Soluthis' Grassy Region: Area Claim #10 [Finished]

[Razorwing]

Soluthis' Grassy Region: Area Claim #10

Finished by AnImpatientFan .

Click the image for an overview

Estimated size: 1 cell.*
* The estimation in general is influenced by facts like parts of the cell being unmoddable or parts of it being water.

[blockquote]

Got a couple of hours to kill and nothing to spend them on? Or better yet, do you have a special location in mind whose exterior you want to design, but you don't want to do more landscaping than necessary? Then this claim is for you. The land area, spread over two cells, take up about 75% of a cell's land area combined, so it's aptly suited for either a quick modding job or for setting up the exterior of a special location with little landscaping needed.

Given that there is a substantial amount of water in these two cells, maybe a sunken ship would be a viable idea. The water forms a natural border to the Forgotten Forest, which begins south of this area. Use stock Oblivion landscape textures to mod the beach, and stock Oblivion beach rocks if you so desire.[/blockquote]

Soluthis' Grassy Region is a large forest situated mostly southwest of Soluthis. It borders the Velothi Mountains to the west and the Forgotten Forest to the east. Neither of those regions have been generated yet, so currently there is only blank canvas beyond the borders.
[indent][/indent]The thought of a forest may stir images of a beautiful, serene place where you can wander about and enjoy the scenery. However in Soluthis things are a bit different. The serene place where you can wander and enjoy nature is actually the rocky region up north. Our forest on the other hand is a deadly place. Relatively harmless prey roam about near the city and the main road, but deeper into the forest - areas 04, 05, 07, 08, 09 and 10 - extremely dangerous predators roam about in search of prey. The inner area is intended to provide fun for high-level player characters, while the outer area is intended to let low-level travellers on the main road survive.

[title]The particulars[/title]
The following STRPRegion textures are used here, in approximately these rations: ForestGrassLeaves and ForestMossGrassDirt (40%); GrassClover and GrassMoss (35%); Deadgrass, Deadleaves and ForestDirt (25%).
[indent][/indent]Toadstools, proria mushrooms and fall-type oak trees only grow on StRPRegionDeadleaves and StRPRegionDeadgrass landscape textures. Please bear that in mind especially when adding moving or deleting fall-type oak trees. There should be dead leaves texture beneath fall-type oak trees but at the same time the texture shouldn't be used if there isn't a fall-type tree around it.
[indent][/indent]On the other landscape textures are chokeweed and roobrush (very common), gold kanet and stoneflower (common) and dandelions (rare). And summer-type oak trees, naturally. West gash rocks can occur throughout the region but not in such great numbers that it detracts from the impression that it's a forest.

Being a forested area, and belonging to Soluthis/Reich Parkeep, the canopy consists exclusively of oak trees. We don't want to see birch trees or pines here, it should be a large oak forest - not unlike something similar to Sherwood Forest from Robin Hood.
[indent][/indent]There should be many more trees around than was generated. The many holes in the forest are there so modders can make it look interesting when adding new trees.
[indent][/indent]While the region may look pleasant and beautiful, please resist any urge to add cottages or farms or other minor settlements. They're nice in themselves, but the player would want to visit the forest to kill things rather than talk to NPCs.
[indent][/indent]You're welcome to move around or delete the generated content in your area if you wish, as well as changing the land heights. Make sure that your height changes don't affect other areas. Every cell should have a facecount between 100 000 and 150 000, which isn't to say that making each cell have 150 000 faces is the goal. If you know what you're doing you can trade facecounts between cells back and forth but otherwise don't go beyond 150 000.
[indent][/indent]Don't forget to add vertex shading underneath rocks where needed, because it looks bizarre without it. Please also use vertex shading to break up the monotony of landscape textures, but naturally never as dark as you use underneath rocks. You can often use very light green and very light brown to create subtle shades on the ground that help break up the monotony without the player really realizing it.
[indent][/indent]You're very welcome to add forest-like sound effects, butterfly boxes and other things you'd typically see in Oblivion forests. Please don't use other tree types though, including logs and knees.
[indent][/indent]Don't mod outside the bounds of the area; no object you place should protrude beyond your cells, even if the object belongs to a cell within your area.
[indent][/indent]No pathgrid is necessary for this claim.

