This looks really good indeed, and the latest NoM version only has ony cosmetic thing. The sewer grate in the poor section clips partially into the oven from NoM, but this is purly visual since the oven works. It just looks odd when you first see it.


http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w172/Illius_photos/TES/MWScreenShot11.jpg

Thanks for the comment. Glad you like what you′ve seen.
- There will be no grass at all if you′re using this without any of the grassmods around, the grass you see on the screenshots is "Vurt′s groundcover".
- What exactly do you refer to when saying it looks swampy? I′d say first of all Balmora is still pretty close to the Bitter Coast, and regions dont usually have an abrupt border. And theres the Odai, so theres a lot of water for "swampy plants" to grow, I guess. But let me know what you mean.
- I did quite some rooftop-building, mostly hangout-areas. But at some point I stopped ′cause I didnt want to overdo it. Just didnt really show that on those last screenies because it has already been in the released version. Wanted to show some alterations I did within the last days. But a shack on top of one of the buildings in the poor section sounds interesting, I′ll have to try that out.





the released version has been compatible with the old NoM (and "illuminated order") and I was planning to make this compatible with the latest NoM. Thanks for the screenie, that should be an easy fix if nothing else has changed.

The only other thing was with the oven next to the siltstrider, it hat part of a Kreshweed sticking out. Just between the wall and the oven.(Sorry no screenshot of that one.) I would not have found it if i was not attacked and the NPC foolishly backup against the wall.

Ah, I see.


From what I understand, the mountains separating Balmora from the Bitter Coast also shields it from its vegetation and climate. If you look at the Rethan Plateau, you'll see that the West Gash and the Bitter Coast have a very abrupt border, for instance. However, since you have pointed out that the grass is from a separate mod entirely, the feeling of it being a swamp does decrease by a certain degree. There is still what I consider a problem in http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5551/mgescreenshot138.jpg though - this may be due to whatever texture replacer you're using, but in comparison to the rest of the unmodded terrain lining the Odai, it looks a bit too wet, overgrown, and well, swampy. I suggest either decreasing the amount of swamp-like terrain in and around Balmora, or modding the rest of the Odai to match up with the Balmora part.


I felt like working with something else than the Velothi tileset for once, so I cobbled together this for the heck of it:
http://img835.imageshack.us/i/rooftopslumoverview.jpg/
http://img835.imageshack.us/i/rooftopden.jpg/

I still say it would be cool to see something along the lines of this in your mod, though I don't know how good it would look in a white Balmora such as your own.

Keep up the good work, in any case.

Well, I can see what you′re saying about the regions, and the climate and vegetation being shielded by the mountains. But I think the mountains are a little too tiny to really have this effect. I′m pretty sure winds would just blow over those mountains, carrying seeds ′n stuff from one region to the other. You′d need a pretty huge mountain chain to block this. But thats just my imagination, not based on real knowledge.
Anyway, telling from the screenshot you refer to I′d say its just the screenshot...weather and lighting conditions in combination with my West Gash texture pack. I wouldn′t say I made it overgrown, and except for those lilypads I planted only West Gash plants.
Heres the same area, but a screenshot from the CS. http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4793/testgt.jpg

I really like your rooftop shack, looks kinda like what came to my mind when you mentioned that idea. I′ll definitely try that out myself.

Okay, I gave it a shot...how about something like this:

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1361/rooftopshack1.png
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/7898/rooftopshack2.png
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/2312/rooftopshack3.png

It's not that I disagree with your logic, but if you take a look at how it looks in-game, there's a pretty sharp division of the two regions. I'm all for a smoother border area, but it looks a bit odd if Balmora is the only area benefiting from it. Again, making similar additions and changes to the rest of the Odai would probably end up looking pretty great.


Ah, I see; that makes sense. More of those lilly pads - and the like - further down along the Odai would still smooth things over though.


What I had in mind was a little less orderly, but this definitely looks great too! I hope you intend to make use of the rooftop space of other buildings in the area as well.

ohs and ahhs appreciatively: oo:

Glad to see you're still modding, basswalker! :twirl:

(Do remember to backup your progress on a USB drive or on a website in the event of hardware catastrophe. D: )

Are we talking about Ecology? I'm currently taking an ecology course at uni. :grad: What affects the distribution and abundance of species?

You seem to be discussing if seeds can overcome an barrier of elevation (via wind, or carried by critters), but another question to ask is that even if such seeds crossed, would the soil and other conditions (sunlight, temperature, moisture, slope, position, aspect, landform) be right for the seed to germinate and the plantling to grow and survive?

What would really be radical is if you could coordinate your mod to work perfectly with the mod that is being made for Balmora's underground city....

Xeth-Ban: You′ll see, just wait for the next set of screenshots...I′m definitely taking your comments into consideration.

