[Modder Claim] -- Plot 32 -- HangHimHigher

[HangHimHigher]

So I'm planning on making a small cottage hidden away in plot 32.  I'll be using daedric resources, including some resized vanilla meshes.  The idea is to make an unassuming but slightly odd exterior presence.

The interior will probably be a lot weirder.  I'm thinking of having a "normal-ish" cottage interior with an object which can transport the player into a more expansive catacomb-like place.  Haven't exactly planned that out, but I figure because it's going to be independent of the exterior anyway size-wise, I may as well start on the exterior now, or soon.

I will script the entire cottage so that it only appears at night, though doing this in a way that avoids the house just "appearing" on the player if they happen to be nearby will be tricky.

Also, I'm planning on having the house being in chaos when anyone first arrives there.  The idea is that characters from my mods/WIPs have gotten loose and taken over the place, and that the player will have to help re-assert order before they can get to the modder avatar (me).

[HangHimHigher]

Hey guys,

Don't really want to do this, but I figured since some people were asking for more plots over at the official forums, I'll have to make the world's lamest announcement ever and say that my plot is now up for grabs.  These last two months, I've been completely swamped by "the Real World", and while I think a better person could have balanced their time well enough to contribute something here, I don't think I can.

My workload will clear up in December, so I'll be back then to offer my services in dialogue or something like that, if there's anything left to do.

I'm sorry about not being able to live up to my word.  For what it's worth, having just had a look at some of the other plots, you are all intimidatingly talented people, and I would have been hard-pressed to make something which wasn't an epic disappointment anyway!

[Melchior Dahrk]

Hey. You do what you need to do, HHH. But please don't go on account of seeing what other people are making! I think everyone has something different to contribute. There are some people with many years of modding experience here and there are some others who are using this project as an opportunity to break into it. The level of polish on the claims isn't what matters; it's the level of contribution, any level of it, that matters here. Even just having an avatar wandering the city, shows participation in the community as far as this project is concerned. And at the very least, even if you aren't able to come back in December, you will get that level of association if you want it.

There's no problem with getting too busy to work on things. All modders can relate to that. Just look at me and my Lyithdonea project. I have been working on it for over 8 years now. It's a big project to do on one's own, but no one would believe me if I told them I worked on it diligently with no breaks for that entire time.

So if you do find that you have more time, you're welcome to come jump back in at any time. I don't even see a need to revoke the claim. If you don't end up making it back, I'll just put up some scaffolding and a weary Argonian named "Hang-Him-Higher" who bemoans the stress and responsibility his life requires him to exhibit. As I expressed on the Bethsoft forums, there are limitless plots available. I'll make a Venetian expansion of the city if we get that many people wanting to contribute.

[HangHimHigher]

Thank you for your encouragement and the very kind offer, Melchior.  I definitely see your point about the focus being on making a contribution, rather than making something breathtaking.  I'll be back in December to add something in on the plot.  It's probably not going to be anything spectacular, but at the very least there'll be a house of some sort, an avatar, and some dialogue.  Maybe even a quest or two, if there's still room.  This much at least, I can do!

[HangHimHigher]

Ha!  And I bet nobody here thought I'd make it back!

I've finished a tiny, odd, underwhelming little claim... but it's there and ready, with a fair bit of dialogue and a few odd characters!  It's not entirely finished because I need to tweak some position-specific scripts once it's incorporated into the ModTown landmass, and it needs a quest or something because as things stand, the interior is sealed off from the world.  But most of the work is done.  Shall update again when all is ready for merging with the esm (which I've been having some issues with -- see my thread on the construction set page on the main MW forum).

[Melchior Dahrk]

I just tested out at least a portion of your claim, HHH. And I have to say... your writing is phenomenal. I felt myself drawn into what was going on here already. And that scripted bridge was neat - though it looks like I need to move some trees out of the way since anything you did there got overwritten. Did you want the ground texture to remain as grass under your tower or to be ash or something? The water filled Daedric braziers aren't operating the way you want them to I think. Looks like you replaced one of the flipping textures but not all of them. So that it will blink yellow every once in a while. You'll need to edit the water texture for every frame the well uses in the texture animation.

Megaera's story was awesome by the way. Was that an adapted fairy tale? And the Daedric poetry was really well written too.

Also, you should replace the contain_corpse10_silent. That one's actually a unique container that contains a key.

edit: oh, and I just realized that maybe I was supposed to go back into the tower after levitating out to get back to the unknown realm to confront who I suppose was that woman's brother?

[HangHimHigher]

I just tested out at least a portion of your claim, HHH. And I have to say... your writing is phenomenal. I felt myself drawn into what was going on here already. And that scripted bridge was neat - though it looks like I need to move some trees out of the way since anything you did there got overwritten. Did you want the ground texture to remain as grass under your tower or to be ash or something? The water filled Daedric braziers aren't operating the way you want them to I think. Looks like you replaced one of the flipping textures but not all of them. So that it will blink yellow every once in a while. You'll need to edit the water texture for every frame the well uses in the texture animation.

Megaera's story was awesome by the way. Was that an adapted fairy tale? And the Daedric poetry was really well written too.

Also, you should replace the contain_corpse10_silent. That one's actually a unique container that contains a key.

edit: oh, and I just realized that maybe I was supposed to go back into the tower after levitating out to get back to the unknown realm to confront who I suppose was that woman's brother?

Thank you for the feedback and for testing it!  I had more fun writing the dialogue than I expected.  I wrote Megaera's story to be sort of like a twisted version of a fairy tale, so I'm glad it came across like that to you, but I didn't base it on anything.  The Daedric poetry is taken straight from my WIP (where you might actually meet its author) -- glad the poems work!

Yeah, I did try moving the trees.  I'd appreciate it if you could re-move them out of the way.  I think grass textures are fine for underneath the tower.

As for the Daedric wells, I didn't edit them -- they're taken straight from Midgetalien's Daedric Resources 6.  Though I did notice the yellow blinking thing before.  I also don't know how to work with texture animations... is it complicated?  If so, I might just leave the wells as odd and blink-y for now and fix it later when I have a chance.

No, the unknown realm is actually a locale from my WIP -- the idea is that because things have gotten so weird, you accidentally end up there once  (you shouldn't be able to go back there).  When we get to quests, I'll add Beoren (the lady's brother) in somewhere on Modtown and write up a quest where you can go off to find him.  So don't worry if it seems like a dead end now.

Here is the esp with the skeleton corpse changed: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ss6y_pJT86WlFXeEZSMXZyb28/view?usp=sharing -- thanks for pointing that out!

[Melchior Dahrk]

Alright. This and Flash's claim are merged in for the next update. I'll just wait for a few more claims before updating the Master file for everyone.

Again, awesome job on this, HHH!

[HangHimHigher]

Hey everyone,

Unfortunately due to recent medical issues [I posted on the MW forums explaining; see here: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1605928-an-alpha-release-and-a-goodbye/ ], I will not be able to complete the quests and dialogue for my claim.  I'm sorry.  Oddly enough, my claim actually has a story about me disappearing... which is what I'm doing in real life as well, I guess.  Perhaps I predicted my own demise?!

At present (the claim I submitted to be merged into the master), the actual interior of my claim is inaccessible.  There isn't that much inside, but there is a little more explanatory dialogue.  If you want the player to be able to get in, look at the local script of the door into the realm.  Its variable "state" has to be set to 1 to allow entry.  Feel free to do what you want with it.  The current in-story setup is that the Watcher (the statue head hovering over the door) won't let you in.

Hope the project goes well.  Again, sorry I couldn't do my part properly.