Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - City of Sunev

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - City of Sunev

A highly detailed medium sized city in the lower Niben region of Cyrodiil. Over a dozen buildings arranged in a city with customized walls and other structures. Currently features over two dozen interiors, over 75 new characters, as well as a fort & mine complex at the intersection of a new road linking the city with the yellow road.

City of Sunev, A mod for Oblivion.

Description: A highly detailed medium sized city in the lower Niben region of Cyrodiil. Over a dozen buildings arranged in a city with customized walls and other structures. Currently features over two dozen interiors, over 75 new characters, as well as a fort & mine complex at the intersection of a new road linking the city with the yellow road.

Please see the readme file, some sites allow you to write as much detail as you like, others don't. The readme file contains all the information on the city that is available.

Table of Contents: --copy or type the number into the find box (ctrl+f) to jump ahead.

1.0 Installation

2.0 Locating the city in-game

3.0 General Information

4.0 Development history

5.0 Development schedule

6.0 Specific requests for help

7.0 Known issues\ problems

8.0 Thanks and credits

1.0 How to install: Unzip the .esp file into your oblivion\data folder.

Make sure before you start up the game you have the City of Sunev data file selected.

How to uninstall: Simply delete the City of Sunev file from your folder.

2.0 How to find the city in the game: The city is located in the lower Niben, NE of Fort Doublecross and SW of Fort Teleman. East of the yellow road. It is centered around the "W" and "I" in "County Leyawiin", a marker for Sunev Castle is visible. Alternatively you could also fast travel to the Welkynd Mine, just south of the shrine to Nocturnal, and follow the new road straight to the city.

3.0 General Information: This mod has been released as a public beta. It is functional and playable, but there are no quests currently associated with it, and NPC AI is, outside of one strucutre non-existant. I've released it half to show it off and half to get help and feedback on it. This is my first ever oblivion mod and my first ever 3d\complicated mod and I would appreciate any help you could offer, especially in the AI department. Any other input (constructive criticism, whatever) is also welcome and appreciated.

This mod was originally started in June '06 as just the Order of Dibella, it was collecting dust until the April '07 issue of Computer Games Magazine came out, with its feature on Oblivion mods, reminded me of my unfinished mod and all the things I wanted to do with it. Since then the city has sprung up around those two original interiors.

At the moment I am concentrating on just making static structures and interiors, with AI-less "placeholder" NPC's. I got bogged down trying to do the AI for the NPC's in the Order of Dibella, so I decided to put off more complicated things like AI and Quest creation until after I finished all the non-interactive stuff. This way I can stay focused and motivated doing only things that I (at the moment at least) am good at and not worry about what I'm bad at until later.

4.0 Development history: I made this following the instructions of the "My First Dungeon" tutorial at "The Elder Scrolls Construcion Set Wiki" at http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Main_Page

The tutorial guides you through the creation of a bandit cave. However I originally found the cave pieces too difficult to line up properly and so decided to use the square and symetrical Ayleid ruin pieces instead.

Following the tutorial my idea originaly was to create an elaborate cave to give the idea that instead of wasting their stolen money the bandits of the cave tried to improve their lives with it and also create a better, stronger and more efficient bandit operation. But because the cave pieces were difficult to work with and I wanted to create a guild hall anyway, the Order of Dibella\Ayleid structure evolved as it did. There are no bandits now. The city then evolved to incorporate more ideas and give the guild a logical home. As it stands now the guild hall and city exists around undamaged and refurbished ayleid ruins and walls. I originally figured that if there really was free, liveable real estate sooner or later after being cleared people would start to move in. The city and structures are supposed to look as though they have been renovated and decorated and that they have been inhabited for a while, and that a prosperous city has evolved there.

After the guild was finished I had to find a site large (and relatively flat) enough to house the city. I built the walls\gate control room and ramp first. Then the obelisk park, church and armory. Then the three embassy buildings were placed, the fountain and streetlights were made, the entrances to the Order of Dibella were put in place and the sidewalks outside them were put in. After that I put in the market buildings and added Cheydinhaal placeholder buildings.

Originally I wanted the entire city to be made up of custom Ayleid structures like the walls and gatehouse, except for the embassy buildings. Unfortunately the Ayleid structures don't have windows, didn't line up well and looked bland and generic overall. I decided then that I would only make one custom ayleid structure, the players buyable house. I started work on the inside first, but it kept getting bigger! Luckily when I finished the retractable roof it gave me a logical place to put the structure. Becuase above ground it would take up like half the city.

