Ali Baba's Showcase

[Ali Babarian]

My Showcase consists of a small house on an island slightly off the southernmost tip of the spur of land south of Ebonheart. It has an exterior, cosy interior, and a cellar complete with a rat.

I am also a good scripter and could post some other things I have made ( which are mostly script ), if anyone wants proof.

[Starcrunch]

Extierior -

I'm not much of an exterior guy, but I can pick out some things

Lore:

• flora_t_mushroom_01 is a Telvanni realted plant, though it doesn't look too out of place since the Emperore Parasol grows in the AI

Technical:

• flora_corkbulb bleeds into terrain due to grade
• flora_comberry_01 bleeds into the cottage
• flora_tree_ai_01 bleeds badly into flora_tree_ai_03
• terrain_rock_ai_12 caspers (24817, -118280, 429) as does its neighbor
• there is a bad texture transition just below the above rock (all the texture transitions need a good second look)
• sharp terrain angles need to be smoothed, and use of terrain shaping for cliffs rather badly stretches textures (in TR we have meshes for this)
• Vertex shading needs to be done

Cottage -

General:

• Maybe a bit spare, a few more items would be nice.
  I really think you should rethink the layout; move the table against the notrh wall, freeing the middle of the room, in addition this simple change will make it feel less empty.
• Needs more source lighting

Lore:

• furn_de_tapestry_02 is a Dunmer item (it's actually a Temple related tapestry)
• de_p_desk_01 is a dunmer item, it also doesn't match the rm furniture used otherwise (annoyingly there are no com desks)
• de_p_chest_02 is a dunmer chest (it's not a real biggy, these get used all the time in both com and de ints)
• in_v_s_trapdoor_01 is used in velothi interiors (like Vivec), a different trapdoor set exists for common/imperial architecture

Technical:

• furn_com_rm_chair_03 bleed [3 of these bleed into the table; 2 are bad, one is less noticable]
• light_com_candle_02 floats
• furn_com_rm_winerack floats off the ground and bleeds into the wall base
• door teleport marker from basement is in too restricted an area
• You didn't link the exterior door to the interior (in TR interior modders don't do this anyway, but for your example it's a major problem)
• Uses default lighting settings (chage to mimic other Nord interiors, see Dagon Fell for an example)

Other Minor things that are not really errors:

• misc_uni_pillow_01 is too large
• the chest is empty
• No silverware on the table?

Cellar -

Lore:

• in_impsmall_endcap_01 is confined to Imperial Legion/Government buildings, use the in_c_stone_XXX set instead (or any common or cave set)
• in_v_s_trapdoor_02 as with door in cottage

Technical:

• com_chest_01 bleeds into the floor and wall (it's also empty)
• com_sack_01_chpfood5 should be lowered a little bit (both of the ones resting on the floor, don't forget to adjust the one stacked on the other accordingly)
• com_basket_01 bleeds into walls
• barrel_01_cheapfood5 bleeds into neighbors (shift it, but make sure to adjust the other containers adjacent so they don't bleed)
• all barrles have the same rotation (rotate them to have different angles making it more interesting
• Light/Fog settings are simply weird

-Starcrunch

[Ali Babarian]

Just a few questions on terms used:

What does

Caspers?
and
Vetex Shading?

Mean?

Also I will make the exteriro more lively, make the interior more lively and completely redo the cellar.

[angelus6]

Caspers means somthing that disapears when you are far away from it and fades in (like a ghost (ie, casper)) when you get closer to it.
Vertex Shading is using the selective colour (under the texture painting option) to colour a darker (or maybe lighter) colour onto the ground around an object, giving it the look of shadow and shading. try it with a dark grey or brown depending on the ground, black generally doesnt work to well.

hope that answers your questions

[Starcrunch]

Caspers means somthing that disapears when you are far away from it and fades in (like a ghost (ie, casper)) when you get closer to it.

Here it means something a bit different; it means that a face of an object that has no surface is not properly covered. In this case you've placed rocks on a very, very steep grade; and they don't quite reach the ground on all sides; to a PC below the objects they casper (and here a PC can get below these rocks and look up from the water, up the slope to the bottom of the rock).

-Starcrunch

[Ali Babarian]

Wait don't download the first one, I forgot to fix two errors: Download V3.0.

[Andres Indoril]

You could have edited, ya know

[Ali Babarian]

What is good enough to get me onto the team?

Also, what do you ( as in the reviewer ) want in the cottage?

Scripted Things?
NPC's?
New Items?

