****************************************************** The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion Silgrad Tower - The Forgotten Garden teaser Mod (Release v1.0) Release Date - November 30th 2009 created by the Silgrad Tower team http://silgradmodding.org/forum/ ******************************************************* Our beta version has been downloaded over 3560 times and we would like to thank everyone for playing The Forgotten Garden. Players reported a few minor problems which have been fixed. Check the following link to report bugs. http://silgradmodding.org/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=164 Release version 1.0. ¤~::Important note.::~¤ A medium to high-end computer is recommended. Some players reported a problem with the teleport spell, cause unknown. If so, please use the console and type "coc w0". ¤~::What is Silgrad Tower?::~¤ Silgrad Tower creates a region of the Morrowind Province's mainland. The region is situated in its own worldspace, which spans 36 quads (or 36864 cells), effectively making it three times the size of Cyrodiil. Two major cities are situated on the landmass; the twin cities of Reich Parkeep/Soluthis and the Imperial charter town Steadhelm. A third city, our capital named Silgrad Tower, is in the wings but not fully placed as of yet. The region is theoretically located on the opposite side of Vvardenfell's western coast, stretching in latitude as far north as Ald'Ruhn and as far south as Hla Oad. To get a better sense of where our region is situated you might want to take a look at Bethesda's old concept map for Morrowind ([URL]http://www.silgrad.com/oblivion/images/maps/Map_arch_TES3_Morrowind_Concept_Map.jpg[/URL]); notice the two cities 'Soluthis' and 'Silgrad Tower' in the northwest? Our mod takes place roughly between those two cities (while at the same time adding in new cities and settlements). The layout of Morrowind changed quite a bit between that concept map and the real game, and our landmass follows the latest official map more closely. Soluthis lies in the forested hills to the north, and is the district seat of House Redoran. When the Empire took control of Morrowind some four hundred years ago they began constructing fortifications in the city on two hills, which have now grown to become a small town called Reich Parkeep. The Hlaalu metropolis Silgrad Tower, currently not available, is situated in the fertile, pleasant south. It's said to be the second largest city in Morrowind, rivalled only by the capital Almalexia and is a natural center for trade and commerce. Steadhelm is an Imperial charter town on the coast of the Inner Sea, bordered by mountains to the north and a huge swamp to the south. Several smaller Dunmer villages and Imperial settlements can also be found in the region, as can numerous farms. Our goal is also to have plenty of adventure beyond the comfort of the city walls. Huge burial tombs lie forgotten in the wilderness, mountain strongholds shelter warlords, renegade Daedra worshippers carry out their sinister rituals in remote shrines, highwaymen rob travellers of loot and life alike - and war drums sound from the west, as barbarians from Skyrim prepare to drive Redoran into the sea. Some of you may be thinking, "Morrowind? Vvardenfell? Is this a TES3 mod, or... what?" And the answer is no, it's not a TES3 mod, it's an Oblivion mod - but we've painstakingly modelled pretty much everything you'll see in our mod from scratch to make you think you're in Morrowind again. Our teammembers have come together with one thing in common above all else - a shared love for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and we want to see the spirit of Morrowind, and the spirit of the lands our team modded for TES3, live on through the new game. ¤~::What is the Silgrad Tower Forgotten Garden teaser mod?::~¤ Long ago, the Dark Elves of the Great House Redoran settled on a peaceful, green island that would one day become the most beautiful garden in Morrowind. On it grew mysterious and exotic plants unlike any others that dotted the vast and diverse landscapes of Tamriel. However, the Redoran people are warriors, not gardeners, and they eventually left the island in search of land more suitable for war. A few short years later, the garden was all but a forgotten legend. Lord Tadanil Balothan of the Redoran Council, only a few decades ago, rediscovered the island, along with all of its natural mysteries. He began a settlement, and named it the Forgotten Garden. The island, once more, was able to return to its former glory. Settlers, and even some of the guilds, are starting to hear about the many wonders that surround this garden. However, the Garden now faces a threat. With Lord Tadanil having recently passed away, and local bandits on the rise, rumors are spreading that the settlement will soon fall to ruin, and that the garden will quietly waste away... ¤~:: Description.::~¤ The main purpose of the Forgotten Garden project is to give players a