Morroblivion

It does slant, that screenshot just doesn't really show it well:

And here's a progress screenshot of the carpentry workshop, where the player can buy furnishing house upgrades, and install those wooden panelings found in upper class imperial houses:

iceflame have u been keeping a record of what assets you're using, or have a way to check that easily?

iceflame542 wrote:

Skywind is about creating a modern approach to Morrowind's story and environs, essentially as if it were released today. With that comes additions geared towards greater immersion, with cities feeling lived in and NPC's utilizing radiant AI, and works to implement concepts that could never properly be implemented due to technical limitations (Such as Michael Kirkbride's Vivec with open cantons and more detail). Having a direct port sort of defeats the purpose, as Morrowind graphical mods are more than sufficient to modernize the graphics while leaving the rest untouched. That being said, I've been looking into what was stated and implied about Caldera from the original Morrowind game, and from other Elder Scrolls sources such as TESA:Redguard's colonial imperials (and the corrupt Admiral Richton), to make the city feel alive in as much of a lore-consistent way as possible. The governor and other officials of Caldera are shown through related original Morrowind quests to be quite corrupt, and are using slaves as replacements for miners (despite Cyrodiil and the rest of the Empire banning slavery). One quest shows the mismanagement of profit generated from the mines for a personal project, and so it seems fitting to show income disparity between the working class (mostly miners) and the corrupt and wealthy officials. Mining within a caldera is a very perilous endeavor as well, and volcanic activity as well as dangerous sulfur gas and other "traps" seek to make that more evident, as well as represent the reason for both hired workers and slaves (hired workers are dying from the difficult conditions, and it is easier to replace them with slaves). Use of Radiant AI to give NPC's lives and character who normally stood still also means that new homes need to be added to give some of them a place to sleep, which is why the city is expanded into the narrow sidestreets and alleyways. The main street layout is preserved, though with more detail.

Wasn't Morroblivion a straight port, done for the purpose of simply bringing Morrowind into Oblivion's graphics and gameplay? I don't recall anyone making their own changes to the core game to add immersion or accommodate the radiant AI or anything like that. My memory is that it (physically) looked and played as the original game did.

Again, not complaining, I'm still just really confused. I never read anything about plans to change Morrowind's content until this thread. When did everyone decide to go in this direction?

miketheratguy wrote:

iceflame542 wrote:

Skywind is about creating a modern approach to Morrowind's story and environs, essentially as if it were released today. With that comes additions geared towards greater immersion, with cities feeling lived in and NPC's utilizing radiant AI, and works to implement concepts that could never properly be implemented due to technical limitations (Such as Michael Kirkbride's Vivec with open cantons and more detail). Having a direct port sort of defeats the purpose, as Morrowind graphical mods are more than sufficient to modernize the graphics while leaving the rest untouched. That being said, I've been looking into what was stated and implied about Caldera from the original Morrowind game, and from other Elder Scrolls sources such as TESA:Redguard's colonial imperials (and the corrupt Admiral Richton), to make the city feel alive in as much of a lore-consistent way as possible. The governor and other officials of Caldera are shown through related original Morrowind quests to be quite corrupt, and are using slaves as replacements for miners (despite Cyrodiil and the rest of the Empire banning slavery). One quest shows the mismanagement of profit generated from the mines for a personal project, and so it seems fitting to show income disparity between the working class (mostly miners) and the corrupt and wealthy officials. Mining within a caldera is a very perilous endeavor as well, and volcanic activity as well as dangerous sulfur gas and other "traps" seek to make that more evident, as well as represent the reason for both hired workers and slaves (hired workers are dying from the difficult conditions, and it is easier to replace them with slaves). Use of Radiant AI to give NPC's lives and character who normally stood still also means that new homes need to be added to give some of them a place to sleep, which is why the city is expanded into the narrow sidestreets and alleyways. The main street layout is preserved, though with more detail.

Wasn't Morroblivion a straight port, done for the purpose of simply bringing Morrowind into Oblivion's graphics and gameplay? I don't recall anyone making their own changes to the core game to add immersion or accommodate the radiant AI or anything like that. My memory is that it (physically) looked and played as the original game did.

