Modding for Silgrad Tower

[Razorwing]

Sebastien: Personally I think it's better to use community-made stuff to create variety rather than mixing the styles Bethesda has created, because they are pretty clear on what style is used where and there's very little mixing going on. But it's a judgement call rather than a set rule. The final questions, in my opinion, are: Does it have the right feel? Is it believable?

For example my personal opinion is that it's not unbelievable that a wealthy Indoril family could have imported Imperial silverware, as in one of your screenshots. They look very nice by the way

I feel the same way as Quentin does regarding the creepyness, and I think it would be really great if the tomb turned out to be a action-packed and horrifying playing experience. A theoretical example could be things like Zombie NPCs (they're a "race" in our mod which gives more room to customize skeletons) who are scripted to reanimate once, some time after they've been killed. Imagine a wounded player fighting his way through a corridor and finally reaching the "loot room", relaxing and looking around... then from nowhere, the five skeletons thought to be dead rushes in... hehe. Well that's just an idea that crossed my mind that could illustrate how to mess with the players head in a fun way. I'm sure you're bursting with your own ideas on what you'd like to have in your tomb, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop

Thanks for explaining K.I.S.S., I had never heard it mentioned before.

[Sebastien (CNA)]

I hear you. From my brainstorms and concept art Ive devised a blend of two styles for the Vort Ancestral Tomb. Just a dual mix of cave interior meshes and vivec interior meshes. Id rather something much more insync with a tomb interior than the same old; however, I think that clever use of lighting and sound effects might give it the edge that most tombs in the game seemed to lack. At least that is the intention.

I wish to use some meshes available as downloads on the net (i.e. spiderwebs, coffins, water drip activator) so Im gonna complile it and afterwards seek permission to use them. Is the image of rotting bodies of would be grave robbers floating in stale water too much?

I also wish to alter some textures of in-game stock, but done in a way so that the files are stand alone (i.e. wont change the game or effect other parts of the Silgrad Tower Project). I am unsure as to how I should proceed since Ive never attempted it before. I am able to do my own original textures (nothing fancy but I would like to see "faint" runes on the walls of the tomb) i.e. the morrowind font reading some jibberish about the tomb regarding dunmer ancestors or what not much like the daedric ruin interiors.

As for NPC / creature placement... I have marked in my designs where best to put any such creatures or NPCs. But I am uneasy about placing any NPCs or creatures in the tomb. I want some areas to have a specific number of creatures depending on the player's level. Either way I'll post pics this arvo if work permits.

PS. Two sections of the tomb are to be well-lit (as far as tombs are ) but the rest is a blend of dim shadowy twisted tunnels and morbid darkness (well not quite pitch black) to make it really creepy feeling (i.e. the player must be cautious lest he/she run into an undead creepy thing or something)

PSS. Sudden silences are eerie cries are all well and good to place as activators here and there, advice on how to proceed if anyone can spare it would be nice. Note: the player steps further into a hall and the eerie whispers suddenly cease abruptly and perhaps contemptuous nickers as the player further proceeds might polish the tomb off.

PSSS. Oh and I wanted to use an activator that parts a stone door once a certain condition has been met, for instance: all enemies have been dispatched or a switch of some sort has been activated (can anyone help with that?) - Im thinking Indiana Jones Temple of Doom here

[Razorwing]

Sebastien: I think Velothi had been better to use than Vivec, but it doesn't matter. Mixing it with caves are great though, gives the impression the tomb hasn't been "paved" in all areas and is still being worked on, with no deeper explanation needed

Have you had a chance to check out what we have in our full release? We have most of LadyE's spiderwebs and the full collection of Barbarus crypt set. I don't think you should use the latter in a normal Dunmer tomb though, as coffins aren't figured in Dunmer culture. And go ahead and use anything you can think of (rotting corpses etc) that could scare the player... spare no expense to reach that goal

As for the textures you could download one of the tools from our database (NIF Texture has been given a lot of praise) to switch textures. Just make a copy of the Bethesda NIF file you want to reskin and tweak it in the texture program. The NIF should preferrably be tagged with your abbreviation (sltw_sb_ perhaps?) and placed in [\Meshes\Silgrad]. Some daedric text on the walls would be very cool, I think.

There's a music track called [Music\Silgrad\Silence.mp3] which is - nothing. You can script the game to stream that track for X amount of time, which I've found is very useful for making sound effects stand out more. findsounds.com is a good resource if you're hunting for a particular sound effect. I think "Ashampoo MP3 AudioCenter" is a good program for tweaking sound files, for example to lower an unnecessarily high bitrate or turn clips into Mono.

