» Mon Jun 27, 2011 5:12 pm Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I've really participated in a really visible way in the forums, but I figured now is as good of a time as any to return.
For those who do know my mod(s) and have downloaded them, I first want to say thank you so much for your support for my mods and my work. I've seen all
of it and I've appreciated all of your kind words on my mods. I've gotten a lot of comments from people asking about the mods, asking if I was alive, or if I was working
on it, etc. The answer to me being alive is yes! Yes I am alive and well and "kicking". I somehow got engrossed in working, and a long string of really bad things
happened to me (getting robbed while I was sleeping for example!) but I'm still alive by the grace of God and I still have a strong desire to finish this mod. So secondly
I want to say sorry to those who have anxiously awaited future versions of the mod. I know you all have been waiting patiently so I'm working now towards delivering something
for you guys to play with.
For those who have never heard of me or my mod, you get introduced here!
Cyrodiil NPC Remodeling Project is a mod dedicated towards the NPCs. The goal with my mod is to create appearances on the NPCs in the game that fits THAT person
in an attempt to make them as believable as possible. Each NPC is given clothes to fit their hobbies, job, status, where they live, attitude, etc. It's my goal to create a world
where every NPC you meet will feel alive and different, to the point where you will want to know more about that person, and also to help you distinguish people and gain some
level of emotional attachment to them. I do this using the creations of the many amazing modders who submit their mod for use and give permission for the use of their works.
It's kind of like a tag team effort between me and the many generous modders out there and it isnt possible without their help. So thank you to all of the modders out there
who have helped me on this to date!
You can see the currently finished versions of my mod here:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21627
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21628
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24509
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22884
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21388
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28027
So What about "the Reboot"?
As of now I've been working mostly on changing the format of how the mod is handled. Originally the mod was setup so you downloaded the
Mod which was just resources and an ESP, and you would just put the mod in your Data folder and play it after merging it with Wrye Bash. However
I've been working towards doing away with that method. Currently I've switched to a Master -> ESP with BSAs with hopefully a constantly changing
"updating BSA" as the new format. The mod is really too big to keep doing it the old way, and this way you guys can have less fragmentation on
your Data Folders. I'm still not 100% used to using the BSA format so there might be errors and glitches when the new version is released, so forgive me in advance.
Also, I recently I gained permission to use Waalx's "WAC" Mod (Waalx Animals and Creatures) in CNRP. WAC adds tons of resources which I feel
fit my ideal vision of the Cyrodiil World. Since I plan to use the resources for them pretty heavily, I hope to add a level of "coherence" to the world that
was somewhat missing from earlier versions of CNRP. Since I'm using resources from many different modders, the mod can feel a bit jumbled up
at times. Hopefully the addition of resources from WAC can help deal with this. WAC itself wont be "required" per se, but you will at least be required to
download the WAC BSA since I use many resources from that. Though I ideally want my mod to integrate well with WAC since I like it very much.
There will also be a static BSA of my own which has my own separate resources, an updated BSA which will have new items added on any updates, along with a CNRP
esp file and CNRP master file which will get updated as time progresses. This should hopefully create a really clean and easily managed set of files for all of you.
I'm also going over a lot of my old designs and improving them in different ways: either improving their look or making them more compatible for all players. Some
clothes for example will have forced texture colors ie: HGEC clothing with a forced "imperial" texture for the clothing parts that show, or a forced Dark Elf, or Orc
texture. I'm also trying to add more trinkets to most of the clothing, things such as potion vials, bags, coin purses, daggers, and more.
Static beards are going to be redone as well! Most of the static beards that I had before will be removed and changed with beards that move with the mouth. WAC
adds these dynamic beards, and they really add a lot to the immersion in the game, so look forward to these. Also, any designs I wasn't particularly fond of I will
be doing over if I can find something more appropriate.
(Wow this is a lot of text....my posts are always so long!)
So When Can We Get It??!?!
So here's the bad news: The bad news is that I have to start over from scratch in a few ways and I have a few snags to deal with right now.
How I previously made the mod was like this:
I'd browse the Nexus for lots of mods. I'd look at different clothing/item adding mods and take mental note of the stuff I had seen. I'd then play the game
and meet NPCs, and I'd get a feel for them. I'd look at their personalities and how they'd live their lives. I'd then think of mods in my mental bank that
I already downloaded, seen or had access to that would fit that particular NPC. If I didnt find anything at that time, I'd just leave it alone and put it aside and keep on.
playing the game. I'd keep doing this until I found an NPC and a design that I think would "fit". Then I'd jump into the CS and put in a believable design and test it out.
Sometimes the results were great and I'd keep it! Sometimes the results looked great in my "mind" and svcked in the game/CS and needed to be rethought. Overall it
was just a lot of testing and a lot of mental storage.
Since I took a huge hiatus from the mod, that mental bank is more or less cleared of the old things. I've forgotten what a lot of the mods I've seen looked
like or even some of the work I've done was, and what those things were for. So I've been spending a lot of time just trying to either work with what I currently have,
or reviving the mental bank. This takes a lot of time, as you can imagine, and there's also tons of new stuff to see all the time, so many of the old designs might become
obsolete in the end. This is the second biggest snag for me that slows progress on the mod. Please forgive me on this end...but it might be for the better as well,
since a lot of the newer things I've been working with are drastically better looking than the old models/textures I was thinking to use.
The biggest snag right now though is that my Oblivion recently has been crapping out hard. I recently been encountering an error where my game will crash as long as I go outside in the
wilderness for even 10 - 15 seconds. Sometimes it crashes on load before that even. I've disabled every mod out there, even my own, and I just cant seem to figure out what's causing the crashes.
I think it's hardware related, so I submitted a thread on some computer forums to ask for help, but until that gets fixed I cant really "test" the mod out. I can test minor things, but it feels like if
I mess with it too much my computer might explode. I can still mess around in the CS though, so I'm still 'working on it' despite the issues, but its just not going to be the best progress
especially since I cant really take screenshots anymore. But I will document my progress here in a sort of visible way, so people can see what directions I'm taking.
Anyway this has been probably way too much text, so I'm going to fill in the next section of the thread with screenshots and the like. Hopefully the Eye Candy remedies the wall of text eye damage
.I'll keep this space posted as I make progress as well, so keep an eye out. Thanks so much to everyone who has taken interest in CNRP, I hope to get a new revision out as soon as I remedy
these crashing issues. Ciao for now~
P.S. I have a photobucket where I put up pictures of things I've worked on. Does anyone know how I can make this easily viewable for people on the forums so they dont have to click every single picture?
