New Guy

[Hayden]

Hey folks,
I'm Hayden, and I'm quite interested in working on Tamriel Rebuilt. I loved Morrowind, and I'm sure I'll love oblivion as well. The concept of creating the entire TES world and then being able to play in it intrigues me greatly, I hope to contribute to TR using my various skills, but specifically bookmaking/writing, interior and exterior cell design and possibly some texture editing.

I lack samples for most of these, but this morning churned out a story. It's still a bit rough and purpose written, but I believe that with some refinement, it would make a good short book. In addition, I think I can still hack concept art, but that's been a while since I've done such a thing.

I will come back in a day or two with the required Cell work for interiors and exteriors, as well as some re-worked textures and concept work for sampling.

***

Shadow's Eve

HDS: 3.B.HF

By M. Hayden

Shadymarch is a disgusting swamp of a town, noted for little more than poverty and disease. It was here, shockingly, that my downward spiral of fortunes would be reversed in a surprising way. I had a plot in mind, one that was devastating to those who had betrayed me in the past.
I had been planning, for some time, a heist of a local Merchant's ship from the nearby port of Gilane; The Lillywater was a small, fast ferry, and it's owner, one (Breton) Ells Malacky had done me considerable wrong in losing several shipments that later spelled doom for my textile trade. I would steal his boat, make a run to Skyrim, and sell it off with the cargo! A brilliant plan, except I needed an accomplice.
Wandering the near-deserted streets of the Shadymarch, I eventually grew tired of questioning local thugs. I needed mind, not muscle, to reach my goal. Stepping into “The Falconerâ€Â￾, my tavern of choice, I took my position at the bar as I usually did, and treated myself to a Cyrodiilic Brandy; an early celebration for my predicted success.
“I understand you're looking for an accompliceâ€Â￾ a feminine voice said from behind. “I'm called Shadow, here for a week. Give me a place to stay and a cut of the profit, and I'll make your heist the stuff of legends.â€Â￾ I turned around to see who this muse of the underworld was, and was greeted by a short, slightly built dark elf. I sipped my brandy, and gave her a nod. “Go on.â€Â￾
“I may not look itâ€Â￾ she began, “but I've been involved in a number of heists. Each of them greater than the last. If you wish it, I'll assist you, and make my exit here. In a week, I'll be dead, and I want this to be a spectacular ending to a glorious career.â€Â￾ I raised my brow, wanting to question her sincerity, but at this point too desperate to execute my plan to turn her down. Maybe it was the drink, or maybe it was her charisma. In either event, I committed myself.

In Two days, the plan was set. She would seek passage aboard the Lillywater in Taneth, paralyze Malacky, And stop just long enough in Gilane to drop him and take me with her. I, for my part, would pay for her expenses to this point, as well as the ticket. Everything was set, as I stood on the docks, eagerly awaiting my new fortune.
As I saw the Lillywater slowly approach, my pulse quickened. This would be it! My treasure delievered! The ship scraped against the dock, and I leap aboard, almost ecstatic. But, where was the crew? Malacky? My accomplice? Checking the ship, I found nary a trace, and so decided it was all the better. I pushed the ship out into the bay, and unfurled the sails.

As the ship rounded the bend near Hnes Rax, a familiar feminine voice called from behind me. “Ah, my accomplice, what progress we have made.â€Â￾ I quickly turned, scanning the deck for any signs of shadow. “not there, dear accomplice. Not anywhere. The spell is an incredible thing, is it not? Never knew I was here. Never knew my boss was here.â€Â￾ I coughed. “Your boss?â€Â￾
“Yes.â€Â￾ said Ells Malackey, emerging from a nearby crate. “Now that you've tried to steal my ship and take my life, I suppose I'll have to take something of yours before I order my assassin to kill you.â€Â￾ I squinted. “You've already taken everything! My mill, my profit, everything I had is lost due to you!â€Â￾ Malackey smiled at this. “yes. Everything.â€Â￾