Once the Ayleid Manor was done, its roof and entrance placed, I finished the exterior of the city, moving the church, and park, creating the cemetary, positioning all the Cheydinhaal buildings, putting down sidewalks, streetlights, planters and the small stone walls. Plants were put in last. I then moved the gate control switch to the exterior of the city and released the mod. At release the baker, armory, embassies, Ayleid manor and Order of Dibella were the only accessible interiors.

Version 0.5.1 changes-- Signs were added throughout the city, doors to unfinished cells were removed and the inn was added.

Version 0.5.2 changes-- Placeholder NPCs were added, Clothes, book and magic shops were added. A rudimentary road to the empire was made. Misc.-Fireplace grill added to baker, ayleid manor picnic added.

Version 0.5.3 changes-- Welkyndworks & Stonemasons guild was added to the city, its building had to be rotated which changed the layout of the city, and added the tree circle in front. Welkynd mine/fort complex added. Armory door changed. Smoke effects added to the chimneys. Furniture\housewares shop and blacksmith added. Misc.-Bravil backyard garden changed.

Version 0.5.4 changes-- Road to the empire upgraded. Stables added. Placeholder interiors added. Lighting changed in the church and welkynd mine. Readme re-done and expanded.

Version 0.5.5 changes-- Large bath facility completed, entrance hall to overall Sunev Subterrania complex finished, minor change to entrance exterior. Stables finished. NPCs added to the welkyndworks. Road Finished. Temporary door to top of the castle added.

Version 0.5.6 changes-- Sunev academy, Bella Villa and Argiit house added. Dozens of new Npcs created, all finished areas that should have people now basically do. South side of the city re-done, empty building removed and blacksmith moved to take its place. Entrance to Sunev Subterrainia complex enlarged and changed. Some existing characters in the mod were moved or renamed. Horses added to the stables. Secret door to Order of Dibella guildmasters quarters re-enabled. Welcome note removed, imformation moved to .esp file info box.

Version 0.5.7 changes-- Removed inner parapet structure from walls, removed top light source from streetlamps, made city walls and forts "visible when distant", Updated interior of the order of Dibella, added Sunev Armory Barracks hall, mess hall and barracks.

Version 0.5.8 changes-- Finished Offices of the Imperial Government building as well as the Bravil and Leyawiin Embassies. All conventional, above ground buildings in the city are now finished. Added side door to IC style building. Fixed Armory door, volume of divines fountain lowered

5.0 Expected development schedule:

-Sunev Castle

-Sunev Subterrania

-NPC AI, quests and any associated lairs.

Secondary items which will probably be done last but may be released early:

-Fixing interactive objects that currently fall to the ground, like the objects in the market signs and the weapons in the armory.

-Fixing the slowdown\framerate issue

-Where possible, fixing gaps and fuzzy overlapping structures.

6.0 Requests for help on specific problems:

1- Is there an easy way to lock interactive items in place? I was given two scripts to help me one is the "setpos" script and the other is the "setridgidbodymass" script. If there is no other option then to use them, Do I have to make a script for each item?

2- Apparently interiors, and possible exteriors in the mod have an excessive number of faces. If someone could elaborate or offer some help, I would appreciate it.

7.0 Known issues and problems: I will try to list and explain issues I or someone else has encountered. If I am wrong about why a problem exists, how or whether or not it can be fixed, please e-mail me or leave a comment at the site you downloaded this from.

1- As you approach the city, and walk around it you will probably encounter a slow down, the framerate will probably decrease. This is because of the high level of detail in the city and the fact that it exists in the regular Tamriel worldspace and not a separate isolated city worldspace. At the moment I don't know how to put the city in its own worldspace and I can imagine doing so will be difficult, so I am putting it off. For the moment, try walking instead of running so your PC doesn't have to update the screen as fast.

2- As you approach the city, the gates and walls will be transparant. This is because they haven't loaded yet. If you head directly for the big gap where the gate should be, it should force a "loading area" pause. Otherwise simply wait for all the welkynd stones in the arrow pointing to the gateswitch to load, by then everything should be loaded. This is because there is a lot to load, and again I think the way to fix it is to make a custom worldspace.

3- There may or may not be a conflict with the Shivering Isles expansion pack that causes wierd behavior, I don't have SI so I can't offer any suggestions.

