[RELzWIPz] Hammerfell : IV

» Mon May 07, 2012 10:45 am

Hammerfell
-- The Eastern Grasslands --
Public Alpha 1.01

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34484 - please endorse if you like this mod!
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/603-hammerfell-the-eastern-grasslands-101/

Included in the release:

Goldmoor

Rihad

Taneth

Helkori

Colovian Highlands

Additionally, the release includes passage from Cyrodiil into Hammerfell:

Fort Brena

Stone Gate

Siddle Cave

Screenshots can be found at TESNexus and on http://hammerfell.daryam.com/Media.html.

See the complete read me (below) for more details.

-- About the Project --

This project, which was originally part of Tamriel Rebuilt, aims to recreate the province of Hammerfell faithfully to the lore and vision of Bethesda Softworks. Our primary objective is to make Hammerfell a completely unique gaming experience. The cities of Hammerfell are nothing like those of Cyrodiil, and neither are its terrain, peoples, or culture. We aim to make the best mod possible, even if it means hand detailing every cell and making thousands of meshes.

Due to various engine restrictions, Hammerfell is located in its own worldspace.
This mod is not affiliated with any other Hammerfell mod.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1114870-relzwipz-hammerfell/page__view__findpost__p__16367800

-- News --

September 6th: Release, finally. Note that this is not the finished mod! Claims for the Helkori and Colovian regions will go up soon, as will interiors in Taneth. The whole Corten region is missing from the release, and continues to be worked on. Of course, now that summer is over, I (and likely other members of my team) won't have quite as much time to devote to the project. I will try to mod as often as I can, but do not expect a major update until winter (at the earliest).

Lady Nerevar,
Hammerfell mod leader

Full read me:

Spoiler

Name: Hammerfell: The Eastern Grasslands
Version: 1.0
Date: 09/06/2010
Category: New Lands
Requirements: Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.416
Author(s): Hammerfell Team
Forum: http://z10.invisionfree.com/Hammerfell/index.php?
Homepage: Hammerfell.daryam.com

Description
===========
This alpha release of Hammerfell. It includes the eastern grasslands, Goldmoor and Helkori, as well as the cities of Rihad and Taneth. Additionally, this release includes the border crossings needed to get to Hammerfell.

See the Details section for more.

Location
========
Hammerfell is located in its own worldspace, and can be reached through one of three ways: Fort Brena (located in the mouth of the Brena River), Stone Gate (located up the road from Chorrol), and Siddle Cave (located in the wilderness between the two forts). Head to one of these locations and activate the doors to be transported to Hammerfell. Fort Brena will drop you right outside of Rihad, Stone Gate in the town of Stonedale, and Siddle Cave in the middle of Goldmoor.

Details
=======
This is an Alpha release. As such, you will encounter unfinished areas. This is not an error.

Included in this release:
Goldmoor: full exteriors, dungeons, and encounters.
Rihad: full exteriors, some interiors (in the exterior, Middle Class, Harbor districts), and some NPCs.
Taneth: exteriors (with the exception of Upper class and Temple area, which have been walled off).
Helkori: procedurally generated, no hand detailing.
Colovia (border region): procedurally generated, some hand detailing.

Additionally, HammerfellBorders.esp includes the following:
-Full exteriors and interiors for Fort Brena, Stonegate, and Siddle Cave, as well as their surroundings.
-NPCs, dialog, and three quests in these areas.

Install
=======
1. Extract the files to a temporary location.
2. Examine the folder structure and make corrections where necessary.
3. Copy files to (install folder)\Oblivion\Data\
4. Start Oblivion Launcher, click 'Data Files', place a checkmark beside Hammerfell.esm and TR_OoT_Main.esm.
4b. To get to Hammerfell via the border crossings, you must also check HammerfellBorders.esp.

To get to Hammerfell without using the border forts, open the console and type ?cow Hammerfell 10,10?

NOTE: If you are also using Stirk, Hammerfell?s TR_OoT_Main.esm will overwrite Stirk?s TR_OoT_Main.esm. This is OK and Stirk will still work.

Uninstall
=========
1. Start Oblivion Launcher, click Data Files, uncheck Hammerfell.esm, TR_OoT_Main.esm and HammerfellBorders.esp
2. Delete the textures/tr and meshes/tr folders as well as Hammerfell.esm, TR_OoT_Main.esm, and Hammerfell Borders.esp

NOTE: If you are also using Stirk, leave TR_OoT_Main.esm active.

Incompatibility
===============
No issues have been reported.

-Problems will likely occur if another mod edits the same area as HammerfellBorders.esp. In this case, you can disable HammerfellBordes.esp after you have entered Hammerfell. Hammerfell can also be reached by typing ?cow Hammerfell 10,10? in the console.

Known Issues or Bugs
====================
-Exterior and interior worldspaces don?t always match up in Rihad and Taneth.

Please report all issues and bugs in the official error reporting thread: http://z10.invisionfree.com/Hammerfell/index.php?showtopic=24 . You can post in it without registering.

History
=======
1.0 - public release. Corresponds to internal releases Hammerfell .13, Objects of Tamriel .18, and Map 9 .73

Contact
=======
The Hammerfell Team can be reached at our forums, z10.invisionfree.com/Hammerfell. General information about the team and project can be found at our website, Hammerfell.daryam.com

I am known as "Lady Nerevar" on TESNexus, the official forums, and elsewhere. You can also send me an email at: LadyNerevar [AT] Gmail [DOT] com

Licensing/Legal
===============
You may NOT redistribute, modify, or use parts of this mod without my (Lady Nerevar's) explicit written permission. Ignoring this rule will unleash my squirrely wrath D:<

I AM willing to negotiate for use of assets, my contact information is listed above.

Credits
=======
_Special Thanks_
Michael Kirkbride (MK) - for defining Hammerfell and continual support of the lore community
Display Name is Already in Use (Vorians) - for assistance and comments
Sload - for contributions to lore and firm guidance of the project
Lutemoth - for establishing Hammerfell's visual style
Noirgrim - for giving us our start

_Heightmap & Procedural Generation_
Noirgrim
Lady Nerevar

_Exteriors_
Adanorcil
Ayedail
Billay
CleverClothe
FLESH
Lady Nerevar
JonarusDrakus
Nemon
PoHa
ShadowBeast
Tyrion
Rockwell
Vegor

_Interiors_
4 Greyhounds
Adense
Angelus6
Blackbird
C-A-G-E
FLESH
Hemitheon
Herennius Volsinius
Jonarus_Drakus
Lady Nerevar
MorgothBauglir
Nanu
Nemon
PoHa!
Sload
Thrignar Fraxix

_Review & Testing (Int/Ext)_
Andres Indoril
Angelus6
Blackbird
Fiore1300
Haplo
Jonarus_Drakus
Lady Nerevar
Nanu
PoHa!
Thrignar Fraxix
Sload
Stryker

_AI & Quests_
Fstony
Herennius Volsinius
TheGooch
TheViking

_Models & Textures_
Adanorcil
Aewen
Aiwyn the Breton
Aro101
Balthazar
Ciin
Doxas
Eraser
Eyeball88
Fairwater
Fishcake
FLESH
Jelle
Joopson
Lady Nerevar
Morden
Mr.Siika
NexUmMonastica
Noirgrim
PoHa!

Tools Used
==========
7-Zip - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15579
3D Studio Max - http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax
Blender - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12248
CrazyBump - http://www.crazybump.com
NIFSkope - http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope
Photoshop - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
TES4Gecko - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8665
TES Construction Set - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11367
Readme Generator - http://lhammonds.game-host.org/obmm/tools_readme_generator1.asp

» Mon May 07, 2012 12:21 am

Crikey! Been watching this for so long! Downloading even though it is "only" an alpha. Gotta see with my own oblivion eyes what you all been up too :foodndrink:

EDIT - Replied in the official bug thread
END EDIT

» Mon May 07, 2012 8:25 am

Thank you already download and looking at files

Just somethings I noticed

Some of the landscapelod\generated\ *_fn.dds files are in uncompressed format what that intented ?

