Shadow Of The Ayleidoon.

Background Story:
Many years ago, a group of mages (Conjurers, Necromancers and Battlemages) formed an alliance of sorts. Their goal: learn the forgotten secrets of Ayleid magic. For the last several months, their numbers have been increasing. Strange new types of skeleton warriors have been seen in their company. The Council of Mages decided to send a battlemage to infiltrate their ranks. He finally put a name to this new, potential enemy: they refer to themselves as Warlocks. His reports became increasingly diturbing: Ayleid weapons caches, powerful enchanted weapons, powerful potions, spells that could summon multiple creatures at once, armies of undead and Daedra, and something called the Adonai Karan. His last report indicated that he was on to something big. He has not been heard from since. Can you finish the job that he began before the Shadow of the Ayleidoon falls?

Description:
Basically, this is a dungeon crawl mod. There will be at least five new Ayleid Ruins to explore. Things will be added to some of the Vanilla ruins too. Through the course of this mod, you will aquire a number of enchanted items: a sword called the Haelia Naga (or Terrible Death), a bow called the Varla Molag (or Star Fire) and a full set of armor called the Adonai Karan (or Lordly Armor). Each of these items is leveled, but somewhere in Cyrodiil (or is it?) there is an Ayleid chamber that contains the Altar of Empowerment. With this Altar, you can upgrade the armor and weapons as you level up. The final dungeon you go through is an Ayleid stronghold called Haelia Cey. It is the largest Ayleid ruin ever discovered. It has twenty levels. :blink: Yes, you read that right. Twenty levels. :ahhh: It's so big, it has its own teleport network: a central hub that connects to each level. So, why not teleport straight to level 20 from level one? You can't. The portals that access the hub are hidden behind moving walls, so you will have to fight (or sneak) your way through each level. There will also be two new types of Welkynd Stones: Red* and Purple*. The red stones will completely restore your health (the way blue ones restore magicka) and the purple stones will restore bothe health and magicka. Because of their power, the purple stones will be very rare. I also have some additional ideas for the stones, but I don't want to give any details just yet, as it may not even be possible to do what I want.


Progress:

Dungeons: 60% complete
Enemies: 95% complete (Having a little trouble getting the Bosses just right. :blink: Yes, I said Bosses. Plural. oo: )
Weapons: Done**
Armor: Done**
Spells: 85% complete

* Thanks to GlassBoy For giving me permission to use his http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9393 as the base for these.
** Thanks to JGreybear for giving me permission to use his http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25050 set.

Tell me what you think. And please, post any ideas you have that could make this better.

Here are some screens:

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_15762.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_57774.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_6423.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_64425.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_63078.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257889882/gallery_775_71_6139.jpg Left: Warlock Acolyte- Low level. Middle: Warlock Magician- mid level baddy. Right: Warlock Master. One step below a Warlock Lord. Dangerous.
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_28396.jpg High level baddy. VERY dangerous.
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257889882/gallery_775_71_28357.jpg is the result of a single Warlock Lord summon spell. As you can see, it's not something to take lightly.
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_2945.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_37326.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_8994.jpg
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_28010.jpg

Here are some more screens:

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257889882/gallery_775_71_68873.jpg with the Haelia Naga drawn and ready.

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257889882/gallery_775_71_13844.jpg with a Welkynd Arrow ready to fire.

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_5098.jpg Nothing new, but these things are everywhere, so watch out or :prod: . One level of Haelia Cey has 60 of them. oo:

One more thing: Don't rely too heavily on the local map in game for navigating the dungeons. It won't show you everything. Example:

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_5483.jpg of an area of one of the dungeons.

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1257725670/gallery_775_71_22771.jpg of the same area. Obviously, those lower levels can't be displayed on the in game local map, and the "doors" that connect those levels don't show up there either. In fact, they don't even look like doors.

This sounds like it can be a great mod! Only downside is the the dungeon screenshots seem a little empty of rubbles and mist clouds...!

Seems interesting. Some questions and suggestions if I may?

Some of your screens are pretty dark: I can't make much out on the screen of the various warlock ranks at all, for example.

Like GrandDuke says, the dungeons themselves seem pretty bare. I take it that they'll be cluttered for/before the proper release?

Finally (for now) are you using shaders (such as magic effects) to get the effects on the skeletons or are you modifying the nifs and adding particle effects directly to the models?

Vac

Wow, sounds like we have a big dungeon mod over here . Good luck with mod, I definitely download it when you have completed it!

Right now, I'm working on the layouts. I'll be adding rubble, clouds, loot etc., before I'm done, so no worries there.


