This literally blows my mind!

Thanks for all your great comments, guys! :wub:

Yeah, I wanted the exterior of the city (within one cell's distance around the outer walls of the city) to blend in with the Blackwood region as much as possible. So I'm removing some vanilla plants from the area that weren't otherwise found in the Blackwood area, and replacing them with more common ones.

By the way, does anyone else really dislike Bethesda's CONSTANT use of huge Cypress trees around Blackwood and the lower Niben? :swear: (Especially when you find them up in the hills, far far away from any water or swampy areas?) I might eventually plop a few more Snow Gum or Ginkgo or Black Locust down in their place around the outside walls of the city...(A little variety is better than using all huge Cypress trees, right?)

After lots of research on the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Ingredients wiki, here's a list of flora that you'll be seeing around Leyawiin when I'm done with this puppy --

Trees
White Pine (I think they look great growing right along the edge of the high cliffs next to the city walls!)
Mugo Pine (Also found only along the cliffs, growing in cracks and crevices in the rock.)
Willow Oak
Snow Gum (I've used lots of these...Very distinctive.)
Deodar
Ginkgo
Black Locust (These are frikkin huge!)
Weeping Willow
Cypress (Just a few around the lower class houses.)
Sugar Maple (Just one!)
Ironwood (I've planted three of these rare trees inside the Castle Leyawiin County Hall.)

Bushes and Small Trees
Pink Azalea
Boxwood
Inkberry
Generic Elderberry
Blue Hydrangea (Used inside the castle. Nice flowering bush.)
Generic Daphne
Daphne
Generic Buckthorn
Rhododendron (Used inside the castle. Nice flowering bush.)
Japanese Honeysvckle (Rare.) (They were everywhere in vanilla Leyawiin!)

Ingredients
Nirnroot (I think I have kept the same number of plants around that were in the original vanilla landscape!)
Bog Beacon (Lots of these mushrooms added.)
Clouded Funnel Cap (Rare. I've removed a lot of these mushrooms. Aren't they supposed to be found mainly on high mountains?)
Fly Amanita (Common in the city.)
Stinkhorn (Lots of these mushrooms added.)
Green Stain Cup (Lots of these mushrooms added.)
Green Stain Shelf (A few of these rare mushrooms were added to tree trunks in the area.)
Lavender (Rare.)
Sacred Lotus (I removed lots of these from the Niben, since they are rarely found in flowing rivers...)
Somenalius Fern (Added lots.)
Ironwood Nuts (Some of these very rare nuts will be found around the base of the trees growing inside the castle! B) )
Pitcher Plant (Common. I've added a third party mod that has actual ingredients that can be harvested from these plants.)

And farms in the Leyawiin area will growing more Rice and Tobacco than they were in vanilla...

Oh, and with the ground textures I'm using, there will LOTS of ferns sprouting up everywhere!

Do you guys think any of the plants/trees/ingredients that I've listed should not be found in the Blackwood area? Or do you have suggestions of other flora to add?

...progress on the mod continues...

I like your plant ideas. Especially farming rice and tobacco.

Hey guys -- In the last few days I've been spending a good amount of time working on the Castle Leyawiin interior. I'm hoping that it will be the most well laid out, most detailed castle you can find in any of the main cities in Cyrodiil...once I'm done with it! (Thanks in large part to mr_siika's awesome castle meshes and interiors!) :goodjob:

Yesterday I was placing the new hallways and rooms in the count's private quarters, figuring out the layout of everything, and placing interior windows and light sources. (It's really looking like a narrow castle now...) I'm going to be adding wood paneling and fireplaces to the interior of the private quarters and its going to be a very pleasant place to sneak through in the middle of the night on a thieving mission! :ninja:

Does anyone think it's weird that the Count and Countess' bodyguards don't have quarters in the private quarters near Marius Caro and his lovely bride? Or that Alessia Caro's friends during the Sanguine dinner party don't have homes or lives outside the party? They just sit there?? So I'm going to be adding quarters for the bodyguards in the castle and making the dinner party guests all live together in a big, upperclass home in the western section of the city. (After the completion of the Sanguine quest, I'll have them vacate the house, depart from the city in shame, and let the player move in!)

Work continues...with no end in sight! ^_^

BRING IT ON!

THE SOONER THE BETTER!

No - I don't. I would expect them to be awake while guarding, and go sleep elsewhere when they're not. Giving them nearby quarters would just encourage then to slip away for a nap when they're supposed to be on duty!

But they do need quarters somewhere, and a rotation of shifts, and...

Hi folks! I've been doing lots of work on the upper floors of the castle in the last few weeks. Tsavi, On-Staya Sundew, and Hlidara Mothril now all have new, wood-paneled rooms in the Stewards and Healers private quarters. I've finished the clutter pass in two of their three rooms and I think they look MUCH better than vanilla.

