» Wed May 02, 2012 7:52 am From the rocky Gold Coast where yellow grasses grow from in between jagged, tumbling boulders, to the snowy retreats of the frigid Jerall Mountains, to the majestic, massive Imperial City which sits secure from the dangerous, thick jungles surrounding it, all the way south into the swampland poised between Elsweyr and Argonia, this is the land of Cyrodiil. The Imperial Province. The traditional, simple, hard working Colovians and the colorful, spiritual Nibenese stand under a single banner, uniting all of Tamriel with them.
Province: Cyrodiil (or P:C) is a project focused on the creation of the Cyrodiil province of Tamriel (also known as the Imperial province) for the Morrowind engine and time-frame. Our goal is to build the province as lore dictates through the pocket guides and various sources to be more of a jungled landscape than previously witnessed in TES IV: Oblivion. We are striving to be as lore accurate and friendly within this effort and have done loads of research (and will continue to do more as we move forward) to attain our goal. Having said this there will be several differences between our Cyrodiil and what is seen in Oblivion:
1. Cyrodiil will be much more of a jungle landscape.
2. The towns of Sutch, Mir Corrup, and Stirk will be placed in game as they should have been.
3. Kvatch will be a thriving city as it has not yet been destroyed by the hoards of daedra.
4. The culture of the Colovian and Nibenese peoples of Cyrodiil will be made present.
5. The Imperial City shall be redesigned to fit in with the pocket guide 1st edition.
6. Several new villages and settlements will dot the landscape which is about twice the size of the Oblivion Cyrodiil.
Using these differences as a base and lore as our guide we shall build this mighty province into a worthy rendition that fits in with the story and time of TES III: Morrowind. As we work on this project, and the releases of content for the community to consume, we will be working toward a structured set of releases based on the regions of Cyrodiil. Each release will include new land to explore, towns, NPC's, creatures to battle, and quests to fulfill. With that in mind let me tell you about our first planned release, Stirk.
Release 1, Stirk:
The Isle of Stirk is just off the coast of Cyrodiil and is a part of the province that was neglected with the release of Oblivion. we will be creating the island and a large town filled with new characters with intriguing and developed back stories. There will be several quests and tons of new models and items to showcase what we will be bringing to the project as a whole. Here on the Isle you will get your first taste of the differences in culture of the Colovian's and the Nibenese as the Mayor of Stirk hails from Nibenay and is the influential minority in a town full of hardworking seafaring Colovian's. New Architecture will abound on Stirk and is just the beginning of the new models that will be enjoyed in P:C as each major city is planned on having it's own unique architecture in the same way as Oblivion, but fitting better with the world of Tamriel as seen in TES III.
FAQ
What will the scale of Cyrodiil be?
One thing about recreating Cyrodiil for Morrowind is that by default we need to address the issue of "scale". Oblivion's Cyrodiil, although actually around six square miles larger than Vvardenfell, it actually has a much smaller "scale" than Morrowind. In other words, it's roughly 1.5 times the size of vanilla MW when it should be more like two times larger.
Therefore, if we tried to recreate Cyrodiil at the exact scale it is in Oblivion, it wouldn't match up correctly with for instance Silgrad Tower or Tamriel Rebuilt. Therefore we have to scale everything up to make it fit into the puzzle of Morrowind's "version" of Tamriel.
This ultimately means that we're dealing with a lot more space than exists in Oblivion, and therefore we have to by default expand upon things-making towns and cities a bit larger and more detailed, and adding places that may have been "deleted" from Oblivion.
How are you dealing with the locations deleted from Oblivion and which ones are you using?
The three "deleted towns" we are adding to Province: Cyrodiil are Sutch, Stirk, and Mir Corrup.
Sutch: The town will be just next to the border of Hammerfell (originally it was intended to actually be IN Hammerfell, but due to the possibility of a Hammerfell mod we had to adjust our idea). The plot behind Sutch will be that it eventually gets annexed to Hammerfell by the time of Oblivion (the geography map be altered somewhat in order to have this make a bit more sense). This is done to adhere to the book in Oblivion which places Sutch in Hammerfell while explaining why some earlier maps show Sutch as being in Cyrodiil.
Sutch will be something of a "city of sin" with a Redguard criminal syndicate called the Kali Mes (sharp knife) playing a key role in the plot surrounding the town.
Stirk: Another location that appears on earlier maps of Cyrodiil but is not seen in Oblivion. Many may recognize it from a mod produced by Tamriel Rebuilt for Oblivion but we're taking our own unique approach to the location since there is no lore specifically stating what the place is like. However, like TR (and with the blessing of the head modder behind Stirk for Oblivion), we are planning on producing a stand-alone Stirk as a showcase of our talent and to help gather interest and support for our mod.
Mir Corrup: A location mentioned only in books, one of which we consider to be a work of fiction (Paula). It used to be a resort town for the wealthy but has sense fallen into being a shadow of its former self. There are still a few manors and at least one bathhouse that is still in business.
