[WIP] Saviik City

[Veltoss]

What is Saviik City?

Saviik City is a content mod that adds a new city to the existing world of Skyrim. Saviik City is a mod with depth and new lore built upon existing Skyrim lore. Saviik City provides the player with a new city to live out of, with their own living quarters within the Fortress. Dungeons below the city provide new exploration, while a full-fledged city both above and below ground provide the player with new stories, merchants, items, and quests.


New video here!

 

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/190/e/6/_wip__v_0_5_temple_and_graveyard_by_veltoss-d56mn9c.png

Current State

Saviik City is still under development and months from being finished. Most remaining work is quests, voice acting, and scripting.

Lore

Saviik City translates to Savior City, a reference to Dremvhalok as well as the Dragonborn. Dragons and the mortal races alike see the two as saviors, fighting for peace in a war-torn region.

The vast majority of Saviik City's lore must be learned ingame through dialogue and books. Here is some basic material to get you started.

The Fortress

The Fortress has a couple levels above ground, but most of the Fortress is underground. The first few levels underground are the main living quarters of the Fortress and contain an inn as well as many shops. Fresh air is pumped throughout the Fortress with the use of Henrik's dwemer piping, which pumps in fresh air, pumps out bad air, and keeps temperatures within the Fortress comfortable.

The Mines

It is unknown why the miners left, but all signs suggest that it was a hasty departure. Those who have gone down into the deeper mine tunnels have never returned, and many rumors float around about the reason. Many of the mine tunnels have collapsed, become blocked, or caused other tunnels to collapse. This has caused a dangerous maze of tunnels, corridors, and mines.

The Location

Saviik City's Fortress is built upon an important site. This site has been a battleground countless times throughout history. While the site's history is not well documented and sketchy at best, it is known that many forts had been built there before Saviik City. The forts became damaged in battles and rebuilt by the victor. Tunnels continued to extend underground as some became blocked by collapses and others abandoned. For a short time, the area underneath the Fortress was a large mine system. The oldest known resident of the site was an unknown dragonpriest from ages past, when dragons roamed. Only the deepest tunnels show any remains of the dragonpriest's presence.

The Sabre Cats

The sabre cats of Saviik City are a big talking point in other parts of Skyrim, and many believe them to be rumors. Crin Garent is the only breeder of domesticated sabre cats in all of Skyrim, and his cats form a portion of the city guard.

Factions

Saviik City has many factions, not all of them working towards the same goals. Secretive groups are also working out of the city, though whether their goals are in line with the city's idea of world peace is anyone's guess.

Specialty Hunters Guild
The Specialty Hunters Guild is a group of former mercenaries, soldiers, and even bandits, who have gathered together to hunt down dangerous and evil beasts in Skyrim. Werewolves,
vampires, trolls, and hagravens are common targets of the guild. Even the occasional dragon has met it's demise at the hand of the SHG.

The Firehand
Whether or not this group actually exists is still a debate within Saviik City and magical circles around Skyrim. The rumor is that Kyrik Firehand's assistants and associates form a secret group of mages with their own agenda.

Dovah Kendov
Elite group of guards trained by Dremvahlok, the Dovah Zeymahs, and many different masters of combat, war, and battle brought to Saviik City by the Dragonborn and Dremvahlok to train them. New recruits (which are rare and far between) are trained by the oldest members. They are taught to master basic combat with all weapons, though they only truly master the one-handed sword. Their other hand is used for casting the magic they've been trained, primarily consisting of wards, shields, and buffs.

Dovah Zeymah
Dragon Priests of the Dovah Temple of Saviik City, not to be confused with the ancient Dragon Priests. Dremvahlok has closely trained each one of them and all Dremdovahs consider them brothers of dragons. Sometimes, the Dragon Fire will pop, and an ember will fall to the ground. When this happens, a Dovah Zeymah will collect the ember and study the burns and cracks as a form of divination for near future events.

The Feim
No information available.


FAQ

The above ground screenshots and video show a relatively small town, not much more than a large village. Why is it called a city?

A large portion, if not the majority, of Saviik City's citizens live underground in the Fortress.

Will Saviik City have voice acting?

At some point. It is not currently a high priority. If enough people demand it, and don't like reading dialogue without voice, then I will readjust my priorities.

What kind of content will Saviik City add?