I've also added a large, sumptuous room (with private a balcony overlooking the narrows of the Niben) for the guests of Marius Caro. (A quest will give the player access to the room...)

The Lord's Manor private quarters is being completely redesigned with custom meshes from mr_siika. :goodjob: It is very WIP at the moment, but it's coming along well. I think you'll like the results.

Good points. I've decided to give the two bodyguards semi-private quarters in the castle barracks.

The redesign of castle Leyawiin is coming along, room by room. I've basically finished the county hall/throne room, dining room, guest quarters, and steward's and healer's quarters. I've got the kitchens, servant's quarters, basemant, dungeons, treasury, and a few other hallways and tower rooms to complete before I get back to finishing off the rest of the city.

Thanks for your support and stay tuned!

88 % complete...way to go...keep it up...don't die on us! The world is waiting just for you!

*whines*

This is taking as long as TSLRP (The Sith Lords Restoration Project). I think ill expire from anticipation.

lol.

I hope you get done really soon bananaman - its looking fantastic.

Thanks for the Update
Maybe one or two screens?

Or threesome or foursome or moresome...

Thanks. Have some new screenshots!

http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=LR46.jpg&album=22952&fullsize=1
http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=LR45.jpg&album=22952&fullsize=1
http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=LR47.jpg&album=22952&fullsize=1 (That's her new pet rat scampering around.)

It took LOTS of tweaking to get the layout of these bedrooms looking right. (I removed the columns from the castle interior meshes and added all of the wood floors. The wood paneling and the wooden beams were hand placed in each room.) I'm really pleased with the results, though.

I've been working on little things here and there, but I'm basically waiting for mr_siika to finish his Castle Seaview mod. I must have his new castle meshes for Castle Leyawiin! ^_^

I'll probably get back to creating the cliffs along the river today...They've been half-done for a while now. And so my work continues...

Wow, this is still going?

I may dust off Oblivion to see this once the last 12% gets cleared.

Has any of the potential path grid problems manifested, or has it been smooth sailing?

This is so close to being finished...BRING ON THE GIRLS!!!

Yeah, it's still going.

I've never worked with pathgrids before, but they seem to be working fine so far. I had a temporary problem with NPCs not going between the three sections of the city (in the Leyawiin worldspace) and out into the Tamriel worldspace and back, but thanks to the great folks on this board, I found a solution that works well.

There's lots of stuff to work on and polish yet, but at this point I've got most of the hard work done...

This is going to be the hottest mod since...>Insert Name Here<

Aww man - no updates since the summer.

Always happens with the mods I'm looking forward to.

Do not give up hope...

After months of lying fallow in my modding folder...a hard drive crash (yay for backups )...a total reinstall...attending my college classes...and simply getting distracted playing other games (I'm looking at YOU Empire Total War, GTA, and Eve Online!)...I'm picking up where I left off in my epic plan to actually finish Leyawiin Rebuilt someday! :rock:

I guess I just wanted to say "thanks" to all of you who have been following my progress with this mod. I don't have any new screenshots to show you guys or updated progress bars at the moment. (Heck, I haven't even gotten my modded meshes and textures for Leyawiin reinstalled yet! And yellow exclamation points are everywhere!!) ^_^

I'll attempt to keep you all more regularly updated with my progress (or lack of it) in the future. Thanks for your support!

Looking forward to completion...

Keep going with this... It looks great!

It looks fantastic, so I hope you can finish this.

Those carpets will look good in the castle.

I can't tell you how awesome this mod is looking... This is about as close to the original Bethesda concept as I've seen. Well, to Open Cities defense, I haven't really looked at their Leyawin design in depth. I just kinda stayed away from OC for the moment since I am currently playing OB on a gaming laptop which is a little over a year old and I am staying away from most of the larger mods for the time being to keep my FPS reasonable.

Wouldn't your more spread-out (and closed city) layout help keep GPU/CPU demands lower?

From what I can see so far, though, this mod looks like it will be essential. You have done some amazing work on this so far, and it's close to being finished? Wow. I can't wait.

You mean you are going to have scripted ships?!? Say it is so... I know it's probably too much to hope far. Having scripted ships that travel tamriels waterways is something I have been wishing for since, well, Morrowind. Maybe it will happen one day...

I always thought it would be a cool travel option to be able to buy a ticket for a ship, give it to the captain, then have a scripted travel time for the ship to leave. You could be transported below along with your horse, companions, etc., then when the ship leaves the dock, you would be able to come up on the deck and watch Cyrodiil pass by, then once it arrives, you go back below to get your horse, companions, etc. and they would be transported back on deck with you to debark.

The only suggestion for improvement I see with the docks as they are is maybe having some more spots open for player-controllable ships, etc. It looks like you have one spot open, at least, so not a big deal.

Looks awesome so far! :thumbsup:

Well, Open Cities doesn't actually make a difference to your FPS, but this mod is looking great, and I hope it's released soon. I'll have to be patient though.