Unlike with Sutch, we are not providing an "explanation" for Mir Corrups exclusion from Oblivion. That's because Sutch's exclusion is somewhat explained already by a book in Oblivion saying that Sutch is in Hammerfell. It also would be a bit too strange to have every one of the new locations "explained away" with some kind of storyline. Stirk is sort of easy since it's an island - for whatever reason the player isn't able to reach it in the game. Mir Corrup's "disappearance" can only be explained by saying that it simply wasn't included in the game even though it is actually still there in the "real" version of Cyrodiil.
How will Cyrodiil be presented in this mod?
In addition to the requisite expansion, we're also trying to adhere more closely to building Cyrodiil more the way it was described in the First Edition Pocket Guide to the Empire, with more jungle-like elements and an Imperial City that is more reminiscent of Venice. We'll still be largely lifting the "look" of things such as architecture from Oblivion but at the same time we'll be adding our own unique ideas to it.
It is our view that Cyrodiil in Oblivion is simply a "representation" of the "actual place". This is a valid conclusion to reach since as mentioned earlier the scale between the Elder Scrolls games has always been inconsistent. For instance the first game Arena covered the whole of Tamriel but had a fairly small world space whereas its sequel Daggerfall covered a smaller area of Tamriel but was radically larger in scale and still remains one of the largest world spaces in any video or computer game.
Despite the fact that some lore was added "on the side" to explain away why Cyrodiil wasn't a jungle in Oblivion, we are choosing to more or less ignore that in favor of creating a more diverse, interesting and unique landscape.
We also believe that by now almost everyone is probably able to play Oblivion in some form (either on their computer or a next generation game console), so there really isn't a need to recreate it exactly as it is in that game anyway.
Will this mod require either or both of the expansion packs?
Yes, we intend to require both Tribunal and Bloodmoon.
Will this mod require any external programs such as MWSE or MGE?
Presently, I don't believe so. While we might incorporate some optional features but I think we'll be mostly relying on vanilla features from Morrowind and its expansions.
We do strongly recommend that player's get the Morrowind Code Patch, however, since it allows the map to be extended beyond its regular borders and I believe it also fixes some glitches that crop up with landscapes that are too far away from the center of the map.
Will my computer be able to run this mod?
Since Morrowind is an older game, the short answer is "probably yes". Of course, if you're asking "Will my computer be able to run this mod WELL", that's of course a different matter.
The biggest factor is obviously going to be whether or not you'll be using Morrowind Graphics Extender (MGE). If you are-then it also depends on how many of its bells and whistles you tend to use. If you use MGE regularly without many issues you should probably be fine.
One thing to note however is that Province: Cyrodiil will in general have quite a bit more detail than vanilla Morrowind-some higher resolution textures, higher quality meshes, and so on. Also, the BIG thing is that we're going to have some dense areas such as jungles with a lot of plants and such in them. If you're used to running MGE without any major visual enhancement mods that add things like grass and trees-you may have some trouble.
However, we aren't presently intending to required MGE to experience our mod, so if you're system specs aren't quite up to snuff you can adjust the resolution and draw distance and such and you probably shouldn't have too many issues.
We are considering at some point putting up some sort of "Recommended System Requirements" chart.
Province: Cyrodiil Links
The P:C Website http://www.provincecyrodiil.com/
The P:C Forums http://www.provincec...l.com/index.php
How to join Province: Cyrodiil
Building a province is a lot of work. To successfully pull it off you need a team of modders with experience in various aspects of modding; from interior and exterior modders to questers and modelers. Knowing this we are opening up this project to help from the community in much the same way as Tamriel Rebuilt and Skyrim - Home of the Nords. To join simply go to the Province: Cyrodiil forums and find the Showcase thread. In there and post up a sample of your work.
Here are some guidelines to follow.
For Interiors: A two story home using a modular tileset and de_p furniture. Make sure it can fit an exterior shell and has a northmarker and proper light settings. The best tileset to use is Hlaalu from the vanilla game. We require de_p because it shows that you have good rotation skills and no matter what is thrown your way you will be able to create a working interior with items matching to the surface properly.
For Exteriors: A six cell showcase of new land with proper shading and a good layout of statics and textures. We are striving for a realistic province that will fit in with the rest of the TES III world as well as the other province mods being created. A showcase showing off your ability to create a more forested area would be beneficial.
For Quests: A sample quests showcasing your ability to write dialogue and a script of two. We want dialogue that fits the feel of The Elder Scrolls and scripting is an important part of questing that we will need to see.
For Models: A sample of your modeling work. A new mesh you have created (preferably a couple meshes) that fits into the TES world and hopefully the province of Cyrodiil. Look around the concept art for the project and creating a mesh that fits that would be a wonderful way to introduce yourself as a modeler for the project.
Stirk Mini-Site
http://stirk.provincecyrodiil.com/
Screenshots
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9893/scampshot1.jpg
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/7237/scampshot2.jpg
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http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/5918/scampshot6.jpg
http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/2473/scampshot7.jpg
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/672/scampshot8.jpg
http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/9335/scampshot9.jpg
Previous Thread
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1227814-province-cyrodiil/
if you want sunken ground make some rough flat rocks. but that needs flattening.
