Saturday January 16 6:00 GMT meeting

Discussion leader: Gnomey

Note-taker (secretary): Gnomey

Topics: Finalizing Deshaan Region/preparing Deshaan for implementation planning.

 

Notes:

For this meeting we left the topic of Dres architecture to the side; we intend to discuss it in next week’s meeting.

We also decided not to talk about the region’s colour palette; as discussed before, figuring out the palette is probably best done with the help of in-game ground texture mock-ups. Asylum has made a solid start here.

 

Dres ground textures would probably consist of grass, salt flats, dirt, exposed rock, and several combinations thereof. At least as far as the Deshaan plains is concerned grass should probably dominate. A minor concern that got mentioned about using salt flats too broadly is that they might look like snow. If present, the exposed rock texture should probably be used very sparingly. ~Gnomey

 

The water for brine pools and possibly also the particle effect for chlorine clouds could probably be handled as retextures. Chlorine clouds in particular would tend to be grouped rather than placed as single columns. Brine pools would probably just be a retextured 512x512 plane.

 

The Deshaan will probably not have any trees; the largest flora will probably be the Saltstrap plant. Other features like Dres Clansteads, Skyrender Nests, Daedric ruins and megafauna would dominate the skyline.

 

Resdayn Revival Team’s hive model – which is excellent and which we have permission to use – probably won’t be usable for Skyrender nests, which need to be modular as there will be several of them. I also think that the massive model will contrast a bit too much with what is otherwise a very flat region. ~Gnomey

 

We’re basically assuming three region tilesets for Dres lands: Deshaan, Mudflats (whether this should be its own tileset is up for debate, though) and Argon. (Names by no means final). Each corresponds to a Dres region; a fourth region, the Salt Marshes, would probably use the Deshaan tileset, perhaps with some elements of the Argon tileset mixed in. The plan is to discuss the Mudflats after the Deshaan, and move on to the Argon last.

 

There would probably be no Imperial sites in the Deshaan Plains. The idea of a fort on the Dres/Hlaalu border or – the idea people found more interesting – on the border with Black Marsh, perhaps having become part of Morrowind with the Arnesian War land grab, was discussed, but both the Dres/Hlaalu border and the Black Marsh border will be discussed at a later date.

 

 

Dungeons:

Random insect burrows and natural caves scattered about the Deshaan: retexture of vanilla cave tileset, to an extent for a bit of consistency? We forgot to discuss how the exterior entrances would look like. Probably dark doors, as they wouldn’t be man-made. I do think whatever solution we go with for the salt washes dark doors could be applied to other natural entrances as well. ~Gnomey

 

Daedric ruins: presence should be taken into account when discussing Deshaan colour palette. Probably mostly in northwestern Deshaan, as the Chimer probably hadn’t settled far into the Deshaan Plains when those ruins were being built. Should probably be largely intact. Dres now worship in Clanstead temples and probably do not use the Daedric ruins anymore, but still respect them. ~Gnomey

 

Salt Washes: exterior chasms generally handled via Deshaan rocks rather than the interior tileset, so interior tileset does not need to be modelled before exterior work can start. However, large dark doors need to be created to communicate between the exterior and interior. They may teleport the player when he gets close. Compare to (some) Skyrim cave entrances. They should probably be black planes with a sort of static ‘shadow’ particle effect applied on top.

Interior tileset should probably not be designed to tile but rather to mash together, allowing for a more organic flow.

Skyrender hives: exterior probably a bunch of spheres mashed together with some additional models to hide ugly seams. Compare Telvanni exterior tileset.

In-game hives will need to be much larger to work as interiors.

Interior tileset should probably also not be designed to tile but rather to mash together.

 

Flora:

Rocks:

Salt: