Battlehorn Castle Grotto Reborn

[jwoltz]

Recently, using the CS I tried to modify the Battlehorn Castle Grotto into an upscale mage's quarter suitable for the Champion of Cyrodil and Arch Mage of the AU. I failed miserably. I'm not a modder (yet) and am just learning the CS. Someone on the forum helped me to learn how to disable water in the CS but I discovered that what I wanted to do in the end I couldn't do. What is desperatley needed is a mod that remakes the Grotto so that it can actually be used by the player. Here is a list of 10 steps I would like to see in a mod.

#1. Remove the water

#2. Remove the dirt piles with the stalagmites and all the boulders EXCEPT for the single boulder in the middle with the Aelyid stones on top with the glowing fireflies (cool effect to leave alone)

#3. Remove the misc. trashy clutter, the cobwebs and the dead shrubs. (Replace the shrubs with green growing flora)

#4. Replace the floor where the boulders were. Currently if you remove them there is no floor underneath. Just a black hole you fall into. Here's where I really got into trouble...I don't know enough about modding to put in a new tiled floor!

#5. Place torches, wall sconces or candles down the corridor and elsewhere to bring up the lighting to make it more warm and inviting instead of so dark and foreboding.

#6. Install enchanting and spell making alters, an ingrediant storage cabinet and work counter with apparatus.

#7. Install carpets, chests, and decorate the walls with exotic/fantasy tapestries (forget vanilla stuff). There are so many incredible decors throughout other mods and modders resources.

#8. Create a young, sexy, well-dressed, female NPC companion witch that buys, sells, repairs, trains, and recharges as your grotto assistant/partner.

#9. Make the grotto cell allow you to fast travel out OR install a pair of portals to and from for wuick access.

#10. Finally, install a double bed, wardrobe, drawers, tables, chairs, and any other amenities that the modder wishes for this to have (especially for the witch-she'll be living there you know)

I don't think that this would be a difficult mod to do for someone who is experienced and has a similar vision as I do for the finished product. I posted this here under mod talk since I wanted to mention my discovery of the grotto floor after I removed teh water and the boulders. I also posted a similar request in the mod ideas forum. What I DON'T feel is needed is yet another dark santuary, necromancer, blood lust lair (we already have enough of those). This should be a place of upscale oppulance worthy of the rest of the Castle's remake AND the Lord or Lady of the Castle. I REALLY hope that someone out there takes on this project. I have a lot of what I feel are good ideas but lack the know-how to construct them. If anyone wishes to discuss this any further, they may email me directly at [email protected] Thank you.

[Lanceor]

You're right - for the most part it won't be difficult.

 

As a matter of fact, except for the sexy NPC bit, all of the above would make a great project for a first time modder since all you're doing is putting static objects around the place and disabling (not deleting) the unneeded ones.

 

The NPC is a little harder, but provided she doesn't have any fancy AI or capabilities, she won't be too hard to create.

 

When I first started, I used this tutorial:

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Category:A_beginner's_guide

If you're impatient like me, you might find the tutorial a bit lengthy, but it explains step-by-step exactly the kind of stuff you're describing above.

 

I'm working on a big mod at the moment so won't be able to do it for you, but trust me, what you described above is very easy to do - it just takes time to find all the bits and pieces in the CS and arrange them all to look perfect. :)