Name: Elsweyr_Leyawiin_Topal Bay Walkabout
Author: Angkor

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/30816
Version: v 1.00

Date: 6 December 2013
Category: Dungeon, Ayleid, Landscape
Requirements: Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.214, Shivering Isles,
Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina by Iliana:
http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/files/file/297-elsweyr-the-deserts-of-anequina

Optional but highly recommended:
Akaviri Kojima Extended @ http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40832



====================
0. PRELUDE
====================

Besides being a hommage to Iliana's wonderful "Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina" with this mod I want to honour the names of Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs, who I knew as G'Kar and doctor Stephen Franklin in the Babylon 5 sf-space opera.
I've called this mod Elsweyr_Leyawiin_Topal Bay for this is what it is doing, the esp is named Walkabout.esp for this is what it intents to do.


====================
1. SHORT DESCRIPTION
====================


While walking from Elsweyr to Leyawiin along the Topal Bay shoreline, it came to my attention that the landscape here needed an adjustment to the world of beauty I just left behind. So I transformed it into a gardenlike landscape with a hugh [cave/Ayleid]dungeon.
The intention of this mod is to give you a walkabout and without a certain level of confusion there is not much to walk about, so, if you get confused, that's intended :)
The region has the Harborer road as its north border, Elsweyr in the west, Leyawiin County in the east and the Topal Bay shoreline as its south border. Landmarks are fort Walda in the west, Halfway Inn on the shoreline and a lake district - Garden of Delenn - in the east.
The G'Kar dungeon is a system of interconnected caves with numerous entrances that runs through this entire region. At its heart are the combat caves where you find the best loot, thoughest enemies and the underground entrances to G'Kar's Deep. These combat caves are embedded by a ring system of small interconnected low combat caves. In any default dungeon there is a flow from its entrance to its deepest level where you find the end boss with the best loot, the G'Kar dungeon however is special because it does not have this flow. Its intention is to give you a free walk with at any moment a free choice between going up or down, left or right or what I call a "walkabout" :)
G'kar's Deep is an ancient Ayleid city. Its main hall is the Gathering and it has a West and East section. In the East you find the Leyawiin entrances, Valendel and the East Wing, where the West section has the Elsweyr entrances, Dalensel and the West Wing, all of these have entrances which can be found above AND under groundlevel. The Gathering has three entrances - East Wing, West Wing and Mara's Heritage - and one exit to the Nol'Y'Bab, which is the transit between G'Kar's Deep and the Rim.
The Rim is a system of spaces that are connected with each other through magical portals.
At this moment it is a Work In Progress with as goal to make an underground connection between this cave system and one similar in the AKE mod. You can find G'Kar's Deep Entrance, the Rune Path, the Lost Section and the City of Lost Hope here.
G'Kar's Deep differs from the dungeon in that it has a flow leading you from its entrances via the Gathering to the Rim ...
There are 4 player homes: the Halfway Inn, N'Qat G'Kar, the Stronghold and the Lost Section.

There are ingame readmes that follow a timeline, starting with Frankly's notebook at Second Seed 3E428 and ending with San's "The Day After" note dd 3th of Sun's Height 3E434.
At the entrances to this region I've placed respawning desks with useful items and though I've called this mod "walkabout" most times it's really more of a "jumpabout".
some references to Babylon 5 can be found by those who know, this mod is Tamrielic Lore friendly making it a pleasure for adventurers, travellers and wanderers alike.
One way to enter this mod would be to go south from Leyawiin along the Topal Bay until you find the first readme - Frankly's Welcome - in the shrine near the rowboat that brings you to the Halfway Inn but any other way would be fine too.
In oblivion I like to Fragg Hell with my bladeweaver, but I'm no pedo, so expect Bosstype enemies and heavy combat all along the line ^_^



=========
2. QUESTS
=========
All quests are implicit - no pop-ups or markers - and some are supplemental to other Oblivion quests.
As an example, if you find one of the hidden entrances to the Gathering, you won't get a message and if you find there an Ayleid statue you could bring it to Umbacano in the IC.

This being said, there are some key quests leading to the keys of the Gathering, the Rim and your player homes.
To summarize:
For the basement you need Frankly's key and in the Halfway Inn cottage is an indication of where to find it, for N'Qat G'Kar you need the Dungeon key, which is given to you in the basement and to use the portals that link these with the Stronghold you need the Walkabout key which might be hard to find because it is in the Stronghold.
you can enter the Gathering via the West or the East Wing but both these entrances need the Key of Gathering, copies of which are hidden in Dalensel and the East Wing. Another way of entering the Gathering is through is hidden entrances: one can be found in the landscape, another in G'Kar's Deep and the last in one of the combat caves in the dungeon, all these lead to Mara's Heritage which has an exit to the Gathering.
And last but not least, to enter Nol'Y'Bab you need the Key of Nol'Y'Bab which can be found in both the Gathering as the Red District - which is a WIP part of the dungeon.

Quest rewards are a bit ambiguous, using FCOM I find the best items on my enemies though skillbooks, soulgems, Welkynd stones[in respawning containers], armor and weapon sets are to be found. There are special containers with ingredients for the mage, warrior or scout modes of playing this game.


