Hello, This is really impressive and wonderfully put together, after reading what you were trying to do with this mod, your time and effort, and thought just shows and shows, and I get the feeling its still a future wip and you still have a few ideas left what your might like to do ? just one screen images alone was wonderful to look at, gave you kudo's alone on that, and tracking ........
Hey jaderiver, thank you for your kind words, The reason that the exterior is not over the top is because anything I would put up next would ruin performance and the setting. Truth be told I was tempted many times to expand on the exterior and had to hold myself back just to keep the right balance between surrounding natural habitat and the buildings. Same goes for the interiors, however this does not mean that people cannot furnish it themselves with a house decoration mod. So in that regard I do not think I am going to add anything more to this mod, I hope this answers your question.
Haven't downloaded yet, but looking at the images, I can say that the house looks impressive. A design par excellence. However, a house that big would be too quiet without any children. Will you include Hearthfire or Multiple Adoption to this mod in the future? Not actually a request but since I never fail to adopt at least 2 kids in all my games, I would only be interested in this if it is adoption friendly. Thanks.
I was afraid someone would ask me that When making the mod I made it intentionally not dependent on any DLC. The idea with this mod was to offer people a performance friendly in between of a large castle and a small shack. I found large castles to be a performance killers and the small player owned shacks simply too small, not worthy of a champion of Skyrim. Unfortunately I am not familiar with the adoption mechanics in the creation kit and it would most likely cause problems for me. I would like to leave that to someone that is more experienced with it so that you will get a better result. In that regard anyone who wants to add to this mod is welcome to do so.
a small note about the size of the interiors: I have tried to keep the size of the interiors true to their exterior dimensions, although seeing the screenshots you would imagine the interiors to be massive and disproportionate to their exterior size, however they are not.
Gave it a try. It was obvious you got a knack for creative design. That building with the stairway to the dungeon was so cool. Love the citadel design, and the endless number of dark rooms down there. The circular shapes of the rooms, and all the heavy stone rafters supporting the roof really immerse you in the nostalgia that is Skyrim.
Here comes the Kraken: Bug reports :)
--The countless load screens. I think the "entrances" to places shouldn't have a separate load screen, ie the hallway to the citadel, the hallway from the dungeon to the hall of tears, and the staircase to the dungeon. Smaller buildings with no real function like that "resting hall" and "throne hall" should be open and require no load screens I think.
--There were like 3 trees on the outside that were very low res and seemed to be misplaced. See screenshots. It might be my Simply Bigger Trees mod causing trouble.
--The servant lady on the outside had a black face and white body.
--Falling into the "pit" at the bottom of the elevator will leave you stuck.
--The elevator is brilliant. But loading screens kill its efficient use. It takes over 5 loading screens to get to a bottom room from the outside.
--Can't enter the bath.
All in all, pretty impressive work. Looking forward to your future creations. Keep modding!
the deepest halls in the citadel are actually reachable in 3 loads, that is if you jump in the shaft, I figured that is what everyone would start to do after a while. The elevator is built within the same cell, meaning your load times when operating the elevator should be only a fraction of the normal load times.
The ghost trees can appear the first time you enter the cell from a neighbouring cell. (instead of fast travelling there) I think it has to do with LOD of the trees that once stood there, your save game has to register that the trees are no longer there is my guess, once you either reload the cell or enter and exit an interior cell on the estate it should go away and never come back.
I am not sure how black the face is but slight color difference between the head and body is normal, but if it is really off then that might be a gray face bug, which is then probably caused by your save game, in which case you can try exporting her facegen data with the creation kit.
the water drainage pit of the elevator is indeed a trap, but it is also obvious, I could have built an invisible wall but I did not want to deny people the experience of getting stuck.
You cannot enter the bath in the bathhouse because somehow the meshes of the structure cover the bathtub. not sure why Bethesda decided to mesh something that is invisible but I found it out during my trial runs, it was either scrap the interior or go with it.
thanks again for your feedback.
edit: I checked your screenshot in regards to the black face and that does indeed look like a gray face bug, by the looks of the screenshot you have turned her into a follower, this likely had influence on it, if exporting her facegen data does not work then you can go into her character edit window in the creation kit and slide the interpolation level of her nose color, I found that to be a good solution when everything else fails. Do not forget to export her facegen data again, then save.