The knife pierced into my back and I slumped to the deck. At the same time Malackey collapsed, his throat slit and a look of total surprise twisted on his face. A new voice hissed at us “What fools you were, both of you. Should know better than to trust strangers with your fortunes.â€Â￾ Shadow appeared, standing over me. She smiled and said “You'll live. After all, someone needs to tell the story. You'll not see me again, and you'll never see my associate.â€Â￾
The next day, I woke on a dock in Sentinel. Since this encounter, I've done my best to avoid the underworld, and in a way, this was the best thing that could have happened. Shadow kept her promise, and the story did become something of a local legend in south western Hammerfell In spite of the misfortune of the events, I consider myself lucky to have survived, and even more fortunate to make a living off the tale.

***

I hope you like it.

[Andres Indoril]

:newmemberdance: Welcome to the forums You're story was pretty intresting, but I'm no pro so wait for someone who knows something about literature

[Morgoth]

Welcome to TR, Hayden! I'm an art guy, so this isn't exactly an official review of your story, but I really did enjoy it. It seems sound grammatically, and is interesting from the beggining to the end. An excellent job, in my opinion. (And you mentioned texture editing? I can't think of anything we need more, at the moment, so your help would be majorly appreciated.)

[The Old Ye Bard]

Wow, great story I couldn't find any errors and it was so captivating, you'll by TR Modder in no time.

[PoHa!]

[Hayden]

[Hayden]

This is some concept stuff I did today during my lunch break. I decided to throw it up while I took a break from cell work to have some dinner. I think it's turned out rather well, and am curious to see what you folks think of it.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/Haydenwashington/Demo1.jpg[/img]

It's my idea for a lighthouse just south of Hnes Rax. The basic design is a large, hollowed our rock formation, with provisions for a house where it's been hollowed out. I hope that image shows.

[Hayden]

I went ahead and did my interior/exterior cells as a combined package (as Hayden_TestPage.esp)

I made both a smuggler's cavern (with link to the soutside world) and a camp for the miners at the nearby egg mine south west of Balmora.

The cells used are:
1_Ascadian Isles Region (-4,-4)
1_Ascadian Isles Region (-4,-5)
1_Smugglers (interior)
1_Mephala (interior, NOTE: This is a scrapped portion of this project, and is only listed here for consistency.

[Also note that anything I mod is listed with a 1_ to make it easier to find. When working on actual projects, I remove the 1_ when finished with that cell.]

I believe I've covered myself pretty well, as far as good design goes, and eagerly await feedback.

EDIT: I just played it, noticed some glaring errors, I'll fix these once I get back from class.

[Macar]

Nice with the art, it's pretty clean and it has a good concept behind it. What medium are you using?

It looks, to me, like you have the skills. (at least on the literature and art fronts. Now we'll just see what the experts say about your TESCS skills. In the mean time, if youre looking for something to work on right away, there is the WSG. The WSG, weekly sketch group, is open to anyone. Basicaly it's a weekly concept art brainstorm on a given topic. Here's this week's: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=15892

[Hayden]

Thanks, I'm just using black ink from a .7mm ball point on medium paper (the yellowing was a by-product of having to take a snapshop of the imag because my scanner is out of comission).

Thanks for the link, I'll have a look.

[Morgoth]

Wow, 0.7 is quite large. I would suggest a 0.1 / 0.3 felt tip for the best results. (If you plan on going into fine detail.) You can find such pens in any good bookstore if you have a local one, or of course an art shop. As for the yellowing, I kind of like it.

[Hayden]

ok, here are my re-worked cells. I think I fixed all the in-game problems, so we should be good.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Used Cells and other information are the same as before.

[Haplo]

Nice story! However, loosing should be losing, Brilliant should be uncapitalized, 'grew tired to questioning' should read 'grew tired OF questioning', and you should add beginning quotation marks to the first line of dialogue. (something like "I hear you are looking for an accomplice").

