Oblivion's Cyrodiil

Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 10:04 am

Are there any PC mods that fix Oblivion's Cyrodiil, meaning made it fit early decriptions
Its center, the grassland of the Nibenay Valley, is enclosed by an equatorial rain forest and broken up by rivers. As one travels south along these rivers, the more subtropical it becomes, until finally the land gives way to the swamps of Argonia and the placid waters of the Topal Bay. The elevation rises gradually to the west and sharply to the north. Between its western coast and its central valley there are all manner of deciduous forest and mangroves, becoming sparser towards the ocean. The western coast is a wet-dry area, and from Rihad border to Anvil to the northernmost Valenwood villages forest fires are common in summer. There are a few major roads to the west, river paths to the north, and even a canopy tunnel to the Velothi Mountains, but most of Cyrodiil is a river-based society surrounded by jungle.
I don't think that it would actually be that hard to do: just the design of 5-15 trees to be speed-treed across the map, the addition of mangroves, and a "canopy tunnel" between Bruma, Cheydinhall, and the start of the rain forest.

The hard part of 'fixing' cyrodill would be the imperial city ? which failed to even try and fit it's description:

...the Emperor watches over us all from the towers of the Imperial City, as dragons circle overhead

Refayj's famous declaration, "There is but one city in the Imperial Province,--" may strike the citizens of the Colovian west as mildly insulting, until perhaps they hear the rest of the remark, which continues, "--but one city in Tamriel, but one city in the World; that, my brothers, is the city of the Cyrodiils." From the shore it is hard to tell what is city and what is Palace, for it all rises from the islands of the lake towards the sky in a stretch of gold. Whole neighborhoods rest on the jeweled bridges that connect the islands together. Gondolas and river-ships sail along the watery avenues of its flooded lower dwellings. Moth-priests walk by in a cloud of ancestors; House Guards hold exceptionally long daikatanas crossed at intersections, adorned with ribbons and dragon-flags; and the newly arrived Western legionnaires sweat in the humid air. The river mouth is tainted red from the tinmi soil of the shore, and river dragons rust their hides in its waters. Across the lake the Imperial City continues, merging into the villages of the southern red river and ruins left from the Interregnum.
The Emperor's Palace is a crown of sun rays, surrounded by his magical gardens. One garden path is known as Green Emperor Road-here, topiaries of the heads of past Emperors have been shaped by sorcery and can speak. When one must advise Tiber Septim, birds are drawn to the hedgery head, using their songs as its voice and moving its branches for the needed expressions.

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maya papps
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:54 am

That would be awesome.
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CxvIII
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 9:56 am

That would be awesome.


Yes, it sure would be.
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Lily Evans
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:10 pm

I actually liked the idea of the description of the IC's guards, so I've made a plugin for OOO that gives the majority of the guards (excepting elite palace guards, guards with cheap, tarnished armour, etc..) modified silver Dai-Katanas. Don't think I could release something like that though as it's really just a cheap knockoff of other people's work...

The rest of it would in all liklihood be if not difficult at least quite time-consuming. Sounds hella cool though!
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Gemma Archer
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 2:53 pm

If I wasn't busy with RL I would suggest starting up a team of modders to work on a mod like this.
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P PoLlo
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 12:42 pm

Would getting some jungle tree meshes with the the same file names as the current OB trees (to over-ride them) make it look more like a lore-correct Cyrodiil?
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Mariana
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:59 am

i guess. I play on a ps3 and mac with DOSBox, so I can't really help you.
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Katey Meyer
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 9:00 am

As long as it gets more Jungly I'm happy.
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Sam Parker
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 6:29 am

Actually, the South of Cyrodiil is a jungle in the game. And it makes sense that it's a swampy kind of jungle because it's very close to Black Marsh.
For the West, East and North, it's actually okay if there's not a big jungle, in my opinion. Simply because when you think of Cyrodiil, you think of the area around the Imperial City and the Great Forest, so it's likely that the author of that famous description did so as well, and did not actually mean that ALL of Cyrodiil was a big jungle. Think about it: If the area around the Imperial City plus the southern part of Cyrodiil are a jungle, and you were a writer who wants to give a general impression about a province, you would probably say that Cyrodiil is a jungle. Nobody cares about the Imperial Reserve or County Anvil and that they're more like a prairie.