Looks impressive, and I salute the end result, but the mod still needs work to be a finished product. For one thing, you've fallen into the sinkhole that many novice home creators have by thinking more is...well, more.Too often, it isn't. One of the ways of really separating the pros from the rest of the pack is to look around for cloned items. This is a bad thing, and I note from the screenshots, you have a fair number of them, such as the banks and banks of identical chests in the vault, and other such occurrences throughout the mod, and that's just from looking at the screenshots. (For other examples, look at the rows of the same kind of urn behind both merchants in the trade house, or what about the ones behind the enchanter?) Don't get me wrong, and I do think you have talent. Back in 2012, this would have likely been one of the top mods, but Skyrim homes have come a long way since then! I think this could be an excellent work, if you simply used a wider variety of assets, added a bit more clutter, and cut down (way down) on the cloned items. Hopefully, you'll use this mod to develop your talents, and I look forward to seeing what you're able to come up with in the future!
Well the mod is more than what the screenshots show but it is true the interiors are not clutter heaven, this was intentional so that the load times would not be that long and it would also not butcher FPS for people that have a medium or low end PC. The tradehouse is being run by a traders family and should not been seen as seperate traders. The reason behind the interiors not being over the top is because I wanted to keep it simple, this is, in my opinion, how the interiors should look like in a harsh land like Skyrim, simple and not stand out like you just entered a candy store.
I can understand wanting to keep it simple, and there are some good modders here who do manage to find that sweet spot. ClefJ is one of them, for example. To me the biggest issue is the repetitive objects, more than anything else; I hate looking at blocks of the same thing, but that could just be me. I will say that the outside is quite well done, and I'm glad you picked a unique location for the home; too many just plop their creations down right outside of whiterun.
Obsydianshade. . .All I could do is shake my head when I read your "review". I checked and didn't find any mods made by you, so I'm not sure where your "expertise" comes from. I've taken the time to learn the CK and I've created my own home so I know the purpose of "cloning" items. When I go to the grocery store, there are rows and rows of "cloned" items on the shelf, same in a department store. "Cloned items" are not a bad thing when you are trying to achieve a uniform look (as in the room of chests). I find it funny that you say "more is. . .well, more. Too often, it isn't" yet a few sentences down you tell the modder to add "a bit more clutter". I assume that you were trying to be helpful, but it came across a little snobbish, which I'm sure you didn't mean to be.
SIRIUS2U: You did a remarkable job on this! So impressive! I LOVED the room of chests. This is exactly what I look for in a player home. In the home I've built for myself, I have 36 chests to store armor/weapons/other items by type and style of item. The fact that you lined a circular area with rectangle items was awesome. I also love how big the place is. I've always scratched my head when I keep seeing "shack" and "cozy" pop up in houses for the "Dragonborn". Large/grand houses like this are really rare, and I applaud you for it. I think the reason they are rare is because large houses are way more difficult to pull off, and most beginning house modders don't have the creative skills to build them. So they stick to "shacks" or "cozy" houses because it's easier that way. Also, people don't realize that it is NOT that easy to clutter huge places like this. And the fact, that there are mods out there that allow the player to do their own decorating like Jaxonz Positioner for example to suit their own needs.
Again, great job on this. The screenshots look great! I think you did an amazing job on this. Also gave you a "kudos" for making a rare large house mod.
Indycurt: one does not have to be a modder themself to know what a good mod is. Just as we do not have to be movie makers to know what a good movie is. Expertise can come from testing mods and being very knowledgeable about the game. So ObsydianShade can not only make an "expert" opinion but she has a point.
Also, IMO, the Dragonborn does not necessarily require a massive home. The Dragonborn could be a simple hunter, for example. (Like Christ being a simple carpenter.) However, in my view the Dragonborn should be able to take over pretty much anyplace in the game he/she wishes. (Although I play "morally", perhaps to the extreme.)
sirius2u: I think a mod without a lot of clutter may encourage people to learn how to pick-up, move and place their own clutter. It generally "sticks" after the second time, in my experience. But with containers and even auto-sorting people have no reason to learn how to move their own. What I think would be interesting is a mod house without any/many containers at all, having mostly shelves, table tops and open crates and such. That would certainly discourage hoarding. LOL.
