Beneath Cloud Top Manor

The owner of Cloud Top Manor is missing. Find him and discover clues to the treasures of a lost Ayleid tomb while facing never before seen dangers. Discover the identity of the corpse at Cloud Top. Inherit Cloud Top Manor Itself if you are cunning enough.


Author: OC3
Version: 1.0
Date: 6/1/2015


Category: Quests and Adventures / Player Home

Requirements:
� Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.416
� Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE)
� Official Bethesda MOD(s): Shivering Isles DLC
� Borders turned OFF bBorderRegionsEnabled=0 in Oblivion.ini or ToggleBorders (tb)
in the console~

Highly recommended: Detailed Terrain by ChainsawXIV. Improves the look of all terrain textures. Seriously...Use it. http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/15245/?


Features

� New meshes
� New Textures
� New Traps
� Voice Acting (English)
� 2 new quests
� New Weapons/Armor
� About 5-10 Hours of New Game-play
� Dungeons highly replayable (from a saved game)
� New Player Home including animated lit windows and harvestable containers
� Multiple dungeons including new cave meshes


This mod has been 2 and 1/2 years, and 2700 hours in the making. It started out as my desire to recreate a painting that I made of a waterfall scene, only inside the Oblivion engine. It involved a major landscape overhaul and other technical issues. When I began to have some success, I decided to make a mod/quest and share my work with those who might enjoy it.....

My goal was to create a landscape overhaul and quest with never before seen features, both graphical and game-play related. Taller and more realistic waterfalls with semi VWD, new... never before seen traps, and retextures of others. Modder's resources have been fully incorporated so that there are no requirements , other than official patches and Shivering Isles DLC. This may cause the file size to seem large, but then again, you are not required to download other resources, of which only a portion might be used.

Of note are some containers, thanks to the Harvest Team, and the animated lighted windows of the Manor (textures altered), thanks to the AWLS team. These features are only in the areas touched by this mod and do not require the originals. So if you aren't running those already, you will get a taste of what you are missing.

The models and textures of JGreyBear's 'Ayleid New Building Blocks' are used for a vast majority of interior ruins and have been painstakingly adjusted so that there are no seams visible where sections meet. His original textures have been optimized to reduce any pixilation and are sized at 1024 x 1024.

Much work and thought have been taken in trying to make this very immersive and as perfect as possible. I have tried to provide an explanation/rational for every single thing that exists in the mod so there should not be anything that seems out of place or implausible. I have consulted the Unofficial Elder Scroll Pages UESP. net many times to ensure that this remains lore friendly. Not being a major ES nerd (no offense), I may not have been perfect in that, but I did my best to respect the story. At least, that was the goal.


This mod is intended to be played by any level character, but some enemies may be tough for very low level characters. I am by no means an AI expert, so please let me know if there are issues with to hard or easy enemies.

It is intended to be playable whether or not the player has completed the 'Fingers of the Mountain' quest, although one cannot advance in the quest unless 'Fingers of the Mountain' has been started.

The quest to find the undiscovered Ayleid tomb is a bit long and possibly difficult. It is recommended to go into it very stocked up. If you find yourself truly stuck, you can always load a saved game, or, toggle god mode to get through it. I don't expect that it will be necessary for experienced players, just wanted to say
that for any new players out there. Yes even this 9 year old game has new players thanks to Bethesda allowing modding.

OK what exactly is this mod? It allows you to take ownership of a very nice three level manor beneath a series of waterfalls. A short quest allows you to claim it for your own after solving some clues left behind by the previous owner. Once inside, you will find a beautiful home with plenty of space. There is weapon storage in an armory and many weapon racks throughout. The downstairs is pretty much spoken for as far as room to store anything in view, although there are lots of barrels/boxes for storage. Many more barrels for storage on the second floor. The most storage for "visible objects" will be on the guests quarters on the third floor and on the second floor.

The player home can be owned, but it is not "massively featured" with a lot of unique player home features. Perhaps some else can create a patch to upgrade it. It is a place to store stuff and appreciate the view as well as take ownership of some valuable items and a unique home.


How to Install

1. GENERAL....There is a BSA file, an esp, and 3 optional textures folders.
2. For BAIN users, just check the CORE checkbox, and if you desire, one of the optional terrain LOD texture checkboxes (see step 4), then activate the esp. Then perform steps 5-6.
3. For a MANUAL INSTALL..... copy the contents of the CORE folder into you DATA folder and activate the esp using your favorite installer.
4. OPTIONAL: If you have no other landscape overhauls loaded that need unique textures for the upper left half of the Tamriel map (the North West part), then you don't
need to regenerate the landscape textures when using TES4LL. I have provided optional files that are compatible with stock Bethesda files in 2 sizes, and in 2048 for XEROS
LOD. ***SELECT ONLY ONE.... Then (optionally) copy the contents into your data folder.

A wise person always backs up important files before replacing. If you ever want to uninstall, you will want to backup the corresponding original file.

5. Run TES4 LOD to generate the VWD objects (trees, rocks, etc.) for the mod,.... just like with all mods that change the outdoors.

6. Like ANY other landscape overhaul mod, run TES4LL to generate the landscape mesh.
http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40549/?

FOLLOW THE DOCUMENTATION FOR TES4LL! **I recommend using high or ultimate resolution for the meshes

7. If you are using Liquid Water (LW), I have provided Unique setting ini files for all the cells, so you can customize the water to your liking more easily. Refer to the LW
documentation. If you are not using LW then don't worry about it.


Uninstall

1. Remove the BSA and disable the esp.
2. Restore any optional landscapeLOD textures that you might have used.


Incompatibility

Beneath Cloud Top Manor (CTM) heavily modifies the Terrain to the north, northwest, west, southwest, south, and
somewhat to the northeast. The Northeast changes are mostly texture changes to make it more snowy.
Any mod that changes the terrain mesh in those regions will be incompatible. It doesn't mean you can't play....just not at the same time. Play mine, then remove and play the other, or visa versa.

Unique Landscapes Cloud Top Mountains is incompatible.
Unique Landscapes Colovian Highlands is also incompatible.

Is compatible with the Well of Minlorada

Conflicts

� If you choose to examine my files with Wrye Bash or TES4Edit, some files may show a conflict with textures or meshes, as I have included many modder's
resources, these file should be identical as I've given unique name's to any files that I have changed, so it is OK to overwrite.

� Is compatible with the Well of Minlorada.


Known Issues or Bugs

� At some point you will encounter a living statue enemy. It's blood looks like regular blood.
Sorry, it is a limitation of the game engine.

� The bats fly at a rather low level...not sure how to fix it.

� The interior dungeon textures are 1024 x 1024. I doubt anyone will have problems, no one has yet...but If I have enough requests, I can make a lower res add-on.

� You must have borders turned off.



Contact

On the Nexus Forums/Nexus as OC3. AKA Crazy Possum


Credits

Thanks to God for creating us, and giving us the gift of creativity.

JGreyBear for Ayleid new building blocks NBB, (Textures altered and meshes adjusted to be less seamless.)
JGreyBear also for JG Elven.
Harvest Team for meshes/textures
AWLS Team for (altered) textures
Kastano creating a vampire repelling script for me. Thanks!
Arthmoor for some VWD assets and VWD water plane.
LittleBaron for Ayleid Mummies
Xerus for an optional landscape LOD texture
TinyLamp for armored skeleton meshes/tex that I changed up a bit.
Wormheart for Mages Guild interior with transparent windows.
SomeWelshGuy for the inspiration to make viewable exterior from interior.
stars2heaven for cave floors and ceilings
Gruftikus for tes4ll-IV tool to generate the landscape visible from indoors.
TLBTLBTLB for some Roberts Male Average Armor that I used and retexed.
Vacuity for vafurlogi and virvatuli creatures that I tweaked slightly and the bubble streams.
Vagrant0 for broom weapon mesh.
kaizit for the Swans and ducks, and outhouse.
Momo's Icicle resource (altered)
Meo for Castle Keep resources
Vapor? for Bubble stream (altered)
Malo and elveon for spider creature.
ztree for spider eggs.
Vagrant0 for the broom weapon...not sure if it's his or if I made it myself, but he at least gave me the idea.
Qarl for additional spider webs some of which I adjusted.
Dark Jester for ingredient jars
Stroti for outdoor cave resource, new crockery, Rustic Pieces, New Clutter .....
Sachiel for his rock resource
LogicDragon for realistic ragdoll skeletons
Unknown for the non-crumbling skeleton. The zip file has no readme and I cannot remember..Someone please tell me.
Mr Siika for the bats
Meo for Meo's open books, room dividers, Static dishes, Globes, Ayleid clutter, and others
Loth DeBonneville for some weapons racks
Tarnsman for Salmo the Baker items
Tungol for Tungol's Tapestries (I tweaked them a bit)
EFG for EFG Tapestries
Barabus for the cooking range.
Naruyamatoko (Regality) for some kitchen furniture .
Texian for static water meshes
Madcat221, RDjeke for Ayleid metioric weapons
InDefiance for armor textures that I reworked.
Johnn123 for some textures that I reworked from 'John's Better Rocks' from TES Alliance
SoundDogs for a rolling marble sound that I transformed with Audacity. Cost me money.
Tugol's Tapestries
Salmo the Baker
Loth's weapons racks
Grace Darklings Rug Replacers
Quairtra for semi precious stone resource
JBVW for alluring potion bottle resource.


For Help and advice on the forums...
Darkone
Lanceor
Hickory
Striker879
The Vyper
BBen46
QQix
DraketheDragon
IkeCoast
Legotrash
RGMage2
Unno
Philippepetain
Elianora

I probably left someone out, since my Forum history only goes back so far
and after 2 and half years of work I just can't remember everything. If I have left someone out, Please let me know, so that can give you/them the credit deserved.

Tools Used

7-Zip - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15579
Blender - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12248
BSA Commander - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3311
CrazyBump - http://www.crazybump.com
DDS Converter - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8698
NIFSkope - http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope
Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) - http://obse.silverlock.org/
Photoshop - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
TES4Edit - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11536
TES4Files - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8489
TES4Gecko - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8665
TES Construction Set - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11367
Readme Generator - http://HammondsLegacy.com/obmm/tools_readme_generator1.asp
Wrye Bash - http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Wrye%20Bash.html
Audacity
Construction set extender



Licensing/Legal

Any of my work may be freely used as long as it is not for profit and credit is given to me for my work.
A word of caution though... I have used many modders resources as well as mods used with permission from
other authors.

I have made changes to some of these and did my best to preface the file names with OC3 in cases where I
used and altered someone elses work. I also tried to keep resources in folders named after the original
authors to avoid confusion and credit them. If you are uncertain whether or not the file is part of a modders
resource, it is best to ask permission first.