So the time has come to close up shop. I have migrated the files from this page over to the new page at AFK Mods. I won't be updating this one.

The current files and any future updates can be found HERE                    





 Ships Made Simple
                         A Modder Resource Package



One of my favorite things to mod in Oblivion have been the ships, especially since there
wasn't much to start with. The complete lack of diversity in the vanilla game really left
a blank canvas for me to experiment with. As with many other things in Oblivion however,
there are challenges, more nuisance than obstacle really, but they needed to be dealt with.

The biggest being how many individual pieces one has to manipulate into place in order to
assemble even one ship. This resource pack was my attempt to simplify the process somewhat
while working on a shipping mod project.

While it took some time to assemble things into one piece meshes, the time it saved over the
long run was well worth the effort. I thought for others who wish to make custom ships, this
may help them avoid some of the hassles I experienced.


Details
=========

To give a better example of what this does, lets take a look at a basic ship assembly in the
construction set. The Serpent's Wake for example is a basic ship design and consists of these
pieces:

1. BloatedFloat01.nif (hull)
2. MainDeck01.nif (main flooring, stairs, door frame, etc.)
3. ShipCabin01.nif (rear upper deck, windows, some trim work)
4. MainMast01.nif (masts, sails, rope, rigging)
5. BoatSideRivets01.nif (these are the heavy side planks with the big rivets) optional decoration

So for even a basic ship there are possibly five separate pieces that have to be properly aligned
when placing them in the game. Not horribly difficult mind you, but tedious, and time consuming
in order to assemble without unsightly gaps. Ship interiors are even more demanding. The basic
main deck ship interior consists of two separate full cabin pieces, two ceiling pieces, two floor
pieces, four wall corner pieces, seven wall pieces, and up to 3 doors.

Consider the time it takes to retexture all these pieces for a custom ship, place them individually,
align them to eliminate unsightly gaps...and you get a better picture of how time consuming ship
building can be.

What I have done is assemble the various bits into single, one piece nifs. Making them much easier
for the modder to deal with. Now you need only drag one item into the CS render window, no
tedious alignment to worry about. Also makes retexturing much easier. Vanilla texture properties
have been combined already. Replacing a given texture will automatically replace every instance
of that texture on the entire mesh.

Some of Mr siikas ship models have also been simplified and in a few cases had bugs fixed. The cog
ship is another good example of tedium. It consists of no fewer than eight pieces to fully assemble,
and didn't include a door frame, or helm. Now has missing elements included and is only one piece.


Contents
==========

1. Full meshes for both the basic vanilla ship and the vanilla pirate ship. Also full interior
cabin meshes for each.

2. Full mesh for Mr Siika's Cog ship which includes an integrated door frame and helm steering
    wheel.

3. Full mesh for Mr Siika's Corvette ship. It actually already comes like this in the basic package.
    This model had two misaligned pieces which which really bugged me. Nephenee13 was kind
    enough to fix the problems for me, I thought it only right to share but she gets full credit for
    the fixes. I've gone further and applied Nephenee's fixes to all four versions of this ship model.

4. Full mesh for both versions of Mr Siika's Nordic Longship.

5. Full mesh for four versions of Mr Siika's Elven Galley Hull 02 which includes an added cabin
    door frame on the rear deck and a separate door mesh which previously didn't exist. Most
    modders were using an ayleid ruin door for this ship. I borrowed the idea and retextured it
    to match with actual elven ship wood, a door handle, and small window. Also added a
    retextured floor hatch and ladder for the interior. I didn't add the ballistas...you can do
    that if you want them.

6. Improved Elven Galley interior 01. The original had no steps or door frame which would
    lead to the rear deck of the ship. I've added those elements in so one could place a door
    and have it not look ridiculous.

7. Full meshes for several versions of Mr Siika's Imperial Galley. The only thing I didn't integrate
    was the door frame. For those who haven't seen it, this is a BIG ship. Very difficult to fit this
    in any vanilla port city without extensive landscaping. Probably best used just sitting out in the
    bay somewhere as window dressing. Which is why I left the door frames out.

8. VWD meshes and low res textures will be added in later once they are completed.


Install
=======

These are meshes and textures only. You will need to create new items in the CS in order 
to use these resources. It is assumed the end user already knows how to do that. For those 
new to modding the basic steps are as follows:

1.Drop the contents into your Oblivion Data Folder, or integrate into your mod files via 
   a mod manager

2. Open up the construction set and create new items using the meshes supplied in this 
    package

3. Example - Load CS. Find BloatedFloat01 in the statics section. Double click to open
    the dialogue box. Click on the button with the .nif name and point it to one of the
    new meshes from this package. Rename and click OK. You will be asked if you want
    to create a new object.....say YES. DO NOT save changes to vanilla objects unless you 
    purposely want to change every instance of that object in your game.

4. Place the new items wherever you want them. 

5. Save your new plugin file.


Credits
========

Bethesda                  - for Oblivion and the CS
Nifskope and GIMP    - for the tools that made this possible.
LHammonds             - for the read-me generator this file was based on
mr_siika                   - for the original Better Ports resources some of these are based on
Nephenee13              - for the fixed and optimized Corvette mesh
stroti                       - for the blackout texture used on the door frames
me                           - for various fixes, textures, and the time it took to assemble all this stuff


Legal Stuff
==============

These materials are being distributed as a free to use Modder Resource package. The only
requirements for use are to credit the people listed here in both your mod description and
read-me file.