Soluthis Location #008: Guls Ancestral Tomb [Open]

[sandor]

Originally posted by ImaJunryou
So each cell of the tomb should be a separate ESP?

No, just one esp for all the cells.

EDIT

SoluthisLoc007.Esp is fine.

[Razorwing]

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out

There isn't a pit piece yet in the new velothi tileset. You could use the old tileset to make one, like sandor suggested, but that could turn out to be complicated since the two sets aren't compatible with one another. In other words it would seem difficult to mod a smooth transition between one set to the other.

However I would be happy to make new tileset pieces to fit your request. I think I'll use the corridor piece (the 2way) as the base, so please just go ahead and mod your corridor like normal and then place a special object on the two corridor pieces that will become the top and bottom of the pit. If I get them ready before you're finished with the tomb then the objects would be reminders, if I don't make it before you're ready then the objects would be instructions for the person who'd make the change. (Probably me in that case because I would want to check out the pit in the CS anyway)

[ImaJunryou]

Alright, things are going well. I've got a few questions, though. I had a key and a piece of raw glass in two separate parts of the tomb. For some reason, neither of them get highlighted in game. I can move them around with Z, fling em across the room and whatnot, but I can't activate them to stick em in my inventory. The piece of glass is a custom one with a script on it, and there was a regular piece of glass too that works just fine. The same script is on an amethyst, which also works just fine. No script on the key, though it is using the dunmer key, rather than any of the regular oblivion models. Anything in particular that is causing this? Anything I can do about it?

Next up, sounds. I was thinking of using the StRwSoundTombWhispers in a couple places, but I can't hear squat in-game or in the CS. Should I simply stick them here and there, under the assumption that they'll work at some point in the future, or should I simply leave them out. Relatedly, the urns and doors also don't have any sounds when activated. Just my files, or is this normal, or did I break something?

Finally, that scripted amethyst I mentioned is akin to the cursed trinkets in morrowind. You grab it and a Dremora Markynaz pops up behind you. Doesn't drop any daedric goodies, but does drop the upper-most Dremora stuff. Also, second hardest of the dremora bunch, and can be encountered at Level 1 if the PC picks up the shiny. Too much? Should I extend the script to take a look at the PC's level and drop in a leveled version? The mischievous side of me likes the thought of an unexpected challenge, to be honest.

So far I've got 3 separate cells, the first with 100k faces, the second with 470k faces, and the third with 200k faces. Still need to path-grid it, and place critters. I'm also adding cobwebs and clutter here and there too. I'm thinking I'm gonna have to expand the first cell more, though, as I doubt I'm gonna squeeze out the minimum 300k faces still needed with cobwebs alone

I'm hoping to have something in an enjoyable, playable state in the next week. Exciting!

edit: Both pieces of glass have been removed as the scripted one was replaced by the amethyst, and the regular one was to compare with the scripted one for my activation problem. I might add a piece or two elsewhere in the dungeon (maybe one of the dead was an old glass miner in his time, or somesuch), later.

[ImaJunryou]

I've come to an interesting point... Populating the place with critters. Adding any large number lags things up substantially, but at the same time the tomb is such a large place (the second level in particular), that it feels really empty even with about 20 different undead spawns. I was thinking about this, and was wondering if it'd be alright to handle monster spawns via trigger boxes. A player enters a particular area, and the monster in question pops up at that point, rather than sitting there to begin with. Open a door, cross a threshold, etc, monster pops up behind you! Or a few rooms down... The main point being that it wouldn't be all at once from the get-go, bogging everything down. Is that alright?

As far as that problem with not being able to pick up things, I've come across it on a few other items now too. A Greater Soul Gem, using the ST model, and a redware platter can't be picked up Should I just keep decorating the alters and whatnot as I go with ST loot, regardless of this increasingly common occurance? Is it something easily remedied?

