Holds

[Galandil]

I don't know how I haven't seen this project until now, but this looks really exciting. I love the aesthetic you're going for. It has a historical vibe that offers precisely the kind of reimagining of Skyrim that I've been hoping to see, and I love that you're thought through the logic of each place, such as the buildings like those in Dawnstar. I see above that you have a timeline for completion of the physical part of the mod, with the voice acting and quests coming later. Out of curiosity (and please forgive me if I missed this in the thread), will the guilds or new NPCs/written dialogue be present in the first release, but not quests and voiced dialogue, or will it primarily be the physical buildings?

 

Either way, I'm thrilled to have found this project. I'm angling for at least one more play-through of Skyrim, and I think it might be worth it to wait for your release--this is just too cool to pass up!

 

I look forward to seeing what you do.

Thank you for your kind words :smile:

 

The first iteration will sadly not include any dialogue, any quests, or any guild quest-lines. I will try and add as many quests and guild-lines patch-wise and as often as I can, but they will not be included in the first iteration and there may be some downtime after the first release where I will go through a learning curve of implementing it.

 

I hope this reply does not disappoint you, and that you will try out and enjoy the mod when it is released :smile:

Edited February 1, 2016 by Galandil

[Katy420]

I say release it early because you'll appreciate the feedback/bug reports to not pile up all at once at release and be able to take more time fixing things. Make it clear it's unfinished, call it an alpha, if people are picky they won't download it and you'll probably draw more experienced modders who know they're testers.

[Galandil]

I say release it early because you'll appreciate the feedback/bug reports to not pile up all at once at release and be able to take more time fixing things. Make it clear it's unfinished, call it an alpha, if people are picky they won't download it and you'll probably draw more experienced modders who know they're testers.

Good idea :smile:

 

I have set a final release deadline for 1st of April, then it will be precisely two years since I announced the mod here on the Nexus. Considering whats left to do I might end up releasing ahead of the release date but there is also the matter of creating compatibility files, trailers, etc... but the 1st of April is essentially when I'll have to put on the table what I got and cross my fingers for that people will enjoy it :smile:

 

I am horrible with deadlines and I have made some in the past which I have been completely unable to hold due to underestimating the amount of work and / or getting school or other real life interruptions which have slowed the progress. However at this time I have had some friends test the mod out and the response is that the mod is at an acceptable stable performance and does not seem to have any serious issues that needs to be addressed before release, with that said, there are still a few problems which I am quite honestly unsure of how I will fix or what is causing them. Rest assured that they are not game breaking or serious enough, as far as I'm concerned to be considered unbareble. To name an example: "The priest in Dawnstar is taking you through town towards Vaermina's shrine, he starts talking on the way but uses the gate to leave the city which interrupts his dialogue and he does not repeat it again. The poor farmers in Falkreath who've lost their daughter decides to go hiking rather then heading up past the mill to get to Corpslight farm, they do head home as you'd expect afterwords and continues the normal routines afterwords, I thought at first this was related to the navmesh, it is not. Items on the market shelves at the Solitude docks have a habit of havoking to the ground, this is caused by Occlusion Planes which are put in place to keep it performance friendly. I have some idea how to fix it and will look into it once outfits and the courier system is implemented. The last problem which is far more serious is the odd habit of crashing if you've played over an hour and heading towards a tavern in the cut-throat alley section of Dawnstar. The crash happens just as you stand before the door. I have no clue as to why this happens and reloading a save, even outside the Dawnstar cell will not repeat the crash issue. I have no idea what is causing it, and since it doesn't repeat itself when you load a save then I do consider it a mild hiccup rather then a game breaking issue.

 

Considering I've separated the mod into stages, this first iteration being the physical city overhaul / city addition part of the mod, it is way past Alpha. I am certain there may be some minor problems that will need to be fixed, and I certainly would appreciate feedback and any form of help really, but considering it runs fine, all of the content for this iteration is included and has been firmly tested. I'd be somewhat cautious to label the mod a work in progress, even though it is certainly true that it is and will be as long as I can come up with what I think in my opinion would be cool idea's and concepts to Skyrim. :smile:

 

I appreciate the tip though :smile:

Edited February 3, 2016 by Galandil

[Katy420]

Lol I didn't say it WAS an alpha, just call it that if you want to draw testers/experienced people. There are many, many mods that are in "permanent beta" so people don't think twice about that label, or a WIP label. Trust me, you don't want feedback like "This m0d so much BUG" or "You ruined my save" because people didn't want to read your description (which they don't). I mean once you release it and general users feel like playing with it you will get those, but at first you probably want better testers. Or maybe you could release it in a link on the forums, not the nexus, that'd give you about the same results I think. But of course it's your baby. Either way it looks awesome, looking forward to getting my hands on it :)

 

Hm, your crash issue sounds moderately serious, I only say that because it only happens if you've been playing a while. That seems to indicate something piling up, not cleaning up after itself. The problem is probably unrelated to the location but something about the location references it, causing the crash. The issue you NOTICE (crash) is fixable by reloading a save which people will do, fine, but it kind of implies a bigger problem, hopefully you don't have something bloatifying going on, which would make the mod unusable on long term saves. I'm not a level design kind of modder so wouldn't have the first clue how to help you figure that out unfortunately. I can troubleshoot my own mods and generally find the source of a problem but FIXING it is another thing entirely. Anyway good luck, this looks crazy cool.

