[Discuss] SKYCAL - Skyrim Common Asset Library

[worm82075]

I'm starting this thread to discuss the pros and cons of a common asset library(like COBL) for Skyrim.

Much like the hieghtmap for tamriel this is something everyone has to get behind for it to be viable. I know that COBL didn't go over very well because of the size of the download. I think we can overcome this issue by limiting the number of custom textures sumbited to the library. Also i think it would benefit from three seperate libraries.

• 1) Clutter - this would include all, books, ingredients, decorations, containers, activators, and any systems manipulating these such as sorting containers and manniquins, etc
  
• Just about any mod would acces this library from the smallest room addon to the largest worldspace mod.
  
• This library would begin as the only one and expand to include the next library at a later date.
  

• 2) Archtecture - this would include, new tile sets, interior and exterior expansions of existing tile sets, trees, rocks, water, etc
  
• Mostly large worldspace mods would use this library.
  

• 3) Weaopns and Armor - this would include fixes to vanilla items.
  
• Might be a while before this one gets organized but if the first two are sucessfull then ther will be a dmand for this.
  

Please share your thoughts on this matter and if we can get a consensus on a good outline we'll take it to BSF and poll it to gauge overall community interest.

[Khettienna]

I would keep it to one download. The only thing users hate more than dependencies and mods that require multiple file downloads are dependencies that have multiple downloads.

The download size of Cobl is only ~35 MB. If that is a large enough download for people to complain about, there is no hope for any similar project. None. I don't think that was the problem, though. Cobl had the potential to do a lot of things on its own and had a dozen features to learn. You could just use the .esm to fulfill mod dependencies without any gameplay changes, but users didn't want to have to sit down and figure all that out, you know?

Cobl's resources were often of fairly poor cosmetic quality, too, so there wasn't a lot of excitement to use it unless you really wanted the actual gameplay features it offered. WHICH WERE AWESOME, for the record.

All that said, if enough mods made use of a Cobl-like thing for Skyrim, and that Cobl-like thing included super common quality resources like booksets and container scripts and whatnot, then it could probably be very successful. It would certainly be a blessing to modders.

I would not include weapons and armor, because they are standalone mods already, and that would very quickly bloat the pack into an unruly size. Also, if you include armors, you'll have body replacer compatibility to fuss with, or at least pitchforks and torches asking for it, and that just seems like not where you mean to be going with this.

[worm82075]

Very good points, thank you for posting.