================
3. COMPATIBILITY
================
I've made this mod with Iliana's mod loaded first so it's compatible with hers. Moreover, in any case the question was raised I've given her mod priority.
Taking place outside the official oblivion worldspace there is only the FCOM-related issue of creatures being spawned inside rocks. Perhaps someone can take a look at that, though it's not a major problem. From .72 on it is compatible with Kragenir's Death Quest.
It's also compatible with Akaviri Kojima Extended[AKE] [id=40832] which places a playerhome in this region. When using AKE V5 or higher you will find an underground connection between the bathroom and the version 1.00 dungeon. I've mentioned AKE as optional because you won't have any problems playing walkabout without it though many of the readme's will become unintelligible, if you play without Iliana's mod however many tears will ripp your landscape.


=========
4. STATUS
=========
Version 0.72.
The landscape is at 75%, the dungeon at about 99%, fort Walda about 25% and the Ayleid city is still unknown. There is an Oblivion portal in fort Walda and an Oblivion door in the Gathering, both leading "nowhere" in this version.
This being said, 0.72 is fully playable and enjoyable, see the comments section for update references.

Version 1.00.
I haven't touched the landscape so it is as it was.
G'Kar dungeon.
Has been extended with the Ring system. This system originated from Razacovek's remark in the comments section of this mod concerning the consistency of the dungeon and it is not only a radical change in the layout but also a massive expansion of its volume.
G'Kar's Deep.
Has been revamped and - where neccessary - rebuild to make it "a shiny beacon in the dark".
The Rim.
The first three rooms have been opened and made accessible for public use.
AKE-Walkabout.
For AKE users, up from version 5 the Topal Bay playerhouse now has in its bathroom a connection with the Rickety G'Kar cave which is part of theversion 1.00 G'Kar dungeon.

Future Versions ..
Having a new look into the landscape ...
Some of the old combat caves need some serious revamping but most must be rebuild, I'm thinking Algos style [see AKE]. With this done I can finetune the entire dungeon to make it more of a unity.
Though on my pc framerate is not a problem, some of the bigger complexes in G'kar's Deep might be split - this depends on player input through the comments section.
Extentions of the Rim.
Whereas I realize that in principal I could make indefinetly many new caves here, I think I have better things to do with my life so at this moment my commitment is that next year the Rim section must be done.
Also for this next expansion I want to add at least three massive lava filled caves into the Red District [AKE: Mythos] with a connection between the Rune Path and the G'Kar dungeon.
With this all done well, I was thinking on some underground necropolis with connections to the dungeon and fort Walda, which itself has great potential too and is now no more than a placeholder.



A French translation - with many thanks to A. - of V0.72 of this mod can be found at the La Confr�rie website:
www.confrerie-des-traducteurs.fr/oblivion/mods/cyrodiil/lieux/periple_dans_la_baie_de_topal.php

And for all concerned, I give my full permission for you to upload the Walkabout mod to any website relevant, just inform me, that's enough :)

=========
5. ISSUES
=========
Fps,fps,fps .. I could say that the next generation pc will solve this, but if anyone could force Oblivion to use memory properly, problems might be solved here and now. I left this one in because now I'm playing with he next generation of pc, Windows 7 - 64 bits and use the RAM booster so FPS is no longer a problem for me. If you're still playing with XP - 32 bits however, know that there is a - relative - simple solution to ALL your problems :)
Also, if you want to use this mod to benchmark your pc, numerous BenchMarks have been placed throughout the landscape.
There are some heavy loads here, so always make a safe before going through a load door and if you have a huge fps-drop after going through, make a new safe and reload, it might help.
At times creatures spawn inside rocks, use console TCL to deal with that.
I've made transition caves between landscape and dungeon or Ayleid which are very small and excellent places for a safe save game.


=======
6. TIPS
=======
Be well prepared.
Check your savegame for the Abomb.
If Hard locklevel is anything more than only an annoyance, you are not well prepared !!
Any door you want to use, SAVE first !!!.
Perhaps one day those fine people in Alabaster start buying stuff, but until that day there is no barter in this region, so do not forget your Midas chest or something ..
When your FPS is very low in the Lake Region, turn off all shadows and water reflections in your ingame video options menu.
If you think the caves are too bright, lower your gamma in this ingame video options menu.
Most enemies don't have a Detect Life, so invisibility might work ...
Using Midas Astral Combat you can fight your enemies one at a time ...
Be sure your weapons and spells do serious damage ...
Spare your potions for you'll need them later ...
Oh, and if death is all you find here, they say it's good fishing weather in Elsweyr, you can always come back later :)


Concluding this readme with the words of Frankly Steve:
Have fun on your walkabout and who knows,
maybe you meet yourself here ...
Hope you like it ...

And the new Keeper of the Garden of Delenn has asked me to add:
.. we don't want the WRONG people here,
so if you value your life ..
.. be somewhere else ..



============
7. THANK YOU
============
Jill Bolte Taylor @ http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

for showing me the importance of the creative process.
Bethesda for giving me such fine tools to work with.
Aliera Caine for your continuous support for this work.
All the other modders of this community without whom I would have stopped playing this game a long time ago ..
And all those who liked my work enough to post a comment about it ...

Thank You All :)

===========
8. VERSIONS
===========

0.70
Initial release


0.71
- removed COBL dependency
- some minor adjustments in the Ayleid city

0.72
- small landscape adjustment for compatiblity with Kragenir's Death Quest
- removed unnecessary references - thx Belushi :_)

1.00
- massive expansion of the dungeon
- massive expansion of G'Kar's Deep
- first sections of the Rim have opened up
- first underground connection with AKE has been made, proving the concept :)