Soluthis Location #002 [Completed]

[Razorwing]

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<td width="199" bgcolor="#F0F0F0" style="border-left:1px dotted #0000FF;border-top:1px dotted #0000FF;"><font color="#0066FF" size="2" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Title:</font></td>
<td width="352" bgcolor="#F0F0F0" style="border-right:1px dotted #0000FF;border-top:1px dotted #0000FF;">Crescent Carapace</td>
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<td bgcolor="#FAFAFA" style="border-left:1px dotted #0000FF;border-top:1px solid #CCCCCC;border-bottom:1px solid #CCCCCC;"><font color="#0099FF" size="2" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Type:</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#FAFAFA" style="border-right:1px dotted #0000FF;border-top:1px solid #CCCCCC;border-bottom:1px solid #CCCCCC;">Moldcave (spider theme)</td>
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<td bgcolor="#F0F0F0" style="border-left:1px dotted #0000FF;border-bottom:1px dotted #0000FF;"><font color="#0066FF" size="2" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Location in SilgradTowerLand:</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#F0F0F0" style="border-right:1px dotted #0000FF;border-bottom:1px dotted #0000FF;">&quot;SoluthisLoc002&quot; -14,50</td>
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<p><a href="http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a177/SilgradTower/SoluthisLoc002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a177/SilgradTower/th_SoluthisLoc002.jpg" alt="Click for a larger image" width="159" height="123" border="0" align="right" style="padding-left:7px;padding-bottom:7px;"></a>The <em>Crescent Carapace</em> cave lies a short distance west-by-southwest of Autumnwater Caverns. Like it's neighbour it is a spider den, infested with cave spiders. The cave system is not connected to Autumnwater Caverns though. This should be a fairly small interior made up of tunnels and rooms, spread across one or perhaps two interior cells.</p>
<p>Try to keep the facecount of each cell between 300,000 and 400,000. If you <u>really</u> need to you can go higher than 400k, but otherwise it's better to keep it low so players won't experience FPS problems. But at the same time you should strive for bringing an interior up to 300,000 faces if it's lower than that.</p>
<p>I've started the cell, added Hermit's Crooks to the entrance, added a Northmarker, dropped one of the Levelled Creature lists you should use in this interior, and set up the door teleportation. So to start working on the claim just load up the interior cell &quot;SoluthisLoc002lvl1&quot; in the Construction Set and off you go. The Levelled Creature list I dropped is just there for convenience, you can change it's position or delete it and re-add it later if you want, but please do use that kind of levelled creature in this cave.</p>
<p>Check out the Autumnwater Caverns (SoluthisLoc001lvl1 etc) for inspiration on what kind of stuff you can use.</p>
<p>To claim this location, post a reply saying so. If you run into problems or have questions, go right ahead and post them here. You don't have to create a quest for the location, but if you want to then that would be great! Just pick up a house claim in Soluthis for your questgiver to live and mod it according to the normal specs (pathgrid, AI schedule, etc).</p>
<p>If you can't find the moldave entries in the Construction Set, make sure you have the latest internal esm posted on The Source board. If you find the entries but get exclamation marks when dropping them into the world window, make sure you have the latest asset update posted either in <a href="http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?postid=118771#post118771">the release thread</a> on <a href="http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/board.php?boardid=2">The Tavern board</a> (for public users) or on <a href="http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/board.php?boardid=229">The Warehouse</a> (for ST Modders).</p>
<p>Have fun!</p>

[kingevil]

can I claim this?

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by kingevil
can I claim this?

Absolutely

[kingevil]

Here it is. I tried to give the queen spider Glowing eyes, but that appears to have failed. I'm attaching the new mesh and textures anyway because They are higher res then the normal textures.
download

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by kingevil
Here it is. I tried to give the queen spider Glowing eyes, but that appears to have failed. I'm attaching the new mesh and textures anyway because They are higher res then the normal textures.
download

I like the layout of the cave, and the inventive details like the skeleton hung over the rock formation I think you could have used more rocks though, not just because they're nice visual additions and makes it more interesting to maneuver around but also because they help break up the monotony that the moldcave tileset can otherwise suffer from. I don't necessarily think you should add them now, at least not to the first level which already has a perfect facecount, but if you make more caves in the future please use more rocks.

Since the textures are pretty much identical I don't think the added download time they would cause is justified. Please change your boss creature to use one of the default spider models instead.

[kingevil]

Here it is.

[TheImperialDragon]

SoluthisLoc002lvl1

- The Web in one of the T-intersections of the cave needs to be repositioned so the end isn't suspended in midair (first screenshot)
- Put a collision box in the ceiling hole shown in the screenshot (second screenshot)
- There should be a way of getting out of the large water pit chamber
- Use more different kinds of rocks for the platform in the water pit chamber, and also some rocks to support the platform. (third screenshot)
- Sink StRwCrystalBlue02 more into the rock (the easternmost crystal with respect to the NorthMarker)

SoluthisLoc002lvl2

- Make sure the player can get out of the boss room using that ramp (fourth screenshot)
- The web isn't attached to the walls (fifth screenshot)
- Capitalize the first letters in each word of the cell name (Crescent Carapace, queen chamber -> Crescent Carapace, Queen Chamber)

General

- There's not enough lighting, have more ambient lighting and more lights to guide the player through the dungeon.
- There's an SI contamination, one of the objects you used is from the SI ESM. [Missing object (0004FEEB) for reference (02000FD4)]

It's a nice interior. Have you playtested it? Also, what are STKErestoreeffect and STKETorch for?

[kingevil]

STKEtorch are the torches you find in the dungeon, they are different from the normal ones because They burn when dropped, adding light to the dungeon, so they should add the required extra light. the other thing was made for something that didn't work when I playtested it, so I removed it. Forgot to remove the effect. Yes, I played it, and the ramp worked. The room with the water is there for decoration, not for exploring.

[TheImperialDragon]

There's an detached spider web on the ramp in the Queen's Chamber (first screenshot).

You should increase the cell's lighting settings. It's way too dark. You can use Ambient lights (usually darker and AMB is in the LIGHT ID) if you need to. I don't think you need to use lit torches if you use ambient lights in their place. There's also Bitter Coast mushrooms like Luminous Russola that emit light in case you wanted to use those then add brighter lights.

If the room (second screenshot) is just for decoration, it shouldn't be playable. How would the player know the room isn't for exploration (especially when there's glass crystals that might lure him inside)? Who wouldn't want to have a look around this potentially high-loot area? It's not very obvious that the room doesn't have an escape route either (which is the case for most Oblivion interiors).

You should either

a) Make it possible to get out of the room
b) Block it off with a variety of rock formations (so the player can see but not explore, see third screenshot for a quick example)
c) Remove it

[kingevil]

I've decided to make the room explorable