Temple area rework

[Razorwing]

I decided to rework the Temple area of Soluthis. It felt like a good a place to start as any when starting a new "child worldspace division slash Soluthis part completion". Plus I was never really happy with how it turned out the first time, it felt too sprawly and haphazard and a building as architecturally prominent as the Temple deserved better.

I settled on doing a complete rework, including deleting everything that was there and paving the ground flat and clean. I modelled a wall tileset in Indoril-ish style which replaced the previous Redoran mediumwall system. The layout feels tighter now and the walls more suitable for a Temple location than the Redoran wall that was there before.

When you enter the new Temple compound the Temple is dead ahead while to the left and right are two mini-parks (or what you want to call them). The west mini-park has a podium with lecturn facing rows of chairs, and the impression is hopefully that sermons are sometimes conducted there. The east mini-park offers benches where folks might sit down and chat or just enjoy the tranquility. It's nothing really special when it comes down to it but the basic idea behind the mini-parks and other parts of the Temple compound left for me to mod is that they might offer nice quest-related spots in the future. Hopefully we'll see a few Temple quests modded as time goes on and then a nook or cranny like this could come in handy and then it would be relatively easy to weave it into the quest. To take a random example perhaps one quest sees the player assassinating a priest that has fallen out of favor with the Temple leadership and then the person who mods that quest could make the priest conduct sermons in the mini-park - just to take a random example of how a location like that could be used.

Another new addition is a sidewalk system that's used throughout the Temple compound. If you want me to explain the logical point of the sidewalks then you'll have me at a loss... but I do think they bring a sense of order that cobblestone textures on the ground wouldn't convey very well, and I'd imagine both the Temple and House Indoril like the concept of order. But I wouldn't debate that point, bottom line is I just think they look nice and interesting.

[nick_op]

Looking nice, I love the Indoril walls! :goodjob:

The sidewalk and the deign of the area remind me of Baldur's Gate 2 quite a lot, which, as you may know, had some incredibly beautiful areas. It's nice to see something like that for Oblivion.

[Senten]

It looks fantastic RW,i love the new meshes :goodjob:

[bob196045]

:goodjob:


Looks real good RW

Enjoy
Bob

[Razorwing]

Glad you guys like the way it's going

I've been thinking of what else to add to the compound. Vendors, perhaps? Selling ingredients, potions and maybe also scrolls. The only really difficult part would be the vendors' homes, because they do need somewhere to go at night. Not just modding the homes, which is a bit of work, but also where to put the houses.

I have been thinking of paving the hill north of the North Imperial District, which is kinda stupid, and 'contracting' the city layout by moving the homes in the far north further south. Lord knows the north part of the city is spacious, both caused by the big hill and by the homes being arranged loosely to begin with. I think I'll go ahead and do that later on and then at the same time make space for vendor homes. It could take awhile though, and who knows it might take a long while if other things crop up on my to-do-list. So, what to do then - leave blank spots in the compound where vendors will later be found, or mod the vendors and just keep them planted firmly in place until they have homes to go to?

[blackbird]

I like the smaller indoril walls and the indoril sidewalks. But why has it to be in indoril style? Perhaps a velothi style could also have been more fitting.
People who sells ingredients and etc are welcome, but can't you give them homes in the vicinity like unclaimed interiors. I believe that there are/were some unclaimed velothi homes near the temple area.

[Razorwing]

blackbird: It probably would have been more fitting, I was just in the mood to work on an Indoril style and it didn't seem too farfetched.

Originally posted by blackbird
I believe that there are/were some unclaimed velothi homes near the temple area.

I think you mean the round Velothi houses lying outside each corner of the Temple. The houses, which belonged to a set of Velothi houses made back in the Morrowind era, didn't look particularly good in hindsight. I settled on deleting them quite awhile ago so that's why I never got around to making interior models for them or opening them up for claiming.

But that doesn't mean vendors can't be given homes in the vicinity because I'm in the process of giving the east/northeast part of the city a makeover. Essentially you could say I'm moving houses from the northeast part of the city and planting them in previously empty areas. The area I called "The Cog" is decommissioned now and soon the remainder of claim map 6 will follow suit. The houses from The Cog now dot the southern road to the Temple compound, while the other houses from map 6 will get planted south of the Temple and on the west side of the river.

I've made placeholder changes to claim map 5 to illustrate the changes while I'm finalizing this contraction of the city layout.

Another question about the vendors though. They'll go home at night, which means the player must be unable to access their unprotected wares on display. Which would be the best way to solve that, I wonder? The easiest solution would perhaps be to just lock the whole Temple compound during nights... although now that I think about it, perhaps that would be just as hard given that the player could very well be inside the compound at closing time. I'm sure he'll be able to get out since the door should lock from the outside-in and not the other way around, but getting the vendors to hang around until the player leaves could be another problem.

Hmm... hmm hmm.... *thinks* Maybe the whole Temple compound should be in an interior cell that's set to behave like an exterior cell, and then all the vendors are made members of a faction, and that faction is set as the owner of the cell? If that pans out like I hope then the vendors should treat the whole compound as a shopkeeper would treat his shop -- usher the player out at closing time.

Ideas and suggestions are welcome

[Zurke]

Treating the temple and its members as a faction would solve alot of the issues I think. As far as the members leaving can 'continue if player is near' be checked on what ever package is running at the time?

The temple looks great.

[sandor]

Originally posted by Razorwing

Maybe the whole Temple compound should be in an interior cell that's set to behave like an exterior cell, and then all the vendors are made members of a faction, and that faction is set as the owner of the cell? If that pans out like I hope then the vendors should treat the whole compound as a shopkeeper would treat his shop -- usher the player out at closing time.

Ideas and suggestions are welcome

The only way to usher the player out at closing time is to use the Continue if PC near flag (used on a travel pack, services checked). Used on other package types (even with services checked) will lead to strange NPC behavior.

I attached a screenshot, these lines are also part of the StGeneric quest.

IMO don't use a general faction for the whole compound in conjunction with using the Continue if PC near flag for different vendor NPC's. Just assign the ownership to a specific faction/owner for every separate cell.

[Zurke]

^ I was in the ball park .