AssyMcGee

@Haidaboy, Thank you, a thousand times thank you. That was the problem. Once I clicked on that tab and saw the room bounds pop up, the edges of the bounds matched exactly where my issues were. Now I can get back on track and finish and release this. You will be credited for your help.

Hey all I'm having some issues with a mod I'm working on involving the interior cells of a castle. I've never had a problem like this before so I'm unsure of what to do. Google didn't help because I'm unsure of how to word it. Certain parts of the cell will disappear, yet still be there. I can walk into a room and have two walls and the furniture touching them disappear yet walk thought a "barrier" and they will all appear again. I have some screen shots to hopefully help anyone understand what I'm talking about. I'm not sure what the issue is because I just duplicated the interior of Fort Greymoor for this. I don't know if there's just to much going on in the cell for it to all load or what. Here's what I'm talking about. When I pass through the tan area the wall appears and all the furniture on the other side (Just a couple shelves). This is a doorway on the second floor on the other side of the castle. This shows the extent of the large missing chunk. Not only do the walls disappear here, some smaller columns disappear and only reappear at certain angles throughout the castle. Any help would be appreciated in solving my dilemma. [Edit] I'm leaving for work now so if I don't respond that's why. I won't be back for a good 10-12 hours so hopefully I'll have some help and answer any questions then. Thanks!

When I'm making a new character I look at the cultural background of the new character. For example my new crusader/paladin styled knight is an Imperial and we all know the Imperials are based off of the Roman Empire, so Roman, or more or less Italian sounding names work for this. I stick to more commonly known names like Augustus or Cincinnatus for example. My Bretons? They are very French inspired, so French sounding names it is i.e. Jacques, Francois, Marie etc. Other races such as Nords and Dark Elves, it's harder because I know nothing about real life Nordic culture or whom ever inspired the Dark Elves. The ancient Sumarians? Perhaps, I don't know. But I tend to make up at least 4 names for them until I'm happy with something that sounds natural compared to the names of others of my race. If you want you can take the name of a Nordic shop owner from a mod I'm working on. Yngmar Iron-Arm. It has a strong sound and inspires the image of a fierce warrior.

I did actually do that quest now that you mention it. I had completely forgot doing it. Well I suppose that answers this question now doesn't it.

I don't blame Bethesda for this. Sure there are engine limitations, but think about it for a minute. In Daggerfall if you choose to walk from one end to another it would take literal real life days to do it. There were thousands of cities and villages with hundreds of thousands of people in them. The scale as far as I know was pretty much 1:1. That worked in Daggerfall with the fast travel options and the game style. But in a first person sort of game that tries to immerse you it'd be a little to much if you ask me. I suppose a randomly generated world a la Minecraft COULD potentially work. But not with the amount of immersion and work that would have to be done on the scripting and the strain it'd put on the most powerful rigs.

I had this issue too not to long ago. I had started a new save as a mage because I've never done it before. Turns out my magika wasn't decreasing at all. I'm not sure if this was from a mod I had installed or if it was from the new patch I opted into. But once I hit level five it seemed to go back to normal. This was after I had saved and left the game and came back a couple days later. So I'm not to sure nor was I to concerned. I planned on letting the good times roll for as long as I could.

I think I can answer these questions with a vague summary of things that may not have actually been said by anyone. Yes you were captured trying to cross in Skyrim, why, well that's up to you to decide. Yes Ulfric and his men were captured at Darkwater Crossing, I don't remember who said it, but someone did. From what I can remember Rika, or Tulius himself, had said they had planned on taking Ulfric to Solitude to face justice, but with the leader of the Stormcloak rebellion captured they'd never make it clear across Skyrim so they decided to head towards Cyrodiil. If you look at the map you'll notice it's closer to Cyrodiil and the strength of the Empire than it is across Skyrim. Supposedly Tullius had changed his mind and ordered the wagons to Helgen. This could have been Tullius or an order from the Thalmor, if you look you can see him talking to the Thalmor Ambassador in Helgen before the execution. I'm assuming this happened at Pale Pass at the border, this is how you were captured. And I suppose it makes sense for your imprisonment, with such a high priority target in custody you won't take any chances with anyone, even a one legged Argonian who claims to be a traveling chef. That's why you go to Helgen to get processed, but the Female officer there is a jerk and doesn't want to any extra paper work so executes you with the wagon load of traitors. Also I suppose it's a bit of a poetic triumph for the Imperials. Ulfric will die in Helgen, a city overlooking the land he fought to free. Every Nords last thoughts should be of home.

