Of Shadow and Earth

The idea of this came, last year while I was working on my final project for college. Funny how things work out, now this will be fifth mod. Strange how fast time goes by. I have thus far Varlasel, Memoria(newly released on TESA), A small cottage(also on TESA), and soon the Union between Varlasel and Memoria. This will be far larger than Varlasel, infact I may even place a form of it(much much more beautiful) in this new mod.

A new world space, that will be vast of course I will try to push towards the absolute max that the construction set will allow. If I cannot fit all that I wish, within that world space, then more will follow. Never the less, I am still in the planning phases, however I am not far from opening up the CS and begin work. Of course I cannot compete with the beauty those before me have created, however I plan on making this work and be perhaps the biggest thing I will ever create. I plan on making this as visually stunning as I humanly can, and it will abuse my PC to the absolute limits. For now the realm will consist of a few regions/landscape types. There will be the following: Forest, Dark Forest, Swamp, Marsh, Desert, Wasteland, Mountains and many more

Region Descriptions:
Forest- Much like near Chorral, but more wooded and more natural feeling(try to anyways). It will be a quieter region, though there will still be hidden dangers.
Dark Forest- Whether burnt trees, or just an overall darkened forest that just does not feel comfortable, or it is dark, because sunlight cannot pierce the trees.
Swamp- A true swamp, the water will be there and a lot of trees to walk around and across.(since we don't have sink hole traps.. can't implement that)
Marsh- Flat lands with some brush, just a lot of grass and wet land. Expect to find some hidden things here.
Desert- Arid land with tons of sand, what secrets lay beneath the sand? Who knows.
Wasteland- Parched earth with no signs of being friendly. Poison gas, an eerie fog settles across the land. Truly not a welcome place
Mountains- What world is complete without mountains, they'll be the majestic spine and ridges in the realm. These regions will hold many secrets.


There'll be very unique features in the realm, these include land bridges, crevices to climb down and explore. Who knows you might find some ruins within them. The entire world will be uniquely built with full manipulation of the land. There will be rivers, an ocean, islands, and waterfalls, these will be possibly one of the most difficult things to pull off but when done they'll be sights to behold.

Other things within the new world space:

Possibly outposts, or cities(debating on this)- These could have their own cells(much like vanilla) or be open cities... which would be interesting to try my hand at.
adding wild life
npc's – this would be the absolute last thing to do, I need to learn how to work them amongst other things.

Problem?

The absolute biggest problem with a mod this massive and ambitious is lag. I highly question if even my PC could handle the strain it will be put under. If worse comes to worse.. I might have to push my processer higher, get more ram, and double up on the video cards. Trying for a gig minimum if it comes to it.
As for other problems aside from the technical ones? Plenty

Not wanting to leave
Being lost
Overtaken by awe
wanting to make your home here permenantly
screen shot fever
and others I am sure... of courser I personally hope these are the problems people have... or rather the ONLY problems. That I create something so unique and beautiful, that people don't want to leave ever. Like it is an escape away from life, oblivion in general, gaming in general, a place to relax and enjoy.

Length of time to complete this in case someone is wondering.

I for see at least a solid year time of constant work. Of course college will take much of my time in the fall and next spring. However, on the off time I will be working on this and other things.

I am hoping that it is released before these things.

End of the world(period)
TES5
End of 2012(seriously I hope it does not take this long)

There maybe a few things that I may ask.

1.Help from any modders to help create the landscape or overall help with placement of world objects. Beauty is key here.
2.Help in general even if it's advice(which I'll need), encouragement(ditto on this I will need this), resources to add( forever hunting)
3.input from people for ideas on what to put in.

Now, what I have planned.

Before next semester I hope to have at least the following

Overall size done
Landscaping(terrain and height and such) started
texturing the landscape
some objects placed
Screenshots of progress IN game.

This will include probably an esp and esm file.. as this will double as a modder's resource.

Sounds ambitious. I wish you the best of luck.

A couple of notes:

Don't be discouraged by an apparent lack of interest. Many mod users (and makers) take a 'wait and see' approach to new mods of this scope and refrain from making comments until later in development.