[Galandil]

Lol I didn't say it WAS an alpha, just call it that if you want to draw testers/experienced people. There are many, many mods that are in "permanent beta" so people don't think twice about that label, or a WIP label. Trust me, you don't want feedback like "This m0d so much BUG" or "You ruined my save" because people didn't want to read your description (which they don't). I mean once you release it and general users feel like playing with it you will get those, but at first you probably want better testers. Or maybe you could release it in a link on the forums, not the nexus, that'd give you about the same results I think. But of course it's your baby. Either way it looks awesome, looking forward to getting my hands on it :smile:

 

Hm, your crash issue sounds moderately serious, I only say that because it only happens if you've been playing a while. That seems to indicate something piling up, not cleaning up after itself. The problem is probably unrelated to the location but something about the location references it, causing the crash. The issue you NOTICE (crash) is fixable by reloading a save which people will do, fine, but it kind of implies a bigger problem, hopefully you don't have something bloatifying going on, which would make the mod unusable on long term saves. I'm not a level design kind of modder so wouldn't have the first clue how to help you figure that out unfortunately. I can troubleshoot my own mods and generally find the source of a problem but FIXING it is another thing entirely. Anyway good luck, this looks crazy cool.

 

Perhaps your right, so far I've shared the mod with a handful of people I know to test it to see how it performs on other systems. Skyrim itself when modded with graphics and scripts have problems clearing the memory and would eventually crash if you play it long enough, this is more of a problem with Skyrim itself then my mod. I am led to believe that this is fixed by having something called an ENBoost which thereby properly process memory. If this allows you to play indefinitely, or just twice as long is up for debate as far as I'm concerned but we have done some testing and on average you'd be able to play with this mod (rushing through one city after the other) for about 2-3 hours before experiencing a crash to desktop. I have myself tested with ENBoost and have been able to play for double that amount but you will still have the game taking in memory. Personally I think this is due to the quantity of people rather then the amount of objects and clutter. It could also very well be due to my game being modded with high resolution textures, high settings on my ENB along with other mods which may not work one hundred percent along with the mod without a compatibility patch. I do hope your right and that experienced modders may feel inclined to look through the mod and weed out problems, the problem in Dawnstar is the worst problem that I have and only seem to be experienced at that one location, after a long amount of time. I suspect it may be due to the packaging going on within the interior, even though the crash appears before you open the door, or that it may be experienced due to markers placed in the Tamriel world-space which would technically be passed within the city cell. I had a similar problem previously in the Falkreath's graveyard but I resolved it.

 

I have carried out long tests myself, playing through the guild-lines and the main quest seeing if any problems sprout up or become more and more common. It stays very much the same, 5-6 hours without crash, no real performance loss in the cities. This however could only apply for my system. I also have Safety Load which I believe to be essential, without it it can cause infinite loading screens when leaving the Solitude library (likely due to the amount of books in the interior), I also have ENBoost which grants me more memory. I have error-checked the mod with Tes5Edit and the only error that comes up is linked to the Falkreath Longhouse faction where I've added more people. I do not know what this could imply as a causation for error but Falkreath itself does not cause problems anymore so perhaps it is irrelevant. I am though sort of prepared to have people pointing out problems on release that I may have overlooked or been unaware of how to fix. I will go through a learning period for creating quests and dialogues when the first iteration is released but I am certain I will have to patch the mod simultaneously to quench out any bugs or incompatibilities that people notice. You only get one chance of a good first impression but hopefully the good will out weight the bad :)

 

I will have to release here on the Nexus, and on the Nexus only due to the agreements I have made with the many content creators who've allowed me to use their work in the mod, I do not know if they'd be too thrilled with having links to their content shared elsewhere.

 

Thank you for your encouraging words :) I hope you will not be disappointed by the mod when it is released, and that it won't be too many problems.

[omnimuffin]

I am so insanely excited for this mod, man. Good luck!

[dragonslayer2k12]

Just found this mod never noticed it before. The buggy way this game works by default is so bad and I don't think you could get this mod to work right for just about everyone. It would be better if you made a different province instead and focused on different npcs than the defaults. For example we never see bretons doing anything significant like we see nords doing so you could have made a high rock mod or something similar. Going to solstiem is initially always fun until I encounter the black books then I just can't stand it anymore. Would be nice to see a foreign land where the player can advance and grow just as they do in the default game in the very beginning.