Alright guys, it's been awhile since I've posted here, but I wanted to update you all on my work on Ivarstead so far. That picture of the bar doesn't do it justice. This first picture is from the main road in town looking at the new Vilemyr Inn down the road towards the mill. This picture shows Klimmek's new house. Also if anyone could tell me how to regenerate the LOD that would be great. Once you get far enough away from town the LOD of the old farmhouses shows up through the new buildings. It's ugly and not wanted.

When you are in the interior cell you want to add water too, look at the cell view list and right click the name, then click on edit. This should bring up a window with options to add water and change the interior name. The first tab on the list should open up by default, if not click on the Common Data tab and click on the box to check off that the cell does have water. Then you can change the height of the water to whatever you want. I'm not sure of the default height of the water, but you can play around with the numbers to get it just right. I hope this helps and wasn't to confusing to figure out.

Those pictures look pretty good so far, a much needed improvement on Markarth and just a fun new area to explore. And rather then shrinking what you made down 75% (Which would be a right pain) you could make levels out of the rooms. Use some of the wooden balconies and what not from the mine set and set up some catwalks and balconies that people could live on, that would make it feel crammed and tight.

This here is a little teaser of the new Vilemyr Inn in my redone Ivarstead. I wanted to upload more pictures but they are too big. Oh well. As for the warrens that sounds like a good idea. You've probably already done this, or thought of it at least, but there are probably tons of mine shaft supports you could use to help hold up the warrens and make it look extra dilapidated. Actually when I first entered the warrens, I don't know if it's because of the almost art deco design of the doors and mouldings but I was reminded of Rapture from Bioshock a lot. Perhaps you could look there for inspiration? Like with run down apartment complexes and some shops? If that fits the lore that is. It seems like the warrens is supposed to be a collection of squatters and mentally ill living in squaler under the city. Sort of like the Ratway.

Haha since the Kit came out I've been messing about with it. I have to admit I'm having trouble getting used to it. I think I've spent to much time modding Oblivion. I kind of miss the clunky construction set haha. But I've been working too. I tore Ivarstead apart and am working on rebuilding that, as a small self tutorial as it were. So once it's done I'll up load it and let you all see it.

Those are all interesting ideas. I do like the idea of building a town and running it and being given choices on how to best develop it. I actually had an idea myself for one at the cross roads in Falkreath Hold, where the roads to Whiterun, Falkreath and Markarth all intersect. As soon as that CK releases I'm going to get to work.

You know I also thought there were concept pictures of some sod houses, I guess I was wrong too. And yes, that's exactly how the villages in Whiterun Hold should look. They don't have many trees to build from, and it's not like they'd have the money or resources to import wood from another hold. In that day in age, with limited transportation options and bandits all along the roads importing lumber to build a village would be very, very expensive.

I have thought about drivable carriages but I have no idea if that would work. You did ride in a carriage in the opening, but that might be a scripted event. Even if you could just see yourself riding from town to town a-la Red Dead Redemption with the option to skip the ride entirely, I'd like that too.

Don't worry about the topic disappearing to nether reaches of the forums, the idea will live on in my head forever. As for the complaint against the cities having similar architecture that's been my main gripe all along. Everything labeled as a city should have unique architecture and the small villages should be unique based on the hold they are in. The towns in Whiterun Hold should be made out of sod or sunken into the ground, Falkreath and the Rift can have wooden structures because there is an abundance of trees.

I've been thinking about Solitude lately, because I've been spending a lot of time there, and decided to take a couple screen caps and do some awesome MS paint concept art to show you all some ideas I've had for the harbor. Tell me what you think. This is the main part of the harbor and will have a lot of lower class houses and a large warehouse for dry goods and further back into the warehouse were it goes underground there will be ice used to preserve and store perishable goods. This is the otherside of the East Empire Company Warehouse heading towards the lighthouse. This is the Solitude Coast Guard, they maintain the lighthouse and keep the waterways safe for all sailors.

A Solitude Ratway would be interesting, but in my mind not very feasible. Here's why: Solitude is located on a large stone arch, the only thing holding the city up is the integrity of the arch which has somehow managed to last hundreds, if not thousands of years without eroding into the sea. I think the last thing the builders of the city would have done would have been to start cracking into the arch and possibly caused it to lose some of its structural integrity. I think the best place for a slum in Solitude is somehow situated around the dock, and build up the harbor more. There would be homes for sailors, warehouse workers, fishermen and just the poor. Wealthy citizens wouldn't want to live next to smelly barrels of fish, creaking old boats and loud drunk sailors. There would be no walls here, the poor didn't get walls. They were lucky to get a home. Even if they have to share it with another family.

