LE [Request] Ice Cave adobe within the Forgotten Vale

[Schlumpsha]

For the longest time I had this idea for a mid-sized ice cave abode system made purely out of ice, snow, icecicles and perhaps a small percentage of stalhrim as well. It would be no doubtly be a unique and freezing home fit for lonely cryomancers and extreme Frostfall survivalist soloers alike that possess a high skill rank in Wayfarer. But since my CreationKit know-how is more than limited, I require the help of the community to do this for me.

 

Location: Somewhere within the coldest and iciest parts of the Forgotten Vale.

 

Features:

• Uses the IceCastle statics from the Dragonborn DLC (ice doors, ice torches, glacier ice walls, ice throne, ect.)

• No fireplaces, fire torches, kitchen fire, oven, smelter, or forge.

• Spouse, companion and children unfriendly.

  ( They would freeze to death there anyway, realistically speaking.)

• No placeables, chests, weapon plagues, dagger racks, mannequins, or furnitures made from stone, wood or metal. Although, a small number of ice variants of such things would be more than welcome.

• Snowberry fields or gardens in order to survive the harsh cold.

• Perhaps an icy underground river with a well hidden, lightless and dangerous Forgotten Vale-style cavern at its end.

   

Edited December 11, 2013 by Korpens Natten

[TaeRai]

Hmm, this sounds like a good challenge. However, with the furniture part, what do you suggest instead? And realistically speaking, how would the resident survive with cooking and such?

[Schlumpsha]

Furnitures would be scarce at best, as this adobe idea is based around Karstaag's ice castle in Solstheim... minus the riecklings of course. The most immersive furniture choice would be to rotate/resize/merge ice blocks within the CreationKit into various shapes (such as a bed, tables or even natural looking bookshelves of sorts). Or perhaps furnitures from nordic or dwemer ruins with a glacial retexture could be fitting as well, giving their thickness.

 

The ice cave system itself would not be equiped with a kitchen, or cooking places for that matter. However, since this idea is based around the Frostfall mod, the player already possess the ability to build campfires and cooking pots.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Korpens Natten

[TaeRai]

Sadly, retexturing is out of my skill set :( As an alternate, I think wood might suit, or Nordic furniture.

[Schlumpsha]

Since the Forgotten Vale is pretty much the most secluded part of Skyrim, I don't think it would make much sense lore-wise to find standard Nordic furniture there. Same thing for already placed wood furniture.

 

However, I'm very fond of the possibility to let the player construct certain wood furnitures themselves to make the ice cave system somewhat more homely. And giving that the only trees found within the Forgotten Vale are pines, the furniture from Raven Rock in Solstheim would probably be the most fitting bet.

 

Failing that, falmer furniture would certainly be immersive within the Forgotten Vale as well.

[TaeRai]

Hmm... I could attempt it but I'm hopeless at scripting it so... Yeah. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. We'll see.

[chicky540]

*whispers* ... hey, taerai... to retexture stuff: use fo3archive to extract the thing you need from skyrim, for example a carrot, you get 2 types of files, the nif (the shape) and a dds-file (the texture). use dds-converter to make a jpeg from the dds, then you... lets say, color the whole carrot green. you reconvert your green-carrot jpeg back to dds format.

under skyrim/data set up to new folders, under each "meshes" and "textures" you make lets say a new folder "greencarrot". the nif-file goes under meshes/greencarrot and the dds-file goes to textures/greencarrot. lastly, you use nifskope (not much work with retexes here) to open your own carrot-nif and look for an entry like "bsshader", under this one you change the first row of the properties to your new "greencarrot.dds" texture. save.

lastly, you simply make the game in the ck replace all carrots with your green one (simply find the carrot in the ck and change the link to the nif-file to target your new carrot instead.)

 

DUDUDUUUUU! ... all carrots in skyrim look green now :wink: *stops whispering*

Edited December 11, 2013 by chicky540

[TaeRai]

Ohhhh, dn't worry, I won't tell :P

But retextiruing stuff looks so difficult and I'm worried I'll muck something up :S

[Schlumpsha]

I imagine it would be a lot easier if the furnitures in question use existing ice textures, such as the glacier or ice wall ones for instance. Though the ice furnitures would need new normal maps to look, well, normal. :tongue:

[TaeRai]

Hmm... I'll consider attempting it, could be good practice. I'll see what I can do :P