Some of the tree\billboards are uncompressed has well

Could have a small performance hit for some.

Thanks about the warning about using with Stirk will Swap out Tr_OOT_Main.esm..

» Sun May 06, 2012 9:16 pm

All the LOD rocks can seriously slow down my PC, and I was missing a texture in the city (forgot the name, but the one on the SW corner).
The grasslands look a little boring, but hey, its a grassland.

But keep up the work! :dance:

» Mon May 07, 2012 12:57 am

Corepc: not sure what you mean by "uncompressed." I've not touched any of those, so they should be exactly as they came out of the programs.

Jesse: the texture is almost certainly TrGmRock.dds, which I've tried to clean out of that cell roughly 10 times. It just keeps coming back D:
As for the grasslands, they are very, very far from finished. What you are looking at is the first pass of procedural generation and some fixing to get rid of the worst errors. Trees, roads, towns, and details will all be added during the claims stage.

» Mon May 07, 2012 7:12 am

Can't wait...
Oh yea, one more thing, the mod collides with Battlehorn Castle pretty bad.
But I'm sure you guys will have a patch for that on the final.

» Sun May 06, 2012 10:09 pm

Battlehorn Castle...the only DLC I didn't buy...no problems there! However does it interfere with any UL mods?

» Mon May 07, 2012 4:14 am

I am getting " You cannot go that way " with OOO
No matter if I have the HammerFellBorder.esp loading before or below it.

Will have to look into that.

=======

Wihtout OOO was able to work. Was able to run up the coast down the Road to Fort Beran.

Noticed missing landscape texture in this HfGrnRihadHarbor1206 (12, 06)

and hit a invisible border in this cell HfGM1409 (14, 09)

» Mon May 07, 2012 11:16 am

The OOO issue should be fixed with an ini tweak. Edit your My Documents/Oblivion ini's bBorderRegionsEnabled value to 0 (or, if already at 0, to 1).

It appears the crossings do somehow edit borders. I'll see if I can get rid of the edit to minimize conflicts.

[edit] No idea in regards to UL. Theres conflict potential with Brena River Ravine and the Abecean Beaches, but I don't use either.

» Mon May 07, 2012 12:41 am

Woohoo! This looks cool - we live in exciting times my friends, especially for Oblivion modding :foodndrink:

Now Vargr should come up with integrating an elven map for this mod, similar to what he did for Elseweyr

» Mon May 07, 2012 1:51 am

The OOO issue should be fixed with an ini tweak. Edit your My Documents/Oblivion ini's bBorderRegionsEnabled value to 0 (or, if already at 0, to 1).

It appears the crossings do somehow edit borders. I'll see if I can get rid of the edit to minimize conflicts.

[edit] No idea in regards to UL. Theres conflict potential with Brena River Ravine and the Abecean Beaches, but I don't use either.

Hopefully, Vorians can make a patch someday.

» Mon May 07, 2012 4:04 am

Great to see another province come to life instant download for me

» Mon May 07, 2012 5:47 am

[edit] No idea in regards to UL. Theres conflict potential with Brena River Ravine and the Abecean Beaches, but I don't use either.

I used to have all of the UL's installed when I had map9, and I don't recall any conflicts.

I might install them again just to check out, but those conflict with so many mods already I'm sure a patch would be no problem.

» Mon May 07, 2012 2:11 am

Jesse: the texture is almost certainly TrGmRock.dds, which I've tried to clean out of that cell roughly 10 times. It just keeps coming back D:

If you've been trying to remove a land texture by using the CS to "replace" it with another, I've never been able to get the "replace" option in the CS to stick. It displays the change in the Render window, but upon save and quit, it reverts back. Use TES4Edit instead to find the texture and swap it for another, this will fix it permanently. All textures are listed in the lower section of the Land record, split by quadrants.

