Better SI

[TodaY]

Hi everybody ;]

I was just wandering in the SI the other day and noticed something: it's empty! Sure there's trees and stuff on the ground, but when you want to take a nice screen the mountainsides are all empty, and there's almost no dungeons and stuff, so I'd like to do for the SI what Unique Landscapes did for Cyrodiil. Plus add a few (interesting!) dungeons, maybe a couple of new villages and a lot more madness! I can do landscapes, exteriors, and interiors, but to do the whole SI on my own would be a bit to much for me, plus I can't add dialogue (we wouldn't want our settlements to be empty now, would we?) and I kind of suck at scripting and quest making. Modellers and re-texturers are also welcome! So, if you'd like to join (and you know how to handle the CS) you're always welcome ;D

[Wolfhound646]

i dont know. I wouldn't say it's exactly empty.

I'm pretty sure it's not even randomly generated, or whatever you call it, like cyrodill.

It's def. unique.

But you are right, it is empty in its own way; but thats probably because it's so small. In other words, there is just the right amount of settlements and dungeons on the continent for it's size. But that amount is not that big. i think you'd have to make the continent itself bigger before you add any dungeons or settlements.

 

It would definetly not be a Unique Landscape for SI though.

A better name would be Shivering Isles Expanded.

 

I know I saw a thread earlier complaining that although the name has isles in it, its only one landmass. So probs your best bet would be to make island OR splitting the island in two (or 3(for the beggining part(i dont remember the name)) or 4 (the city too)) and making each part bigger.

 

Yeah I like that last idea the best, that'd probably be your best bet.

[TodaY]

ur right ;]

but then im gonna need someone who can heightmap

[AmpolX]

Just remember to stick close to lore with an idea like that. Most people usually critique if a mod has no lore aspect or diverts away from offical lore too much.

[Wolfhound646]

You're gonna have to figure were every thing goes and stuff, before any heightmap.

 

First you start with the most basic decision. How many islands?

 

I'd say 4 would be your best bet - Mania, The Fringe, Dementia, and the city.

 

Then you should just sort of sketch it out on a peace of paper. How will the Isles be positioned? Will they be connected in some way? Bridges? Boats? If not, will you have them on the same map, or on diff. maps? How big will they be in comparison to each other? Will you just focus on Mania and Dementia, keeping the Fringe and the city as they are?

Write anything you can think of on the sketch - you know w/ arrows and stuff like that. :thumbsup:

 

Once your done, scan, upload, and ask us what we think. :biggrin:

 

We are here by nature critics. :woot: :woot: :woot:

[Vagrant0]

You're gonna have to figure were every thing goes and stuff, before any heightmap.

 

First you start with the most basic decision. How many islands?

 

Then you should just sort of sketch it out on a peace of paper. How will the Isles be positioned? Will they be connected in some way? Bridges? Boats? If not, will you have them on the same map, or on diff. maps? How big will they be in comparison to each other? Will you just focus on Mania and Dementia, keeping the Fringe and the city as they are?

Write anything you can think of on the sketch - you know w/ arrows and stuff like that. :thumbsup:

 

Lets stop that suggestion there and think about it a bit. Since the idea here is not to re-create the realm, but instead just to add to it, the new islands should not be just some lame re-hashing of the existing areas, but should be new places which are done in a similar style. The standard SI worldspace, if I remember correctly, is 4 quads, so if you're going to go the heightmap route of building these islands (as opposed to sculpting them as you go in the landscape editor), you would need to have some idea of how quads are used for landscape. as you design. The heightmap editor ALWAYS works with 4 quads at any given time, and trying to work on any space larger than 4 quads usually causes stability problems. Meaning that if you are wanting to do a heightmap that doesn't end up changing parts of the vanilla landmass, you would need to work on a square area (2x2 quads) to the north, south, east, or west of the main island. You could make several small islands, or maybe a few medium sized ones, but you would not be able to make more than 1 large island. You should also consider if you want this area done in the Mania or Dementia style. Working within the landscape editor is less restricted since you're only editing the cells you manually change, and only creating cells as you go, but is not as quick and is not as easy to get the full idea of the terrain.

 

You should also consider what you want on these islands and how capable you are with other parts of the toolset. While large tracts of randomly generated terrain may look nice for screenshots, they don't offer much as far as playable content. While you will almost certainly learn how to do new things as you work, most starting projects tend to dream well beyond what is practical for even a small team, and then become upset because it took longer than they thought it would. Even an area as small as 4 quads can take several months to fill with non-scripted content. Quests and other stuff can take significantly longer. Approach the project honestly, and keep your goals practical.

[Yamcakes]

Well, I'm attempting to expand it a bit by making Pinnacle Rock it's own Island. I'm making a Dark Seducer city, with the temple inside.

[TodaY]

ok i'll start drawing what I'm aiming for ;P

[TodaY]

This is what i'd like to start with - nothing big, just make it perfect before moving on

*black = old & red = new * *sorry for the horrible drawing i drew them in like 5 min *

[Wolfhound646]

Lets stop that suggestion there and think about it a bit. Since the idea here is not to re-create the realm, but instead just to add to it, the new islands should not be just some lame re-hashing of the existing areas, but should be new places which are done in a similar style. The standard SI worldspace, if I remember correctly, is 4 quads, so if you're going to go the heightmap route of building these islands (as opposed to sculpting them as you go in the landscape editor), you would need to have some idea of how quads are used for landscape. as you design. The heightmap editor ALWAYS works with 4 quads at any given time, and trying to work on any space larger than 4 quads usually causes stability problems. Meaning that if you are wanting to do a heightmap that doesn't end up changing parts of the vanilla landmass, you would need to work on a square area (2x2 quads) to the north, south, east, or west of the main island. You could make several small islands, or maybe a few medium sized ones, but you would not be able to make more than 1 large island. You should also consider if you want this area done in the Mania or Dementia style. Working within the landscape editor is less restricted since you're only editing the cells you manually change, and only creating cells as you go, but is not as quick and is not as easy to get the full idea of the terrain.

 

You should also consider what you want on these islands and how capable you are with other parts of the toolset. While large tracts of randomly generated terrain may look nice for screenshots, they don't offer much as far as playable content. While you will almost certainly learn how to do new things as you work, most starting projects tend to dream well beyond what is practical for even a small team, and then become upset because it took longer than they thought it would. Even an area as small as 4 quads can take several months to fill with non-scripted content. Quests and other stuff can take significantly longer. Approach the project honestly, and keep your goals practical.

 

:P It wasn't a suggestion, it was a couple of questions for the modder (not me) on what he is planning to do with his mod.

And... you just answered quite a few of the questions there.

 

"Since the idea here is not to re-create the realm, but instead just to add to it, the new islands should not be just some lame re-hashing of the existing areas, but should be new places which are done in a similar style. "

-That's what I'm hoping he is going to do; and I think a couple of my questions were about that.

 

But, why keep it in the SI worldspace? Why not move it to another bigger one?

 

Another idea - each island is connected by boat, but they are in acutal diff. world space, and the other islands you can see from the island you are on are simply fakes (i know there is a technical name for it). So when you activate the boat, you move to another worldspace/island with more fake islands on the horizon.

 

I'm not a modder - don't yell at me :wacko: