Announcing Beyond Skyrim: High Rock

[Deeza]

BEYOND SKYRIM:

HIGH ROCK

THE DIRENNI WEST

 

You know how the old saying goes.

Find a new hill.

Become a King.

http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/uploads/gallery/category_4/gallery_74_4_75006.jpg

 

 

Introduction

The city-states of High Rock have always been the wild frontier of the Empire - living by their own laws and all too often engaged in their own bitter internal conflicts. But now the Empire is falling apart, and Cyrodiil has suddenly found itself depending on this most divided of provinces, its only remaining vassal. If the Empire is to survive, the current state of disunity cannot continue. But when the power struggles are all resolved, who will be left wearing the crown?

 

 

What is this mod all about?

Despite being one of the lands of Tamriel which is best described in lore, High Rock has not been featured in any single-player TES game since 1996. Our goal is to offer players a new interpretation of this province of the Empire that takes full advantage of Skyrim's engine to offer a fully explorable and interactive High Rock. This project was originally conceived as a tribute to the freestyle gameplay and intricate political storyline of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall. The goal is to move beyond a conventional Main Quest, in which the player takes the role of the Hero, and instead offer an open-ended storyline in which the player gets to side with any (or none) of the many factions fighting for control of High Rock. Don't expect any clearcut "right" side in this struggle - every faction will be a mixed bag of motivations and characters, each with its own distinct path to victory. Which faction ultimately triumphs will be determined by the personal alliances and choices made by individual players. Which will, of course, include the option of siding with none, or playing them off against each other.

That sounds complicated. How is it going to work?

Our aim is to simulate the power struggles of High Rock by creating a series of overarching quest programs which assign values to the interactions of the player with each faction, and keep track of whether these help or hinder that faction. As these relative differences pass certain thresholds, the game world will begin to change - the wealth and influence of rivals will begin to rise or fall, and smaller towns and villages will switch their allegiances, until one faction (or an alliance of several) gains overall dominance of High Rock.

As they travel around the Province, every one of the player's actions will have an effect on the balance of power in High Rock - from assassinating a politician in a rival faction, down to clearing nests of bandits to increase the flow of trade into an area, or even investing in local businesses and farms. This allows the player considerable freedom in deciding the outcome of the game, as well as providing considerable replay value.

Will you help the King of Daggerfall achieve his dream of ruling over a united High Rock? Or aid the Eltheric League of northern cities in their struggle to retain their self rule?

Will you help the merchant metropolis of Wayrest recover its lost wealth and power? Or perhaps you care little for the political struggles of humans, and prefer to join the Orc tribes of High Rock in their quest to recover their lost homeland?

And do not forget that the Altmer of Clan Direnni are watching all of this with amusement from their vantage point on Adamantine Tower - and waiting for a chance to reclaim their ancient position of hegemony.

Screenshots:

Note: Some of these screenshots were taken during testing in the TES4 engine.

TES4 meshes and textures appearing in these screenhots will not be included in our final product.

The Streets of Camlorn

Fishing Hamlet

Camlorn Abbey

City of Wayrest

_______

Catacombs, built by the ancient Direnni Dynasty

Original Soundtrack Samples:

Direnni Catacombs No.4

High Rock Tavern No.1

Videos:

High Rock Village Tileset

Daggerfall City Tileset

F.A.Q.S:

When will this mod be ready?

Our emphasis is on quality rather than speed, and drawing on some of our members’ experiences with past modding projects, we are well aware that large mods like this are often subject to delays or unexpected obstacles. Consequently, we will not be committing ourselves to a release date at this time, though we will of course post updates as we work on the mod and the timelines involved become clearer.

Is this project anything to do with Tamriel Rebuilt?

Although in a sense Tamriel Rebuilt, as the prototype TES “province mod”, is the ultimate inspiration for our projects, we are not affiliated with them. They have, however, generously allowed us to make use their concept art and lore research for inspiration, as well as giving us permission to include some of their in-house literature in our mod.

Are you planning to do the rest of Tamriel?

Our project forms just one part of a much larger modding collaboration known as Beyond Skyrim, which currently consists of projects attempting to recreate all or parts of High Rock, Elsweyr, Hammerfell, Cyrodiil, Morrowind and Valenwood. Please check the threads of these other projects for more information.

Can I help?

 

Absolutely! We would gladly accept any offers of assistance with anything other than story writing (as we are currently over-subscribed in that one area). Whether your specialty is landscaping, interiors, exteriors, modelling or scripting, you would be most welcome. If you want to help out, please head over to our forums, which are hosted on the Dark Creations modding website. While you're over there, make sure to check out the other Beyond Skyrim mods which share the forum (not to mention the many other independent mods which are also hosted there).

Credits:

Team Leads

Eldarie Deeza

Models and Textures

Sweetroll Ysolda Heno

Interior and Exterior Design

1shoedpunk TakoTatsujin Karhu LadyFalk

Scripting and Writing

Thingy Person Scaevus Vedam Dren

Lead Musician

guinolas

Quality Control

doritis

Morcroft for creating the All-Tamriel Heightmap

mr_siika for allowing us to make use of his stockpile of meshes
Tamriel Rebuilt for sharing some of their expertise
Dark Creations modding website for hosting the Beyond Skyrim Modding Collaboration

Edited June 18, 2013 by Deeza

[Kraeten]

Looks promising, perhaps I'll toss my hat into the ring where the interior and exterior editing is concerned. Definitely have some experience on that front. Good luck!

[Deeza]

Thanks! That is a nice collection of mods you have there - if you're interested, there are lots of exterior locations available for claiming right now. Interiors are running somewhat slower, but there's still plenty available.

 

What sort of thing did you have in mind?

[thingyperson]

Looks promising, perhaps I'll toss my hat into the ring where the interior and exterior editing is concerned. Definitely have some experience on that front. Good luck!

Yes please! We could really use more level designers.

 

The team that's working on the Eastern Kingdoms area has done stellar work, but they can't do it alone.

[Kraeten]

Thanks! That is a nice collection of mods you have there - if you're interested, there are lots of exterior locations available for claiming right now. Interiors are running somewhat slower, but there's still plenty available.

 

What sort of thing did you have in mind?

 

Oh you know the general stuff. Landscaping, cluttering up and lighting interiors. Nav meshing. That sort of thing.

 

Looks promising, perhaps I'll toss my hat into the ring where the interior and exterior editing is concerned. Definitely have some experience on that front. Good luck!

Yes please! We could really use more level designers.

 

The team that's working on the Eastern Kingdoms area has done stellar work, but they can't do it alone.

 

 

I can imagine! Building a province is a pretty big task to say the least. I'll see about making a Dark Creations profile in the next hour or so. From there I'll throw you or Deeza a private message. You guys can fill me in better over there I'm sure. :)

Edited June 18, 2013 by Kraeten

[Deeza]

 

I can imagine! Building a province is a pretty big task to say the least. I'll see about making a Dark Creations profile in the next hour or so. From there I'll throw you or Deeza a private message. You guys can fill me in better over there I'm sure. :smile:

 

 

Great! Sling me a PM when you get over.

[thingyperson]

It's a shame that all of those images are from TES4. I found an image from Hochfels, but it probably dates from before they became affilitated with Beyond Skyrim.

[Deeza]

They will be replaced with updated versions in the Skyrim engine as those become available.

[NWaldinger]

Looks extremely promising. Can't wait to see it released, I'll download for sure. But as aforementioned, are the screenshots from TES 4? Just wondering.

[Deeza]

As I explained in the OP, they were taken in a test worldspace in the TES4 engine, in the run-up to the release of Skyrim.