for now at least. Had to remove part of the main library and make the extra cell into the reading room. But that is what extra cells are for, backup plans

[windclan]

Also have to say that I rather enjoy seeing other museums opening up throughout Tamriel.

[windclan]

Geckos Ravage Museum

 

Pirates invaded the Island today, namely the Argonian Captain Julaza and his ship the Golden Gecko. With a large part of the Island's guards away protecting expeditions and shipments the brigands were able to take everyone by surprise, capturing a number of crates from the docks and badly injuring several of the construction mages before the remaining guards could gather and drive them back to sea.

 

The Head Curator has already summoned more guards from the Museum's mainland holdings to prevent any further attacks but the pirates have set the work back greatly. The entirety of the Hall of Creatures and the Library were lost to the void after the mages working on them were attacked. Fortunately nobody was inside them at the time so no lives were lost but the building work will take time to restore.

 

Of far greater concern though is the loss of half a dozen crates of valuable objects stolen from the docks. The Curator has already sent notices out to every port in Tamriel, both to allow the guards to keep watch for the pirate's ship as well as to hire mercenaries and adventurers to recover the missing crates.

 

(Yes, I did just turn horrible news into the potential for a quest...I don't even let disasters go to waste in this project.)

[lilith]

WC

 

Excellent narrative!

 

[windclan]

The Library has been fully rebuilt and the Hall of Creatures should be restored tomorrow Also I am officially making the recovery of the stolen artifacts from the Golden Gecko a quest. Seems like one that would be fairly simple and not too troublesome to work on once I get that far. And of course there will be some sort of interesting reward for the brave souls who undertake the quest, just don't know what yet