Thanks! I'll keep your link in mind.

The hard thing about making sload a playable race, is that their body is soooo FAT! If one were to simply rig the sload to the beast skeleton, the sload would look weird with the original animations - can you imagine a sload "jumping" or "running" like a normal NPC? It might be possible to make it so the sload can't do certain animations, but other animations would need to be slowed down or tweaked somehow to look right.

Also, getting a sload's head to have talking animations is another issue...

Koniption

In lore terms, the Sload are marginal figures in the Black Marsh. There are suggestions that they do indeed inhabit the area but not in any great numbers. The idea of making them a playable race would be very time-consuming and I'm not keen on having our small team of experts working on something that is not completely crucial. However, our Sload model is wonderful and I'd certainly like to have it in there.....even if it's just as a burbling, uncommunicative little turdball that doesn't move around much.

Oh, and thanks to Konption for monitoring this thread for me in my absence.

can i please have a copy the mesh? maybe i can rig it to the skeleton?

Sure. You'll need to drop by the forums though and speak to either Koniption or zaneeba_slave. I don't have the model at the moment as it's being worked on by these two. Here's a link to our forums: http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/board.php?boardid=62&sid=569b2a72916f9ec0e5ad6811e1eb827b .

is there a beta of this mod I can download? maybe with just some items and playable races or something?

Hi Ratdruid,

No beta as yet. That's what we were originally working towards with a target of Christmas. Sadly, up until recently, I was the only one available for modding work for a long period of time so that target is now not realistic. Nevertheless, we've generated all five beta regions (which I'm about halfway through landscaping) and we've now restarted work. We've had some new members join us and others return so I'm hoping we can get that playable beta out there soon enough. In the meantime, if you'd like to take a closer look then you're welcome to join us. You'll have to contribute but you'll be able to see what's been put into place so far and what's just lying in wait (there is quite a lot of things now that are ready but not implemented because we need to get other stuff done first).

how could i contribute? i barely know anything in blender and i cannot make textures

Well, some modding is dead simple! I can easily get a house interior done within an evening and it can be quite fun....just not in this quantity which is why more modders are always welcome.

If you haven't done any before then it doesn't really take that long to get familiar with the Construction Set and you can go at your own speed anyway...

I haven't updated this thread in a while but we have, as always, been working hard. So this is just a small teaser selection of the progress we've made since the last update.

We now have Guar mounts (and hopefully lizard mounts soon), a complete new set of armours for the Factions, loading screens, tons more clutter, specialist furniture with a shroom and root motif, a complete new architecture set for the amphibious Paatru race, new Argonian and Lilmothiit races, a soundtrack getting rapidly close to completion, a new mossy cave tileset, some new dungeon clutters and traps, yet more potions, diseases in development and much, much more...all regions within the plan for the beta release have now been fully generated, courtesy of sandor. Creatures are already selected but just need to be added. We could use someone who is good with levelled lists.

Here's a taster of what people usually want, screenshots of the latest progress:

• Chasepoint - Totally revamped by Xaeaix (normally our sound guy): http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/Chasepoint01.jpg & http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/Chasepoint02.jpg .
  
• The Everglades region - Half of which has been fully landscaped by myself (other regions like Blackwood are completely landscaped): http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/Everglades01-1.jpg & http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/Everglades02.jpg .
  
• Glenbridge - This is a town I designed that has fallen into the swamp: http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/Glenbridge.jpg .
  
• Hist Shrines - This is the first glimpse of Shadowgame's fine piece of work: http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/HistShrines.jpg .
  
• Mossy Tree - Just one of the hundreds of unique and imaginative objects created by Koniption: http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/MossyTree.jpg .
  
• Rock Grove - I revamped this settlement completely, building the Darkmoor region around it. You can see the new swamp water in the first pic: http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/RockGroveWater.jpg & http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/RockGroveDM.jpg .
  
• Soulrest - llamaranger's wonderful new city is still a WIP but this is the progress made on the Upper class area of this major Kothringi city: http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/Soulrest.jpg .
  
• TenmarWall - My first settlement for the project now has almost all interiors completed. Many, many thanks to jucklesjenk and Dozent for helping out with other interiors: http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq70/Ibsen3/TenmarWall.jpg .

I'll leave some other sights to your imaginations for now!

Looks amazing Ibsen3, great work The Black Marshes team :foodndrink:

When this gets finished, it will move into a ties with Elsweyr as my favorite mods.

Progress on the mod looks really good. I really like the new screenshots :goodjob:

But I have a little question/suggestion. Wouldn't it be possible to make some parts in the land that you can actually sink into? Like it's when getting trapped in a swamp. In the mud and blubber, mixed with water and stuff

You could make it like a kind of water which you sink into, but you sink slower then in normal water. Trying to get out of it, by walking upwards, will drain a lot of fatigue, and you need strength for it. It would be really cool to have those really dangerous swamp like places, just like in a real swamp.

EDIT: Spelling

Cant wait for this one, really been looking forward to it. The lands look amazing you all are doing a awesome job

Is there a way to make quicksand? Maybe in certain areas of the swamp, you fall in, and if your strength is not above a certain value, you drown.

I'd like to point out that zaneeba_slave modeled that mossy tree in the pic that Ibsen linked to. I only optimized, UVMapped, and textured it. So a big thanks goes to zaneeba.

I modeled the other mossy tree. There are currently a total of 2 mossy trees, thus far. Both are still technically in Wipz (one needs exporting and Nifskopery, zaneeba's needs leaves/exporting/Nifskopery). I tend to hop around between my model projects, until they get finished.

