Forgotten Garden release [RLZ]

[sandor]

[tm=yellow]Please check the last post![/tm]


Silgrad Tower v4.0 beta full release (including the Forgotten Garden).

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[/HR]

A taste of Morrowind - The Forgotten Garden teaser mod

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The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion
Silgrad Tower - The Forgotten Garden teaser Mod (Release v1.0)
Release Date - November 30th 2009

created by the Silgrad Tower team
[url="http://www.silgradmodding.org"]www.silgradmodding.org[/url]

Updated July 31st 2012
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Please report bugs in this thread.



Download release version 1.0 -=here=-

Download the cave fix -=here=-.

Our beta version has been downloaded over 8000 times and we would like to thank everyone for playing The Forgotten Garden. Players reported a few minor problems which have been fixed for the official release.


If you would like to rate our mod please check our TES Nexus account or PES account.


The Silgrad Tower team is proud to present our teaser mod, entitled The Forgotten Garden. With it, we hope to give players hours of entertainment as well as an impression of what our full, future release will be like. A lot of us in the team pooled together to work on the teaser and we feel it represents the best of our work, ranging from quests and AI to voice work and models.

"The Forgotten Garden" offers new lands to explore, several fully voiced, unique characters and hundreds of new, handmade models. You'll get to explore new dungeons and work your way through new quests, and may even find yourself the owner of an estate with plenty of storage capabilities. Once you enter Morrowind, you'll notice many differences from Cyrodiil... pay keen attention to the rumors to learn the lay of this new land.

Voice Samples:
These videos may have some echo created when making the samples. The echo is not heard in game.
Conversation with Ra'Vandra
Conversation with Ridam Uvirith
Conversation with Augurio

Premise
Long ago, Dark Elves belonging to Great House Redoran settled on a peaceful, green island that would one day become the most beautiful garden in all of Morrowind. On that island grew mysterious and exotic plants, unlike any others that dotted the vast and diverse landscapes of Tamriel. However, Redoran is a warrior society, not a society of gardeners, and they eventually left the island in search of land suitable for sustaining war. The garden was all but a forgotten legend just a few years later.

A few decades ago Lord Tadanil Balothan of the Redoran Council rediscovered the island, along with all of its natural mysteries. He founded a settlement, and named it The Forgotten Garden. Under his leadership the settlement returned the island to its former glory. Settlers, and even some guilds, are hearing word about the many wonders that surround this garden.

However, the Garden is facing a threat. With Lord Tadanil's recent passing, local bandits are on the rise. Rumours are spreading that the settlement will soon fall to ruins, with the garden left to quietly waste away...

How to install
Extract the contents of the downloaded archive to your Oblivion\Data folder. Then start Oblivion, tick Oblivion.esm and Silgrad_Tower_T.esm and Silgrad_Tower_T.esp, and you can start playing the mod. You'll get a journal entry shortly afterwards. Follow the clues in the entry to begin your journey. NOTE: The transportation spell only works outside city walls and when you're not in combat.

To uninstall, simply delete the following files from your Oblivion\Data folder:
Silgrad_Tower_T.esm
Silgrad_Tower_T.esp
Silgrad_Tower.bsa
Also open the Oblivion\Data\Music folder and delete the silgrad folder.


Known issues
A medium to high-end computer is recommended.

Some players reported a problem with the teleport spell, cause unknown.
If so, please use the console and type "coc w0".

If you use the Knights of the Nine add-on you'll hear a few rumors related to this mod. All other rumors from the game have been disabled while you are in ST worldspaces. Rumors from Oblivion and other mods will still be heard outside of ST worldspaces. Since our mod does not alter anything related to Oblivion there should be no other compatibility issues.


Interested in joining the team?
Terrific! Check out our introduction for more information on how to join. The process isn't very formal, highlighted by the part in the introduction that half-jokingly says "Claim first, ask questions later." It's not as chaotic as that might imply, but it's true that we sort out most things by talking about them. Plus there's no substitute for personal exploration. I'm sure you could stare yourself blind at our claim threads and still not get as good an impression of what one of our overall mod's cities is like as you could by checking it out in the Construction Set to see how it hangs together.

We're always excited to greet new members, so check out the article and then head on over to our forum so we can get to know you!

FAQ
1. When will Silgrad Tower be finished?
We don't have a deadline we're working against, preferring instead to maintain a healthy level of fun by modding at our own pace and often doing jobs on the side within our mod that might not count towards our goals for release, but are just plain fun to do. We'll release when the regions are generated, our cities have reached a highly playable state and there are roads connecting our towns and larger villages. Naturally we will continue working after we've released, and add more and more content to our mod throughout Oblivion's lifespan.

Please check our forum for news of our full release, Silgrad Tower v3.0.

2. Why don't you just use TES3 models?
It's illegal to distribute Bethesda's models and other assets, meaning that if we ripped TES3 models we would be regarded as an illegal mod and couldn't operate on ESF and other crucial places. We're in it for the long haul, and some of us are already looking forward to an eventual fifth Elder Scrolls game which makes it even more important that we have a firm platform to stand on that doesn't compromise Bethesda's copyrights in any way. Besides that consideration the models in TES3 were highly optimized, to make them run on a mid-range computer in 2002, and would have needed extensive work on them just to bring them up to technical par with what you'd expect from Oblivion. For an experienced modeller, editing an old model in that way and making it look good is usually more work than creating it from scratch.

3. Are you modding Vvardenfell?
No, we are modding a region of the Morrowind Province's mainland situated west of Vvardenfell. This release is a preview of that work.

