Elsweyr ~ Geography

We could, but those are quite outdated, as you know. So it may conflict with newer lore, which is not good. What are your thoughts on that Hayabusa?

I agree on the mountains and such, but the map is badly distorted from the original so roads from it would be useless. SGM's map would show roads as his heightmap would best accommodate them.

Are there any other maps this roads that? I can't be bothered looking myself.

Uh...this one that SGM posted before...It contains roads and such. This is the map he used to make it. It isn't lore-correct at first glance but look: Imperial Library. But yeah, this is a map of his Tamriel heightmap. Elsweyr is a bit larger than on other maps. Which is good for the environments we have to include. I just love how thick High Rock is in this one. Instead of the thin little ding it used to be.



And Alabaster will be included now since this map shows that it isn't Leyawiin. Technically. If any lore junkie hates this, LUK IT THUH MAHP.

Alabaster is mentionned in Oblivion in a quest for the Dark Brotherhood.
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Let's make a new city!

YESH! The Old Ye Bard said it was technically Leyawiin but it can't be true now can it? I was hoping to make Alabaster.

If we ae adding alabaster, what is the style of building? Orang-ish like the rest of Elsweyr? Or is it made up of what the name suggests, alabaster?

With a town named alabaster. I would like it to be made with such. Or at least to look like alabaster from a distance.

In lore, the town is named Alabaster because it have white walls.

Le Grimacier wrote:In lore, the town is named Alabaster because it have white walls.

Ah, much like the Alabaster in the Oblivion mod, yes? So, we know that alabaster needs it's white self. The architecture in our data files has white items, but maybe we would want more white?

(If this was confusing, good. I aim to be.)

that stuff would be good for alabaster. ZackG at P.C. is making some similarish looking stuff for accross the border.

Rattfink333 wrote:that stuff would be good for alabaster. ZackG at P.C. is making some similarish looking stuff for accross the border.

I thought it seemed good for Alabaster. Some of them have seams in the models, but for the most part, they can easily be used to make the first layout of Alabaster when we get there. I still need to find the ones with seams and fix them myself. That way Grim can keep to his work while I fix the future models.

If I remember correctly, in the Oblivion mod Alabaster is a village of shacks build inside an ayleid ruins. The walls are white but it's not exactly what we want...
We could use a color scheme for each city: white for Alabaster, pink for Senchal, blue for Corinth, etc... (Rimmen will probably be an exception, it's not really an Elsweyr city after all) Architecture could be globally the same with some unique structures (like palaces) to give a feeling of uniqueness.
It will help the player to understand there is a lot of factions in Elsweyr.

I forgot about that...maybe I was thinking of another town.

Either way, Alabaster is going to be within one of the last releases since it is right on the border.

I've just found Michael Kirkbride wrote the Pocket Guide to the Empire 2nd Edition on the official forum. It have a lot of new lore about Elsweyr and its geography (and there is a great description of Senchal !)
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Because we haven't done much, we should consider if we'll use it or not. The models I've made can be used for another city.

Well, the 2nd Edition encompasses the 2nd Era, yes? Well, reading on into other sources of lore, your models could still be excellent for parts of Senchal.

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I had an idea for Senchal that would allow us to have it as large as we wanted before, and to keep framerates high. I'll post it in the Senchal Development Thread.

The PGE 2nd Edition was written in 3E331. (Morrowind takes place in 3E427)
The description of Senchal was from the first years of the 3rd Era, long after the Knahaten Flu. Most of the lore is still relevant.

I love the idea of a lunar Elsweyr. As if you are under skooma and can't say if you are on Nirn or on the Moon. We have limitation with the engine (no new weather or skies or postprocess effect, etc...) but there is still a lot we can do.

If we could somehow create a massive no-collision object of a 'sandstorm', sort of like the tiny dust clouds in Fallout 3, then we could simulate a new sort of weather.

Really? It was written then? I thought it was written before the flu. This, here, is why you have your title.

Still, like you said, the recent renovations could simply form a ring around the Favela structure, leaving the "Heaps" in the center. It would be absolutely epic.

The limited space we have can be utilized by making the Favela use artificial "roads" of sorts, like wooden walkways, to gain access to the upper levels. So instead of having an actual hill or mountain taking up valuable space, we just have a hill made of buildings. In a second, I'll edit in a badly made picture of what I mean in case anyone needs it.

pROvAK wrote:If we could somehow create a massive no-collision object of a 'sandstorm', sort of like the tiny dust clouds in Fallout 3, then we could simulate a new sort of weather.

This can be done. A long time ago, I asked about it on the officials and they suggested scripting models similar to the Ash Storm models with sandy textures to move in a way that simulates a sand storm. Then a sound would need to be in effect while the "sand" is flinging around. They also stated that a fade in/fade out effect would maximize realism. Having it appear out of nowhere just hurts immersion.

Yeah, that's just as I thought. Grim, could you possibly...
?

I can use a retextured blight storm model but it will have to be moved with the player by scripts if the area is too big and that won't be very realistic because the player will see that the storm is moving with him.
For bigger areas, I can also use a huge static made of perpendicular plan where a sand storm texture is animated. It something use in Fallout NV to simulate sand storm in some areas. It isn't important for whose who don't have distant land, but there is a lot of player who use MGE and I think it won't look good at distance with the current engine. The model will probably look like a huge static grid.
The third solution could be a particule emitter or a mesh made of little moving plans facing the player and moved by sript. If big enough and done right, the player could have the feeling to be in a true new weather. But there is a chance it will be a FPS-killer.

But I'm working on Senchal at the moment. It's a desert feature that can wait.

Senchal comes first, yes. When we get there, it will be a problem that needs solving. It will be a LONG time before we even get to the sandy areas.

Because we working on Senchal, we should think about the environment too and not only the buildings. We'll probably need to add vegetation in the city itself.
I think the Quin'Rawl Peninsula should be a region of its own. The name is mentionned in lore so it should be sufficiently different from the Tenmar Forest to merit its own ground textures, vegetation and weather.

I think the peninsula could be full of palms and ferns. It'll look like a paradise for tourists (but with snakes and spiders!). It'll use the tree we already have. For the weather I think something like clear [30%] cloudy [20%] overcast [20%] rain [20%] thunder [10%]. Compared to vanilla regions there will be a lot of rain time to represent the "wet" aspect of Pellitine (the monsoon?)

By comparison, I see the Tenmar forest as more "dark". The trees will be huge, the vegetation will be denser and the player will have a "claustrophobic" effect. I think something like the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] with their strangling roots around the rocks and the structures could be cool. The weather will be wetter and the rocks will have more moss on them. For the weather I think something like clear [20%] cloudy [10%] foggy [5%] overcast [20%] rain [30%] thunder [15%]. I augmented the rain time and add fog to give to the region the feeling of a true wet green hell.

I've found mentions of swamp in southern Elsweyr (where Tojays live) but I can't see yet a place to put them as the southern coast is supposed to be made of cliffs. I'll try to make a quick map to set the different regions with what we know of the geography.

I still have Koniption's Flora That I need to add to the Files. I'll do that, and maybe we will have more ferns and palms. I also saw a great Fern Resource, but I didn't know if it seemed Elsweyr or not, so I didn't add it.