preview of the kind of quality they can expect in the next releases of Silgrad Tower, and to give players something to do while they’re waiting for the next release. :) The Forgotten Garden project will feature: * New land to explore * Hundreds of custom models * Several fully voiced, unique characters * An estate that you can own (with lots of space for storage!) :) * Quests * Dungeons * Once the player enters Morrowind, the differences from Cyrodiil are many. Pay keen attention to the rumors to learn the lay of this new land. ¤~::How do I install the Forgotten Garden teaser mod?:~¤ To install the plugin, unzip the files into the Data directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\). SI isn't required to play this mod. Files Required: Silgrad_Tower_T.esm Silgrad_Tower_T.esp Silgrad_Tower.bsa Music\silgrad\st_ob_main_theme.mp3 Then start Oblivion, tick the Oblivion.esm, Silgrad_Tower_T.esm, Silgrad_Tower_T.esp, and you can start playing the mod. The esm is based upon the main ST esm and is load order independent. You can move the esm to any position in the load order. You can't use the Silgrad_Tower_T.esm together with the Silgrad_Tower.esm (main esm). ¤~::How do I uninstall the Forgotten Garden teaser mod?:~¤ To uninstall the plugin, delete the files (listed below) in the Data directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\). Files to be deleted: Silgrad_Tower_T.esm Silgrad_Tower_T.esp Silgrad_Tower.bsa Open the music folder and delete the silgrad folder. ¤~:: Possible conflicts?::~¤ This mod doesn't alter anything in the Oblivion worldspaces so it's compatible with the various Oblivion landscape mods etc. If you use KotN (Knights of the Nine add on) you'll hear a few rumors related to this mod. Every other vanilla rumor has been disabled. This doesn't affect the Cyrodiil worldspace (Tamriel), rumors can be heard as usual. ¤~::How do I get to the Forgotten Garden?::~¤ After you've installed our mod and reloaded your last save, you'll get a journal entry. Follow the clues in the entry to begin your journey. NOTE: The transportation spell only works outside city walls and when you're not in combat. ¤~::How do I mod for Silgrad Tower?::~¤ All information regarding this can be found in sandor's article, which is also linked at the top of our forum's overview page: [URL]http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/board.php?boardid=246[/URL] ¤~::Frequently Asked Questions::~¤ 1. When will Silgrad Tower be finished? We don't have a deadline we're working against, preferring instead to maintain a healthy level of fun by modding at our own pace and often doing jobs on the side within our mod that might not count towards our goals for release but are just plain fun to do. We'll release when the regions are generated, our cities have reached a highly playable state and there are roads connecting our towns and larger villages. Naturally we will continue working after we've released and add more and more content to our mod throughout Oblivion's lifespan. Please check our forum for the next release. [URL]http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=10290;[/URL] Silgrad Tower v3.0 [WIP] 2. Why don't you just use TES3 models? It's illegal to distribute Bethesda's models and other assets, meaning that if we ripped TES3 models we would be regarded as an illegal mod and couldn't operate on BSF and other crucial places. We're in it for the long haul, and some of us are already looking forward to an eventual fifth Elder Scrolls game which makes it even more important that we have a firm platform to stand on that doesn't compromise Bethesda's copyrights in any way. Besides that consideration the models in TES3 were highly optimized, to make them run on a mid-range computer in 2002, and would have needed extensive work on them just to bring them up to technical par with what you'd expect from Oblivion. For an experienced modeller, editing an old model in that way and making it look good is usually more work than creating it from scratch. 3. Are you modding Vvardenfell? No, we are modding a region of the Morrowind Province's mainland situated west of Vvardenfell. 4. Will you make the whole Morrowind Province? Perhaps we will expand our landmass in the future as the existing region gets completed, but modding the whole Morrowind Province is not our goal. Our goal is to make the part that we DO mod the best we possibly can. 5. What does the term "Dunmer" mean? "Dunmer" is the name dark elves prefer to call themselves. The term "dark elf" is an Imperial invention. 6. What does the term "Redoran" mean? To say it succinctly, it is a political power in the Morrowind Province who controls the western-most sliver of the Province. More information on them can be found on wikipedia ([URL]http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Redoran[/URL]). 