Just a few things found in the first part of the story. You've got real talent, though, and I hope you continue to contribute to the literature section here at TR! Welcome, by the way!

[Nanu]

Welcome to the project! Your cave was good, I liked it's lack of size. I noticed that you were smart enough to make a floor to sit your furniture on. Anyway, aside from a few minor - VERY minor - bleeders, I could see no problem with your cave. I don't review exteriors, so you'll have to wait for someone else to come along and look at that.

Your story was very good also, as was your art. My question is: what do you plan to do here at TR?

[Hayden]

Thank you very much! I went ahad and made the changed on the main page.

Out of curiosity, can anyone inform me of how to actually join the team as a modder? Or do I simply contribute untill I get accepted?

[Nanu]

You have to be promoted by Morden or one of the Admins. I do believe that our current system is about to change though.

[PoHa!]

Hey there again, Hayden.

Looking at your interior, because I was too uncertain as to what you did to the exteriors, I found the following.

Plus side (things I liked to see):
+ Gridsnap and angle snap was used correctly(actually, this freaked me out kinda... if you look at the two cave pieces coordinates, they're both at (0,0,0), yet they're aligned correctly and everything... very confusing to see that... poor PoHa!...)
+ You used some interesting rotations for those cavern beams, and its good to see them (lots of people overlook them when building caves I think)
+ The smugglers (4 in all) have a decent amount of loot for their group size
+ Its pretty clear (or I think its clear) that you've thought about he lives and personalities of the smugglers here. One of them likes the sweet sugar, the boss's area is easily identifiable, etc...

Minus side (things that I didn't like, or... yea... things I didn't like)
- This cave is pretty small for 4 smugglers
- There were no rocks used
- the layout of the smuggler's beds suggest that the player will likely meet the boss smuggler first, when, ideally, he/she should be met last
- Three cave drips is too many for two tile pieces, especially considering that there's no indication that there's any water or anything dripping water (ie stalagtites)
- Smugglers aren't likely to have rm furniture... though I suppose its possibly, it still doesn't look right to me. Also, everything looks far too ordered and nice for smugglers (everyone has a plate, there's bread in a basket all nice and proper, the candle looks nice and expensive, the bookshelf, the rich looking bed, the rich wallscreens... etc, etc...)
-the ramp that leads up to the boss's room looks very precarious. A platform or two along the way, will break it up more, give extra space for storing things, and make it look better, overall

Good start, not bad.

But might I suggest you try your hand at an Indoril (MH) interior? The current available claims are all of that style, and it would be good practice for you, I think (things ordered properly and nicely in a common Indoril interior would make perfect sense)

[Edit]DANG! I take too long to post...[/edit]

[Hayden]

Welcome to the project! Your cave was good, I liked it's lack of size. I noticed that you were smart enough to make a floor to sit your furniture on. Anyway, aside from a few minor - VERY minor - bleeders, I could see no problem with your cave. I don't review exteriors, so you'll have to wait for someone else to come along and look at that.

Your story was very good also, as was your art. My question is: what do you plan to do here at TR?

What I would really like to do is work with Literature and Interiors, as those are my strongest points. At some point, I would like to work on some small (island?) exteriors. I'll contribute concept art and/or textures intermittently, but again, most of what I would like to do is writing literature and cell editing. I could produce between 2-4 interiors per week (depending on scope, detail, etc) and about 2 stories per week. I'm careful not to over-tax myself, in spite of a desire to do so

Of course, I also plan on engaging in various debates regarding the project where I feel I may add something.

[Hayden]

But might I suggest you try your hand at an Indoril (MH) interior? The current available claims are all of that style, and it would be good practice for you, I think (things ordered properly and nicely in a common Indoril interior would make perfect sense)

When working with the Indoril type archetecture/interiors/furniture, I'll use things like those found in Mournhold, etc?

Once I know this, I'll get going on it.

[Andres Indoril]

Yes, you have to use those found in Mournhold.

