My Big Castle Mod

[WarKirby3333]

This is the thread for my castle: You can find it here. http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=5742

 

Come back to this thread and post your thoughts when you're done!

 

OK. Here are my future plans for the castle. I will update this frequently as I recieve ideas from you guys or think of them on my own. This is gonna be a fairly long post, so get comfortable. If anyone would like to halp with anything on this list please tell me. I will gladly accept all the help i can get.

 

Short Term (within the next month or two)

 

Things I will definitely do

 

A full complement of guards. 90 to be exact. Plus a captain.

Each of the guards will be a unique object, rather than reusing objects like bethesda does. This will be partially to simplify things, and also to give each guard a unique name.

 

A number of servants. I'm not quite sure what I can do with servants. I'm looking for a way to make waitresses serve food to a table. Also, I'll need help with the Idle animations.

 

The rear garden will be added. It will be as beautiful as I can possibly make it. It will also have an arboretum full of several of every type of ingredient including several Nirnroots. Stinkhorn and Harrada will be cordoned off so as to prevent injury.

 

A live combat training room will be added on to the east wing. I am pretty confident I can do this. It should be just a simple matter of placing a few creatures which are initially disabled and have them enabled by pressing a switch. In kumiko manor, the training room had a failsafe which made the enemies disappear if the player was in danger of dying. I don't know how to do this so any help will be appreciated.

 

An archery range in the east wing. Again, kumiko manor did this. I'm not quite sure how it works although I have a rough idea. (Shawn Dworshak will be credited for both these parts.)

 

A secret underwater entrance (Credit to Zeth 545). Don't think I'll lock it though.

 

A number of unique, permanent guests who also act as vendors and trainers. The idea is to make 24, so that the dining table can be full at dinnertime. But honestly, I'm more likely to shrink the dining hall than make enough guests to fill it as is.

 

A few prisoners in the prison down stairs to laugh at or execute.

 

Fix the posing on the mannequins (help needed)

 

Roof Access

 

Things I might Do

 

Everything in this section is subject to the opinions of you guys. You will decide whether it's in or not.

 

The ability to rename the castle.

 

The necessity to pay wages to your guards/servants. This goes with:

 

Collecting rent from guests. This would offset the wages for your guards and still make you a tidy profit.

 

Give each guard a unique name. Name suggestions welcome.

 

Things I probably won't do.

These are ideas that I don't like, and I am against. But if there is a strong demand for any of them I will reconsider.

 

The necessity to buy the castle or complete a quest to acquire it.

 

The necessity to fight someone to acquire it.

 

A hidden dungeon in the basement.

 

Moving the castle somewhere else.

 

A temple, altar or any other religious area in or near the castle. My resons for this are personal. I'm an atheist.

 

Long Term (Next 6 months)

 

Things I will do

 

Get the arena working. It will have many different battle options available, and will hopefully be better than the IC arena. This part I need help with more than any other. In addition to basic battles, I want to add tournaments and team battles.

 

Things I might do.

 

whether or not I do these depends upon demand and how much time I have.

 

Make a village around the castle to protect and collect taxes from.

 

Give the guards retextured armor with a unique color and insignia. I don't own paintshop so I will need someone else to make the textures.

 

Different themes to choose between like Vagrant0's idea

 

Voice acting for the NPC's in the castle.

[WarKirby3333]

Progress Report

 

I have put chandeliers in the great hall, and various other torches around the castle. I have also made the throne, which sits on an elaborate pedestal surrounded by huge flaming braziers. I also laid out the skeleton of the east wing and mostly furnished the mess hall, barracks and forge within that cell. My prediction of first release within a week may have been a little optimistic. But almost definately within 2 weeks. Maybe.

;D

[WarKirby3333]

Progress Report

 

I have made a good deal of the west wing, furnished the training room in the east and expanded the barracks. I also shrunk the forge as it was mostly empty space and added the guard captains quarters. I've decided to add another cell, the Inner Sanctum. It will contain the player's private chambers, rather than having them on the second floor. It will also contain a sleeping victim- an NPC who sleeps 24hrs a day for the purpose of providing a constant food source for vampire players. Credit to Sonico717 for the idea.

 

I'm finding it frustrating to add tiny details like books in bookshelves, and goblets. It feels like a lot of work for hardly any benefit, but, as they say 'The devil's in the detail'.

 

I Really need suggestions for a name, unless you want 'Untitled Castle'. Also no exterior has been created yet so there's still time to change the location of the castle. I'm currently thinkingat the end of the road west from Chorrol.

 

Any and all suggestions and comments welcome.

 

Thanx

 

WarKirby

[ElvenNord93]

Introduction.

 

I've been playing Oblivion for a month and a half now. And in that time I have used 208 different mods. Having taken so much from the mod community, I decided It was about time I gave something back.

 

I'm building a huge castle for use as a player house. It's a big project, and big projects often get canned because the author is too busy to devote time to it, but I'm an unemployed student. And the 7 week summer holiday starts at 4:15 on friday. Im going to have plenty of free time, but time alone is not enough- i need some help from you guys- the mod community.

 

I need 3 kinds of help:

 

Technical

I now know just about everthing I need. But i'm not familiar with HTML code so I need help on writing books. Also, where the hell are the NIF files stored. I want to make an activator that looks like a book, but I cannot find the book models (or any nifs).

 

Creative

The castle will be built into a mountainside, with only the courtyard, outer walls, front door and an observation tower being outside. And a garden.

I have a mental map of most things concerning this castle, but there are a few key details which elude me:

 

1. I cannot think of a worthy name for such a castle. Suggestions encouraged and welcomed

 

2. I have not found a suitable site for it within Cyrodiil. I was thinking of putting it at the end of the road west from Chorrol, but theres an oblivion gate there. Im pretty good with the sculpting tool though, and I reckon I could build around it, but what do you guys think?

 

3. As a later detail, i was thinking on creating a custom symbol/icon for the guard's armor and banners around the castle. Any ideas for something universally appealing?

 

Permission

Not something most people can help with, I would like to use pieces from certain other mods and I need the permission of their authors. The list thus far is:

 

The Weather Wizard by Kweeky

Avelars Armory by Nezroy

 

From all of these i need only a few specific bits. I am building the castle completely from scratch. I'm not even re using rooms from existing castles- I want everything to feel new and fresh.

 

Planned features

 

Public Level

Great Hall

Throne Room

Kitchen

Dining Hall

Tower Access

Battlements Access

 

East Wing

Barracks

Armory

Forge

Archery Range

Training Centre

 

West Wing

Museum

Gallery

Guest Quarters

Garden Access

 

Upper Level

Library (I plan to have the library empty, and have the player fill it using the bookplacing mod)

 

Lower Level

Alchemy Lab

Arena (may be moved to garden if an underground arena proves unfeasable)

Vault

Dungeon

Portal Hub

Servant’s Quarters

 

Inner Sanctum

Private chambers

Sleeping Victim

 

Garden (the garden will be an interior cell made to look like an outdoor cell, so that i can add water features without drowning Cyrodiil)

Arboretum (lots of alchemy plants)

Arena (possibly- see above)

 

I also plan to have lots of guards, and lots of servants (maid, chef, porter, attendants for things like the arena), and a few permanent 'guests' to add color.

 

If anyone has any comments, suggestions for features or info on any of the above issues please post here.

 

Thanx

 

WarKirby

 

[email protected]

 

Partly because my last post was REAALLY long, and because it looks better to break things up, I'm double posting. Just this once.

 

 

Progress Report

 

I have completed the framework of the public level cell, ie. I have laid rooms, corridors and doors but absolubtly no furniture, decoration, lighting or people of any sort. It didn't take as long as I thought. I should reach first release in around a week. First release will no include any NPC's though, and the arena will not function. Nevertheless, it's progress.

 

Thanx

 

WarKirby

 

 

 

Hey, sounds awsome. I think you should place the castle somewhere on the Silverfish River, because it is out there and surrounded by nature. The symbol could be a black pheonix or something like that. I can't think of a suitable name, though. Well, good luck!!

[xtimmmyx]

How do these names sound? just some totally random thoughts for the name of it.

 

 

Fort /Castle Athalina

Fort Spira, or Spira Castle

Agadon Castle

Elysium Castle

Hoybak Retreat (or Castle lol)

Fort Bakkaday

Pinetirim (pronounced Pin-A-Tier-Em)Castle

Bellani Castle (heh, sounds italian)

Rakivir Castle

Gotrim Castle

Lisithar Castle

Yewen

Neol

Hanacia

Gerflexia

Somack

Thracias

Frembar

Thoridia

Tessalon

Fumbara

Darver Castle

Clontarf Castle

Ashford (not real original i know lol)

Markree Castle

Cloghan Castle

Dunraven Castle

Arundel Castle (i liked this one lol, real castle in england)

Sologne Castle

Ascot Castle

Damascus

Sol

Eastnor

Augill

Wigmore

 

(You of course could take away or add to any of the above names any word like castle or fort, or retreat, just trying to sprout some ideas :-P)

 

 

 

Ok tired lol, late, all castle names i can think of, or find, for now. If you like any of them i would love to recieve some small credit, heh, just message me about one of the names if you like any of em :-D. Thanks again, your mod sounds awesome, keep it up.

[WarKirby3333]

Some interesting ideas- Im still thinking.

 

I need some help with a script- I want to open a secret door by touching an 'odd' book in a bookshelf. But I cant make the door open. I tried adapting the script for the secret door in castle leyawiin but it didn't work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[GBHis]

I've been messing around with HTML for 5 years (since I was 8).

If you'll like some help, you can send me a word/rtf document with the books included. My email is public available (click on my username).

 

.Nif (GameBryo format) model files are stored in large compressed files (like zip-files).

Their extension is .bsa, and they are located in the \Data folder. You'll need a program to unpack these files.

Either Ghostwheel's TES4BSA, or the BSA Commander, of which I can't remember the author.

When you unpack a .nif, you'll also need the texture-files in another large bsa. BSA commander can unpack single files. (Not all at once.) And that is an EXTREMELY handy feature. I recommend getting that one!

 

MY idea of guards... Would be cool to have some guards around your castle. It would provide some ... life.

The palace guards are cool! You would (or I, rather) probably want to create a new sort of NPC with max disposition towards the player and other inhabitants of the castle. Then your thief character could use it as a hide-out as well :rolleyes: :ph34r:

 

Some interesting ideas- Im still thinking.

 

I need some help with a script- I want to open a secret door by touching an 'odd' book in a bookshelf. But I cant make the door open. I tried adapting the script for the secret door in castle leyawiin but it didn't work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I don't have the CS/Oblivion here, but this is what I would have done:

 

The script for the secret door:

Your room/door is hidden behind an empty bookcase/wall. When you activate a certain book, the bookcase disappears, thus revealing your room/door. Create a referrer to the bookcase/wall piece.

This is pseudocode. It looks much like VBscript (I like that), so you'll have to "convert" some of it.

 

scriptname secretdooropening //find a name you like

 

ref PoorBookcase

short DoorIsOpened

 

Begin OnActivate

PoorBookcase = "WarKirbysSecretLibraryDoorReferrer"

if (DoorIsOpened == 0) then

PoorBookcase.disable // removes the bookcase from the world

DoorIsOpened = 1

else

PoorBookcase.enable // puts it back in, blocking the door. How rude.

DoorIsOpened = 0

end if

msgbox "A rumbling sound is heard in the distance..." //or is it messagebox? Can't remember

end

 

-GBHis

PS: Hope this'll help you

PPS: Is there a secret door in Leyawiin? I gotta check that one out!

[WarKirby3333]

Progress Report

 

It's been a while since my last update. Ive been busy.

 

Firstly. I've just about finished the west wing. I made the art gallery and it looks pretty cool but youll need this mod for the art to display properly.

 

Secondly. I built the basement. Its really big. And has all of the stuff I said I would put in plus a big swimming pool

 

Once I make the upper level all I will need to do is a little bit of decoration and lighting effects and The Unnamed Castle will be ready for initial release. (seriously though. I need a name)

 

Work on the museum Is being held up because Nezroy is not replying to my request to use the armor display mannequins from his 'Avelars Armory and Mannequins v0' mod. Should I use them anyway and credit him or is that illegal. *EDIT* I just discovered that the mannequins were actually a derivative of Reznod's mannequins. And Reznod says it's okay to use them if I give credit. *Yay*. Nezroy is apparantly no longer a modder which explains the lack of reply. Mannequins should be in first release of castle.

 

First release will not include any NPC's but they will be added afterwards. The garden will probably not be included at first but I will get to It eventually. The arena will definately not be functional at first because I'm still learning the necessary scripts to make it work. I have a rough idea, but I'm not 100%. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Initial release will definately be this week. Wednesday at the absolute earliest but probably friday or saturday.

 

Thank you for your interest and please keep suggestions on names coming

 

WarKirby

[DeathmatchTheTitan]

I would love to help but have to clear out Imperial City palace for my house and work on FortStorm.Wil work on armory.What weapon types do you want.I am making mine an elven design.

[WarKirby3333]

For the armory I was just thinking Iron and Steel weapons in racks and on shelves- to add to the military feel of the east wing. It is fairly small (3x4 Interior Narrow style) If you want to help It would be nice

 

Progress Report

 

My life has suddenly become hectic due to a series of things I have to do suddenly being scheduled all at once. As a result I won't be able to do any serious work on the castle until Sunday. As I still have the museum and exterior to do, as well as all sorts of minor details, the earliest probable date for first release has been pushed back til about a week from now. I'll try my best to finish sooner.

 

I still need a name. Nothing in the big list of suggestions really clicked.

 

Should I stock the library with books (will take a few hours) or should I leave the player to fill it with the Bookplacing Mod

 

Thanx for the support