Just a few questions that might help me submit better showcases...

[PoHa!]

You should make what you feel you can contribute well, and want to improve on/help with in the project. Make interiors if you want to focus your energy on interiors. Make NPCs if you want to be a part of that. Quests, scripting, custom meshes... whatever you want to be a part of, or whatever you feel you need to improve upon (and have a desire to work with) should be showcased. We'll give feedback to the best of our abilities.

Here it means something a bit different; it means that a face of an object that has no surface is not properly covered.

That's the way I coined the term to be used (yes, I'm still proud of that little word that has been picked up by everyone [Gives everyone a pink fuzzle]).

[Ali Babarian]

I have been working on a new tomb which is very big. It has four ( proper ) levels, 7 rooms, 3 Halls ( as in V. big rooms)
and a secret door. Would it be better if I posted this instead of the cottage, or does size make no difference?
The Velothi tileset is definitely my favorite tileset so far!

[angelus6]

*puts official sounding voice mod on*

*clears throat*

Here at TR we value quality over quantity. if someone makes a huge tomb with 4 levels etc and a lot of work has gone into it but then a small 1 room cottage with lots of perfectly plased clutter and hte place is good enough to be seen ingame (even though it may have only taken half an hour to make) this is what that person will be promoted for. The quality of their work rather than size and quantity.
*looses official voice*

hope that helps

[Ali Babarian]

I hope I'm not being a nuisance, but: Another Question.

What if I submitted a perfect interior first time, which didn't need any criticism? How would that be?

BTW the huge tomb is about 90% complete, I shall probably upload it very soon. All I need to do now is error check it.

HEY ID DIDN'T NOTICE THIS BEFORE:
When I go to the usergroups panel and view the groups it says they are all closed: No More Users Accepted. Does that mean I am wasting my time here?

[PoHa!]

Not a nuisance.

If you submitted a perfect interior, I bet TF would still find something wrong with it

Anyways, if it were up to me, I'd ask for another, just to make sure that you were consistent with your perfectedness.

As for the usergroups, I think that's just forum speak for "you can't add yourself" meaning, a head of the group or an admin has to add you.

If that's not enough to go on, think about this: you're not wasting your time, because if you were, then we'd be wasting our time with feedback.

[Ali Babarian]

Okay: Here is a large tomb I made, called Shocasen Ancestral Tomb. Perhaps it is better than Tiphill, I don't know. All that is certain is that it is much bigger, has no exterior, includes scripted stuff, includes creatures, and has been checked for floaters or unintentional bleeders.

Remember there is a secret door behind the big altar, it is not an inaccessible room.

I present:

[Ali Babarian]

I just read somewhere that creatures are bad for interior modding. Should I remove them?

[Thrignar Fraxix]

for a showcase they are fine

Edit: 666th post! lol! *spins head around and projectile vomits*

[Ali Babarian]

Is anyone ever going to review this? It has been 3 days since I submitted the fixed Tiphill and 1 day since I submitted the tomb!

[theviking]

Hi, I had a look at your plugin, and saw the following things:
Your plugin is dirty, use a program called TESAME to clean it. You can find it here: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/utils. Open it and delete everything but TES3, thing you made and cells you modified.

You tomb is big, but it looks like you used snapgrid well,
The entrance is at the bottom of the tomb, most of the time a tomb is in a hill and the entrance should be in the top. That way the most of the tomb is beneath the entrance, thats more logical. Try to make an entrance the highest point,

Because it is so huge, ill start by reviewing only the top floor. That way, you can perfect it more easily.

Shrine room:
why is there a practise mat, it would look better if there was a rug used,
the braziers are bleeding within the floor,
the urn should be an urn_ash and then you should resize it. To do that, doubleclick the urn and then make the 1.00 0.50,

<DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Magic Cards"><BR>
I am impressed that you came this far. It proved me that you are a great
%PCRace indeed. I give you my blessing, and permission to take anything from this tomb without fear of my anger.
<BR>
Andilo Shocasen,
<BR>
the light can be removed (two bright lights next to it)

the large room;
all braziers bleed (but as long as they all bleed on the same height, its okay. As seems to be the case here)
all prayers stools bleed,
do the same with the urns here, change them to urn_ash and resize them,
rotate the chests so that the lock is in front,
as you placed creatures within your tomb, would you want to try making a pathgrid as well? Then this could also be a creatures and pathgrid showcase. You can find a tutorial here: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/tutorials&section=202276

congratulations, the tomb looks pretty impressive and if we perfect it for your showcase it might be included in the mod. You have a few hurdles to take to become a TR_modder, but you have an impressive base talent and skills!