4. Will you make the whole Morrowind Province?
Perhaps we will expand our landmass in the future as the existing region gets completed, but modding the whole Morrowind Province is not our goal. Our goal is to make the part that we DO mod the best we possibly can.

5. What does the term "Dunmer" mean?
"Dunmer" is the name dark elves prefer to call themselves. The term "dark elf" is an Imperial invention.

6. What does the term "Redoran" mean?
To say it succinctly, it is a political power in the Morrowind Province who controls the western-most sliver of the Province.

7. Can I use your models/textures in my mod?
The short answer is no. The longer answer is that if you want to use something *specific* then please contact sandor or TheImperialDragon (sandor@silgrad.com or TheImperialDragon@silgrad.com), because you might be allowed to use it. An example is Tarnsman, who was granted personal permission to use the ingredient meshes in his "Morrowind Ingredients" mod.

Breaking our right to exclusivitivity would be a copyright violation and only result in locked threads/deleted uploads for you and tighter privacy arrangements for us. Given that a lot of modellers share their work freely as modders' resources there's no apparant reason why anyone would want to take our stuff; the only reason one can think of is if they are pursuing the same ideas we are - that of recreating the Morrowind Province. They would be welcome to do so, because a little healthy competition is just a good thing, but to try and do so using our own models and textures against us is unfair.

If someone wants to use our assets we would like them to become part of the team instead. We have a history of giving a wide berth to modders who come to us and wants to work together with us on their own pet projects, and they enjoy substantial freedom in the framework of the Silgrad Tower team. Not to mention access to helpful teammembers whom holds expertise in a wide area of the realm of modding, and whom all work towards the same goal. That's what is so great about being in a team, there's always someone there who knows more than you do about something who can help you out when you get stuck, and you may know more about something than he does, and so everyone has a good time and gets to see their creative dreams fulfilled in our massive, sprawling lands. The writer of this very readme was in the same place a few years ago as any new modder in the team is. I'm still here, and having more fun than ever. Give our team a chance and I'm sure it will grow on you the same way it has on me.

Internal credits
Interior modding: earendil, sandor, TheImperialDragon, Zurke
Exterior modding: sandor & Zurke
Light script: InsanitySorrow
Models: Razorwing, SACarrow, TheImperialdragon
Project coordination & technical aspects (esm, LOD, bsa, region generation): sandor
Quests, in-game map, region preset: The ImperialDragon
Voice work coordination & TES4Gecko adaptation: SACarrow
Voice artists: Casey, Ibsen's Ghost, Andy Slayer, Cambridge Spy, swthemer
Playtesters: Cambridge Spy, ed_conn, InsanitySorrow, simonp92 and ZDawg

External credits
Mr Siika for his cliffs, seagulls, chickens and fishing boat.
Kafeid for the Elegant Vests resource.
someone1074 for the capes & cloaks resource.
Ghogiel for the Bonemold armor, as well as Cryo and Shmbling_Horde for their Bonemold helmets.
Grimdeath, B3w4r3, Martigen, Syko Fox, Cryo, Mdogger, Xmarksthespot, Cryonaut, Orix, Renzeekin, and Grimenir for their Lore Creatures Expansion pack.
Prometheus for the statue set 'Prom' some of which adorn the Forgotten Garden.
Phitt for his help in greatly improving the FPS issue in the 2.0 beta release.
Please [url="http://oblivion.silgrad.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167"]check our website[/url] for a full and up-to-date list of credits.

Special thanks to Koniption for her work on the lift and the jellyfish; nick_op for his technical work on the LCE creatures and farm animals, and for animating the seagulls; and The Modax Jago for his work on the mesh and texture for the Kwama forager as well as nick_op for his skeleton, rigging, animations and SACarrow for his sounds and getting textures for two different UV maps working together as one on the Kwama forager. We would also like to thank Bethesda for making Oblivion, the makers and contributors of TES4Gecko for providing the ultimate modding tool, the makers of TES4Edit, TES4Files, and the makers of NifSkope for creating the perfect application for NIF-related work.

Contact
If you have questions regarding our mod, please post them on our forum and a team member will answer you promptly.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Woo-hooo! :banana:

[Zurke]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Woo-hooo! :banana:

I second that

[Razorwing]

Thankyou to all the guys who did such a fantastic job on our teaser mod :applause:

I'm happy and honored to have been able to contribute

[Sirus]

I was hoping I'd be able to contribute something to this release, but it's still good that it did get released. Time to get working on 3.0, eh?

[SACarrow]

• Conversation with Ra'Vandra
  
• Conversation with Ridam Uvirith
  
• Conversation with Augurio
  

Highlighting the VAs of Silgrad Tower:The Forgotten Garden.

And yes, there is way too much echo; my sound card settings were off.

Steve

[Casey]

And here's the poor soul, Clendil, who was cut from GTAIV :'(

[sandor]

Thanks SACarrow and Casey.

@Zurke
Could you update the OP of the BSG thread?
Perhaps add a small note about the echo.

[Zurke]

Originally posted by sandor
Thanks SACarrow and Casey.

@Zurke
Could you update the OP of the BSG thread?
Perhaps add a small note about the echo.

I dont hear any echo. But yes I will update the mention of the echo under 'known issues'. Does any other section need an update?

[Zurke]

I was about to make an edit to the OP when a thought came to me. Steve were you speaking of the ingame play or the videos you placed links to?

I just want to get that clarified before I make any changes.