[title]Time to kill something[/title]
Please don't add more M-markers than are already there. If you set up for instance a goblin cave then of course you can add a goblin or two outside it if you like, but for several reasons we don't want packs of monsters teeming about the area (with FPS being the main reason). If you do set up additional monsters in a cell and there is already an M-marker in it, please move the M-marker to another cell in your area. Preferrably one where there isn't another M-marker in an adjacent cell.

You're expected to set up entrances to locations in your area. You're welcome to mod them too, but you don't have to - you can issue claims for them instead. Please do that in a new thread on the Dungeon claims board. On average there should be one location for every ten exterior cells. When you pick a cell which will contain an entrance to a location, please name the exterior cell SoluthisLoc### where ### is an claim number. (In the cell list window just left-click on your cell slowly two or three times and a cursor will start to blink, letting you choose a name for the cell.) You can pick an arbitrary claim number, like SoluthisLoc395, which will then be re-numbered when your area is slated for merging. The interior cell for that claim will be named SoluthisLoc395lvl1 and so on depending on how many cells it encompasses. Sticking to the template makes it very easy to playtest the location.

Don't forget to decorate dungeon-type entrances and exits with Hermit's Crook, since a) that's the only places they can exist and b) they're helpful to players.

[title]In closing[/title]
To claim this area, post a reply saying so. You don't have to wait for anyone to confirm your claim, you can get started right away. But bear in mind you should not have more than two of these area claims active at any one time. If you claim a third one before one of the other two are approved by our reviewer(s) it'll likely get "un-granted" after the fact. It's just my way of ensuring that there are less dead claims lying around, especially since things are starting to heat up a bit for Silgrad Tower v3.0. I hope to see at least a few areas with accompanying locations modded before release.

[AnImpatientFan]

May I claim this,

And is a small abandoned shack okay?

[sandor]

Originally posted by AnImpatientFan
May I claim this,

And is a small abandoned shack okay?

Sure (as mentioned in the OP).

Please finish your other claim before starting with this one.

Adding a shack is fine.

Have fun!

[AnImpatientFan]

Bad News:

I wont be able to mod for another 2 months.

Good News:

I have Made progress. I will post some screens soon.

[sandor]

Thanks for the heads up.

I am looking forward to see the screenshots!

[AnImpatientFan]

Okay, sorry about the delay of uploading the screens.
Doing it now.

EDIT:
I have more or less decided where all the statics will be, but I will texture the area when I get back.

Here they are

[AnImpatientFan]

Okay, Im back for now which means I can mod.
I will be leaving for Canberra in 2 weeks however.

Now,
Im having trouble deciding what texture to use for the beach, the stock Oblivion textures look a bit out of place if you ask me.

I am also having trouble deciding what color of vertex shading to use under the west gash rocks.

Some of my vertex shading also leaked into a nearby cell, but its hardly noticeable, is that okay?

[Zurke]

Originally posted by AnImpatientFan
Okay, I'm back for now which means I can mod.
I will be leaving for Canberra in 2 weeks however.

Now,
I'm having trouble deciding what texture to use for the beach, the stock Oblivion textures look a bit out of place if you ask me.

I am also having trouble deciding what color of vertex shading to use under the west gash rocks.

Some of my vertex shading also leaked into a nearby cell, but its hardly noticeable, is that okay?

Try to find something within our textures. If you find nothing then using an oblivion one is acceptable. They can always be swapped out later if need be.

I do not think the bleeding of the shade will be an issue.

Have a great day
Charles

[AnImpatientFan]

Okay, I think ive found an ST texture that will look good.

I will post a screen so you can have a look.

Cheers.

[AnImpatientFan]

I think the texture already there looks alright, what do you guys think?

Look Here

I just need to get rid of some rough edges in the landscape, and clear up some texturing and shading and I will be done.