I thought a little update was in order. For anyone that is following along, you'll notice several differences. I scrapped the whole first island because I learned a few key things in that first attempt and I think this one is turning out a lot better. Still lots of things to learn and refine however.

First set of spoilers contains all CK screenshots, here and there, what I'm working on. The world is going to go vertical, which I'm anticipating and trying to lay the groundwork. I hoping to convey that the entire earth has just begun to crack and heave, slowly rising/floating upwards over time. There's going to be evidence of the desperation to hold the island together as I get airborne.

Second spoiler set contains what it looks like in the game. Of course, your texture mileage will vary. All vanilla assets will retain vanilla textures. I've been cross referencing the look of it on Suckit's computer and it looks really good with his texture set, He's using a lot of those Step mod combiner ones. It especially looks great with lots of grass. It looks just as wild and unkempt as I want it to. (I however don't have much grass in my game.) I'll have to get him to take some more pictures to show what it should truly look like.

Right now, I've got the majority of the beach side village complete, yus, yus it looks a little ramshackle and that's how it's meant to be. I want to create a kind of foggy look for the far reaches of the seas, to give that vision of complete and utter isolation. There's shipwrecks below the water in a couple of key points, which will hold little treats for the exploring, adventurous types. I really want this to be a place for people to enjoy getting lost in.

Without further adoooo...CK shots.

In Skyrim screenshots:

Any thoughts, encouragements? That damn tree is still giving me hell. I'm determined to get a true banyan tree in there. It's really bumming me out.