So, what's left is to cobweb and clutter the second and third levels more, work out monster populations to be more lag-free, and add some loot to the second level, then I think this is squared away. If needs be, I'm also drawing up plans to expand the first level further to lead down to a deeper fourth level, as the first and third just aren't cutting it face-count wise, so far It will transist from the newer tileset, to a small moldcave, and into the old velothi style, generally cut off from the rest. Should look smashing, at least if I can put together the pictures in my head

The weekend will see an ESP up, either as a WIP or a finished bit hoping for review, depending on how these new plans go ^.^

edit: New tileset piece-wise, there doesn't look to be a model for the curved ramps yet. Do I simply lack the most up-to-date resource pack, or is it not in yet? I was also hoping for a pair of new ramp pieces. One that leads upwards and can transist into a center-room piece, and one that decends from the ceiling into the same place. I'll throw up some screenshots when I get home to illustrate, as I've got a work-around in place at the moment which these pieces would replace. Also, I'm using the partition bits to form a window so the player can see a shiny prize, but not yet reach it. Right now, its paper-thin and looks sorta flimsy. What would be awesome would be a doorjam-like piece where the ceiling and floor bits came up enough where the player can't pass through, and was thick enough to not look paper-thin =) Again with the screenshots illustrating this later. Finally, I read in another thread elsewhere around here about how there was work being done on pieces that could be stacked to form large rooms. I'm interested in these as well, but not so much that parts of Guls Ancestral Tomb absolutely demand their use. Would simply be exciting to have the extra options.

Edit: Here's a really shoddy example for the ramp bits I mentioned. The ones on the left are just perspective shots. Stairs or ramps, matters not. I imagine ramps would be easier to make ^.^ Ideally something that will only replace a single center room piece, rather than 2 or 3, as if it takes up 2, there's already ways to work around it.

[ImaJunryou]

Here's the WIP ESP.

A little checklist of where I'm at:

Level 1: Mostly done, I think. I need to add some pathgrid in the 'urn storage' area, and also the area leading to the cave, and maybe another monster or two. Clutter those two places up a bit more too, some light loot around the ashpit and urns, more cobwebs. Other than that, I'm satisfied with it.

Level 2: Needs clutter. Structurally complete, urns are all in place, but I wanna add some loot around the various urns here and there, redo the monster layout, as its pretty laggy at the moment =( Needs come cobwebs too. I was also considering adding some rocks in the northern part to coincide with the cave bits in Level 4. Block some of the tunnels with a boulder, etc, nothing too dramatic. Aesthetic touches, mostly.

Level 3: Also clutter. I'm the most satisfied with how this one's turned out. Just need to get some loot around the urns, and some cobwebs and other ambient statics around. Maybe redo the monsters here. Not so bad lag-wise, but for how small a space it is, there are a bunch of critters about...

Level 4: Not done structurally. I want to expand the cave upwards more, so that the bulk of the dungeon takes place beneath level 3, rather than along-side it, like it is now... I would also like to expand the cave outward a bit, more twisty tunnels, just to make it look more like a cave, less like a worm-tube, but I'm trying to keep it tight and focused on the tomb. The tomb-bits in Level 1 that lead into Level 4, I'm thinking of moving to Level 4 so that all of the cave is in one central place rather than split between two. I'm open to lots of suggestions here.

Level 5: Doesn't exist except on paper, so far. What I have on paper is probably big enough for a small sized tomb elsewhere in the world, so I may just cut it out completely -.-

Level 6: Same as 5 in every way. Still on paper, rather large, likely to be cut.

Levels 5 and 6 are the tomb entrances at the bottom of the 'pit' in the heart of 4. 5 provides access to 7 via a key, and 6 provides a way to get out of the pit and back up to near the beginning of 4... Complicated? A bit...

Level 7: I've got it about 70-85% done structurally. Needs everything else done. This is the prime loot place. Where all the good stuff is. I want to decide on whether or not I'm adding in 5 and 6 before I settle on how to loot 7. If 5 and 6 are cut, and you're just let straight into 7, there won't be as much reward. I'm thinking the Grand Prize of it all is to be an enchanted glass longsword. That'd be after a very large dungeon crawl.

Levels 4 through 7 are pretty new, and were added because 1-3 seemed too small... Now it feels pretty big. Too big? There's no quest, in the sense of quest markers and NPCs telling you to do things, but access to the deeper sections require some sluething and some digging and its not 100% straight forward. More puzzle than quest, you could say.

If I don't have 6 in as a tomb, it would at least be a cavern section to lead the player out of the pit, so there is sure to be something there, unless I cut Levels 4-7 out...

So that's where I'm at. Feel free to take a look around. A few doors don't activate for some reason, in Level 4, a few items too, like the greater soul gem in Level 1. I don't know what to do about these, and would really like some advice. Especially the doors... Hard to progress if the door won't let you open it...