[Ayedail]

nice tiphill house ali, it was version 3.0 if im correct. i found 3 things that werent correct so far, all the crab meat floats above the plates and 2 or 3 sujammas blead into the winerack overall looked quite good

[Ayedail]

the tomb looked very awesome too i'd say it was made by bethesda! very sticked to the original game, well done didnt find any bleeders of floaters too exept the ones theviking called.

[Ali Babarian]

Here is the Shocasen Tomb V2.0 with ( hopefully ) all the errors gone, plus it has been cleaned with TESAME ( I accidentally deleted the note, so that is why it isn't there.

[Ali Babarian]

Come on guys, the first thing I submitted only took about 4hrs before it was reviewed!

[Thrignar Fraxix]

that was a fluke, you must be patient

[theviking]

We reviewers are quite busy at the moment, so dont expect us to review it instantly. Could you please upload just the esp? That easier than working with a rar.

a good solution with the entrance,
the urn in the small room isn't resized yet,
there should be an awesomauce reward in the small room (don't make it too expensive though,

Very good: You changed all my problems except these three!,

We'll now perfect the whole tomb:

there should be some bones in the ashpit, also there should lie some ingedrients or other things on the rim of the ashpit,
Lay down some grave gifts next to the urns (not every urn needs one),
the red1000 light is too strong, make it a lesser variant,
in the left lowest room, one of the shrines is bleeding and the ashpit is bleeding too there,
the gravedust there is floating a little,
in the right lowest room the prayer stools are bleeding,
replace the dagoth brandy by a less expensive drink and remove some of the gold piles there,
in the lowest back room the ashpit is bleeding, also the hallway to it is too long,
also add some value 50 ingredients to it,
add sound_spirit_whisper to the ashpits,
In a few long hallways, add sconces to light them up a little,
in the lower central room the prayer stools are bleeding a little too much,


Well that was it. I'm confident we can perfect this interior and make you a TR_modder in no time. Just don't expect us to review things instantly, especially with the size of your showcase. Succes!

[Ali Babarian]

Ok the problems are fixed ( I realize the Glass Dagger and Glass Boots may be too expensive for a tomb like this ), the layout has been slightly modified, and V3.0 is ready for download.

BTW the bleeding ashpit in the room with two shrines is intentional, for some reason Bethesda decided to give their mesh an uneven floor.

[Ali Babarian]

OK, it's been 1 day, noones downloaded, it's off the 10 active posts list so I feel justified in bumping this thread.

[theviking]

Well, you changed it really well. The only two errors i see is that most grave gifts are ingredients. You should change some of these with armor, weapons, repair hammers, etc. This will give some variation to your tomb.
On two ashpits, the one in the central hall and the room with the two shrines, there aren't enough bones. The ashpit in the back room has just enough bones to look good.
The book of corpse preparation isn't leaning against the skeleton (there is a space between).

You made the top floor more accessible, but it is really a stroke of genius to add a key to it in one of the lowest rooms. That way the whole of your tomb will be seen.

Fix these three errors and we will have a new great velothi tomb for our mod. Not only that, but we get a very good modder as well! Succes with the fixes.

[Ali Babarian]

Hopefully this should be the final version.

[Ali Babarian]

BUMP, on the same reason as the last bump i submitted.

[Thrignar Fraxix]

you must be patient

[theviking]

Well, Ali you did this very good again! The only two errors i can find are a partially floating dreugh helmet and a slightly bleeding chitin shortsword. Such a large and good tomb with only two errors, that will get you a 9 in an official review and a recommendation for your showcase! Wait until you're promoted and then you can claim an interior!

[Ali Babarian]

Um, er, hm....

I accidentally deleted my TR_MOdder and Interior modder status in the usergroups function panel.... Just to see if I could....

Could i have them back?

plz?

[Gez]

Um, er, hm....

I accidentally deleted my TR_MOdder and Interior modder status in the usergroups function panel.... Just to see if I could....

Could i have them back?

plz?

[img]http://gez117.free.fr/smilies/killinme.gif[/img]

[Andres Indoril]

Um, er, hm....

I accidentally deleted my TR_MOdder and Interior modder status in the usergroups function panel.... Just to see if I could....

Could i have them back?

plz?

[img]http://gez117.free.fr/smilies/killinme.gif[/img]

It ain't that funny... Let's just give him some bananas.

Umm... They seem a little too happy... Sorry But, you'll survive... Hopefully.