Again, not complaining, I'm still just really confused. I never read anything about plans to change Morrowind's content until this thread. When did everyone decide to go in this direction?

A long, long time ago. Also how did you miss that we were renewing Morrowind for Skywind? Literally 90%+ of the threads in the development forum are about enhancing or creating new models, landscapes, soundtracks, you-name-it, for the game. We have a dedicated youtube channel (formally Squally's, which had previously gotten over 500 000 views in our first development video found here) that outlines a number of the changes we're bringing to the game. 

These resources have been available for years. You literally only have to search the forum and read the FAQs and featured threads. These are not hard to find. 

Can't believe how great Caldera is looking! Both interior and exterior look greating. Lighting is really nice for interiors too.

This looks ridiculously good.

Would it be at all possible to see a bird's eye view of the new and improved Caldera?

To be consistent with the Empire's use of large companies and commissions, I now plan to transform that carpentry shop into more of a contractor business for the construction of the colonial homes in Caldera. It would still serve the dual purpose of making some furniture, but this way I feel it would fit better into the world, rather than being there just for the purpose of providing player house upgrades. Now that I think about it, considering how new these settlements are, rather than having the player house left there for sale, it could be built up through the carpentry company in stages, provided the player completes prerequisite quests and can afford the land and building. Dubois and Sons Carpentry is what I'm thinking of making it, being referenced in a Black Horse Courier article in Oblivion as one such company that provides work across tamriel, but was never seen ingame.

I absolutely adore all the details and thoughts you put into this, but as many others have said already I also think it might almost be too good. If the other cities don't hold up to this it might stick out a little bit too much. But for now I simply love everything about this.

@iceflame542 This looks amazing, but be careful: on the top of the first image, the lights are moved away from the candles.

If that kind of effort goes into everything consistently I'm even more impressed :D Go ahead and make it as amazing as you can then.

It's a bit offtop but to add feeling that town is more corrupt it would be nice add local option that u can bribe guard (maybe 75% cost) instead of giving fee. Maybe add only one or two exceptions, they don't accept bribing that u have to be cautious.

Is it so important to be sure that the officials are corrupted? Some grey area is always better then just black and white. I really like quests that are about investigation and not about fighting, like the ones in Oblivion (I don't remember there are some in Skyrim... maybe just the one in Ulfric's city but it sucks).

Tajnarasha wrote:

A long, long time ago. Also how did you miss that we were renewing Morrowind for Skywind? Literally 90%+ of the threads in the development forum are about enhancing or creating new models, landscapes, soundtracks, you-name-it, for the game. We have a dedicated youtube channel (formally Squally's, which had previously gotten over 500 000 views in our first development video found here) that outlines a number of the changes we're bringing to the game. 

 

These resources have been available for years. You literally only have to search the forum and read the FAQs and featured threads. These are not hard to find. 

I'm sure that they're not hard to find if one is here frequently, reading development threads or devoting time to the Youtube channel. I have very little free time and know little about game development; whenever I came here the project was still in the early stages and the primary subjects were creating new meshes and adding voices. I stopped checking in for a long while when I saw that there wasn't yet a unified goal and remained away after I saw that the download of the early build had been pulled.

I obviously made some kind of error or misunderstood something along the way but that's what happens when there's an absence. All I know is that Morroblivion was all about bringing Morrowind's content into the game engine of Oblivion and otherwise leaving it alone, and that Skywind's goal was- originally and ostensibly- the same. Whether doing more beyond that is an optimal goal is a matter of individual taste. I see now that the project has been delayed because somewhere along the line (and I'd honestly like to know when the vote occurred) it was decided that instead of retaining the original content as purely as possible the new plan would be to amend it based on subjective opinions of what's "better" or was "always intended".

I apologize for apparently upsetting some of you with my questions but I guess it is what it is. I legitimately wish everyone luck with the project's "new" direction, it appears to be an ambitious undertaking that clearly involves talented people. I hope you enjoy what comes of this, and I'm sure you will. It's just not for me.

