SHRAC0802 "Mithril Quarry Mine"

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Mithril Quarry Mine

STATUS: Open.

Tileset: Moldcave
Number of levels: 1 or 2
Cells: SRMithrilQuarryInterior00, SRMithrilQuarryInterior01 etc.
Number of enemies: 5-7 (for one level) & 10-12 (for two levels)
Preferred enemy type: Bandits / Creatures
Exterior cell coordinates: (50, -3)

You'll need the 3.19 version of the ESM or higher to mod this location. Download the latest version here.



[TITLE]Ibsen's Ghost's Description & Details[/TITLE]

Cut well into the rock-face of the southern swamps of Steadhelm lies an old, disused quarry. A sheer drop from the west gives way to a deep expanse of water that bends round to the north and eventually meets up with the sea-water. From the East, some worn steps lead down to the quarry site in a deep ravine covered in shallow swamp-waters and bearing plenty of fungi and draggle-tail plants / ampoule pods. Some evidence of use remain in the form of a crumbling brick wall, crate and tools.

This is possibly a place of work / hideout for Dunmer fighting the Imperial influence and evading capture. If so, some traces of ‘beast-race’ slavery may be in evidence. Reasons for its desertion (or, indeed, its continuation) are up to the modder. I would be happy to discuss ideas and link this claim up to an NPC in Steadhelm, if needs be.

[TITLE]How should I go about modding the layout?[/TITLE]

We have a cart and mining rail system which you may be able to use in this mine but, as it's supposed to be either totally or partially adandoned, parts of it may be in disrepair. It's located in the list Static > ST > Dungeons > GlassMine.

Apart from that it's a normal moldcave, so you'll be using plenty of rocks (Static > ST > Dungeons > Moldcave > Rocks), vines (Static > ST > Flora > Ambience > BitterCoast), cobwebs (Static->ST->Dungeons->Misc), and flora-type mushrooms (Violet Copringus, Luminous Russula, Mooncap, or Drogo Mushroom all found under Flora->ST->Flora->Shroom).

I can't stress how much you'll be using the rocks They're the staplefood of moldcaves and without enough of them moldcaves look incredibly boring. As a rule of thumb there should be at least one rock and one vine for every tile you place. There's no upper limit apart from the overall max facecount of a cell, which is about 500,000. You should also place a few Drogo mushrooms (Flora > ST > Shroom > StFloraLnMushroom01a + b) here and there. You can use crystals (Activator > ST > Dungeons > Misc > StRwCrystalBlue##) as light sources, but since it's an active mine you wouldn't go wrong with using normal Dunmer lights either.

If you do use crystals keep in mind they don't emanate light on their own accord. You need to place a light bulb near them. You can also use stock assets when they make sense, like the animated water dripper (Activator > Dungeons > Sewer > dripper01). But don't use stock furniture or other things like that, it's a Dunmer mine so they should use Dunmer stuff (including containers). Check out the Autumwater Caverns at SoluthisLoc001 for an example of how a moldcave can look - albeit that is a cave, and so it uses somewhat different stuff than an active mine would.

[TITLE]What would I find, in terms of loot, inside a cave?[/TITLE]

It depends on what the cave is being used for. If smugglers are using it as a base of operations, you can expect illegal items (skooma and moon sugar, for instance), as well as some gems, armor, weapons, gold, and other loot. If renegade mages have taken over the cave, you’d find ingredients, books, potions, and other mage-related items. If the cave has only creatures, you can add dead adventurers, natural flora, gem rocks, and other fun stuff. Think creatively.

The preferred type of enemy for this cave is listed at the top of this thread. You might be able to do something else though if you want - just check with me or sandor first and we'll tell you if your idea is appropriate.

[TITLE]How should I light the cave?[/TITLE]

Again, it depends on what lives inside the cave. If there are NPCs, you might want to use the StLightComTorch01 set of lights because it supports the idea that someone is living there. If you have only creatures, you might want to place some glowing crystals (Activator->ST->Dungeons->Misc) or some Luminous Russula mushrooms (Flora->ST->Flora->Shroom->BitterCoast) and manually place lightbulb lights. You should also have a few ambient lightbulb lights placed where they are needed. TID started a set of ambient lights which you can use; they are ID’d StIdMoldCaveAmb####. Try to have all lights guide the player through the dungeon. Try not to have more than 22 lights in a single dungeon cell.

[TITLE]What enemies should I use?[/TITLE]

As I said above, the loot you’d find would depend largely on which enemies you decided to use. The preferred enemy type for the dungeon is listed at the top of the thread, but it isn't final. If you want to change it to something else, let me know what that is and I'll tell you if it's okay.

The most common enemy types for caves in TES3 were outlaws (smugglers, bandits, rogue mages...) and creatures (nix-hounds, rats, mudcrabs...).

[TITLE]Anything else?[/TITLE]

Add a pathgrid to the cave. Playtest the entire dungeon and make any necessary corrections before submitting it for review.

To clarify the above, the first interior cell for this claim will be named SteadhelmRegionAreaClaim0802lvl1, the next level SteadhelmRegionAreaClaim0802lvl2 and so on, depending on how many cells it encompasses.

NB: - Thanks to Sandor and TID for allowing me to use their claims descriptions as a default.