ReadMe ST v4.0 ****************************************************** The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion Silgrad Tower - Release v4.0 Beta Release Date - August 23rd 2012 created by the Silgrad Tower team [url]http://silgradmodding.org/[/url] ****************************************************** Silgrad Tower version 4.0. Silgrad Tower is the largest Oblivion mod ever made. The size of the world is over 9 times that of Oblivion. Set east of Cyrodiil in mainland Morrowind, Silgrad Tower draws much inspiration from The Elder Scrolls 3. The Silgrad Tower team is proud to present our Silgrad Tower v4.0 mod. With it, we hope to give players hours of entertainment. Though the mod is not fully complete, there are still many sights to see and much to do within our land. Throughout the year, we have been focusing on the city of Silgrad Tower, and we've successfully added more interiors, quests, and exterior detail to the city. There are over 800 interior cells in our mod. In the download you'll find a spoiler list with quest locations. You don't have to use the list but it could help you in finding interesting locations and give you any hints you might need should you find yourself lost or unsure of what to do. -----A Brief History of The Silgrad Tower Team:----- The Silgrad Tower project first began in 2002. The team created a mod for Morrowind on which our Oblivion version is based heavily upon. In 3 years of work the team crafted a vibrant living world that truly lived up to the bar that Bethesda set with their game. The initial ideas for our Oblivion mod came in 2004 when Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 4. Work began even before the game's release, with models being created, and textures being drawn. The actual modding process began soon after Oblivion's release. In the first four years, we progressed to a stage where the mod was at a satisfactory state. By then, Steadhelm, Ebbedin and Ald Nium were complete. Soluthis was close to being finished as well. Since our V3.0 beta release, we have focused mainly on the city of Silgrad Tower in an attempt to get it as complete as possible before the release of Skyrim. -----Beta version----- The Silgrad Tower v4.0 mod is in the Beta stage of development, so it is still only a work-in-progress, however enough has been made for an enjoyable playing experience, as the entire landmass has been created, most of the interiors have been completed and there are many fully playable quests ready and waiting for any adventurous player to find and complete. -----Silgrad City (WiP)----- Silgrad City Riverside District has two sections Southeast and Northwest. There are an assortment of shops within each section. The shops sell everything from food and potions to weapons. There are also a number of pubs in the area. The Silgrad Guardians patrol here so be on your best behavior. The Riverside District is located within the outer protective walls and surrounded by the Riverside Pathway. The Pathway is a garden style area which gives one access to other districts in the city. Riverside is now fully detailed. The Upper Chambers district is home to the wealthiest citizens of Silgrad Tower. It is the location of the Tower of Silgrad, the site where the Silgrad Tower councilors meet. One of the more noteable features of the Upper Chambers is the sprawling estate of councilor Goldar Valen. The young councilor has established this massive walled complex as both his own personal fortress, as well as a place for the wealthy of Silgrad Tower to gather for a night of revelry and song. Also located in this district are the Hlaalu Savings Bank, Riverside Administration Building, and the guildhalls for the Fighters Guild and the Morag Tong. The Temple District houses the city's temple as its focal point. The temple is surrounded by many gardens, and a statue of Saint Delyn watches over its main entrance. The Slums is a run down community of wooden shacks. Its poor citizens do their best to live from day to day by whatever means they can. A few small gardens provide The Slum's citizens with some of their necessary food supply, but they're clearly too small to support everyone. The Eastside is a middle class district. -----Forgotten Garden----- "The Forgotten Garden" offers new lands to explore, several fully voiced, unique characters and hundreds of new, handmade models. You'll get to explore new dungeons and work your way through new quests, and may even find yourself the owner of an estate with plenty of storage capabilities. Once you enter Morrowind, you'll notice many differences from Cyrodiil... pay keen attention to the rumors to learn the lay of this new land. It was part of our Silgrad Tower v3.0 release, and it is included in this release as well. Additional info: [url]http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24937[/url] -----How to install Silgrad Tower v4.0----- Extract the contents of the downloaded archive to your Oblivion\Data folder. Then start Oblivion, tick Oblivion.esm and Silgrad_Tower.esm and Silgrad_Tower.esp, and you can start playing the mod. You'll get a journal entry shortly afterwards. 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. If you downloaded v3.0 please check the install instructions in the release thread. The esm/esp pair is load order independent. To uninstall, simply delete the following files from your Oblivion\Data folder: Silgrad_Tower.esm Silgrad_Tower.esp Silgrad_Tower.bsa Silgrad_Tower - MiscV4.bsa Silgrad_Tower - Voices.bsa Silgrad_Tower - Voices2.bsa Also open the Oblivion\Data\Music folder and delete the silgrad folder. -----Known Issues----- A medium to high-end computer is recommended. Some players reported a problem with the teleport spell (you have to be outside the city (Tamriel worldspace), not in combat and not in god mode), cause unknown. If so, please use the console and type "coc w0". If you use the Knights of the Nine add-on you'll hear a few rumors from it within ST worldspaces. All other rumors from the game have been disabled while you are in ST worldspaces. Rumors from Oblivion and other mods will still be heard outside of ST worldspaces. Since our mod does not alter anything related to Oblivion there should be no other compatibility issues. The outer height map quads are WiP (Velothi mountains, not generated), the same applies to the Ferry system, the road to Morrowind including the seamless transition, Silgrad City South and Veranis Hall. If you see a Map marker location with a WiP extension, it means that the interior isn't finished or only the entrance can be visited. The in-game map is WiP. -----Interested In Joining The Team?----- While most of our members will be switching over to mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, we will still support our Oblivion mod. If progress is to continue with our TESIV mod, however, we will need a TESIV coordinator. TESIV coordinator [url]http://silgradmodding.org/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=13012[/url] -----FAQ----- 1. When will Silgrad Tower's TESIV: Oblivion mod be finished? Most of our members will begin working on our TESV mod as soon as the game is released. As a result, we will need a new TESIV coordinator if work on the Oblivion mod is to continue. Therefore, it is difficult to say when the Oblivion mod will be finished. 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 wouldbe regarded as an illegal mod and couldn't operate on ESF and other crucial places. We're in it for the long haul and plan to mod for TESV, 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. This release is a preview of that work. 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. 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, 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. -----Internal Credits----- [url]http://silgradmodding.org/?page_id=80[/url] The Core team, honorary members and everyone who participated. Razorwing, TheImperialDragon and SACarrow for their models. Razorwing for hosting Silgrad Tower on Silgrad.com. -----External Credits----- [url]http://silgradmodding.org/?page_id=80[/url] Mr Siika for his resource packs e.g. cliffs, seagulls, chickens and fishing boat. 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. Grimdeath, B3w4r3, Martigen, Syko Fox, Cryo, Mdogger, Xmarksthespot, Cryonaut, Orix, Renzeekin, and Grimenir for their Lore Creatures Expansion pack. Prometheus for the statue set 'Prom' some of which adorn the Forgotten Garden. Phitt for his help in greatly improving the FPS issue in the Forgotten Garden 2.0 beta release. Phitt for his Dwemer and Daedric tileset. Ibsen's Ghost for his extensive voice-work. If you're not on the list please contact us and we'll add you to the credits. Special thanks to Koniption for her work on the lift, the Dres Scuttler 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. 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 our mod, please post them on our forum and a team member will answer you promptly. [url]http://silgradmodding.org/forum[/url] [url]http://silgradmodding.org/forum/index.php?page=Board&boardID=246[/url]