Enjoy!

In the meantime, I'm swapping back and forth between laying down the structure to the new levels, and cluttering/decorating 1-3 more.

[ImaJunryou]

A small update, using the 'checklist' from my previous post.

Level 7 is done structurally, I'm in the process of decorating it with alters, pillars, etc now.

Level 5 is also done structurally, I've yet to start decorating it.

Level 6 is scrapped. In its place will be a small bit of cave-system to bring the player out of the pit. Much smaller-scale than what was initially planned.

Levels 1-4 haven't seen much love since my last post, but then I'm getting ready to move in a few weeks so my window of CS time is starting to shrink =/

Once that hits (around the 14th), I'll prolly be off the radar for around a month, but I'll be working on the dungeon all the while, hopefully with something fun and finished when I get an internet connection back

edit:

I no longer require any special pieces for the tileset for this dungeon, including the hole-in-the-floor piece. I will gladly incorporate them into any future dungeons I make though, I just didn't have a spot for them in my current designs. So! Feel free to bump any of those requests further down your to-do list, if you have more pressing things to do

[sandor]

Thanks for the updates.

I had a quick look at the attached file (your previous post) and I must say it's an impressive tomb.

[ImaJunryou]

Thanks! By chance did you have any problems activating any doors, or picking up any objects? The more I build, the more things I can't interact with

Specific objects are the Greater Soulgem in the first cell, and the redware platter in the first cell. The door leading from Soluthisloc008lvl4 to lvl 7 also doesn't allow me to activate it. It frustrates me ?(

Beyond that, I'm glad you like what you've seen so far!

[Steinaech]

I think there should be a 007 reference as an easter egg ^.^

[ImaJunryou]

I'll leave the easter-egging to those with the knowhow to do a proper execution. I'm just building a simple tomb ^^

Well... It was simple. Now its big. Big and scary. And fun

Where I'm at now:

Level 1 - Done. The only changes I can imagine making are resolving whatever bug there is in regards to the Greater Soulgem and the Redware Platter not being picked up. Also, I need to make a key that unlocks the door leading to Level 4, and hide it somewhere in Level 3. Beyond that, I'm satisfied with how Level 1 has turned out ^_^

Level 2 - Cluttering now. I've got it mostly done. I'm around 520k face, so I'm trying to keep the clutter light as a result. I don't think that leveled-creature spawns add their true value to the facecount, what with the type of monster not being decided til your in-game, so I imagine I've already broken 600k faces in Level 2. So, unless there's some glaring omissions to the loot or look of the place, I'm ready to be finished with Level 2 as well.

Level 3 - Mostly satisfied, but I need to clutter one last room, and add a key to unlock Level 4. This is a pretty dangerous level, though, lots of nasty critters. There is a problem where the player is in the 'central' area of the level, and is able to activate the doors along the 'outskirt' areas of the same level, through the windows. I'm open to suggestions for fixing that. It won't really make much sense unless you check out level 3 though. Once I'm all done with everything else, if I don't think up a solution, I'll start tossing up screenshots illustrating the issue.

Level 4 - Lots of work left. I'm not compeltely happy with the cavern sections, as it is pretty sparse. I've never cluttered a cave like this before, so I'm not really sure where to begin. Lighting is mostly taken care of, I think, as are monster spawns and pathgrids. I still need to link Level 4 to Level 5 somehow, providing the player a way out of the tomb, but I've yet to start in that direction.

Level 5 - Not even touched. Still doodling floorplans, trying to come up with something that will look good, be fun to go through, but still keep it simple. I've a hard time with simple -_-

Level 6 - Floorplan has been laid, no clutter at all, no lighting, not even doorjams. Lots of work left.

Level 7, I've got to clutter, light, pathgrid and populate, then it is done. Gonna work on the light, and pathgrid next. Clutter and population is gonna be saved until Levels 5 and 6 are further along. I really enjoy working with the tileset used here, and I like how it has turned out.

I'm losing my connection to the internet this week for an unknown duration. Maybe a week, maybe a month, it is hard to know for sure until I've the net back So! I'm gonna keep hammering away, and when I'm back, expect a new ESP (hopefully for review), with lots of shiny awesomeness.

Edit: Flip levels 5 and 6... I've got 5's floorplan done, but haven't touched 6. It is hard to keep track of them