Thank you both for the explanation, I won't be interrupting further.

Guard Barracks and the Office of the Imperial Ambassador:

A document for the Mehrune's Razor DLC in Oblivion was signed with the name Philea Nielus, an ambassador in Caldera. Having not appeared originally, I am adding Nielus's office for consistency.

Well, the expanded size of cities like Vivec, based on the concept art thus far, means that the addition of new NPCs to voice are inevitable, or else large areas of the game will be devoid of life. New NPCs could be considered a Phase II on the scale of priority, although I'm not sure how the Vivec Hlaalu docks, for example, can get around having empty ships and be devoid of dockworkers without the addition of new NPCs. The same applies to any new expansions in towns. I can work on dialog as well, if that would help.

iceflame542 wrote:

Well, the expanded size of cities like Vivec, based on the concept art thus far, means that the addition of new NPCs to voice are inevitable, or else large areas of the game will be devoid of life. New NPCs could be considered a Phase II on the scale of priority, although I'm not sure how the Vivec Hlaalu docks, for example, can get around having empty ships and be devoid of dockworkers without the addition of new NPCs. The same applies to any new expansions in towns. I can work on dialog as well, if that would help.

Iceflame, I would communicate with Smitehammer or Justafan if I were you. From the looks of it you already base your additions to the vanilla towns in existing lore as it is and it may be information they could find useful to write dialog for new characters. Not my call obviously, but I'd rather have you focused on your sexy-as-hell landscaping 

this looks totally amazing

Hey Iceflame, don't know if this was mentioned yet but will you be closing off the city with walls? 

On the topic of Lukkar's concept arts, it might be a good opportunity to see if some anti-Imperial graffiti can be put on the façade of one of the farthest houses/buildings of the city. 

As of now, only the major cities such as Vivec will be closed, and I haven't experienced crashing issues, although I will look into it, that could be the old assets.

I do have plans for how to further immerse Caldera's buildings into established lore, although the main focus right now is exteriors, so that will have to wait. I'll be posting progress on exteriors for other cities soon.

If you are referring to the 'Miner Appetite' sign, I do plan on eventually making lore and crafting related changes, and the sign may change accordingly. The idea would be to make the bakery run by a Hlaalu dunmer from Cheydinhal, using a reference from Infernal City about Cheydinhal being famous for its layer cakes. A Hlaalu cookbook that I have written earlier could be found there too, giving the player some new recipes. I plan on having at least one recipe book for each house, equivelant to Redoran Cooking Secrets. As mentioned in the previous post, this will have to wait, though, as exteriors for the various towns are becoming a higher priority at the time being than interiors and characters.

iceflame542  you are genius!

I'll be working on making it less of a city and more of a town in future updates, although the new section is a place for the miners and their families to live, now that there is radiant AI

I started on the Caldera Mages Guild exterior last night, am about an hour and half into the model and it's nearing basic completion. I don't have a lot of direction on it, I was just kinda handed the concept art, a few Caldera textures, and told "here you go, have fun!"





Is there a project file I can download and fire up and place the building into? I'm kind of (and by kind of I mean completely) new here, and could use a little help. THOINKS GUISE!

Problem is, I'm trying to follow the concept art I was given, and that is it. I don't know scale of the scene, proper dimensions, etc.

Also, scale between inside and outside has always been an issue in Elder Scrolls. Many structures internally are larger than they are on the outside. I fired up Morrowind to try and show you Caldera. This isn't a very good example, but it's noticeable.

Here is the outside from corner to corner. Take note of the character's size in relationship to the wall.

Now look at the inside of the same wall facing opposite direction. I didn't even match the exact opposite camera angle and you can clearly tell how much bigger inside feels. Like I said, not best example, better example is Tel Mora. Try it yourself sometime.

With all that being said, you are right. It does feel small. I made fixes as necessary and much more progress, but the scale needs major work. It's nearing completion, though :)



*EDIT*

Feels much bigger now! :D