Status ?

[raggidman]

The ever-modest Coinneach seems to be the guy for that - you will have to elevate him to the Core! Just look for people with bright ideas who do not otherwise have responsibilities

[bob196045]

I have to agree with Lightwave with regard to content and conversion

The thing about ES4 Vvardenfell is you allready have ES3 Vvardenfell, so major changes to cities and locations of places would be outright wrong and definitly noticable even to those less picky players

Having this allready layed out by means of generation/conversion is a blessing

Start with that and add in/remove what you want as indicated before wih regard to the cities and towns not much should have changed over a 6 year period, if anything the cities may have grown a bit, adding building is easily done


Enjoy
Bob

[raggidman]

A few things here - I would like to see Vvardenfell on the same scale as ST - they should blend seamlessly. They are part of the same province. That is a given. There are reasons below why change is hard to avoid.

I agree that the building designs should follow the TES3 pattern, but I can live happily with added detail and such from 'upscaling' if that is required. I do want the patterns substantially the same, and the smaller buildings ... but the addition of substantial 'refugee quarters' could add spice ... Redoran, Indoril and even a few Telvanni Driven out of their homes by the Hlaalu/Dres incursions on their mainland territories.

What is vital is that the overall geography remains as before - again there may be room for added villages etc if 'upscaled' - really the numbers of inhabitants we have seen in the past have been 'relative-to-scale' approximations rather than actual city or even town numbers - required by the old PCs that people used.

Also the overall feel of the landscape should remain as before ... any new graphic effects should harmonise with that.

If this is Vvardenfell then Lev must be included - which means the overdone layering of light effects and texturing of Oblivion should not be precisely followed. Otherwise any height would produce only a grey blur as the rendering of multilayering so much detail appears to be beyond what our computers can handle at the moment.

Cyrodiil is a land within which comparatively moderate altitudes and temperate climate is enjoyed - Morrowind, especially Vvardenfell is just a bit more rugged.

And that means grand vistas and more detailed distances ... on a clear day of which there will be more w/out the ash clouds!

the original Vvardenfell landscape only has single texture layers, spread over large TES3 sized squares, so when converted to TES4 this looks just as clumpy

Here is a major drawback - we dont use TES3 models or moddelling (even converted) in TES4 which your method appears to advocate, so we would have to create new meshes anyway. Appears you misssed that bob?

What do you think Lightwave, is there a possible compromise here that would give us the best of all worlds?

[Dave_91]

If we're going to do a proper TES4 mod, really we should region generate

Well I can make some rocks in no time... (a full region set could easily be done in a day or two) with edited Ob textures, or new ones. Collision seems to have turned out pretty easy too, so getting them in-game and working shouldn't be an issue.

I liked Phitt's shrooms and Menhir rocks he made for his Sheogorad mod, perhaps we could borrow those too.

[raggidman]

If the overall area is larger there is room for new 'discoveries' - and there is the intriguing question of what kind of regeneration might occur in the Blighted lands? After all with no more forced eruptions from Red Moutain true regeneration is possible and volcanic soil is very rich. esp where aided by magic.

Best way to go for your basics is to make a set of Morrowind rock shapes and tex them like Morrowind for the regional generation, then add in specials as appropriate. You can draw/model exact copies, just not use Control C to copy

If you are doing Vvardenfell then that includes the Islands to the North so Sheoggy type stuff is needed there

Reason being that part of this is nostagia - and by skillfully blending in new locations and areas that are not out of place you will enhance without offending. As in - "ghosh - I never realised that was there! Hmm, how could I have missed that? Wow, this is the real thing."

So make your rocks as close to 'the real thing' as possible, and they will be 'the real thing'

[Alasdair]

Sorry to come rain on your parade, but I don't think you can ever hope to achieve a 'complete' Vvardenfell, not now at least. Look at the progress you have achieved so far and try to extrapolate how long it would take to make the whole of Vvardenfell at that rate. Pick a small area of Vvardenfell you like and make it to a sensible scale (I.E absolutely no bigger than oblivion). If you have realistic goals you're more likely to finish, and if you do you can then work on more of Vvardenfell, but until you have released and polished that bit to perfection, don't start on anything else. You will kill your mod by trying to make Vvardenfell at Silgrad's scale. You honestly just can't do that.

Just some advice.

[bob196045]

If I may


Lets slow down a bit

Again , this is great that we all have these Ideas of what and how and why(I'm guilty too) but this is a simple what is the status post

and

It has gotten side-tracked :yes:

As we can all see, it would be in the best interest of everyone here that the ES4 Vvardenfell project remain alive

We have many great ideas of what can be done

so step back and lets look at the WHO

WHO wants to take the lead on this project, without the WHO we have no where to go, someone has to step up and say "IT's ME" and then devote themselves to sticking with it like being married ! "For better or worse, until death"

Once we have the WHO then we can move onward

My reommendation from this point would to ask for a dedicated, mod loving person who has the desire to step up and take it by its Dagoth Ur < (pun) and lead !

Then we can get into the what how when and why


Enjoy
Bob

[Coinneach]

My technical experience is minimal, although raggidman's idea about 'regeneration' of the ashlands is very intriguing... Although it would be easier to simply recreate TES3, we need to remember that the mod is six years later. For that reason, avoiding creating the ashlands until more lore and models have been created etc.

Although my brain is boggling at the thought of Redoran, Ashlanders and Hlaalu fighting over these new lands..... We could use that to explain ashlanders becoming more numerous...

Regarding heightmap size, I think that STs scale is the right path. Makes it more believable to the player, and more fun. And more scale gives more potential, without overloading our workload if we are careful to take it one region at a time.

If the mod concentrates on asking for stuff for the region we decide to start on, but accepts/gathers resources for other regions, it leaves us in a better position to create that region next.

[Seniosh]

I don't think there has to be one leader, per say, but most definitely a core. Similar to the way Razorwing leads Silgrad Tower, but obviously isn't shouldering the entire thing by himself.

Also, being asked to be in the core is less scary than being the leader of the entire mod .

I'm not really even part of Vvardenfell, so i'm not really able to suggest who would be good for the core, but i think the members of Vvardenfell should talk about it amongst themselves, appoint dedicated core members, and then start working on the changes discussed here.

Bob is right. These are great ideas, but talking about them won't get them done.

Get a core, clean up the forums, start laying out claims, and you'll be able to start chipping away at the mod.

[raggidman]

Right I vote Coinneach, Dave-91 and Lightwave become Core members



Because they have all shown an interest and between them have a wide variety of necessary skills.

You need different kinds of people in a Core - some will have to have a level of technical proficiency, but for others the most important trait is that they want to do suff and they have ideas and/or are interested in going out and getting them from others, and because leadership is what the Core is really about, and these guys have shown that!

And I think they should go out and induct more Core members - especially from the old Core members and important contributors from the past. The best way is to look though people's past contributions, and when you find stuff that is great invite them back, while carefully watching to feel who fits into the team usefully.

Some of them will naturally feel they are Core members - let them be ifthey have the commitment.

Pm them, and e-mail where possible, stuff like that. Do what you can. You have already decided to take on one specific corner of the Island Vivec / Balmora / Ebonheart and that is a great start.

Check the old heightmap. If it is the wrong scale then you have Lightwave! You know the ST scale is doable! Dave will be rocking on! And you Coinneach are the (Foreign Minister ) a liaison who gets to contact people and connect in the guys and girls who have done the stuff you need!