[Ebony Lawson]

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=1054881

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

================
[RELz] NOVEMBER UPDDATE, THE TOWNSHIP OF ORCREST
================

The latest is addition is 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://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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[WIP] DECEMBER, THE TOWN OF DUNE BY MR SIIKA
================

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Elsweyr/dunePalace02.jpg

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Elsweyr/dunePalace02.jpg

================
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.

===============
VIDEO PREVIEW
===============

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

===============
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 Mr Siika, 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.

[Kelsey Anna Farley]

@Mr Siika
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cup8PORiSNY
The town looks beautiful in the video.
Perhaps to downplay the wealth, the gold texture could be replaced with copper or bronze? I feel that would make more sense in the story I've woven for the province.

@Vorians
Yes, I plan to use Mr Siika's layout pretty much exactly as is.
How would you actually divide the city into world spaces? The difficulty is that the town would require the vista, so you would need to see a large swathe of the desert and mountains from within the city worldspace.
I have no idea how to copy a section of the Tamriel worldspace into a new one, like they do with the vanilla cities.

@Uglulyx
Its just a glitch. The spider is placed on the cavern floor and should lock to the cell's path grids. However the game doesn't always like large creatures in small confined spaces so things like that sometimes happen.

[Adam]

Oh right, so this is what Mr Siika has been working on lately.

[jesse villaneda]

@Vorians
Yes, I plan to use Mr Siika's layout pretty much exactly as is.
How would you actually divide the city into world spaces? The difficulty is that the town would require the vista, so you would need to see a large swathe of the desert and mountains from within the city worldspace.
I have no idea how to copy a section of the Tamriel worldspace into a new one, like they do with the vanilla cities.

I think as long as the meshes are decently optimized and have the right collision type on them there won't be a problem. Judging by the layout size there Dune isn't large enough to cause an issue. And if you need the vista for it, there'd be very little point in carving it up into smaller worldspaces since you'd still have to populate the city with city meshes.

[Nick Tyler]

I think as long as the meshes are decently optimized and have the right collision type on them there won't be a problem. Judging by the layout size there Dune isn't large enough to cause an issue. And if you need the vista for it, there'd be very little point in carving it up into smaller worldspaces since you'd still have to populate the city with city meshes.

Yes, it may be fine as it is. At least being in the middle of a desert, the landscape around is pretty barren, with just a few scattered rocks.

[Danger Mouse]

I think as long as the meshes are decently optimized and have the right collision type on them there won't be a problem. Judging by the layout size there Dune isn't large enough to cause an issue. And if you need the vista for it, there'd be very little point in carving it up into smaller worldspaces since you'd still have to populate the city with city meshes.

Agreed, if you want to have a great view from each District, then it's better not to create multiple child worldspaces It's simply that if you intended to fill each District with great detail (decoration, clutter, outdoor shop stalls, etc.), and add many NPCs with immersive city-life and AI, FPS might get upset on some PCs.

[Tha King o Geekz]

This sounds like it will be a grand ole place when it gets finished...I can't wait!

[Naazhe Perezz]

From end of other thread:

@ Adrius: With all those questions you've asked around, may we (I) know what kind of mod / quest are you indending to create for Elsweyr ?

Soon I want to finish the story work (It's almost complete, but I have some things to work out) and a couple of areas first.

[Josh Trembly]

Iliana, you have a PM (with loads of new meshes ).

edit: the password is "mr_siika" (no, I'm not egocentric )

[Stacyia]

I'm gonna need some guides on pronunciation of certain things pretty soon here.

Before that though, I have a question.

In the big canyon (forgot the name and can't check right now), there is a door that goes nowhere. http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1880/canyondoor1.jpg (http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5564/canyondoor2.jpg). Do you or does anyone else have plans for this? Or was it put in so someone could use it? I want to put one of my areas in the Canyon. I can put down my own door though, and may anyways.

I love what you did with the Orcrest city district, just wow. I just wanted to say that. I love it so much, I'm going to work it into the story. It's such a perfect place for what you could imagine as back alley meetings and shady deals. Great atmosphere!

This mod is so damned amazing.

[Mike Plumley]

I think that's where a network of caves are supposed to be, if I recall corectly from an earlier thread.

[oliver klosoff]

@ Adrius: Yeah, well i can't wait to get updates on this... new quest are always welcome... this will be compatible with my manor right ? !!! he he !
And about the cave thing, i also wanted to use this unique location, but i leave it to Iliana, after all she get's the first call right !!!

@ Iliana: Well, look like you gonna have tons of work for the next weeks / months... till th enext updates, Thankx to Mr_Siika...lol !
Just a question, will you decide yourself to use Mr_Siika's Chamel in the next release... ? (even if the running animation is not to "appropriate" No Offence here Siika, i'm actualy happy to have them...)
It would be cool to have a second unique mount ! (after the elephant), it only sad that there is no saddle and bridle for it !

@ Someone who talk about the giant spider...: I also get the spider to be over the cave roof... i simply whent in Cs to reduce it's size a lil... then go back and kill da B****... Maybe you can actually Resize the cave by making it bigger Iliana, since it' not a huge one it would'nt be too long, and it would allow to keep the size of the spider witch is unique / quest related i think...? !!!

@ Mr_Siika: Good work my friend, i wasn't expecting less from you ! :goodjob:

[Penny Flame]

Yes, I plan to use Mr Siika's layout pretty much exactly as is.

Excellent layout, judging from the video.

Mr_Siika, did you make the washing lines with clothes?

[Brooks Hardison]

Question about Orcrest, I noticed when I fasttravel to the Orcrest Township (not sure if it's the correct name) location I end up in a small alley. It's a dead end, well not completely since you can still leave through a door but that is the only way. And if I recall correctly it wasn't even in Orcrest yet, I still needed to go through the formentioned door first. I found it a bit strange that a fasttravel location is in a small alley with only 1 way out, instead of just leading to the main gate of the slums in Orcrest. :unsure:

-kyoma

[louise fortin]

@ Iliana: Well, look like you gonna have tons of work for the next weeks / months... till th enext updates, Thankx to Mr_Siika...lol !
Just a question, will you decide yourself to use Mr_Siika's Chamel in the next release... ? (even if the running animation is not to "appropriate" No Offence here Siika, i'm actualy happy to have them...)
It would be cool to have a second unique mount ! (after the elephant), it only sad that there is no saddle and bridle for it !

@ Mr_Siika: Good work my friend, i wasn't expecting less from you ! :goodjob:

Thanks!
As for the camel: I was hoping some animator would show some mercy and help with the camel running animation...

Mr_Siika, did you make the washing lines with clothes?

Yes, it's an animated mesh with a semi-transparent texture.

[Emmanuel Morales]

Iliana, you have a PM (with loads of new meshes ).
edit: the password is "mr_siika" (no, I'm not egocentric )

Thanks! That's a really fantastic collection. I like how you've made it so modular as well, which makes it all the more flexible.

I don't suppose there's any chance of getting a few new interior meshes as well? Perhaps some modular pieces which could be snapped together to roughly match up with the different shapes?
... or one day, anyway. I can still jump ahead just concentrating on the city exterior and NPCs.

Agreed, if you want to have a great view from each District, then it's better not to create multiple child worldspaces It's simply that if you intended to fill each District with great detail (decoration, clutter, outdoor shop stalls, etc.), and add many NPCs with immersive city-life and AI, FPS might get upset on some PCs.

If I create something like a crowded souq just beyond the gates that could always be self-contained within some low walls and building edges and placed in its own worldspace. Its a good way to remove some NPCs from the main world space and introduce a crowded center to the town.

I'm gonna need some guides on pronunciation of certain things pretty soon here.
Before that though, I have a question.
In the big canyon (forgot the name and can't check right now), there is a door that goes nowhere. http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1880/canyondoor1.jpg (http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5564/canyondoor2.jpg). Do you or does anyone else have plans for this? Or was it put in so someone could use it? I want to put one of my areas in the Canyon. I can put down my own door though, and may anyways.
I love what you did with the Orcrest city district, just wow. I just wanted to say that. I love it so much, I'm going to work it into the story. It's such a perfect place for what you could imagine as back alley meetings and shady deals. Great atmosphere!
This mod is so damned amazing.

Yes, the large canyon is intended for a rat-goblin "town", and one of the caves is set aside for a Hunters Guild quest. Its a wip area, which I've set aside for now. There are actually about 6 or 7 cave entrances scattered about.

