Monkey's Showcase

[Monkey]

Ok... here goes nothing.

This is a mod that i worked on a couple of years ago and never really got round to finishing, so there are a few obvious things that need correcting and finishing off.

It's basically a volcano type island to the west of sadrith mora with a Telvanni town on the side and an ashlander settlement on the other side. There's also an imperial Castle on the top of the mountain on the main volcano opening (three volcano opening's in total)

- Dialogue never finnished
- Quest not finnished
- Land textures need sorting
- (alot) more external landscape objects need placing
- Some interiors need objects adding
- Lots of little bits i never got round to finishing

Hope you like the idea of it...

EDIT: Forgot to mention, i think ive cleaned it as much as is needed but im sure one of you will tell me otherwise

And also forgot to mention that there is a city underground the mountain

[Inferne]

Which position exactly do you want to apply for? Interiors? Exteriors? Quests?

[Monkey]

Exteriors and interiors ideally. Rubbish at quests, hence no quests made yet for this plugin

Forgot to mention ive uploaded pics for those who dont have time to download and play about with

http://s319.photobucket.com/albums/mm449/DDevilMonkey_666/Underworld/

EDIT: Somehow i can already tell i have failed

[Inferne]

You should probably just create a simple house or island. This is too large and not many people are going to want to review the whole thing.

[Monkey]

Bugger.... did you take a look at it? If so what do you think to it?

And yeah it is pretty big. Ill make something smaller now, keep me busy while morrowind map 1 is downloading

[Monkey]

Will something like this do?

Did have more but the CS crashed on me

[Inferne]

Your file is full of GMSTs that had no reason to be changed, which is why the file is so huge. You will need to clean this.

Also, although I'm not an exterior modder, I can already tell that you need to add A LOT. You need things such as rocks, plants, trees, etc. You need more vertex shading as well.

[Monkey]

Yeah i know i need alot more stuff added, and believe me i will. And as for GMST's i will clean it up when im done

I was more concerned with knowing what sort of thing to be making as a Showcase

[Inferne]

In that case, then yes. That's the basic idea.

[Monkey]

Cool FANKUUU

[Katze]

The modified GMSTs are caused by not having your file be dependent on Bloodmoon and Tribunal. All files used by TR must be dependent upon Morrowind.esm, Tribunal.esm and Bloodmoon.esm.

If you don't have these, then the GoTY edition of Morrowind can easily be picked up for a tenner or less.

On a lighter note, I'm from Lincolnshire too! =D

[Monkey]

Ha ha... weird, where in lincoln do you live?

And FYI i have the GOTY

[Katze]

Well, I don't live there anymore (Reading now), but I lived in Market Rasen, about 20 minute's drive north of Lincoln.

[Monkey]

Done this much, now i think gonna head to bed, it half past 5 in the morning :0


EDIT: Anyone fancy having a quick look at my hours work?

[cire992]

@Inferne, the underworld plugin he posted is more than suitable for both exterior and interior showcases. There's no reason for him to start over again.
@Monkey, if you're still interested in doing interiors I would grab one of the ones you made in the Underworld plugin and polish it up

EDIT: I looked at the esp you just posted and it's nowhere near the quality of some of the cells you had in your first plugin. I've listed the issues below. If I might make a bold recommendation: Clean up the Underworld.esp with TESAME, and (with the below review in mind) polish up these 4 exterior cells: (24,4) (25,4) (24,3) (25,3). Choice is up to you, though. You can always improve your second plugin, if you prefer.

Here's the review on the plugin you just posted:
- No vertex shading. You should always have vertex shading underneath trees, buildings, rocks and other statics to feint shadows. It can be accessed by pressing H on your keyboard and checking Vertex Shading at the bottom of the window that appears. Be sure to use various colors and shades.
- No texture diversity, try adding sand along shore lines, for example.
- Misplaced objects. The ex_de_railings need attention, they're all placed weird, standing way above the ground and pieces aren't lined up. There's also a building floating about 50 feet above the island. There's a com_lantern and hook floating out in front of a building and in one place a drystonewall piece doesn't quite reach a thatch_tower. One house has two chimneys right next to each other. It's probably worth doing a cursory check to make sure everything is in place.
- Lack of detail. The village needs lots of clutter to make it seem like people actually live there. The rest of the island needs more trees, plants, rocks etc. putting some clutter on the ship wouldn't hurt, either.
- Make sure you add ground textures and details under the water around your island as well.

[Monkey]

Well thank you for taking the time to have a look around my underworld plug-in.
And yeah, it needs some cleaning still, bit out of practise when it comes to cleaning mods.

And as for the second plugin i made, i only worked on it for an hour and packed in for the night.

I would add loads more detail, textures need doing, and shading, not even touched them yet, just placed a few textures.

And i would check everything was connected properly before i sent it o be checked, i was just saying, ive done this, im of to bed now

I might just work on my underworld plugin exterior and delete all interior cells.

Just curious, has anyone had a look at the inside of the caverns yet?

[cire992]

I haven't looked through the caverns, I will though, it's a cool plugin. Don't delete the interiors either, there were a few good ones that could get you promoted for interiors.

[Monkey]

OK, small update, im gonna be working on finishing the exterior to this mod, im not gonna do work on many interiors, might just do the interiors to the telvanni pods and towers

Iv deleted a few cells to the north of the island that I was messing about with and generally just polishing off all the edges, texturing and shading everywhere that's needed

I wanna get the whole exterior moved up north though, just so it doesn't conflict with TR, and make it so you need to get a boat there because it would be so far away, even more so than solstheim (just for comparison)

[cire992]

Remember, if you want to get promoted faster I only need you to finish 4 of the exterior cells. I just want to make sure I'm not encouraging you to delete content out of your plugin. I just need a couple finished cells for exterior review and 1 finished interior for interior review (You may as well, most of those Telvanni pods looked finished).

[Monkey]

In that case i may as well send you what ive been working on, some complete exteriors and complete telvanni interiors

And a few complete mournhold interiors

May need a couple of things cleaning out of it, ignore the NPC's

[cire992]

Great, I'll take a look at this shortly.

[Monkey]

That's cool, still working on this by the way, I doubt your gonna be majorly impressed with the exterior so far.

Not done any shading yet, done a bit of landscaping on the sides on the island and the southern side of the large mountain to make them more believable and less of a straight drop

Deleted all NPC's cos they're just not needed.

Gonna try and get the entire exterior of the island done and dusted, then gonna work on the telvanni pods, and ill upload it when those are done

Hope you like so far

[cire992]

Details are coming along nicely. Try putting some more rocks in the cliffs, it'll make it look more organic.

And remember, one area at a time. There's no reason to gradually detail all of your exteriors when you could just pick and finish four exterior cells and get promoted faster. In fact, with the interiors, I'm just going to end up picking one of the Telvanni pods to review as your showcase. The only reason I haven't already is because you haven't yet.

[Monkey]

Ok... 4 exteriors complete, i think

-2,35
-1,35
-1,34
0,34

And alot of the telvanni pods are complete, not done any of the towers yet

X Tel Kariba, Bar
X Tel Kariba, Clothier
X Tel Kariba, House 01

Are definitely done, and there are a few others, cba to list, if you walk around you'll find them, as im sure you'll be walking around if your reviewing it

Let me know what you think

[cire992]

Aright, taking a look now... we do almost all of our reviewing in the CS, by the way.

[Monkey]

Ahh that's cool, that'll make it easier

You'll see that the town is called X Tel Kariba and all the houses/pods in the area are named accordingly, and you can see which ones have had work on them

EDIT: What time is it over there anyway?

[cire992]

Here in New England it is right about 19:45.

Will post back in a few minutes with a review. Your interior will be all quick fixes so I'll start with that.

[Monkey]

All good, can't wait to hear your results, positive or not

And its about 1 in the morning here

[cire992]

^ Get some sleep! We're not going anywhere.

Okay, with a few fixes, Tel Kariba House 1 is suitable for promotion. We'll get that squared away and then move on to the exterior. Are you alright with that?

Here's the review:
- Since you have an exterior for this house, go ahead and place a northmarker.
(Starting from the entrance):
- Most of the objects on the dining room table are floating. the de_p furniture set can be tricky, they have warped surfaces and objects often need to be rotated in strange ways to rest naturally.
- the de_basket under the stairs looks strange. Try rotating it along the x or y axes to make it rest more naturally on the floor.
- On the second floor, one of the pillows is bleeding through its hammock.
- Across from the hammocks, the small chest is bleeding into the surface of the drawers.
- de_p_table_02 by the hammocks could probably use a couple pieces of clutter.
- Other side of the house, bottom floor, the clutter on the bookshelf and table need to be adjusted in the same way as on the dining table.
- the back leg of the bookshelf and the barrel next to it are bleeding into the side of the house.
- misc_com_plate_08 needs to be removed (style mixing), the two metal plates on the same table are an exception to that rule, however.
- Heading upstairs, The drawers by the stairs need to be moved away from the wall a bit. The small_chest needs to be repositioned.
- The pillow on the hammock closest to the stairs needs to be re-adjusted.
- de_big_rug_03 is floating.
- The hammock by the stairs is floating.
- furn_planter_01 is bleeding into the floor.
- the stool by the second hammock is bleeding into the wall.
- housepod_pole_04 by the second hammock is floating.
- The second hammock and two nearby de_cushions are bleeding into the floor.

This is an excellent interior. If you can get those things fixed up, I'd say it's promotion-worthy.

[Monkey]

- Since you have an exterior for this house, go ahead and place a northmarker.
(Starting from the entrance):
- Most of the objects on the dining room table are floating. the de_p furniture set can be tricky, they have warped surfaces and objects often need to be rotated in strange ways to rest naturally.
- the de_basket under the stairs looks strange. Try rotating it along the x or y axes to make it rest more naturally on the floor.
- On the second floor, one of the pillows is bleeding through its hammock.
- Across from the hammocks, the small chest is bleeding into the surface of the drawers.
- de_p_table_02 by the hammocks could probably use a couple pieces of clutter.
- Other side of the house, bottom floor, the clutter on the bookshelf and table need to be adjusted in the same way as on the dining table.
- the back leg of the bookshelf and the barrel next to it are bleeding into the side of the house.
- misc_com_plate_08 needs to be removed (style mixing), the two metal plates on the same table are an exception to that rule, however.
- Heading upstairs, The drawers by the stairs need to be moved away from the wall a bit. The small_chest needs to be repositioned.
- The pillow on the hammock closest to the stairs needs to be re-adjusted.
- de_big_rug_03 is floating.
- The hammock by the stairs is floating.
- furn_planter_01 is bleeding into the floor.
- the stool by the second hammock is bleeding into the wall.
- housepod_pole_04 by the second hammock is floating.
- The second hammock and two nearby de_cushions are bleeding into the floor.

Fixed...

EDIT: Need to clean a couple of objects, didn't think you'd mind

[cire992]

A few sporadic floaters and bleeders but nothing that a reviewer wouldn't be expecting. An admin will come by and give the final lock-off on the interior showcase.

I'll edit this post when I have your exterior review ready.

[Monkey]

Thanks alot mate

[cire992]

Exterior time.
First off, your town looks awesome, I can tell you've been using the CS for some time. That being said, I'm glad you chose to finish some of the cells south of the town, because most of Morrowind is full of wilderness, and it takes a good exterior maker to make rocks and trees look as cool and awesome as the town the player just left.

So, the review:

-2, 35

- clutter. The docks need to look bustling. Crates and barrels (mainly containers just to save fps) and misc junk on the ships and the docks will make the place look more inhabited.
- Underwater. If you look around Azura's Coast you'll find that there's a lot of kelp and stuff underwater. Considering most of this cell is water, I'm gonna ask that you really go over the top and add a lot stuff to the sea floor.

-1, 35

- You need to be more liberal with vertex shading. I'm noticing a lot of rocks which don't have any, and under some buildings and whatnot. Try a few more hues, as well.
- parasol_02 down by the dock is sticking out of the cliff
- bigroot_02 attached to House 16 isn't quite attached to the cliff.
- Don't forget street lights.
- The town could use some misc clutter in some places, barrels, crates and whatnot.
- The landscape outside the front door of house 7 needs to be smoothed out a bit. There are two texture seams on the cliff there, too. They'll need to be covered up.
- There's a texture seam east of Tower 3, right outside the door to the lower tower.
- There are various places that definitely need a bit more vert smoothing. Particularly along the cliff paths.

-1, 34

- Add some kelp and other sea life to the sea floor.
- A few areas missing vert shading. Mix up the hues a bit, too.
- House stem attached to House 1 isn't attached to the ground properly.

1, 34

- More vert shading and more hues.
- Cliff edge along the path leading to the town is a bit jagged. Up the path there's a floating kreshweed where the 2 muckpods are.
- Some barren spots throughout the cell.

We'll see how that goes for now, I'll probably find some things I missed next time around.

[Monkey]

Thank's alot for the review Han, i have no idea how you spotted some of the things you did, your obviously a very thorough reveiwer, hence having that role

Here's what iv accomplished from your list so far

Added lots of stuff to the docks
Added lots of street lamps
Sorted all meshes not connecting correctly with landscape
Added all underwater mumbo jumbo
Fixed all texture seems
Smoothed some landscape (paths are a bit awkward but ill get round to them)

Just got to add clutter around the streets and all the vertex shading, when iv done that ill re-upload

Gonna go to bed though its 5 in the morning!!! :O

EDIT: Ive done all youve asked, (i beleive), and made some other minor adjustments, such as making the paths a bit more generic by adding stuff on to them, including street lights

I think ive ironed out all the terrain in the cells too

Here you go

[cire992]

Yikes, sorry about the wait. I'll have a look at this tonight.

[Monkey]

No problem Han, i was starting to wonder

[cire992]

Well Monkey, I must say, I'm very impressed. It's the largest showcase I've ever seen. I'll make sure one of the Admins gets in here to give you're stuff a 2nd opinion and final review.

Interior Showcase: "X Tel Kariba, House 1".

Exterior Showcase: -2,35, -1,35, -1,34, 0,34

[Monkey]

Well thankyou

Like i said, i started working on this years ago, so there's still alot of loose ends and a story needs making with lots of quests, i have lots of ideas for quests but never got round to learning how to make them work.

Ive added load of stuff since the one i sent you, still need to do alot of vertex shading, can never be arsed, im always telling myself "ill do that when ive added all the statics"

EDIT: Waits (in)patiently

Very eager to get started

EDIT: Oooooh its been download a few times.... this is exciting

[Thrignar Fraxix]

Picked a few random cells to look through, didn't just want to look at one. Found evidence of cookie cutting.

Please make a new file from scratch that is entirely your own work. For all parties involved, please make it smaller. A showcase doesn't need to be a full fledged mod. Just make a house on an island, and make it good.

[Monkey]

What cookie cutting have yo found?