[Nanu]

[off-topic]Andres! I saw guests in the Member Downloads section too! You're not crazy.[/off-topic]

[Hayden]

[off-topic]Andres! I saw guests in the Member Downloads section too! You're not crazy.[/off-topic]

[off-topic]Darn them![/off-topic]

[Hayden]

Still getting the hang of the MH set, but I decided to take a break for a while and optimize my first interior attempt.

I took a lot of PoHa!'s advice and significantly modified the map.

This will probably be the last time I re-make this cell.

[PoHa!]

Hey Hayden!

Looking at the improvements, I gotta say that the rocks added soooo much to this interior, and really pull it together more. I still don't like the rm furniture, but it does kinda add a "come across random things and use what we find" look to it. Mostly, I dislike the bookshelf. It just doesn't fit. Second, though is a far lesser gripe, is the bench. And lastly, the chair actually seems to kinda fit somehow.

I also noticed you didn't do anything (noticeable) to the stairs. I'll reiterate that the stairs could definately use a platform midway up or something, to break up the awkwardness of it. At the top, I also noticed that you have the stairs meeting another set of stairs that goes down to the platform, which looks odd too (why would the smugglers build a stair that goes above what they needed to go, only to build it back down?) The solution is to start at the top, and work your way down with staircase pieces in a cave. If the last one goes into the ground, it hurts nothing.

A final thing to note: watch out when placing furniture on rugs. What happens is that you either have a leg floating above the ground, or you have a leg going through the rug itself.

Other than that, I really liked how your cave turned out. The mushrooms are nice, your rocks were pretty good, and the un-niceyness that you did was good to (i still want to draw attention to the bread and basket though).

Good luck to you on making a MH interior, I await the .esp.

[Hayden]

Ok, Right now I'm getting close to finishing my interior. It's built around a former oredinator and his wife (both aged) on a small private estate. Interior only, no exterior stuff.

things pretty much fall together from there, and I'll leave the rest to the interpritation of the beholder.

In any event, should be up late tonight or early tomorrow.

[Hayden]

After exhaustive work, I present the initial product. I referenced many of Bethesda's cells on this one to make sure I was consistent. Perhaps not perfect, but I believe I did a pretty good job on this one. No link to exterior cell.

2_test house is the cell you want to use; 1_testhouse is a hulk I started out with and eventually decided to abandon (but not destroy) in favor of a fresh start.

Headed to bed, tomorrow I'll try to do some concept work or maybe another story between studying for finals and preparing final papers.

As always, I hope you enjoy!

[Nanu]

The upstairs reference to "misc_de_bowl_redware_01" is floating.

You used a "_com" item with "_de", don't do that. Replace the barstool with a shrunk bench if you'd like.

It's a bit too bright in here, try shaving about 30 points off the ambient and sunlight settings.

I don't know the types of guards that outer Mournhold has, but I do believe that they use High Ordinator stuff. You need to use that instead of the Velothi type.
At any rate, this had better be the house of a guard (or a thief.)

Pretty nice clothes this guy owns, you might want to lock up some of his stuff.

Other that that, I couldn't notice any other issues, except maybe the top part of the trapdoor needing to be rotated 45 degrees.

Good job, we could use this type of quality on TR!

[Hayden]

Allright, I took everything into account this time (I decided it's in my interest and the interest of the project to throw out creative liberties), and I believe this building is about as good as it gets. I'll be eager to see if anything else needs to be fixed

Also, I removed all the ordinator equipment and replaced them with steel swords. Looks a lot better now.

I'll see about putting some more stuff up later tonight, looking forward to comments and criticism.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure about the High Ordinator thing, and I say this because what you referred to as "Velothi" armor is called "Indoril" armor in the game (Though I realize this is because the wearers tended to be from House Indoril, as opposed to the armor being a type unique to that house), and it seems more likely that if the majority of wearers are indeed from house Indoril, then it would make sense that the armor was used in their territory as well, as opposed to the High Ordinator armor.