I really wanted Orcrest to be my criminal city full of thieves, bandits, thugs, monsters, etc. So its full of narrow, trash-strewn alleyways, and cul-de-sacs for all those clandestine meetings. It would have be fun having muggers and such on the streets, but keeping friendly NPCs out of fights is really hard. Just look at the Mythic Dawn agents in the vanilla game and you see what usually happens!

@ Iliana: Well, look like you gonna have tons of work for the next weeks / months... till th enext updates, Thankx to Mr_Siika...lol !
Just a question, will you decide yourself to use Mr_Siika's Chamel in the next release... ? (even if the running animation is not to "appropriate" No Offence here Siika, i'm actualy happy to have them...)
It would be cool to have a second unique mount ! (after the elephant), it only sad that there is no saddle and bridle for it !
@ Someone who talk about the giant spider...: I also get the spider to be over the cave roof... i simply whent in Cs to reduce it's size a lil... then go back and kill da B****... Maybe you can actually Resize the cave by making it bigger Iliana, since it' not a huge one it would'nt be too long, and it would allow to keep the size of the spider witch is unique / quest related i think...? !!!

Aha. Another city. Lots of work! That's going to keep me going for months. Interiors, npcs and the like just take me forever to do.
The next update (later this month?) will be mostly new quests.

Yes, I can include camels in Dune sold to the khajiit by Redguard traders from Hammerfell.

I'll take a look at that spider sometime. It is intended for a future quest to do with sacred silk for the woven robes of the moon priestesses. The thing also guards the body connected which starts the Maomer Treasure Hunt quest.

Question about Orcrest, I noticed when I fasttravel to the Orcrest Township (not sure if it's the correct name) location I end up in a small alley. It's a dead end, well not completely since you can still leave through a door but that is the only way. And if I recall correctly it wasn't even in Orcrest yet, I still needed to go through the formentioned door first. I found it a bit strange that a fasttravel location is in a small alley with only 1 way out, instead of just leading to the main gate of the slums in Orcrest. :unsure:
-kyoma

The township is in a separate worldspace, so the map marker had to be placed in the main one. Using the alleyway was a simple work-around.
I tried building a child world-space attached to the Tamriel one once but that was a disaster! So instead all the ones I've made for Corinthe and Orcrest are completely separate. The only downside is that I can't use fast travel markers within them. But still, they are only one gate away.

[Inol Wakhid]

hey...

I defenetely would vote for placing as much cities as possible ( I would prefer all) in their own worldspaces ...if the new ws is a child of the tamriel ws you even got a proper lod ...creating this is not very difficult...
full detailed cities placed in the tamriel worldspace featuring a lot of npc's with complex AI, tons of persistent references, clutter, scripts etc etc are a real FPS killer even for very good computer systems, especially when played with full Lod...

[Noraima Vega]

hey...
I defenetely would vote for placing as much cities as possible ( I would prefer all) in their own worldspaces ...if the new ws is a child of the tamriel ws you even got a proper lod ...creating this is not very difficult...
full detailed cities placed in the tamriel worldspace featuring a lot of npc's with complex AI, tons of persistent references, clutter, scripts etc etc are a real FPS killer even for very good computer systems, especially when played with full Lod...

That ony really works with cities enclosed by high walls like the Cyrodiil ones.
It wouldn't work for ones built on a mountainside like Riverhold and Dune. My flat cities, Orcrest and Corinthe, are already half partially in their own world spaces.

Those are the only four towns I plan on including.

[Blackdrak]

I think the lag is caused mostly by having too many mods (200++) with many graphic enhancers and the blame fell on the cities. I prefer opened cities more than the closed one, much more immersive. I use a rather old PC (by today's standard) but can still run Oblivion with Open Cities + Anequina

Anyway, those are gorgeous looking models! :goodjob:

[lacy lake]

That ony really works with cities enclosed by high walls like the Cyrodiil ones.
It wouldn't work for ones built on a mountainside like Riverhold and Dune. My flat cities, Orcrest and Corinthe, are already half partially in their own world spaces.

Those are the only four towns I plan on including.

You mean that Riverhold, Dune, Orcrest and Corinthe will be the only cities in your Elsweyr mod? If someone else would do the work on the city for you, while you only have to give advice and stuff like that, wouldn't that be possible? I don't mean that it has to be really soon, but I mean like someday.

[Kelly John]

I think the lag is caused mostly by having too many mods (200++) with many graphic enhancers and the blame fell on the cities.

