Proposed Agenda

Sundered Scar Template Meeting

Part II of the Sundered Scar template meeting, following the template meeting format, with an outlook on starting work on the region rework early, depending on how the discussion goes. It will take place at the pacific timeslot, 2 AM UTC. The regular agenda points are listed below for sake of tradition but will not be discussed.

Future Releases

• Sorting out which cites have which guild halls
  • Thieves Guild
  • Morag Tong
  • How much do the Temple and Cult need this?
• Resolving more Imperial Cult issues, perhaps up to a Template Meeting
  • IC shrines start appearing in Thirr Valley and need a better overarching characterisation
  • The faction endgame
• Same thing for the Psijjic Order.
  • Requires Infragris and a whole lot of lore-aware people.
• Thirr Valley NPCing preparations

Future Releases Part II

• Where should the low/mid/high level quests go?

Tamriel Data

• Discussing cross-province armor and weapon stats

Meeting Notes

Ever since it got the name Sundered Scar, the idea has been to rework the Inlet Bog region into something more desolate, replacing all of the Bitter Coast (and Grazelands) elements. Originally, the idea was a pale purplish pumice wasteland, but that idea has since been discarded.
Currently, the plan is to rework the region with largely Molag Amur assets (using the paler rock textures, and without the rock spires), but with more emphasis on sulphur with sulphur pools and, expanding from vanilla scathecraw and fire fern, more vegetation.

A quick early sketch to give an impression of how the region could look.

What changes need to be made to bring the exterior of this region up to date?

1. What assets that we currently have should get used?

A selection of flora that was considered (though some got rejected, see notes below)

Flora:
contain_trama_shrub_01, flora_trama_shrub_01, tramaroot_01
Flora_Ash_Grass_R_01
flora_ash_yam_01
flora_fire_fern_01
flora_muckspunge_01 - coastal, not too near sulphur pools.
flora_plant_05, flora_plant_06 - sweetbarrel for Alt Orethan transition if it doesn't work well for Shipal-shin. Shouldn’t be used beyond the transition zone.
flora_red_lichen_01
flora_rm_scathecraw_01
T_Mw_Flora_Blackrose02 - limited placement towards Azura’s Coast (it’s associated with Azura) and towards Old Ebonheart (where it also grows)
T_Mw_Flora_LichenYw
T_Mw_Flora_ShroomTableR_01 - I'm thinking these are probably better left further west
T_Mw_Fauna_KwamaMolt - chitin source
T_Mw_Fauna_VentWorm

Current selection of fauna (sans Kwama)

Fauna:
cliff racer
kwama
land dreugh
mudcrab
ornada
parastylus
rat
TR beetles

Environment:
geysers

2. What existing assets need to be modified?

TR rocks to use the lighter MA rock textures.

3. What new assets (models/textures) need to be made?

Flora:
- sulfur 'willow' - possibly have it be stunted/small trees
- alchemists globe - possibly with a different texture
- more (smaller) grass variants would be good; probably purplish like scathecraw?
- red leaf tree asset, possibly with darker, more plant-like trunk texture, possibly more purplish leaves. Edit: as per a comment in the meeting thread, this plant should not be used in this region.
- mixed ash/grassland texture - we should probably avoid having full grass textures and keep vegetation patchy. The grass should be purplish or otherwise fit the region palette.
- more scathecraw variants

Fauna:
worm creature/something similar designed for the region
parasitic nix-hound - sometimes found in packs

Environment:
sulphur pools

4. What CS work needs to be done?
This will be a very extensive rework. Some initial work, such as cutting down the peninsulas intruding on the Inner Sea, might be done on TR_Mainland, but beyond that the exterior will be split up into claims (after checking for what dialogue and quests that will effect, etc.) Any releases in the meanwhile will use the current Sundered Scar exterior.
Most of the current heightmap is still workable, but the rocks (too dense in many places, too sparse in others) and flora will have to be almost entirely redone. Some of the rockier areas in the south that were Alt Orethan cells will get flattened, and some land near water level there raised as well. Foothills of the surrounding border mountains will be extended into the region to act as sight blockers, along with some low coastal hills.
Darvon’s shack village will get split up and redistributed, whereas the settlement will become Velothi tileset.
Gorne would be added to the Inner Sea (as its own exterior claim) and current Gorne will be renamed Tharam (or another name), will lose the 6th House dumping ground and will get necessary dialogue edits.

Rough sketches giving an impression of the extent of the claim area, including transition zones. Naturally a clearer plan would be made when we're ready to start the rework.

Some points chef raised and the replies:
The Grazelands area marked as Sundered Scar (random MV Grazelands) - Will that get done as a part of this SS redo or would it just get region swapped to MV? This SS region assignment actually goes quite high up, along the whole bay up to the bottom of the peninsula. - That area will indeed be included in the SS rework.
Regarding this peninsula, I recall Inner Sea enthusiasts wanting to sink it, if we do that the northern SS cells should have their shoreline shape altered so this stretch of cells isn't a straight line - A good point.
Should have a few new textures including rocks so we aren't changing it from worse BC to MA2 - MA textures that get fewer or no uses will feature more heavily, along with some new (probably purplish) mixed grass/Molag Amur textures.
Grazelands SS and BC SS have an attempt at a vanilla hill line separating them, if GL SS is part of the redo this hill line should be moved closer to MV if this is still the kind of region transition we want - The hill line should be removed
Since Fireflower was passed on for RR in favour of Indoril lands, would this region qualify? - The dusk bells are not really suited to such a harsh environment.
Region weather settings should be edited - They will be. Among other things the region will have less rain and a very low (5-10) chance of ash storms.
A while ago there was an "effort" to add some terrace cliffs to the area. These tend to get overused in TR (not talking about placement, just how many regions we've been adding them to) and should not get retextured for the new rocks - Those will be cut from the region.
Alt Orethan BC should be reassigned to SS - Yes. This will involve moving a few RestExterior cells into one of the new claims.
I remember a while back there was debate as to what should replace the Ruinous Keep in that pond, now we know, a giant sulphur pit - That question did resolve itself nicely.

What sort of interiors would this region have (caves, tombs, etc), and in what proportions?

In terms of non-hostile interiors, the region will get some Velothi settlements and maybe more shacks (though we probably have more than enough of those)
In terms of dungeons, ancestral tombs including the Mora Ancestral Tomb, perhaps some more Dwemer and Daedric content, one new as-yet-unnamed Chimer stronghold, more OM ruins (houses, former Mora outposts and such, no ruined Indoril chapels), caves including a few kwama mines and grottos, possibly more Velothi towers, but there are already a few.

How many of each type of interior are needed?

Very rough initial estimates:
Probably dozens of Velothi interiors. (Darvon might have more or less 20, plus a number of smaller settlements à la Balathren)
10 generic caves
6+ ancestral tombs
8 grottos
3-5 kwama mines
Several OM ruins, mostly small
2-3 new Dwemer and Daedric ruins respectively
2-3 Velothi towers (possibly also on coastal hills)
1 Chimer Stronghold (in the northeast currently grazelands area)

Guidelines for the appearances of the interior (tileset, assets to use/avoid)?

Lavacave and pycave with sulphur pools that have lighting, mudcave for grottos.

Timing for the Sundered Scar Rework:

As not all of the members present for today’s meeting will be able to take part in tomorrow’s, there was already some discussion about why it might be better to start the Sundered Scar rework after the DoD release as opposed to leaving it for later.

After DoD (and ITO) are released, the Thirr Valley release will be next in line. Work on its exteriors and interiors will be largely or completely finished by the time of the other releases, and in terms of quests and dialogue the release won’t be as content-heavy as DoD is.
The Sundered Scar redo relies on few new assets and, while it covers a large extent of the coast towards Vvardenfell, it could be split into a small number of exterior claims. As Sundered Scar is so content-light in its current iteration, any dialogue and quest issues will be easy to spot and take into account.
The post-TV areas of Othreleth Woods and Clambering Moors are quite complex and will involve a lot of attention, discussion, work and burnout. Aside from the question of timing, there are no vocal TR members who have expressed a desire to keep Sundered Scar in its current state, and there is a lot of enthusiasm and energy behind redoing it, so while it could maintain a lower priority, the redo is likely to provide a creative outlet to developers getting bogged down with work in the new release areas, allowing them to maintain motivation to work on the project rather than taking breaks from the project altogether.
Sundered Scar is one of the first regions players encounter visiting TR, and has serious issues including an extreme lack of content and being a rehash of content the player already sees in vanilla Vvardenfell which is very roughly executed. By redoing Sundered Scar sooner, the player experience of visiting TR will be significantly improved, the region itself will be more worthwhile to visit and explore, and it will be one long standing bugbear less for TR developers to live with.