Vality's Balmora Mod

This is an addon to my Bitter Coast mod (v4.0) to make Balmora a part of the Bitter Coast. I've added Bitter Coast trees, rocks and flora as well as textured the ground.


Requirements
- An unmodded Balmora - as it will likely conflict with any Balmora mods.
- http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5897 (This mod will only work with v4 as it requires the double sized trees)

These two below are not required, but are highly reccomended to keep to the intended look:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6265
- Vality's Hlaalu Textures (these can be found on the download page)

I also reccomend using FPS Optimizer, as it looks so much better if you double the view distance, and if it runs to slow you can use it to adjust the view distance until you get a good framerate.


Screenshots:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots2/balmoramod01.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots2/balmoramod02.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots2/balmoramod03.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots2/balmoramod04.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots2/balmoramod05.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots2/balmoramod06.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/Screenshots2/balmoramod00.jpg

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6316

Thank you very much for this Vality, will download for installation when it is ready.

Looks neat, a modded Balmora regional mood! Thanks, Vality.

thanks alot!

This looks stunning! I may be able to dump Private Tower Balmora now (which I've been running for years solely for its landscaping). This has persuaded me to try out your Ascadian Isles and Bitter Coast mods in my next game. Very nice work.

I'm thinking of doing a little more, I want to make the little area south of Balmora to Odai Plateau part of the Bitter Coast too...it would make the mod blend a little better I think. Here's a map to show the area I'm talking about: http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/maps/balmap.jpg - would those who would use this mod think it's a good idea?

I think it's a good idea. Most people are not going to be running another tree mod alongside yours so that seems like a perfect area to expand your mods into.

Heh, a very interesting idea. I was a little sceptical at first, but looked at the screenies and it really worked. Very impressive.

Yep, I think that's a very good idea. Then it would indeed make the whole thing a tad more logical by extending the Bitter Coast to reach Balmora, rather than just having the terrain suddenly change from West Gash (?) to Bitter Coast once you reach Balmora.

Well I just was thinking, how about this much instead - http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/Vality7/maps/balmap2.jpg

I've always felt that Balmora should've been part of the Bitter Coast, and I've always felt that the West Gash doesn't really start until you walk out of the north gates of Caldera. It would kinda make sense to me that the 'forest' reaches right up to the top of the Odai River.

Impressive, but how bad does it FPS?

edit:
Actually, looking at the map, you can see why it's been designed that way in vanilla.

You've got a "mountain chain" seperating balmora from the swamp, meaning the area will be drier (ignoring the river). I'm then assuming that the bit of land between the mountain chains is called the Gash (hence West Gash), and so has all the same environment.

edit:
But, it would make sense being more like bitter coast. I don't know about anyone else, but for every game I play, it's almost always raining in Balmora.

Your mod, you decide. Both would make sense, though the second perhaps slightly more. Of course, that would be more work for you, and I don't know how difficult it is to redo the terrain like that.

Ok it is up everyone. :nod: :clap:

EDIT: The page is there but when i go to the download
page no link appears.

EDIT 2: Nevermind, it was due to NoScript.(Firefox ext.)

To be honest I don't know. My PC doesn't seem to notice any sort of hit, and I'm playing with FPS optimizer at 2x view distance as well as MGE's shaders, but it's quite a new PC. The trees originally gave an FPS boost due to them being low poly, but there are so many now that there may be an affect. I guess you'll just have to try it and find out because it all depends on your PC I think.


You're right, it is part of the gash. Though it's a little weird how the Ascadian Isles region cuts into that little piece of the odai river area.

I usually don't like messing with lore, but I don't think it's such a lore breaking thing, maybe Bethesda intended Balmora to look really dry and dull, but had I designed the game I would have made it part of the BC.

The name Balmora, I know it means in elvish, Stone Forest, do you think that means like a forest of stones aka a city, or a city of stones in a forest?

Very strange, I'm getting this message when trying ot get the mod : "There has been an error with your request. This may be due to your browser settings. Please check your security settings and try the link again. Or, go to Tools, Internet Options in your browser and choose Delete Files button. Close all browser windows and try the link again. Should you reach this error again, please contact Customer Support."

It's strange, because I don't get this message with other mods, I tried rebooting, closing everything, deleting cookies and all, and I still can't get the file :/ Any ideas? It only does that to me with this particular file. I know this may be a bit OT, but I was looking forward this mod.

It's a common error at PES, I get it every so often and I'm also getting it right now. I don't know what the problem is, the download count is going up, so it's working for some. Usually I end up just having to wait a while, sometimes just come back the next day and it's working.

I can offer a temporary download link for now, here - http://www.4shared.com/dir/5766887/a1a5d1f3/Balmora_Mod.html

Thanks, Hermione, really. Waiting till tomorrow is really not my speciality, and I am playing through the first Hlaalu quests right now, so Balmora's very important to me.

:goodjob: amazing! :woot:

Here is a suggestion, you can attempt to beautify the ocean floor next.

Wow.. that's amazing. I was just thinking the other day about how Balmora was so.. open and bare. This really fixes that! Now I just need to get rid of these all-too-bright Hlaalu housing textures. I got them a long time ago because they looked cool, but now they just seem out of place.

Once you see this ingame, then look at vanilla Balmora, you won't want to go back. I hope.


Just download my Hlaalu textures that come with the mod and they should replace them.


I never go underwater. Does anybody?

Anyway, I would like to get some feedback once people have tested it out, tell me what your framerate is like, suggestions, maybe show a screenshot or something.

I know that this is a little late, but when you look down on the area (as in your linked overhead) the vegetation in the Odai River valley looks Ascadian not Bitter Coast and Balmora is upland enough that it is West Gash.

sieboldii

Hehe.. I saw that you had a Hlaalu texture replacer after I left that post. It looks great! Thanks a lot Vality.

Not that it matters but I love to go swimming underwater. It's one of my favorite things to do in Morrowind. If there's even the slightest roleplaying pretext for it I give my characters water-breathing spells (I add the spell to merchants in Seyda Neen). I can easily spend half an hour or more at a time swimming underwater.

But I really don't know how typical that is. For all I know I may be the only person who does it.

So do these trees show up as distant statics with IVD?

Yeah, I have the same problem right now - thanks for the temp link Vality. Only just discovered your update to the BC trees last night and spent an hour just wandering around taking in all the lush new looks. Amazing how just in a few weeks you and Connary have completely transformed this area making it look 10 times better.

Just tried out the Balmora add on - stunning, absolutely stunning. I get an fps hit of about 4 or 5, which is bearable.