Hello Modders,
I hope you have all been toiling away with your various projects! Nothing makes a modder happy like productive modding!
Many of you know I have recently taken a brief hiatus from modding Sancre Tor to mold a discarded element into a stand alone teaser release mod. I am pleased to announce that after much earnest toiling against strange (though now resolved) quest building issues, the Weynon Retreat House mod is being released for download!!! At the last possible minute, I made the decision to replace the Weynon Retreat farmhouse, with the cabin style house I had originally used as the Weynon Retreat. The entire mod was just not the same scaled down to a common farmhouse!!! That meant a lot of extra work, but it was worth it and I hope you enjoy the final product!
I don't mind saying, I love this house mod!
One of the reasons I opted to finish this was that it was cut from Reclaiming Sancre Tor, but was such a sweet location and a nice tie in to vanilla Oblivion, I truly hated to see it end up in the bin. Weynon Retreat includes a challenging mini quest that will require some deductive thinking and perseverence. It also boasts some tasty rewards for all that work...but I won't give any of them away! The house itself may be lacking some decor, but I wanted the player to have plenty of room for personal touches. The location is a beautiful outlook behind Weynon Priory. In passing, I always thought how nice it would be to have a quiet little retreat there. Now there is one, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. My one regret is that the questbuilding issues used up a lot of the allotted time to finish this project; as such, I was unable to fully complete the voiced dialog for the release. Perhaps someday, I will revist Weynon Retreat and add the great character voices that were cut due to time constraints.
With Weynon Retreat off to release, I am turning my attention back to the honorable world of the Blades in Reclaiming Sancre Tor. I hope to finish up Tir Asleigh and start/complete Tuatha Danan as well. Once I get through those two dungeons, expect an update to the [WIPz] thread with new pics!
Cheers to you all, and Happy Modding!
Darkrder
Cheers!!
It's been a long time coming, but the Dimension is finally getting another update and I am back into modding Sancre Tor full time. My finals are slowly becoming a painful memory as I slip back into the world of Cyrodiil and the honorable Order of Blades. I want to take a minute to share some thoughts on the unsettling things that have been going on in the community. Many of you know AlienSlof and heard of her decision to privately host her mods and withdraw from the public modding scene. I've noticed that this event has caused two things to occur in the Bethsoft Forums. First, many of the old school modders have begun talking about doing the same thing or have become very outspoken of late in regards to demanding proper decorum, recognition, etc. Second, many up and coming modders have been struck with a sudden deep rooted fear of releasing their work with such terrible stories in the wind about what happend to AlienSlof and the many others that have gone the same way in the past.
I would be lying if I said such thoughts haven't entered my mind as well. It's been awhile since anyone has visited my [WIPz] thread. I fear interest in my project is waning and the community seems a little less forgiving these days. I grind day in and day out to finish what I know is going to be an amazing gaming experience, but there are no guarantees that my work will be received as well as I perceive it myself. However, I have given this situation some thought and I'd like to share that with you. In life, even in the wilds of cyberspace, things are seldom as dire as they first appear to be. The community has been stirred up and everyone is trying to decide where they stand on issues like flaming, rehosting mods, and more. But in time, things will resume the usual happy candor.
What we have to remember is that we are a community. What makes the modding community so great is our ability to share the knowledge we have earned and the gaming art we have created. To the old school modders from the Morrowind days I would say this, there may be some ungrateful trolls out there, but the majority of this community are modders too and we not only appreciate, but respect your great accomplishments. You are the foundation of modding and we need you to carry on to light the way. To the new modders I offer this, do not lose faith in this community's ability to appreciate and respect your great accomplishment, we are the future of modding and they are all waiting to see what we can do.
Now, back to the business at hand. I give you the entry to the underground city of Tir Asleigh!!! These are the first glimpses of one of Reclaiming Sancre Tor's dungeon levels. Keep in mind these images are all from early development, but I think you can envision it's great potential. The exterior of Sancre Tor is near completion, but I am stepping back on the landscaping for awhile now and turning my attention to other, more pressing details. A modder can only move and readjust rocks for so many days before commitment begins to waver. I have begun buidling on Tir Asleigh, one of my favorite dungeons for this mod, finally being realized after months as sketches and pages in my notebook. I'm quite pleased with the way it's taking shape and I hope you are all getting ready for the ride!
It won't be long before I update again, so until then, work together and work hard so we can all sit back and enjoy playing the game!
Happy Modding!
Cheers Modders!!!
I hope all of you have been busily ticking away at your own projects; a busy modder is a happy modder! LOL
This week I made some fair progress on the exterior of Sancre Tor, though finishing up midterm assignments and getting the website off the ground interrupted things a bit. I had to move a few things around in the Interior of Sancre Tor, there was something in the layout that just didn't look right, but it's worked out now and everyone is where they belong. I added two merchant class NPCs to the interior. One runs a small pub and the other is a Blades Armorer, both are skill trainers and offer their services until midnight every day!
The exterior is coming along; I have to do a bit of careful landscaping this week to make the terrain a little more forgiving on the new perimeter walls. Half of the complex is very well landscaped (mostly the parts the player actually sees when they come in, seek, destroy, and leave) but on the distant side of the complex the slope is much steeper and not easily useable space. No worries though, it should only take a few meticulous changes to make it blend seamlessly but still support it's new purpose. Finished up one of the two companions the player will have at their disposal, and finished the exterior on the first Blades dungeon tentatively titled the Cavern of Trials. This week I hope to finish the landscaping, disable the rest of the debris, and get the new exterior pieces in place!!! It's a tall order but I'm up for it, don't have any papers on the near horizon!
I dig this screen shot, it's from the exterior of the Cavern of Trials, looking up toward the perimeter of the reclaimed Sancre Tor! By the way, the exterior is going to end up being much like the open cities of Morrowind. You will be able to ride your horse right through the Main Gate!!!
The website is up and running well now, I'm trying to spread the word that it's here. I hope this site will be as much a haven for all of you as it is for me. I know many modders don't have the time or resources to host their own site, so let me be your host and we can work together!!!
Happy Modding,