7. Can I use your models/textures in my mod? The short answer is no. The longer answer is that if you want to use something *specific* then please contact sandor or TheImperialDragon (sandor@silgrad.com or TheImperialDragon@silgrad.com), because you might be allowed to use it. An example is Tarnsman, who was granted personal permission to use the ingredient meshes in his "Morrowind Ingredients" mod. Breaking our right to exclusivitivity would be a copyright violation and only result in locked threads/deleted uploads for you and tighter privacy arrangements for us. Given that a lot of modellers share their work freely as modders' resources there's no apparant reason why anyone would want to take our stuff; the only reason one can think of is if they are pursuing the same ideas we are - that of recreating the Morrowind Province. They would be welcome to do so, because a little healthy competition is just a good thing, but to try and do so using our own models and textures against us is unfair. If someone wants to use our assets we would like them to become part of the team instead. We have a history of giving a wide berth to modders who come to us and wants to work together with us on their own pet projects, and they enjoy substantial freedom in the framework of the Silgrad Tower team. Not to mention access to helpful teammembers whom holds expertise in a wide area of the realm of modding, and whom all work towards the same goal. That's what is so great about being in a team, there's always someone there who knows more than you do about something who can help you out when you get stuck, and you may know more about something than he does, and so everyone has a good time and gets to see their creative dreams fulfilled in our massive, sprawling lands. The writer of this very readme was in the same place a few years ago as any new modder in the team is. I'm still here, and having more fun than ever. Give our team a chance and I'm sure it will grow on you the same way it has on me. ¤~::Credits::~¤ Interiors: earendil, sandor, TheImperialDragon, Zurke Exterior: sandor & Zurke Light script: InsanitySorrow Models: Razorwing, SACarrow, TheImperialDragon, Koniption, nick_op, and The Modax Jago. Please check our website as well (see below). Project coordination & Technical aspects (esm, LOD, bsa, region generation) : sandor Quests & In-game map: TheImperialDragon Region preset : TheImperialDragon Voice work coordination & TES4Gecko adaptation: SACarrow Voice artists: Casey, Ibsen's Ghost, Andy Slayer, Cambridge Spy, swthemer Playtesters: - Cambridge Spy - ed_conn - InsanitySorrow - simonp92 - ZDawg Resources: - Kafeid for the Elegant Vests resource. - someone1074 for the capes & cloaks resource - Ghogiel for the Bonemold armor, as well as Cryo and Shmbling_Horde for their Bonemold helmets - Mr Siika for his cliffs, seagulls, chickens and fishing boat. - Grimdeath, B3w4r3, Martigen, Syko Fox, Cryo, Mdogger, Xmarksthespot, Cryonaut, Orix, Renzeekin, and Grimenir for their Lore Creatures Expansion pack: ---------- -LORE CREATURE EXPANSION > Mod and Resource Pack v1.4 < Grimdeath (project head, CS construction) B3w4r3 (summon scripts) Martigen(summon script revisions) Syko Fox (writing, editing) Dwemer Spiders - Cryo_ (model / rigging), Grimdeath (texture / sounds), B3w4r3 (companion script) Frost Giant - Mdogger (model / texture), Xmarksthespot (rigging) Gargoyle - Cryonaut (model edit), Grimdeath (texture), Orix (sounds) Giant Spiders - Cryonaut (model edit / rigging), Xmarksthespot (UVmapping), Grimeath (texture), Renzeekin (Tropical Skin) Golden Saint - Cryo_ (head model), Xmarksthespot (Armor edits), Grimdeath (textures / sounds) Guar - Mdogger (model / texture), Xmarksthespot (rigging), Grimdeath (variation textures / sounds) Herne - Cryonaut (model edits), Grimdeath (textures), Orix (sounds) Hunger - Mdogger (model), Xmarksthespot (rigging), Grimdeath (textures / sounds) Morphoid - Cryonaut (model edits), Grimdeath (textures), Grimdeath (sounds) Pahmar - Cryo_ (model edits / armor textures), Grimdeath (creature textures) Werecroc - Cryonaut (model edits), Xmarksthespot (updated rigging), Grimdeath (textures), Grimenir (quest and morphing script) ---------- Special thanks to: Koniption for her work on the lift the jellyfish; nick_op for his technical work on the LCE creatures and farm animals, and for animating the seagulls; and The Modax Jago for his work on the mesh and texture for the Kwama forager as well as nick_op for his skeleton, rigging, animations and SACarrow for his sounds and getting textures for two different UV maps working together as one on the Kwama forager. Please also check our website for a full and up-to-date list of credits. http://silgradmodding.org/?page_id=80 We would also like to thank Bethesda for making Oblivion, the makers and contributors of TES4Gecko for providing the ultimate modding tool, the makers of TES4Edit, TES4Files, and the makers of NifSkope for creating the perfect application for NIF-related work. ¤~::Contact::~¤ If you have questions regarding the Silgrad Tower mod, please post them on our forum at (http://silgradmodding.org/) and someone will answer you promptly.