As for the Indiana Jones door I've been in a sort-of similar position, when I needed to keep track of whether the player had killed all my vampires in Sakatosh Ancestral Tomb. The short story is that you need to create a global variable to keep track of the kills over several cells or a long period of time. If you go with creatures, things are much simpler though -- you'd just need to create your own creature (as far as ID's go, at least) and if you place ten of them, you can just:
if ( GetDeadCount, sltw_sb_rat == 10 )
to know if the player has killed all of them. Also, you can investigate the "Move" and "Rotate" script commands to give the impression that your stone door is animated, and for a nice effect it can be combined with PlaySound so it sounds like the door is moving. I can heartily recommend "Scripting for Dummies v8" if you don't have it yet. Like most goodies it should also be found in the database

[Sebastien (CNA)]

Im in the process of learning scripting language, thus far I can edit scripts to roughly do what I want (with my finished Indoril Manor Exterior project, for example: Ive combined a script used by an artist by the name of Jeremy:

begin _symmachus_script

;the player wont even notice there is a change in the gates unless he/she has the key hehe
;this script is based on the maradoor script by Jeremy
;Knights of Tamriel series

If ( MenuMode == 1 )
return
endif

If ( OnActivate == 1 )
If ( player->GetItemCount "_symmachus_key" >= 1 )
playsound3D "MournGates" ;thanks Elathia
Player->PositionCell 0.000, -2880.000, 0.000, 0.0, "Mournhold, Symmachus Gardens"
else
If ( player->GetItemCount "_symmachus_key" < 1 )
MessageBox "The Gates cannot be opened."
return
endif
endif
endif

StopScript _symmachus_script

End _symmachus_script


Note: Im not sure if it will work as desired and I have to change a few things in game I think to allow for the City Gates to lead to somewhere else... specifically the grounds about my manor *sigh*

Razorwing: its not meant to be a rich Indoril family that once resided in the manor but Nerevar Indoril himself haha - wont say anymore but there is to be a book explaining the manor and so on.

Note: will post pics in the appropriate section of the forum soon.

Im in the process of composing my own script (for a change); however, it involves the concept that as the enemies in the Vort Ancestral Tomb interior are killed the stone doors that lead to the sealed off area open a fraction as the last are killed - so complicated sounding!

:alert: Warning: possible spoiler below :alert:

So, the total number of creatures to kill in the tomb equals 33 with the 34th being a ghost that manifests to say something like "Respect the ancestors" OR could say "You defile the tomb of my ancestors and so be cursed wretched one!" before fading away (some effect to polish it off) followed by a messagebox "You have been cursed!" - the idea behind this is a possible quest for the player to attempt to remove the curse and appease the Vort Ancestors Idea: can be done by rescuing a member of a Vort Family or something?

Now to go back on track...

When the 29th enemy is dead the area that leads to the big Indiana Jones sealed door (two big chunks of static stone scripted to move with stone sliding sounds - should I make activators? if yes, how should I proceed from scratch?) will open (forcefield activator disables or something - startscript work maybe?) once the last three creatures are dead. The big stone door will open gradually so the player cant miss it (the sound should draw attention anyway). The way to the last chamber will be open then (its all one cell, not too big) :]

:alert: Warning: possible spoiler below :alert:

My idea was to have a zombie NPC in the last chamber to "enable" with some special effects (i.e. when the player enters and "turns around" the zombie will be there to mock him/her and not before he/she "turns around". Very specific, can it be done? Well, I was thinking of a timer to delay the zombie NPC spawning out of thin air, I want no sound so that when the player turns around he/she gets a fright if my aim to make a convincing atmosphere works (haunted wails would be good while the other creatures roam the tomb, deactivates upon their deaths). Also, I was wondering if anyone knows of a spider activator that scurries across the floor to dissapear into the shadows? It would make it all the more creepy. I dont possess the facilities or knowledge to craft such an activator at this point in time. If anyone wants to take a bash at it please note that its "meant" to be small scale and fairly rapid in speed yet not over-the-top. =) Oh, and the zombie says something like " %PCName how brave you must be!" and "Now let me show you the folly of entering here!" (Can anyone do a voice dialogue?). After that the zombie attacks. Note: the zombie does not engage in any other talk, I want the dialogue to appear on screen (more script work on my part it seems using the timer thingy) and I intend the zombie (this particular one) to be immune to 'calm humanoid' spellcraft regardless of potency... could always deactivate magic in the tomb, right? Heaven help the magic dependent players! :yes:

And that about raps up the update, screenshots are on the way :goodjob:

[Elathia]

The script looks fine to me, it should work as you intend. However, consider using PlaySound3D instead of PlaySound. It gives the feeling that the sound is emitted from the object instead of just played at full volume at the player's position.