[Galandil]

I am so insanely excited for this mod, man. Good luck!

Thank you! :smile: I hope it won't disappoint.

 

 

Just found this mod never noticed it before. The buggy way this game works by default is so bad and I don't think you could get this mod to work right for just about everyone. It would be better if you made a different province instead and focused on different npcs than the defaults. For example we never see bretons doing anything significant like we see nords doing so you could have made a high rock mod or something similar. Going to solstiem is initially always fun until I encounter the black books then I just can't stand it anymore. Would be nice to see a foreign land where the player can advance and grow just as they do in the default game in the very beginning.

 

There are already projects devoted to implementing the other Holds, High Rock included. The mod project is called "Beyond Skyrim" has been worked on I believe since Skyrim was released.

 

I'll leave a link here for you so you can check out the amazing work they've put into this == https://www.facebook.com/BeyondSkyrim

 

Here are some trailers for other projects that you may be interested in following :smile:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technically what you say is true and untrue, by working on a project which makes changes to the Skyrim world-space, its cities etc... you run the risk of creating incompatibles with other mod projects, or worse you face the problem of having too much on screen at once(Mod authors using many mods for same area, ... yes this is a thing), and it eats away at your memory. This responsibility is on the part of the mod user, not me as a developer. When it comes to creating compatibility patches which allow users to get creative with their load order that is absolutely my responsibility and thankfully a good and easy way to ensure that mods can run simultaneously without issues.

 

I've always had a facination with early Scandinavian history and culture. Perhaps it is because I am biased being from there myself but a game that takes inspiration from that period and part of the world inspires me to make more content. While I am also very interested in early Arabian and Persian culture and history I doubt I could've been as motivated to work on implementing it. I came into the TES franchise from Oblivion and Skyrim did not hit a note with me when I first played it, but eventually with ENB's, texture overhauls I began to like it. I am however quite mindful of its shortcomings, shortcomings that thankfully can be remedied.

 

I agree one hundred percent that it is far more enjoyable to start an adventure somewhere new, and discover secrets for the first time, which is exactly why I'm working on this mod. With heavy projects like Issgard, Rochebere, Luftahraan, Beyond Skyrim, etc... Skyrim itself will end up looking rather empty and shallow. My hope is that people can replay Skyrim and have it feel as a new adventure, discovering new secrets, new quests, new systems etc... I doubt the game will ever feel as good as it did the first time you play it but I hope it will be a nice addition to the game which will make it somewhat sense when people refer to Solitude being the largest city in the north, and not just like in vanilla where just a few paces west you'll find Luftahraan which is at least three times larger. I do have future projects in mind that I wish to pursue, but this mod in itself is a project I have made with myself in mind, as it is something that I feel as though I would need in order to feel like Skyrim is up to par with the rest of the content being added for the game. Hopefully when it comes to problems, it will not be more or less hazardous to use then other projects, like JK or Dawn of- but I do suspect that I will require a bundle of compatibility patches when I am done. Anyone who can help with that is very welcome to do so :smile:

Edited February 5, 2016 by Galandil

[erehwonnz]

 

I don't know how I haven't seen this project until now, but this looks really exciting. I love the aesthetic you're going for. It has a historical vibe that offers precisely the kind of reimagining of Skyrim that I've been hoping to see, and I love that you're thought through the logic of each place, such as the buildings like those in Dawnstar. I see above that you have a timeline for completion of the physical part of the mod, with the voice acting and quests coming later. Out of curiosity (and please forgive me if I missed this in the thread), will the guilds or new NPCs/written dialogue be present in the first release, but not quests and voiced dialogue, or will it primarily be the physical buildings?

 

Either way, I'm thrilled to have found this project. I'm angling for at least one more play-through of Skyrim, and I think it might be worth it to wait for your release--this is just too cool to pass up!

 

I look forward to seeing what you do.

Thank you for your kind words :smile:

 

The first iteration will sadly not include any dialogue, any quests, or any guild quest-lines. I will try and add as many quests and guild-lines patch-wise and as often as I can, but they will not be included in the first iteration and there may be some downtime after the first release where I will go through a learning curve of implementing it.

 

I hope this reply does not disappoint you, and that you will try out and enjoy the mod when it is released :smile:

 

Not disappointing at all! I look forward to following your work, and good luck. :)

[omnimuffin]

Seriously, it looks like everything I've ever really wanted out of a city mod for Skyrim, and I am so impressed by how much time and effort you've put into putting it together alone.

If you want to test to see how it'll run on a build with a lot of mods already installed, I'd love to beta test.

(Admittedly, I'm mostly asking because it looks so cool and I'm eager to try it out.)