This thread is devoted to landscaping and interior work for the Hirstaang Forest region in Solstheim.
Some screenshots:
Progress:
Tue, 12/10/2013 - 10:36
#1
Hirstaang Forest Landscaping
Edited by: grumpycat on 12/08/2014 - 20:35
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This is neat stuff!
You may want to hold on before making Raven Rock out of all placed in Solstheim though. There was a quest where the Nerevarine actually built that city from the ground up, essentially meaning that you'd have to build different spaces for Raven Rock to illustrate the progress of it. If anything I'd say that will be good practise for the Hlaalu/Redoran/Telvani strongholds since they all have similar quests.
Yeah, I was thinking that when I'm done I could set the buildings to being disabled by default and linked to an xmarker, and place the construction pieces to be set to another, and so then when the quest stages occur it can make the construction pieces show up, and then the next stage will make the construction pieces disappear and the buildings show up in their place, like how the furniture addons work for when you buy a house. Before you start the quest there will just be trees and rocks there.
Should I replace the static Bloodmoon trees with renamed Skyrim ones manually, or just keep it as a placeholder? Because I feel like if we replace the model all at once there will be a lot of floating trees, and if we are going to update all the regions anyway, it would look better to do it manually, but I'm just not sure what we're doing for that.
Work on what you want to. Bloodmoon will be many many moons away (see what i did there) and so obviously not a priority. But at the same time if you want to make it your main priority then working on something is better than working on nothing.
When replacing trees, make sure that the position from the ground and scales are very close. You should avoid floating that way, or extra work.
Make sure to check out all the modder resources for trees, Skyrim pines are getting a bit boring imo
happychappy wrote:
Would it be necessarily out of place on Solstheim though? The island was far more Skyrim than Morrowind by the 3rd era especially.
Wherever it makes sense I will use resource trees, but I'm not sure what else to use for snow covered pine trees than the Skyrim ones. Further south where there is less snow can have more resource ones though.
whilst you landscapers are waiting for new assets to work with i suppose its not the end of the world to do other things.
main crit: solstheim needs to be higher out of the water.
The red year rose the sea level (possibly with atmora collapsing too).
more land mass needed
Update: More detail and less tiling
And Ravanna: I will raise the terrain next
never playt morrowind so also not bloodmoon but does solstheim look a bit the same as in dragonborn dlc ?
There wouldn't be any basalt stacks in Bloodmoon. There's no volcanic areas.
I think it's just due to it's proximity to Red Mountain and the Velothi Mountain volcanoes, because the area is already rich in Ebony which is a volcanic mineral. Because otherwise they couldn't have formed as a result of the Red Year, as it only brought ash to Solstheim and not lava. The Basalt columns would have had to have been there for a long time it seems, like the ones in Giant's Causeway are.
Adding onto this,
Considering the proximity to Vvardenfell, it's feasible to think Solstheim is the result of a hotspot under Nirn's crust and that the island was formed due to volcanic activity a long, long time ago. In that sense, it wouldn't be too dissimilar to the Hawaii islands, the Carabean or French Polynesia. I'd say if anything Solstheim offers some good opportunity to create a dormant volcanic landscape as opposed to an active one.
From a Bloodmoon purist perspective however, I honestly believe that Skyrim's assets will offer plenty - and I mean plenty - of material to work with. We've already got Vvardenfell for volcanic formations, why not just make a good winter wonderland with Solstheim?
Other than the raven rock cliffs, I will refrain from placing too many more basalt columns, but keep the ones there, since they were a big portion of Skyrim's rendition of the area. Also, I'm redoing Raven Rock Mine:
between morrowind and skyrim about 200 years, we need some changes)
To be honest, excluding the quests, navmesh, armor/weapons, and some magic, you pretty much have everything you need to bring Bloodmoon up to date. You don't need any new assets to be made, since Skyrim/Dragonborn pretty much includes everything you need.
So I say go nuts, and have fun.