If you have any questions about scripts, or need assistance in writing any, feel free to ask or PM me.

[Razorwing]

Sebastien: It slipped my mind to mention it to you, but as a Silgrad modder you need to have an abbreviation. I went with "SE". There's some info in a sticky on The Tavern board. So, please add the prefix "sltw_se_" to the IDs of everything you create for use with Silgrad Tower: Morrowind.

I also added you to the preliminary Oblivion modders list.

So, the total number of creatures to kill in the tomb equals 33 with the 34th being a ghost that manifests to say something like "Respect the ancestors" OR could say "You defile the tomb of my ancestors and so be cursed wretched one!" before fading away (some effect to polish it off) followed by a messagebox "You have been cursed!" - the idea behind this is a possible quest for the player to attempt to remove the curse and appease the Vort Ancestors Big Grin Idea: can be done by rescuing a member of a Vort Family or something?

I would humbly urge you to add an ending to your submitted work, so it can be played as it is. That doesn't mean that you have to close off all possibilities of adding to your work in a second plugin, feel perfectly free to do that, but I think it would be good not to have more loose ends in the plugin right now.

When the 29th enemy is dead the area that leads to the big Indiana Jones sealed door (two big chunks of static stone scripted to move with stone sliding sounds - should I make activators? if yes, how should I proceed from scratch?) will open (forcefield activator disables or something - startscript work maybe?) once the last three creatures are dead. The big stone door will open gradually so the player cant miss it (the sound should draw attention anyway). The way to the last chamber will be open then (its all one cell, not too big)

Statics work great, you just need to attach the script to something else. Anything you want to move needs to have a unique ID btw. Perhaps you can script them to start sliding if the player gets close to them and has met the requirements? I've found that to work great. Check out the dwemer platforms in version 4 of "The Road to Silgrad Tower" for an example of that. With a bit of editing you can pretty much copy-paste one of those scripts if you want.

My idea was to have a zombie NPC in the last chamber to "enable" with some special effects (i.e. when the player enters and "turns around" the zombie will be there to mock him/her and not before he/she "turns around".
[...]
Oh, and the zombie says something like " %PCName how brave you must be!" and "Now let me show you the folly of entering here!" (Can anyone do a voice dialogue?).

Skellies can't talk, for several reasons. No throat and no brain are some good ones You might use a daedra though? Some of the daedra are wickedly clever.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Quentin Fortune
Deepen Meadows, Solea Cadusius' House - Solea Cadusius has been created, but is not in the game???
Mendigal, Dwemer Ruins - no NPCs / creatures
Silgrad Barracks, Storage Rooms - unfinished interior
Silgrad Glassmine, Dimmed Path Lower - no NPCs / creatures
Silgrad Glassmine, Dimmed Path Upper - no NPCs / creatures
Silgrad Glassmine, Submerged Cavern - no NPCs / creatures
Silgrad Tower, Achilles Godshill's Home - Achilles Godshill has been created, but is not in the game???
Silgrad Tower, Eastern Alleyway no.1 - the interior has no proper name and lacks a NPC or two
Silgrad Tower, Glaris Wine Cellar - does anyone know the purpose of the stuff outside the room?
Silgrad Tower, Turyn's Farm - there is no Turyn in the game
Steadhelm, Elena Harwood's House - there is no Elena Harwood in the game

I only quoted stuff which still seems unanswered.

- I playtested "Mendigal, Dwemer Ruins" last year and according to Deus there isn't supposed to be anything living there. I reported a dwemer machine who had problems attacking me, so he deleted it and that was that, I think. So I think the lack of creatures was intentional.

- Silgrad Glassmine: Claimed by -Geoffro-

- Silgrad Tower, Glaris Wine Cellar: It does look strange. But if the modder took the time to add black lava squares, the stuff must have a purpose? Very strange though.

[Ben Vagara]

I would like to take a shot at developing an interesting interior for the "natural" cavern (black load door entrance) in cell -27, 4 in the Jarnhald region.

Ben

[Quentin Fortune]

Originally posted by Ben Vagara
I would like to take a shot at developing an interesting interior for the "natural" cavern (black load door entrance) in cell -27, 4 in the Jarnhald region.

Ben

Granted, my friend, granted

Greetings

Quentin

[Ben Vagara]

Originally posted by Quentin Fortune
Granted, my friend, granted

Greetings

Quentin

Thank you. We'll see if I can do justice to the other fantastic interiors of ST!

Ben