The Summerset Isles

[TheImperialDragon]

The best way to build the city would be to plan it out on paper first, in my opinion.

I don't know of any way to draw vertex shading automatically for buildings that have already been placed.

Automatically generated objects from the region editor, however, can have vertex shading done by the CS, but you wouldn't usually add buildings that way, and it paints within a circular radius without a defined shape so it's not entirely suitable for buildings in the first place. The feature can be very useful when generating other objects like trees, rocks, and bushes in a region.

[Hidden]

Yeah, it's good to have a plan when building a city.

Or, if you're recreating a city from Morrowind, you can just have both Construction Sets opened so you know what it should look like.

It's also good to get mathematical a bit when trying to make symmetrical cities or districts such as, well, any district from Mournhold for example. You can't just place those entirely by hand and expect to allign perfectly unless you edit their exact x, y, z and rotation values.

[FireDrakeArchon]

dont get to off topic, people.

Hidden-I have looked at your mod here at Silgrad, and it looks good, though custom models would have HUGE payoff.

TheImperialDragon-Firsthold does have a real world concept plan, and the shading outline looks alot like the plan. I also have the plan for Skywatch.

Ammon-That does look interesting, though maybe instead of rotating vertically, maybe diagonally or horizontally, so as on the inside to replicate the moving of the stars?

oh, and dont forget that Summersets new board can be reached through the link in my siggy.

-FireDrakeArchon

[Hidden]

Thanks, we do have custom models, just not enough. Most are modder's resources of recreated Morrowind assets.

[FireDrakeArchon]

yeah, ghostgate isnt supposed to be sheogoraths palace

-FireDrakeArchon

[Hidden]

I know, but they do have one thing in common. They're both split into 2 more or less equal parts, with one chamber in the middle of them. It allows me to work on it without having to depend on something that's beyond my abilties, like modelling.

Back on topic, aren't you part of Beyond Cyrodiil?

[FireDrakeArchon]

well, after ghostrulers summerset failed, the BC forum was archived. one of our long-term goals is to make it back to BC status.

-FireDrakeArchon

[Hidden]

Could I also suggest several more things? I don't know how good you are with using the Construction Set, but I think that's essential when making big mods that include an entire landmass. The foundations of any project lie within the main plug-in file. All models, all sounds, all images, all the storyline are not much without it, but at least a plug-in file even with purely vanilla content offers something you can play.

Overall, I'd say you have to know the following:

* how to keep the mod clean; in your case, you shouldn't edit anything from vanilla Oblivion, except to make it so that you can travel from Cyrodiil to Summerset, easily done by adding one or two NPCs with a ship in a port town that take you there
* how to clean the mod
* how to edit existing items
* how to create new items
* how to make quest, magic and object scripts
* how to make basic "go-to-kill-this-fetch-that" quests; once you learn that, it shouldn't be too hard to move on making more complex scenarios
* how to make creatures (assuming you already have the models and animation data for them) and NPCs
* how to script dialog between the player and NPCs
* how to use the Render Window and place objects in it; don't ignore editing x, y, z and rotations values if you have to make something look accurate, like a symmetrical-looking city district such as the ones you see in Mournhold and even the Imperial City
* how to link interiors and worldspaces with doors and portals
* how to use leveled lists; they're quite useful for generating random content and making your mod feel less static
* how to make working town jails
* how to use the region editor; this is the most important thing because without it landmass editing is nearly impossible
* how to set up world maps

The Construction Set Wiki offers good tutorials on almost everything that can be done. You should try making small mods at first, if you're not familiar with something. I think that's how most of us started. Maybe some were already Construction Set veterans for Morrowind and had no trouble adapting to Oblivion's.

By the way, please do not "abandon" a project if at least some part of it has been done. Instead "archive" it. That's much better.

Or if you feel that you simply cannot complete everything, but you at least have a landmass set up, you could consider dropping some features rather than the entire mod. Like if you were planning 40 buildings and 120 NPCs for one town, you could reduce that to half or even less. Or if you were planning a carefully edited landmass, you could just go for computer-generated landscapes. It won't be as interested, but at least it will be done.

[FireDrakeArchon]

:check:* how to keep the mod clean; in your case, you shouldn't edit anything from vanilla Oblivion, except to make it so that you can travel from Cyrodiil to Summerset, easily done by adding one or two NPCs with a ship in a port town that take you there
* how to clean the mod
:check:* how to edit existing items
:check:* how to create new items
* how to make quest, magic and :check:object scripts
* how to make basic "go-to-kill-this-fetch-that" quests; once you learn that, it shouldn't be too hard to move on making more complex scenarios
:check:* how to make creatures (assuming you already have the models and animation data for them) and NPCs
* how to script dialog between the player and NPCs
:check:* how to use the Render Window and place objects in it; don't ignore editing x, y, z and rotations values if you have to make something look accurate, like a symmetrical-looking city district such as the ones you see in Mournhold and even the Imperial City
:check:* how to link interiors and worldspaces with doors and portals
:check:* how to use leveled lists; they're quite useful for generating random content and making your mod feel less static
* how to make working town jails
* how to use the region editor; this is the most important thing because without it landmass editing is nearly impossible
* how to set up world maps

thats what i know, and i did do some work for morrowind

-FireDrakeArchon

[FireDrakeArchon]

Ok, so you may think that the mod is dead, but that is about as true as daedric princes being nice. We are still getting things together, though, and we could use help.

http://z3.invisionfree.com/The_Summerset...index.php?

-FireDrakeArchon