Good job mate, looks fricken gorgeous.
Minor update, I felt as though I've been taking the Dragonborn-ification too far, so I removed the Dragonborn buildings in favor of a more Bloodmoon style landscape (I also raised the terrain a bit). I do still plan to redo the mine though, and now the only things that are heavily influenced by Dragonborn are the big basalt cliffs by the mine, and the location of the Earth Stone, which was moved from northwest of Raven Rock to southwest, on the penninsula. So now there is some more change over time between the two iterations.
Agreed, it looks a hell of a lot better, still not sure about the basalt though :)
Bethesda left a confusing idea on Solsthiem, in Bloodmoon it had a lot of volcanic minerals (Ebony), yet there were no other signs of a volcano or volcanic activity to explain it. And now Dragonborn added Basalt columns, which form when lava cools, and so had to have been a result of a volcanic eruption not from Red Mountain, but on the island, as the effects that far away and across the Sea of Ghosts could only have been ash carried by the wind. As Tajnarasha suggessted, I think it's safe to assume that there is a dormant or extinct volcano on the island that erupted long ago. If so, maybe there could be a small caldera somewhere on the island, but nothing too major as we already have plenty of volcanic regions on Vvardenfell.
Maybe beneath the glacier?
Perhaps that could be the environment in which Hircine's hunt takes place at the end of Bloodmoon.
Update:
Looks nice, just need to remove aspens, getting tired of them everywhere :)
I recently watched the video for Hoddminir, a big new worldspace mod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ4wviQ1_HI
What you can notice is that trees are not straight like everywhere else, but have a slight angles. Really improves the overall perception. Can you make something similar in Bloodmoon? Since it is the only place to use vanilla Skyrim pines.
Damn, those slanted trees look brilliant. Definitely try to incorporate something like that into Solstheim. That would look amazing.
I know Bloodmoon isn't a high priority, but I wish it was. I never played it in Morrowind, so getting a chance to see everything long before the events of Dragonborn in the Skyrim engine will be a great experience.
I recommend trying to find a happy balance between Bloodmoon authenticity and Dragonborn continuity. For people who only played Dragonborn, it would be really cool to basically go back in time and still recognise everything without any jarring inconsistencies.
remember that raven rock is empty at first
Update: New trees!
These will replace the spots where there were previously aspens. The textures are based off of Bloodmoon's pine trees, and eventually all of the pine trees will have these textures, but there does not seem to be a texture slot in Nifskope to swap them out for the pine trees.
zilav and Sechrima: I will definitely be sure to incorporate that design into the Hirstaang Forest.
GendunDrup: Raven Rock's buildings will be disabled initially and become enabled in stages during the construction quest, first with the flora being cleared out, then the construction stage and the completed stage.
beautiful, remind me of the old west gash trees.
I really hope you keep the basalt around the southern coast, geology doesnt change when you sprinkle ash on it.
those trees look awesome man :o
Your work is beautiful, I hope I'm not spamming here but I've got some up close and personal shots of the bassalt formations and neighbouring geology and flora of the Giants Causeway in NE Ireland.
There're pipe and stack formations exposed in the upper regions, beside which a person is tiny. A central strata of more organic forms with just hints of pillar formation and then down at the shore there are huge huge tracts of low lying traversable stack formations.
In addition there is a huge strata in the middle fat with iron rich minerals which gives magnificent red hues (I think also something to do with the kelp seaweed, I forget the details) which contrast amazingly with the deeply fresh mossy greens, I'm not sure how bold you're feeling?? ;) I believe you've got the power!!
The last two photos (view by order of name) are not my own but I thought they should be included for human scale reference; the third last looks down onto the bay and the spit of land which features in the last two images.