You could also find the texture's base record instead in the Land Textures section, and use Change Referencing Records on that record to swap out all uses of that texture to another record. This is probably quicker and easier than editing the land record itself actually.

Hopefully, Vorians can make a patch someday.

If one is needed I'll certainly create one. However I wouldn't be surprised if Arthmoor created one first, since Brena River Ravine is his finished product, and I know he has downloaded Hammerfell.

» Mon May 07, 2012 2:46 am

I actually used the I menu to delete it outright. I did it all around Goldmoor, but thats the only place where its giving me problems. Hammerfell is weird sometimes.

» Sun May 06, 2012 11:36 pm

» Mon May 07, 2012 2:22 am

No damn it, my video card exploded last week, and a new one is being sent by nVidia in a while. I waited so long for this mod, and now I can't play it

But thanks for the release though

» Mon May 07, 2012 12:28 am

I actually used the I menu to delete it outright. I did it all around Goldmoor, but thats the only place where its giving me problems. Hammerfell is weird sometimes.

Yes, on that screen you can right-click Replace a texture with another, but it never worked for me. Removing has always worked however, so it's strange that it disobeyed you. I suggest trying TES4Edit, it'll remove that texture properly.

» Mon May 07, 2012 9:16 am

wow, this mod has so much potential as Elsweyr. Good work!

BTW, just for curiosity...it's just me or Stros M'Kai is too small? Do you plan of recreate the landscape of TES: Redguard?

» Sun May 06, 2012 9:36 pm

Not exactly, no. Ignoring the 350 years of time difference, the scale and nature of Oblivion and Redguard are just too different. The island will probably end up getting bigger, but it won't be as big as it was in Redguard.

» Sun May 06, 2012 10:01 pm

Reference post for some of the most frequently asked questions.

Why is Hammerfell in a separate worldspace?

1) Engine limits for LOD and worldspace content. When Hammerfell started back in 06, it was simply impossible to make a worldspace larger than 8 quads. Land and LOD would not work beyond this limit. Workarounds have since been invented, but by the time someone figured it out Hammerfell was long on its way. Furthermore, the engine starts stuttering and making everything jump about when you get sufficiently far away from 0,0, which means that parts of the Alik'r would have been very annoying to play.

2) Lore. The heightmap for "Hammerfell" in the Tamriel worldspace did not fit lore at all, and it was much easier making our own map rather than trying to adapt Bethesda's.

3) Ease of modding. Its simply easier to mod from scratch in a new worldspace. It also gives us a lot more freedom. Furthermore, an esm can't modify the Tamriel worldspace without ridiculous amounts of erorrs. The workarounds are likewise difficult and annoying. Really, making a major mod in Tamriel is a pain in the butt (major kudos to those who do it).

4) Conflicts. Building in a new worldspace minimizes them.

Is Hammerfell affiliated with any other Hammerfell mod?

No, its not.

Why Not?

1) We were here first

This project started under the Tamriel Rebuilt umbrella back around 05, when Oblivion was unveiled and we picked a province. Concept work and planing started almost immediately. Other Hammerfell projects did not pop up until much, much later.

2) Lore and vision. This project is very focused on being faithful to the lore and vision of Hammerfell. Much of our design was done by the best and brightest in the lore community, including Sload and Adanorcil (and I'm not too shabby either). In terms of vision, most parts of Hammerfell have already been conceptually outlined. In other words, we have a very clear plan of what we're doing and how we're doing it. This plan is not compatible with the plans of other mods.

3) Quality concerns. Our Tamriel Rebuilt roots left us with strict quality guidelines. Work is reviewed multiple times and only the best things are used. Each piece is checked to make sure that its structurally sound, fitting with lore, and that it contributes to the atmosphere of Hammerfell. Suffice it to say that the the final version of Hammerfell will look very different from the Alpha you are now playing. Obviously, we can't monitor the quality of exterior projects, and the guidelines often do not match.