Most of those are taken from test cells I created, so the lighting isn't the best there (I'll work on that and see about getting better screens). The actual dungeons are better lit in most areas, although some are darker so your attention will be drawn to...certain stuff. :ninja:
Warlock Acolytes wear Green Robes, Warlock Magicians wear Aqua Silk Robes(although I'm thinking of changing that), Warlock Masters wear Red Silk Robes, like the one worn by http://www.uesp.net/w/images/images.new/4/48/High_Chancellor_Ocato.jpg


Definitely. In fact (if I can get...certain things to work the way I'd like), clutter will be a somewhat important part.


Right now, I'm just adding shaders. I haven't yet learned how to add particle effects to nifs. Any pointers?

Armor + weapon set looks beeyootiful

You can thank JGreybear for that. Download his http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25050 mod to get a taste of what's in mine.

Looks very promising, bookmarked

I hope this turns into a megadungeon. The world needs more megadungeons.

That's the idea.

YES YES YES YES BABY!!!!!!!!!!

Thought it was time to post another screenshot:

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1258151528/gallery_775_71_134096.jpg

Watch out for these. They're everywhere (some are even mounted on the ceiling).

The spells they fire and the rates of fire are as follows (subject to change):

Orange : Leveled Fire spells every 3 to 8 seconds
Cyan: Leveled Frost spells every 3 to 8 seconds
White: Leveled Shock spells every 3 to 8 seconds
Red: Random spells (non-leveled) every 3 to 8 seconds

Some of them fire every half second as long as you're in range.

Okay, it's about time I added more screens, so here they are:


http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1258889026/gallery_775_71_58280.jpg

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1258889026/gallery_775_71_40283.jpg

As you can see, this is another area where the Local Map isn't very informative.

Note: this area is still a WIP, but this gives you an idea of what to expect.

Good to see you making steady progress, keep it up! :goodjob:

Iwill. :nod: Progress is a bit slow, but it's also steady. The level in those screens already looks very different (and quite a bit better).

Yay, more screenshots! These are some of the new creatures you will encounter:

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1259177751/gallery_775_71_16608.jpg

http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1259177751/gallery_775_71_33977.jpg (red and purple versions forthcoming)

A HUGE thanks to Critterman at http://www.tesalliance.org/ for making these for me! :bowdown:

Edit: These screenshots were taken in a test cell in one of my test .ESPs. The cell was made using the http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20364

Okay, time for a *bump*

Nice, looks great

And a Third Bump...this one for the sake of the megadungeon...and hopefully a megaquest!

Wow! I haven't posted an update all year! Well, I've been testing various ideas I've had. One Idea was to add a stealth component to the Adonai Karan set. The idea was to grant the Player 15-75% Chameleon while sneaking (depending on the Sneak skill level). I created a test .ESP for this that I later released as Vyper's Stealth Armors (Currently available at http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29544 and http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/300-vypers-stealth-armors/). Another idea I have is for the Vala Molag bow. I may give it the ability to replenish arrows as it fires. If I do, it will only be for the most pwerful version of the bow (Player level 20). Let me know what you think. I've also begun upgrading some of the ruins using the http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28132 mod by Ceano and AxlRocks. And I have some new screenshots:

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/6346/hcredlighting.jpg

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/381/hcbluelighting.jpg

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/9302/hcduallighting.jpg

Sounds like an awesome dungeon, I really like the armor so it is cool to see that incorporated. I'd like an endless supply of arrows at a higher level. Perhaps make lore behind it saying the bow used the ethreal energies around it to make magic arrows or something, or perhaps it drains the pc's magic as it shoots. The chameleon affects would be sweet if they would toggle on and off as you go in and out of sneak mode.
The only thing I haven't particularly cared for was the retextured flame atronarch, just seemed a little odd looking. The frost retexture looks cool though Keep up the good work, I hope to see some more progress soon

Thanks! The armor & weapons are from jgreybear's http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25050 mod.


There will be an explanation for it in game, but I won't mention it here (I don't want to give anything away). B)


That exactly how it works. Check out my Stealth Armors mod (links in my last post) for a preview.


The Welkynd Atronachs do have a purpose other than looks. Again, I'm not saying more here because I don't want to give anything away. Here's a new one: http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3761/voidatronach.jpg


Progress is slow, but steady. I'm currently working two jobs, so my modding time is a bit more limited than I'd like. But I will get this finished.

It's coming along very nicely, and I'm sure your mod will be a huge hit, it already looks promising.

Thanks! Yours is looking good too. I look forward to the release. Funny thing is, I was thinking about using "Varlasel" or "Varlaseli" as a name in mine too. I'll go with "Lor Varla" or something instead so it won't conflict with yours.