[WIP] Volundr, new dungeon near completion

[Stupiful]

 

Volundr is a multi-winged dungeon with a variety of settings, enemies and dangers. You'll delve into mysteries locked away since the beginning of time, and at the apex of your journey you'll be granted an audience with the very makers of the world. You'll walk away with a mere glimmer of their primordial power, but Skyrim is a land of mortals - a fine line divides the world of men and divinity.

 

Okay, here's the nitty gritty:

 

Volundr is a new nonlinear dungeon with three main wings (each different in theme and gameplay for a little variety) and a long "central" area that serves as a beginning and end to the dungeon. The level is mainly nordic, with some cave and dwemer elements. The quest you undertake is to get to the bottom of the dungeon, where an ancient secret awaits those with the audacity to look upon the world's makers with no fear.

 

If you don't want to watch the trailer, here's what you can expect from this mod.

• 90 minutes of dungeon diving
• 3 wings to divide the gameplay and scenery
• Varied environments ranging from claustrophobic trap hallways to gigantic, multi-level expanses
• Craploads of secrets
• New items and spells with unique and useful effects - less boring than "it does frost damage"
• Lore that was made with Bethesda's own canon in mind
• 3 boss encounters, each with their own environment and reward
• Scalability - you can enjoy this dungeon from about level 12 onward

 

700+ hours have gone into the making of this dungeon. You'd think that amount of time would result in a much bigger dungeon, but I spent the majority of that time creating a more moderate sized area with a high level of polish and detail. That's not to say I don't like huge epic dungeons - I loved Blackreach. The size of Volundr just felt right to me.

 

Some more technical "features" are:

• Cleaned with Tes5edit
• Fully hand-navmeshed, zero automation
• Many divided roombounds per floor for better performance
• Efficient lighting, both ambient and focal, with no "red zones" and room left for player-cast light sources with no visual artifacts
• Music changes several times in each environment to enhance that area's mood. Turn your sound up!
• Balance tested with 6 different character types to ensure the right amount of challenge and opportunity for anyone

 

Conflicts:

• This mod places the entrance to the dungeon just east of Rorikstead (see screenshot below). Any mods that place objects in that spot will cause conflict.
• The dungeon's lighting was made with no interior ENB or dark dungeon lighting mods in mind. Try it with your mods installed - it might actually look great! If it's too dark or washed out, try not loading your lighting mods while you play the level. That said, if your mods reduce light radius, it may affect gameplay because each room's shadows was specifically made with enemy AI pathing in mind. If you're not a Sneak user, you probably won't notice or care.

 

Media:

http://imgur.com/a/L2pyw/all (full album)

 

http://i.imgur.com/waSAWM1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/05zuIwA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3YKG9g9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9DHuCiD.jpg

Edited April 4, 2015 by Stupiful