Just my two cents on the issue.

[Hayden]

Concept Art for the Palace at Rihad. First time using a felt tipped pen for drawing, but it was quite nice.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/Haydenwashington/Rihadpalace1.jpg[/img]

And for a small temple of Satakal.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/Haydenwashington/sakatalsmtemple.jpg[/img]


Morgoth: .3 Felt Tip is now my best friend in Concept art.

[Morden]

it would make sense that the armor was used in their territory as well, as opposed to the High Ordinator armor.

We have a unique set of House Indoril bonemold armor in our Objects of Tamriel plugin. We modelled it ourselves.

[Serric]

Nanu beat me to this, i wrote this review then didn't have time to post it...anyway, some of the things i've mentioned Nanu mentioned too, so just ignore them, but i've noticed other things.

For a start, the .esp is dirty, which is one of the first things that reviewers look for. If you don't know what that means, it's when your .esp changes something in the original content that you probably didn't want to change (for example, you've changed the trader's interior in mournhold, and also several statics) You've changed a cell by opening it and moving something accidentally, and you've changed the statics and others items by going into their properties when placing them and pressing save instead of cancel or close (I know this doesn't sound logical, but just accept it for now. Unless it's an object your making, always press cancel. If you want a more detailed explanation, pm me and i'll provide one)
Anyway, you 'clean' the esp by using TESAME, which can be found on the utilites bit from the main page. You need to use this to remove references to things that you know you haven't meant to change.

Secondly, the lighting of the interior isn't consistant with other indoril interiors. Open a MH int up and compare it's lighting values to your own, you'll see what i mean. We need lighting levels to be consitant across interiors as, if your in a town and go into a house, then go into the house next to it and see completly diffrerent lighting, it breaks the immersion.

The third major problem i found is that you havn't used gridsnap when placing the interior shell (as in the walls, etc.) This is another thing that a reviewer wil look for and notice almost straight away. Not using gridsnap means that the different pieces of wall don't line up, and you can see through the gaps into the void. When working with normal-size statics like the MH set, use gridsnap set at 64 to get them lined up right. Its easy to fix as well, though it means that you'll have to move the furniture; it'll either float or bleed after you've moved the walls.

It's good that you've included a northmarker, as they usually get forgotten.

Onto the interior in general:
As this is an indoril interior, the furnisings and items should be completely dunmer. However, you've got a few com and imp (both refer to imperial) furnishings and items spread around, which don't go in an interior like this. An example is the furn_com_rm_stool_01 found in bedroom; this should be replaced with a dunmer version.

A list of the offending items follows:
- furn_com_rm_stool_01 (from above)
- furn_com_rm_barstool
- Light_Com_Candle_14
- misc_com_bottle_02
- Misc_Com_Bottle_04
- misc_com_bottle_09
- misc_com_plate_07
- All silverware

These should all be replaced with dunmer-style items. Even though Misc_Com_Redware_Cup (for example) has 'Com' in the name, it's ok, as redware is universal, meaning it can be used in any interior (at least, this was true last time i checked, i'll find out for you, unless another modder will confirm this for me? *hint hint...*)

As you need to remove all silverware, the chest_small_01_silverwa needs replacing with a chest that gives something dunmer.

You've also used Ex_MH_swr_trapdr_blkd which is meant to be either unique or used in a specific cirrcumstance (probably the latter). When i checked it, i found that it had a script on it (as i thought it would have). my advice is to replace this object with a plain version, Ex_MH_swr_trapdoor_01. Also concerning this, the rotation of it needs fixing so that it matches the trapdoor leading up to it.

As for the trap leading up to it, again you've mixed two different styles; indoril and hlaalu. I know for a fact that there is a MH version of a trapdoor leading up, as i've used it. You're hlaalu version needs replacing with that MH one. The one you want has ID In_MH_trapdoor_01.

So that i don't make this too long (as if it's not already...) i'll let you fix these problems first, then when you have i'll go over it for floaters and bleeders, and anything else i can find.