I've found that first-person in walk mode works best for picking-up and placing items. The Jaxonz Positioner works, but when I got rid of the mod house I was using (original Castle Strunmah) the placed items were still there, hanging in the air.
indeed another reason I did not stuff the interiors is because I wanted to give people room to place their own furnitures and tweak the interiors to their personal preference, which you can do nowadays with several furniture mods. I would definitely had created more shelves to put stuff on if the engine handled placing stuff as good as it did with Morrowind, seeing how annoying that is right now it was not really an option.
Installed to take a look. Although I never got the key, what I saw seemed very impressive. Ended up getting stuck in the forge/bath area, probably because I didn't have a key.
You did not hold back with financing the various merchants. I don't know that I like them having such sums. Just a personal opinion or preference on that. (I had a level 53 play through not too long ago and had over 750k in gold, on top of every house in the game. Was too much to spend.)
Although too large for my current play style, I do like installing and exploring such expansive places. Your place seemed as large as a castle, which I like exploring but rarely try living out of. However, I am sure many others will love such a large estate.
Great job!
EDIT: Re-read your description. Looks like I got stuck in the elevator because I didn't know how to use it. I pretty much just jumped in.
I do not think I have ever had more than 10k gold on my level 60 character, mostly because trading was annoying, with traders running out of gold quickly and you having to have to wait a couple of days to trade with them again.
22 comments
The reason that the exterior is not over the top is because anything I would put up next would ruin performance and the setting. Truth be told I was tempted many times to expand on the exterior and had to hold myself back just to keep the right balance between surrounding natural habitat and the buildings. Same goes for the interiors, however this does not mean that people cannot furnish it themselves with a house decoration mod.
So in that regard I do not think I am going to add anything more to this mod, I hope this answers your question.
I was afraid someone would ask me that
When making the mod I made it intentionally not dependent on any DLC. The idea with this mod was to offer people a performance friendly in between of a large castle and a small shack. I found large castles to be a performance killers and the small player owned shacks simply too small, not worthy of a champion of Skyrim.
Unfortunately I am not familiar with the adoption mechanics in the creation kit and it would most likely cause problems for me. I would like to leave that to someone that is more experienced with it so that you will get a better result.
In that regard anyone who wants to add to this mod is welcome to do so.
a small note about the size of the interiors: I have tried to keep the size of the interiors true to their exterior dimensions, although seeing the screenshots you would imagine the interiors to be massive and disproportionate to their exterior size, however they are not.
Here comes the Kraken: Bug reports :)
--The countless load screens. I think the "entrances" to places shouldn't have a separate load screen, ie the hallway to the citadel, the hallway from the dungeon to the hall of tears, and the staircase to the dungeon. Smaller buildings with no real function like that "resting hall" and "throne hall" should be open and require no load screens I think.
--There were like 3 trees on the outside that were very low res and seemed to be misplaced. See screenshots. It might be my Simply Bigger Trees mod causing trouble.
--The servant lady on the outside had a black face and white body.
--Falling into the "pit" at the bottom of the elevator will leave you stuck.
--The elevator is brilliant. But loading screens kill its efficient use. It takes over 5 loading screens to get to a bottom room from the outside.
--Can't enter the bath.
All in all, pretty impressive work. Looking forward to your future creations. Keep modding!
the deepest halls in the citadel are actually reachable in 3 loads, that is if you jump in the shaft, I figured that is what everyone would start to do after a while. The elevator is built within the same cell, meaning your load times when operating the elevator should be only a fraction of the normal load times.
The ghost trees can appear the first time you enter the cell from a neighbouring cell. (instead of fast travelling there)
I think it has to do with LOD of the trees that once stood there, your save game has to register that the trees are no longer there is my guess, once you either reload the cell or enter and exit an interior cell on the estate it should go away and never come back.
I am not sure how black the face is but slight color difference between the head and body is normal, but if it is really off then that might be a gray face bug, which is then probably caused by your save game, in which case you can try exporting her facegen data with the creation kit.
the water drainage pit of the elevator is indeed a trap, but it is also obvious, I could have built an invisible wall but I did not want to deny people the experience of getting stuck.
