About this image

What you're seeing here is actually a 3D model of the heightmap for the mod. I figured out how to do this tonight and just wanted to share my success. I had no idea that the Oblivion CS had a feature anything like this. In addition to just looking cool, it's actually a tremendous help to me as well: having a full view of the worldspace like this helps me determine whether mountains/hills, etc are tall enough in reference to other land features. In the past, I'd have to fly through the Render window, cell by cell, in order to analyze the results of my work. So this is an unbelievably huge time-saver.

Now for the status update:
Some of you may have seen a post announcing a new mod -- a RoA 'spin-off' named Incarna. That post was taken down because Project Incarna is no longer active. Incarna was to be a fresh project lightly based on the RoA universe, meant to play something like a first-person Diablo. Initially, I had begun working on Incarna because I had become immensely frustrated with the open-world design of the original project. It just didn't feel right. Anyway, I ended up scrapping Incarna because..
1. I felt like I was betraying Realms of Asuron and my true potential as a modder (like when I very briefly worked on developing a mod called Dark earlier this year).
2. Technical issues in the CS kept setting back progress. Incarna called for a very compressed level design with highly elevated borders, and the CS simply did not agree (i.e, bottomless pits galore). In the end, I went back to Realms of Asuron, and I decided that, if I wasn't having fun developing it -- if something was wrong in any part of the creative process -- then, as a designer, it should be up to me to locate the root of the issue and fix it. I needed to take responsibility. So I did.

I moved the setting to a different realm -- Hyperia. The multiverse setting of Incarna, I felt, really defied the whole initial concept of player freedom, and it just didn't work for a 1st person RPG engine like Oblivion. And as for the setting of Nordania, as I quickly found out, I was running out of available assets, and had to take to copying and pasting a lot of the same resources. You guys have seen some images of Brightwood, but you didn't see everything.. Lots of repeated architecture. So I've moved things further south, to Hyperia (the realm the original Morrowind mod was set in, funny enough). I did this because this particular realm is much more medieval in atmosphere and temperate in climate, much more in line with Oblivion's vanilla assets. Plus, Nordania just has way too many settlements and different factions in the area. As I proceeded with development, I just couldn't keep things unique enough and it really bothered me. Hyperia is a much 'quieter' realm, so I should have the opportunity to include more variation.

The main reason why I tried building Nordania in the first place was because I wanted to include more factions, settlements, etc. Over the past year however, I've found out that Oblivion just doesn't have the right assets, nor enough of them, to fully capture a realm so war-torn and politically charged (and so far north) as Nordania. Nordania would make a better Skyrim mod. Hyperia is a lot more Cyrodiilic though, so I shouldn't be scrolling in the Objects window for nearly as long trying to find appropriate architecture.

I apologize for this long mess of prototypes, my friends. I just want this thing to be the very best it can be. You might call me a perfectionist. Certainly, this project has been all about finding a balance between function and aesthetics, and knowing the scope of my available resources versus my ambitions. It takes time to learn one's boundaries, but I'm getting there.