However...
Collaboration may still be possible in some shape or fashion. If you're part of a mod thats interested in collaborating, contact me (Lady Nerevar).

» Mon May 07, 2012 11:43 am

Reference post for some of the most frequently asked questions.

Why is Hammerfell in a separate worldspace?

3) Ease of modding. Its simply easier to mod from scratch in a new worldspace. It also gives us a lot more freedom. Furthermore, an esm can't modify the Tamriel worldspace without ridiculous amounts of erorrs. The workarounds are likewise difficult and annoying.

also known as non-existent

There are really only three draw-backs for the player with regards the use of a separate worldspace.
1, you cannot sail all around Tamriel... well the vast majority of people would never want to do this, so it's not important.
2, you have to view a load screen when switching between Cyrodiil (vanilla worldspace) and Hammerfell... well what's one more load screen? It's not important.
3, you cannot walk into (or out of) Hammerfell from literally any point along the province border... this is the only one of any importance, as more players would expect to be able to walk from one province to the next. However, there are three routes available, and more could always be created in the future (either by the Hammerfell modders or by others). Heck, someone might go crazy and create a mod with activators ALL ALONG the border in each worldspace, linking them together with scripts to work as automatic doors, so that you really can just walk across the border and immediately be teleported (brief load screen) to the exact same location in the other worldspace. Thus in the end, this is not important, because those who really NEED this can create it.

» Mon May 07, 2012 5:48 am

Congratz again on the release, loving what ive seen thus far. thx! :goodjob:

» Mon May 07, 2012 10:02 am

also known as non-existent

There are really only three draw-backs for the player with regards the use of a separate worldspace.
1, you cannot sail all around Tamriel... well the vast majority of people would never want to do this, so it's not important.
2, you have to view a load screen when switching between Cyrodiil (vanilla worldspace) and Hammerfell... well what's one more load screen? It's not important.
3, you cannot walk into (or out of) Hammerfell from literally any point along the province border... this is the only one of any importance, as more players would expect to be able to walk from one province to the next. However, there are three routes available, and more could always be created in the future (either by the Hammerfell modders or by others). Heck, someone might go crazy and create a mod with activators ALL ALONG the border in each worldspace, linking them together with scripts to work as automatic doors, so that you really can just walk across the border and immediately be teleported (brief load screen) to the exact same location in the other worldspace. Thus in the end, this is not important, because those who really NEED this can create it.

Your third suggestion would be amazing, lol. The immersion is what does it for me. It's not really Tamriel, it just feels like another dimension. Plus it would prevent many sailing/skyship/levitating mods from moving through the masses. What if one wishes to go from landmass to landmass via a sailing mod ship? Or just plain old swimming?
How did the creator of Elsweyr manage to create that landmass then? I'm just curious, so please don't misinterpret my constant questions as an argument or something like that.

» Mon May 07, 2012 8:00 am

See, you're in the minority there, actually wanting to sail around the landmass

I tried sailing around Valenwood and Elsweyr from Anvil to Leyawiin. I got very bored... Of course a minority can still be a very large number of people, it's simply less than the remaining number of people.

Lady Nerevar never said it isn't possible to expand the existing landmass in the Tamriel worldspace, she said (basically) that it's easier to create your own thing when you have your own worldspace. In relation to Lady N's reasons for a new worldspace: Elsweyr does not use an ESM, so there was no issue with editing the Tamriel worldspace. Much of the area edited by Elsweyr is (more or less) within the existing grid confines of the vanilla Tamriel worldspace. It doesn't extend all that far south from Leyawiin, thus won't suffer the in-game bug caused by being too far from the centre of the worldspace. Up until Onra's WIP for the entire Tamriel worldspace, almost no mods bothered to touch the areas beyond the in-game borders, thus there was almost nothing to conflict with. This will soon change (but not for Elsweyr, since Onra's WIP pretty much requires Iliana's mod).