RE: sinking in the landscape and/or quicksand - We might work on this, but it'll come later, most likely, if we do. If we implement this, I think deducting a certain percentage of fatigue per time in the quicksand (while trying to escape), is the best effect to use. If we do it based on strength attribute level, some people may become permanently stuck in the quicksand if they have diseases that lower strength, and if they are without restorative potions. They'd then need to reload the game.

Koniption

Yes, it's tricky to do in terms of the gameplay. You have to note that a lot of gamers don't actually like the diseases in Oblivion as they're seen as just an irritant. We have to make sure that the effects match with the level of fun. BM should be a very foreboding place but not so bad that it becomes a pain to play. Thankfully, Koniption and the likes have been devising suitable traps and we've been gametesting them for suitability. Nevertheless, on the subject of diseases, we could use another scripter. InsanitySorrow does a good job when he's around but he has a lot of projects to attend to.

Anyway, quicksand has been an idea in development for a long time. It's just the execution of it that comes into question. Thanks for your support, folks!

No matter what you come up with in the end...I love the idea of quicksand.

-jawdrops- I was wondering when Argonia was gonna get it's day in the sun ... though I've yet to get out of the first dungeon in Arena >.> I now have another topic subscription to follow.

Oh I also hope that Elsweyr, The Deserts Of Anequina (Illiana's version) and this are compatible, but if Black Marsh is going to be it's own world space, I don't see how it could interact poorly.
On a side note, how will the boreders between Cyrodil and BM look (I use RAEVWD) if it is its own worldspace. Will it seem out of place?

That's an interesting point, Andruck. Black Marsh, for reasons of error avoidance, is currently in its own worldspace. It would be nice to have it merged somehow if such a thing proves do-able but I don't see how just yet and I'm not the man to know about such big-scale stuff. Our friend, Sandor of the Silgrad Tower team is much more the authority there and I think, as yet, it's a no-no. Nevertheless, we can mock up the border. I redesigned the regions after someone in the previous team (before I arrived) made a complete [censored]-up of the map. Besides having to shift settlements in some cases, I also made sure that the deep gulley that separates the two countries could be set up. At the moment, there is only water there but we should be able to roughly generate the Cyrodiil side of it with not too much trouble.

For our beta version, I'm planning on having only the playable areas of the beta available to be visited. Borderland control will be placed around no-go areas in the same way as the vanilla worldspace in Cyrodiil. It will block access back to Cyrodiil too. We can then look into having some sneaky access point in the same way that Silgrad Tower have a massive hollow log conjoining the two. You have to be careful though...working across worldspaces can screw a mod.

There's nothing to suggest, at this stage, that Liana's fine piece of work shouldn't be compatible. The only grey areas to my mind are the possible reliances on other mods that may conflict. We won't be depending on stuff like body mods but, if we were to do so, it might conflict with Liana's and cause issues. But as far as making the two compatible....well, that's a whole hell of a lot of work we wouldn't dream of taking on ourselves. Getting this done is more than enough! We're sort of in contact with Liana though. There's a mutual respect, I think, and I believe we've shared team members in the past.

In the meantime, DoZeNt has created a new promotional video on youtube for you all. It meets with my specifications because, until we get every aspect of the mod up and running, I don't want to show much, only snippets. The next one should reveal more and DoZeNt should have been able to solve his crippling compression issues that drive the quality of the vids way down....FRAPS can be a pain in the bum! Anyway, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Gp1YJ0h-0 .

You might also like to know that we merged with a small team called 'Russian Argonia' quite some time ago. It's taken us a while to synchronise our efforts but what I can show you is their new website. It's in Russian, I'm afraid, but we're hoping to either translate it or transfer some of the features: http://www.blackmarshes.3dn.ru/ . Oh, and they also changed our banner for us (see the original post of this thread for a link).

simply breathtaking! and walking into that giant worm's mouth is one of the awesomest things I've ever seen in a videogame

You really have made a tremendous amount of progress. The province looks absolutely fascinating in the vid.

That big jaw mouth thing that you can walk into. Is that the worm-transport thing from The Argonian Account books?

WOW, when I saw that trailer, I was shaking like a leaf in excitement. It was like I was watching TESV. :drool:
Amazing, is it possible to download the video somewhere with better quality ? :angel:

Yes, it is. We are implementing a system of travel that is a compromise between fast-travel and mounts. You will basically pay for transport within the belly of the rootworm before the rootworm burrows away underground to your chosen destination beneath the soft marsh-soil. You will also find dead rootworms that do not fulfill this function but can be entered much like any other dungeon.



Thanks! Sadly not. The video is just a little teaser. We're saving our more impressive stuff for when we're more fully developed...hopefully then it can rival what Liana achieved with Elsweyr (great work, Liana!). In the meantime, it was the compression rates to crunch the files down and get it up on youtube that reduced the quality. We hope we'll be able to sort it out when we release our next teaser vid. I don't like doing promo stuff, personally. It's a pretty vain thing and it detracts from actually making progress on modding. Nevertheless, any vid coming out closer to the release of the beta version will be more staged, cinematic and detailed (like a proper trailer) and we'll all make more of an effort to help DoZeNt (the video maker) out with that one a bit more.

Anyone give thoughts on my idea? Or is this thing already implemented?

Well, I'm not on the team, but I think I've worked out a way to make this work, at least for getting INTO the quicksand, and subsequently sinking. I've not yet thought of a way to get out again, but then again I've only just started thinking about it. Then I have to think how to get it set up so that companions etc would sink too.

I'll be happy to write a script for you, Ibsen3. Part of my mod is set in a swamp area, so I might use it too if that's ok with you. To be honest, I wouldn't bother making one if only I was using it. PM me if you want me to do it for you.

Darn, you've got my scripting brain going! I won't be able to let this go 'till it works now! Let me get my CS open...

EDIT: I've already though of ways to implement creatures/companions sinking, and to let you walk out again whilst writing this! Lol.