Saviik City will contain questlines, new factions, a new guild, a new player home, and an entire functional city for the player to live. Small content is not being ignored either, as you will find plenty of new books about Saviik City's lore, new items in the city's stores, and much more.

Is Saviik City clean?

Saviik City is manually cleaned for dirty edits as well as automatically cleaned for Identical to Master records. Due to the nature of the mod, there are deleted references, and these are supposed to be there.

What about optimization?

Optimization is important in Saviik City as it has a much higher object count than anywhere in vanilla Skyrim. The exterior is optimized with occlusion planes, and large interiors are optimized with roombounds and portals.

How compatible will it be?

Compatibility with other mods is very important to me, as I usually have around one hundred or more mods on my own playthroughs. Saviik City will be compatible with almost any mod, except those that edit the exterior cells where Saviik City is located. Some mods that use keywords, such as Wet and Cold, will be compatible with all new and modified cells. Other mods that add items to NPCs such as cloaks and bandoliers will eventually have compatibility patches to add the items to NPCs added in the mod.


You can find more screenshots of Saviik City at various stages of development on my deviantART.

Screenshots

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/190/5/6/_wip__v_0_5_a_leafy_pathway_by_veltoss-d56mz8d.png

http://img07.deviantart.net/58a2/i/2015/152/2/9/screenshot5_by_veltoss-d8vn7cz.png

http://img13.deviantart.net/7b71/i/2015/152/b/1/screenshot11_by_veltoss-d8vn6db.png

Edited February 4, 2017 by Veltoss

[Veltoss]

This particular post is no longer relevant as the mod has been hidden on the nexus until closer to completion.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Veltoss

[Veltoss]

In order to attempt to get some more interest in Saviik City, I've decided to share some in-CK progress screenshots. The fortress is coming along, though still plenty to be done. I've also decided to hide the mod on the nexus until it is much closer to being finished. I don't want people disappointed the first time they check it out, as first impressions can be important even for mods. Help spread the word about Saviik City, people showing interest in your mod can do wonders for your motivation, believe me.

 

Also, in order to better prioritize what really matters, I'm sharing a fairly long survey that i'll be spreading around here on the forums and other places. This survey will be posted publicly after enough people have participated so that not only myself, but other modders as well can benefit from seeing what the community really wants in content mods. Please participate in this survey and help myself and others create better content for you, and make your Skyrim friends do the same!

 

I am still in need of texture artists and modelers to help with the jobs listed in the OP.

 

http://i.imgur.com/QyI9UUM.jpg

[calfurius]

The mod having voice acting would be awesome

[drow0126]

I'm willing to do Voice acting, and lots of it! 17 and I am capable of doing VA of children as well. Please email me at [email protected]

[Veltoss]

The mod having voice acting would be awesome

 

I've yet to hear anyone say "it's fine if it has no voice acting", so I think I might just have to have it. :happy:

 

I'm willing to do Voice acting, and lots of it! 17 and I am capable of doing VA of children as well. Please email me at [email protected]

 

I will make a note of you and your email for a future date. Right now I'm not anywhere close to doing dialogue, and I want to get at least the majority of it finished before I start getting voice actors so as not to risk having most of the dialogue of an actor finished by one person, and needing more dialogue later, and that person disappearing. If things keep going as smooth as they have the past couple days, I might start working on dialogue and writing out the quests in the next month or two.

 

 

As for other updates, I've made some good progress the last few days. Here's a few pictures of the library, main entrance room, and the library. Note that the banners and dragon statue are both using temporary working textures and will be replaced later on. Also note that the lighting template and imagespace are not final, it's a bit dark and very foggy. It will be warmer with very little fog later.

 

 

 

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/184/5/d/dining_hall_by_veltoss-d7p3dxs.jpg

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/184/0/5/library_by_veltoss-d7p3dx4.jpg

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/184/4/0/library_by_veltoss-d7p3dwh.jpg

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/184/e/9/library_by_veltoss-d7p3duk.jpg

 

 

Edited July 3, 2014 by Veltoss

[seden]

Any update since last year ?

[Veltoss]

Any update since last year ?

Yep! There's been a bit of work on it, though honestly the motivation hasn't been there, but it's coming back. Here's some screenshots (I'll add to the OP too) of some progress.