Don't be discouraged by apparent hostility. Some modders will point out everything that is wrong with your concept. They are, in their own way, trying to help by forcing you to take a hard look at the real obstacles your mod faces. Listen to what they say, but don't take it personally.

Good help is hard to find. It's even harder to find when it comes to modding. Most modders are already modding full time with projects that mean a lot to them personally. You're not likely to get a lot of hands-on help, but you'll find a wealth of information, suggestions, and advice from experienced modders if you ask for it.

Pushing your rig to the limits is going to push a lot of mod users out the door. Upgrading your rig to handle the lag is not an option for a lot of people. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make a mod that 'pushes the limits', just remember you're going to limit the appeal of the mod. Too many LOD objects, complex collision geometry and too many NPCs on screen at once seem to be the major causes of drain, but every object you add to a cell is going to eat up a little bit of memory. Making your mod 'as visually stunning as I humanly can' is going to result in a slideshow for a lot of users.

For advice on creating a massively large world, talk to thekarithian, the creator of the Mesogea mod. The Mesogea worldspace is about as large a worldspace as the CS can handle.

Looking forward to the screenshots.

Well, good luck with your project, but before you throw yourself into this, please consider whether your talents and effort could be directed in a slightly different direction.

It seems to me to be a tragedy that so many huge projects founder because of their scale, leaving little or nothing to show for hundreds if not thousands of modding hours. The Magician mentioned Mesogea. Why not contact thekarithian and see if you can claim a city/region/country in his pre existing worldspace on which you can stamp your mark and bring your ideas to fruition. Or if you prefer to work within the existing lore, contact Onra and claim a piece of his Tamriel Heightmaps?

I have no problems on tackling this on my own, I'm horribly tenacious, stubborn and many other things. I stuck with Varlasel, fixed problems and it was my first and a very large mod. I asked for help, took the pointers and help and applied it. I know I'll be asking for help mostly for the CS bits. As for the limits, I'll try to keep it as pc friendly as I can, but there won't be many npc's I don't think. I'm mainly creating a world space to serve as a paradise. To get away from things in general, I know better than to pour all efforts onto one thing, I'll have separate projects on the side to work on. I have a dungeon in mind I want to work on, but also while inspired by Lemunde's work try my hand at little dimensional homes and perhaps a dungeon or two. I am proud to say that Varlasel is Finally completed. I have a couple things to add basically some spell books. Nothing major really, I won't be doing a cobl release, since my setup is apparently not cobl friendly right now. I'll work on that later. For now though I am wrapping up other little projects before taking the step into the CS and begin working.

Good luck...don't expect a lot of help until after you have had it going for about a year or so...but keep it going!

By the time a year is done, if all goes well, I might be close to alpha stages. College svcks time out horribly, if all goes very well, I'll be done by the time I graduate or not much before.

Just noticed this thread. If you need any help at all, just shout. Ignore the comment of a year or more, youll more likely end up doing the vast majority of the work yourself. Occasionally people will pop into the mod and help as they can, but dont aim for a magical time period when suddenly people will flock to help, they are likely not to. Be prepared for the long haul, be prepared to do the lions share of the work. Once you have reconciled yourself to these realities, going on will be much easier and more likely to stay the course. Good luck.

A very much overdue update to things.

Currently the heightmap of the landmass has passed Shivering Isle's. It is roughly twice the size of the isles, and has plenty of room to grow still. I wished to do as much as I can in the height map, as overall it is much quicker to get the overall landscape and then hand touch it. Currently the landmass consists of the central part of the land, followed by a northen region closed off by mountains, only to be accessible via a land bridge. An island to the west, and a bit more land to the east. Small islands are starting to dot the coast line, eventually the island to the west may become part of another land mass, or perhaps the massive island in the midst of a titanic sized lake. Details are evolving as I go, and I have full plans on taking what I have been creating and evolve it further, possibly it making a come back in tes5.

For now, the hardest part begins, and that is decorating the landscape with textures for the ground, then filling it with fauna and flora. By christmas, I plan on having screen shots for a small region of the mass, to give an example of what is to come.

Having already seen a few screens from your worldspace I have complete faith in you Vou. :foodndrink: and when you eventually get towns and the like built, count me in for some clutter-monkey work.

:D