EGRD0101 "Xarphyrial Marsh Elf Capital" (Marked for Adaptation)

[jb3]

As I can see in CS, there are currently 4 levels of Xarphyrial. These are:

1. Upper Xarphyrial (Xar02): which seems like a base.
   
2. Xarphyrial Halls of the Marsh King (Xar03)
   
3. Xarphyrial Altars of Sorrow (Xar04): with some secret doors and skeleton encounters
   
4. Xarphyrial the Maze (Xar05)
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   All the above levels seem to be finished, yet quite raw. Indeed they seem large, especially the Maze.
   
   So what you're saying is we could add another level, something like BMDunXar06? I take it the same Ayleid vanilla bricks to be used. I wonder how this new level would be connected to the already existing parts.

[Deeza]

As I understand it, you'd need to do a search and replace on the vanilla bits to replace them with our own textures.

[jb3]

For all the Xar ruins? :pop: As I checked in CS, they seem to be entirely made of vanilla Ayleid blocks. As of now.

That actually sounds quite interesting. A separate set of exterior textures could be prepared, perhaps along with some (hopefully minor) mesh modifications. That would give Xar a unique look.

Plus we might still "throw in" a level or two, since I hear they are intended to be huge and epic.

Is my understanding correct?

[Deeza]

We already have a set of completely retextured Ayleid ruins pieces. I believe that it is possible to do a search and replace on whole cells, but Ibsen can tell you more I think.

[jb3]

Hm. Yes, indeed, I checked that. They look greenish vs vanilla silver ones. The models have BM letters at the end, example:
vanilla: ARPitWallTall01
BM retex: ARPitWallTall01BM

I actually found this set of Phitt's dungeon toys, marked as modders resource. They look quite decent, no?

[Deeza]

Aah, yes. I was planning to use that in High Rock (sort of a tribute to the chunky dungeons in TES2), but my plans never really materialised. It's a really good set, but it has the sort of old-school D&D look to it which doesn't really fit in BM in my opinion. Nonetheless, some of the switches and stuff might prove useful further down the line.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yes, I'm not a fan of that set either. Phitt is an ace modeller but that set looks a little 'jokey' to me because it appears to be an homage to the D&D days and retro RPGs. It's not suitable, if you ask me.

Anyway, yes. I'd actually forgotten that I'd used one of Edolsian's dungeons for Xarphyrial. What I need to do is to prune away the old script work he did so as to make way for our own quests and to replace the vanilla tileset with our own. As you noticed, I named the items in the CS so as to enable quick replacement (and also to help make it easy to work with as most dungeon modders are already familiar with the vanilla pieces).

If you're considering doing the replacement job (which is definitely needed) then I would warn against messing with too many activators, clutter and suchlike as I don't want to 'break' any scripts. It's easier to remove stuff when I know what it links up with. Normally, I will select all models of a particular type when doing the replacement and 'group-replace' them by having the 'selection only' box ticked. I normally do this task because A) I'm the leader and B) I'm a mug because I'm normally the only one that's prepared to do such a tedious task for no reward.

What this enables us to do though is to create a truly epic dungeon. If you are creating a new sub-level then name it something like Xar06 as you say and do something truly imaginative as we basically have the core of the thing here already. Go check out the likes of Adense's Epic Dungeon and other stuff for inspiration. Xarphyrial should be a work of great genius!

Btw, on the existing levels, we will also need to replace the bad guys. Deeza and I have been toying with the idea of actually having long-dead Marsh Elves that are unique to Xarphyrial but these are likely to appear on later levels. Not sure what to advise here then....

Anyway, feel free to do your own Xarphyrial sub-level...it's a city in the under-marsh...it's wet...it's marshy...it may combine the cave set for that extra 'collapsed' effect.

[jb3]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Yes, I'm not a fan of that set either. Phitt is an ace modeller but that set looks a little 'jokey' to me because it appears to be an homage to the D&D days and retro RPGs. It's not suitable, if you ask me.

Yes, I agree with both of you. They are not BM-style.

However D&D or not, I actually tend to like this set.

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Anyway, feel free to do your own Xarphyrial sub-level...it's a city in the under-marsh...it's wet...it's marshy...it may combine the cave set for that extra 'collapsed' effect.

That was something on my mind, yes. Something I started considering. Yet, please don't assign the claim yet. Let me play around with that in CS a little more. I'd also like to first finish the already assigned claims.

I'm glad to hear that you see Xar as a truely epic dungeon.

I actually thought that perhaps this large dungeon could be connected with the 'idea' that I PMed you about. The building from that idea could have something like wine cellars, perhaps some small dungeon as well with some secret door leading to Xar complex. That could fit in nicely and would be an extra incentive to prepare Xar as well as the 'idea' building.

In order for this new sub-level to fit the rest, is it OK to use the above mentioned interior set? (e.g. ARPitWallTall01BM etc.?) Which set will be used for the already exisiting levels (you've mentioned replacement).

[Ibsen's Ghost]

The whole thing will use the set you just mentioned (these are the Ayleid ruin models with a BM suffix like you mentioned). That means that the existing levels will be replaced to fit the set and any additional levels will do the same as well. :yes: