Andothren

• Previous Andothren meeting: https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/content/2019-10-13-meeting-summary 

• As Vern would not be present for the meeting, he summarized his opinions on the city’s interior situation:

Due to likely being absent during the relevant meeting (public or otherwise) over the planning of Andothren I am obliged to outline the leading issues with the debatable “planning” that has gone into expanding the western half of Andothren.

For the record, long before the current survey to discern the extent of buildings that needed fixes I have been of the position that Andothren West needed to be cut back before any additions can be made and as such will admit to a measure of bias in the following

Andothren west is currently an unfocused mess of interiors roughly correlating to small manors, moderately higher stores and mostly middle class housing, with some low class buildings along the canalside. With judicious fixing and a few cuts this could look like a coherent “old city” as dominated by the native Dunmer population running the full social spectrum to contrast to the more broadly middle class Outlander dominated “new city” on the east bank.

From this perspective the city only would require the additions of a residence fitting for Tholer Andas, a Morag Tong Guild Hall and an Imperial Magistrates manor (which would also play home to Nolus Atius) for narrative cohesion and visual spectacle, perhaps extending the western docks out slightly to also have a lighthouse (depending on how much we all believe that matter needs revisiting).

However, the “current plan” as stated by Gnomey (In quotations as I recall objections from other leads as to the specifics) is too add not just the above, but also two additional large manors for “outlander entrepreneurs”and an entirely new northern harbour with an unspecified number of homes for lower class Dunmer (though as to make such an endeavour worthwhile it would need to be at least 2-3). This being on top of the existent need to sort and fix the aforementioned mess of interiors within Andothren simply  poses a further delay on getting Andothren NPC-ready. Even if many of us are resigned to DoD getting delayed until 2021 due to the realities of quest development, having Andothren be delayed for another 2-3 months will only be a hindrance for development progress on other releases currently in development and project planning.

IF the aforementioned manors and harbour are ruled to be an essential inclusions, I would propose rather than wasting time fixing the mess of  current Andothren west interiors, only specific interiors be salvaged (pending need/quality) with the rest being scrapped and devising a few new interiors to fill the gaps between the essential portions. This would be less inherently draining for  developers and is normally quicker as well (developers are generally more interested making something of their own then trying to fix others work).

For reference, there are 26 interiors in need of fixing and re-review, on top of the five large and three small new interiors, this proposal would halve that amount, thus being less stress for int devs/reviewers.

No clear resolution could be reached on the exact nature and extent of the Andothren redo since the last meeting on the subject. (https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/content/2019-10-13-meeting-summary)

Gnomey will continue setting up interior claims for the interiors that Vern considered in need of them (https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/forum/andothren-west-interior-notes and https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/forum/andothren-east-interior-notes) and will add the current interior files as well as Vern’s notes to those claims. Especially for interiors that are judged to need more extensive work or too be scrapped, developers will not be held to use the files if they don’t want to.

Once everything (such as the modular set) is in place for the exterior to be worked on the exact extent of the redos can be discussed again, perhaps with the help of CS mock-ups.

The manors in Andothren, specifically those belonging to plutocrats that are not formal members of House Hlaalu, saw some discussion. Three to four of these are currently planned:

• the manor of Nolus Atrius, corrupt Imperial Magistrate of Balmora, who both due to comfort and escaping unrest is living in luxury in Andothren.

• the manor of the Imperial Magistrate of Andothren, who will likely be a more reasonable figure who may dislike Atrius.

• the manor of Vermilus Vendicci, a plutocrat planned for the Andothren Thieves Guild questline who keeps slaves and may be associated with the EEC.

• a possible fourth manor that might be occupied by an Ohmes female. She might act as representative and go-between to guilds and merchants in OE.