Claim Info: Grasslands

[morcroft]

Claim Type: Landscape
Region: Grasslands

The northern grasslands should blend through from Cyrodiil's West Weald to scrub oaks and wet grasslands in the north, gradually drying into arid savannah towards the central badlands.

Towards the north there will be good growing regions so there should be some farms.

Both these pictures have been taken from somewhere near Dune.


Northern grasslands - Riverhold just visible


Savannah - Orcrest in the distance

All areas have been automatically region generated. Each region will need the existing objects bedding into the ground so that flora and trees don't float or show corners above the ground. Textures need cleaning up - especially "jaggies" created where texture blending fails. Also add additional objects, especially flora from the standard list below. Please make sure to add appropriate ground textures and vertex shading. Existing objects can be moved or deleted, but don't forget to clean up the existing vertex shading and textures while you're at it.

If you select a claim that extends beyond the "playable boundary" (solid black line on the picture) you only need to make the portion inside the boundary really clean: as long as the portion outside the boundary looks OK from a distance it'll be fine. If you take such a claim please check one extra cell beyond the claim edge (outside the boundary) in case there is anything so out of place it can be seen from the playable area. Don't spend much time on these distant cells, though.

Please try to use only the ground textures that start "EC" - we are likely to retexture some of these globally. Similarly, if there's a texture you really need please post in the claim thread before just using a vanilla texture: most likely we'll want to create a new object for it.

Roads outside settlements should be textured using the ECDirtRoad textures - they are likely to be indifferently maintained so odd clumps of grass texture in the middle of the road should look good. If your claim includes a junction please put something interesting there.

There will need to be some point of interest for every 8 - 10 cells or so: a habitation, camp, dungeon etc. You don't have to add anything, but if you find a great spot for something please either create it yourself or point it out in the Exploration thread.

The icons shown on the map are named places from TOYB's grand scheme. They should ideally be kept in the cell where they are displayed on the map but this may not be possible depending on the terrain. If a location really needs to be moved please raise the issue in the claim thread first - we will certainly need to adjust the map and there may be lore reasons to consider in the move.

Locations names have been added to the individual claim threads.

Submit any general questions about the region in general to this thread. Anything specific to your claim should be posted in the corresponding thread.

Flora
Select plants from the following lists, but feel free to mix it up a bit to get a smooth blend. You could also check the region generation presets to see what was intended - the presets may well not have achieved the result desired from the region generator. If you want to use other "real" vanilla plants please check their actual habitat - the plants here have been fairly well matched to the conditions in Elsweyr.

Wet Grassland plants:

Elsweyr

• Catnip
  
• Parasol mushroom
  
• Puffball

Shrubs

• Azalea
  
• Boxwood
  
• Daphne (in flower)
  
• Elderberry
  
• Elderberry (with berries)
  
• Euonymus
  
• Sagebrush

Trees

• Cottonwood
  
• Dogwood
  
• Grey Poplar
  
• Juniper
  
• Tamarisk

Stock

• Flax
  
• Ginseng
  
• Monk's Hood
  
• Nightshade
  
• Peony
  
• Primrose
  
• St Jahn's Wort
  
• Tiger Lily
  
• Goldenrod

Grassland / savannah plants:
Elsweyr

• Akaviri Lantern
  
• New Zealand "Cabbage Tree"
  
• Catnip
  
• Hibiscus (3)
  
• Snakeskin Russula
  
• Spike Plant
  
• Puffball

Shrubs

• Azalea
  
• Boxwood
  
• Elderberry
  
• Elderberry (with berries)
  
• Euonymus
  
• Jade Tree
  
• Sagebrush

Trees

• Acacia
  
• Cottonwood
  
• Sycamore
  
• Tamarisk

Stock

• Arrowroot
  
• Flax
  
• Nightshade
  
• Peony
  
• Tiger Lily
  
• Goldenrod

Dry Grassland
Elsweyr

• Akaviri Lantern
  
• New Zealand "Cabbage Tree"
  
• Catnip
  
• Desert Rose
  
• Dragon Arum
  
• Pebbleplant
  
• Saffron
  
• Spike Plant
  
• Tripoint Cactus

Shrubs

• Boxwood
  
• Jade Tree
  
• Sagebrush

Trees

• Acacia
  
• Cottonwood
  
• Sycamore
  
• Tamarisk

Stock

• Aloe Vera
  
• Arrowroot
  
• Goldenrod

Notes
The tree Acacia01 is our "signature tree" and needs to be placed with care - no more than one per five cells, and generally less frequent than that. The smaller varieties should increase in frequency down to the bush Acacia - basically a simple thorn bush which should be all over the dry areas.

Update 4-Sep-11
All roads in this claim region have been completed.

[morcroft]

I've updated this and all the Grasslands claim posts to include the location information which I now have from TOYB.

If you want to mod the landscape for a claim that includes a location you can choose either to mod the location or not - it's really up to you. If you'd rather not mod the location we can open up a separate claim for it after you've done.