The ordinator armour shouldn't be here (though i really like how you've set it out with the sword), it's religious armour and unless this house were for an ordinator, you need to remove it.

Overall, fixing all the errors above and the little floaters/bleeders, this will be a very good interior, nicely laid out and well detailed.

Keep at it, your doing great!

[Hayden]

Serric,
First of all, thank you for the incredibly detailed advice. It was all very useful to me (Nanu Ra, thanks for your TESAME link!), and I'm glad you made me aware of the snap feature. This will make things MUCH faster.

I went through, corrected all the errors as well as re-ordering the interior so that everything jived with the required regional, cultural and other requirements.

Also did a thorough once-over to check for floaters, leaks, etc, and I do believe that I was pretty thorough. I also scanned it with the TESAME at several different points to make sure I was clear. I'm quite happy with it thus far. The only thing I may have to do is remove a few lights to dim it a bit; otherwise, the normal environmental light settings are identical to MH ones.

As an aside, I have a lot of respect for you reviewers and I really appreciate the job you guys do. If it wasn't for you, I'd never get better

Below is a reloaded version, with several changes made.

[Nanu]

Well, there are still some issues with the gridsnap. However, now that you know how to use it, I suspect that this will be the last interior to have that error.

So, aside from the the gridsnap issues, and the funky deal with the useless ladder in the study/attic place, I'd say that this is about as good as it gets.

I'd recommend a promotion, but it's up to a mod or admin in the end.

[Hayden]

Well, there are still some issues with the gridsnap. However, now that you know how to use it, I suspect that this will be the last interior to have that error.

So, aside from the the gridsnap issues, and the funky deal with the useless ladder in the study/attic place, I'd say that this is about as good as it gets.

I'd recommend a promotion, but it's up to a mod or admin in the end.

If possible, can you tell me what the issue with Grid snap are, so that I know how to rectify them?

Yeah, I didn't think it was terribly bad, but it's fixable.

I appreciate the promotion suggestion, but like you said, it's up to the admins

EDIT: Ok, Fixed everything up, and touched up a few cosmetic things, so now I'm confident it's done!

[Nanu]

Your stairs need to be moved down. Look at the ceiling above the stairs to see what I mean. I'm sure that it was just a mistake while you were trying to fix something else. Happens to me all the time.

[Hayden]

Ok, again, thanks a lot. That's all squared away, and I went ahead and put the ne file on here.

[Nanu]

Now there really is no reason for you not to be promoted.

See you in the private forums.

[Serric]

What you had before was very good, so what you have now must be brilliant (i ain't got CS at uni so i can't check it over)...I definatly recommend you as well (as if Nanu's recommendation isn't all you need... )

[Morden]

Hi Hayden. I had a look at your Indoril interior in the CS and in game. It looks incredible. However, if I had to give one item of criticism I'd have to say it concerns the swinging lights. Because it is such a low-ceiling room, the rope appears to swing back and forth through the stone roof. Just something more to remember.

You've shown a lot of patience, determination, and overall good spirt.. and I'm sure you'll be a great member to mod with. You're work has taken quite a beating from these guys (Thanks to you guys as well).

Promoted to TR moddder.

Feel free to keep using this thread for any of your own purposes, including future work, and take a look at the new forums available to you... the project just got a whole lot bigger. If you'd like to take an interior claim, and help us with the Indoril city of Almalexia, you can find them listed in the claims browser:

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/claims.php

If you have questions about the claims browser you can ask here, or in the Private Tavern:

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewforum.php?f=202

Its also encouraged that you log in to our IRC channel at some point. There are usually other modders in there chatting about random things, as well as admins and moderators. We do a lot of open planning and discussion through IRC. You can find us on the Chatspike server in the channel #tamriel

TR IRC FAQ:
http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=faq&section=166874

[Hayden]

Hey folks,
Looking to rejoin the mod, I'll be posting up new stuff soon to prove myself.