Alaisiagae: I′m not STILL modding, its more like an on/off situation....couple months I dont care at all, then I get back to it and so on. But having a new better computer really helps motivation...modding wasnt much fun with the old "crappy lappy"...especially ′cause I couldnt even really run my own mod. O.o
I think we can skip that seeds-barrier-crossing discussion, all that was brought over from another region is the lillypads. Xeth-Ban just seems to have gotten confused by the grass mod I had activated, and my texture pack. Sorry for that. Next ingame-screenshots should be less confusing.

richardrocket009: I dont really like the idea of Balmora having an underground area, doesnt seem to fit or even make sense....but anyway, which mod are you referring to?

Heres a little http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/104/overviewf.png of the area...
How do you like the idea of a http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6072/towerj.png up there? Using distant land you get a nice (strategic?) 360° overview, over to Moonmoth legion fort/ashlands/Caldera/Odai plateau...

A Watchtower would be great.

Cool stuff basswalker! I especially like what you've done with http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/9741/mgescreenshot136.jpg area! Very creative.

I'm generally with Xeth-ban on Balmora expansions/mods in general, but this looks like it's taking a step in the right direction.

Nice work!

I like the idea of putting a watchtower up there. Perhaps you could create some sort of wooden platform around it, with stairs leading down into the city area? If that turns out to be too troublesome/cumbersome, there is also the possibility of making some sort of tunnel leading up from the city and into the tower from below, I suppose. Also, an unlit signal fire on-top of the tower so that it can actually warn the city if danger approaches would probably be a good idea, even if it isn't all that useful with Moonmoth in the area. A remnant of the past, perhaps.

No comparison to your stuff, but thanks for the kind words.
Still need to make an awesome place out of Dura gra-bol′s house. But I think I′ll just leave it alone and recommend yours as an addition.




That was exactly what I was planing on building around the tower. Didnt try it out yet, but I guess I′ll have to at least add some rocks or so to give some base to the stairs, but maybe I could also use some of those wooden ladders...

very nice basswalker. i really like the vanilla feel to it

Just takes some practice and an intimate knowledge of every last item in the construction set, very intimate... oh and did I mention the selling your soul part?


I'm flattered, that's one of those "I made it for my character and thought you might like it" mods glad you liked it. And it may fit with the rest of your wooden platforms and stuff you got so far.

Can't wait to see more!

So the Morrowind modding community is essentially dominated by a host of soulless monsters then? I guess all those argonians from the Infernal City had to end up somewhere...


Anyway, how is the mod going? Any progress since the watchtower?

Looks really nice and has a more uh life like appearance, thank you

Quite a good mod... reminds me a lot of "atmospheric Balmora" and is nicely done.

There's a bit of dirt in it, thought; a few objects are modified (unintentionally, most probably):
- A cell in Seyda Neen and one in Suran;
- A chargen chest;
- NPC Dilami Androm, Darvame Hleran;
- 2 doors.

You may want to clean these. Nothing game breaking, anyway.

I haven't seen anything "out of place"... furniture, perhaps.
Personally, I would either put those chairs, tables, etc. under a awning or use those more rugged looking "outdoor" chairs and tables.
However, I like to tweak every single mod I use, so it's probably just me.

Thank you for sharing this mod, I will use it in my next game.

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Had some progress, not much though. Worked on the watchtower, build steps leading up to it, worked on the temple area, did some minor changes here and there all over town.
Will post some screenshots tomorrow or so...

Have been and still am busy with a few other (partially released) projects, so I didnt work too much on this. Also I′m concerned about the framerate. Its getting kind of laggy, so I guess there shouldn′t be too many more additions...

Nice mod! If I used any Balmora expansions, this would be the one.

Nice mod. Better then BE i find myself. Only too bad that it probably isn't compatible with Calislahn's Balmora River House and maybe also not with some other mods, like the jasmine companion and the mods from kathryn (kat's kastle, arkham experience, etc), which are placed outside balmora, in the direction of the odai plateau. I don't know if the area around the Tharys Ancestral Tomb is changed and the tomb itself. If you use the lady death mod from Korana, then the Tharys Ancestral tomb will be changed a bit (an extra door is added)

Thanks.

Candesco, I dont know about the mods you mentioned. But I stopped altering things around the silt strider...did the bridge-area, but I didnt go towards Tharys Tomb or even further towards the odai plateau. So anything happening around there should be fine.

Just did a little walk-and-fly-around, so here are some recent screenies of how Balmora looks right now.



Turned on the fps counter, you see it doesnt run so well...
Some info so you can better compare to your setup:
- Distand Land "medium" settings, minimum static size 100, no grass, view distance 5 cells, land and nearby statics reflect in water
- 1280x720, 2x AA, no AF

Other (relevant) active mods affecting this area:
- Living cities of Vvardenfell
- Children of Morrowind
- Starfire′s NPC additions
- Real Wildlife 2b
- Wrye Travel (you see the portal orb in front of the temple)
- Abot′s birds
- immersive town sounds

That looks amazing. I especially like the watchtower!

All major Balmora expansions lags, it seems, heh.

Seems a bit odd for a Hlaalu temple to have such a big Vivec statue though, since the Hlaalu temple in Vivec has such economical problems and all.

That looks great indeed. :goodjob: