[FirDaus LOVe farhana]

Elsweyr, the Deserts of Anequina

Download at TES Nexus
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25023

Previous forum thread:-- http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1033691

From Leyawiin to Bravil a broad range of mountains divides the verdant valleys of the Niben valley from dry plateau of central Elsweyr. Step across the border and explore a new desert land!

This mod transforms the unused across-the-border Elsweyr region into a brand new playable area with a variety of distinct landscapes, settlements, monster spawns, and NPCs. The ring of hills keep the deserts self-contained, invisible from the green of Cyrodiil.

The mod has its roots in TES lore. Anequina is the name of the northern region of Elsweyr province, and its cities Corinthe, Riverhold, Orcrest, Dune all appear on TES maps of the land. The minor place names are also taken from the TES Arena map.
You can read more about the province on the TES wiki :-- http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tamriel:Elsweyr

Reference, Tamriel worldspace vanilla cells edited by mod (but not including new cells added to the missing quad)--
http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/3836/anequinagridmapelsweyr.jpg

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[RELz] NOVEMBER UPDDATE, THE TOWNSHIP OF ORCREST
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I'm currently building the township of Orcrest, the "inner" half of the town. Unlike the Oasis district, this is a proper residential area with tightly packed houses, narrow lanes and slum alleyways.

Screenshots--

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9535/anqorcreststeps.jpg

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/3999/anqorcrestalleys2.jpg

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1645/anqorcrestalleys1.jpg

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/883/anqorcrestwitch.jpg

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LATEST RELEASE
================

* The November add-on pack includes an expansion of the town of Orcrest, some new creatures and a revamp of the alchemical ingredients.
* The September add-on pack includes a few new quests, a coral reef, and the main keeps of two Imperial forts.
* Silent mp3 files to slow down the dialogue added 27 August.

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VIDEO PREVIEW
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F9vkRE6Qac

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RELATED PROJECTS
===============

"Cursed" A WIP quest mod for Elsweyr by Uglulyx.
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1051958

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
===============

A special thanks to the modders who have created all of the wonderful resources I've used in the making of this mod :

ARCHITECTURE
DarknessEternal (Desert Architecture), TheKarithian (Desert Architecture), IronicEcho (Tents), SevenRavens (Tribal Hut), Siegfried (Obelisks)

LANDSCAPE & FLORA
Addiktive (Desert Textures), Koniption (Trees, Plants, Ingredients), Texian (Water Rapids & Coastal Waves), Siegfried (Palmetto Trees), DeathlessAphrodite (Cacti & Baobab trees), DarkRider (Sandstorms), Mr Siika (Seagulls & Vultures), Arthmoor (WaterLOD), Sachiel (Rock Formations)

RACES
AlienSlof (Khajiit retextures "Cathay & Suthay"), Luchaire ("Ohmes"), Veld (Khajiit "Tojay"), Corthian (Tsaesci)

ARMOR
Trollf (Desert Chain, Leather, Mithril Pit, Chain, Elven & Daedric Armors, Daedric Collar & Skirt), Ghogiel (Bonemold Armor), Koniption (Maomer Armor), Frank (Tribal Shields), Frankpants (Lamellar Armor), Uglulyx (Retexs of Lamellar & Pit Armor, and Hide Cuirasses), Ayhan (Ottoman & Archer Helms), AlienSlof's Orc (Tribal Fur Armor), Exanimis (Elephant Shield), Corthian (Scale armor)

WEAPONS
Trollf (Peasants' Weapons), Exanimis (Tribal Weapons), Waalx (Khajiit blades), Hel Borne (Broad Spear, Trident), Koniption (Meat Cleaver)

CLOTHES
Trolff (Misc Robes & Clothing), KrimsynKane & Kikaimegami (Scarves), Waalx (Fat clothes), Pale Rider (Straw Hat)

CLUTTER
Koniption (Ingredients, Canoes,Nets, & Misc Clutter), Hel Borne (Orc Skulls), Senten (Road/Shop Signs & Tree fix), Lazarus (Tall baskets), Meo3000 (Moon globes, Open books), McMuffin (Skooma Pipe), Der Kriger (Mounted Heads), DavidWhitefang (Foods), Phaedra (Vomit, Urine), Khugan (Gold & Silver Bars), LiquidGraph (Magic Lamp), Trolff (Portable lamps & candles), MrMuh & RPG-BlackDragon (Havoked crates, barrels, sacks) Mr Siika (Animal skull), Chigga (Brazier), DominickCryomonde (Khajiit Skulls)

CREATURES
InsanitySorrow (Brown Troll), Cryonaut (Red Wolf), Mr Siika, Divine Avenger & Yarharhar (Elephants, Elephant Mount), Mr Siika, Corepc & Jdfan (Durzogs) Francesco (Goats, Cats), Cyronaut, Malo, Elveon & AlienSlof (Spiders), AlienSlof (Tiger), Skingrad24 (Zebra), Corepc (Red & Black Boars, Fat Bellied Minotaurs), Cryonaut, Xmarksthespot & Grimdeath (Pahmer & Crocodilion), Argentsol (Skavens "Desert Goblins"), DeathlessAphrodite (Red Sand Crabs), Sharks & Fish (Sjors Boomschors, Toru Miyazawa), Hel Borne (Orc Zombies), b3w4r3 (White Deer), Prometheus & Xilver (Lizard, Glyptodon, Ape, Sandcrawler), CGChaos & Infiniti (Sea Lamia, Spore Cat, Marine Abominations)

LOADSCREENS
DavidWolf, Watadarkstar (Custom loadscreens)

BODY ADJUSTMENTS
DaemonDarque & Sen-Chan (Roberts Male Body Adjustments)

And a special thanks to PacificMorrowind, Arthmoor, Wakadarkstar, Siegfried, Uglulyx, Senten, Rentner and Worm82075 who have helped me out with things in the mod. And also RichardRocket, Zuperbuu and others for Beta testing.

[Kay O'Hara]

Continuing on the from the last thread.

ogami_ito,
The new races have to be checked as playable otherwise they won't inherit the default khajiit greetings and dialogue. Quests dialogue is also dependent on the races being checked as playable.
Having the races in the list when you create a new character is a minor inconvenience at best. I'm sure you can endure it.
Merging the races with the COBL ones doesn't really seem to serve any purpose. The NPCs and races are already set up, so why change them now and make the mod dependent on another?

Rickie26k,
Yes, its possible for me to make some quests that take back to Cyrodiil. The Thieves Guild one "Horse Thief" already goes back and forth across the border. I'm not planning on adding any new structures in Cyrodiil but I could tie some Elsweyr quests into existing locations over there.

[Rude Gurl]

Continuing on the from the last thread.

ogami_ito,
The new races have to be checked as playable otherwise they won't inherit the default khajiit greetings and dialogue. Quests dialogue is also dependent on the races being checked as playable.
Having the races in the list when you create a new character is a minor inconvenience at best. I'm sure you can endure it.
Merging the races with the COBL ones doesn't really seem to serve any purpose. The NPCs and races are already set up, so why change them now and make the mod dependent on another?
...

Also continuing,

Seigfried said in response to my suggestion of merging with the Hammerfall project : "It seems like it would be a merger in name only since Illiana does everything herself. They could share resources, but then Hamerfell and Elsweyr would likely become indistinct."

OK. So I don't think its an inconvenience to have more Khajiit in the new character screen. That is not the point. I'm suggesting this because it would give the Ohmes and ohme-rhat (sp?) the same powers and abilities of that already stable, fleshed out mod.

On a slight tangent, I think the cool thing about OOO and MMM is its modularity and the fact that they put efforts to make consistent experience. In that light, Elsweyr can take races from RBP, and then even add a few more back into the project.

As for merging with Hammerfall, its same concept. Part of having "merger in name only" is important because the sum of the parts is greater than a whole. Using same textures would be boring, true. But a merger creates a bigger structure of people to add to. And then people can create Hammerfall quests that end up in Elsweyr, and vice-versa. And then people think of Elsweyr / Hammerfall as the unofficial mods which are must-haves (like OOO is today)

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

[JaNnatul Naimah]

Also from the last topic.

This is very off topic but those Will-o-the-wisps almost make me not want to remove them from my game, almost. For some reason in my game a single wisp is able to genocide an entire town. :confused: But those wisps look good, I'd love to see some of your work included in Elsweyr.

As Iliana mentioned before, wisps come with 100% resistance to normal weapons, and very few civilians carry silver weapons. Actually, most guards don't either, so they tend to go down easily too.

That will be amazing! I could do with some of your other wisps for a quest as well. I'm looking for some to represent the spirits of the four winds -- the chilly north, fiery west, pestilent east, and stormy south.

I think I can do the west easily enough: do you want an actual flame effect (difficult, but I'd be happy to try), or just fiery colours?.
For the north, do you want cold colours (blue and white, I guess) or would you like something more like a dark snowcloud with snow falling from it? I've already built something like this idea, but my onehttp://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll61/Revanchism/WilloftheWisps/RainofBlood1.jpg. Blood, snow, it's just a texture and some different numbers in the particle system modifiers.
I'm guessing that an unhealthy yellow would be ok for the east? I can also make the texture more... well, less cloudy and more viscous.
Not sure about the south, I might be able to make lightning bolt-style textures, I will experiment later. Or you could tell me what you'd like?

I presume these are needed before the dust devils? I'm still trying to wrap some stuff up with my own wisps at the moment in any case.

Vac

Edit: Boy, everyone's continuing from the last topic! Maybe I should be different and try and find something to reply to from two topics ago!

[An Lor]

I've noticed lots of snake tail stuff in the CS, what exactly is that for? I'm guessing a new race but I haven't seen any in game.

[Phoenix Draven]

I've noticed lots of snake tail stuff in the CS, what exactly is that for? I'm guessing a new race but I haven't seen any in game.

The tsaesci. You can find one in the Hunter's Guild, Orcrest.

And speaking of...

That would be it. NPCs don't like it if you strip them of their skins. You really do lose alot of stuff, don't you!?

I know! I can't figure out how, either - I'm fairly thorough in copying files (I don't unzip stuff directly into my Data folder). I've never had this problem with other mods.

[Steeeph]

Orcrest is going to be so wonderful......all the sleaziness is going to be so believable!

[stevie critchley]

I just watched the youtube video. This looks amazing! I will definitely try it out soon, as I just finished the Main quest (finally!) and already finished knights of nine. I will probably wait to try it until after I'm done with Shivering Isles, if I can wait that long (with baited breath)! Thanks in advance - it's these kinds of mods that keep me playing.

? I had one question about the town where the bodies are hanging in the entranceway - what town is that? is it orcrest or something? It just seems so strange, but then again, I guess all Khajiit are not human-friendly!

Anyway, I like how some areas have a middle-eastern feel, very appropriate, it seems. After having done a tour in Iraq, the first scene really grabbed my attention, and also the sandstorm looked pretty cool. The only suggestion I would add, is maybe to give the sandstorm a little more of a reddish hue. When you are in the middle of a bad sandstorm it almost feels like you are on mars or something; very surreal and hard to explain. I think the sand gives the sunlight a reddish tint somehow. I could show you some pics or videos I took to show you what I mean...

Anyway - thanks for making this. I cant wait to try it!

[JUan Martinez]

? I had one question about the town where the bodies are hanging in the entranceway - what town is that? is it orcrest or something? It just seems so strange, but then again, I guess all Khajiit are not human-friendly!

yes that is Orcrest or shall we say ORCrest... significant population of orcs.
Pacific Morrowind

[Elina]

Quick question: After searching the net a bit, I've started to wonder about something. Does this mod have an optional compatibility that allows for HGEC armor meshes for the new armors in this plug in?

[Star Dunkels Macmillan]

ogami_ito,
You can create a mod using multiple other mods as masters, that's how they make patches. So in theory quests spanning Elsweyr, Hammerfell, Black Marsh and Morrowind could be made. You don't need to merge them all into one humongous mod to do that.
I'm sure Hammerfell doesn't need my mod or any other attached to it to make it a "must have" either. It will be like a full expansion all by itself.

Vacuity,
Hehe, yeah, the previous thread chat has flowed right into this. Doesn't happen very often!
The wisps aren't urgent. I started making a quest that is just on hold for the time being.
I did try experimenting myself with those wisps by attaching the a modified version flame effect to an oversized wisp (didn't really work because the flame doesn't have a very wide radius), and the storm atronach effect to another (that one actually came out looking pretty cool!).
So whenever you have time will be great. No hurry.
That bleeding wisp of yours looks pretty creepy! Something like that for a wintry wind with snowflakes would look good. Perhaps for the fiery one that actual flame effect (the one used by the atronachs) could be made bigger and work alongside a shader?

Uglulyx,
There's another Tsaesci in the Palace District of Corinthe. Her name is Chae-Varseu and she runs the florist shop.
Tsaesci are extremely rare in Elsweyr though. A few of them fled Cyrodiil and founded the city of Rimmen. Vol 2, of the Guide to Elsweyr gives the history from lore.
The different tails in the CS function as armors (non-playable items). Because the Tsaesci can't wear greaves or boots, I gave the armor rating of chain, mithril, elven, etc. to Tsaesci tails on a levelled list. There's a set of playable ones as well. Chae-Varseu activates a levelled chest which spawns them if you create a Tsaesci character.

richardrocket009,
Orcrest is gradually taking shape. I've designed most of the exterior now. Cluttering all the alleyways with so much trash was pretty time consuming! But it does create a nice slummy effect. I've done about 14 of the interiors as well, which is a large chunk of the town, and all the NPCs that go with those. I think I'll release it as an update soon. Its looking complete enough and I can finish off the rest of the interiors in a later update.

ElricWulf,
Thanks. Yes, Orcrest is a mixed orc and khajiit town. The only time it is described in TES lore is in the Arena game where it is called the "city of monsters." So for its history I've simply said it was founded by orc mercenaries hired by the khajiit king of Anequina during the Elsweyr civil war several hundred years ago, and the place then grew from an orc fort into a proper town. Since I already have two khajiit towns, it was more interesting to go make something quite different!
Yep, its possible to tint those sandstorms more. I fiddled with the one at sunset to make it more reddish. The nighttime version still looks like day though. Except for darkening the sky I've never figured out how to make it darker.

demonsshade,
I think there are HGEC versions of some of the armors I've used, like the ones made by trollf. But I'm not interested in creating a compilation of those myself. If someone else put together a package though I could upload them.

[Laura Elizabeth]

Still can't find any hgec versions yet. Oh well. This question is unrelated to that.

On the above cell grid map, there is a large white space, and you mention that the amount of cells affected in that white area is not shown. So, I have two questions:

1) How many cells have you added into that blank area? Is there already a height map and everything for it? I remember a mod a little bit back that created a height map for that area. Are you using it at all?

2) What exactly is it? I see it in many cell grid maps. Is it simply the area where there are no more cells, or something?

Thanks in advance!

[Lizs]

She said update soon! YEAH BABY!!!!!!!

[Mariana]

She said update soon! YEAH BABY!!!!!!!

Yeah, I saw that too. I makes me :drool:

[J.P loves]

Hey Illiana, I'm looking at that cell we'd talked about before and I'm begining to notice that a majority of the cells in the wilderness are not path gridded. I was just wondering if you could give input on that. It's probably worth noting that the areas around roads etc. still have path grids. Also on a side note, might there be a trick to getting there generation for path grids to work? I've alway done it manually because the CS crashes whenever I try to use the generator.

[Charlotte X]

Still can't find any hgec versions yet. Oh well. This question is unrelated to that.
On the above cell grid map, there is a large white space, and you mention that the amount of cells affected in that white area is not shown. So, I have two questions:
1) How many cells have you added into that blank area? Is there already a height map and everything for it? I remember a mod a little bit back that created a height map for that area. Are you using it at all?
2) What exactly is it? I see it in many cell grid maps. Is it simply the area where there are no more cells, or something?
Thanks in advance!

The white space is the beyond the edge of the game world. If you travel there the land comes to an abrupt end with a huge empty chasm.
I think I patched on about 90 or so extra playable cells, a 10x10 area. And some extra ones beyond the new border (which is just a line of invisible walls) for the LOD texturing.

Hey Illiana, I'm looking at that cell we'd talked about before and I'm begining to notice that a majority of the cells in the wilderness are not path gridded. I was just wondering if you could give input on that. It's probably worth noting that the areas around roads etc. still have path grids. Also on a side note, might there be a trick to getting there generation for path grids to work? I've alway done it manually because the CS crashes whenever I try to use the generator.

All of my new regions are fully path-gridded except for a tiny slither along the coast east of the Zahraji Plantation. I haven't finished landscaping that yet, and pathgridding is always the last thing done.
And there are no pathgrids in the cells near Cyrodiil because that is outside the area I'm working on. You can see that in the grid map in the first post which marks out the cells edited.

[christelle047]

All of my new regions are fully path-gridded except for a tiny slither along the coast east of the Zahraji Plantation. I haven't finished landscaping that yet, and pathgridding is always the last thing done.
And there are no pathgrids in the cells near Cyrodiil because that is outside the area I'm working on. You can see that in the grid map in the first post which marks out the cells edited.

Ok good to know, I guess it means I'll be doing some updates eventually then.

[aisha jamil]

ElricWulf,
Thanks. Yes, Orcrest is a mixed orc and khajiit town. The only time it is described in TES lore is in the Arena game where it is called the "city of monsters." So for its history I've simply said it was founded by orc mercenaries hired by the khajiit king of Anequina during the Elsweyr civil war several hundred years ago, and the place then grew from an orc fort into a proper town. Since I already have two khajiit towns, it was more interesting to go make something quite different!
Yep, its possible to tint those sandstorms more. I fiddled with the one at sunset to make it more reddish. The nighttime version still looks like day though. Except for darkening the sky I've never figured out how to make it darker.

Cool, I remembered the name 'Orcrest' from Arena, but not much else, since the towns were pretty generic. The name always sparked my imagination and curiosity and I wondered what kind of town it might be if it was more fleshed out. Looks great so far - I wonder if you can script in some dirty looks and hostility from the locals if you are human/imperial, etc. If that fits in your theme, of course.

I uploaded a pic of a dust storm, this is what it looks like closer to dawn or dusk, when the sunlight is more reddish; It may just happen when the lighting conditions are just right. I think I took this one in the late afternoon: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a400/Elricwolf/Webpage/IMG_0500.jpg
Good luck making the sandstorms at night darker. I can't wait to try your mod!

[Vera Maslar]

idk if its what you're after but Midas made a mini whirlwind creature for his latest version of Midas' Magic Spells of Aurum (they're for the wind element world thingy). they could be an interesting touch from all the beasts and goblins in elsweyr.

[Shaylee Shaw]

I uploaded a pic of a dust storm, this is what it looks like closer to dawn or dusk, when the sunlight is more reddish; It may just happen when the lighting conditions are just right. I think I took this one in the late afternoon: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a400/Elricwolf/Webpage/IMG_0500.jpg

That reddish storm looks so great!

[Ladymorphine]

Soon i'll be heading back to Elsweyr with my new battlemage assault squad to try and take down some Sanche-Tigers. I should note that because i'm playing a pompous royal-type/Arch-Mage i'm a bit underlevelled; Most pompous royal-types usually let their forces do the fighting for them!

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/toast-of-demise/Snapshots/orcrest.png

Oh yeah, Talky Toaster's Share and Recruit works well with this.

[Kim Bradley]

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/toast-of-demise/Snapshots/orcrest.png

I like it
I love it
I wanna see more of it!

[Chris BEvan]

That reddish storm looks so great!

Thanks. They really feel otherworldly when the lighting is like that. ALot of people I show the pics to think the color has been modded in some way, but I assure it hasn't. I have a short video I took, but I had to keep my camera in a plastic bag to protect the lens and it looks too filtered. Plus the lighting wasn't as red that day. I didn't really get a good vid from the reddish dust storm and I kinda regret that, but didn't want to ruin my camera.

ANother small note for ambience, is the sound seems muffled in a dust storm (except for the wind) and when it's really bad at times you can't see more than 20-30 feet in front of you. It would be easy to get lost without GPS or compass, of course Oblivion has both of these(!) so the player can kind of cheat as far as finding his/her way around... I wonder if it would be possible to use a fog effect in conjunction with the blowing sand animation to make the sandstorms a little denser without lowering FPS too much.

BTW - (for the OP) Are the blank areas still blank or have you filled in those areas at all? The info above said the map showed the modified vanilla cells not including theones that were added and then you said in another reply that you patched on some cells... I am still a little fuzzy on this after reading that: is the whole of Elsweyr created (not neccessarily filled out, though) to the coastline, or does the world still end abruptly in those areas after adding this mod? Just wondering how far this mod goes towards recreating the whole of Elsweyr (no small task I know!)... I of course realize that even if the wilderness areas are there, much if it won't be detailed/filled in, but that leaves room for further expansion by you or others(?).

[Jessica Phoenix]

idk if its what you're after but Midas made a mini whirlwind creature for his latest version of Midas' Magic Spells of Aurum (they're for the wind element world thingy). they could be an interesting touch from all the beasts and goblins in elsweyr.

I must have a play of Midas Magic again. I explored it last year, but it sounds like there have been lots and lots of updates since.

Soon i'll be heading back to Elsweyr with my new battlemage assault squad to try and take down some Sanche-Tigers. I should note that because i'm playing a pompous royal-type/Arch-Mage i'm a bit underlevelled; Most pompous royal-types usually let their forces do the fighting for them!
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/toast-of-demise/Snapshots/orcrest.png
Oh yeah, Talky Toaster's Share and Recruit works well with this.

I think all the dust is going to mess up his nice little suit! Welcome to the grimiest city in Elsweyr!

Thanks. They really feel otherworldly when the lighting is like that. ALot of people I show the pics to think the color has been modded in some way, but I assure it hasn't. I have a short video I took, but I had to keep my camera in a plastic bag to protect the lens and it looks too filtered. Plus the lighting wasn't as red that day. I didn't really get a good vid from the reddish dust storm and I kinda regret that, but didn't want to ruin my camera.

ANother small note for ambience, is the sound seems muffled in a dust storm (except for the wind) and when it's really bad at times you can't see more than 20-30 feet in front of you. It would be easy to get lost without GPS or compass, of course Oblivion has both of these(!) so the player can kind of cheat as far as finding his/her way around... I wonder if it would be possible to use a fog effect in conjunction with the blowing sand animation to make the sandstorms a little denser without lowering FPS too much.

BTW - (for the OP) Are the blank areas still blank or have you filled in those areas at all? The info above said the map showed the modified vanilla cells not including theones that were added and then you said in another reply that you patched on some cells... I am still a little fuzzy on this after reading that: is the whole of Elsweyr created (not neccessarily filled out, though) to the coastline, or does the world still end abruptly in those areas after adding this mod? Just wondering how far this mod goes towards recreating the whole of Elsweyr (no small task I know!)... I of course realize that even if the wilderness areas are there, much if it won't be detailed/filled in, but that leaves room for further expansion by you or others(?).

Wow, that dust storm really is blood red! It looks pretty alien.

I might experiment more with the sandstorms in my mod sometime. I could perhaps fiddle with the settings and create some extra versions. But I didn't create it to begin with and am not familiar with how it actually works. Weather systems with particles have alot of different number settings and a couple of fixed textures as well.

No, there are no blank areas. The modded area is contained within some valleys, and I surrounded the peaks with an invisible wall so you cannot wander off the edge. But Bethesda did provide some distantLOD phantom landscape for that area. So in the south, towards Topal Bay I retextured it, so that the phantom backdrop matches the rest of the terrain. So all-in-all the landscape appears complete and continuous.

[Dylan Markese]

Orcrest is going to be such a blast...I can't wait. But I must.