90 replies to this topic

[PhilippePetain]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964 are all replies on the same post.

Thank you for the idea. I will make the winery a private one owned by Talan in the next version. It does make more sense then. And I am also proud of the "patchless" AN compatibility myself, although it only took a few lines of script. With mr_siika's castle resources it will probably not be as easy... but I hope I can make it work somehow.

[PhilippePetain]

In response to post #19718294.

Thank you. I hope the patches will be ready by the end of the week. They seem to be easier to make than I thought, as the only conflicts would appear to be land tears and navmesh issues. But we shall see what happens

[CarlosS4444]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964, #19740864 are all replies on the same post.

Update looks good. Just my two cents about balance - I felt some enchantments on armour are a bit more powerful that I expected, so I toned it down a bit for myself. It's mainly constant restore health or mana from 5 to 1 and bonus to skills from 20 to 10, maybe absorb health from 20 to 10 too. But not all might like that kind of balance. Just a thought to consider.

[PhilippePetain]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964, #19740864, #19745959 are all replies on the same post.

Thank you for the feedback. I will make the whole mod a bit more balanced in the 1.4 version. But it will take quite some time to finish, so I might also make a smaller update to fix some bugs and balance the mod.

[CarlosS4444]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964, #19740864, #19745959, #19748999 are all replies on the same post.

You may want to run the textures through Optimizer Textures http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42116/?
I tried that and it added mipmaps where missing and changed compression, so the texture size went generally down, which is good for graphic cards. I used Maximum preset.

EDIT: Update! Neat, and the balance is to my liking, thanks!

Edited by CarlosS4444, 06 November 2014 - 06:32 PM.

[PhilippePetain]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964, #19740864, #19745959, #19748999, #19822064 are all replies on the same post.

Oh... thank you for the advice. I had not thought about that before. I think I will also completely rebuild the .bsa for 1.3 version because I added and removed a lot from it during "development" and it now has quite a lot of needless clutter.

And should you have any suggestions for new features or improvements to existing ones, I would be more than happy to hear them. For 1.4 (which will take quite some time to finish) I have thought about adding the following - if I can make them work (I do have some ideas of how to do them but I need to actually make them before I can be sure that they work):
- Rebuild the attack system so that it will not be bound to the predefined eight bandits
- Make the winery a private business owned by Talan
- Make use of custom castle resources (if I can make them Weather - All natural compatible)
- Make the castle a lot smaller and try to make it feel more like a home
- Redesign the surroundings of the castle (but try to keep things small and compatible)
- Add a quest to find out why the castle was attacked (and perhaps why the knights settled just there)
- Add repeatable, non-journal quest to assassinate people (with scripts to make it as compatible as possible)
- An INI file to configure at least the amount of attackers, the attack interval, income and assassination reward

Edit: mr_siika's Castle Seaview resources seem to have some transparent window meshes, but some walls do not have any holes for windows... this might get interesting.

Edited by PhilippePetain, 06 November 2014 - 07:14 PM.

[FragmentaryHorcrux]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964, #19740864, #19745959, #19748999, #19822064, #19822614 are all replies on the same post.

All really good ideas! Actually, if you do manage to get mr_silka's meshes AN compatible you might want to release those as a modder's resource as well as I'm sure some modders would really like to use them/update their mods with them.

And I was thinking, that since the old noble who built the castle was originally from Hammerfell, maybe you you add a few Hammerfell-related assets to the castle. Small though, maybe confine the assets to one or two rooms otherwise the items might conflict with the feel of the rest of the castle. I think Lady Nerevar's Hammerfell mod can be used for resources and there might be a couple more out there that would let you use their stuff.

[CarlosS4444]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964, #19740864, #19745959, #19748999, #19822064, #19822614, #19824369 are all replies on the same post.

I agree that all of those are good ideas. And I like the idea of making castle relatively small, like a big home. Oh, will Talan share some income from the winery with the player, maybe?

Any plans to change or add weapons?

You might even make resources non-bsa. Not necessary though, but allows user to see what resources comes from which mod in Wrye Bash.

[PhilippePetain]

In response to post #19695999. #19696659, #19708064, #19709344, #19722964, #19740864, #19745959, #19748999, #19822064, #19822614, #19824369, #19826629 are all replies on the same post.

Actually, I think the meshes are AN compatible as they are. Or at least they would seem to be... The windows are already transparent and I believe the view from them in the original castle has been made by adding a mesh with a picture of the view outside them. So I will be using the resources - I just need to see how Castle Seaview has been made so that I can build a castle from them.

And the idea of Hammerfell items somewhere in the castle is brilliant! I will see what I can add from Lady Nerevar. And perhaps I could also add the "Aladins lamp" by Stroti. I have not planned to add much weapons except for some staves. But maybe I could add a few Hammerfell-related weapons if I can find some fitting resources. Talan would - as FragmentaryHorcrux suggested - pay taxes to the landlord (=player).

I will add the planned changes to the sticky so that I will remember everything. I will also consider making a loose files version available, although I like the .bsa myself. It makes the resources easier to manage.

Edited by PhilippePetain, 07 November 2014 - 02:28 PM.

[PhilippePetain]

Some of the Castle Seaview resources are Weather - All Natural compatible as the are, but some of them are not. Making them compatible should be rather easy to do (according to the AN readme, it is enough to change the window's texture path). But I need to learn how to use NifSkope... so it can take some time. I have never used it before.

I will upload a version with a bit smaller rebuilt and optimised .bsa tonight (also some furnishing adjustments). And if it is enough to just unpack the .bsa to create a loose files version, I will upload it as well. But I am not sure if it will work that way...

Edited by PhilippePetain, 08 November 2014 - 12:39 PM.