Yes, blame always seems to fall on the cities, despite the mountain of other unrelated things added that actually caused the problem It's a scenario I know all too well.

[Frank Firefly]

Thanks! That's a really fantastic collection. I like how you've made it so modular as well, which makes it all the more flexible.

I don't suppose there's any chance of getting a few new interior meshes as well? Perhaps some modular pieces which could be snapped together to roughly match up with the different shapes?

There is a chance, but there's another thing (for Elsweyr, don't worry ) I have to finish first.

That ony really works with cities enclosed by high walls like the Cyrodiil ones.
It wouldn't work for ones built on a mountainside like Riverhold and Dune. My flat cities, Orcrest and Corinthe, are already half partially in their own world spaces.

Actually I designed the Upper town district so that is would be possible to place it into an own worldspace... place some gates with actual doors, perhaps add some collision walls... making the surrounding mountains visible would be the only problem left I guess...

[Michelle Serenity Boss]

Actually I designed the Upper town district so that is would be possible to place it into an own worldspace... place some gates with actual doors, perhaps add some collision walls... making the surrounding mountains visible would be the only problem left I guess...

That is how it looked when I saw it, hence my suggestion to use child worldspaces And with child worldspaces, the surrounding mountains would be visible. But Iliana has trouble making child worldspaces

But Iliana can just work in the Tamriel worldspace as she wishes, which would ensure that each District can view everything around without loss of detail. It's not hard to relocate to a child worldspace in the future, if it does turn out that too many NPC AI packages are bogging down game-play in and around the city.

[Jordyn Youngman]

You mean that Riverhold, Dune, Orcrest and Corinthe will be the only cities in your Elsweyr mod? If someone else would do the work on the city for you, while you only have to give advice and stuff like that, wouldn't that be possible? I don't mean that it has to be really soon, but I mean like someday.

I think its better if she keep it this way, those 4 town are the "lore" town eniway, so adding more would completly break the lore... No ?
To my humble opinion, i'd rather have only 4 town of lore with lots of quests ! Or perhaps you dont really care about the lore ? !!!

@ Display: Hope your right about that....
"It's not hard to relocate to a child worldspace in the future, if it does turn out that too many NPC AI packages are bogging down game-play in and around the city."
C'ause with OBC even with my pc spec, witch are good, i get a rush in fps, specialy in day time...

[Gen Daley]

An update to my last posting (in the mod's previous thread)...

I rebuilt Elsweyr in from the ground up thusly (in order):

• ElsweyrAnequinaMod.rar
  
• ElsweyrOrcrestHightTextureSizeFix from the Sep09 optional files
  
• Arthmoor's AnequinaCollisionOptimized.7z (meshes)
  
• Arthmoor's RAEVWD_Elsweyr_Anequina.7z (minus rocks and trees)
  
• (I also use the Faregyl-Elsweyr Road Patch, but didn't need to redo it.)

I combined those (sans road patch) in a temporary directory, which was used to create an OMOD. All seemed to go well (though the creation process took ages) and moved the esp to its proper load-order. I next launched TES4edit and rid the esp of dirty edits ("Remove "Identical to Master" records" and "Undelet and Disable References"), then rebuilt LOD with TES4LODgen.

In-game all looks good, no missing graphics, even at distance. What's more, Elswyer is far less laggy and stuttery than my September build (which was so bad I stopped visiting Elsweyr. In fact Elsweyr now stutters so seldom and mildly as to be negligible.

All is not well though. I've had two "...stopped responding" crashes and a freeze during save, all in or just outside Orcrest. The save freeze was very odd. The save screen remained in-place. I had to bring up Task Manager to terminate the game. (I had to do that with the other two, but they went to black screens first.) Here's the odd part... I went to my save-game folder to see if the frozen save had taken. It was there alright, with a vengeance. My normal saves these days are just over 11mb. This save was 598mb! No idea what's up with that. Hopefully just a freak occurrence, but we shall see. (Normally, if my game freezes while saving, the save-file stub is measured in kB.)

On a more mundane level, I entered one building in Orcrest (during a session without crash) and one in Corinthe. Both times the door would not allow exit. I remember this being an issue some time ago. Is it still on the to-fix list, or is something wrong with my particular build?

Regardless, a big thumbs-up. Very impress. This mod just gets better and better. Mr_Siika's Dune has me drooling with anticipation.


-Decrepit