Soluthis Location #008: Guls Ancestral Tomb [Open]

[ImaJunryou]

Here's a newer ESP. Some problems fixed, some progress made. A small checklist of To-Do's follow:

SoluthisLoc005b - Needs a touch of loot in a few more rooms, otherwise done.
SoluthisLoc005c - Needs loot throughout
SoluthisLoc005d - Needs loot throughout
SoluthisLoc007 - Needs some loot
SoluthisLoc007b - Needs loot throughout
SoluthisLoc007c - Needs some loot

That's it! Just loot! Then run through it a few times, make sure everything works, and that nothing too wonky occurs.

[sandor]

Thanks for the update.

[TheImperialDragon]

Cool! =) 451 KB, that's huge!

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by ImaJunryou
A question in regards to the new critters added by ST, namely the Hunger, but also the Morphoid... Whenever I add them I get all sorts of exciting errors about their animations and meshes not lining up, or somesuch. Ignoring them, adding the critters, and playing in game, there seems to not be a problem with this, but it concerns me all the same. Is it safe to add these new creatures to my dungeon, or will problems result?

I get the same errors, but as you said, and sandor confirmed, the monsters from Lore Creatures work without a hitch in-game. Personally I like to add my monsters to a spawn list, even if the spawn list only spawn identical monsters, just to avoid the hassle those errors cause in the CS.

[nick_op]

I had a look over the morphoidmesh/animations and discovered the source of the problem. The animations are looking for 4 blocks called head:0 and a NiGeomMorphController. I can find neither. It seems the scamp had 3 or 4 morphs that were used for facial expressions which could be easily whacked on during the appropriate animation. The morphoid is based on the scamp mesh, but does not appear to use those.

The Lore Creature Expansion was made at a time before we could export morphs, I think, which means that when the meshes were re-exported, themorphs data was lost. The animations used were the same, so they still look for it.

I'll try removing it and see if the animations still work, if so, I'll post the fixed files.

[Razorwing]

Thanks for investigating it nick_op! It'd sure be nice not to have to deal with those warnings

[ImaJunryou]

Well, I think I'm pretty much done. There's some problems, though. The bug with some doors not allowing the player to activate them is a show stopper throughout the dungeon, especially in the Endless Halls. I don't know what to do about it, beside just wait for a fix, though.

So, attached is my latest ESP. Unless there's something big and obvious that I forgot (and really, I can't think of what that'd be), this is my review ESP.

Hope its up to standards, and I hope you all enjoy it.

[TheImperialDragon]

When a door gives you that problem, you can use console (~ key) to activate it. Just click on the door and type "activate player" and that should do the trick (thanks Seniosh for the tip).

I counted fifteen cells... that is a commendable size. I could only take a quick look today and I can't really go into too much depth at the moment. These are only general comments:

For the new creatures, I suggest using leveled creature lists instead of the actual creatures. That way, those CS errors won't show up - those errors don't really mean too much since it all works pretty flawlessly in-game. It's not a major issue, but it does get rid of some needless whining from the CS.

The lighting might need to be worked on (I think I remember a few areas that had very little lighting, though I'd need to have another look around to be sure, but I can't do that right away). Lighting is really tricky because you can't place too many lights, yet you somehow must get all essential parts of the dungeon lit (that's doorways, doors, sometimes hall corners, loot-rich areas...). A CS wiki article on dungeon-making does a very good job at explaining how lights should be placed in a dungeon:
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/ind...d_Lighting
(At the bottom of that page under the Lighting heading)
Another idea might be setting the cells settings to be a bit brighter.

[ImaJunryou]

If the door that has that problem is one requiring a key to open, will 'Activate Player' go through the motions of checking the lock? I'll test this myself later tonight when I get home, but at least one of the doors in the dungeon that throws out this problem is one requiring a key to get through.

Far as the monsters and the lists they should be in, no prob, I'll slap that together tonight when I fiddle with the door thing.

Lighting... Too much, or too little, never just right I finally got it how I liked it where you could get around ok without problems and whatnot, but something has happened with either my settings or my monitor, and suddenly everything is massively darker than I ever remember making it... So, if needs be, I'll fiddle with the lighting more. There's really big differences between having HDR on versus off, to say the least, which I didn't expect. Areas with some lighting with it off become the darkest black when swapped on, and its annoying -.- So, yeah, I'll fiddle with it.

Thanks for the link, it is nice and informative =D

Cell lighting, I'll see. I enjoy the need for torches when deep deep underground (Endless Halls are an example of my madness in regards to that), so I'm hesitant to raise it too much, but if its needed, it'll get done

One other thing, the sound emitter placed in the second/third room from the tomb entrance (with the key to continue deeper in), shall I just leave it there? It emits no sound for me, so I dunno how it'd actually work out assuming the sound did play.

[TheImperialDragon]

IJ, I was just about to post the start of the review. I'll edit the post to clean the review up a bit (I kept it in a text file) but it should be semi-readable. To answer your question about the sound emitter... leave it for now. It should emit sound, but if it doesn't, it will probably be fixed at some point.

EDIT: Done, it should look okay as long as you don't have a low screen resolution, or a really large display text size.