I agree with this, and like it a lot. I mean there were Orc strongholds that only let Orcs in, unless you did a favor for someone and suddenly all Orcs love you regardless of race. It would add more to your character and the game world if these quests existed and were only open to that race and no one else. I mean maybe you could persuade your way in and help out, but the other race would really be suspicious of your motives. But I think it would be better if it were closed to other races. I remember one Dark Elf, I think it was Hlaalu, near Windhelm taking about working hard to win over the Nords respect to show them that they can be productive and what not. So a man like that wouldn't ask for help from a Nord. It would make him look weak.

I really like that idea about your shoes being gone. That would fit in well. Perhaps there can be a random chance of a piece of your equipment being stolen in the night and you have to find the thief. You could try the guards and maybe they will help, depending on speech skill, or maybe they will tell you warrens trash isn't their concern. All in all I agree that the warrens were really disappointing. As for Riften, I didn't really mind it the way it was. I didn't think it was to bad, but more canals would be really cool. Another thing I'd personally love is for that boarded up gate out of the city to be opened. I have no idea why that's even like that.

I do like the areas you have as possible expansions for Solitude, those are pretty much the areas I had in mind too. The only bits of open land in the city haha. It just seems like Solitude should be crammed and have very little open space in it because lets face it, when you build a city on a stone arc open land is a precious commodity. Save for the area in front of the blue palace. Perhaps a sort of flower garden and some statues would fit nicely in there, maybe a couple trees. The rest of the city should really be crammed, sort of like Skingrad. And I do like the idea of the frozen watermill in Windhelm. That did look cool in the concept art, and I think the city in general needs more icicles hanging off of everything. Also a good area to expand into would be to the left of the market, and along the river banks in front of the market district. There's a little bit of extra room to maybe move the walls out a little and add a few more buildings. As for Markarth that one would really be one of the hardest to expand on. That is if we go up with it anymore. That city might be best if we go down. It is Dwemer after all. Someone else posted something about "fixing up" the warrens. That whole area could go down a lot further and be it's own little city under Markarth.

Funny situation 1 I was in some bandit infested fort fighting my way through it when all of the sudden the camera pulls out to show a finishing move. Oh boy I thought! I'm going to kill this bandit with style. Turns out the bandit was using a finisher on me. He beheaded me in one swing and as my head landed on the ground he says something about me throwing garbage around and how I shouldn't litter. I wish I could remember his line, but it was so nonsensical that I had to laugh. Funny situation 2 I was doing the Rise in the East quest and was on a certain island having fireballs lobbed at me, just as a pirate came running at me from around a palisade. I pulled out my bow, readied the arrow and just as I was about to let go the pirate got hit by an explosion and I watched as his body soared a quarter mile into the air and disappear into the clouds.

Haha I'm not to sure Bethesda put this game out in this state just for us. I think they just didn't want to create more meshes then necessary for all the cities and villages. Probably a combination of laziness and a tight deadline. I just can't wait for the CK to come out to start working on mods. Every city I pass, every town I see, images of potential keep flooding my mind. If I don't do something soon I'll be overwhelmed and start forgetting what I want to do!

This should help a bit: http://dgh.wikispaces.com/file/view/wh06msc09hcu011ap.jpg/76599259/wh06msc09hcu011ap.jpg Now no need for THAT many farms as in the pic, just 3-4 more. That's for Whiterun, Windhelm, Riften, but for Solitude, expand the docks on the other side of the warehouse with buildings on the docks like in Riften. Around Markarth? Expanding the little mining town and farm with a few more buildings around them to make it look more complete. You do 3D modeling!? That'd be great if you could help. I've said it before I'll say it again. I can't model. I'd have no problem using the CK and placing things. I actually enjoy that and get a little to nit picky when things don't align correctly. I've spent hours aligning hallways in Oblivion to avoid any lines. I agree that Solitude should have it's shipping expanded, farming would be more difficult, but with the presence of the East Empire Company we can assume they'd import a lot of food. That in mind, some warehouses with special properties would be in order. One filled with ice, and a light mist for cold goods and one that's dry for dry storage. Also looking at that picture a water mill that grinds flour would be cool. It seems unrealistic that only sawmills use water and flour mills use wind.

Yea that really does make me realize the massive amount of under utilized space around the cities. And Looking at that picture and the massive amount of space in it, we could definitely use more farms out there, and along the main road up to Whiterun proper I think would be the perfect place for some lower class housing and some shops and taverns. The same could be done to Solitude as well. The city could extend down the road into that empty gated area and down to that tower near the stables. With the farms in wall like that, and the different rings going up the hill it reminds me of the layout of Pelennor Fields from the Lord of the Rings. The farms hidden safely behind a wall then the city. I like that idea.