Lake Andaram #1 and #5

Priority: 

Stage: 

  • Merged

Development Progress: 

100

Merged into: 

Claim Type: 

Faction: 

Area: 

Queue: 

Description

West Bank of the Thirr. No settlements above Tier VI (Hamlet).

A road travels through here from Hlan Oek to the west (a wretched hive of scum and villainy) down to Othmura.
The landscape should be flat and open, maybe some scattered Hlaalu farmsteads (no large plantations). It could perhaps have some marshy patches with dense vegetation.
There should be some very subtle and hidden ruins, maybe a row of Daedric or Old Mournhold pillars standing along the waterside of some nearly buried complex (no entrance).

Files: 

Comments

The Aanthirin visual update

Gnomey's picture

The Aanthirin visual update was never intended to become a bottleneck for the project. It is intended to strictly be a visual update, changing the appearance of assets that have already been placed, and maybe sprinkling some new assets here and there. (Though performance is somewhat of a concern for Aanthirin, so there probably won't be too much of the latter).
Now while the scale of the update does mean it will be tedious to implement in practice, the actual work required per cell is very low, and I'm quite willing to do it myself. As long as these claims are made to look consistent with the current iteration of Aanthirin, they'll be fine. Creating a completely new exterior cell from scratch is (at least for me) a lot more work, so I'd rather see that taken care of while we have folks interested in taking care of it, which will in turn mean less to worry about in future.

In addition to that, the

Atrayonis's picture

In addition to that, the visual revamp is mostly replacing ground textures a few plants (which are I think mostly in Tamriel_Data now anyway). Replacing flora should be considerably easier with worsas' QuickEdit and we're putting the orange rocks which would have caused problems into the Thirr Valley. Rats said as much on Discord when the topic came up  as well (before the claims were discussed and created).

Nothing done for these claims will be wasted effort or take much time to change.

I think the landscape here

Gnomey's picture

I think the landscape here should be flat and relatively open with some small, scattered Hlaalu farmsteads. It could perhaps have some marshy patches with dense vegetation. I'm not sure if this region could use exterior ruins or not; I think by and large it should be very peaceful, though. Perhaps something relatively subtle, like a row of Daedric or perhaps even OM pillars halfway standing along the waterside in the middle of some almost entirely buried exterior-only ruins.

I have some questions about

MinerMan60101's picture

I have some questions about the cells included in the new claims:
Weren't the new claims going to include existing cells? (i.e. the cells north of the claim) Also claims 1 and 2 were going to include cells above the Nav Andaram claim, or has that (future) claim been expanded north?

The meeting notes on Feb 05

Atrayonis's picture

The meeting notes on Feb 05 do indeed include such a map. We had a talk about it and revised them, but I put in the old map because I didn't notice.

Lake Andaram #2 IIRC has one cell which was already made, and that's because there's a river mouth there now which wasn't before. Otherwise, editing existing cells without a good reason is out.

Claiming! so to my

MinerMan60101's picture

Claiming! so to my understanding i should use AI assets with the new ground textures? What flora should i use?

Yes, AI assets should be used

Rats's picture

Yes, AI assets should be used with the new T_Mw_TerrDirtGrassAT, T_Mw_TerrGrassAT and T_Mw_TerrCloverAT ground textures.

For flora you can use the Orange Moss (T_Mw_FloraAT_OranMoss01-03) and the Amanita Muscaria (T_Glb_Flora_AmanitaMs01-02). Aanthirin also has its own lilypads for water (T_Mw_FloraAT_LilypadOrange_01-03 and T_Mw_FloraAT_LilypadOrangeFl_01). On the top of my head I can't think of what other flora is common in Aanthirin, but I'll do some investigating... Update: apparently anything that would grow in the Ascadian Isles (Gold Kanet, Comberry, Willow Flower, etc. etc.) also grows in Aanthirin.

Oh, and happy modding!