---

black[/hr]
General
- Replace placed skeletons, ghosts, and undead with leveled lists, unless there's a reason why leveled lists weren't used
- Replace the bones in the Ash pits with our own versions, MiscItem->ST->clutter->Bone
- When necessary, change the cell settings so that the interiors are slightly brighter
- Consider replacing the vanilla OB lanterns and sconces with StLightSconce10 objects (STATIC/LIGHT->ST->Lights->Dungeon)

SoluthisLoc008lvl1

- Add ambient lightbulb lights to light the following:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The dungeon exit
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The first dungeon door
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The four-way area in the middle
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The two entrances in that room with the shelves and table

- These objects are floating:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Urn on the table
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Run a havok simulation on the repair hammer and then drag it back down (the handle is floating)

- Replace Arrow5Elven with a lower quality arrow type, like Steel or Iron

SoluthisLoc008lvl2

- Reduce the number of lights in this cell to a number more like 20, and make sure all important areas are lit.
- Run a havok simulation on WeapSteelMace, and drag it back down
- There's a bit too much loot, I would suggest removing some of the soul gems, the silver shortsword, and maybe the emerald

SoluthisLoc008lvl2b

- Add ambient lightbulb lights to light the following:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Both exits to the higher levels
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The small side-passages containing urns
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Both sides of the doors going into the lower room

- Some of the loot in the lower room is a bit too valuable... unless there are some sneaky traps. :brew:
- Remove or replace the high-quality soul gems and the Dwemer dagger

SoluthisLoc008lvl2c

- Add ambient lightbulb lights to light the following:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Both of the doors leading into the side rooms with the ash pits
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The small side-passages containing urns
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The door going into the hall containing the Telvanni Bug Musk
[INDENT][/INDENT](though watch the light count, try to do this so that it stays around 20)

- Loot changes:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Flin is Imperial and probably wouldn't be found in a tomb like this.
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the carrots and ElfCupCap objects with ingredients from ST
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace StIdClthsBlueCoat with something else, it looks too Imperial
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the shears with StRwMiscDunShears and the cloth with something fabric from ST
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace SoulGem2Lesser1PettySoul with an empty soul gem from ST

- Move/add an enemy or two to the hall

SoluthisLoc008lvl2d

(east section, north in the CS)

- Add ambient lightbulb lights to light certain doors, ensuring all doors are well lit
- Add a few more smaller rocks in the collapsed area
(Might I suggest using a few moveable boulder objects from MiscItem->ST->Dungeons->Moldcave->Rocks)

Loot Changes:
- Replace SoulGem5Grand4GreaterSoul with an empty soul gem from ST
- The gems (Ruby, diamond, amethyst) are a bit too valuable, remove the diamond and replace the ruby with a lower quality gem.

(west section, south in the CS)

- Add ambient lightbulb lights to light certain doors, ensuring all doors are well lit

- Loot Changes:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the nightshade and minotaur horn objects with ingredients from ST
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the Ironwood nut and mandrake root objects with ingredients from ST

SoluthisLoc008lvl3

- Lots of places need attention in the area of lighting... Make sure all entrances, doors, and other important areas are lit, and try to have the lights guide the player through this area of the dungeon

- Loot Changes:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the redwort flower and sacred lotus seed objects with ingredients from ST
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Remove the harrada, replace the Dwemer helm with bonemold (Armor->SilgradArmor)
[INDENT][/INDENT]- There are necklaces in both the north and south rooms. Replace one set with something else for more variety
[INDENT][/INDENT]- There should be a bit more loot in the lower room with plenty of urns.
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The urn altars in the upper room could use a bit more loot too.
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The platform with the gems, chests, and silver dagger should be trapped at the very least when there's that much loot.

- A suggestion: Perhaps you could connect the two different sections (part connected to lvl 2 and part connected to lvl 2b)? Otherwise, be sure to add a subspace to cover the central area so creatures and NPCs know that they need to leave the cell to get to the player.

SoluthisLoc008lvl4

- There need to be a lot more rocks placed in the cave area of this interior. There should be at least one rock object for every layout piece (corridor/room) you use, not including the ones you used in the tomb sections. It shouldn't look so plain.

- You really need to work on lighting this area, especially near the entrance to this cell. Make sure all main parts of the dungeon are lit.

- If you have spiders, you'll need to add plenty of spider webs... Some skeletons of some poor unfortunate souls could do wonders.

- Loot Changes:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Add some loot to the upper tomb area
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the FennelSeeds objects with ingredients from ST
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the clannfear claws with another type of object
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The EnchElvenHelmetDetectLife is not appropriate here. Replace it with a piece of bonemold armour.
[INDENT][/INDENT]- The garlic is okay, but please replace the fly amantia cap with an ST ingredient

- Scatter a few bones on the floors of the rooms with Daedra. A bit of fun.
- Make sure you can get through all of the entrances where you covered gaps with boulders.

Just a note: I see you switched to the older Velothi tileset after the cave section. I don't think there's anything wrong with that since it could be old vs. new architecture, but I thought I'd mention it.

SoluthisLoc008lvl5
- Again, work on the lighting

- Loot Changes:
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Reduce the number of lockpicks on the altar with the repair hammer, I'd say two would do fine...
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the chainmail and orcish armour with armour of lower quality
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Remove StIdClthsBlueVest, it looks too Imperial
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the Daedric arrows with arrows of MUCH lower quality (steel or iron)
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the silver bow with a bow of lower quality.
[INDENT][/INDENT]- Replace the chainmail helmet and the enchanted greaves with lower quality armour
[INDENT][/INDENT]- There could be a bit more loot in that big room.

- Run a havok simulation on each of the Torch02 objects and drag them back down
- Reposition the repair hammer
- There are a few rooms with nothing in them other than braziers. Put stuff in 'em!

Another note: You absolutely HAVE TO trap that chest with the green light. It's perfect, trap the player in and have him/her fight until they're all gone. Four unlit braziers, could be four enemies... :brew:

---

black[/hr]
I'll wait until the dungeon is fully playtested before I review the rest... I presume it wasn't because of the door issue you mentioned.

I have not looked at the pathgrid or locks yet, I was mainly looking for game balance, lighting, and minor placement issues.

EDIT: One final comment, try to keep your loot level consistent. I noticed there's a lot more loot near the beginning of the dungeon than near the end. It should be the inverse, if not consistent.