4- There is a conflict with the knights of the nine expansion. I don't have it, but apparently "Fort Bulwark" or at least its entrance is cut off by landscaping I have done. I can't\don't know how to fix this at the moment.

5- You may notice here and there gaps between walls or floors, you may also notice a black\fuzzy interlace effect in places. This is because I have either failed to line things up correctly or because two objects overlap. Some of these cannot be fixed, but some can. I will try fixing them once the city is further along.

6- Some objects that are supposed to remain suspended in air\place fall down. For some people automatically, or upon entering an interior, but for others like me, when a save is loaded or you exit a building near the objects. The only way I know (kind-of) how to fix this is really time consuming. So I'm putting it off.

7- Some of the sides of the retractable roof in the Ayleid Manor are transparant. I think this is because the developers didn't count on you seeing all the sides at once, so they didn't make them. So I can't fix it.

8- The mannequins in the clothing shop (and the Uriel Septim statue) are not completely static. I was given a script for them (the guy said it wouldn't be perfect) so at the moment they are as static as they are going to be. (You're not supposed to see the name "mannequin", they are not supposed to move at all, and they are not supposed to talk at all.)

9- On occasion, picking an item up will drop nearby items to the nearest surface, similarly freestanding items in barrels may act wierd when moved or picked up. This is similar to problem 6.

10- Some of the trees\roots\plants\rocks outside the city or other altered area may be floating in air. This is because I changed the elevation of the nearby land, and haven't gotten around to putting things back in the ground.

11- The pieces in the Howling twins baths structure aren't aligned as well as the rest of the city. Stairs\platforms and pits are kind of hard to line up right. If you notice anything particularly glaring please let me know.

12- I don't know how to make custom textures\meshes\skins. If I did I would change the skingrad facade in the howling twins baths to the ayleid texture. Similarly I would change the ayleid texture to the fort ruin texture for the welkynd mine. Also whenever you see the same tapestry\banner repeatedly in the same interior, assume that if I knew how, it would be a custom banner.

13- Even though they don't appear that way in the editor, in game the sunev watch npcs can have oddly bottom heavy and round mouths and chins. Also sometimes the guards and gatekeeper have what appears to be a static face like a mask imposed over another moving face underneath. This is apparently a known universal bug.

14- Guards throughout the city are known to behave oddly. Running up to you when you have commited a crime, but not arresting you or saying proper guard dialog. Similarly guards will repeatedly approach you without trying to arrest you, and some guards who do use proper guard dialog and do attempt to arrest you, fight bare handed when they should be using their weapons. I don't know how to fix this. Hopefully I don't have to replace all of them. For the time being, just please be a little careful when commiting crimes in the city.

8.0 Thanks to the following people for their feedback, suggestions and help. If you made a suggestion and I end up using it you will get credit for it.

Uberwurst, Parkillous, Quatloos, Delaric, Nosvertu, Sativarg, Povuholo, Logam, OI!, b3w4r3, Felic, Toutatis, Sourge, Willcrad, ptapasu, kerlyenai,vinvanoe, vevard1, Ionis the Bear, WillieSea, mark008, The Real Neraverine, Ninth Guardian, CariceLaur, CariceLaur25, elpiggo, Sourge, oddrobb749, th3cRazyAsiaN, TrueRaziel, Malec2b, kajiitmassacre, The Trekkie, humble downloader, daynebrooks1, thefly, oblivionfan, T0weLie, Oblivion Freak, Hobo Some Guy, BackToMurder, Zellith, det9494, DrainedSoul, Roystah 76, Smasher69, Xian, Yorgi, elroy, magictorch, danse.macabre, Wingchunstudent, Basez2, Whight_Knight, grungehead1991, chico129, dahui58, Col-Bauer, stubit, gfxarts, Lief_Ericson

Thanks to "The Imperial Library" for the Daedric alphabet: http://til.gamingsource.net/daedric/

Credits: Uberwurst suggested I put fireflies in the magic shop. They didn't show up right so I used butterflies instead. Same difference so he gets credit.

I can't help but feel like I'm ripping someone off with the law book. If I am let me know, you'll get credit.

If you liked my mod and see anything you would like to copy, feel free. Just please give me credit for it. A link to your mod, where I could see what you did would also be nice.

Thank you for downloading and trying my mod.

Contact -- [email protected]