You cannot enter the bath in the bathhouse because somehow the meshes of the structure cover the bathtub. not sure why Bethesda decided to mesh something that is invisible but I found it out during my trial runs, it was either scrap the interior or go with it.
thanks again for your feedback.
edit: I checked your screenshot in regards to the black face and that does indeed look like a gray face bug, by the looks of the screenshot you have turned her into a follower, this likely had influence on it, if exporting her facegen data does not work then you can go into her character edit window in the creation kit and slide the interpolation level of her nose color, I found that to be a good solution when everything else fails. Do not forget to export her facegen data again, then save.
Well the mod is more than what the screenshots show but it is true the interiors are not clutter heaven, this was intentional so that
the load times would not be that long and it would also not butcher FPS for people that have a medium or low end PC.
The tradehouse is being run by a traders family and should not been seen as seperate traders.
The reason behind the interiors not being over the top is because I wanted to keep it simple, this is, in my opinion, how the interiors should look like in a harsh land like Skyrim, simple and not stand out like you just entered a candy store.
SIRIUS2U: You did a remarkable job on this! So impressive! I LOVED the room of chests. This is exactly what I look for in a player home. In the home I've built for myself, I have 36 chests to store armor/weapons/other items by type and style of item. The fact that you lined a circular area with rectangle items was awesome. I also love how big the place is. I've always scratched my head when I keep seeing "shack" and "cozy" pop up in houses for the "Dragonborn". Large/grand houses like this are really rare, and I applaud you for it. I think the reason they are rare is because large houses are way more difficult to pull off, and most beginning house modders don't have the creative skills to build them. So they stick to "shacks" or "cozy" houses because it's easier that way. Also, people don't realize that it is NOT that easy to clutter huge places like this. And the fact, that there are mods out there that allow the player to do their own decorating like Jaxonz Positioner for example to suit their own needs.
Again, great job on this. The screenshots look great! I think you did an amazing job on this. Also gave you a "kudos" for making a rare large house mod.
Also, IMO, the Dragonborn does not necessarily require a massive home. The Dragonborn could be a simple hunter, for example. (Like Christ being a simple carpenter.) However, in my view the Dragonborn should be able to take over pretty much anyplace in the game he/she wishes. (Although I play "morally", perhaps to the extreme.)
sirius2u: I think a mod without a lot of clutter may encourage people to learn how to pick-up, move and place their own clutter. It generally "sticks" after the second time, in my experience. But with containers and even auto-sorting people have no reason to learn how to move their own. What I think would be interesting is a mod house without any/many containers at all, having mostly shelves, table tops and open crates and such. That would certainly discourage hoarding. LOL.
I've found that first-person in walk mode works best for picking-up and placing items. The Jaxonz Positioner works, but when I got rid of the mod house I was using (original Castle Strunmah) the placed items were still there, hanging in the air.
_____________________________
My Stuff:
Cracked Tusk Keep Tweaked: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71322
Ruined Whiterun Farmhouse Tweaked: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68392
SPH1's Rorikstead Farm House: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68880
SPH1's Saxon Norman Rorikstead Fort: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71690
indeed another reason I did not stuff the interiors is because I wanted to give people room to place their own furnitures and tweak the interiors to their personal preference, which you can do nowadays with several furniture mods.
I would definitely had created more shelves to put stuff on if the engine handled placing stuff as good as it did with Morrowind, seeing how annoying that is right now it was not really an option.
You did not hold back with financing the various merchants. I don't know that I like them having such sums. Just a personal opinion or preference on that. (I had a level 53 play through not too long ago and had over 750k in gold, on top of every house in the game. Was too much to spend.)
Although too large for my current play style, I do like installing and exploring such expansive places. Your place seemed as large as a castle, which I like exploring but rarely try living out of. However, I am sure many others will love such a large estate.
Great job!
EDIT: Re-read your description. Looks like I got stuck in the elevator because I didn't know how to use it. I pretty much just jumped in.
_____________________________
My Stuff:
Cracked Tusk Keep Tweaked: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71322
Ruined Whiterun Farmhouse Tweaked: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68392
SPH1's Rorikstead Farm House: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68880
SPH1's Saxon Norman Rorikstead Fort: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71690
I do not think I have ever had more than 10k gold on my level 60 character, mostly because trading was annoying,
with traders running out of gold quickly and you having to have to wait a couple of days to trade with them again.
I mean, I'm absolutely DLing this anyway, it just seems waaaaaay too big to not be bigger on the inside.
Although it seems like a lot the place will become really small once you know the layout.