What I'm trying to say is... people always like to think in extremes. They read that Cyrodiil is a jungle, so ALL of Cyrodiil should be a jungle. But if we go with that idea, then this project becomes very difficult, which is probably the reason why many people gave up on it - because I think that a lot of modders played around with that idea, but quickly tossed it aside because it'd be too much work, too many conflicts etc.
So we'd be better off if we could agree that the author of said description of Cyrodiil was only talking about the heart of Cyrodiil - the Niben and its surroundings. If you're not completely narrow-minded, you'll agree that this fits the description very well and is also, geographically speaking, much more likely than the idea that all of Cyrodiil should be jungle.

I'd like to see a project that tackles this subject, and I think if we're being realistic here, it's more probable that a project that doesn't have to change the complete look of Cyrodiil, but only that of a small region of it, will meet with success.


Edit: Just realized that the text even states explicitly that only the areas around the Niben and the other rivers are jungle-like. It says that the West is wet-dry... well they have half of that covered.
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Steeeph
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 4:40 pm

It would be strange if the largest part of Cyrodiil would be jungle while Bruma has a cold climate with snow.
There must be a region with a temperate climate in between with deciduous trees.
I wouldn't mind if the south has some mangrove forrests though
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DeeD
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 6:12 pm

I agree with Fearabbit, since working on one area of Cyrodiil would help minimize the time/effort needed and possibly prevent Conflicts.
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Laura Ellaby
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 2:46 pm

The PG1 shows where the jungle is on a map, and says that it, "gives way to the swamps of Black Marsh" when you go south. It heavily describes County Anvil, since at that time only Chorrol, Skingrad, Sutch, Kvatch, and Anvil were cities, and Leyawin, Bravil, Bruma, and Cheydinhall barely existed. Barely is emphisised because there are passing mentions of them.
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Hazel Sian ogden
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 6:18 pm

http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/cyrodiil.shtml
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Antonio Gigliotta
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:50 pm

The PG1 shows where the jungle is on a map, and says that it, "gives way to the swamps of Black Marsh" when you go south. It heavily describes County Anvil, since at that time only Chorrol, Skingrad, Sutch, Kvatch, and Anvil were cities, and Leyawin, Bravil, Bruma, and Cheydinhall barely existed. Barely is emphisised because there are passing mentions of them. The description is that they are a sparse forsest with jungle-esk trees, but the the havey jungle forms a circle around Lake Rumare, passing through Sanctre Tor


Edit: Sorry for the triple, post. I thought I hit edit, not quote.
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Sharra Llenos
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 2:40 am

the biggest problem with this is that it would conflict with everything out there. otherwise i'd be all over it. give me culture, baby!
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Vickytoria Vasquez
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:47 pm

That map shows where the Great Forest is, not where the jungle is. The Great Forest is still at the same place, the question is what kind of vegetation it should actually have as opposed to what can be seen in Oblivion.
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Prisca Lacour
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 5:09 pm

Well I would certainly give it a try, however such a mod would still have to have diverse landscape. Not 100% jungle or it might get boring :P
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Michelle Smith
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 10:21 am

Well I would certainly give it a try, however such a mod would still have to have diverse landscape. Not 100% jungle or it might get boring :P

I agree. The PG1 says that the landscape is bassicly all right exept that instead of the great forest and that much of the grasslands in the game (between the edge of the forest just outside lake rumare and the eastern boarder, as well as a graduall loss of the rainforest west and a gradual swampying of the forest southwards) there was a massive, diverse rainforest filled with interesting birds, dungeon entrances (not just caves), vilages (what about a town in the canopy?) and terrain.
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Gemma Archer
 
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Post » Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:28 am

Unique Landscapes. Use it. Love it.

I would also suggest Natural Environments, which adds flocks of birds flying through the sky, ambient bugs, etc. There's a mod that adds birds of paradise as well, which would contribute to a jungle theme quite nicely.

But seriously. Unique Landscapes.
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Justin Bywater
 
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