Food and pond water for thought!
http://s794.photobucket.com/user/_Ambit/library/
At a glance I'd say your stacks could be larger, i.e. larger diameter stacks and greater irregularity and erosion built into the verticality of the stacks/ columns
More screenshots:
Kolbjorn Barrow
Earth Stone
Also, I've made sure that there are no more aspens on Solstheim. So far the edited area is from raven rock and the Earth Stone peninsula to the end of the cliff near Kolbjorn Barrow, and I'm now working on the area in between that and Fort Frostmoth.
Ooh, I like what I can see. I wish I could see earlier pictures, but it seems anything on the site older than a few days has been deleted or something?
Look to the Bristlecone Pine if you want a pine with a lot of character to it. These trees grow at high elevation and cold conditions, so they grow EXTREMELY slowly, with only a few strips of living tissue at one time, which curl around the tree as time goes on. The oldest of these, Prometheus, was nearly 5000 years old before it was cut down by a grad student to retrieve a $200 drill bit in the 60s. Now, the current oldest, Methuselah, is reaching the 5000 year mark. I think a tree like this would be perfect as a focal point for the forest on Solstheim.
Don't be too overzealous about the aspens. I understand they were the dominant tree type in Skyrim, but remember that Solstheim IS part of Skyrim in the third era and that the island isn't very different than the province in terms of weather - even less so since there was no Red Year in Morrowind's time. I'd rather have the landscape look natural than different. Great job so far!
Do you have resources of dead tree trunks covered with moss? Would like to see them lying around or sticking at angles. Maybe more bushes and stumps. Just something to cover the empty ground.
Not moss, but ivy covered trunks and logs
This is what I've had so far, but I just haven't taken screenshots of those areas. I can add more stuff like that too as I continue landscaping.
Fort Frostmoth so far:
Looks like you need better textures :)
Yeah, the architectural models/textures are really in need of updating, especially Raven Rock's buildings.
Edit: Here's a temporary fix until new assets are made (not apart of the esp, just some texture swapping).
Looks amazing! Also, I'm not sure if this has been discussed before but it just popped into my head and I wanted to know if we are going to have Solstheim placed in the same map as the rest of Vvardenfell like in Morrowind so that we can travel by foot or are we going to separate it like Skyrim did. It makes sense that we could connect them as well as adding a boat to take, like the castle from Dawnguard.
Solstheim is and will remain placed in the same worldspace of Vvardenfell, as was the case with Bloodmoon in the original Morrowind. There is a boat you can take, but it is possible to swim there as well.
Trying to get an idea of how dense the forest should be, some areas will be more or less dense for variety, from open glades to a maze of trees.
Try to don't mix basalt with other rock types, that doesn't happen frequently from geological pov.
well but newer rock and mud could flow over the basalt. also basalt is a hard stone. so the other mud and sediment pieces could have been eroded and some of it remains but the basalt stands hardy!
that's not hard rule, but no trees on it.
special part for alysander only because hey is beeing anoying what this than ? and it isnt the only picture i can find whit in 10 seconds
please be more correct, you are very hard to understand.
> "its a game no need to go hardcore"
= high Pine tree on basalt it's not good, however small or dying tree is nice.
edit: i don't see how big soil massive under that plants. Usually they look like these:
Hovewer, i agree that this rule is'nt hard.
The only reason there is regular rock next to basalt cliffs is for consistency between Dragonborn and Skywind, because Dragonborn had the same thing in the equivalent areas.
Dragonborn:
Skywind:
Another Dragonborn reference:
There will be small basalt areas at the very top of the West Gash to keep up the landscaping consistency with your Solstheim - I'm not particularly fond of DB's basalt, so maybe a retextured version of Robbinsmoth's basalt would be better to use. In fact, the texture just needs to be darker, I can do that on Photoshop. How much have you already done with basalt?
LASentry wrote:
From Raven Rock to the southern coast, the only other area not done with Basalt is the future site of Tel Mythryn. Most of it is made up of large basalt cliff pieces, so it wouldn't be that much to replace though.
Ok, so yeah get a hold of the new basalt assets and use those in the planned area so that we match up :)
I've started to do some interior work:
Kelsedolk Barrow:
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