There's really no helping

Rats's picture

There's really no helping with the cell borders :/ Personally I just try to avoid doing a lot of landscape editing near the border.

The inevitable land tears will be fixed when the exterior is merged.

Dang. That's basically what i

MinerMan60101's picture

Dang. That's basically what i thought, but that's still disappointing. Hopefully OpenMW CS will have a better landscape tool when it gets it.

Here's a screenshot of what I

MinerMan60101's picture

Here's a screenshot of what I have so far. My plan is to take a screenshot from this perspective at the end of every day that i develop it, so that i can make a GIF showing its development process.

This is the continuation of a

Atrayonis's picture

This is the continuation of a road started in TR_Mainland. Keep that texture (I *think* it's the one you mentioned, but not sure).

This road in no way involves

MinerMan60101's picture

This road in no way involves TR_Mainland, and this claim seems to be the only exterior so far to include it, but i will leave the road with that texture, and advise that any future claims invilving the road use that texture

Aanthirin main roads use the

Gnomey's picture

Aanthirin main roads use the WG_road texture, (aside from Veloth's Path which gets its own texture), as it isn't overgrown like the AI road texture and matches well with both Hlaalu and Velothi architecture.

That said, I think this stretch of road should be dirt road (using the AI dirt road texture), due to the lack of settlements along the road. The Thirr itself would probably be the main throuoghfare.

Whatever looks nice and

Rats's picture

Whatever looks nice and pseudo-natural in-game. I tend to use grey and brownish shades that aren't too saturated.

Been checking it out. It's

Atrayonis's picture

Been checking it out. It's progressing good I think (disclaimer: not an exterior guy), but seems too flat to me, I believe you are following the heightmap too slavishly. Turn it a bit more hilly and it would be better (except for the northern part which is considerably more raised than the northern Indoril-Thirr part, that should flow smoother).

The northern border is a bit of a problem, though. If you could indent the coastline a bit more (shrink it and make the river wider) so that it can connect easier to the northern riverbed, this will save a lot of work in the future.

I checked it out in-game

Atrayonis's picture

I checked it out in-game today and it looks good  The border to the north needs just a bit more tweaking and that could be done in Hlaalu-Thirr.

However, your plant placement isn't so good. They're usually placed in clumps of the same flowers next to each other - some even form little lines along rocks. You should mix it up a bit more, add a few green grasses instead of flowers (flora_bc_grass_01).

Thank you for the suggestions

MinerMan60101's picture

Thank you for the suggestions. I will add some more of the grasses and make the flower placement more interesting.

Update Now requires the data

MinerMan60101's picture

Update Now requires the data addon. Shroom tables added, southernmost part starting to get developed, and more

In connection with my

Gnomey's picture

In connection with my suggestions for this claim's interiors, I ended up with a few suggestions for exterior edits, some of which you may have already been planning:

1. I'd add a short dirt path connecting the ancestral tomb in [5, -33] to the road, perhaps with a bit of railing, and a road sign where it splits from the road that points to Hlan Oek + Indal-ruhn and Idathren + Othmura.
2. Conversely, if the tomb in [6, -38] could be made less visible -- for example by raising the land so that it's less level with the road or putting something between it and the road -- that might be good, but it's not really necessary.
3. Given that a shack is rather small for a plantation owner (even if it's a small plantation), I'd try to unload some of the living quarters into the exterior, such as (and I'm sorry in advance) a de_ex table with benches where the plantation owner eats. Also, I'd consider giving the owner a pet nix-hound that keeps the slaves in line; maybe you can conjure up a corner for it with a barrel-ring collar and chains, or shackles, or something like that?

Update, now requires beta

MinerMan60101's picture

Update, now requires beta Tamriel Data v05. More detailing here and there, also began making some interiors for Othrano in this file, named "Othrano, [etc]"

Update. Minor changes

MinerMan60101's picture

Update. Minor changes/additions all around. Technically dependent on Tamriel Data v06 beta, but it probably doesn't matter.