 

Finished Fortress Entrance

 

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/324/e/c/fortress_entrance_chamber_by_veltoss-d872m7s.jpg

 

Overhead of First Floor

 

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/324/c/d/fortress_ground_level_in_ck_by_veltoss-d872n4q.jpg

 

Library

 

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/324/6/1/fortress_library_by_veltoss-d872m7c.jpg

 

Misc. Screenshots

 

 

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/324/2/2/fortress_entrance_hall_back_wall_by_veltoss-d872m7v.jpg

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/184/e/9/library_by_veltoss-d7p3duk.jpg

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/324/e/6/fortress_ground_level_dining_hall_by_veltoss-d872m78.jpg

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/324/a/3/ground_level_fortress_lounge_by_veltoss-d872m7h.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/324/8/0/dovah_kendov_officer_s_desk_by_veltoss-d872m70.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/324/3/2/dein_kinbok_s_house_entrance_room_by_veltoss-d872m75.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/324/5/4/barracks_lounge_by_veltoss-d872m6t.jpg

 

 

 

 

Still a lot of work to do, one piece of the fortress still needs done (Kyrik's "magic lab"), the lower floor/mines/caves, dialogue, and of course quests.

[Veltoss]

http://img03.deviantart.net/7540/i/2015/152/0/d/screenshot3_by_veltoss-d8vn69g.png

 

Getting closer and closer to working on the final dungeon and quests! The abandoned lower fortress level is finished and the mines are coming along quickly. All that is left for level design after the mines is the primary dungeon, and then quest work will be next.

Guard System

Guards

There are two kinds of guards. The normal city guards that are just like other city guards, as well as the Dovah Kendovs who are trained by the Dovah Zeymahs of the Dremdovah Temple as well as by some of the best warriors in Skyrim. The normal guards are found throughout the city, while the Dovah Kendovs stay primarily within the fortress, though will sometimes wander the city.

All guards follow a 6 hour schedule (Oblivion guards followed a 4 hour schedule). Each post or patrol has two guards that exchange places during shift changes and share a bed. They will sandbox at one of the barracks for 6 hours and also sleep for 6 hours, with guard duty in between. They also use the same kind of CharList as vanilla guards, so there won't be only a handful of possible guard faces continuously in the same spots if they're killed.

Sabre Cats

The trained sabre cats that are part of the guard also have a schedule, though theirs is much more random. They will sometimes sleep around town, and wander through areas that normal guards do not travel. This will make it a little more difficult for thieves to avoid the guards, as these cats are trained well enough to recognize wrongdoing. Occasionally the cats will become distracted by rabbits and other small fauna around the city.


Questlines

Main Quest
The Main Quest is mostly planned out now and waiting to be started after the dungeon is finished. It will include multiple factions including the Feim, The Firehand, and the Dremdovah. Rather than have separate questlines for the Firehand and the Feim like originally planned, their stories will be melded into the main story and they will play an important part.

The Specialty Hunter's Guild
The guild will not have a traditional guild questline like the Companions or the Mage's College, but it will have a questline that involves hunting and defeating increasingly difficult monsters, leading up to killing one of the Dremdovah's mightiest foes.

Here's some new screenshots of new and old areas.

http://img07.deviantart.net/58a2/i/2015/152/2/9/screenshot5_by_veltoss-d8vn7cz.png
http://img13.deviantart.net/7b71/i/2015/152/b/1/screenshot11_by_veltoss-d8vn6db.png

http://img13.deviantart.net/4ab5/i/2015/152/d/d/screenshot10_by_veltoss-d8vn6cp.png

http://img09.deviantart.net/f216/i/2015/152/a/d/screenshot9_by_veltoss-d8vn6c4.png

http://img06.deviantart.net/d36e/i/2015/152/6/b/screenshot8_by_veltoss-d8vn6bp.png

http://img01.deviantart.net/6b02/i/2015/152/1/9/screenshot7_by_veltoss-d8vn6b5.png

http://img11.deviantart.net/2ac7/i/2015/152/0/2/screenshot6_by_veltoss-d8vn6ar.png

http://img15.deviantart.net/faa5/i/2015/152/7/8/screenshot4_by_veltoss-d8vn69t.png

http://img07.deviantart.net/5fcb/i/2015/152/0/6/screenshot12_by_veltoss-d8vn693.png

 

 

[Veltoss]

Here's a new video showing off some of Saviik City as well as The Mines.